Web Clips and Comments

July 14, 2003

HIGHLIGHT: This weekend, the Soufriere Hills Volcano, in my second home
territory, Monsterrat; had a massive dome collapse and associated ash eruption
that threw volcanic materials 40,000 feet into the air, and deposited a thick
layer of ash across much of the South and centre of the island.

Thankfully no-one was killed, and the main ash flow from the dome -- a mound
of hot materials that had been forced out of the volcano over the past several
months (piling up to 3600 feet above sea level) -- went down the Tar River valley
to the N E, and off into the sea on the East Coast.

Contacts in Montserrat are grateful that lives have been spared, and the few
buildings in the Salem area that have collapsed under the weight of deposited
ash were in the main lightly built structures, such as bars. Concern was expressed
for the welfare of some of the people evacuated over the past several months,
who are in need of welfare support, especially support for basic food and similar
needs.

(NB: In the 1995 - 97 period, as concluded by a Commission of Inquiry, inadequate
shelter conditions, poor management of exposure to hazards and desensitisation
to danger as well as personal reckless disregard for the danger contributed
to the deaths of over a dozen people in the June 25, 1997 collapse and pyroclastic
flows. Official figures hover at about 20 deaths for the June - August 1997
events.)

Web links:

Preliminary AFP report: http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,6749194%5E401,00.html

Monstserrat Volcano Observatory: http://www.mvo.ms/

Cascades Volcano Observatory: http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/

Nat. Geog. Article: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/98/volcanoes/

Montserrat Reporter newspaper: http://www.montserratreporter.org/

1. Mbeki Speaks on Africa

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20030710/cleisure/cleisure4.html

Next year Haiti commemorates a full two hundred years of the establishment
of the first modern black republic out of the defeat of the Napoleonic French
empire in 1804. South Africa will celebrate 10 years of the post-Apartheid era.
And the two countries, one the poorest in the Diaspora, the other the leader
of the Black Motherland, will do it together. Mbeki asked the hard questions
of what went wrong with the Haitian Revolution, when the sister American and
French Revolutions brought such different results for freedom and development.
What went wrong with the African decolonisation, freedom and development project?
. . .

2. Legislating Morality: a Must

Don Crawford has reflected on the US SC sodomy ruling, and has published a
powerful column on law and morality . . .

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33553

statute laws are the legal enforcement of moral principles such as "Thou shalt
not kill." Any criminal statute you choose - whether about fraud, extortion,
due process, assault, ad infinitum, are the legislating of morality into the
criminal code . . . Not only are all statute laws the legislation of morality,
but furthermore it is no historical accident that it is the Judeo-Christian
moral code that has been legislated into Western law . . . . it is not a coincidence
that the West has been predominantly the world of Christendom and the fertile
soil from which has sprung the world's ideals of the sanctity of all human life,
the fundamental equality of all persons, the sovereignty of the people, due
process, and our basic freedoms . . . . Sadly, our system of jurisprudence with
all its respect for individual human rights is not the norm in the world. Rather,
that system springs from a particular moral system and code . . . . "What moral
norms should be legislated?" That is a legitimate question. And the answer is
we legislate a category of ethics. We legislate those ethical norms that have
to do with: (1) all persons being treated with equality under the law, (2) protecting
the weak and the innocent, and (3) protecting the general welfare. In short,
we legislate the area of ethics known as justice. So, are ethical norms concerning
sodomy and marriage appropriate matters of justice? The medical and historical
evidence is overwhelming - though totally ignored in the current non-factual,
politically correct discussion - that sodomy and marriage are appropriate norms
for legislation . . .

3. Pedophilia (and more) on the "normalising" agenda

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33551

. . . this May, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) was . . . publicly
debating a proposal for "Lifting [The] Pedophilia Taboo." Several APA presenters
"proposed removing … pedophilia, exhibitionism … voyeurism … from the Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)." The DSM - the bible of the
mental-health field - tells psychiatrists, judges, juries and the rest of the
world what is or is not abnormal human behavior, and what to criminally "punish"
versus what to therapeutically "treat."

Sadly, in Literary Arts secvtion, The SunDay Magazine, Jamaica Observer, p.2;
a Ms Peta-Gaye Stuart has published a naive gush piece on the Pride Week events
in Toronto, where "same sex marriages", so called, have been ever
so unwisely recently given standing under the colour of law. That is, we see
evidence that the "normalising" of perversion is happening among the
Caribbean's upper and middle classes, who are most vulnerable to fashionable
trends in secularist, apostate and neopagan thinking.

We therefore need to read the signs of the times and respond in an informed,
principled way that respects people but insists that matters of justice and
public morality must be firmly handled in the interests of especially our children.
(For, the creation of a "public" domain is in the main justified by
the need to provide family-friendly space in the community so that our children
can be well brought up; with minimal exposure to inappropriate influences. Or,
have we forgotten?)

4. On the Slander Front . . .

First, I am saddened to have to observe that the jamaica Gleaner was found
by the Privy Council to have spent sixteen years sustaining a libellous accusation
against Mr Tony Abrams, a former Minister of Tourism. One prays that the ruling
will begin to motivate that media house to follow the NY Times down the path
of beginning to clean up its act. (Of course, on this matter, I speak as one
who over the past several months was unjustly attacked by a columnist and was
denied the effective right of reply: see http://www.angelfire.com/pro/kairosfocus/resources/1st_Easter_Timeline.htm
and http://www.angelfire.com/pro/kairosfocus/resources/debating_fundamentalism.htm
for my to date unpublished responses.)

On a similar note, the WMD debate has been heating up in the USA, with many
declaring or implying that the Bush Administration has been lying; a theme that
has been pounced upon by many of our pundits, who seem to have more of a deep
rooted hostility to what the US has traditionally stood for than a concern for
international justice -- judging by the telling silence on the ongoing Cuban
crackdown.

However, we would well do to heed the observations made over the weekend that
"smoking gun" evidence has been found on especially chemical weapons,
and will be forthcoming. So, let us refrain from rash pronouncements and hostility
rather than sound, well-considered judgement.

In that context, we should consider the points made by Clifford May in National
Review:

http://www.nationalreview.com/may/may071103.asp

Mr. Bush never claimed that Saddam Hussein had purchased uranium from Niger.
It is not true - as USA Today reported on page one Friday morning - that "tainted
evidence made it into the President's State of the Union address." For the record,
here's what President Bush actually said in his SOTU: "The British government
has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium
from Africa." Precisely which part of that statement isn't true? The British
government did say that it believed Saddam had sought African uranium. Is it
possible that the British government was mistaken? Sure. Is it possible that
Her Majesty's government came by that belief based on an erroneous American
intelligence report about a transaction between Iraq and Niger? Yes - but British
Prime Minister Tony Blair and members of his Cabinet say that's not what happened.
They say, according to Britain's liberal Guardian newspaper, that their claim
was based on "extra material, separate and independent from that of the US."
. . . Saddam Hussein did have a nuclear-weapons-development program. That program
was set back twice: Once by Israeli bombers in 1981, and then a decade later,
at the end of the Gulf War when we learned that Saddam's nuclear program was
much further along than our intelligence analysts had believed. As President
Bush also said in the SOTU: The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed
in the 1990s that Saddam Hussein had an advanced nuclear weapons development
program, had a design for a nuclear weapon and was working on five different
methods of enriching uranium for a bomb. Since Saddam never demonstrated - to
the U.S., the U.N., or even to Jacques Chirac - that he had abandoned his nuclear
ambitions, one has to conclude that he was still in the market for nuclear materials.
And, indeed, many intelligence analysts long believed that he was trying to
acquire such material from wherever he could - not just from Niger but also
from Gabon, Namibia, Russia, Serbia, and other sources . . .

