ETERNAL FLAME NEWS: Jun 27, 2011

Monday, June 27, 2011

579 Ethiopian Muslims Jailed For Attacks On Christians

(One News Now)(Ethiopia is cracking down on those who have been targeting Christians, and the spokesman of one international group hopes that will bring a new level of understanding to other anti-Christian radicals. (See earlier story)

The Ethiopian military was needed to end the week-long rampage that began March 2. Jonathan Racho of International Christian Concern (ICC) tells OneNewsNow the suspects were rounded up and put on trial.

"Ethiopian courts sentenced 579 Muslims to prison terms ranging from three months to 18 years, and the court sentenced the Muslims to the prison terms for taking part in violence against Christians that left one Christian dead," he reports.

Muslim symbol Many other believers were injured, and 69 churches were burned to the ground, along with several Christian homes and other Christian properties.

"We also learned that an additional 107 individuals are accused of terrorism for their roles in attacks against the Christians, and the public prosecutors have brought charges against them in federal court," Racho explains.

Police are currently searching for eight people who are thought to be the masterminds behind the attacks. ICC is hopeful the prosecutions will prompt other extremists to understand that similar actions will mean consequences.

Lady Gaga Sued Over Japan Disaster Relief Bracelet Proceeds

Just before she headlined Saturday night's Japan disaster relief benefit concert, Lady Gaga was sued over the bracelets she's been selling for the same cause.

According to the federal class action, the do-gooder pop star wasn't exactly being honest when her Web site claimed all the proceeds from sales of her "We Pray for Japan" wristbands would go to help victims of the March earthquake and tsunami.

A Detroit-era legal network said in its complaint, filed Friday, that Gaga kept part of the $5 that every customer paid for a wristband and inflated shipping charges so she could pocket more. She then counted even the money she allegedly pocketed in her donation figures, artificially inflating donation numbers, in order to make more money, the suit charged.

Gaga's deceptive advertising and personal profits from the bracelets violated federal racketeering laws and a slew of consumer protection laws, too, the suit claimed.

"When we tried to communicate with the defendants in this lawsuit, all we got was, 'well, some of the money is being retained, but we don't really know how much,'" said the 1-800-LAW-FIRM lawyer who sued, Alyson Oliver.

U.S Suburb Under State Of Emergency After Rise In Gun Violence

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Darby Borough, Delaware County is under a State of Emergency due to a recent uptick of gun violence.

Five shootings in three days led to the announcement Friday night.

Mayor Helen Thomas announced the state of emergency telling residents the gun violence had to stop.

“I Mayor Helen R Thomas declare a state of emergency.”

Officials say the shootings were not fatal and they seem unrelated, but something had to be done to curb the violenc.

An 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew is in effect for adults and juveniles for at least 10 days.

Anyone outside during that time can be stopped and questioned by police, though Police Chief Bob Smythe says they’re more concerned about groups loitering or causing trouble.

“You’re in a group of more than three people and you are causing a disturbance. You’re going to be stopped and you’re going to be cited,” says Smythe.

A larger police presence is expected on the streets and Mayor Thomas says after the 10 days, officials will re-evaluate and go from there.

China To Buy UK's/Europe's Debt To Save The Euro

It is in the interest of cash-rich China to help resolve the eurozone debt crisis, but Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, who is visiting Britain and Continental Europe, will want a share of the West’s buying power in return .

As Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, stepped off his plane in Birmingham on Saturday, it was difficult to avoid the feeling that the UK, and Europe, have never looked weaker in Chinese eyes.

In private, senior Chinese diplomats are now openly scornful of Britain’s economic prospects and have even asked why Mr Wen should grace such a weak trading partner with three days of his time.

Indeed, it is telling that the first stop on Mr Wen’s tour is Longbridge, the old MG Rover car factory that passed into Chinese hands in 2005. Once a byword for poor productivity, wildcat strikes and trade union power in its British Leyland and Austin Rover days, the plant is now host to China’s biggest industrial presence in the UK. Owned by Shanghai Automobile Industry Corporation, the factory designs and assembles MG cars in the UK made from car parts manufactured in China.

However, the Longbridge site remains the only major example of Sino-British co-operation, something that the Prime Minister, David Cameron, whose advisers have helped co-ordinate the visit, is determined to change.

