by Paul Lee
I want to share a secret for treating high cholesterol. Three weeks ago l went for a cholesterol check. To my surprise, it was above the normal range which should be less than 5.2 mmol/L. My reading obtained was 6.6. I had been consuming a lot of red meat and lamb recently. After consuming Mok Yee for two weeks, l had my cholesterol checked again and found that my cholesterol level fell to 4.70 mmol/L
My pharmacist said that even cholesterol medication will need 1- 3 months to take effect. She was very surprised and said it is a miracle.
Review:
I immediately followed an advice of a friend who told me about Black fungus (Mok Yee 木耳). He had four block heart arteries, over 90 percent blocked. His cardiologist advised him to go for bypass surgery, failing which he would suffer an imminent heart attack. His sinseh (Chinese physician) friend advised him against surgery as the procedure would be messy, painful and expensive.
He followed the advise of his sinseh friend by consuming Mok Yee daily. After consuming boiled Mok Yee juice for 40 days, he went for an angiogram. His heart specialist was surprised and shocked that his arteries were all cleared of any blockage and it would not be necessary to see him for another 10 years!
My observation is that Mok Yee juice is not only effective in treating high blood cholesterol but also helps to bring relief to joint paints, arthritis and poor blood
circulation.
The internet info. claims: that Mok yee reduces blood clot, preventing thrombosis, atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease,and cancer.Black Fungus contains abundant protein, ferric, calcium, vitamin, rough fibre, the content of protein is equal to meat.
Preparation :
1) Pick a hand full of Mok Yee and soak in water for 1-2 hours
2) Wash Mok Yee and cut to pieces with scissors.
3) Pour five bowls of plain water into slow cooker (crock pot)
4) Put 2-3 slices of ginger, 8-10 red dates, 20 kay chee(wolf berry) into crock pot.
5) Bring to boil for 8 hours. One and a half bowls of Mok Yee juice will remain after boiling overnight.
Consumption: You may consume for 10 to 14 days according to the severity of the problem. For those with low blood pressure consume less or only for alternate days.
Drink Mok Yee first thing in the morning with an 'empty stomach'. Consume at least one large bowl. Take breakfast 2 hours later.
Side effects - you may feel a little tired after 3- 4 days. Consume multivitamins and fresh fruits and vegetables daily. Do not eat oily or fried foods during this period.
Observation: Dark and oily stool during the first two days.
Remarks: Cholesterol medication is chemical in nature and may harm the liver. Mok Yee is a plant and does not contain chemicals.
Take blood test for blood cholesterol before and after treatment e.g. at Caring Pharmacy. Only Rm 10.00 . Please report results to enable me to enhance update, research and review.
Thank you and may God bless you with vibrant health.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
An African Pastor's Uncomfortable Warning to America
Mbijiwe Mwenda says we are being naive to ignore Barack Obama’s ties to a dangerous Kenyan politician.
Mbijiwe Mwenda is a voice crying in the wilderness—from the other side of the world.
The Kenyan pastor, founder of Glory Cathedral Church in Nairobi, does not have a voice on CNN or Fox News. But he has been warning Christians during a recent visit to the United States that more is at stake in the 2008 election than anyone supposed.
“Many Americans do not seem to realize the price that has been paid for your freedom,” Mwenda says. “I am afraid we are about to lose the America we have known in the past—the America that has been a hope for the world.”
“Democratic presidential challenger Barack Obama has a cozy relationship with Raila Odinga, an avowed Marxist politician who now serves as Kenya’s prime minister.”
Mwenda’s main concern: That Democratic presidential challenger Barack Obama has a cozy relationship with Raila Odinga, an avowed Marxist politician who now serves as Kenya’s prime minister. Obama, who made taxpayer-funded visits to Kenya in 2004, 2005 and 2006, campaigned for Odinga in 2006.
During public appearances in Kenya, Odinga introduced Obama as his cousin. But later a family member denied that claim, saying that Odinga and Obama’s father, Barack Obama Sr., simply came from the same village. Both Obama Sr. and Odinga are from the Luo tribe, Kenya’s third largest.
When Odinga ran for president of Kenya last year and lost by a slim margin, tribal violence erupted amid claims of voter fraud. About 150,000 people died (many were killed in machete attacks), hundreds of churches were burned and 600,000 villagers were displaced. The international community had to broker a peace deal, allowing Odinga to serve as prime minister while his opponent, Mwai Kibaki, was named president.
Today, Odinga hopes that Obama will win the White House on Nov. 4 to boost support for his bid to become president of Kenya in 2012.
Pastor Mwenda says he is amazed that Americans don’t seem concerned that Obama is tied to Odinga. He rattled off a list of facts that Charisma has verified:
• Odinga was trained in communist ideology in Europe and holds Marxist views. “He even named his son Fidel Castro,” Mwenda says.
• He has obvious ties to Muslim interests and even received funding for his presidential campaign from Libya. Although he officially claims to be an Anglican, Mwenda says, “[Odinga] has been very sympathetic to Muslims and some say he is a Muslim secretly.”
• Odinga fits in nicely with Arab leaders’ plans for Africa. When they convened in Nigeria in 2001, they released a statement indicating that Kenya is to play a key role in spreading Islam throughout southern Africa. Says Mwenda: “Odinga is a dangerous man. A dictator!”
• Odinga has promised to enact Sharia law in “Muslim declared regions” of Kenya—meaning that pork would be outlawed, women could not drive and crimes would be punished according to Islamic tradition.
So why did Obama campaign for Odinga? Independent journalists around the world have been asking that question since 2006. Paula Abeles of African Press International wrote in August: “Clearly Obama campaigned for someone who is corrupt, ruthless and has financial ties to terrorists. … Senator Obama’s actions—intentional or not—were in direct conflict with the efforts and interests of U.S. national security.”
Many Kenyans are proud that a son of Kenya has a shot at the White House. But Kenya’s evangelical Christians are less enthusiastic. Like Mwenda, many of them are also troubled that Obama’s paternal grandmother has publicly stated that she sacrifices chickens and pours libations daily when praying for Obama to win the election. “She has been doing this since the [Democratic] primaries,” Mwenda says.
“Something is about to go wrong in your country,” Mwenda warned me.
I know many people who read my column will assume I am only writing it to boost John McCain’s chances at the polls next week. Some of my critics have also assumed that I must have racist tendencies if I am not voting for Barack Obama.
They can assume what they want, but the truth is that I have made eight trips to Africa in the last seven years and it is my second home. I will return there in early 2009. If my situation allowed it I would move there permanently—I love the people, the culture and what the Holy Spirit is doing all over that beautiful continent.
This week I did my own informal poll of African church leaders in Nigeria and Kenya. What I found was that none of them support Obama. Like many American Christians, they are staunchly pro-life, they defend traditional marriage and they certainly do not support politicians who don’t take the threat of militant Islam seriously.
They have seen enough torched churches and amputated arms to know better. They have seen Christian children thrown into the bottom of wells to die. They have seen Shariah law cast a dark pall over whole regions. They have watched as Middle Eastern governments pour millions of dollars into their local economies to build mosques and infrastructure and to buy votes.
I asked Pastor Mwenda how American Christians should pray in light of this sobering information. He told me: “I am praying that Obama does not win the White House. It is never too late for God. We can turn the tide. We need to pray: ‘Our Father, Who art in heaven, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’ We must not allow anything in this nation that is not in His will.”
J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma.
For more information about the Rev. Mbijiwe Mwenda, go to rgmikenya.org.
Mbijiwe Mwenda is a voice crying in the wilderness—from the other side of the world.
The Kenyan pastor, founder of Glory Cathedral Church in Nairobi, does not have a voice on CNN or Fox News. But he has been warning Christians during a recent visit to the United States that more is at stake in the 2008 election than anyone supposed.
“Many Americans do not seem to realize the price that has been paid for your freedom,” Mwenda says. “I am afraid we are about to lose the America we have known in the past—the America that has been a hope for the world.”
“Democratic presidential challenger Barack Obama has a cozy relationship with Raila Odinga, an avowed Marxist politician who now serves as Kenya’s prime minister.”
Mwenda’s main concern: That Democratic presidential challenger Barack Obama has a cozy relationship with Raila Odinga, an avowed Marxist politician who now serves as Kenya’s prime minister. Obama, who made taxpayer-funded visits to Kenya in 2004, 2005 and 2006, campaigned for Odinga in 2006.
During public appearances in Kenya, Odinga introduced Obama as his cousin. But later a family member denied that claim, saying that Odinga and Obama’s father, Barack Obama Sr., simply came from the same village. Both Obama Sr. and Odinga are from the Luo tribe, Kenya’s third largest.
When Odinga ran for president of Kenya last year and lost by a slim margin, tribal violence erupted amid claims of voter fraud. About 150,000 people died (many were killed in machete attacks), hundreds of churches were burned and 600,000 villagers were displaced. The international community had to broker a peace deal, allowing Odinga to serve as prime minister while his opponent, Mwai Kibaki, was named president.
Today, Odinga hopes that Obama will win the White House on Nov. 4 to boost support for his bid to become president of Kenya in 2012.
Pastor Mwenda says he is amazed that Americans don’t seem concerned that Obama is tied to Odinga. He rattled off a list of facts that Charisma has verified:
• Odinga was trained in communist ideology in Europe and holds Marxist views. “He even named his son Fidel Castro,” Mwenda says.
• He has obvious ties to Muslim interests and even received funding for his presidential campaign from Libya. Although he officially claims to be an Anglican, Mwenda says, “[Odinga] has been very sympathetic to Muslims and some say he is a Muslim secretly.”
• Odinga fits in nicely with Arab leaders’ plans for Africa. When they convened in Nigeria in 2001, they released a statement indicating that Kenya is to play a key role in spreading Islam throughout southern Africa. Says Mwenda: “Odinga is a dangerous man. A dictator!”
• Odinga has promised to enact Sharia law in “Muslim declared regions” of Kenya—meaning that pork would be outlawed, women could not drive and crimes would be punished according to Islamic tradition.
So why did Obama campaign for Odinga? Independent journalists around the world have been asking that question since 2006. Paula Abeles of African Press International wrote in August: “Clearly Obama campaigned for someone who is corrupt, ruthless and has financial ties to terrorists. … Senator Obama’s actions—intentional or not—were in direct conflict with the efforts and interests of U.S. national security.”
Many Kenyans are proud that a son of Kenya has a shot at the White House. But Kenya’s evangelical Christians are less enthusiastic. Like Mwenda, many of them are also troubled that Obama’s paternal grandmother has publicly stated that she sacrifices chickens and pours libations daily when praying for Obama to win the election. “She has been doing this since the [Democratic] primaries,” Mwenda says.
“Something is about to go wrong in your country,” Mwenda warned me.
I know many people who read my column will assume I am only writing it to boost John McCain’s chances at the polls next week. Some of my critics have also assumed that I must have racist tendencies if I am not voting for Barack Obama.
They can assume what they want, but the truth is that I have made eight trips to Africa in the last seven years and it is my second home. I will return there in early 2009. If my situation allowed it I would move there permanently—I love the people, the culture and what the Holy Spirit is doing all over that beautiful continent.
This week I did my own informal poll of African church leaders in Nigeria and Kenya. What I found was that none of them support Obama. Like many American Christians, they are staunchly pro-life, they defend traditional marriage and they certainly do not support politicians who don’t take the threat of militant Islam seriously.
They have seen enough torched churches and amputated arms to know better. They have seen Christian children thrown into the bottom of wells to die. They have seen Shariah law cast a dark pall over whole regions. They have watched as Middle Eastern governments pour millions of dollars into their local economies to build mosques and infrastructure and to buy votes.
I asked Pastor Mwenda how American Christians should pray in light of this sobering information. He told me: “I am praying that Obama does not win the White House. It is never too late for God. We can turn the tide. We need to pray: ‘Our Father, Who art in heaven, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’ We must not allow anything in this nation that is not in His will.”
J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma.
For more information about the Rev. Mbijiwe Mwenda, go to rgmikenya.org.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
从刘秀梅被委PKNS代总经理谈起
雪州大臣丹斯里卡立委任雪州经济发展局（PKNS）副总经理（企业及财务部）刘秀梅，为雪发展局代总经理。该局总经理哈伦沙林在10月杪退休，州政府延长刘秀梅退休日期1年，以接任代总经理职位。
本来这是民联一项逐渐摒弃种族政治的好消息，但此举或许好景不久。刘秀梅可能只能做几天或几个星期的代总经理。原因是民联的一些马来人反对，尤其是来自回教党的领导层。雪州专员哈山阿里（回教党）坚决此职位由马来人担任，因此回教党也积极寻找一个所谓“更适合更有能力”的人取代刘秀梅。
回教党高举种族政策的行动，令许多支持民联的选民失望。卡立出任大臣后，以曾经做过总裁的才干治理雪州，找出不少前朝的舞弊。其中令人惊讶的是PKNS前任主席兼前大臣基尔，竟然每个月从PKNS拿10万令吉的花红（参阅10月29日太阳报第1和16页）！委任刘秀梅，是以她的能力为考量，相信她能够铲除舞弊，把该局扶回正轨。她只担任1年的主管，区区1年，为何回教党领袖都看不开呢？当公正党尽力推展摒弃种族政治的同时，回教党却不同心呢？
可见回教党仍然抓不到308大选时选民所传达的信息。这次之所以出现震撼性的变天成绩，乃是人民已经厌倦种族政治了！回教党不要忘记，它们获得许多非回教徒的选票，不是他们支持回教国，而是要看到国家能够成为一个属于全马来西亚人的马来西亚。而回教党却误读选举成绩，它们不谈种族公平，不谈唯才是用，却谈正副首相必须是马来人之类的大种族主义言论。
回教党也恫言，若民联的非回教徒议员多过回教徒议员，它们就会退出民联。回教党必须了解，单靠它们自己，在我国是没法执政的。如果回教党真的退出的话，那么它，公正党和行动党就只好永远做在野党了！甭说执政中央，连雪州和霹州也失去！除非公正党和行动党能够打开回教党的眼睛让它们看清楚形势，否则民联别想在下届大选改朝换代呢！
本来这是民联一项逐渐摒弃种族政治的好消息，但此举或许好景不久。刘秀梅可能只能做几天或几个星期的代总经理。原因是民联的一些马来人反对，尤其是来自回教党的领导层。雪州专员哈山阿里（回教党）坚决此职位由马来人担任，因此回教党也积极寻找一个所谓“更适合更有能力”的人取代刘秀梅。
回教党高举种族政策的行动，令许多支持民联的选民失望。卡立出任大臣后，以曾经做过总裁的才干治理雪州，找出不少前朝的舞弊。其中令人惊讶的是PKNS前任主席兼前大臣基尔，竟然每个月从PKNS拿10万令吉的花红（参阅10月29日太阳报第1和16页）！委任刘秀梅，是以她的能力为考量，相信她能够铲除舞弊，把该局扶回正轨。她只担任1年的主管，区区1年，为何回教党领袖都看不开呢？当公正党尽力推展摒弃种族政治的同时，回教党却不同心呢？
可见回教党仍然抓不到308大选时选民所传达的信息。这次之所以出现震撼性的变天成绩，乃是人民已经厌倦种族政治了！回教党不要忘记，它们获得许多非回教徒的选票，不是他们支持回教国，而是要看到国家能够成为一个属于全马来西亚人的马来西亚。而回教党却误读选举成绩，它们不谈种族公平，不谈唯才是用，却谈正副首相必须是马来人之类的大种族主义言论。
回教党也恫言，若民联的非回教徒议员多过回教徒议员，它们就会退出民联。回教党必须了解，单靠它们自己，在我国是没法执政的。如果回教党真的退出的话，那么它，公正党和行动党就只好永远做在野党了！甭说执政中央，连雪州和霹州也失去！除非公正党和行动党能够打开回教党的眼睛让它们看清楚形势，否则民联别想在下届大选改朝换代呢！
Saturday, October 25, 2008
The New Confessing Church
by Paul Edwards
It used to be that a “confessing church” was a church known for its adherence to the great theological confessions from church history. Not any more. Kensington Community Church, a seeker megachurch in suburban Detroit, is bringing a whole new meaning to “confessing church” by joining the bandwagon of churches who think the time has long past for the church to apologize to the culture for being the church. On Sunday, October 19, 2008 this church began a weekend message series titled, “Confessions of a Sinful Church.”
The very idea of a “sinful church” is oxymoronic. Christ gave Himself for the church so that He might cleanse it with the Word of God and present it to Himself a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:25-27), evidence that market research is defining our own perception of the church rather than the Bible.
It should be noted that this idea of begging the cultures’ pardon didn’t originate with Kensington Church. Google their series title and you’ll be introduced to a dozen or more churches across the country that have discovered the latest fad sure to increase your worship attendance created by the psychologically-driven church growth movement: be sorry—be very sorry—for preaching a gospel that rubs the culture the wrong way.
So just how has the church so offended the culture that it warrants such a public apology? Well, it seems there are variations of seven or eight sins the church is guilty of, but never more than five are ever presented by any of the churches confessing them. Evidently the attention span of today’s seeker isn’t longer than five weekends on any one subject.