4. Shuttled by Foam . . .

This week, there was dramatic news footage that showed that the first suspect
almost certainly did it: Columbia was done in by a 2 kg lump of foam that hit
its wing and caused a hole in the leading edge that may have been nearly a foot
across. The breaking up of the wing as hot plasma penetrated its interior was
just a matter of time. Sad.

However, there is a not so happy environmental angle to the story: the shedding
problem was reportedly triggered by a shift to a more "environmentally
friendly" foam: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33545
. Thus, it seems there is a need for us to balance the set of factors at work
in a given environmentally-tinged situation, led by sound judgement, not hype
and hysteria.

 

IN CONCLUSION: I am preparing for an upcoming Conference, and so will
be out of circulation for a couple of weeks, please pray for this vital conference;
that God will help us wake up to the spiritual challenges the region faces on
the threshold of the new milllennium. Grace be to you all . . .

Week to July 5, 2003

(Sorry to be delayed, I was not only busy but unwell over the weekend.)

On Saturday, as I walked by the Magazine rack in my neighbourhood Supermarket,
my eye was captured by the cover of the June 30 2003 Time magazine.

There we saw a clenched fist, grasping a golden cross against a chiaroscuro
background, with the caption: "Should Christians Convert Muslims?"

That all too caricatured cover, on public display at eye-level in a Caribbean
supermarket, says it all:

(1) The Secularists and neopagans frame the issues and decide what are issues.
So, why are we looking to the declared enemies of the faith to give us accurate,
fair and balanced news on matters of the faith? (If Christians are murdered
because of that cover, will Time pay compensation to the relatives? Or will
they extend the underlyiong theme of the story, and blame the victims?)

(2) When did you see a Time cover-picture of a bombed hospital in Sudan [just
ask Franklyn Graham if you need a file shot!] , with the caption whether muslims
can justify bombing, murdering, raping and /or enslaving or simply abusing and
exploiting those they call "kaffirs" i.e. unbelievers? [ http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=28335&d=4&m=7&y=2003
and http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33396
]

(3) Why wasn't the Caribbean's Templeton Prize winner --Dr Patrick Sookhdeo
-- on the cover instead, with his call to stop the wicked practice of murdering
muslims who decide that another faith better meets their spiritual needs? Or
is freedom of expression only a problem if the one who wants to express is a
secularist or neopagan? [Cf. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33406
]

(4) More generally, we need to reflect on what bat Ye'or calls "Dhimmitude."
[ http://www.dhimmitude.org/d_history.php
]

Clearly the news ain't fair, balanced, or responsible when it comes to Christians.
It is high time for Christians in the region to develop our own alternative
news sources and services. Why should we let those who obviously are enemies
of the faith define how we think about the world and its concerns?

CLIPS . . .

1. Cuba update

It seems Mr Martin Henry paid a recent visit to Cuba, and has some interesting
things to say: http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20030703/cleisure/cleisure3.html

"Cuba is among the last holdouts, alongside China and Vietnam, in the
collapse of Marxism. As the USSR learned, the economic opening of the system
is particularly dangerous to the political ideology. Cuba really has no choice
in the new world but to open its economy to free trade both externally and internally.
Those 1950s Chevvies can go on for only so much longer and there is no barter
of sugar for Ladas today. A vigorous tourist trade is emerging as the backbone
of the struggling economy. Both the Cuban and American governments tacitly recognise
that the blockade is full of holes. Maintaining each other as enemy is of enormous
ideological and political significance. It is very doubtful if La Revolucion
can survive the death of the Leader or the end of the blockade. A witty professor
of Humanities at La Universidad de la Habana declared Cuba to be in a time of
intellectual and ideological ferment . . . ."

2. Bigamy next

The so-called Christian polygamists want to follow up on the US SC privacy
rights hearing: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33409
. On the law, science and policy implications of the decision see http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33434
. let us pray that our region's intelligentsia does not pick up this trend any
more than was apparent on our chat shows last week!

3. Depression and Vitamin b

having heard the above, you may feel in need of some good old vitamin B, which
is now emerging as an anti-depressant, according to: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030705/hl_nm/vitamin_depression_dc_1

 

Web Clippings & Comments

week to June 27, 2003



The major development for the week is the relaunching of the companion
reference web site for this blog: http://www.angelfire.com/pro/kairosfocus/
. (The site was earlier kindly hosted through a service that has now had to
withdraw free hosting; over time, this new site will be migrated to full commercial
status.)

Key clippings and comments:

1. "Privacy" rights, sexuality agendas and family

During the week, there were several developments that are significant for the
Caribbean and the wider world; however, perhaps the most important probably
largely passed under the radar screens of our local media: the U
S Supreme Court's sodomy ruling, following hard on the heels of the Ontario
court's "same sex marriage" ruling. In both cases, the rulings have
in th emain been viewed in the media as civil liberties triumphs, but in fact
the critical development is the potentially damaging, or even destructive implications
for marriage and the family, thus society and civilisation itself.

Here, I was particularly saddened to hear a BBC reporter interviewing a Family
Research Council spokesman on the ruling. She asked him, in effect, to comment
on why one would want to legislate against an "act of love" done in
the privacy of one's own home. In his reply he pointed out that such activities
in fact have serious public health consequences: 52% of cumulative AIDS deaths
in the US are from the 5% of the male population that has at one time or another
indulged itself in the acts in question. That is, the law (BTW: seldom enforced)
served as a teacher/warning . . . one of the legitimate and traditional functions
of law.

(NB: The context
of the FRC spokesman's remarks is the point that: ' "The law (banning sodomy
in the state of Texas) demeans the lives of homosexual persons," Justice Anthony
M. Kennedy wrote for the majority. "The men are entitled to respect for their
private lives," Kennedy wrote. "The state cannot demean their existence or control
their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime." '

Rebutting, Kevin McCullough notes: 'What? How does it demean someone to simply
encourage them to practice good health? Does Justice Kennedy honestly believe
that sodomy (anal intercourse) is an act that shows respect to the person it
is done to? And how does it demean a person to point them toward living a moral
life? And if the state says that one cannot make consensual sexual activity
a crime - are we really ready for the totality of what that means - pedophilia,
adultery, incest?')

But, as soon as the FRC spokesman had pointed out this inconvenient fact, the
BBC reporter cut him off with the claim that the Service now needed to go to
its Sports broadcast!

What relevance is this ruling to the Caribbean? Obviously, we have just seen
how one of the most respected news sources in the region is tilting the news
on this topic; in itself important for those who want their news accurate, fair,
and balanced. (Partly in response to this sort of tilting, the clippings below
will give the side you are unlikely to hear, at least at a level above that
of a semi-comical strawman trotted out only to underscore the "unwashed
fundy" stereotype.)

