WashingtonPost.com | Jesus Poster Used for 2010 Census

Jesus posters promoting Census raise ire

An image of a poster distributed to churches nationwide
(Image courtesy of NALEO)

A poster showing Mary and Joseph heading to Bethlehem for a census and the birth of Christ is raising eyebrows among some evangelicals who consider it an inappropriate use of Christian symbolism for the secular headcount the government will conduct next year.

Thousands of the posters created by the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO) have been distributed to churches in an effort to raise awareness of the census among Hispanics. Most were printed in Spanish.

Luke 2:1-4 says that Jesus was born during a census ordered by Caesar Augustus so that the Roman world could be taxed. Though some historians question the accuracy of the account, Luke stated that everyone had to return to his ancestral town to be registered and taxed. Joseph went with Mary to Bethlehem.

The NALEO poster depicts that journey with an outline of Joseph leading Mary on a mule down a hillside in the direction of a large star. “This is how Jesus was born,” the poster says. “Joseph and Mary participated in the census.” In smaller letters to the side, it adds, “Don’t be afraid.”

The posters were dreamed up by NALEO, which is one of 136,000 “partners” to the Census Bureau, all volunteer organizations that are helping spread the message that the census is important, easy and safe. NALEO has been at the forefront of a national coalition of Latino groups promoting the census in a campaign called Ya es Hora, ¡Hagase Contar! or It’s Time, Make Yourself Count.

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http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2009/12/new_census_promotion_posters_r.html

UN Resolution Would Criminalize Christianity

Attorney Jay Sekulow from the American Center for Law and Justice reports on the UN Resolution that would outlaw Christian expression worldwide according to International Law. Islam is on the march.




http://www.crosstalkblog.com/2009/11/un-resolution-would-criminalize-christianity/

Canada Free Press | The Islamification of America, and the Emasculation of the U.S. Military

By Jim O'Neill

“The Muslims refuse our culture and try to impose their culture on us. I reject them, and this is not only my duty toward my culture—it is toward my values, my principles, my civilization.” —Oriana Fallaci (1929-2006)

“There exists a law, not written down anywhere, but in our hearts…. I refer to the law which lays it down that, if our lives are endangered by plots, or violence, or armed robbers, or enemies, any and every method of protecting ourselves is morally right.”—Cicero (106-43 BC)

It is well known that the Far Left and Islamic terrorists are in cahoots, as are liberals and “moderate” Muslims. Both sides are using the other as “useful idiots” to further their agendas—one ideological, and the other theological. One is using clandestine sabotage and subterfuge, while the other openly promotes global jihad.

Their common enemy is the “Great Satan” of the United States of America, which they agree, must be destroyed in order for their plans to proceed. For the time being, they are in league with one another.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon remains asleep at the wheel, busily enmeshed in asinine internecine squabbles, hamstringing our fighting forces, and covering their butts from charges of being politically incorrect.

They have taken an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies—foreign and domestic. But you sure wouldn’t know it from their betrayal of America’s fighting men and women, America’s citizens, and America herself.

Political correctness is a poison introduced by the Far Left over a period of decades. The infiltration of the U.S. Military by Muslims, is a fairly recent phenomenon traceable to Saudi Arabia, and the first Gulf War (1990-1991).

According to Harvard’s Dr. Gal Luft, “While the Saudis were adamantly opposed to any expression of religious practice by their guests, including a ban on Christmas carols, bible classes and Christian and Jewish prayers, they embarked on a well-orchestrated and generously funded effort sponsored by the Saudi government to convert as many American military members as possible to Islam.”

Luft concludes, “...it is time to investigate what exactly happened back then in the desert, and assess how serious and deep-rooted the damage is.”

Read More...