In February and March of this year Rolling Hills Community Church in Danville, California confessed that the church has been self-righteous and hypocritical, supported racial segregation, mistreated homosexuals, fought bloody crusades and argued that the earth is flat.
At the end of September, Tillman Road Church of God in Fort Wayne, Indiana began a series confessing the church’s sins of being hypocritical, anti-homosexual, judgmental, sheltered, too focused on getting converts and too political.
As for Kensington, their five confessions focus on being sorry for being self-righteous hypocrites, for judging others, for despising homosexuality and for caring only about converting people.
Whoever created this package of confessions missed the point that most of these so-called “sins” are nothing more than liberal media stereotypes of conservative, evangelical, gospel-preaching churches whose real sin is offending the sensitivities of the culture by maintaining their faithfulness to the Word of God.
I’m not arguing that people who profess to be followers of Jesus have never been self-righteous, hypocritical and judgmental. There may be pockets of such behavior and a minority of local churches who fit that description. But the media has taken these exceptions and made them the standard by which all churches are defined. Kensington, along with these other churches, is encouraging you and me to apologize for a stereotype.
The fact that “research says the majority of people now view Christianity as hypocritical, intolerant and even hateful,” only proves how effective mass media is in creating perceptions. Since when do we shape our ministries in response to the latest survey of pagans by Barna Research rather than by divine revelation as revealed in sacred scripture?
Any church that takes a stand in defense of the unborn and for traditional marriage will be accused of being “too political.” Any church which has homosexuals in a list along with thieves, alcoholics and adulterers (as the word of God does—1 Corinthians 6:9-11) will be accused of mistreating homosexuals. Any church that teaches a literal six-day creation and a young earth will be viewed as archaic and out of touch with the mainstream of scientific research (read: evolutionary theory).
And while I personally don’t know any Christians in any church who do not believe the slave trade was cruel and hideous, I feel no personal responsibility for it, though I am rightly ashamed of any part my ancestors may have played in propagating it. No amount of remorse on my part for their crimes against humanity will erase the history, no matter how politically correct an apology may be.
As for the church being focused on getting converts, I thought that was the whole point (see Matthew 28:19-20).
Truth be told, none of these “confessing” churches believe that they themselves are guilty of these sins. They believe your church is guilty of these sins. This pre-packaged series of sermons is designed to help you and your church see the error of your ways while keeping their church from ever being as offensive to sinners as your church, because from the perspective of these churches, the one sin to be avoided at all costs is the failure to be liked by the culture. And the culture likes them a lot when they point out the speck of dust in your eye.
When the church is the Church, living out her character and calling as mandated by God’s word rather than the whims of a secular culture, it will offend. The gospel we proclaim has its origin in divine revelation. It is foolishness to Gentiles. It is a stumbling block to Jews. The Founder of the Church, the Author and Finisher of our faith, warned that, because of Him, the world would persecute us (John 15:20-21) and hate us (John 15:18) because it hates Him.
More often than not, the church will find itself at odds with the prevailing culture on any number of issues. They can ignore the hard truth we preach by writing us off as judgmental, causing us to ask self-reflectively, “Who, after all, are we to judge?”
This is who we are: we are the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. The church is defined not by the failure of some in living up to this high calling. We have been eternally defined by the infallible, inerrant and perfect Word of God personified in the Word made flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our mandate is to preach the Word, not waste our time apologizing for it to a self-obsessed culture under the guise of “humble orthodoxy.”
It used to be that a “confessing church” was a church known for its adherence to the great theological confessions from church history. Not any more. Kensington Community Church, a seeker megachurch in suburban Detroit, is bringing a whole new meaning to “confessing church” by joining the bandwagon of churches who think the time has long past for the church to apologize to the culture for being the church. On Sunday, October 19, 2008 this church began a weekend message series titled, “Confessions of a Sinful Church.”
The very idea of a “sinful church” is oxymoronic. Christ gave Himself for the church so that He might cleanse it with the Word of God and present it to Himself a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:25-27), evidence that market research is defining our own perception of the church rather than the Bible.
It should be noted that this idea of begging the cultures’ pardon didn’t originate with Kensington Church. Google their series title and you’ll be introduced to a dozen or more churches across the country that have discovered the latest fad sure to increase your worship attendance created by the psychologically-driven church growth movement: be sorry—be very sorry—for preaching a gospel that rubs the culture the wrong way.
So just how has the church so offended the culture that it warrants such a public apology? Well, it seems there are variations of seven or eight sins the church is guilty of, but never more than five are ever presented by any of the churches confessing them. Evidently the attention span of today’s seeker isn’t longer than five weekends on any one subject.
In February and March of this year Rolling Hills Community Church in Danville, California confessed that the church has been self-righteous and hypocritical, supported racial segregation, mistreated homosexuals, fought bloody crusades and argued that the earth is flat.
At the end of September, Tillman Road Church of God in Fort Wayne, Indiana began a series confessing the church’s sins of being hypocritical, anti-homosexual, judgmental, sheltered, too focused on getting converts and too political.
As for Kensington, their five confessions focus on being sorry for being self-righteous hypocrites, for judging others, for despising homosexuality and for caring only about converting people.
Whoever created this package of confessions missed the point that most of these so-called “sins” are nothing more than liberal media stereotypes of conservative, evangelical, gospel-preaching churches whose real sin is offending the sensitivities of the culture by maintaining their faithfulness to the Word of God.
I’m not arguing that people who profess to be followers of Jesus have never been self-righteous, hypocritical and judgmental. There may be pockets of such behavior and a minority of local churches who fit that description. But the media has taken these exceptions and made them the standard by which all churches are defined. Kensington, along with these other churches, is encouraging you and me to apologize for a stereotype.
The fact that “research says the majority of people now view Christianity as hypocritical, intolerant and even hateful,” only proves how effective mass media is in creating perceptions. Since when do we shape our ministries in response to the latest survey of pagans by Barna Research rather than by divine revelation as revealed in sacred scripture?
Any church that takes a stand in defense of the unborn and for traditional marriage will be accused of being “too political.” Any church which has homosexuals in a list along with thieves, alcoholics and adulterers (as the word of God does—1 Corinthians 6:9-11) will be accused of mistreating homosexuals. Any church that teaches a literal six-day creation and a young earth will be viewed as archaic and out of touch with the mainstream of scientific research (read: evolutionary theory).
And while I personally don’t know any Christians in any church who do not believe the slave trade was cruel and hideous, I feel no personal responsibility for it, though I am rightly ashamed of any part my ancestors may have played in propagating it. No amount of remorse on my part for their crimes against humanity will erase the history, no matter how politically correct an apology may be.
As for the church being focused on getting converts, I thought that was the whole point (see Matthew 28:19-20).
Truth be told, none of these “confessing” churches believe that they themselves are guilty of these sins. They believe your church is guilty of these sins. This pre-packaged series of sermons is designed to help you and your church see the error of your ways while keeping their church from ever being as offensive to sinners as your church, because from the perspective of these churches, the one sin to be avoided at all costs is the failure to be liked by the culture. And the culture likes them a lot when they point out the speck of dust in your eye.
When the church is the Church, living out her character and calling as mandated by God’s word rather than the whims of a secular culture, it will offend. The gospel we proclaim has its origin in divine revelation. It is foolishness to Gentiles. It is a stumbling block to Jews. The Founder of the Church, the Author and Finisher of our faith, warned that, because of Him, the world would persecute us (John 15:20-21) and hate us (John 15:18) because it hates Him.
More often than not, the church will find itself at odds with the prevailing culture on any number of issues. They can ignore the hard truth we preach by writing us off as judgmental, causing us to ask self-reflectively, “Who, after all, are we to judge?”
This is who we are: we are the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. The church is defined not by the failure of some in living up to this high calling. We have been eternally defined by the infallible, inerrant and perfect Word of God personified in the Word made flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our mandate is to preach the Word, not waste our time apologizing for it to a self-obsessed culture under the guise of “humble orthodoxy.”
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Calvary Church 40th Anniversary Dinner
40th Anniversay Dinner
Calvary Church, Damansara Heights, Kuala Lumpur
Date: 22 Oct 2008 at 7.00p.m.
Venue: Sunway Hotel Convention Centre
Attendants: 1530
The ceremony begins with a dark room. It is awesome! Pictures are shone on the background
Let there be light upon the worship team
Cutting the cake
Senior Assoc. Pastor Petrina Guneratnam greets the people. Senior Pastor Prince Guneratnam looks on.
Prince Guneratnam preaches on John 15 - Jesus Christ is the vine and we are the branches
The Age of Young Generation has arrived!
Calvary Church, Damansara Heights, Kuala Lumpur
Date: 22 Oct 2008 at 7.00p.m.
Venue: Sunway Hotel Convention Centre
Attendants: 1530
The ceremony begins with a dark room. It is awesome! Pictures are shone on the background
Let there be light upon the worship team
Cutting the cake
Senior Assoc. Pastor Petrina Guneratnam greets the people. Senior Pastor Prince Guneratnam looks on.
Prince Guneratnam preaches on John 15 - Jesus Christ is the vine and we are the branches
The Age of Young Generation has arrived!
Draw the Line!
White Christians can’t say this—and black preachers won’t touch the issue. But it’s time black Christians faced the reality about Barack Obama’s dangerous moral values.
by Kimberly Daniels
As a child in the 1960s I rode in the back of the bus. I was at the front of the riot lines in the 1970s, when I hit white boys on the head with bricks and dragged white girls down sidewalks near my school. I also experienced serious racism when I was an athlete in college.
I have been called the "N" word many times. I was taught to hate white people, and some of my relatives still call white people names such as "honky" and "cracker." But after I found Jesus, I was delivered from racism. I am free indeed!
"Regardless of political opinions, the Bible makes it clear: Those who support the homosexual agenda and the murder of unborn babies will be judged.”
The residue of my abuse has dried up at the root, and I am no longer a victim of what I call "ricochet racism." This occurs when the abused becomes the abuser.
Ricochet racism is a hellacious boomerang that grips the victim with pride and makes him think he has a right to hate. When I was saved, God taught me that I did not have a right to hate white people. Jesus nailed all my excuses to the cross, and I moved on.
Now that I am a born-again Christian, I do not consider my race to be my primary identity. I am a Christian first—before I am an African-American, a Democrat or a Republican. That's why I am troubled that so many African-American Christians are voting for Barack Obama simply because he is black.
If someone won't vote for a person because of race, we call this racism. But it is also racism when someone votes for a person because of his race!
Believe me, I would love to see a black brother in the White House—but not someone like Obama, who has embraced humanistic doctrines. Many white preachers are afraid to say this, and many black preachers won't touch it with a 10-foot pole.
I love Obama and pray for him and his family. But as Elijah troubled Ahab in Israel, I will challenge his views because they are dangerous to our religious liberties. It's time to draw the line.
Black Christians today need to put their faith first when they step into the voting booth. Does Obama represent godly values?
We know, for example, that he is an inclusionist. For 20 years he attended a church in Chicago that preaches that (1) Jesus is not the only way to God; (2) there is no hell; and (3) God will allow homosexuals to go to heaven even if they remain in their sinful state. Obama also has defended the killing of unborn babies, even in the third trimester.
He claims to be a Christian, but in his book The Audacity of Hope he calls the first chapter of Romans an "obscure" passage of Scripture. God's admonition about the sin of homosexuality is hardly obscure. It is very clear!
Jesus is the only way to God, and God will surely send homosexuals to hell if they do not turn from their ways and accept Christ—just as He will do for all other sinners who do not trust Jesus.
Regardless of political opinions, the Bible makes it clear: Those who support the homosexual agenda and the murder of unborn babies will be judged (see Rom. 1:32). These were the main issues in the days of ancient Israel, and they are critical issues today.
The pro-abortion movement is tied to the worship of two idols, Chemosh and Molech, the gods of child sacrifice. The movement toward gay marriage is rooted in the spirit of gameo, a Greek word that refers to same-sex marriage (see Matt. 24:38).
How can we vote for politicians who favor these ungodly movements? The Bible says we must separate ourselves from sin and wickedness. God is looking for faithful Christians who will not bow to the gods of this world.
I know what I am saying is not popular, and some people will denounce me for it. But I believe it is time to draw a line.
Believers can no longer make excuses by pulling their race cards, leaning on their lukewarm denominational rules or hiding under the covering of a political party. If we want America to recover, we must repent. We must choose the right side.
We must stand strong for what we believe and hold our ground. We must declare, as Joshua did, "Whoever is on God's side ... stand with me!"
Kimberly Daniels is the founder of Spoken Word Ministries in Jacksonville, Fla., and author of several books including her new release, Inside Out. Visit her at kimberlydaniels.com.
by Kimberly Daniels
As a child in the 1960s I rode in the back of the bus. I was at the front of the riot lines in the 1970s, when I hit white boys on the head with bricks and dragged white girls down sidewalks near my school. I also experienced serious racism when I was an athlete in college.
I have been called the "N" word many times. I was taught to hate white people, and some of my relatives still call white people names such as "honky" and "cracker." But after I found Jesus, I was delivered from racism. I am free indeed!
"Regardless of political opinions, the Bible makes it clear: Those who support the homosexual agenda and the murder of unborn babies will be judged.”
The residue of my abuse has dried up at the root, and I am no longer a victim of what I call "ricochet racism." This occurs when the abused becomes the abuser.
Ricochet racism is a hellacious boomerang that grips the victim with pride and makes him think he has a right to hate. When I was saved, God taught me that I did not have a right to hate white people. Jesus nailed all my excuses to the cross, and I moved on.
Now that I am a born-again Christian, I do not consider my race to be my primary identity. I am a Christian first—before I am an African-American, a Democrat or a Republican. That's why I am troubled that so many African-American Christians are voting for Barack Obama simply because he is black.
If someone won't vote for a person because of race, we call this racism. But it is also racism when someone votes for a person because of his race!
Believe me, I would love to see a black brother in the White House—but not someone like Obama, who has embraced humanistic doctrines. Many white preachers are afraid to say this, and many black preachers won't touch it with a 10-foot pole.
I love Obama and pray for him and his family. But as Elijah troubled Ahab in Israel, I will challenge his views because they are dangerous to our religious liberties. It's time to draw the line.
Black Christians today need to put their faith first when they step into the voting booth. Does Obama represent godly values?
We know, for example, that he is an inclusionist. For 20 years he attended a church in Chicago that preaches that (1) Jesus is not the only way to God; (2) there is no hell; and (3) God will allow homosexuals to go to heaven even if they remain in their sinful state. Obama also has defended the killing of unborn babies, even in the third trimester.
He claims to be a Christian, but in his book The Audacity of Hope he calls the first chapter of Romans an "obscure" passage of Scripture. God's admonition about the sin of homosexuality is hardly obscure. It is very clear!
Jesus is the only way to God, and God will surely send homosexuals to hell if they do not turn from their ways and accept Christ—just as He will do for all other sinners who do not trust Jesus.
Regardless of political opinions, the Bible makes it clear: Those who support the homosexual agenda and the murder of unborn babies will be judged (see Rom. 1:32). These were the main issues in the days of ancient Israel, and they are critical issues today.
The pro-abortion movement is tied to the worship of two idols, Chemosh and Molech, the gods of child sacrifice. The movement toward gay marriage is rooted in the spirit of gameo, a Greek word that refers to same-sex marriage (see Matt. 24:38).
How can we vote for politicians who favor these ungodly movements? The Bible says we must separate ourselves from sin and wickedness. God is looking for faithful Christians who will not bow to the gods of this world.
I know what I am saying is not popular, and some people will denounce me for it. But I believe it is time to draw a line.
Believers can no longer make excuses by pulling their race cards, leaning on their lukewarm denominational rules or hiding under the covering of a political party. If we want America to recover, we must repent. We must choose the right side.
We must stand strong for what we believe and hold our ground. We must declare, as Joshua did, "Whoever is on God's side ... stand with me!"
Kimberly Daniels is the founder of Spoken Word Ministries in Jacksonville, Fla., and author of several books including her new release, Inside Out. Visit her at kimberlydaniels.com.
Breaking Up (With Obama) Is Hard to Do
African-American Christians who don’t support Obama risk being called traitors, defectors and Uncle Toms. But some are defying him for moral reasons.
This past Sunday I shared a pulpit with a delightful African-American recording artist. She recently turned 70, although I would have guessed she wasn’t a day over 55. She sang better than I preached. (After all, she has won Grammy awards in the gospel category.) Then we sat down for a meal and she decided to get very honest with me.
She leaned close to my ear as if to make a dreadful confession. “Can I tell you something? I’m not voting for Obama.”
I wasn’t sure how to react, but I let this woman elaborate. With a pained expression she vented her frustrations about leaders who, in her opinion, are more concerned about loyalty to their race than to Scripture. She scolded pastors by name who have endorsed Obama when they should have been preaching against abortion, which Obama defends.
"I pray that all of us, black and white, will speak for truth and stay on the narrow path even when the crowd has chosen the broad highway."
She continued: “I hear some black pastors saying from the pulpit, ‘Let’s thank God we’re going to have a black man in the White House.’ Well, I’m sorry, but I don’t think this is the right black man.”