But moreso, this development has not happened in a cultural vacuum: the West's
sevcularism and neo-pagan agendas have set out to reshape Western Civilisation
to suit their preferences, perceptions and expectations, and through media,
academic and intellectual power, this agenda will continue to be projected globally.
(Recall the threats of economic sanctions for several Caribbean tourism destinations
because the countries had sodomy laws and were unwilling to host "Gay cruises"
in their tourist ports.)

What of broader implications?

FRC Speaks:

http://www.frc.org/?i=PV03F01

Bill Murray of FRC observed in the lead-up to the ruling: ". . . legislating
morality is supposed to be passe, and, as the recent Gallup poll found, mainstream
America is warming up to the homosexual lifestyle. Yet even as the homosexual
lobby praises what it sees as the enlightenment of the American people, Gallup
found that there remains a clear majority of Americans for whom the idea of
so-called "gay marriage" is still too radical. What these Americans may not
realize, however, is that the forthcoming decision in Lawrence could do to the
sanctity of marriage what Roe v. Wade did to the sanctity of life . . . . gay
activists wisely see Lawrence as their Roe v. Wade. They know that if the Court
can create a constitutional privacy interest for same-sex couples which forbids
laws such as the Texas sodomy ban, then gay activists can use the Court's rationale
to push for their broader agenda: protected rights to sex, adoption, employment,
and, of course, marriage. "

http://www.frc.org/get/n03f017.cfm

In an immediate reaction to the ruling, David Gasak adds: "With today's
decision the court continues pillaging its way through the moral norms of our
country. If the people have no right to regulate sexuality then ultimately the
institution of marriage is in peril, and with it, the welfare of the coming
generations of children. While it may feel good to some that a stigma is lifted
from a particular group, something else has been lifted - the boundaries that
prevent sexual chaos in our culture. In recent years we have seen a sharp rise
in unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, and heartbreak of every
kind. By unlocking one of society's last social seatbelts, the court has guaranteed
only one thing - more fatal collisions lie just down the road . . ."

David Limbaugh on Legal implications of judicial activism:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33297

Alluding to 2nd US President Adams's remark that the US Constitution would
only work with a religiously-rooted, moral people, Limbaugh commented: "[Adams]
meant that for the Constitution to serve as a long-term guarantor of our freedoms
the American people, by and large, would have to guide themselves by absolute
moral standards - not ones that shift with the sands of political correctness
. . . Judicial activism is grounded in moral relativism and sustained by the
notion that there are no moral standards that cannot be bent or broken to conform
to society's ever-changing moral condition. When our constitutional freedoms
are planted in the unstable footings of moral relativism, they are but a step
away from extinction. This is what Christians mean (and what Adams meant) in
saying that no matter how brilliantly crafted our Constitution, it will not
survive as a liberty-preserving instrument without moral underpinnings. Indeed
our liberties are insured by limitations on government rooted in moral absolutes
. . . "

Derrick K. Olliff and Dewey H. Hodges respond to Daniel Helminiak's Gay
Theology:

http://www.crta.org/social/hodges_response_helminiak.html

"In this age of cultural pluralism and ethical minimalism, Christians
who, consistent with biblical revelation, publicly declare certain activities
to be sinful have met with severe opposition. The opposition intensifies when
those activities involve "consenting" individuals and do not involve outright
violence. To denounce those activities is, it is thought, to violate the culture's
"absolute" and "invariant" laws of tolerance and inclusion. Homosexual behavior
has fast become one of those activities. Surely, it is maintained, those who
oppose such a personal, voluntary practice are either "homophobics" in need
of a culture lesson or religious bigots deserving scorn. This type of uncritical,
emotional response has grown strong in today's secular culture. An even
more alarming issue, however, is the gain of support for this response within
the Christian community. Christians themselves are, in growing numbers, sacrificing
biblical truth on the altar of humanistic relativism . . . "

rebuttal (link not currently working) : http://members.aol.com/stephven/rebutt.html

response to attempted rebuttal: http://www.crta.org/social/response_to_helminiak_2.html

"Our original paper ["A Reformed Response to Daniel Helminiak's Gay Theology,"
Center for Reformed Theology and Apologetics (http://www.reformed.org)] presents
many arguments against pro-gay theology as espoused by Daniel Helminiak and
others. Therein, we also present a case for the orthodox position of the Christian
faith concerning homosexual behavior. Helminiak has recently written a paper
intended to be a rebuttal to ours, but in so doing he failed to refute any of
our arguments, leaving our case untouched. Moreover, we believe honest scholars
will see that he has done his position a disservice by his extremely poor scholarship,
numerous misrepresentations, wild accusations, unwarranted assumptions, and
numerous logical fallacies . . ." [NB: very typical of the Spongite ilk.
For my own experience of this, cf. http://www.angelfire.com/pro/kairosfocus/resources/1st_Easter_Timeline.htm]

NARTH:

http://www.narth.com/docs/bornway.html

"Is Sexual Orientation Fixed at Birth? The best overall
summary of most respected researchers is that homosexuality (like most other
psychological conditions) is due to a combination of social, biological, and
psychological factors . . ."

"Gay criticism has not addressed the classic family configuration"; it has
merely "asserted away the considerable evidence" for the existence of family
factors. Studies which attempt to disprove the existence of the classic family
pattern in homosexuality are "convincing only to those with a need to believe."

http://www.narth.com/menus/born.html

"Serious scientists have long known that a simply "genetic" cause for
homosexuality was highly unlikely, but the mass media conveyed the misimpression
of genetic causation to the general public. In the Globe article, prominent
researchers admit the distinct limitations of the "born that way" theory. "Gay
gene" researcher Dean Hamer comments, "It is the same for every human behavior--environment
matters for extroversion, smoking cigarettes, just about anything you can name."
Interestingly, Dr. Hamer--himself a gay man--adds that science remains "just
as clueless" as ever about the environmental influences on homosexuality. Dr.
Hamer's statement is consistent with a position taken by most gay advocates,
who flatly deny the existence of evidence that points to certain family and
social influences on homosexuality. (Gay advocates almost invariably either
say "I was born that way," or "How I became gay doesn't matter.") Only prominent
gay writer Andrew Sullivan has publicly given credence to the Freudian model
of homosexual development . . ."

2. CJET 2003 Publication:

The Volume 7 of the Caribbean Journal of Evangelical Theology was issued at
JTS/CGST's Graduation Friday. In it there are several articles of interest to
thinking Christians, and they are written at a quite readable level generally
speaking:

Humility: The Devalued jewel of the Human Psyche

The Missionary message of First Thessalonians

Ecclesiastes: Mission in a Post-Modern/Post-Christian World

Ethics, Reformation and Development in the Caribbean (Online version here)

Theology and Culture in canonical-Historical Dialogue

Critical Review of Spong's "Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism."

3. Natural Gas Shortages Expected

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,90499,00.html

"Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham warned Thursday that severe natural
gas shortages and high prices are "a national concern that will touch virtually
every American." Abraham, opening an industry summit on natural gas, acknowledged
there are few steps that can be taken to increase natural gas supplies. But
he said the Bush administration sees the emerging crisis as a top priority and
will try to mitigate any effects."