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/17729

Fears for Pope's health as Christmas Midnight Mass to be held early

READ MORE:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6947161.ece

Examiner.com | Religious leaders advocate civil disobedience - Addresses ongoing fight with the current administration overstepping the boundaries

November 27, 2009 - A coalition of approximately 150 religious leaders have signed and released a document called the Manhattan Declaration. Reports say the document is aimed at the Obama Administration. The document simply cites the trials and tribulations religion has faced throughout history and declares that a religious people will not tolerate religious persecution. It has been an ongoing fight but the current administration just happens to be overstepping the boundaries.

Thanksgiving was a good day to reflect on this because the first settlers came to America to escape that very thing. Christian, Catholic, and Orthodox leaders came together to sign this declaration in light of what lies ahead and what has been happening here in America today.

Citizens are being threatened with jail for not paying taxes that go towards abortion and against their religious beliefs. The Constitution of the United States clearly protects religious beliefs so why would anyone not wishing to participate be threatened? Harry Reid once said that taxes were voluntary. Are they? It would seem to most that civil disobedience is an American tradition. Did the founders not rebel? more...

Source:

http://www.examiner.com/x-16500-Lake-County-Independent-Examiner~y2009m11d27-Religious-leaders-advocate-civil-disobedience

Jewish Telegraphic Agency JTA |Obama to speak at the General Assembly of UJC/Jewish Federations of North America set to take place Nov 9th

Oct. 23, 2009

WASHINGTON (JTA ) -- President Barack Obama is speaking next month to the General Assembly of UJC/Jewish Federations of North America.

The speech, set to take place on Nov. 9, will be his first as president to a broad Jewish audience. Some Israeli figures and some leaders of the organized Jewish community have complained that Obama has not done enough to explain his positions on Middle East peacemaking.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will also announce this weekend that he is attending in person, sources said.

Miami Herald | Vatican decision to allow disgruntled Anglicans to join the Roman Catholic Church en masse unlikely to impact South Florida churches

Pew Forum reports that 60% of Muslims live in Asia - 20% in the Middle East & North Africa combined

http://www.talkzimbabwe.com/news/126/ARTICLE/5487/2009-10-09.html
THE Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has published a report showing that the world Muslim population is up to about 1.8 billion while the number of Christians in the world is estimated at up to 2.2 billion.

The study shows that over 60 percent of Muslims live in Asia, while only 20 percent live in the Middle East and North Africa combined.

Amaney Jamal, Assistant Professor at Princeton University confirmed, “This whole idea that Muslims are Arabs and Arabs are Muslims is really just obliterated by this Report”. (The Jakarta Post 09.10.09 quoting Eric Grosky).

Indonesia alone will overtake the economic size of Japan, UK and Germany by about 2040 (see Standard Chartered Bank Special report 02.09.09) to become the seventh or eighth economic power in the world, with a population of about 285 million.

This will help pull the Muslim center of gravity firmly from the Middle East to Asia, while Middle East oil will start to decline in political and economic significance.

The Pew Report confirms that 75 percent of Muslims living as a minority in non-majority Muslim countries live in only five countries: India (161 million), Ethiopia (28 million), China (22 million), Russia (16 million) and Tanzania (13 million).

About 317 Muslims live as minorities in non-Muslim majority countries, while about 1.4 billion (the great majority) live in Muslim majority nations.

Two thirds of all Muslims live in only ten countries of which six are in Asia (Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Iran and Turkey), three are in North Africa (Egypt, Algeria and Morocco) and one in is in sub-Saharan Africa (Nigeria).

The Pew Report estimates the Muslim population of Indonesia at 203 million out of about 238 million (about 86 percent).

Europe is estimated to have a Muslim population of about 38 million people, or about 5 percent of the EU population.

Sadiq Khan, one of the four Muslim MPs in the British Parliament pointed out in 2008 that 62 percent of the 1.6 million British Muslims are either Pakistani or Bangladeshi, and that Muslims have the highest economic inactivity rate of any group in the UK (47.3 percent) and the highest rate of unemployment (16 percent).