On Mr Cameron’s visit to China last year, a target was announced for increasing bilateral UK-China trade to $100bn by 2015, from its 2010 total of $63bn and Number 10 sources said yesterday that they believe that “progress has been made” on hitting that figure.

Whether much more can be achieved depends partly on the success of the visit, which includes a formal summit in London tomorrow with a 35-strong Chinese delegation including China’s foreign minister Yang Jiechi, vice-minister for foreign affairs, Fu Ying, and minister of commerce, Chen Deming.

In formal business and personal conversations between Mr Wen and the British trade minister and former HSBC chairman Lord Green, who is accompanying the premier around Longbridge today, the UK message will be about further strengthening state and business ties with a view to achieving growth and sending that bilateral figure higher.

Meanwhile, Culture, Media and Sport Cabinet minister, Jeremy Hunt, who is accompanying Mr Wen to William Shakespeare’s birthplace of Stratford-upon-Avon, will be seeking to set up a formal structure of future summits to develop better “people” relationships between the countries with a particular focus on education, science and culture.

In London, where Mr Wen may go, apparently, for a jog in Hyde Park, the main topics for discussion will be the weighty topics of climate change (China is now one of the world’s leaders in green technology), the global economy, international security and development.

While Number 10 was refusing to comment yesterday on what else could be on the agenda, the Middle East and the economic crisis in Greece are also expected to come up for discussion.

Yesterday, at the start of his European visit in Hungary, Mr Wen gave a strong pledge of China’s support for the embattled euro, saying that China will buy Hungarian government bonds and “consistently” support the euro as Europe attempts to fight its way out of a sovereign debt crisis. “China is a long term investor in Europe’s sovereign debt market,” he said at a press conference with the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban. “In recent years we have increased by quite a big margin our holdings of government bonds. We will consistently continue to support Europe and the euro.”

Supreme Courts Says Banning The Sale Or Rental Of Violent Video Games To Children Violates Their 1st And 4th Amendment Rights

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court says California cannot ban the rental or sale of violent video games to children.

The high court agreed Monday with a federal court's decision to throw out California's ban on the sale or rental of violent video games to minors. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Sacramento said the law violated minors' rights under the First and Fourteenth amendments.

The law would have prohibited the sale or rental of violent games to anyone under 18. Retailers who violated the act would have been fined up to $1,000 for each infraction.

The court on a 7-2 vote said the law was unconstitutional.

More than 46 million American households have at least one video-game system, with the industry bringing in at least $18 billion in 2010.

NY Catholic Bishops Now Expect Efforts 'to Enact Gov't Sanctions Against Churches'

(CNSNews.com) - As New York enacted a law late Friday that legalizes same-sex marriage in the state, the Roman Catholic bishops of New York released a statement saying they now expect efforts to enact laws that go after churches that insist on teaching the "timeless truths" about marriage and family.

"We strongly uphold the Catholic Church's clear teaching that we always treat our homosexual brothers and sisters with respect, dignity and love," the bishops said.

"But we just as strongly affirm that marriage is the joining of one man and one woman in a lifelong, loving union that is open to children, ordered for the good of those children and the spouses themselves," the bishops said. "This definition cannot change, though we realize that our beliefs about the nature of marriage will continue to be ridiculed, and that some will even now attempt to enact government sanctions against churches and religious organizations that preach these timeless truths."

The statement was signed by the bishops of all eight Roman Catholic diocese in the state of New York, led by Archbishop Timothy Dolan of the Manhattan-based Archdiocese of New York. The other bishops signing the statement included Bishop Howard Hubbard of the Albany Diocese, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of the Brooklyn Diocese, Bishop Edward Kmiec of the Buffalo Diocese, Bishop Terry LaValley of the Ogdensburg Diocese, Bishop Matthew H. Clark of the Rochester Diocese, Bishop William Murphy of the Rockville Centre Diocese, and Bishop Robert Cunningham of the Syracuse Diocese.

The New York State Senate passed the same-sex marriage bill late Friday and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Catholic, signed the bill into law at 11:55 Friday night. The state assembly has passed the bill the week before. The law will go into effect in 30 days.

The law was enacted just in time for New York City's annual "gay pride" parade, which takes place on Sunday. The parade runs along Fifth Avenue, passing directly in front of Saint Patrick's Cathedral, the seat of the Catholic Archdiocese of New York.