I’m not going to reveal the identity of this woman—not because she doesn’t want me to tell, but because outing her as a McCain supporter could close doors for her in the black church. Sadly, African-Americans who aren’t supporting Obama today are viewed as traitors.
It’s not easy to go against the flow when it seems that the entire black community is marching in lockstep with the well-financed Obama machine. Aside from all the endorsements from Hollywood celebrities and European crowds, black church leaders have formed a huge mass choir of support as well:
• Texas megachurch pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell and conference speaker Juanita Bynum have endorsed Obama.
• Gospel artists Donnie McClurkin, Hezekiah Walker, Byran Cage and Mary Mary have performed at Obama rallies.
• Television preacher T.D. Jakes gave Obama a glowing acclamation the day after he claimed his party’s nomination.
• Obama received a thunderous ovation when he appeared at the convention of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in June.
• When his wife, Michelle, spoke to 7,000 delegates at the National Baptist Convention in Cincinnati in September, her 15-minute speech was interrupted constantly by cheers, chants and applause.
• Last year Obama formed an impressive coalition of pastors and leaders who have mobilized support for him at the polls. The prestigious group includes civil rights icon Joseph T. Lowery; Dr. Cynthia Hale of Atlanta; Bishop Larry Trotter of Chicago; Bishop Cody Marshall of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) in Illinois; and the presidents of the two largest black Baptist denominations.
• COGIC, the nation’s largest Pentecostal denomination, has not officially endorsed Obama, but the leader of its Pastors and Elders Council, Derrick Hutchins of Florida, told Charisma he supports Obama because he “understands the infirmities of the nation’s neediest communities.”
Never in American history has a presidential campaign so energized the black church. And that makes it hard for black Christians who, for conscience reasons, cannot support a candidate who believes in killing unborn babies or rewriting Judeo-Christian morality.
One black friend who works in my office said family members blasted her when they learned she wasn’t voting for Obama. Another black colleague said she gets icy comments from women at her hair salon when she expresses honest disagreements about Obama’s values.
I have a friend in Baltimore, an African-American pastor, who says black friends have chided him after he admitted he isn’t in Obama’s camp. “They tell me, ‘Why are you voting that way?’ or ‘You’re letting us all down.’ It’s a touchy subject.” He also knows pastors who will tell people to vote for Obama from the pulpit, yet they have never once preached against abortion.
My friend believes there is a spiritual problem at the bottom of this. “It’s a spirit that has to be broken,” he says. “People have allowed an allegiance to race to become more important than the gospel. That’s why we have to fast and pray before this election.”
As divisive as the 2008 campaign has become, it’s even more divisive in the black church. Many African-American churchgoers view voting for Obama as the black thing to do. It’s a given. They see an Obama victory in November as the grand culmination of the Civil Rights movement and, perhaps, as the end of racial intolerance in this country.
My friend Kimberly Daniels, founder of Spoken Word Ministries in Jacksonville, Florida, is an African-American preacher who grew up in the inner city. She sees this conflict quite differently.
If anyone had a reason to be a racist, Kim did. She experienced the worst kind of racism growing up in the “dirty South,” as she calls it. Yet today she unashamedly pleads with black Christians to vote according to conscience, not race.
Says Daniels: “Believe me, I would love to see a black brother in the White House—but not someone like Obama, who has embraced humanistic doctrines. Many white preachers are afraid to say this, and many black preachers won't touch it with a 10-foot pole.”
(I am including Kim Daniels’ editorial at the end of my online column today. Please pass it on. Kim says some things that I, as a white guy, can’t say in our politically correct culture.)
I am thankful for Kim and the many brave African-American Christians today who have risked their reputations by going against the flow of popular opinion. I pray that all of us, black and white, will speak for truth and stay on the narrow path even when the crowd has chosen the broad highway.
J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma.
This past Sunday I shared a pulpit with a delightful African-American recording artist. She recently turned 70, although I would have guessed she wasn’t a day over 55. She sang better than I preached. (After all, she has won Grammy awards in the gospel category.) Then we sat down for a meal and she decided to get very honest with me.
She leaned close to my ear as if to make a dreadful confession. “Can I tell you something? I’m not voting for Obama.”
I wasn’t sure how to react, but I let this woman elaborate. With a pained expression she vented her frustrations about leaders who, in her opinion, are more concerned about loyalty to their race than to Scripture. She scolded pastors by name who have endorsed Obama when they should have been preaching against abortion, which Obama defends.
"I pray that all of us, black and white, will speak for truth and stay on the narrow path even when the crowd has chosen the broad highway."
She continued: “I hear some black pastors saying from the pulpit, ‘Let’s thank God we’re going to have a black man in the White House.’ Well, I’m sorry, but I don’t think this is the right black man.”
I’m not going to reveal the identity of this woman—not because she doesn’t want me to tell, but because outing her as a McCain supporter could close doors for her in the black church. Sadly, African-Americans who aren’t supporting Obama today are viewed as traitors.
It’s not easy to go against the flow when it seems that the entire black community is marching in lockstep with the well-financed Obama machine. Aside from all the endorsements from Hollywood celebrities and European crowds, black church leaders have formed a huge mass choir of support as well:
• Texas megachurch pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell and conference speaker Juanita Bynum have endorsed Obama.
• Gospel artists Donnie McClurkin, Hezekiah Walker, Byran Cage and Mary Mary have performed at Obama rallies.
• Television preacher T.D. Jakes gave Obama a glowing acclamation the day after he claimed his party’s nomination.
• Obama received a thunderous ovation when he appeared at the convention of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in June.
• When his wife, Michelle, spoke to 7,000 delegates at the National Baptist Convention in Cincinnati in September, her 15-minute speech was interrupted constantly by cheers, chants and applause.
• Last year Obama formed an impressive coalition of pastors and leaders who have mobilized support for him at the polls. The prestigious group includes civil rights icon Joseph T. Lowery; Dr. Cynthia Hale of Atlanta; Bishop Larry Trotter of Chicago; Bishop Cody Marshall of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) in Illinois; and the presidents of the two largest black Baptist denominations.
• COGIC, the nation’s largest Pentecostal denomination, has not officially endorsed Obama, but the leader of its Pastors and Elders Council, Derrick Hutchins of Florida, told Charisma he supports Obama because he “understands the infirmities of the nation’s neediest communities.”
Never in American history has a presidential campaign so energized the black church. And that makes it hard for black Christians who, for conscience reasons, cannot support a candidate who believes in killing unborn babies or rewriting Judeo-Christian morality.
One black friend who works in my office said family members blasted her when they learned she wasn’t voting for Obama. Another black colleague said she gets icy comments from women at her hair salon when she expresses honest disagreements about Obama’s values.
I have a friend in Baltimore, an African-American pastor, who says black friends have chided him after he admitted he isn’t in Obama’s camp. “They tell me, ‘Why are you voting that way?’ or ‘You’re letting us all down.’ It’s a touchy subject.” He also knows pastors who will tell people to vote for Obama from the pulpit, yet they have never once preached against abortion.
My friend believes there is a spiritual problem at the bottom of this. “It’s a spirit that has to be broken,” he says. “People have allowed an allegiance to race to become more important than the gospel. That’s why we have to fast and pray before this election.”
As divisive as the 2008 campaign has become, it’s even more divisive in the black church. Many African-American churchgoers view voting for Obama as the black thing to do. It’s a given. They see an Obama victory in November as the grand culmination of the Civil Rights movement and, perhaps, as the end of racial intolerance in this country.
My friend Kimberly Daniels, founder of Spoken Word Ministries in Jacksonville, Florida, is an African-American preacher who grew up in the inner city. She sees this conflict quite differently.
If anyone had a reason to be a racist, Kim did. She experienced the worst kind of racism growing up in the “dirty South,” as she calls it. Yet today she unashamedly pleads with black Christians to vote according to conscience, not race.
Says Daniels: “Believe me, I would love to see a black brother in the White House—but not someone like Obama, who has embraced humanistic doctrines. Many white preachers are afraid to say this, and many black preachers won't touch it with a 10-foot pole.”
(I am including Kim Daniels’ editorial at the end of my online column today. Please pass it on. Kim says some things that I, as a white guy, can’t say in our politically correct culture.)
I am thankful for Kim and the many brave African-American Christians today who have risked their reputations by going against the flow of popular opinion. I pray that all of us, black and white, will speak for truth and stay on the narrow path even when the crowd has chosen the broad highway.
J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma.
When China Sneezes...
by Rich Galen
In the good old days there was a saying that when the American economy sneezes, the world economies catch a cold.
Or something like that.
Here's how much things have changed. Yesterday's Wall Street Journal had a front pager about how the world economies were being beaten down because of a downturn in the economy of … China.
"China's booming economy is cooling more rapidly than most forecasters had expected, undermining hopes that Chinese demand could help keep the global economy humming."
There was a time when we didn't like China very much. Mao was in charge of things. There was that pesky Cultural Revolution. China threatened to invade Taiwan about every other Tuesday. And they were Communists.
They were the Red Chinese. Remember?
If only, we used to say, if only the Chinese would open their markets to foreigner and adopt a market economy. If only they would trade with the West, we used to say, then things would really be much better.
Came the dawn and Mao died, the price of egg rolls didn't go up, China adopted a modified market economy (much as the U.S. Federal Reserve and Treasury Departments have done over the past 60 days), opened their markets to foreigners, and established a massive trading system with the West.
China, according to the CIA World Factbook is a country about the same geographical size as the United States but which has a population of 1.3 BILLION people. That is one BILLION more people than live in the U.S.
The Chinese Gross Domestic Product is about $7 Trillion; a little more than half of the United States' $13 Trillion.
But the United States' economy is mature. If GDP growth gets much over 4% per year, the Fed raises interest rates because inflation is the athlete's foot of mature economies. Once you get it, it is very hard to get rid of.
China's market economy is only about 30 years old and has been growing at better than 10% per year. That has translated into a huge percentage of the population leaving the rice paddies and joining an explosion of a middle class.
Middle class folks in China want the same things that middle class folks want in Colorado: Cars, TVs, Air Conditioners, computers, housing, furniture, money to go to restaurants and clubs, and all the rest.
Western companies have been elbowing each other out of the way to get a toe into the Chinese economic pool. The reason is simple: An enormous population with a growing amount of money burning holes in an increasing number of trouser pockets is what we like to call .. A Market!
American companies from McDonald's to Wal-Mart have beaten a path to China's door to cash in on the Chinese market. China has been eager to play, too. "Made in China" is a tag which is much more likely to be on everything from garden tools to baby clothes than "Made in the USA."
We know that the Chinese government's attention to detail when it comes to things like lead in toys and God-knows-what in baby formula has been a wee bit lax. And we know that counterfeiting everything from DVD movies to watches is a staple of the Chinese economy.
But, hey. We want to do business with 1.3 Billion consumers so what's a little larceny in the grand sweep of things, right?
If Western consumers slow their purchases - as they have already done - and a significant proportion of those purchases were manufactured in China then it stands to reason that the Chinese economy will slow because they won't be making nearly as many things for export as they have been.
It's one thing for the economy of France or Germany to slow to a halt. They have been growing at about the rate of a fingernail for decades. But if the economy of China slows, then it is trouble for every economy in the West.
Welcome to the brave new world. Pass the duck sauce.
Source: http://townhall.com/columnists/RichGalen/2008/10/22/when_china_sneezes?page=1
In the good old days there was a saying that when the American economy sneezes, the world economies catch a cold.
Or something like that.
Here's how much things have changed. Yesterday's Wall Street Journal had a front pager about how the world economies were being beaten down because of a downturn in the economy of … China.
"China's booming economy is cooling more rapidly than most forecasters had expected, undermining hopes that Chinese demand could help keep the global economy humming."
There was a time when we didn't like China very much. Mao was in charge of things. There was that pesky Cultural Revolution. China threatened to invade Taiwan about every other Tuesday. And they were Communists.
They were the Red Chinese. Remember?
If only, we used to say, if only the Chinese would open their markets to foreigner and adopt a market economy. If only they would trade with the West, we used to say, then things would really be much better.
Came the dawn and Mao died, the price of egg rolls didn't go up, China adopted a modified market economy (much as the U.S. Federal Reserve and Treasury Departments have done over the past 60 days), opened their markets to foreigners, and established a massive trading system with the West.
China, according to the CIA World Factbook is a country about the same geographical size as the United States but which has a population of 1.3 BILLION people. That is one BILLION more people than live in the U.S.
The Chinese Gross Domestic Product is about $7 Trillion; a little more than half of the United States' $13 Trillion.
But the United States' economy is mature. If GDP growth gets much over 4% per year, the Fed raises interest rates because inflation is the athlete's foot of mature economies. Once you get it, it is very hard to get rid of.
China's market economy is only about 30 years old and has been growing at better than 10% per year. That has translated into a huge percentage of the population leaving the rice paddies and joining an explosion of a middle class.
Middle class folks in China want the same things that middle class folks want in Colorado: Cars, TVs, Air Conditioners, computers, housing, furniture, money to go to restaurants and clubs, and all the rest.
Western companies have been elbowing each other out of the way to get a toe into the Chinese economic pool. The reason is simple: An enormous population with a growing amount of money burning holes in an increasing number of trouser pockets is what we like to call .. A Market!
American companies from McDonald's to Wal-Mart have beaten a path to China's door to cash in on the Chinese market. China has been eager to play, too. "Made in China" is a tag which is much more likely to be on everything from garden tools to baby clothes than "Made in the USA."
We know that the Chinese government's attention to detail when it comes to things like lead in toys and God-knows-what in baby formula has been a wee bit lax. And we know that counterfeiting everything from DVD movies to watches is a staple of the Chinese economy.
But, hey. We want to do business with 1.3 Billion consumers so what's a little larceny in the grand sweep of things, right?
If Western consumers slow their purchases - as they have already done - and a significant proportion of those purchases were manufactured in China then it stands to reason that the Chinese economy will slow because they won't be making nearly as many things for export as they have been.
It's one thing for the economy of France or Germany to slow to a halt. They have been growing at about the rate of a fingernail for decades. But if the economy of China slows, then it is trouble for every economy in the West.
Welcome to the brave new world. Pass the duck sauce.
Source: http://townhall.com/columnists/RichGalen/2008/10/22/when_china_sneezes?page=1
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Lazy Cat
This cat belongs to nobody. I took the picture at my garden half an hour ago. It was a hot afternoon despite rains in the past few days. It was humid so it made the cat lazy. See how it enjoys its sleep.
Oop...., it must have heard some noice!
Oop...., it must have heard some noice!
