Police Beef Up Security After Church Is Robbed 3 Times

BOSTON -- Boston police are searching for the thief who squeezed through a broken glass window at the Mission Church in Roxbury and was caught stealing on a surveillance camera.It's the third time in the past month that the church, which was the site of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's funeral in 2009, has been burglarized. Police are now beefing up patrols in the area.A white man with a reddish beard and a pink or red baseball cap, between 20 and 30, can be seen on the video breaking into the church office about midnight Monday.A church priest said the man stole a gold object. He called the theft disturbing and unsettling."It's nothing that anyone knows about. Nothing that we use on a regular basis. It might have been just some box that didn't have a whole lot of stuff in it, but no money," said the Rev. Raymond Collins."He walked past the shrine offering box," Collins said.The first theft took place in early November when a stained glass window was broken, and $300 was stolen from donation boxes. On Nov. 22, a burglar stole $150 after breaking in.It is not clear whether the same person committed all three burglaries."The video indicates that he appears to be somewhat in need and unstable, and that he needs some help. We do not know what he was after," Collins said.The priests will meet with police again Wednesday and will implement more stringent security measures. The Mission Church is not the only church that has been the target of burglars recently, and police said they were going to try to provide pastors with more security advice.

Read More: http://www.thebostonchannel.com/r/25969655/detail.html

High School Player Flagged For Praying After Touchdown

TACOMA —

Sports and religion clashed at the State High School Football playoffs in Tacoma Monday night. During the 2A semifinal game between East Valley and Tumwater one of the stars of the game got flagged for doing something millions of Americans do every day.

Like he's done so many times this season, Tumwater star running back Ronnie Hastie powered his way into the end zone then dropped to a knee and pointed to the sky.

"It's just something I do every time I get in the end zone to honor my Lord cause I play for him, I give him the glory cause he's the one that gives me the strength," said Hastie.

Except this time, the referee flagged Hastie for unsportsmanlike conduct, a 15 yard penalty and the fans were peeved.

"I think it was a pretty lousy call I think it's just a game, even if it is a prayer it should go on."

According to the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association's rules players cannot draw attention to themselves. So, when Hastie scored and raised his hand to heaven the refs said he was doing just that.

Hastie was humble about the call, "I was just confused cause I've done it every game and then I got flagged for it, I learned now so."

Even Tumwater's Head Coach Sid Otton believes the refs probably got the call right.

"If it's a rule and they made it then I agree with it because it's in there. I admire the young man. He's a great player, great person off the field too," said Otton.

The 15 yard penalty did not affect the outcome of the game, Tumwater still won big time, but one Tumwater fan told us it's legal to pray in his city in the end zone, but apparently not in Tacoma.

"Well, I thought it was pretty crummy that kids can't give thanks in public."

Read More: http://www.q13fox.com/news/kcpq-no-praying-in-the-end-zone-112910,0,4538168.story

U.S Veteran Fights To Prove He Is Alive To VA

Caswell County, NC -- An Army veteran is trying to prove he's alive so he can receive needed disability benefits.

Floyd Holmes, Jr. is sick, but alive. His wife, Marie, said after Holmes' son died several months ago, the Social Security Administration thought Floyd Holmes died. She said the couple straightened that out, but ever since, Floyd Holmes has not received his disability check from Veteran's Affairs.

"I'm about to have a nervous breakdown. I'm going to tell you the truth, I can't even think straight anymore. I get to walking around and doing circles, because I don't know what to do," Marie Holmes said.

Colon cancer started his health problems.

"It cost him his large intestines, then they got the infections, cost him his kidneys, which cost him his breathing," she said.

"I want those benefits back before we lose our home, before we freeze death," she said.

Floyd Holmes received treatment at a VA hospital as recently as the last couple of weeks, she said.

"They can't think he's dead, that's for darn sure or they're working on a dead man," she said.

Marie Holmes and an employee from the Durham VA Medical Center said they have not been able to get in touch with the proper people at Veterans Affairs regional office in Winston-Salem.

Read More:

http://www.digtriad.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=151200&catid

Giant Menorah In Central ParkTo Mark Start Of Hanukkah

(CNN) -- A giant menorah will light the sky above New York on Wednesday to mark the start of Hanukkah, a Jewish holiday celebrated for eight days and nights.

Jews celebrate Hanukkah by lighting candles each night in a menorah, an eight-branch candelabra with a ninth, elevated branch known as a shamash.

Organizers will light the first candle of what they called the world's largest menorah at Central Park. Lighting of the menorah will be held at 5:30 p.m. daily through December 8.