"The passage by the legislature of a bill to alter radically and forever humanity's historic understanding of marriage leaves us deeply disappointed and troubled," the New York bishops said in their statement.

"We worry that both marriage and the family will be undermined by this tragic presumption of government in passing this legislation that attempts to redefine these cornerstones of civilization," they said.

"Our society must regain what it appears to have lost--a true understanding of the meaning and the place of marriage, as revealed by God, grounded in nature, and respected by America's foundational principles," said the bishops.

The Declaration of Independence justified the American colonies' break from Great Britain based on "the Laws of Nature and Nature's God" and famously stated that all men "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights."

New York State Sen. Ruben Diaz was the only state senator to speak out against the same-sex marriage bill on the Senate floor yesterday. "God, not Albany, has settled the definition of marriage a long time ago," Diaz said.

Diaz is a minister in the Church of God.

Emergent Church Leader Believes Being "Gay" Can Be A Biblical Lifestyle

World Net Daily--One of the key leaders of today's most cutting-edge church movement has opened an Internet discussion on the issue of same-sex marriage with the bold proclamation that he believes "gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual and queer" individuals can and should live out their sexuality in – and blessed by – the Christian church.

"I now believe that GLBTQ can live lives in accord with biblical Christianity (as least as much as any of us can!)," writes author and church leader Tony Jones, "and that their monogamy can and should be sanctioned and blessed by church and state."

Jones is an author and former youth pastor who holds a doctorate from Princeton Theological Seminary. He is also the national coordinator of Emergent Village, a loosely-formed friendship of churches that derive their descriptive name from having "emerged" from postmodernism to take the gospel of Jesus Christ into a post-Christian culture.

The "Emergent Church," as these mostly young, community- and mission-driven congregations are collectively known, is criticized by some for being "theologically liberal," praised by others as the best hope for passing the torch of Christianity to future generations.

In his "The New Christians" blog, Jones opens up a discussion and debate on the issue of homosexuality with his readers and with a fellow theologian/blogger, a self-described political conservative, Rod Dreher.

Jones quotes a former professor of his, who Jones says was active in the civil rights movement:

"Civil rights and abortion will be nothing compared to how the church has to deal with homosexuality," his professor said. "I'm glad it's your generation and not mine who'll have to figure that out."

In Jones' blog, he tells his personal story as a straight man trying to understand homosexuality: from his mother's assurance that she will love him "no matter whom he loves," to a high school friend who was likely a closet homosexual and who died of AIDS.

Despite recounting his earlier days of arguing that "biblical prohibitions to homosexual sex should be taken seriously," Jones admits his experiences and feelings led him toward a different conclusion.

"And yet," Jones writes, "all the time I could feel myself drifting toward acceptance that gay persons are fully human persons and should be afforded all of the cultural and ecclesial benefits that I am."

Jones acknowledges that detractors against the somewhat nebulous and hard-to-define Emergent churches will pick up on his statement and repeat a common refrain of criticism.

"'Aha!' my critics will laugh derisively, 'I knew he and his ilk were on a continuous leftward slide!'" Jones admits.

Some of the comments show he was correct in his prediction.

"So, your statement is that you believe this. ... Why do you believe it? Because it seems right to you?" asks a respondent identified as Michael C.

"I suppose if you re-define Biblical Christianity to mean: whatever I believe is biblical Christianity, and there is no outside authority to judge it – then yes it can be in accord. If however you mean biblical Christianity as judged by the Bible, then no it cannot be in accord," Michael C. writes. "I'm sorry to say but these arguments that I've heard from the Emergent movement seem to rely a whole lot more pleading and a lot less on Biblical exegesis (our rule and faith – especially when you say 'biblical' Christianity)."

Other comments, naturally, supported same-sex marriage.

"Gay people exist," writes Public Defender. "Gay families exist. Society cannot stop gay people from having sex or raising families. Why do you want to discourage monogamy and stable homes for these children?"

Fellow blogger and theologian Rod Dreher, whom Jones invited into a "blogalogue" on the subject, summed up his argument this way:

"Emotionally, I'd just as soon say, 'Let everybody marry, it's nothing to me.' I want my gay friends to be happy," writes Dreher. "But truth is not determined by emotion, as I see it, and certainly I find it epistemologically arrogant to assume that an early 21st-century white American bourgeois male can stand in judgment of Scripture and the Church, and the long, long experience of humankind on marriage."