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
世界经济衰退的省思
美国雷曼银行收盘，引发美国股市狂泻多天，全世界股市也因此溃不成军。美国通过700亿美元救市，并不能带给自己和各国信心。许多国家的银行纷纷出现危机，欧盟也用几百亿欧元救经济。而澳洲某个具规模的信托基金倒闭，导致澳元暴跌，汇市从炒家烧伤了手。新、马的大富豪也因股市重创，结果身家缩水，新加坡10大富豪损失50亿新元，大马10大富豪则损失750亿令吉。
世界经济衰退，我们必须省思。过去三个星期发生这样的金融股市风波，我国的领袖忙于政治，不认为我国会受到影响。国人希望国家领袖应该对世局敏锐，免得太迟使到经济欲振无力。还好我国终于有行动了，首先跟随新、港、台，国家银行承担100％的银行存款（我国至2010年），过去只是承担最高6万令吉。我国若不跟着做，恐怕存户的款项会外流。
其次是政府动用50亿令吉救市，乃藉着再注资Valuecap私人有限公司。这间公司是2003年1月成立，那时获得100亿令吉的资金。但根据副首相兼财长纳吉的言论，可相信此公司的操作能力令人质疑。他说随着政府新注入50亿令吉后，Valuecap将拥有100亿令吉的资金。换句话说，5年多至今，该公司亏蚀了50亿令吉。其实亏蚀应该不止此数目，根据《星洲日报》提供的资料，2006年2月该公司发售了51亿令吉的债券，到明年2月27日就到期。那么其实这间公司目前所拥有的就是负数1亿令吉，因为还有4个月就要让持债券者赎回投资，Valuecap要怎样拿出这笔钱？
其实政府最大的问题就是做事很不透明化，许多时候不是因为出现了问题，一般市民根本不知道问题的状况。如果那些在操作投资的人士根本没有本事，应该就撤换他人，不分种族以人才为首。政府经常以亿、亿数计的钱救这个那个的，吃亏的是大多数的市井小民。而能够投资在股市的人大多数都是有多余钱的人，公司的股价跌，政府用人民的血汗钱去补贴。其实每个公司应该对自己的经营负责，所以那些公司该收盘就让它们该收盘，那么剩下的才是真正有实力的公司，这样才能反应市场的可信度。如果政府要真正帮助人民的话，就应该直接把钱交到人民的手中。大马应该仿效邻国新加坡，每年送一笔钱给每个公民。
全世界必须重新研究整个世界的金融制度，金融机构倡导人民用未来钱，鼓励人民使用信用卡，入不量出地借贷，怎样不来到经济失衡的一天？往往在股市滑落后，领袖会站出来说许多股项已经是低估了。到底是低估还是人的贪婪把它们炒得太高了。其实股市就是一个最大的合法赌场，进入股市的人哪个不想从中分一杯羹的？到后来，真正的赢家是那些大集团。所以往后报纸仍然会继续出现这样的封面照片－股市狂泻，人民垂头丧气；股市狂飙，人民举手欢呼。让我们醒醒，做个明智人吧！不要随便跟从这个由人操纵世界制度了！
世界经济衰退，我们必须省思。过去三个星期发生这样的金融股市风波，我国的领袖忙于政治，不认为我国会受到影响。国人希望国家领袖应该对世局敏锐，免得太迟使到经济欲振无力。还好我国终于有行动了，首先跟随新、港、台，国家银行承担100％的银行存款（我国至2010年），过去只是承担最高6万令吉。我国若不跟着做，恐怕存户的款项会外流。
其次是政府动用50亿令吉救市，乃藉着再注资Valuecap私人有限公司。这间公司是2003年1月成立，那时获得100亿令吉的资金。但根据副首相兼财长纳吉的言论，可相信此公司的操作能力令人质疑。他说随着政府新注入50亿令吉后，Valuecap将拥有100亿令吉的资金。换句话说，5年多至今，该公司亏蚀了50亿令吉。其实亏蚀应该不止此数目，根据《星洲日报》提供的资料，2006年2月该公司发售了51亿令吉的债券，到明年2月27日就到期。那么其实这间公司目前所拥有的就是负数1亿令吉，因为还有4个月就要让持债券者赎回投资，Valuecap要怎样拿出这笔钱？
其实政府最大的问题就是做事很不透明化，许多时候不是因为出现了问题，一般市民根本不知道问题的状况。如果那些在操作投资的人士根本没有本事，应该就撤换他人，不分种族以人才为首。政府经常以亿、亿数计的钱救这个那个的，吃亏的是大多数的市井小民。而能够投资在股市的人大多数都是有多余钱的人，公司的股价跌，政府用人民的血汗钱去补贴。其实每个公司应该对自己的经营负责，所以那些公司该收盘就让它们该收盘，那么剩下的才是真正有实力的公司，这样才能反应市场的可信度。如果政府要真正帮助人民的话，就应该直接把钱交到人民的手中。大马应该仿效邻国新加坡，每年送一笔钱给每个公民。
全世界必须重新研究整个世界的金融制度，金融机构倡导人民用未来钱，鼓励人民使用信用卡，入不量出地借贷，怎样不来到经济失衡的一天？往往在股市滑落后，领袖会站出来说许多股项已经是低估了。到底是低估还是人的贪婪把它们炒得太高了。其实股市就是一个最大的合法赌场，进入股市的人哪个不想从中分一杯羹的？到后来，真正的赢家是那些大集团。所以往后报纸仍然会继续出现这样的封面照片－股市狂泻，人民垂头丧气；股市狂飙，人民举手欢呼。让我们醒醒，做个明智人吧！不要随便跟从这个由人操纵世界制度了！
Monday, October 20, 2008
蔡细历真的犀利吗？
蔡细历胜了马华暑理主席，马华真的有前途吗。他一点都不细粒，而是犀利！他如翁诗杰所批评的，把性丑闻不当一回事。现在两个人怎样合作？
作为一个人民领袖，如果在性道德有问题的话，他怎样能够讲劝免的话呢？最怕是给他当部长，他就成为最坏的模范。
本来性光碟事件是一种刑事案，除了抓拿策划黑手外，警方也必须抓拿光碟男女主角。但警方没有对付后者，这就是大马警方的效率。想想为何警方对安华的所谓“鸡奸”案那么紧张又有“效率”？很简单，安华对巫统有威胁，而蔡细历对巫统没有威胁。
作为一个人民领袖，如果在性道德有问题的话，他怎样能够讲劝免的话呢？最怕是给他当部长，他就成为最坏的模范。
本来性光碟事件是一种刑事案，除了抓拿策划黑手外，警方也必须抓拿光碟男女主角。但警方没有对付后者，这就是大马警方的效率。想想为何警方对安华的所谓“鸡奸”案那么紧张又有“效率”？很简单，安华对巫统有威胁，而蔡细历对巫统没有威胁。
The Party of God?
by Frank Turek
Joe Biden recently asked why his Democrat Party isn’t seen as the “Party of God.” He then went on to answer his own question with this stunning observation: it’s because Democrats are “uncomfortable talking about God.” If they would only talk more about God, their party would be seen as the “Party of God.”
So if Bill Clinton had only talked more about monogamy, most voters would have thought he was the model husband?
This is one of the major problems of liberalism—it’s more about what you say than what you do. If you’re Joe Biden, as long as you talk about giving to the poor, you don’t actually have to do so yourself—you can give less than a tenth as much as the average American and then advocate that everyone pay higher taxes because it’s “patriotic” to do so. If you’re Al Gore, as long as you talk about “saving the environment,” you don’t actually have to do anything yourself—you can have a “carbon footprint” twenty times larger than the average American. And if you’re Barack Obama, as long as you talk about reducing the number of abortions, you don’t actually have to do anything to reduce them yourself. In fact, if Obama gets elected, he will do everything he can to increase abortions.
Since the media allows liberals to get away with this kind of hypocrisy, it’s no wonder Biden and the Democrats believe that as long as they talk about God, they don’t actually have to do anything He says. This is exactly the kind of hypocrisy Jesus warned us about. He saved his sternest rebuke for the religious politicians of his day (the Pharisees) who talked a good game but whose hearts were far from God.
I don’t know the hearts of Obama, Biden or their fellow Democrats, but Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruits.” And by their fruits, it’s no wonder the Democrats are not seen as the “Party of God.” The positions they advocate are diametrically opposed to the Bible, “Nature’s Law” (the basis of the Declaration of Independence), and the convictions of most religious people.
First and foremost, Obama and the Democrat party do not value life. They are not pro-choice, they are pro-infanticide. They support the horrific procedure called partial-birth abortion. That’s where a full-term baby is partially delivered from her mother, only to have scissors jammed in the back of her skull and her brains sucked out. Despite his denials, Obama even voted to refuse medical treatment to babies who are born alive from a failed abortion. And if he becomes president with a liberal congress, Obama has said that his first act will be to sign the “Freedom of Choice Act.” That act will undo every modest abortion restriction in the land-- partial-birth abortion and parental notification laws will be nullified, and the Hyde Amendment will be reversed which will force taxpayers to pay for abortions!
Would Jesus advocate such positions? The right to life is the right to all other rights. If you don’t have life, you don’t have anything. Any party that will not recognize the right to all other rights will never be recognized as “the Party of God.”
Second, the Democrat party refuses to protect the foundation of civilized society—marriage between a man and a woman. While Obama officially says he’s not for same-sex marriage, he has pledged to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act which protects states from having same-sex marriage imposed on them by other states. Inexplicably, Obama believes that the Sermon on the Mount somehow mandates gay civil unions (he tells us to overlook that “obscure passage in Romans”). Furthermore, Obama wants to enact a law that may force churches to hire homosexuals.
On abortion and marriage Obama and the Democrats are clearly not the “Party of God.” Moreover, they have no moral high ground on Iraq as I’ve written in Jesus and the Case for War. And on two other key issues-- education and the poor-- Democrats want the right ends but use the wrong means.
For all their talk about “choice” on the abortion issue, Obama and the Democrats are opposed to choice when it comes to education. Why should a mother have the choice to kill her children, but not the choice of where to educate them? After all, we’re talking about the education of her children with her tax dollars. While Obama and many of his supporters in the Democrat party are rich enough to send their own kids to private schools, they want to keep the masses without a choice in failing, dangerous and politically-correct public schools—this despite the fact that vouchers actually work. Competition works everywhere it’s tried, but the Democrats don’t want to take that chance.
Finally, while Obama and the Democrats say they want to help the poor, virtually everything they do makes the plight of the poor worse. Their tax, welfare, and anti-school-choice policies don’t spread wealth, they spread misery. They also spread dependency on Democrats, which may be the ultimate reason why Obama, Biden and the Democrats will never do anything to become the “Party of God.” They’ll only talk about it and hope enough religious voters don’t notice their lack of fruit.
Joe Biden recently asked why his Democrat Party isn’t seen as the “Party of God.” He then went on to answer his own question with this stunning observation: it’s because Democrats are “uncomfortable talking about God.” If they would only talk more about God, their party would be seen as the “Party of God.”
So if Bill Clinton had only talked more about monogamy, most voters would have thought he was the model husband?
This is one of the major problems of liberalism—it’s more about what you say than what you do. If you’re Joe Biden, as long as you talk about giving to the poor, you don’t actually have to do so yourself—you can give less than a tenth as much as the average American and then advocate that everyone pay higher taxes because it’s “patriotic” to do so. If you’re Al Gore, as long as you talk about “saving the environment,” you don’t actually have to do anything yourself—you can have a “carbon footprint” twenty times larger than the average American. And if you’re Barack Obama, as long as you talk about reducing the number of abortions, you don’t actually have to do anything to reduce them yourself. In fact, if Obama gets elected, he will do everything he can to increase abortions.
Since the media allows liberals to get away with this kind of hypocrisy, it’s no wonder Biden and the Democrats believe that as long as they talk about God, they don’t actually have to do anything He says. This is exactly the kind of hypocrisy Jesus warned us about. He saved his sternest rebuke for the religious politicians of his day (the Pharisees) who talked a good game but whose hearts were far from God.
I don’t know the hearts of Obama, Biden or their fellow Democrats, but Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruits.” And by their fruits, it’s no wonder the Democrats are not seen as the “Party of God.” The positions they advocate are diametrically opposed to the Bible, “Nature’s Law” (the basis of the Declaration of Independence), and the convictions of most religious people.
First and foremost, Obama and the Democrat party do not value life. They are not pro-choice, they are pro-infanticide. They support the horrific procedure called partial-birth abortion. That’s where a full-term baby is partially delivered from her mother, only to have scissors jammed in the back of her skull and her brains sucked out. Despite his denials, Obama even voted to refuse medical treatment to babies who are born alive from a failed abortion. And if he becomes president with a liberal congress, Obama has said that his first act will be to sign the “Freedom of Choice Act.” That act will undo every modest abortion restriction in the land-- partial-birth abortion and parental notification laws will be nullified, and the Hyde Amendment will be reversed which will force taxpayers to pay for abortions!
Would Jesus advocate such positions? The right to life is the right to all other rights. If you don’t have life, you don’t have anything. Any party that will not recognize the right to all other rights will never be recognized as “the Party of God.”
Second, the Democrat party refuses to protect the foundation of civilized society—marriage between a man and a woman. While Obama officially says he’s not for same-sex marriage, he has pledged to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act which protects states from having same-sex marriage imposed on them by other states. Inexplicably, Obama believes that the Sermon on the Mount somehow mandates gay civil unions (he tells us to overlook that “obscure passage in Romans”). Furthermore, Obama wants to enact a law that may force churches to hire homosexuals.
On abortion and marriage Obama and the Democrats are clearly not the “Party of God.” Moreover, they have no moral high ground on Iraq as I’ve written in Jesus and the Case for War. And on two other key issues-- education and the poor-- Democrats want the right ends but use the wrong means.
For all their talk about “choice” on the abortion issue, Obama and the Democrats are opposed to choice when it comes to education. Why should a mother have the choice to kill her children, but not the choice of where to educate them? After all, we’re talking about the education of her children with her tax dollars. While Obama and many of his supporters in the Democrat party are rich enough to send their own kids to private schools, they want to keep the masses without a choice in failing, dangerous and politically-correct public schools—this despite the fact that vouchers actually work. Competition works everywhere it’s tried, but the Democrats don’t want to take that chance.
Finally, while Obama and the Democrats say they want to help the poor, virtually everything they do makes the plight of the poor worse. Their tax, welfare, and anti-school-choice policies don’t spread wealth, they spread misery. They also spread dependency on Democrats, which may be the ultimate reason why Obama, Biden and the Democrats will never do anything to become the “Party of God.” They’ll only talk about it and hope enough religious voters don’t notice their lack of fruit.
Najib's Presidency Manifesto - Malaysiakini
"Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak wasted no time unveiling his manifesto for the Umno presidency, denouncing recent allegations made against him and vowing to defend till the last drop of his blood the supremacy of the Malay race." Source: http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/91588
Well Najib may win the UMNO election but he will lose the next Gen. Election. UMNO is no longer a strong party in Malaysia. It is struggling to revive.
The reason for its decline was the switch in Malay votes. In the past, Malay is UMNO and UMNO is Malay. Now Malays are opting for change. They wanted democracy and not continual spoon-feeding.
How would Najib defend UMNO and BN? By looking at his manifesto, he would adopt more ISA arrests to silent dissidents. He will ban all public rallies in the next Gen. Election. But Najib forgot that no voice could be silent even if more would be arrested. Many other will rise up to speak. Now people are using cyber tools. A mouse will link them worldwide.
Najib also forgot that the other component parties of BN are checking on UMNO. If Najib were to play with race-card again, they will forsake BN.
Well Najib may win the UMNO election but he will lose the next Gen. Election. UMNO is no longer a strong party in Malaysia. It is struggling to revive.
The reason for its decline was the switch in Malay votes. In the past, Malay is UMNO and UMNO is Malay. Now Malays are opting for change. They wanted democracy and not continual spoon-feeding.
How would Najib defend UMNO and BN? By looking at his manifesto, he would adopt more ISA arrests to silent dissidents. He will ban all public rallies in the next Gen. Election. But Najib forgot that no voice could be silent even if more would be arrested. Many other will rise up to speak. Now people are using cyber tools. A mouse will link them worldwide.
Najib also forgot that the other component parties of BN are checking on UMNO. If Najib were to play with race-card again, they will forsake BN.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Religious peace threatened in South Korea
by Choe Sang-Hun Published: October 14, 2008
SEOUL: At Jogye Temple, normally an island of Buddhist serenity, plainclothes officers have staked out the exits, waiting to grab any fugitives who venture out. Camped out on the temple grounds are the leaders of fierce anti-government protests who have been charged with instigating violence. They have come to the temple seeking political sanctuary, not spiritual uplift. One top government official has branded them "Satans."
As a gong echoes through the neighborhood of office towers in central Seoul, afternoon worshipers arriving at the temple - home to the largest Buddhist order in South Korea - walk below a canopy of 6,200 lotus-shaped lanterns. The lanterns are arranged by color to spell the English word "OUT" - a highly unusual rebuke to President Lee Myung Bak from the country's once-docile and normally apolitical Buddhists.
"Religious peace in our country is being threatened by those who dream of turning it into a medieval Christian kingdom through a church elder-president," said Park Jeong Kyu, a spokesman for the Jogye Order.
Lee, 66, is an elder at a Presbyterian church in Seoul. Since his election last December, Buddhists have voiced a rising alarm over the country's conservative Protestant churches. These churches support Lee, but they also have irritated many Koreans - not just Buddhists - with their assertive proselytizing and alleged disregard for other faiths.
In August, tens of thousands of Buddhist monks and lay people marched in central Seoul, accusing Lee and his government of discriminating against Buddhists and favoring Protestants.
This protest, the first of its kind here, signaled an awakening of political activism among South Korea's Buddhist clerics. It also raised the prospect of sectarian strife, something the country has not seen in its modern history.
"What we see is unusual, because this country - although frequently torn by wars, ideology-driven violence and factional politics - has always maintained religious harmony," said Song Jae Ryong, a professor of the sociology of religion at Kyung Hee University.
In the spotlight of the dispute is Lee, who once outraged Buddhists by vowing, when he was mayor of Seoul, to "consecrate" the capital to the Christian God.
The South Korean Constitution bans designating any faith as a state religion. Nearly half the country's 47 million people disavow any religious affiliation. The religious - Buddhists (10.7 million), Protestants (8.6 million), Roman Catholics (5.1 million) and Confucianists and other minorities - have long coexisted peacefully, even within the same family.
Lee was not the first Christian that South Korea has elected president. Two of his three predecessors were practicing Christians.
But discord flared after Lee's inauguration in February.
Buddhists complain that of the 16 members of Lee's cabinet, 13 are Christians while only one is a Buddhist. (The other two have no religious affiliation.)
Buddhist misgivings about Lee deepened in June, when the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs posted on its Web site a map of greater Seoul that omitted Buddhist temples, even famous ones, while marking the locations of even minor Christian churches.
Then in July, police officers trying to serve arrest warrants to the anti-U.S. beef protesters who had taken refuge in the Jogye Tempe stopped and searched the car of Jigwan, the head of the Jogye Order.
Earlier, Lee's public relations secretary, who is also a Protestant pastor, called the protesters "Satans."
In August, a prominent Protestant minister was invited to say the prayer at a lunch Lee hosted for the U.S. president, George W. Bush, at the presidential Blue House.
Buddhists seized on these and similar episodes to accuse Lee and Protestant churches of "using the government as a proselytizing tool."
The government apologized for what it called its own unintentional errors, such as the map, and expressed regret for its critics' "misunderstanding" of other issues. For example, even before Lee, Christians were heavily represented in senior government posts. And Lee revised the government officials' code of conduct to add a warning against religious bias.