The 32-foot high, gold-colored, 4,000 pound steel structure features genuine oil lamps, according to organizers. It has glass chimneys to protect the lights from strong winds.

The menorah marks Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights that mostly falls in December.

"The menorah stands as a symbol of freedom and democracy, strength and inspiration, delivering a timely and poignant message to each person on an individual basis," said Rabbi Shmuel M. Butman, director Lubavitch Youth Organization.

The shamash, which is lit first, is used to light the others candles each night of the holiday.

The holiday of Hanukkah celebrates the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem after Syrians were chased out of the Holy Land. It also marks the eight days that a menorah burned with one day's worth of oil.

Celebrants exchange small gifts during Hanukkah.

Read More At: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/12/01/new.york.menorah.lighting/index.html

Atheist Group Spends $20,000 For Bilboard To Say Jesus's Birth Is A Myth

MYFOXNY.COM - A group called the American Atheists has paid for a huge billboard on Route 495 outside the Lincoln Tunnel in North Bergen, N.J., that is raising some eyebrows.

The billboard shows a silhouette of the Three Wise Men approaching the Nativity, with the words: "You KNOW it's a Myth / This Season, Celebrate REASON!"

The group says the billboard is not designed to convert Christians to atheism. Rather, Dave Silverman, a spokesman for the American Atheists, says the sign is designed to encourage existing atheists who are going through the motions of celebrating Christmas to stop.

On its website, the group also states that the billboard is meant to "attack the myth that Christianity owns the solstice season" and to "raise the awareness of the organization and the movement."

The American Atheists said the billboard cost $20,000. It is scheduled to remain on display through the holiday season.

Smithsonian Removes Controversal Video After Catholic Group Makes Complaint

Found at NewsMax.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery quickly removed a video Tuesday that was part of an exhibit after complaints from a Catholic group that the images were sacrilegious.

Catholic League President Bill Donohue said the video by artist David Wojnarowicz depicting ants crawling on a crucifix was "hate speech" and designed to insult Christians.

After he was alerted to the piece Monday night by a New York Post reporter, Donohue began a campaign to urge Congress to cut public funding for the Smithsonian museum complex, he told The Associated Press.

"This is not the first time the Smithsonian has offended us," he said. "I'm going to cast my net much wider. Why should the government pay for this? ... How dare they take our money to fund attacks on (our religion)."

The Smithsonian receives public funding for its staff and facilities, but its exhibits are funded privately.

It's unusual for the Smithsonian to bow to public complaints so quickly, and curators were aware the exhibit could be controversial. Smithsonian spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas said the museum is responsive to its public audience but will stand behind the overall exhibit. The piece in question was on a video kiosk, and visitors had to call it up to view it. It was not a dominant part of the exhibit.

Donohue said his group has objected in the past to an article in Smithsonian magazine that he said was anti-Catholic and also to the museum featuring the work of artist Andres Serrano in 1996 because he had created a piece years earlier that placed a crucifix in his urine.

National Portrait Gallery Director Martin Sullivan said in a statement about the current video that Wojnarowicz's intention was to depict the suffering of an AIDS victim. He said the museum did not intend to offend anyone.

"I regret that some reports about the exhibit have created an impression that the video is intentionally sacrilegious," Sullivan said.

The video was made when the artist was suffering with AIDS in Mexico in the 1980s, Sullivan said. Part of the idea is that humans are made in Christ's image and that "we're all going back into the earth, that we're decaying," he said.

"If you look at Latin American art and imagery, really over time there are a lot of portrayals of Christian iconography with suffering, agony and death," Sullivan said.

The piece is part of the first major museum exhibit to show how sexual orientation and gender identity have shaped American art. The exhibit of 105 works is on view through February.

Portrait Gallery spokeswoman Bethany Bentley said attention on the video "has become a distraction to the larger themes of the exhibition." No visitors complained about the exhibit the day after Thanksgiving, one of the museum's busiest days of the year, she said.

When told the Smithsonian removed the video, Donohue said he was "relieved they made the right decision" and that the removal relieves his objections "a great deal." He said he did not object to the exhibit as a whole but specifically to parts he considered anti-Christian.

In the past, the New York-based Catholic League has protested an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum that included a portrait of the Virgin Mary, surrounded by elephant dung. Then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani called for city funding to the museum to be frozen, but a judge later ruled the move violated the First Amendment.

Donohue said he didn't believe the artwork at the Smithsonian was intended to portray an AIDS patient.