This may, of course, be very relevant to Jamaica and to Trinidad. The former
country has been thinking about shifting to Natural Gas and the latter has abundant
reserves.

4. ME Watch: Is the Mohammed Al Dura Death as often reported in the media?

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/news/columnists/perspective/6144657.htm

"In one of the messages Osama bin Laden released after the Sept. 11 attacks
and the subsequent U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, he began a list of indictments
against "American arrogance and Israeli violence" by saying, "In the epitome
of his arrogance and the peak of his media campaign in which he boasts of 'enduring
freedom,' Bush must not forget the image of Mohammed al-Dura and his fellow
Muslims in Palestine and Iraq. If he has forgotten, then we will not forget,
God willing." But almost since the day of the episode evidence has been emerging
in Israel, under controversial and intriguing circumstances, to indicate that
the official version of the Mohammed al-Dura story is not true. It now appears
that the boy cannot have died in the way reported by most of the world's media
and fervently believed throughout the Islamic world. Whatever happened to him,
he was not shot by the Israeli soldiers who were known to be involved in the
day's fighting -- or so I am convinced, after spending a week in Israel talking
with those examining the case . . ."

let us see where the truth eventually comes out on this matter.

5. ICOC Watch

Over the past week, the representatives of the ICOC tradition on Baptism have
abandoned the discussion thread: http://forums.delphiforums.com/ICCdiscussion/messages?msg=6780.1

6. Douglas Goodman Scandal & Trial

Love Herald this week reports a troubling scandal and trial affecting one of
the largest evangelical churches in the UK, a trial that harks back to the 1980's
televangelist scandals.

Okay, see you next week.

Wb Clips June 27

Sorry folks, I have had big problems getting a post to upload. Blogger has changed their application and debugging plainly is still in session!

I will post instead to my egroup: http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/caribbeankairos/

GEM

Web Clips, week to June 21

This week, the big event in Jamaica was a local government election, and overseas,
we had the launch of J K Rowling's fifth book in the Harry Potter series, as
well as the aproval of so-called "same-sex marriages" by a Toronto
Court.

1. Jamaica's Headline News

The June 19, 2003 Local Government election can be summed up:

• The landslide winner: None of The Above (NOTA) with about 60% no-show.
  (I am tempted to propose a new ballot, with a NOTA line item. If NOTA wins,
  a second phase election would be held, with a fresh slate of candidates .
  . .)
  
  
  
  


• The alienation of the security forces: 78% of police and 91% of the Army
  did not vote. This is truly worrying.
  
  
  
  


• 3-years probation for the JLP to show that it is a serious contender for
  national government. (In the past, to the 1940's, there had been a two-election
  cycle in government/opposition for the two major parties. The October 2002
  General Election marked the second time in succession that the Jamaican electorate
  did not think it wise to call the JLP back into national Government: December
  1997, October 2002.)
  
  
  
  


• A clear shot across the bows of the governing PNP in the aftermath of the
  post-election slide in the J$ and the imposition of a sharp jump in consumption
  taxes and prices. The "progress" in the election slogan "Log
  on to progress" has not ben evident.

Overall, the issue is that Jamaica is clearly in kairos, and therefore is open
to reformation through Christ. [Acts 17:24 - 27.] The challenge to the church
is to lead the way in repentance, renewed thinking in light of Christ's treasures
of wisdom and knowledge [Col 2:3, cf. 1 Cor 2:16 "we have the mind of Christ"],
and God-centred, God-blessed reformation.

2. Global Pottermania

The midnight, Summer Solstice: June 21 2003 launch of the latest Harry Potter
book was an international news event as much as it was a publishing event. In
an era of rising neo-pagan thinking, there were worrying signs of a large number
of Children becoming caught up in the neo-pagan worldview. Three web clips appeared
to be very relevant:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33175

Caryl Matrisciana raises the question that Pottermania may represent a rising
tide of neo-pagan thinking among the young, e.g. 'Latin American critics [are]
complaining "that the world of magic through which Harry Potter travels is a
metaphor for the New Age philosophy that is hostile to the Christian faith,
and thus Harry Potter is an assault on Latin American values." '

http://nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel062003.asp

David Kopel counters: 'J. K. Rowling is an Inkling. That's the well-argued
thesis of John Granger's fine book The Hidden Key to Harry Potter. Granger demonstrates
the absurdity of the claim that Harry Potter is anti-Christian. And even if
you've never worried about charges brought by misguided fundamentalists, The
Hidden Key will substantially augment your understanding of what's really at
stake in Harry's adventures.' Thus, he links Rowling to the circle of writers
in the 1950's that was centred on Christian authors such as C S Lewis (Chronicles
of narnia) and J R R Tolkein (Lord of the Rings). [Here, it may be significant
to note that recently the publisher of the former series has tried to edit out
the Christian imagery in lewis' work, and to commisssion new books in the series
with the Christian themes eliminated. Cf. http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2001/10/easterbrook.htm.
If Lewis is being Bowdlerised, why is Rowling being praised?]

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33195

Joel Miller argues along a similar line, citing Douglas Jones: "the deeper
compliment [to Christianity] is the story's use of a Christian psychology. In
its generic sense, a psychology is just a worldview's characteristic way of
interacting with life. [Remark: Excellent working definition!] There
is a distinctive Christian psychology, a Hellenistic psychology, a modernist
psychology, a postmodern psychology, a Wiccan psychology, and so on. The Potter
characters could have been written with any of these. They could have acted
like those resentful infant-adults of the Iliad; they could have had the psychology
of ancient druids. But they don't. Instead, the Potter stories give us largely
[Remark: telling modifier!] Christianized witches, witches who have fully absorbed
Christian ethical categories: love, kindness, hope, loyalty, hierarchy, community,
and more."

3. The 1984 Vatican Encyclical on Liberation Theology

Liberation Theology continues to be a strong force in more liberal theological
circles in the Caribbean, long after its heyday in the 1980's was cut off in
the aftermath of the collapse of the Socialist Bloc in the early 1990's. The
Vatican's comments in 1984 on this subject are still well worth reflecting on
as we come to a more balanced view on the church's role in reformation and transformation
of society.

http://www.newadvent.org/docs/df84lt.htm

". . . Liberation is first and foremost liberation from the radical slavery
of sin. Its end and its goal is the freedom of the children of God, which is
the gift of grace. As a logical consequence, it calls for freedom from many
different kinds of slavery in the cultural, economic, social, and political
spheres, all of which derive ultimately from sin, and so often prevent people
from living in a manner befitting their dignity. To discern clearly what is
fundamental to this issue and what is a by-product of it, is an indispensable
condition for any theological reflection on liberation . . ."

4. Iraq (& Iran) watch . . .

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33156

William Rusher argues: 'Our failure to find any such weapons to date (save
for two mobile biowarfare laboratories) has struck some of Bush's critics in
the Democratic Party and the media as a splendid opportunity to make a little
political hay . . . . The basic facts are not in doubt. . . . The trouble is,
there was nothing minimal about the quantities specified by the United Nations
in the 1990s, and even admitted to by Saddam. We are talking about tons . .
.'

