Web Clippings
Week ending May 30, 2003
This week, the featured item is a Mind and Spirit article in which a Jamaican
who went to Hungary on an Engineering Scholarship has become an entrepreneur
and church planter in Central and Eastern Europe. This goes back to the long
history of Caribbean involvement in Missions: within two years of the end of
slavery, missionaries were heading to West Africa.
Other items will focus on the under-reported or balancing perspectives and
reports that will help us overcome the tendency of our regional news outlets
to have a range of opinions "from A to A-and-a-1/2".
By the way has anyone seen the "promised" Caricom statement on the
Cuba crackdown?
1. Jamaican Church Planter in Europe
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20030527/mind/mind2.html
A Jamaican church-planter in Hungary
published: Tuesday | May 27, 2003
WHEN JON Palmer acceded to his grandmother's request to apply for an engineering
scholarship in communist Hungary in 1977, little did he know that he would have
remained there long enough to help plant about 40 churches there and a few others
in other parts of Europe . . .
OTHER ITEMS:
2. ICOC Fallout
back in the late 1980's I had the distasteful duty to expose the KCOC movement
as a manipulative sect. Now, the Boston Globe reports on the implosion of the
wider ICOC:
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/137/metro/A_Christian_community_falters+.shtml
A Christian community falters
Loss of leader, governing body hurts group formed in Boston
By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff, 5/17/2003
It was one of the fastest-growing and most controversial churches in America,
banned as a cult from dozens of college campuses while boasting 135,000 members
worldwide. Its followers were known for spending their free time recruiting
new members and waiting on doorsteps at 4 in the morning, hoping to persuade
those who had ''fallen away'' to come back to the fold. But now the central
organization of the International Churches of Christ, a strict religious body
founded in Boston, is collapsing.
Thomas ''Kip'' McKean, its charismatic founder, has stepped down . . . [Cf.
Reveal.org for much more, too.]
3. Biowar trucks confirmed:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2839519
CIA: Truck-Trailers in Iraq Had Bioweapons Labs
Wed May 28, 2003 03:56 PM ET By Deborah Zabarenko WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
Two truck-trailers found in Iraq were "ingeniously simple" mobile biological
weapons factories, with other as-yet-undiscovered trailers holding the end of
the production chain, the CIA said on Wednesday. No trace of biological weapons
has been found in either of the trailers, but there is little question they
were constructed to make such toxins as anthrax and botulin in quantities that
potentially could kill thousands of people, U.S. intelligence officials said
in telephone conference about a new report by the CIA and Defense Intelligence
Agency . . .
4. 600-Mile Range Missile in Development Phase in Iraq
Britain finds Iraq's 'smoking gun': a top-secret missile
By Con Coughlin in Baghdad (Filed: 25/05/2003)
British military officers have uncovered an attempt by Saddam Hussein to build
a missile capable of hitting targets throughout the Middle East, including Israel,
The Telegraph can reveal. Plans for the surface-to-surface missile were one
of the regime's most closely-guarded secrets and were unknown to United Nations
weapons inspectors. Its range of 600 miles would have been far greater than
that of the al-Samoud rocket - which already breached the 93-mile limit imposed
by the UN on any Iraqi missiles . . . . .
"We had finished the research stage and entered the development stage," said
a senior Iraqi engineer who worked at the MIC and is now co-operating with British
officials. "If it had not been for the war, development would have been
completed within a year." Iraqi officials insist that the missile was
intended to carry a conventional warhead, but British weapons experts believe
it could easily have been adapted to carry chemical or biological weapons .
. .
5. An Economist's views on Liberation Theology & Economics
Liberation Theology has a strong hold on the more liberal elements of the clergy
in the region. The following article raises significant issues that need to
be thought through:
http://ntserver.shc.edu/www/Scholar/johnson/johnson.html
Liberation Theology and Economics: Like Oil and Water?
Michael S. Johnson Professor of Economics Spring Hill College
February 1997
The lack of development in Third World countries is one of the disappointments
of the post -World War II period. The optimism of the 1950s and 1960s turned
a pessimism, especially during the decades of the 1970s and 1980s, when the
oil crunch, recession, and the debt crisis hit many nations extremely hard.
In the midst of this volatile situation, a new voice has arisen that speaks
of the need for economic development. The voice speaks of economic issues and
policies. This voice, however, is one grounded in Christian theology, not in
economics The basic issues of economic development have become an issue of the
Christian faith, as many ask, what can be done to bring justice and plenty to
all people? . . . .
In this paper, we will explore this situation, and in the process, hopefully
offer insights useful to each discipline. We begin with a review of the importance
of the state of the poor in the thinking of classical economists. Next, we explore
the development of "development economics." We then turn our attention to dependency
theory, and examine how that particular perspective has influenced liberation
theology. Finally, we look at recent developments which should cause liberation
theologians to broaden their perspectives, yet also cause orthodox economists
to better understand the role of morality in the marketplace. . .
7. "Root Causes" of the ME peace problem
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32835
The bipolar nature of Middle-East diplomacy
Posted: May 30, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Avi Davis
Political scientists reviewing this period in history in the future will be
puzzled by a phenomenon. While diplomacy speeded toward a rapid resolution of
the Arab-Israeli conflict, facts on the ground pulled the conflict in the opposite
direction. Drawn by two opposing forces, of equal strength, the result was therefore
not movement but stasis. The region, it might be recorded, descended into its
worst outbreak of violence in over three decades at the very moment peacemakers
found themselves proclaiming a final historic breakthrough . Bad intentions
are rarely the cause of failed diplomacy.
But when the diplomats fail to examine - or even care to examine - the true
situation on the ground, diplomacy is doomed . . . .
The root cause of the Middle East conflict is not settlements, occupation or
refugees but the unwillingness of every Arab government in the region to abide
the presence of a Jewish state in their midst . . .
8. Gay agenda update:
PhD Thesis tries to label Jesus:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32798
Doctoral candidate: Jesus was 'gay'
Posted: May 28, 2003 5:00 p.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
A doctoral candidate in Australia was paid $51,000 in public funds to research
Jesus' sexuality, declaring unequivocally that the founder of Christianity was
homosexual. According to a report in the Adelaide Advertiser, Rollan McCleary,
who himself is homosexual, earned $17,000 a year for three years to work on
his thesis on homosexual spirituality. The grant came from the University of
Queensland. McCleary will be awarded his doctorate tomorrow and in the future
hopes to make "gay spirituality" a separate academic discipline . . .
CBS TV "same sex marriage" show:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32814 CBS television
thrusting 'married gays' on public Network's 'Amazing Race' promotes real-life
men as joined in matrimony
Catholic Boston Diocese:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32833 Bishops rally
ministers to fight 'gay' marriage
Vancouver Anglican Diocese:
http://www.canada.com/national/story.asp?id=E2B1EF1B-F58C-4E68-ADD8-5E67A1CB0B91
Vancouver parishes to bless gay unions Controversial bishop first to formally
approve rite, says it is Christian 'duty'
Anglican Bishops:
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/148/nation/Anglican_leaders_No_backing_of_rites_for_same_sex_ties+.shtml
Anglican leaders: No backing of rites for same-sex ties
No comments:
Post a Comment