After a lengthy meeting on Sept. 26, top abbots of the Jogye Order acknowledged Lee's conciliatory gestures. That helped defuse tensions somewhat, but the abbots affirmed that they would proceed with a major Buddhist rally scheduled for Nov. 1 in Daegu, the home ground of Lee's main conservative rival, Park Geun Hye.
They also demanded that Lee fire his police chief, a Presbyterian, and introduce a law to punish officials who display religious bias in the line of duty. They also urged Lee not to arrest the activists holed up at Jogye Temple.
Buddhism is 1,600 years old in Korea, but it has lost ground, first to Catholicism and then to Protestant denominations. Protestantism arrived here with American missionaries only a century ago but has expanded in the past several decades in parallel with the country's modernization.
Christian missionaries introduced Western medicine and education. And Korean Christians were active in the fight for democracy during the decades of military rule.
By contrast, Buddhism, with its focus on meditation and seclusion in mountain temples, increasingly struck the nation's newer generations as esoteric and tradition-bound. To many Koreans, it was more a cultural heritage than a religion.
Meanwhile, Buddhist monks raised eyebrows several years ago when Jogye Temple took on the appearance of a kung fu movie set, as bands of rival monks - reportedly including hired thugs disguised in monks' robes - kicked and punched at each other in a literal fight over control of the order, which owns vast properties.
"Buddhists failed to play an important social role," said Bae Byoung Tae, secretary general of the Buddhist-affiliated Korea Institute for Religious Freedom. "But Protestants, whose numbers expanded rapidly alongside the economy during the dictatorships, also adopted authoritarian methods in proselytizing.
"They don't respect or recognize other religions."
Buddhists still chafe at the fact that Syngman Rhee, the nation's dictatorial founding president and also a Protestant elder, made Christmas a national holiday in 1948 - 27 years before Buddha's birthday gained the same status.
Like South Korea's conglomerates, its Protestant churches can seem obsessed with size.
Seoul is home to 11 of the world's 12 largest Christian congregations. Yoido Full Gospel Church, whose chief minister recited the prayer at the Lee-Bush lunch, boasts 800,000 members.
Protestant churches stage all-night prayer marathons. Their evangelical zeal made news last year, when 23 Presbyterians were kidnapped in Afghanistan by the Taliban and two of them were murdered.
Christian fundamentalists have stoked resentment by vandalizing statues of Dangun, the nation's mythic founder. Families also have been divided as increasing numbers of Protestants have refused to take part in Confucian ancestor worship, holiday rituals that used to be performed in all families regardless of their religious affiliation.
The Buddhist furor escalated in recent weeks as videos circulated on the Internet showing zealous Protestant preachers, one of whom led his congregation in shouts for the "collapse of Buddhist temples."
In another clip, a leading preacher, Jang Kyong Dong, says: "Buddhist monks are wasting their time. They should convert to Jesus. Is there any Buddhist country in the world that is rich?"
During the administrations of Lee's two liberal predecessors, conservative Protestant groups emerged as a key opposition force. They organized outdoor rallies, denouncing both North Korea's leaders and the leftist government in Seoul as "Satanic." They rallied around Lee in the December election.
Now that Lee is in power, the backlash is being felt.
Yang Se Jin, secretary general of Christian Ethics Movement of Korea, a Protestant civic group, put it this way: "Buddhists' sense of crisis over their declining influence in South Korea, and society's, not just Buddhist, unease with Protestants' aggressive proselytizing, have exploded under Lee's government."
Source: International Herald Tribune
SEOUL: At Jogye Temple, normally an island of Buddhist serenity, plainclothes officers have staked out the exits, waiting to grab any fugitives who venture out. Camped out on the temple grounds are the leaders of fierce anti-government protests who have been charged with instigating violence. They have come to the temple seeking political sanctuary, not spiritual uplift. One top government official has branded them "Satans."
As a gong echoes through the neighborhood of office towers in central Seoul, afternoon worshipers arriving at the temple - home to the largest Buddhist order in South Korea - walk below a canopy of 6,200 lotus-shaped lanterns. The lanterns are arranged by color to spell the English word "OUT" - a highly unusual rebuke to President Lee Myung Bak from the country's once-docile and normally apolitical Buddhists.
"Religious peace in our country is being threatened by those who dream of turning it into a medieval Christian kingdom through a church elder-president," said Park Jeong Kyu, a spokesman for the Jogye Order.
Lee, 66, is an elder at a Presbyterian church in Seoul. Since his election last December, Buddhists have voiced a rising alarm over the country's conservative Protestant churches. These churches support Lee, but they also have irritated many Koreans - not just Buddhists - with their assertive proselytizing and alleged disregard for other faiths.
In August, tens of thousands of Buddhist monks and lay people marched in central Seoul, accusing Lee and his government of discriminating against Buddhists and favoring Protestants.
This protest, the first of its kind here, signaled an awakening of political activism among South Korea's Buddhist clerics. It also raised the prospect of sectarian strife, something the country has not seen in its modern history.
"What we see is unusual, because this country - although frequently torn by wars, ideology-driven violence and factional politics - has always maintained religious harmony," said Song Jae Ryong, a professor of the sociology of religion at Kyung Hee University.
In the spotlight of the dispute is Lee, who once outraged Buddhists by vowing, when he was mayor of Seoul, to "consecrate" the capital to the Christian God.
The South Korean Constitution bans designating any faith as a state religion. Nearly half the country's 47 million people disavow any religious affiliation. The religious - Buddhists (10.7 million), Protestants (8.6 million), Roman Catholics (5.1 million) and Confucianists and other minorities - have long coexisted peacefully, even within the same family.
Lee was not the first Christian that South Korea has elected president. Two of his three predecessors were practicing Christians.
But discord flared after Lee's inauguration in February.
Buddhists complain that of the 16 members of Lee's cabinet, 13 are Christians while only one is a Buddhist. (The other two have no religious affiliation.)
Buddhist misgivings about Lee deepened in June, when the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs posted on its Web site a map of greater Seoul that omitted Buddhist temples, even famous ones, while marking the locations of even minor Christian churches.
Then in July, police officers trying to serve arrest warrants to the anti-U.S. beef protesters who had taken refuge in the Jogye Tempe stopped and searched the car of Jigwan, the head of the Jogye Order.
Earlier, Lee's public relations secretary, who is also a Protestant pastor, called the protesters "Satans."
In August, a prominent Protestant minister was invited to say the prayer at a lunch Lee hosted for the U.S. president, George W. Bush, at the presidential Blue House.
Buddhists seized on these and similar episodes to accuse Lee and Protestant churches of "using the government as a proselytizing tool."
The government apologized for what it called its own unintentional errors, such as the map, and expressed regret for its critics' "misunderstanding" of other issues. For example, even before Lee, Christians were heavily represented in senior government posts. And Lee revised the government officials' code of conduct to add a warning against religious bias.
After a lengthy meeting on Sept. 26, top abbots of the Jogye Order acknowledged Lee's conciliatory gestures. That helped defuse tensions somewhat, but the abbots affirmed that they would proceed with a major Buddhist rally scheduled for Nov. 1 in Daegu, the home ground of Lee's main conservative rival, Park Geun Hye.
They also demanded that Lee fire his police chief, a Presbyterian, and introduce a law to punish officials who display religious bias in the line of duty. They also urged Lee not to arrest the activists holed up at Jogye Temple.
Buddhism is 1,600 years old in Korea, but it has lost ground, first to Catholicism and then to Protestant denominations. Protestantism arrived here with American missionaries only a century ago but has expanded in the past several decades in parallel with the country's modernization.
Christian missionaries introduced Western medicine and education. And Korean Christians were active in the fight for democracy during the decades of military rule.
By contrast, Buddhism, with its focus on meditation and seclusion in mountain temples, increasingly struck the nation's newer generations as esoteric and tradition-bound. To many Koreans, it was more a cultural heritage than a religion.
Meanwhile, Buddhist monks raised eyebrows several years ago when Jogye Temple took on the appearance of a kung fu movie set, as bands of rival monks - reportedly including hired thugs disguised in monks' robes - kicked and punched at each other in a literal fight over control of the order, which owns vast properties.
"Buddhists failed to play an important social role," said Bae Byoung Tae, secretary general of the Buddhist-affiliated Korea Institute for Religious Freedom. "But Protestants, whose numbers expanded rapidly alongside the economy during the dictatorships, also adopted authoritarian methods in proselytizing.
"They don't respect or recognize other religions."
Buddhists still chafe at the fact that Syngman Rhee, the nation's dictatorial founding president and also a Protestant elder, made Christmas a national holiday in 1948 - 27 years before Buddha's birthday gained the same status.
Like South Korea's conglomerates, its Protestant churches can seem obsessed with size.
Seoul is home to 11 of the world's 12 largest Christian congregations. Yoido Full Gospel Church, whose chief minister recited the prayer at the Lee-Bush lunch, boasts 800,000 members.
Protestant churches stage all-night prayer marathons. Their evangelical zeal made news last year, when 23 Presbyterians were kidnapped in Afghanistan by the Taliban and two of them were murdered.
Christian fundamentalists have stoked resentment by vandalizing statues of Dangun, the nation's mythic founder. Families also have been divided as increasing numbers of Protestants have refused to take part in Confucian ancestor worship, holiday rituals that used to be performed in all families regardless of their religious affiliation.
The Buddhist furor escalated in recent weeks as videos circulated on the Internet showing zealous Protestant preachers, one of whom led his congregation in shouts for the "collapse of Buddhist temples."
In another clip, a leading preacher, Jang Kyong Dong, says: "Buddhist monks are wasting their time. They should convert to Jesus. Is there any Buddhist country in the world that is rich?"
During the administrations of Lee's two liberal predecessors, conservative Protestant groups emerged as a key opposition force. They organized outdoor rallies, denouncing both North Korea's leaders and the leftist government in Seoul as "Satanic." They rallied around Lee in the December election.
Now that Lee is in power, the backlash is being felt.
Yang Se Jin, secretary general of Christian Ethics Movement of Korea, a Protestant civic group, put it this way: "Buddhists' sense of crisis over their declining influence in South Korea, and society's, not just Buddhist, unease with Protestants' aggressive proselytizing, have exploded under Lee's government."
Source: International Herald Tribune
Thursday, October 16, 2008
十六条人生基要真理
我们人生中有很多事情出现，我们以什么思维面对它们及怎样看待它们的得失成败，就决定我们的人生。在这里我要列出人不以为意，却又是决定命运的关键性的十六条人生基要真理，供大家自我提醒。首先，你会奇怪为什么你老是碰上一些不该碰上的人物？其实这或许是上帝允许你碰上这样的人，以致有一天当你碰上是你梦寐以求的人物时，你会充满感恩的。
其次，快乐的门关闭了，而另一道门打开了。但我们经常看着那道关闭的门这么久，以致我们看不到那道已经为我们打开了的门。关的已经关了，为何不看那开着的有什么新机呢？其三，最好的朋友就是那位你可以与他或她坐在秋千上摇荡，不出一句话，然后走开却感到那是一场这么久以来最美好的谈话。
其四，我们不知道我们拥有什么，直至我们失去他们或它们。同样的，我们不知道我们失去什么，直至他们或它们来到。其五，要砸碎一个人只需一分钟，要喜欢一个人需一小时，及要爱一个人需一天，而遗忘一个人却需一生时间。
其六，不要追求样貌，它们可以欺骗你的。其七，不要追求钱财，它们会消长翅膀飞掉的。其八，却要追求一位可以使你发出会心微笑的，因为只要一个微笑，它就可以使到黯淡变成灿烂。你要寻找那位能够使你的心发出欢笑的。
其九，在你生命中有时你惦记着一个人那么地深刻，以致你极想在梦中搜罗他或她出来，并且要真确地拥抱着他或她。其十，愿你有充足的快乐使你感到甜蜜，充足的试炼使你刚强，充足的伤痛使你保持仍然是一个人，及充足的盼望使你满心喜乐。
其十一，时常使你自己钻进别人的鞋子里看事情，如果它是能创伤你的话，它可能也会创伤别人的。其十二，最快乐的人不一定拥有最好的每一样东西，他们只是把来到的每一样东西变得最好。
其十三，快乐等着那些哭泣的人，那些受创的人，那些搜寻的人，以及那些尝试的人，只要他们会感激那些曾经触摸他们生命的人。其十四，爱是用一个微笑开始的，是用一个吻培养的，及是用一道眼泪结束的。
其十五，把过去忘记才能得到最灿烂的前途，你可以在人生过得好生活，直至你卸下过去心中的失败。其十六，当你出世时，你在哭泣，而每一个在你四周围的人在欢笑。最后，你要活出你的生命是那么的灿烂，以致到一天你死的时候，那位欢笑的是你，而哭泣的人是那些在你四周围的人。
其次，快乐的门关闭了，而另一道门打开了。但我们经常看着那道关闭的门这么久，以致我们看不到那道已经为我们打开了的门。关的已经关了，为何不看那开着的有什么新机呢？其三，最好的朋友就是那位你可以与他或她坐在秋千上摇荡，不出一句话，然后走开却感到那是一场这么久以来最美好的谈话。
其四，我们不知道我们拥有什么，直至我们失去他们或它们。同样的，我们不知道我们失去什么，直至他们或它们来到。其五，要砸碎一个人只需一分钟，要喜欢一个人需一小时，及要爱一个人需一天，而遗忘一个人却需一生时间。
其六，不要追求样貌，它们可以欺骗你的。其七，不要追求钱财，它们会消长翅膀飞掉的。其八，却要追求一位可以使你发出会心微笑的，因为只要一个微笑，它就可以使到黯淡变成灿烂。你要寻找那位能够使你的心发出欢笑的。
其九，在你生命中有时你惦记着一个人那么地深刻，以致你极想在梦中搜罗他或她出来，并且要真确地拥抱着他或她。其十，愿你有充足的快乐使你感到甜蜜，充足的试炼使你刚强，充足的伤痛使你保持仍然是一个人，及充足的盼望使你满心喜乐。
其十一，时常使你自己钻进别人的鞋子里看事情，如果它是能创伤你的话，它可能也会创伤别人的。其十二，最快乐的人不一定拥有最好的每一样东西，他们只是把来到的每一样东西变得最好。
其十三，快乐等着那些哭泣的人，那些受创的人，那些搜寻的人，以及那些尝试的人，只要他们会感激那些曾经触摸他们生命的人。其十四，爱是用一个微笑开始的，是用一个吻培养的，及是用一道眼泪结束的。
其十五，把过去忘记才能得到最灿烂的前途，你可以在人生过得好生活，直至你卸下过去心中的失败。其十六，当你出世时，你在哭泣，而每一个在你四周围的人在欢笑。最后，你要活出你的生命是那么的灿烂，以致到一天你死的时候，那位欢笑的是你，而哭泣的人是那些在你四周围的人。
Lord, Give Us Hot Coals From Your Altar!
What happened in Wales in 1904 was genuine revival because it was triggered by repentance and resulted in mass conversions. Why do we seek anything less?
Moriah Chapel in Loughor, Wales, is not a fancy building. Constructed in 1898 and surrounded by crumbling tombstones, the church is plain and uninviting except for a monument near the front door that might be mistaken for a war memorial. It is, in fact, one of the few tributes to Evan Roberts, the young Welshman who preached in this chapel in the fall of 1904 and triggered one of the greatest Christian revivals in modern history.
This week I stood inside the chapel and studied its plain walls and the rickety stairs leading up to its narrow balcony. I got behind the wooden pulpit and looked over the empty pews, some carved with initials. I stood beside Roberts’ modest grave. I was reminded that God uses the weak things of the world to confound the wise.
There was nothing outwardly remarkable about Roberts or the place his ministry began. He was the simple son of a coal miner. He worked as a blacksmith and aspired to be a minister. After he uttered his famous prayer, “Lord, bend me,” at a conference in nearby Blaenanerch, he felt overwhelmed by a burden for Welsh souls. His first revival service at Moriah Chapel touched only a handful of people. But crowds began to pour into the church from nearby villages after the Holy Spirit fell on the place in November 1904.
“Afterwards the salvation of souls weighed heavily on me. I felt on fire for going through the whole of Wales to tell the people about the Saviour.”—Evan Roberts
Within a year it was estimated that 100,000 people had come to Christ. Hardened men who normally spent their families’ incomes on liquor ran into the churches and repented. Coal miners stopped cursing. Teenagers gathered at train stations and sang hymns or testified publicly of their conversions. Crime stopped.
Wales was transformed.
To be fair, it’s important to note that the Welsh revival did not revolve around Roberts, at least not in its early days. It was not a man-centered movement—even though the secular newspapers tried to place all the attention on the young preacher. Years before the revival erupted at Moriah Chapel, spiritual birth pangs were felt in other towns in Wales in meetings led by Presbyterians and Salvation Army evangelists.
The fervor was building. An altar had been prepared, and dry wood was waiting for a spark.
That obviously happened when Roberts visited Blaenarerch. God took a hot coal from His altar and touched Roberts at age 26. He was gloriously baptized in the Holy Spirit there while others watched him kneeling in a pew. By his own account, he wept so much that three women came over to console him and to wipe the perspiration from his face. The love of God, he said, was boiling inside him.