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030622/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq&cid=540&ncid=716

June 22 - U.S. soldiers, acting on a tip, seized code equipment and piles of
top secret Iraqi intelligence documents in a raid Saturday on a community center.
The find, including references to a nuclear program, is being sent to senior
intelligence analysts to look for information on Iraq's banned weapons programs
. . .

http://www.iht.com/articles/100110.html

In a related development, with the EU and UN joining the US in putting pressure
on Iran in light of questions on its nuclear reactor programme -- NB Iran has
had research reactors since the 70's (I was taught in Physics by one of the
former leaders of the programme) -- there is significant pressure from within
for liberation from the reign of the Mullahs and Ayatollahs. here, Safire comments:
'President George W. Bush's message to "those courageous souls who speak out
for freedom in Iran" hit the right note: "America stands squarely by their side,
and I would urge the Iranian administration to treat them with the utmost of
respect." .Bush's studied avoidance of the disparaging word "regime" signaled
that it is political change that is needed, not regime change . . . By breathing
on the spark of freedom without blowing too hard, and by leading the increase
of pressure on a crumbling dictatorship, we may be able to limit the spread
of nuclear weapons without having to take them out.'

5. Have the Chariot Wheels been found in the Red Sea?

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33168

One of the most famous stories of the Bible is God's parting of the Red Sea
to save the Israelites from the Egyptian army and the subsequent drowning of
soldiers and horses in hot pursuit. But is there evidence that such an event
did in fact happen – and if so, precisely where did it take place? The issue
is surfacing some 3,500 years after the event is said to have taken place with
reports of Egyptian chariot wheels found in the Red Sea, photographs to document
it and new books by scientists that could lead to a whole remapping of the Exodus
route and a fresh look at ancient biblical accounts . . . But despite all of
Elmer's excitement, others who have been to the same location are not so sure
what is being viewed underwater are the remnants of the great chase and urge
extreme caution regarding the unsubstantiated claims . . .

6. Roots of the Accounting Scandals

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33159

The global economy is still stalled in the doldrums, and the continued wave
of corporate corruption scandals is scaring away potential investment.. Craige
McMillan gives a different, sobering, perspective: 'the "tax-book gap." . .
. Traditionally, this gap was almost completely explained by depreciation, employee
share options, and foreign income. But by 1998, [research by Mihir Desai of
harvard Business School] found that these adjustments accounted for less than
half of the gap . . . the Economist [("Many Happy Returns?" May 10, 2003, p.57]
was willing to give [explaining the other half] a try. "Perhaps the gap is due
to the growing use of Enron-style rule-gaming, which creates (briefly) healthy
accounting numbers but cannot get past the more prudent tax rules. If so, a
growing tax-book gap may herald accounting troubles to come." ' Has the tendency
to deride truth and right in the name of tolerance fed a climate in which fuzzy
numbers games were played with corporate accounts? "Righteousness exalteth
a nation . . ."

7. Apostasy watch: The Toronto cursing?

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33140

Excerpt: 'Same-sex marriage is on the way to enshrinement in Canadian
law following the government's decision yesterday not to appeal a provincial
court's ruling that allowed homosexuals to be wed. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien
will file a bill within weeks that would make Canada only the third country
to sanction same-sex matrimony, along with Belgium and the Netherlands'

Comment: Traditionally, Caribbean people have had very friendly relations
with our brother to the north, Canada. many of us are therefore very concerned
to see the Government of Canada joining Belgium and the Netherlands in the "same-sex
marriage"social experiment that seems headed towards doing great damage
to families and to children: could someone please explain to me how I am to
tell my 4 year old about Mr Smith and Mr Smith moving in next door? [That is,
has the secularised West's tendency to shunt aside moral considerations and
the concern to create a public domain that protects the young, now crossed a
point of no return? have law makers lost the common sense ability to discern
that the biological and social functions provided by maleness/femaleness and
the family are obvious and vital to the survival of a civilisation? Rom 1:18
- 32 anyone? (Cf. previous clippings on the path-breaking work of NARTH: http://www.narth.com/)]

Weekly Web Clips

Week to Fri June 13, 2003

This week, I have continued to heavily engage the ICOC controversy online.
You may wish to follow the flow of argument (currently up to 178 posts) at:
http://forums.delphiforums.com/ICCdiscussion/messages?msg=6780.1
. I have done so, in the hope that by addressing the underlying biblical and
logical troubles that have set the stage for the abusive discipleship practices
discussed in the forum (and in my posted notes at http://members.christhost.com/kairosfocus/ICOC_response.htm
), I will be able to help contribute to the much needed reform in the ICC and
in many other "more respectable" churches with similar problems.

This week, I have therefore paid a bit less attention to the usual news items.
But, I have found first some interesting OFF-line clips in the Father's Day
issue of the Love Herald:

1) The ICC's Troubles are discussed in a Faith Stockman article in the June
13 - 19 Love herald, p. 3.

2) Linstead back to basics, p. 6 discusses how one of the first post-emancipation
areas of settlement is reaching back to the roots of Jamaica's post-slavery
culture: the gospel in the community.

3) P. 8: The Media Demon raises several troubling questions about general and
Christian media houses in the US, with relevance to our region. (Not sure the
logo really fits though, Madam Editor!)

4) P. 9 on VMBS Marriage & Family series raises serious questions about
family life and its reformation in the interests of our Children. (P. 14 follows
up with more.)

5) P 15: Fell Tab and other churches are in the midst of a call to repentance,
unity, truth and trust in the face of impending judgement on Jamaica.

6) P. 20: Dr Sangster gives yet another solid book review, of the Caners' Unveiling
Islam, a book by brothers raised as muslims who converted to evangelical faith,
and are Baptist Theologians. Sobering, but putting hope for the Islamic world:
Christ. (The same hope that the secular, neo-pagan West needs in the face of
impending judgement!)

7) P. 21: VERY RELEVANT TO THE CURRENT ROADMAP DIPLOMATIC ISSUES: What appears
to be the concluding article but one in the long-running "Crash
Course" in Jewish history. This one discusses trhe settlement of Israel,
the wars that resulted, and the TWO palestinian refugee populations: in 1948
or so 472 000 Arabs fled. Similarly "820 000 Jews were forced to flee Arab
lands such as Syria, Iraq . . . Most of the property of these Jews, many of
whom were wealthy people, was confiscated, never to be returned. (Of these Jews,
525 000 settled in Israel.) . . . . The Arab countries did not easily accept
their defeat in 1948 . . . the PLO was founded in January 1964 by Ahmed Shukeiry
. . . "Those [Jews] who survive will remain in Palestine. I estimate that
none of them will survive." The first and consistent aim of the PLO was
the elimination of the State of Israel and its replacement by the State of Palestine
. . . a State of Palestine had never existed in history. The Arab people
living in this land during the days of the Ottoman Empire were simply Arabs
with no national identity. After the Ottoman Empire collapsed, in the days of
the British Mandate, both Jews and Arabs were considered "Palestinians"
by the British . . . . As of this writing, the Palestinian Authority, headed
by [Egyptian-born: Cairo, August 24 1929] Yassir Arafat, is conducting a terrorist
war which began in September 2000. It is clear that Arafat and many other Arab
states have still not abandoned their dream of destroying Israel."