"If they're concerned about making a statement about AIDS, they could have chosen a better way to do it instead of insult us," he said. "I have more respect for art than these people do apparently."

Mother, Father and Their New Baby Share Same Birthday

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- When Jamal White, Jr. entered the world Wednesday at Regions Hospital he had already accomplished something with extremely long odds. He managed to share the same birth date with his parents, Tiara and Jamal White, Sr.

Jamal, Jr. was born on Wednesday, Nov. 24, the same birthday shared by his parents, who live in Saint Paul.

"He's the best birthday present we could ever had," Tiara told KARE, "Now his birthday will be the only one that matters to us."

Jamal Jr. was born at 10 a.m. Wednesday, and is a healthy 7 pounds, 13 ounces. He's the first child for both Jamal and Tiara.

"It's just fate!" said Jamal, Sr. about sharing the same birth date with his wife and first child.

The couple already shared the same last name when they met in 2009. Jamal, Sr. told Tiara, "It's fate. Same last name and birthday!"

Tiara laughed. "I didn't believe him at first. Then he showed me his drivers license and sure enough, same last name, same birthday!"

Tiara, who was born at the same hospital, didn't need any I.D. for her end of that conversation. Her birthdate, 11-24-1989 appears in a tatoo on her left shoulder right below the word "Saggitarius."

It wasn't planned that way and the birth was not induced to create a birthday that will be easy for the White family to remember.

"They told us he was due November 19th," Tiara said, "And that if he wasn't born by the 26th they'd induce labor."

When she went into labor on the 23rd, she thought for sure the babe would come that day.

"It was a really long labor," Jamal said.

"Yes, he hung in there, almost as if he was determined to come on the 24th," Tiara added.

The odds of three persons in the same family sharing the same birthday, according to one mathematician, is one in 133,155. Although the dynamics of that probability equation (365 x 365)would be affected by the fact that Jamal's parents chose to be together.

click to read full story from kare11.com

President Obama To Freeze Federal Wages For 2 Years

Click to read full story from CNNMoney.com

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- President Obama will announce a two-year freeze in the wages of federal employees Monday, with the intention of saving $60 billion over the next 10 years.

Obama was scheduled to announce the proposal later Monday.

According to an administration statement, the two-year pay freeze will save $2 billion for the remainder of fiscal year 2011, $28 billion over the next five years, and more than $60 billion over the next decade.

The freeze does not apply to military personnel, but will apply to all civilian federal employees, including those in various alternative pay plans and those working at the Department of Defense.

"This freeze is not to punish federal workers or to disrespect the work that they do," the White House said in a statement. "It is the first of many actions we will take in the upcoming budget to put our nation on sound fiscal footing -- which will ask for some sacrifice from us all."

Wycliffe Bible Translators Raise $250M To Help Finish Last 2,000 Translations

click to read original article from Christian Post.com
The world’s largest Bible translation organization has already raised nearly $250 million, or one-fourth of its $1 billion goal, for the campaign to translate the Bible into every language by 2025.

Even in the current economic tough times, supporters donated generously and helped the campaign make significant progress within two years, said Wycliffe’s president. The ten-year Last Languages Campaign has the ambitious goal of beginning Bible translation for all languages that still need the scriptures by 2025.

“To raise nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in two years is impressive even in a booming economy. In the current climate, it’s nothing short of miraculous,” said Bob Creson, Wycliffe USA president and CEO. “We are so grateful to God and our supporters who partner with us to make sure that all people have access to the Bible in the language and form that is most meaningful to them.”

When the campaign first launched in November 2008, an anonymous donor gave an astounding sum of $50 million to Wycliffe for the Last Languages Campaign. It was the largest single gift in the ministry’s 75-year history.

More than 2,000 languages still lack translations of the Bible, leaving more than 350 million people without Scripture in their own languages. The Last Languages Campaign was launched to gather people, prayer and financial resources to at least start Bible translation in all remaining languages within our lifetime.

“In spite of economic uncertainty at home and a daunting task abroad-including political roadblocks, security concerns, restricted access to certain locations and the sheer number of languages yet to be translated – we are is participating in the greatest acceleration of the pace of Bible translation in history,” Creson said. “These financial resources will ensure that the mission stays on this pace.”

There are more than 6,000 languages spoken in the world and about a third of them do not have Scripture translation. The Last Languages Campaign will use cutting-edge translation techniques to accelerate the pace of language development and Bible translation from 125 years to 17 years.