Roberts described the experience like this: “After many had prayed I felt some living energy or force entering my bosom; it held my breath; my legs trembled terribly; this living energy increased and increased as one after the other prayed until it nearly burst me. … I cried—‘Bend me, bend me, bend me; Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!’ … What came to mind after this was, the bending in the day of judgment. Then I was filled with sympathy for the people who will have to bend in judgment day, and I wept. Afterwards the salvation of souls weighed heavily on me. I felt on fire for going through the whole of Wales to tell the people about the Saviour.”
Two profound characteristics marked the Welsh revival: First, invisible waves of conviction drew people to repentance. (Often sinners wandered into the meetings and immediately knelt at the altars.) Second, Christians felt an urgency to share Christ with everyone around them because of the reality of hell and God’s judgment. They seemed almost possessed by the love of God for the lost.
In his meetings Roberts often shared a four-point plan for living the Christian life: (1) confess all known sin; (2) deal with and get rid of anything “doubtful” in your life; (3) be ready to obey the Holy Spirit instantly; and (4) confess Christ publicly.
After visiting Moriah Chapel and rereading the accounts of the Welsh revival, I find myself longing for an authentic move of God. I am so weary of the fake and the fabricated. In this day of media manipulation, it seems we can use smoke and mirrors to create “revivals” that have neither conviction of sin nor conversions.
Oh, we think we have the power. We boast about the size of the crowds. We brag about miracles. We are ready to declare a revival if Christians fall on the floor or give big offerings. But when the music stops, the TV cameras are turned off and the money is counted, what do we have? Nothing but a cheap imitation.
Where is the God of Elijah? Where is the God of Evan Roberts? Where is the true power of God that can sweep over a city and bring backslidden Christians to repentance and hardened sinners to experience the greatest miracle of all—the miracle of new birth?
I invite you to stoke the fire of the Spirit in your life. Let the hot coals of heaven purge any known sin from your heart. Repent of all compromise. Be ruthless with any idols. Let the love of God boil inside you until your heart is overflowing with love for sinners. Let’s believe that it is possible for the Holy Spirit to draw our wayward nation back to God.
J. Lee Grady is the editor of Charisma. He spent this last week preaching in Wales
Moriah Chapel in Loughor, Wales, is not a fancy building. Constructed in 1898 and surrounded by crumbling tombstones, the church is plain and uninviting except for a monument near the front door that might be mistaken for a war memorial. It is, in fact, one of the few tributes to Evan Roberts, the young Welshman who preached in this chapel in the fall of 1904 and triggered one of the greatest Christian revivals in modern history.
This week I stood inside the chapel and studied its plain walls and the rickety stairs leading up to its narrow balcony. I got behind the wooden pulpit and looked over the empty pews, some carved with initials. I stood beside Roberts’ modest grave. I was reminded that God uses the weak things of the world to confound the wise.
There was nothing outwardly remarkable about Roberts or the place his ministry began. He was the simple son of a coal miner. He worked as a blacksmith and aspired to be a minister. After he uttered his famous prayer, “Lord, bend me,” at a conference in nearby Blaenanerch, he felt overwhelmed by a burden for Welsh souls. His first revival service at Moriah Chapel touched only a handful of people. But crowds began to pour into the church from nearby villages after the Holy Spirit fell on the place in November 1904.
“Afterwards the salvation of souls weighed heavily on me. I felt on fire for going through the whole of Wales to tell the people about the Saviour.”—Evan Roberts
Within a year it was estimated that 100,000 people had come to Christ. Hardened men who normally spent their families’ incomes on liquor ran into the churches and repented. Coal miners stopped cursing. Teenagers gathered at train stations and sang hymns or testified publicly of their conversions. Crime stopped.
Wales was transformed.
To be fair, it’s important to note that the Welsh revival did not revolve around Roberts, at least not in its early days. It was not a man-centered movement—even though the secular newspapers tried to place all the attention on the young preacher. Years before the revival erupted at Moriah Chapel, spiritual birth pangs were felt in other towns in Wales in meetings led by Presbyterians and Salvation Army evangelists.
The fervor was building. An altar had been prepared, and dry wood was waiting for a spark.
That obviously happened when Roberts visited Blaenarerch. God took a hot coal from His altar and touched Roberts at age 26. He was gloriously baptized in the Holy Spirit there while others watched him kneeling in a pew. By his own account, he wept so much that three women came over to console him and to wipe the perspiration from his face. The love of God, he said, was boiling inside him.
Roberts described the experience like this: “After many had prayed I felt some living energy or force entering my bosom; it held my breath; my legs trembled terribly; this living energy increased and increased as one after the other prayed until it nearly burst me. … I cried—‘Bend me, bend me, bend me; Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!’ … What came to mind after this was, the bending in the day of judgment. Then I was filled with sympathy for the people who will have to bend in judgment day, and I wept. Afterwards the salvation of souls weighed heavily on me. I felt on fire for going through the whole of Wales to tell the people about the Saviour.”
Two profound characteristics marked the Welsh revival: First, invisible waves of conviction drew people to repentance. (Often sinners wandered into the meetings and immediately knelt at the altars.) Second, Christians felt an urgency to share Christ with everyone around them because of the reality of hell and God’s judgment. They seemed almost possessed by the love of God for the lost.
In his meetings Roberts often shared a four-point plan for living the Christian life: (1) confess all known sin; (2) deal with and get rid of anything “doubtful” in your life; (3) be ready to obey the Holy Spirit instantly; and (4) confess Christ publicly.
After visiting Moriah Chapel and rereading the accounts of the Welsh revival, I find myself longing for an authentic move of God. I am so weary of the fake and the fabricated. In this day of media manipulation, it seems we can use smoke and mirrors to create “revivals” that have neither conviction of sin nor conversions.
Oh, we think we have the power. We boast about the size of the crowds. We brag about miracles. We are ready to declare a revival if Christians fall on the floor or give big offerings. But when the music stops, the TV cameras are turned off and the money is counted, what do we have? Nothing but a cheap imitation.
Where is the God of Elijah? Where is the God of Evan Roberts? Where is the true power of God that can sweep over a city and bring backslidden Christians to repentance and hardened sinners to experience the greatest miracle of all—the miracle of new birth?
I invite you to stoke the fire of the Spirit in your life. Let the hot coals of heaven purge any known sin from your heart. Repent of all compromise. Be ruthless with any idols. Let the love of God boil inside you until your heart is overflowing with love for sinners. Let’s believe that it is possible for the Holy Spirit to draw our wayward nation back to God.
J. Lee Grady is the editor of Charisma. He spent this last week preaching in Wales
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
主张让土著自行选择宗教，柏纳东博：借鉴印尼作法
黄书琪
国阵沙巴州成员党民统（UPKO）主席柏纳东博说，我国过去几年发生的事情，令大部分马来西亚人开始担心，建国先贤承诺及《联邦宪法》赋予的宗教信仰自由权利逐渐遭侵蚀。他促请政府允许本地土著决定本身的宗教信仰，而政府可以参考印尼的作法。
现任首相署部长的柏纳东博表示，当死者家属必须以打官司的方式争取为他们的至亲，用他们所希望的宗教仪式举行丧礼，这种情况已经引起非回教徒社群的恐慌；“根据宪法赋予人民的权利，每个人都有信仰自由，也可以改信佛教、回教、基督教等任何宗教信仰。”
柏纳东博前天（10月11日）在沙巴文化中心召开的民统第12届代表大会上发表政策演说时表示，“当一个马来西亚人决定改信宗教时，没有任何人或法律条文有权力干涉他与他的神明之间的约定。”
沙巴州英文《婆罗洲邮报》（The Borneo Post）星期日（10月12日）以大篇幅报道了柏纳东博的演词内容，但是西马报纸几乎都没有民统代表大会的报道。沙巴进步党退出国阵后，就传出民统可能会是另一个退出国阵的沙巴州政党。
柏纳东博认为，政府推动司法改革之际，缺乏独立的司法机关不应该再继续挑起大众的注意力。柏纳东博强调，法院发出的命令必须百分之百公正，不受那些不公不义的宗教所染指。
柏纳东博指出，在现阶段，争论甚至还停留在法院裁判权及到底应该在世俗法院还是回教法院审理。“对那些因为与回教徒结婚，而必须改信回教的人而言，这真是一个非常尴尬的情况。”
婚姻从哪里开始，就在哪里结束
他表示，当婚姻破裂，因婚姻而改信回教的配偶要改信其他宗教时，却无法这么作。“所以就产生了当两名兴都教徒结婚后要离婚，其中一方决定和一名回教徒结为连理，但这时却无法和前任配偶在世俗法院离婚的窘境，因为另一方已经成为回教徒了。”
柏纳东博强调：“当一段婚姻走到了尽头，必须要离婚时，他们当初从哪里开始，就在哪里结束。所以如果那段婚姻是在民法之下成立，那么就应该按照民法办理离婚。如果是依照回教法结为姻亲，则当然应该在回教法院办理离婚。”
他表示几年前，一共有九名部长提呈一份备忘录给首相，其中一点就是关于不同宗教信仰之间的婚姻问题，而他也是这份备忘录的签署人之一。“遗憾的是某些原本同意连署这份备忘录的其他部长，却有人改变主意，我并没有撤销连署，因为我觉得备忘录的内容并没有任何不当之处。实际上，跟政府积极建立回教作为马来西亚国教的地位，以及任何公民改信宗教的选择这方面也没有任何冲突。”
应允许土著决定自己的宗教
柏纳东博指出，在沙巴有不少曾经改信宗教的六、七十岁老人，根本没有意识到此问题的严重性，照旧过著生活。他们的孩子可能也会觉得，他们根本不是回教徒，但身份证上注明的却是另一回事。当他们在习惯法或民法之下结婚生子，在为孩子办理报生手续时就会面对问题。
另一个长年困扰沙巴原住民的问题，就是因为拥有类似马来人的名字，而在身份证上被注明为回教徒，但却难以将之更正。有人建议到回教法院申明自己非回教徒，但柏纳东博反问：“一个从来就不是回教徒的人，为何要到回教法院出庭？”
柏纳东博表示，沙巴州一向被人认为是族群关系非常和谐的一州，“我们希望这样的情况继续维持下去，我们要确保党内的这种和谐不会因为某些宗教偏执狂而遭到破坏。我们恳请政府关注本地土著所面临的尴尬情况，并允许他们决定本身的宗教信仰。我认为，我国政府或许可以参考印尼这个拥有最多回教徒国家的作法。”
柏纳东博受访时也对记者表示，国阵政府也意识到这不是沙巴民统第一次提出这样的看法，这个课题不断在国阵会议或内阁会议中被提起，“我的国阵或内阁同僚都知道这个问题。”但柏纳东博也承认，对马来西亚而言，这个问题可说是非常令人困扰。
来源：http://www.merdekareview.com/news.php?n=7864
国阵沙巴州成员党民统（UPKO）主席柏纳东博说，我国过去几年发生的事情，令大部分马来西亚人开始担心，建国先贤承诺及《联邦宪法》赋予的宗教信仰自由权利逐渐遭侵蚀。他促请政府允许本地土著决定本身的宗教信仰，而政府可以参考印尼的作法。
现任首相署部长的柏纳东博表示，当死者家属必须以打官司的方式争取为他们的至亲，用他们所希望的宗教仪式举行丧礼，这种情况已经引起非回教徒社群的恐慌；“根据宪法赋予人民的权利，每个人都有信仰自由，也可以改信佛教、回教、基督教等任何宗教信仰。”
柏纳东博前天（10月11日）在沙巴文化中心召开的民统第12届代表大会上发表政策演说时表示，“当一个马来西亚人决定改信宗教时，没有任何人或法律条文有权力干涉他与他的神明之间的约定。”
沙巴州英文《婆罗洲邮报》（The Borneo Post）星期日（10月12日）以大篇幅报道了柏纳东博的演词内容，但是西马报纸几乎都没有民统代表大会的报道。沙巴进步党退出国阵后，就传出民统可能会是另一个退出国阵的沙巴州政党。
柏纳东博认为，政府推动司法改革之际，缺乏独立的司法机关不应该再继续挑起大众的注意力。柏纳东博强调，法院发出的命令必须百分之百公正，不受那些不公不义的宗教所染指。
柏纳东博指出，在现阶段，争论甚至还停留在法院裁判权及到底应该在世俗法院还是回教法院审理。“对那些因为与回教徒结婚，而必须改信回教的人而言，这真是一个非常尴尬的情况。”
婚姻从哪里开始，就在哪里结束
他表示，当婚姻破裂，因婚姻而改信回教的配偶要改信其他宗教时，却无法这么作。“所以就产生了当两名兴都教徒结婚后要离婚，其中一方决定和一名回教徒结为连理，但这时却无法和前任配偶在世俗法院离婚的窘境，因为另一方已经成为回教徒了。”
柏纳东博强调：“当一段婚姻走到了尽头，必须要离婚时，他们当初从哪里开始，就在哪里结束。所以如果那段婚姻是在民法之下成立，那么就应该按照民法办理离婚。如果是依照回教法结为姻亲，则当然应该在回教法院办理离婚。”
他表示几年前，一共有九名部长提呈一份备忘录给首相，其中一点就是关于不同宗教信仰之间的婚姻问题，而他也是这份备忘录的签署人之一。“遗憾的是某些原本同意连署这份备忘录的其他部长，却有人改变主意，我并没有撤销连署，因为我觉得备忘录的内容并没有任何不当之处。实际上，跟政府积极建立回教作为马来西亚国教的地位，以及任何公民改信宗教的选择这方面也没有任何冲突。”
应允许土著决定自己的宗教
柏纳东博指出，在沙巴有不少曾经改信宗教的六、七十岁老人，根本没有意识到此问题的严重性，照旧过著生活。他们的孩子可能也会觉得，他们根本不是回教徒，但身份证上注明的却是另一回事。当他们在习惯法或民法之下结婚生子，在为孩子办理报生手续时就会面对问题。
另一个长年困扰沙巴原住民的问题，就是因为拥有类似马来人的名字，而在身份证上被注明为回教徒，但却难以将之更正。有人建议到回教法院申明自己非回教徒，但柏纳东博反问：“一个从来就不是回教徒的人，为何要到回教法院出庭？”
柏纳东博表示，沙巴州一向被人认为是族群关系非常和谐的一州，“我们希望这样的情况继续维持下去，我们要确保党内的这种和谐不会因为某些宗教偏执狂而遭到破坏。我们恳请政府关注本地土著所面临的尴尬情况，并允许他们决定本身的宗教信仰。我认为，我国政府或许可以参考印尼这个拥有最多回教徒国家的作法。”
柏纳东博受访时也对记者表示，国阵政府也意识到这不是沙巴民统第一次提出这样的看法，这个课题不断在国阵会议或内阁会议中被提起，“我的国阵或内阁同僚都知道这个问题。”但柏纳东博也承认，对马来西亚而言，这个问题可说是非常令人困扰。
来源：http://www.merdekareview.com/news.php?n=7864
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Rainbow
In the past week, there have been frequent torrential rains. The picture was taken outside my home. Look at the dark sky in the background.
The rainbow was taken outside my home yesterday evening. Whenever I saw a rainbow, it reminded me of God's sign of the covenant between He and the earth - the earth shall not be destroyed by flood.
It also remind me that God has made Malaysia a Rainbow Nation of Asia. Malaysia is a blessing to Asia. In this time of political turmoil, Christians are praying hard for the country. We are in the midst of power transition. PM Abdullah is passing his baton to Najib. Let us pray for God's will be done. If Najib were to be the PM, He puts him there for a purpose.
The rainbow was taken outside my home yesterday evening. Whenever I saw a rainbow, it reminded me of God's sign of the covenant between He and the earth - the earth shall not be destroyed by flood.
It also remind me that God has made Malaysia a Rainbow Nation of Asia. Malaysia is a blessing to Asia. In this time of political turmoil, Christians are praying hard for the country. We are in the midst of power transition. PM Abdullah is passing his baton to Najib. Let us pray for God's will be done. If Najib were to be the PM, He puts him there for a purpose.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Wall Street Benefits Twice from Bailouts
by Bob Barr
Senator John McCain attempted to disguise reality by calling the $700 billion Wall Street bailout a “rescue,” but it’s obvious that the only people he and his colleagues were rescuing were the executives who had made bad investment decisions, as well as the politicians who had pushed increased mortgage lending, irrespective of cost, triggering today’s crisis. Now it turns out that the companies getting bailed out will benefit twice.
Most everyone has seen the story of how executives at AIG partied at a resort after the taxpayers were stuck with the bill for an $85 billion bailout—now being supplemented with another Federal Reserve loan of $37.8 billion. But what’s $440,000, including more than $23,380 for spa services, among friends when the taxpayers are paying?
Normally politicians wouldn’t have any business complaining about the cost of a corporate retreat, but what might be unexceptional for high-flying companies in a booming economy becomes outrageous when taxpayers are getting stuck with the bill. In this case they are paying twice, with the company collecting a new loan because its bottom line is even worse than originally thought.
Loan-two to AIG is small change compared to the extra benefits that Wall Street will receive. Many of the largest firms will be going to the spa, figuratively, at least. You see, someone has to manage all of the securities and other assets that the government plans on buying with taxpayer funds. And who better to manage them than the very companies that bought the bad paper in the first place!