WEB CLIPS:

1) Jobless recovery:

Impacts of global competition in skilled professional work areas: http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20030610-094627-8046r.htm
. Here, we see that if one can pay a programmer of radiologist in India to do
the job at half or less, why pay someone in the US to do it? (This of course
makes US programmers and radiologists worse off, but the people who buy cheaper
smart devices and the patients who get lower cost health care aren't complaining.)
Globalisation cuts many ways!

2) 9/11 21 Months on . . . and Mr Bush the Personal Evangelist to Kings
and Presidents

The ever eloquent and insightful peggy Noonan speaks: http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110003610
. A telling paragraph: "Mr. Bush speaking last week to Arab leaders when
he didn't know his remarks were being broadcast, speaking of what "Almighty
God" expects of them. That kind of fervor--a lot of that is traceable to 9/11.
In an interview two years ago, three months before 9/11, Mr. Bush told me of
his recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Their talk had turned
personal, and Mr. Bush spoke of his understanding of the nature of Christianity
and the meaning of the cross. Mr. Bush shows the impulses of the evangelist:
When something has saved your life and has the added benefit--you are certain--of
being true, you want to spread it around. But those impulses have come out more
publicly, less embarrassedly or self-protectively, after 9/11. "

3) Iraq Museum Looting Watch . . . Implications on the WMD Debate?

Have you seen any of our local pundits pulling back their intemperate remarks
based on preliminary, exaggerated claims of the Iraq museum looting? Here you
can find Krauthammer, hammering away on the point: http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/krauthammer.html
. Could a similar development be playing out on the WMD
issue? As we watch, let us not forget jefferson's definition of debate:
the art of making trhe worse appear to be the better case.

In the meanwhile, the Arab world is reeling in shock as the death toll from
Saddam's torture chambers and execution squads continues to mount, headed for
the MILLIONS: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33042

4) Apostasy and Neopagan Agenda Watch

Sorry in advance to those who are squeamish.

Episcopalians (Anglicans) in New Hampshire have appointed as Bishop an openly
practising homosexual who reportedly abandoned his family when his daughters
were young children to go live with another man. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33023
. Cf. Rom 1:16 - 32 and 1 Cor 6:9 - 11.

Homosexuality is now being strongly pushed as "normal" or even desirable.
I cannot understand the mind-bending illogic requred to think that in the face
of obvious facts of biology, individuality and society, but here is a review:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33068
. Kevin McColluch tries to untwist the thinking for the rest of us:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33070 . (PS I was
once given an explanation of "Log Cabin" as in L C Republicans that
was shocking, so bad, so obscene and frankly unsanitary, unhealthy and nasty,
that I cannot print it. Could somebody out there assure me that it is not true,
with evidence?)

5) Mind-benders 2: ME Roadmap Watch

The Suicide-bomber-Diplomatic 2-track approach to negotiating "peace in
the ME" : http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33041

6) Possible Roadblock on the road to the H2 Fuel Cell Economy:

Hydrogen may not be so benign after all, once it leaks and gets up into the
upper atmosphere where it affects the concentration of water vapour by chemical
raction to form upper atmospheric water. This may affect both the Ozone layer
and Greenhouse gas concentrations. (Water vapour is a far more imnportant GHG
than CO2. indeed, the debate over impacts of increased CO2 largely hinges on
whether on balance it leads to more lower atrmosphere water vapour: higher cloud
cover so cooling effect, or upper atmosphere, where it acts to accelerate heating.)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030612/ap_on_sc/hydrogen_environment_6
and http://atcaltech.caltech.edu/tech-today/subpage.tcl?story_id=9281

A busy week on the web, all in all!

Weekly Web Clippings

June 8, 2003

Tuesday, June 6, 1944, fifty-nine years ago this week; American, British and
Canadian troops went ashore in Normandy, paying a terrible cost in lives to
defeat Hitler's aggression. Let us not forget, ever, the price of liberty.

This week, I followed up on the Boston Globe report, and found that indeed
the ICOC is in crisis. You may wish to look at the reveal.org web site and the
online Delphi ICC forums. What I sense is in this expose of the abusive discipleship,
manipulation and questionable teachings, there is opportunity for reformation.
Let us pray to that end.

News highlights of the week:

1) Report from a Missionary who knew Emporer Haile Selassie.

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20030603/mind/mind4.html

This is key to underscoring the historical facts surrounding this Christian
king, who many Rastafarians still believe to have been divine.

2) Fuller a Jamaican Missionary pioneer in West Africa

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20030603/mind/mind3.html

This profiles the under-reported role of Jamaicans and other Caribbeans in
planting the Church in West Africa.

 

3) Philip Jenkins on Reformation II

http://www.townhall.com/bookclub/jenkins.html

The Faith in the global age.

4) A Cuban Journalist speaks out:

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/html/20030605T220000-0500_44741_OBS_A_MAN_WHO_WRITES.asp

At last, in Jamaica's Observer.

5) Iraq watch:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=9&u=/ap/20030607/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_treasures_found_7

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=3&u=/ap/20030607/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_nuclear_21

Nuke plant visited, and only about 50 "missing" items from Iraq's
Museum remain unaccounted for.

6) Apostasy watch:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32892

Danish Pastor claims God does not exist, leading theologian sees this vieww
as "refreshing."

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

http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$V3YP25TIEUYHTQFIQMFSFFWAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2003/05/25/wirq125.xml

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

Proposed Kairos Initiative

About Kairos

The Kairos Initiative is a resource base for the church and people of the Caribbean as we become increasingly aware of our desperate need for renewal, reformation, transformation and blessing under God.

Thus, Kairos will seek to provides Bible-based, cutting-edge analytical, strategic, training, and technical operational services in support of the church and people of the Caribbean as we all work together, under God, towards building a better future for our region and the wider world beyond.

Vision

The Kairos Initiative is driven by the biblical, Apostolic insight that God so controls our history that, through the crises triggered by our sin and folly, we become open to new beginnings, as we grasp for a way forward, however blindly. [Cf. Acts 17:24 - 27.] Arising from such a clash between a dying past and a future yet to be born, there is hope under God for a way to a better future.

For, in our day, the Caribbean (and much of the wider world) is in kairos -- the crisis-driven nexus of opportunity and risk -- so the peoples of the Caribbean are ever more aware that there must be a better way, there must be an alternative.

As a result, our region's peoples are groping for God in the midst of crisis, and are increasingly ready to understand the life- and community- transforming power of the gospel.

Then, as we respond to the Gospel, through the spiritual transformation of the new birth and godly discipleship, the Caribbean's peoples can begin to see a new vision for the future; and can create a foundation for new leadership that can help the region (and the wider world) find a way towards a brighter tomorrow.

Initiative

The Kairos Initiative therefore seeks to help the church and wider community as we work together to build a new vision, a better strategy and a new generation of godly leaders for the Caribbean -- one that is able and ready to lead us through the further crises ahead into a new era of godly reformation tied to associated sound and sustainable development, under the blessing of God.

In that pursuit, Kairos will work with the church and wider community in (and beyond) the Caribbean, as we jointly respond to the following identified needs:

Prophetic, biblical, strategic analysis of the past and present situation in our region, towards taking and implementing ethically and operationally sound development decisions and directions. Thus, under God, the Caribbean may find a path to truly sustainable, God-blessed development. For, "except the Lord build the house, its builders labour in vain."