In 1999, Wycliffe was averaging 20 new translation starts a year and there were about 3,000 languages left.

Ten years later, however, Wycliffe had 109 new translation starts in 2009. The average new translation starts for the past 10 years is 75, noted Paul Edwards, executive director of Wycliffe’s Last Language Campaign, in an earlier interview with The Christian Post.

“Our hope and desire as we look at 2010-2011 is that North American churches can wake up to and choose to engage in this thrilling, final lap,” said Edwards. “Can you name another 2,000-year-long continuous movement that is going to have its closing in our lifetime?”

The exact amount given in pledges to the Last Languages Campaign as of Oct. 31 is $231.5 million.

Founded in 1942, Wycliffe Bible Translators exists to make the Bible accessible to all people in the language and form that is most meaningful for them. Nearly 6,000 translators, linguists, aviators, humanitarian workers, educators and administrators, along with dozens of partnering organizations, are working in 90 countries on six continents.

Besides Bible translation, Wycliffe also contributes to community development by establishing water purification systems, AIDS education, human rights and community empowerment programs.

2 Churches Torn Down In Tanzania

click to read original article from Christian Post.com
ZANZIBAR, Tanzania (CDN) - Radical Islamists are suspected in the demolition of two church buildings on Tanzania’s semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar on Sunday (Nov. 21), as members of the congregations have since received death threats from Muslims.

The church buildings belonging to the Tanzania Assemblies of God (TAG) and the Evangelical Assemblies of God Zanzibar (EAGZ) in Masingini village, five kilometers (nearly three miles) from the center of Zanzibar city, were torn down at about 8 p.m., said Bishop Fabian Obeid of EAGZ. Mwera police received reports on the attacks on Monday morning (Nov. 22).

The latest in a string of violent acts aimed at frightening away Christians in the Muslim-dominated region, the destruction on the island off the coast of East Africa has raised fears that Muslim extremists could go to any length to limit the spread of Christianity, church leaders said.

“One Muslim was heard saying, ‘We have cleansed our area by destroying the two churches, and now we are on our mission to kill individual members of these two churches – we shall not allow the church to be built again,’” said one church member who requested anonymity.

The TAGT brick building was under construction and nearing completion; members of the congregation had gone to worship in their new building for the first time on Sunday. The EAGT building where more than 30 members met was a mud structure.

EAGT Pastor Michael Maganga and TAG Pastor Dickson Kaganga said they were fearful about the future of the church in Masingini. Pastors in Zanzibar have scheduled a meeting on Saturday (Nov. 27) to discuss how to cope with the destruction of the two buildings, said the chairman of the Pastors Fellowship in Zanzibar, Bishop Leonard Masasa of EAGT church.

Muslim extremists in Zanzibar, in concert with local government officials, have long limited the ability of Christians to obtain land for erecting worship buildings. In some cases they have destroyed existing buildings and put up mosques in their place.

Frustrated at obtaining government help to apprehend criminals, church leaders said they have little hope that the perpetrators of Monday’s attacks will ever be caught. In most cases the government sides with the attackers, delaying investigation out of fear of upsetting the majority Muslim population that opposes the spread of Christianity.

In 2009, officials in Mwanyanya-Mtoni colluded with area Muslims to erect a mosque in place of a planned church building of the EAGZ, Pastor Paulo Kamole Masegi said.

Pastor Masegi had purchased land in April 2007 for a church building in Mwanyanya-Mtoni, and by November of that year he had built a house that served as a temporary worship center, he said. Soon area Muslim residents objected.

In August 2009, local Muslims began to build a mosque just three feet away from the church plot. In November 2009, Pastor Masegi began building a permanent church structure. Angry Muslims invaded the compound and destroyed the structure’s foundation, the pastor said.

Church leaders reported the destruction to police, who took no action – and also refused to release the crime report, so that the case could not go to court, Pastor Masegi said.

Meantime, construction of the mosque was completed in December 2009. The planned church building’s fate appeared to have been sealed earlier this year when Western District Commissioner Ali Mohammed Ali notified Pastor Masegi that he had no right to hold worship in a house.

Zanzibar is the informal designation for the island of Unguja in the Indian Ocean. The Zanzibar archipelago united with Tanganyika to form the present day Tanzania in 1964.

Muslim traders from the Persian Gulf had settled in the region early in the 10th century after monsoon winds propelled them through the Gulf of Aden. The 1964 merger left island Muslims uneasy about Christianity, seeing it as a means by which mainland Tanzania might dominate them, and tensions have persisted.