The Treasury Department has requested proposals for asset managers, and according to the Wall Street Journal, the government “wants large, established firms with significant assets to work for the government’s program.” That means managing at least $25 billion, and in some cases at least $100 billion, in private assets. There will be a lot of money in fees—typically 1 percent of the assets managed, which could come to as much as $7 billion a year or more if government purchases go past $700 billion, as is widely expected.
Wall Street is looking forward to milking this latest cash cow. Since government jumped into the investment business, the Journal tells us that “a range of firms—from large investment banks to boutique real-estate companies—have been angling to grab some of the advisory business.” Representatives of some companies showed up in Washington to lobby even before Congress approved the bailout. And who can blame them? The Journal reports that “sales, financing and other traditional forms of real estate business have dried up with the credit crisis.”
Of course, most of these firms helped cause that very crisis. Most of the companies bidding for government business are suffering big losses and preparing to unload lots of bad paper on the government. Bad paper that other big companies with big losses and lots of bad paper will manage.
And so the circle will go on endlessly, at taxpayer expense.
The only problem is potential conflicts of interest, since companies will, notes the Washington Post, “be managing the assets while also selling their own troubled securities to the government.” But officials say they will attempt to “minimize” any conflict. No doubt, Washington won’t let a little thing like ethics stand in the way of letting everyone on Wall Street profit.
Indeed, politics are starting even before the president’s signature on the bill is dry. One analyst predicts that the Treasury Department will focus bailout funds on regional banks and thrifts, thereby providing “critical political support for Treasury’s efforts.” After all, “Congressmen who had to swallow hard to vote for this thing will feel a lot better about it if they see the impact in their local communities.” Which is just another name for pork, like the spending programs and tax preferences loaded into the $700 billion bailout bill to win votes for passage.
All of this is politics as usual in Washington, and it won’t change whether Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. John McCain is elected president. Both of them supported the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, as well as the many other bailouts that preceded it. Both of them are part of the political establishment that helped create today’s economic problems. Neither of them will take the steps necessary to ensure that this sort of economic crisis doesn’t hit again. Only Bob Barr and the Libertarian Party are offering the sort of fundamental change that the American people need and deserve.
Source: http://townhall.com/columnists/BobBarr/2008/10/09/wall_street_benefits_twice_from_bailouts?page=full&comments=true#comments
Senator John McCain attempted to disguise reality by calling the $700 billion Wall Street bailout a “rescue,” but it’s obvious that the only people he and his colleagues were rescuing were the executives who had made bad investment decisions, as well as the politicians who had pushed increased mortgage lending, irrespective of cost, triggering today’s crisis. Now it turns out that the companies getting bailed out will benefit twice.
Most everyone has seen the story of how executives at AIG partied at a resort after the taxpayers were stuck with the bill for an $85 billion bailout—now being supplemented with another Federal Reserve loan of $37.8 billion. But what’s $440,000, including more than $23,380 for spa services, among friends when the taxpayers are paying?
Normally politicians wouldn’t have any business complaining about the cost of a corporate retreat, but what might be unexceptional for high-flying companies in a booming economy becomes outrageous when taxpayers are getting stuck with the bill. In this case they are paying twice, with the company collecting a new loan because its bottom line is even worse than originally thought.
Loan-two to AIG is small change compared to the extra benefits that Wall Street will receive. Many of the largest firms will be going to the spa, figuratively, at least. You see, someone has to manage all of the securities and other assets that the government plans on buying with taxpayer funds. And who better to manage them than the very companies that bought the bad paper in the first place!
The Treasury Department has requested proposals for asset managers, and according to the Wall Street Journal, the government “wants large, established firms with significant assets to work for the government’s program.” That means managing at least $25 billion, and in some cases at least $100 billion, in private assets. There will be a lot of money in fees—typically 1 percent of the assets managed, which could come to as much as $7 billion a year or more if government purchases go past $700 billion, as is widely expected.
Wall Street is looking forward to milking this latest cash cow. Since government jumped into the investment business, the Journal tells us that “a range of firms—from large investment banks to boutique real-estate companies—have been angling to grab some of the advisory business.” Representatives of some companies showed up in Washington to lobby even before Congress approved the bailout. And who can blame them? The Journal reports that “sales, financing and other traditional forms of real estate business have dried up with the credit crisis.”
Of course, most of these firms helped cause that very crisis. Most of the companies bidding for government business are suffering big losses and preparing to unload lots of bad paper on the government. Bad paper that other big companies with big losses and lots of bad paper will manage.
And so the circle will go on endlessly, at taxpayer expense.
The only problem is potential conflicts of interest, since companies will, notes the Washington Post, “be managing the assets while also selling their own troubled securities to the government.” But officials say they will attempt to “minimize” any conflict. No doubt, Washington won’t let a little thing like ethics stand in the way of letting everyone on Wall Street profit.
Indeed, politics are starting even before the president’s signature on the bill is dry. One analyst predicts that the Treasury Department will focus bailout funds on regional banks and thrifts, thereby providing “critical political support for Treasury’s efforts.” After all, “Congressmen who had to swallow hard to vote for this thing will feel a lot better about it if they see the impact in their local communities.” Which is just another name for pork, like the spending programs and tax preferences loaded into the $700 billion bailout bill to win votes for passage.
All of this is politics as usual in Washington, and it won’t change whether Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. John McCain is elected president. Both of them supported the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, as well as the many other bailouts that preceded it. Both of them are part of the political establishment that helped create today’s economic problems. Neither of them will take the steps necessary to ensure that this sort of economic crisis doesn’t hit again. Only Bob Barr and the Libertarian Party are offering the sort of fundamental change that the American people need and deserve.
Source: http://townhall.com/columnists/BobBarr/2008/10/09/wall_street_benefits_twice_from_bailouts?page=full&comments=true#comments
可效法美国人的地方
读了曾毓林先生的“别成为谣言传播者”（文章在下面），欲发表一些浅见。我同意以下两段是造成谣言的部分导因：“现在信息传播的渠道多元化，尤其是手机、互联网的使用者，他们既是接收者，也是发佈者。（过程中还包括可以对内容自由编辑和加工。）”“ 当然，政府的施政需要透明化，政府领袖必须尊重媒体的採访工作，並提供確实讯息。可惜，很多时候，政府部门依然採取封锁消息，缓报、瞒报的政策。”
电子和卫星科技的发达，人们懂得使用它们就是福分，若滥用它们就是诅咒。让我以美国做个例子，对照之下或许看到我们有许多空间可向美国人学习的。首先最两极化的手机使用：美国人不会花太多钱买手机（所以“i-phone”在美国销路欠佳，多是卖到外国的），但肯花费电讯公司的优质服务。而大马人会花很多钱买手机（所以时常换手机），但却选择电讯公司低收费的配套。就是这样，美国人（几乎所有先进国）不大喜欢发短讯，却选择通话，而大马人则相反。难怪大马各电讯公司都争着提供短讯配套，基于收费低，所以年轻人经常有事无事都短讯满天飞的！
至于卫星科技，我佩服美国两个政党都善用互联网服务，它们通过网站召集国人和外国人签署接受电邮资讯。我本人就是其中一个，经常收到两方的电邮。目前双方总统竞选打得如火如荼，公说公有理，婆说婆有理，真的读到眼花。美国人可爱的地方就是执政党不打压在野党，而是彼此通过言论自由来驳斥对方。
国阵承认308大选输在电子战争。我认为我国的朝野阵线，目前根本看不到迹象会提供完整的网站传达资讯。尤其政府一方面不透明化，另方面监视电子网站和部落格，所以国人不容易了解政府作业，许多事情都靠所谓“内幕消息”的。基于欠缺新闻和言论自由，所以平面媒体不敢越界。这导致电子媒体生意大好，也出现许多部落格的言论人云亦云。是是非非，真真假假难分。结果误导了人民作结论说“网络的东西全部都是真的”之谬误。
星洲日报／沟通平台‧副总编辑：曾毓林‧2008.10.09
有人笑称，自电子邮件和手机短讯出现后，“谣言传播”的速度比病毒的传染速度更快。
新媒体的出现，原是值得庆幸的事情，从此资讯能自由的流通，当局无法像限制传统媒体那样去约束新媒体；可不幸的是，谣言的散播也趁上这艘便利船，张牙舞爪，四处肆虐。
別有用心的人可通过蓄意造谣达到某种目的，或者糢糊某件事的焦点。这其实是一个公共危机，破坏力不容小覷。
很多时候民眾是情绪化的，难以在短时间內弄清楚事情发生的真正原因，他们会被情绪带动而做出不理智的行动。例如，有人听信了“变天会导致513事件重演”的谣言，竟然储备粮食，直到传言空雷无雨，这些人的恐慌情绪才逐渐平静下来。
谣言满天飞，而人们又倾向於听信谣言的时候，社会很易陷入混乱和无序。
现在信息传播的渠道多元化，尤其是手机、互联网的使用者，他们既是接收者，也是发佈者。（过程中还包括可以对內容“自由编辑和加工”。）
要如何戳穿谣言、引导舆论，正確处理公共危机事件，已经变成今天平面媒体必须具备的高能力之一。
今天，报纸的记者，面对如潮涌来的手机短讯、网站消息，必须有辨別真偽的能力。此外，记者在求证方面绝对不能偷懒，否则会损害报纸的公信力。报纸比新媒体的最大优势，就是报纸新闻的可信度。
当然，政府的施政需要透明化，政府领袖必须尊重媒体的採访工作，並提供確实讯息。可惜，很多时候，政府部门依然採取封锁消息，缓报、瞒报的政策。在人们惊魂未定时，当局的反应缓慢，只会使谣言有更多传播的空间。
民眾如果无法辨识“谣言”的话，在收到不能证实的电邮或手机短讯时，別急著转发，以免自己成为谣言的传播者。
电子和卫星科技的发达，人们懂得使用它们就是福分，若滥用它们就是诅咒。让我以美国做个例子，对照之下或许看到我们有许多空间可向美国人学习的。首先最两极化的手机使用：美国人不会花太多钱买手机（所以“i-phone”在美国销路欠佳，多是卖到外国的），但肯花费电讯公司的优质服务。而大马人会花很多钱买手机（所以时常换手机），但却选择电讯公司低收费的配套。就是这样，美国人（几乎所有先进国）不大喜欢发短讯，却选择通话，而大马人则相反。难怪大马各电讯公司都争着提供短讯配套，基于收费低，所以年轻人经常有事无事都短讯满天飞的！
至于卫星科技，我佩服美国两个政党都善用互联网服务，它们通过网站召集国人和外国人签署接受电邮资讯。我本人就是其中一个，经常收到两方的电邮。目前双方总统竞选打得如火如荼，公说公有理，婆说婆有理，真的读到眼花。美国人可爱的地方就是执政党不打压在野党，而是彼此通过言论自由来驳斥对方。
国阵承认308大选输在电子战争。我认为我国的朝野阵线，目前根本看不到迹象会提供完整的网站传达资讯。尤其政府一方面不透明化，另方面监视电子网站和部落格，所以国人不容易了解政府作业，许多事情都靠所谓“内幕消息”的。基于欠缺新闻和言论自由，所以平面媒体不敢越界。这导致电子媒体生意大好，也出现许多部落格的言论人云亦云。是是非非，真真假假难分。结果误导了人民作结论说“网络的东西全部都是真的”之谬误。
星洲日报／沟通平台‧副总编辑：曾毓林‧2008.10.09
有人笑称，自电子邮件和手机短讯出现后，“谣言传播”的速度比病毒的传染速度更快。
新媒体的出现，原是值得庆幸的事情，从此资讯能自由的流通，当局无法像限制传统媒体那样去约束新媒体；可不幸的是，谣言的散播也趁上这艘便利船，张牙舞爪，四处肆虐。
別有用心的人可通过蓄意造谣达到某种目的，或者糢糊某件事的焦点。这其实是一个公共危机，破坏力不容小覷。
很多时候民眾是情绪化的，难以在短时间內弄清楚事情发生的真正原因，他们会被情绪带动而做出不理智的行动。例如，有人听信了“变天会导致513事件重演”的谣言，竟然储备粮食，直到传言空雷无雨，这些人的恐慌情绪才逐渐平静下来。
谣言满天飞，而人们又倾向於听信谣言的时候，社会很易陷入混乱和无序。
现在信息传播的渠道多元化，尤其是手机、互联网的使用者，他们既是接收者，也是发佈者。（过程中还包括可以对內容“自由编辑和加工”。）
要如何戳穿谣言、引导舆论，正確处理公共危机事件，已经变成今天平面媒体必须具备的高能力之一。
今天，报纸的记者，面对如潮涌来的手机短讯、网站消息，必须有辨別真偽的能力。此外，记者在求证方面绝对不能偷懒，否则会损害报纸的公信力。报纸比新媒体的最大优势，就是报纸新闻的可信度。
当然，政府的施政需要透明化，政府领袖必须尊重媒体的採访工作，並提供確实讯息。可惜，很多时候，政府部门依然採取封锁消息，缓报、瞒报的政策。在人们惊魂未定时，当局的反应缓慢，只会使谣言有更多传播的空间。
民眾如果无法辨识“谣言”的话，在收到不能证实的电邮或手机短讯时，別急著转发，以免自己成为谣言的传播者。
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Vote YES on Nov 4. Arrested for Requesting Parental Notification Prop 8
This was from Pastor Qie.
This was one of the more touching things seen from a state (Massachusetts) that is a little further down a road that California is attempting to head. Please take a moment to watch this short video to the END.
I believe it would do well to pass this onto like-minded friends. We just cannot let this happen.
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1815820715/bctid1822459319
Forward to all your friends who live in CA... Ask them to Vote "Yes" on Prop 8.
親愛的國度精兵們, 平安!
有關 8 號提案至為要緊
是屬靈的關鍵戰爭
是邪靈在末世的顯現
過去華人比較保守
總覺得這種事是"他們美國人的事"
是美國人他們的瓦上霜與我何干
下面影片叫我們感覺此問題何等切身
咱門華人基督徒理當奮身而起去爭戰
如果 8 號提案我們失敗
那麼接下去正是連場夢饜的開始
這是潘朵拉的盒子一旦揭開
妖魔鬼怪將更倡狂
將宣告群魔亂舞敵基督的世紀到臨
可預見的恐怖提案將排隊叩關:
近親通婚合法化 (堂表兄弟姐妹)
未成年婚姻合法化 (50歲娶12歲)
直系血親婚姻合法化 (父女 母子 兄弟姐妹)
人畜婚姻合法化 (人與貓 狗 豬 牛 羊)
你不能想像:
有一天
有人牽一隻狗走進教會
要求我主持婚禮
為她/牠 們祝福
我不能合法地拒絕
如果我拒絕將被判刑下監
民主產生的法律將代替聖經真理
甚至取代上帝的角色主宰我們
如何去抗衡呢?
不論你有否選舉權都要去推動人投下YES票
當人如果你有選舉權請務必是前登記選民
屆時投下神聖一票
雖然我目前沒有會友可去推動
也尚未有投票權
但是我有同公寓的78戶住戶可以去推動
請你務必參予此戰爭
為榮耀主而做
為這世代而做
為下個世代而做
請觀看下面網站提供的影片
一對麻州夫婦
因州政府通過同性婚姻合法化之後
他們家中受的苦
正所謂前車之鑑啊
這教訓正在上演之中
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1815820715/bctid1822459319
求主紀念
丘初昇牧師上
This was one of the more touching things seen from a state (Massachusetts) that is a little further down a road that California is attempting to head. Please take a moment to watch this short video to the END.
I believe it would do well to pass this onto like-minded friends. We just cannot let this happen.
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1815820715/bctid1822459319
Forward to all your friends who live in CA... Ask them to Vote "Yes" on Prop 8.
親愛的國度精兵們, 平安!
有關 8 號提案至為要緊
是屬靈的關鍵戰爭
是邪靈在末世的顯現
過去華人比較保守
總覺得這種事是"他們美國人的事"
是美國人他們的瓦上霜與我何干
下面影片叫我們感覺此問題何等切身
咱門華人基督徒理當奮身而起去爭戰
如果 8 號提案我們失敗
那麼接下去正是連場夢饜的開始
這是潘朵拉的盒子一旦揭開
妖魔鬼怪將更倡狂
將宣告群魔亂舞敵基督的世紀到臨
可預見的恐怖提案將排隊叩關:
近親通婚合法化 (堂表兄弟姐妹)
未成年婚姻合法化 (50歲娶12歲)
直系血親婚姻合法化 (父女 母子 兄弟姐妹)
人畜婚姻合法化 (人與貓 狗 豬 牛 羊)
你不能想像:
有一天
有人牽一隻狗走進教會
要求我主持婚禮
為她/牠 們祝福
我不能合法地拒絕
如果我拒絕將被判刑下監
民主產生的法律將代替聖經真理
甚至取代上帝的角色主宰我們
如何去抗衡呢?