The associated renewal of the Caribbean Church’s vision and focus, through the fullness of Christ theme of Ephesians 4:9 – 24. For, Christ came, descending and ascending, in order to fill – thus transform and bless – all things.

Support for training and equipping disciples in light of this Christocentric fullness vision, so that God’s people may consolidate their commitment to Christ, his church and his mission; and that we may be prepared for effective service and high-integrity leadership in the home, church and wider community.

Providing a base for the development of a David Generation of breakthrough leaders, who, under God, will overcome Goliaths and help the people of the region move on beyond tragically failed leadership.

Supporting the church and community institutions as the region seeks to enhance its capacity for the effective and efficient identification, development, implementation, management, and evaluation of strategic renewal, reformation and development projects and programmes.

Helping the Caribbean church rise to the global missionary challenge of Eph 1:22 – 23, and 2:8 - 10: “the church . . . is [Christ’s] body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way . . . . we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Goals & Strategies

To give an operational focus for such efforts, God willing [James 4:13 - 17], Kairos will seek to work with God's people across the Caribbean and beyond, to achieve the following in the three to five year period, 2003 to 2006 - 2008:

Creation, maintenance and widespread promotion of an effective, Christocentric fullness vision-driven, web-based strategic information resource for the Caribbean Church; to address the issues involved in helping the Caribbean church as it provides sound, godly, biblical, prophetic intellectual and cultural leadership in the Caribbean in the 21st Century.

Provision through this online resource and associated dialogue and training initiatives, of biblically sound, well-informed strategic analysis, perspectives, training materials and current information that will be helpful to the church and the wider region, in support of godly reformation, transformation and blessing.

Collaborative development and promotion of a cluster of discipleship-, missions-, revival-, renewal- and reformation- oriented networks and alliances across the region; towards the synthesis of an overarching integrated strategy for the reformation of the region, and the parallel development and deployment of a Caribbean Missions force under the church's global evangelisation mandate.

Cooperation with this cluster of networks and alliances in identifying and implementing strategic projects, consultancies and programmes that promote the Christocentric reformation of the Caribbean and the associated sound and sustainable development of the region, its communities, its churches, its institutions, its businesses, its schools and colleges, and generally.

Associated with this, the collaborative creation of a web-based "School Without Walls"tasked to develop and implement a regionally delivered series of discipleship-, skill-building- and reformation- oriented short courses for equipping Caribbean Christians (and others) through an articulated training scheme under the Christocentric fullness theme.

People and Networks

No one person or group is capable of undertaking the analuysis, strategising, planning and scale and scope of operations required to carry forward the above regional reformation agenda. And yet, a reformation agenda is clearly vital to the building of a Caribbean future that is worth having.

Accordingly, Kairos invites individuals, groups, alliances and networks with an interest in such a programme of reformation-oriented prophetic intellectual and cultural leadership to join together as outlined above.

As a point of contact, you may wish to communicate as follows:

Email: kairosfocus@yahoo.co.uk
eGroup: http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/caribbeankairos/

Clippings of the Week:

Fri May 23 2003

This week, there have been several interesting developments, locally and internationally:

1. The great J$ fiasco

First, on the local scene, the J$ had a sharp decline to J$ 72+: US$1, then this week after a reported US$ 20 Mn intervention by the central bank, it has rebounded to the mid sixties, leaving an air of relief. According to some pundits, "speculators" are to blame.

However, only a few weeks back, the rate was ~ 48:1, and back in '97 - '99, it was ~ 36 - 40:1. (I think I see a steady ~ 10%/yr decline, with sharp crises that accelerate the trend from time to time. [This trend would amount to the J$ being worth ~ 1/3 of its former value at the end of the decade: ~ 20:1 turn of 90's, to 60+:1 now.] I also fail to see a serious attending to the need to fix the capacity side of our economy so that investments, management strategies and policies actually lead to growth through increasing the supply of competitive Jamaican goods and services in a global era.)

Accordingly, here are some clippings:

* The Speculators did it, according to Dr Ed Ghartley of UWI Econ Dept: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/html/20030519T210000-0500_43990_OBS_SPECULATORS_AND_SLIDING_JAMAICAN_DOLLAR.asp

* Tom Wilson begs to differ: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/letters/html/20030520T210000-0500_44036_OBS_GHARTEY_AND_SPECULATORS.asp

* Mrs Gloudon's take on life in Jamaica through the eyes of the Jamaican diaspora: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/html/20030522T190000-0500_44094_OBS_SEEING_THROUGH_OTHER_EYES.asp

* Martin Henry on TRUST as a neglected capital asset: http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20030522/cleisure/cleisure4.html

* Maybe, we really need to look at the Irish example, instead of playing the old blame game?

Matt Connolly . . . " We had to swallow a lot of difficult and hard decisions which were very unpopular. But the choices weren't there - you either said stop and take ownership of the problem or the problem would have simply overwhelmed us. The solution to the problem came about when there was an acceptance that we couldn't go along any longer like we had . . . "
A strategy for development was formulated between 1986-1990 which focused upon:

substantial reduction in government expenditure,

moderate pay evolution to make the economy more competitive,

more equitable tax and social policies, and

specific measures to increase employment.

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20030523/business/business6.html

2. On the Rev 13:16 - 17 front

Meanwhile, "they" are working hard on the basis for a modern surveillance state like that envisioned in Rev: "[the second beast] forced everyone . . . to receive a mark on his right hand or in his forehead, so that no-one could buy or sell unless he had the mark . . ."

Here, Angela Swafford of the Boston Globe breathlessly reports on her subcutaneous chip implant:

"Theoretically, this VeriChip will allow doctors to call up my medical records . . . allow me to get money from an automatic teller machine by flashing my arm . . . reassure airport security that I am a journalist, not a terrorist. . . . .
''I believe the day will come when most of us will have something similar to the VeriChip under our skin,'' said Scott Silverman . . . ''People will regard that its benefits -- in terms of financial, security, and health care -- far outweigh the possibility of loss of privacy.''

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/140/science/Barcoding_humans+.shtml

3. Jayson Blair interview:

The lack of remorse speaks for itself in: http://www2.observer.com/observer/pages/frontpage5.asp


4. "We are risen apes" thinking in the local media:

Here a local secularist who has been watching Discovery and National Geographic cable channels attempts to explain human misbehaviour in terms of evolution. In so doing he makes some telling slips:

. . . Man and ape have 98 per cent of their genes in common <2 percent of 3,000,000,000 is a lot: 60,000,000. Think of the difference between "I am a murderer" and "I am NOT a murderer," writ large> and only two per cent distinguishes us in spite of appearances. Mentally and emotionally, the difference may be just as slight . . . . Our basic needs are the same as those of our ancestors . . . Food, . . . gave rise to the hunt for prey, herding of animals, agriculture of plants. Shelter, . . . now fabricated by us of wood or stone and varies from discarded containers to royal palaces. Sex, besides producing offspring, leads to wonderful and weird episodes in man's life including love, marriage, fornication, adultery, buggery and bestiality ­ a far greater range than the ape indulges.
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20030523/cleisure/cleisure3.html


5. Gay Agendas and theological implications:

The below suffices to raise questions about where this neo-pagan agenda is headed, even in our region, a region that so often takes its cues from the North:

* Dr Ted Jennings, a Chicago Theology Prof, argues that Jesus may have been "gay"; but it turns out he is a long-term Gay Theology advocate, one of the many liberal theologies that are out there. See http://www.cultureandfamily.org/articledisplay.asp?id=3986&department=CFI&categoryid=cfreport

* An African Cardinal, tipped as a possible succesor to John Paul II, speaking at the Jesuit Georgetown U, Washington DC, sparked student and staff protests for his remarks:

"In many parts of the world, the family is under siege," Cardinal Arinze said. "It is opposed by an anti-life mentality as is seen in contraception, abortion, infanticide and euthanasia. It is scorned and banalised by pornography, desecrated by fornication and adultery, mocked by homosexuality, sabotaged by irregular unions and cut in two by divorce."