Khan reported that 39 percent of all UK Muslims have no qualifications at all, while 60 percent of Pakistani children, and 72 percent of Bangladeshi children in the UK are raised in poverty. And Pakistanis and Bangladeshis have the highest birth rates in the UK. (Fabian Society Pamphlet 624/2008).

So the problem of underdevelopment in Muslim communities is not necessarily solved by migration. This requires targeted economic, social and political intervention wherever Muslim underdevelopment and backwardness is found.

While Orientalist or anti-Muslim commentators might relate these levels of under-development to the cultural context of Islam, the more likely explanation is that Muslim societies include strong pockets of under-development, tribalism and backwardness which have to be tackled.

However, Muslim scholars and writers such as Niyaz Fatehpuri, have concluded that backward religious teachers make for backward Muslim societies and that modernization and improved contextualization of religious education would help to tackle persistent poverty and underdevelopment (see Juli Shahin`s book published earlier this year in Pakistan, “The War Within Islam”, support@Ferozsons.com.pk).

Many global trouble spots are in Muslim countries or Muslim minority areas (Afghanistan, Iraq, Kashmir, Palestine, Pakistan, southern Philippines, Somalia, southern Thailand, Yemen and South Russia and the Central Asian Republics).

Extremist politicization of Islam based on injustices and problems in these areas tends to divert the attention of Muslim societies from core problems of poverty and underdevelopment.

Pakistan has become the pivotal point of the global struggle for Muslim modernization in terms of the battle against violent extremism and under-development and for consolidation of democracy and economic and social progress.

By contrast Indonesia and Turkey have both proven to be engines of economic and social development capable of reducing poverty and raising income levels, with full participation of Islamic parties in peaceful and democratic elections.

Telegraph.co.uk | Mahmoud Ahmadinejad revealed to have Jewish past

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's vitriolic attacks on the Jewish world hide an astonishing secret, evidence uncovered by The Daily Telegraph shows.

Published: 7:30AM BST 03 Oct 2009 A photograph of the Iranian president holding up his identity card during elections in March 2008 clearly shows his family has Jewish roots.

A close-up of the document reveals he was previously known as Sabourjian – a Jewish name meaning cloth weaver.

The short note scrawled on the card suggests his family changed its name to Ahmadinejad when they converted to embrace Islam after his birth.

The Sabourjians traditionally hail from Aradan, Mr Ahmadinejad's birthplace, and the name derives from "weaver of the Sabour", the name for the Jewish Tallit shawl in Persia. The name is even on the list of reserved names for Iranian Jews compiled by Iran's Ministry of the Interior.

Experts last night suggested Mr Ahmadinejad's track record for hate-filled attacks on Jews could be an overcompensation to hide his past.

Ali Nourizadeh, of the Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies, said: "This aspect of Mr Ahmadinejad's background explains a lot about him.

"Every family that converts into a different religion takes a new identity by condemning their old faith.

"By making anti-Israeli statements he is trying to shed any suspicions about his Jewish connections. He feels vulnerable in a radical Shia society."

A London-based expert on Iranian Jewry said that "jian" ending to the name specifically showed the family had been practising Jews.

"He has changed his name for religious reasons, or at least his parents had," said the Iranian-born Jew living in London. "Sabourjian is well known Jewish name in Iran."

A spokesman for the Israeli embassy in London said it would not be drawn on Mr Ahmadinejad's background. "It's not something we'd talk about," said Ron Gidor, a spokesman.

The Iranian leader has not denied his name was changed when his family moved to Tehran in the 1950s. But he has never revealed what it was change from or directly addressed the reason for the switch.

Relatives have previously said a mixture of religious reasons and economic pressures forced his blacksmith father Ahmad to change when Mr Ahmadinejad was aged four. FULL STORY

RussiaToday | Russia fined for refusing to recognize Scientology church

World’s Oldest Profession = Religion