不論你有否選舉權都要去推動人投下YES票
當人如果你有選舉權請務必是前登記選民
屆時投下神聖一票
雖然我目前沒有會友可去推動
也尚未有投票權
但是我有同公寓的78戶住戶可以去推動
請你務必參予此戰爭
為榮耀主而做
為這世代而做
為下個世代而做
請觀看下面網站提供的影片
一對麻州夫婦
因州政府通過同性婚姻合法化之後
他們家中受的苦
正所謂前車之鑑啊
這教訓正在上演之中
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1815820715/bctid1822459319
求主紀念
丘初昇牧師上
In India, They Hack Christians to Pieces
Before you spend any time fretting about the drop in the stock market, pray for Indian believers who have been attacked in the state of Orissa.
This week while many people in the United States were fretting over the credit crisis and its effect on their 401Ks, Christians in the Indian village of Sindhipankha were mourning the death of their friend Dushashan Majhi. A bold Christian, he was shot on Oct. 3 by a band of Hindu militants who then cut his body into pieces.
The people in Sindhipankha do not have 401Ks. Many of them, in fact, no longer have homes. Across the state of Orissa, in northeast India, Hindus have ransacked and burned hundreds of Christians’ houses and churches during the last two months. Hundreds have died.
“The violence in August and September of 2008 has been the worst in our 2,000-year history in India,” says John Dayal, an Indian journalist and founder of the All India Christian Council. “Fifty thousand are homeless and 30,000 are hiding in forests, chased like animals by Hindu fanatics who are forcing them to become Hindus or die.”
“While we are complaining about high gas prices in the United States, some Indian Christians are being doused with gasoline and set on fire.”
The number of deaths continues to climb in India while most Americans are consumed with the stock market and the Obama-McCain contest. (You won’t hear too much about the anti-Christian attacks from the mainstream media.) I wonder: Could we call a brief timeout and pray for the persecuted church on the other side of the world?
This wave of persecution hit Orissa in August when unknown assailants killed a swami, the leader of a Hindu holy order. The assassins later identified themselves as Maoists, but Hindus had already decided that Christians were the culprit. Since that time mobs of angry Hindus have bombed villages, raped nuns, burned orphanages, destroyed Christian businesses and used death threats to force people to reconvert to Hinduism.
Pastors, nuns, priests and churchgoers have been burned alive. The attacks have been aimed at Baptists, Catholics, Pentecostals—really anyone who wears a Christian label. Those who have escaped into the forests now risk starvation. And local governments have been slow to respond, even after similar attacks erupted in the state of Karnataka in the southeast.
Last week in the village of Hrudangia, in Orissa, an 80-year-old Christian man named Lalji Nayak was attacked by a Hindu mob, according to Compass News. He died after being hacked in the chest with an axe. Later, when his family tried to give him a Christian burial, police would not allow it. (Compass noted that an 8-year-old boy miraculously survived the attack after being hit in the skull by an axe.)
Why the violence? Indian church leaders say fanatical Hindu nationalists are angry that Christianity is growing in India and dismantling the centuries-old caste system that keeps millions of people in poverty. Those at the bottom of Indian society, known as Dalits, or “untouchables,” have been coming to Christ in large numbers in recent years.
Shekhar Kallianpur, pastor of New Life Church in Mumbai, told me that Dalit converts “realize their self-worth and are now strengthened to make their own individual decisions to use the freedom of choice not only to follow our Lord Jesus Christ but to also stand and resist the social atrocities against them.”
What we are witnessing in India today is the unraveling of a vile system of oppression. And our brothers and sisters there are paying a high price for their newfound spiritual freedom.
Radical Hindus believe that keeping Dalits at the bottom of the social structure is a fundamental part of their religion. It is the Indian way—and members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and other radical Hindu groups are proving today that they will kill and maim people and destroy property in order to keep their religion dominant.
Paul Thangiah, pastor of the Full Gospel Assembly of God church in Bangalore, says some of the radicals say they are burning churches because Christians insult their pantheon of gods and goddesses, or because they “force” Hindus to become Christians. Yet Christians do not engage in forced conversion, Thangiah says.
“The real reason for the persecution is the tremendous growth of Christianity in India,” Thangiah told me.
My good friend Sujo John, an Indian evangelist who lives in the United States, says the attacks in Orissa and Karnataka are a clear attempt to silence Christians.
Says John: “In the last 12 years there has been an incredible surge of Christianity in India. It was very silent at first, but now the people who control the social culture realize that Christians are emerging in society. [Some radical Hindus] feel they are going to lose the culture. So they are twisting the laws. In some places they have banned conversion, and many are engaging in violence.”
I know we are experiencing some hard times here at home, but let’s keep things in perspective. While we are complaining about high gas prices in the United States, some Indian Christians are being doused with gasoline and set on fire. While we worry about bank bailouts, Indian believers have lost everything and fear returning to their villages.
I urge you to pass this message along to your pastor, prayer group leader and praying friends. Please remember the Christians of India. Ask God to protect them with His angels, give them supernatural courage to stand for their faith and keep the doors open so the gospel can be preached in this huge nation Jesus Christ came from heaven to save.
J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma.
More than 1,000 churches have been burned or ransacked in Orissa
Some christians were burned to death
Christians displaced by the violence have had to live together in cramped quarters with little or no food
This week while many people in the United States were fretting over the credit crisis and its effect on their 401Ks, Christians in the Indian village of Sindhipankha were mourning the death of their friend Dushashan Majhi. A bold Christian, he was shot on Oct. 3 by a band of Hindu militants who then cut his body into pieces.
The people in Sindhipankha do not have 401Ks. Many of them, in fact, no longer have homes. Across the state of Orissa, in northeast India, Hindus have ransacked and burned hundreds of Christians’ houses and churches during the last two months. Hundreds have died.
“The violence in August and September of 2008 has been the worst in our 2,000-year history in India,” says John Dayal, an Indian journalist and founder of the All India Christian Council. “Fifty thousand are homeless and 30,000 are hiding in forests, chased like animals by Hindu fanatics who are forcing them to become Hindus or die.”
“While we are complaining about high gas prices in the United States, some Indian Christians are being doused with gasoline and set on fire.”
The number of deaths continues to climb in India while most Americans are consumed with the stock market and the Obama-McCain contest. (You won’t hear too much about the anti-Christian attacks from the mainstream media.) I wonder: Could we call a brief timeout and pray for the persecuted church on the other side of the world?
This wave of persecution hit Orissa in August when unknown assailants killed a swami, the leader of a Hindu holy order. The assassins later identified themselves as Maoists, but Hindus had already decided that Christians were the culprit. Since that time mobs of angry Hindus have bombed villages, raped nuns, burned orphanages, destroyed Christian businesses and used death threats to force people to reconvert to Hinduism.
Pastors, nuns, priests and churchgoers have been burned alive. The attacks have been aimed at Baptists, Catholics, Pentecostals—really anyone who wears a Christian label. Those who have escaped into the forests now risk starvation. And local governments have been slow to respond, even after similar attacks erupted in the state of Karnataka in the southeast.
Last week in the village of Hrudangia, in Orissa, an 80-year-old Christian man named Lalji Nayak was attacked by a Hindu mob, according to Compass News. He died after being hacked in the chest with an axe. Later, when his family tried to give him a Christian burial, police would not allow it. (Compass noted that an 8-year-old boy miraculously survived the attack after being hit in the skull by an axe.)
Why the violence? Indian church leaders say fanatical Hindu nationalists are angry that Christianity is growing in India and dismantling the centuries-old caste system that keeps millions of people in poverty. Those at the bottom of Indian society, known as Dalits, or “untouchables,” have been coming to Christ in large numbers in recent years.
Shekhar Kallianpur, pastor of New Life Church in Mumbai, told me that Dalit converts “realize their self-worth and are now strengthened to make their own individual decisions to use the freedom of choice not only to follow our Lord Jesus Christ but to also stand and resist the social atrocities against them.”
What we are witnessing in India today is the unraveling of a vile system of oppression. And our brothers and sisters there are paying a high price for their newfound spiritual freedom.
Radical Hindus believe that keeping Dalits at the bottom of the social structure is a fundamental part of their religion. It is the Indian way—and members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and other radical Hindu groups are proving today that they will kill and maim people and destroy property in order to keep their religion dominant.
Paul Thangiah, pastor of the Full Gospel Assembly of God church in Bangalore, says some of the radicals say they are burning churches because Christians insult their pantheon of gods and goddesses, or because they “force” Hindus to become Christians. Yet Christians do not engage in forced conversion, Thangiah says.
“The real reason for the persecution is the tremendous growth of Christianity in India,” Thangiah told me.
My good friend Sujo John, an Indian evangelist who lives in the United States, says the attacks in Orissa and Karnataka are a clear attempt to silence Christians.
Says John: “In the last 12 years there has been an incredible surge of Christianity in India. It was very silent at first, but now the people who control the social culture realize that Christians are emerging in society. [Some radical Hindus] feel they are going to lose the culture. So they are twisting the laws. In some places they have banned conversion, and many are engaging in violence.”
I know we are experiencing some hard times here at home, but let’s keep things in perspective. While we are complaining about high gas prices in the United States, some Indian Christians are being doused with gasoline and set on fire. While we worry about bank bailouts, Indian believers have lost everything and fear returning to their villages.
I urge you to pass this message along to your pastor, prayer group leader and praying friends. Please remember the Christians of India. Ask God to protect them with His angels, give them supernatural courage to stand for their faith and keep the doors open so the gospel can be preached in this huge nation Jesus Christ came from heaven to save.
J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma.
More than 1,000 churches have been burned or ransacked in Orissa
Some christians were burned to death
Christians displaced by the violence have had to live together in cramped quarters with little or no food
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Why Mike Guglielmucci Lied to the World
The Australian musician who wrote “Healer” needed his own healing from a porn addiction. His tragic story should challenge us to embrace purity.
I play the song “Healer” all the time in my car. I can’t get the tune out of my head. You probably know the words:
I believe You’re my healer
I believe You are all I need
I believe You’re my portion
I believe You’re more than enough for me
Jesus You’re all I need.
Thousands of churches have been singing the popular worship chorus since Australian youth pastor Michael Guglielmucci wrote it in 2007. The Aussie worship band Hillsong United has made it a global anthem, and it’s especially popular among people battling illness. But the song took on a darker meaning in August when Guglielmucci admitted it was part of an elaborate hoax he created.
"When we sing ‘Healer’ from now on, let’s remember that Jesus wasn’t lying when He promised to heal our broken souls.”
Christians around the world felt shocked and betrayed when the 29-year-old minister admitted he had faked cancer for two years in a strange ploy to hide his secret pornography addiction. The fiasco has become one of the biggest scandals to rock Australia’s Christian community in years.
In a tearful apology aired on Australian television several weeks ago, Guglielmucci said he faked symptoms and wrote bogus e-mails from doctors. He sat in waiting rooms alone while his family assumed he was getting treatment. He appeared in church concerts with an oxygen tube in his nose, deceiving thousands of mostly teenage fans into believing he needed a physical healing.
This talented but tormented young man eventually trapped himself in his own deceptive web.
Church leaders asked him to confess his lies to the police, since he used the story to raise funds. He was stripped of his ministerial credentials and is now receiving psychiatric help. Aussie church leaders, including pastor Brian Houston of Hillsong Church in Sydney, had to make public statements to calm distraught churchgoers who feel betrayed and, in some cases, defrauded of their money.
I can’t begin to imagine the pain that Guglielmucci’s parents feel. (His father is an Assemblies of God pastor who read his son’s apology to a stunned congregation outside Adelaide). I am sure trust has been severely damaged among members of Guglielmucci’s family. But how do we respond when a leader fails us like this?
Thankfully, in Guglielmucci’s case, he did not justify his behavior. His apology was read in churches all over Australia. He told a news reporter: “I’m so sorry not just for lying to my friends and family even about a sickness, but I’m sorry for a life of saying I was something when I’m not. From this day on I’m telling the truth.”
On behalf of American Christians who (1) have endured our own share of religious scandals and (2) still believe that Jesus Christ heals today, I want to say to Michael Guglielmucci: We forgive you.
I’m not excusing his behavior. It’s possible he will go to prison for fraud. But at least he’s not denying his sin. And honest confession is the first step to true restoration. I pray Guglielmucci will embrace the process so he can not only preach the truth of Christ but also live the truth inside.
This sad drama from Down Under reveals a global problem that the church must face. Pornography is eating our culture alive—and it is affecting ministers along with everyone else.
Guglielmucci admitted that he began to weave his false story of illness in order to mask his addiction. Sometimes he felt so guilty after looking at porn that he couldn’t go to work—so he called in sick. He dug himself deeper every day. His little lies grew to become a monstrous con job.
This man’s pretend sickness was caused by a disease of the soul that plagues millions of people today, including many Christian men who wear masks to church to hide their shame. They haven’t stuck tubes in their noses or broadcast their lies to teenage audiences like Guglielmucci did, but they are lying just the same to cover up their lust. They, too, need to come clean.
If you are struggling with a porn addiction, I challenge you to take a bold step and confess your sin to your pastor, your spouse or a trusted Christian friend. Don’t hide any longer. Don’t live a lie. Lust does not have to control you. Jesus has provided a way of escape. Don’t wait until your sin is exposed; instead, expose your sin to the light of God’s holiness.
James 5:16 summarizes this simple formula: “Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. (NASB)” Those ancient words still work today.
True healing is available from Jesus, not only for the victims of cancer but also for all those men like Mike Guglielmucci who are battling sexual addictions. When we sing “Healer” from now on, let’s remember that Jesus wasn’t lying when He promised to heal our broken souls.
J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma.
I play the song “Healer” all the time in my car. I can’t get the tune out of my head. You probably know the words:
I believe You’re my healer
I believe You are all I need
I believe You’re my portion
I believe You’re more than enough for me
Jesus You’re all I need.
Thousands of churches have been singing the popular worship chorus since Australian youth pastor Michael Guglielmucci wrote it in 2007. The Aussie worship band Hillsong United has made it a global anthem, and it’s especially popular among people battling illness. But the song took on a darker meaning in August when Guglielmucci admitted it was part of an elaborate hoax he created.
"When we sing ‘Healer’ from now on, let’s remember that Jesus wasn’t lying when He promised to heal our broken souls.”
Christians around the world felt shocked and betrayed when the 29-year-old minister admitted he had faked cancer for two years in a strange ploy to hide his secret pornography addiction. The fiasco has become one of the biggest scandals to rock Australia’s Christian community in years.
In a tearful apology aired on Australian television several weeks ago, Guglielmucci said he faked symptoms and wrote bogus e-mails from doctors. He sat in waiting rooms alone while his family assumed he was getting treatment. He appeared in church concerts with an oxygen tube in his nose, deceiving thousands of mostly teenage fans into believing he needed a physical healing.
This talented but tormented young man eventually trapped himself in his own deceptive web.
Church leaders asked him to confess his lies to the police, since he used the story to raise funds. He was stripped of his ministerial credentials and is now receiving psychiatric help. Aussie church leaders, including pastor Brian Houston of Hillsong Church in Sydney, had to make public statements to calm distraught churchgoers who feel betrayed and, in some cases, defrauded of their money.
I can’t begin to imagine the pain that Guglielmucci’s parents feel. (His father is an Assemblies of God pastor who read his son’s apology to a stunned congregation outside Adelaide). I am sure trust has been severely damaged among members of Guglielmucci’s family. But how do we respond when a leader fails us like this?
Thankfully, in Guglielmucci’s case, he did not justify his behavior. His apology was read in churches all over Australia. He told a news reporter: “I’m so sorry not just for lying to my friends and family even about a sickness, but I’m sorry for a life of saying I was something when I’m not. From this day on I’m telling the truth.”
On behalf of American Christians who (1) have endured our own share of religious scandals and (2) still believe that Jesus Christ heals today, I want to say to Michael Guglielmucci: We forgive you.
I’m not excusing his behavior. It’s possible he will go to prison for fraud. But at least he’s not denying his sin. And honest confession is the first step to true restoration. I pray Guglielmucci will embrace the process so he can not only preach the truth of Christ but also live the truth inside.
This sad drama from Down Under reveals a global problem that the church must face. Pornography is eating our culture alive—and it is affecting ministers along with everyone else.
Guglielmucci admitted that he began to weave his false story of illness in order to mask his addiction. Sometimes he felt so guilty after looking at porn that he couldn’t go to work—so he called in sick. He dug himself deeper every day. His little lies grew to become a monstrous con job.
This man’s pretend sickness was caused by a disease of the soul that plagues millions of people today, including many Christian men who wear masks to church to hide their shame. They haven’t stuck tubes in their noses or broadcast their lies to teenage audiences like Guglielmucci did, but they are lying just the same to cover up their lust. They, too, need to come clean.
If you are struggling with a porn addiction, I challenge you to take a bold step and confess your sin to your pastor, your spouse or a trusted Christian friend. Don’t hide any longer. Don’t live a lie. Lust does not have to control you. Jesus has provided a way of escape. Don’t wait until your sin is exposed; instead, expose your sin to the light of God’s holiness.
James 5:16 summarizes this simple formula: “Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. (NASB)” Those ancient words still work today.
True healing is available from Jesus, not only for the victims of cancer but also for all those men like Mike Guglielmucci who are battling sexual addictions. When we sing “Healer” from now on, let’s remember that Jesus wasn’t lying when He promised to heal our broken souls.
J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma.
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