See http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/22/1053585647833.html


* David Limbaugh (bro. to Rush and a practising Attorney at Law) comments on two pending California laws, and their impacts on the traditional family: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32729


6. Derailing the Roadmap to ME Peace?

WND reports that Abu Mazen, in an interview gave the following comments:

"Arafat is at the top of the [Palestinian] Authority. He's the man to whom we refer, regardless of the American or Israeli view of him," said Mahmoud Abbas in an interview with Egypt's semi-official al Mussawar weekly, according to Reuters.
Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, said Arafat's stamp of approval should precede any political action.

See: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32728


Clearly, there is much to pray and think about!

PS Do let me know what you think of the new blog format, a new template chosen to deal with the wide window headache. (Thanks Rowley!)

An alternative to ear-tickling games

You are invited to discuss the posting below (a proposed page for a reformation web site) in the eGroup: http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/caribbeankairos/.

Kairos in the Media: News and Commentary

The Caribbean's shores are being hard-hit by heavy, trip-hammer waves of crisis -- as Jesus suggested would happen as the age draws to a close. [Cf. Matt. 24:1 - 14.]

As a result, kairos is now not just a theological concept; it is in our daily news and commentary. We therefore need to understand how to interpret, discuss and act into our times in light of the biblical kairos concept, especially as it comes out in news, policy and education contexts.

Understanding Kairos

Acts 17:24 - 31 lays out the biblical framework for why God permits crisis in the lives of the nations:

The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times [kairous] set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek for him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us . . . . now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day in which he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.

However, in a world where many are blind to God's self-revelation in Christ and seek to undermine his proof that he is our Lord, Saviour and Judge -- through raising Jesus from the dead -- secularised and cynical news and commentary will reflect more of blind groping than of the hope that is in Jesus. As a result, we would do well to heed Paul's observations on the need for intellectual honesty:

[W]e have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our Good News [euaggelion, i.e. the gospel] is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so they cannot see the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. [2 Cor. 4:2 - 4.]

So, as the age draws on to the Day of the Lord, crisis, confusion and deception will contend with the good news of the gospel in a contest for the attention, hearts and minds of men. Thus, the Caribbean's media, political and educational spheres are increasingly becoming arenas of spiritual conflict over the truth, the right and the wise.

News, Views and the Good News in a Democratic age

As we look at the Caribbean's many interacting challenges and perspectives, it is clear from the above that we have to build a sound godly consensus if we are to consistently make and carry out the just and wise decisions that will help us build communities worth living in.

However, whether we are concerned over our long-standing economic and social woes, or over political or religious issues, or world affairs, much of our news and public debate brims over with shrill anger and ill-informed shallowness. As a result, it is power, bias, half-truth, outright lies and hidden agendas (rather than wisdom, truth and fairness) that tend to drive our discussion, opinions and policy or even personal decisions. Could this be why it too often seems that we "never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity"?

But also, in today's cynical post-modern age, the relativist's retort is all-too-ready: whose truth, fairness, and wisdom?

The best answer is nearly twenty-four hundred years old. For, the early Greek Philosophers had seen how Athens' democracy had collapsed: brilliant and clever (but ever so unsound and corrupt) leaders -- i.e. demagogues such as Alcibiades -- manipulated the citizens to make rash decisions that in the end cost them dear.

So, in his The Rhetoric, Aristotle pointed out how popular arguments usually appeal first of all to our emotions, then to our trust in "credible" authorities, and only in the last resort, to actual logical proof.

Sadly, while our emotions may rest on accurate perceptions, they often blind us to the truth. Worse, no authority is better than his or her facts and reasoning. In short, it is only when "facts" give a balanced view of the truth and are tied to correct reasoning that our conclusions are to be trusted. (Cf. the Apologetics Primer.)

In short, Democracy -- the ever-unfinished experiment in self-government by a free people -- comes with great responsibility under God. And, in light of Acts 17:24 - 31 and 2 Cor. 4:2 - 4, our duty to God includes submission to his Christ. To that, we may add a note of hope: "[Christ] redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the nations [ethne] through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Holy Spirit." [Gal 3:14.]

That is, the Gospel carries with it a hope for the blessing of the nations, through the power of the Spirit of Love, Truth, and Purity. Then, through this transforming, reforming and renewing blessing, we can:

put off falsehood and speak truthfully . . . work, doing something useful with [our] hands, that [we] may have something to share with those in need . . . . [speaking] what is helpful for building up others according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen . . . Get[ting] rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice . . . forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave [us] . . . . liv[ing] a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us . . . .

For [we] were once darkness, but now [we] are light in the Lord . . . . [we must] be very careful, then, how [we] live -- not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil . . . understand[ing] what the Lord's will is . . . be[ing] filled with the Spirit . . . always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. [Eph 4:25 - 5:20; cf. vv. 5:21 - 6:9 and 4:9 - 24; also Philemon vv. 8 - 21 on slavery.]

Clearly, receiving God's Good News would lead to a dramatically different focus for news and views, public policy and community life in our region!

Renewing News and Commentary in the Caribbean

This is obviously a daunting task, but I believe it is possible -- providing, we become a fountain of hope for a region that has long supped at the bitter wells of despair. That is, let us build on the principle that good (but realistic) news beats the bad in the long run.

How can it be done? I believe some practical steps include:

* Thinking through a godly, powerful framework for understanding our times and for promoting renewal and reformation towards blessing and growth. (I believe the fullness vision provides such a framework.)

* Tackling the Mars Hill challenge: exposing the inner instabilities in the messages and counsels of despair that currently dominate our media, campuses, schools, board-rooms, parliaments, streets and verandahs.

* Presenting a well thought-through path to positive change, through alternative media voices and education initiatives. (For instance, the growing blog phenomenon is one such platform, as is the eGroup; so are Christian media outlets and in some few cases, general media houses. [Cf. the Resources page for some links to regional media houses.] The web is also a powerful tool for education and training, as this site, the Kairos Focus web, demonstrates.)

* Carrying out strategic demonstration projects that show that the vision works on the ground, say through a proposed regional Institute for Discipleship, Reformation and Development. (Cf. the JTS/CGST 2002 Ethics Lecture.)

* Equipping, sending out and supporting disciples as they found alternative institutions, enterprises, schools, families and households that function as bases for ministry, think-tanks and other reformation initiatives across the region and beyond.

In short, it can be done, if only we are willing. Let's roll!