Subject: ar-talk digest: July 21, 1999
Date: 7/22/99 7:00 AM
Received: 7/22/99 12:52 PM
From: Apologetics Resources (sharing, Q & A, no debate) digest, ar-talk@X
To: ar-talk digest recipients, ar-talk@XC.Org
Apologetics Resources (sharing, Q & A, no debate) Digest for Wednesday, July 21, 1999.
1. Fwd: Amazon.com Delivers Christian Books
2. ANN: Craig Hawkins
3. Re: Fwd: Amazon.com Delivers Christian Books
4. Religion Items in the News - July 22, 1999 (Vol. 3, Issue 96)
5. Re: Piece on Scientology
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Fwd: Amazon.com Delivers Christian Books
From: Rich Poll <apologia@XC.Org>
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 13:51:59 -0000
X-Message-Number: 1
---------------- Begin Forwarded Message ----------------
Date: 7/20/99 9:17 PM
Received: 7/21/99 11:10 AM
From: christian-books-editor@amazon.com
[...]
WHAT WE'RE READING
******************
[...]
"God's Funeral"
by A.N. Wilson
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393047458/ref=ad_chb1
A.N. Wilson discusses the decline of orthodox Christianity
in Victorian Britain in "God's Funeral," a perceptive
intellectual history detailing the purported "death of God."
SNEAK PEEK: PHILIP YANCEY'S "THE BIBLE JESUS READ"
**************************************************
"My brother, who attended a Bible college during a very
smart-alecky phase in his life, enjoyed shocking groups of
believers by sharing his 'life verse.' After listening to
others quote pious phrases from Proverbs, Romans, or
Ephesians, he would stand and with a perfectly straight face
recite very rapidly this verse from 1 Chronicles 26:18: 'At
Parbar westward, four at the causeway, and two at Parbar.'"
Continue reading from Philip Yancey's "The Bible Jesus Read."
http://www.amazon.com/yancey-excerpt
[...]
CHRISTIAN BESTSELLERS
*************************
"Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics"
by Norman L. Geisler
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0801021510/ref=ad_chb1
"Handbook of Denominations in the United States" (10th Edition)
by Frank S. Mead and Samuel S. Hill
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0687014786/ref=ad_chb1
"Invitation to the Classics"
edited by Louise Cowan and OS Guinness
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0801011566/ref=ad_chb1
[...]
To become a new Amazon.com Delivers subscriber, or to sign
up for additional categories, visit
http://www.amazon.com/delivers
----------------- End Forwarded Message -----------------
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Rich Poll <richpoll@apologia.org> <apologia@xc.org>
Editor, Apologia Report; 24040 Alpine Dr/Box 552
Crestline, CA 92325; ph/fx (909) 338-4873; <www.apologia.org>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: ANN: Craig Hawkins
From: Jeff Downs <jdeff@lancnews.infi.net>
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 17:19:24 -0400
X-Message-Number: 2
Do you miss hearing Craig Hawkins on the radio? If so he can now be
heard every Sunday night as he co-hosts "Living By The Word" on KKLA
99.5 FM and 1240 AM (simulcast).
This can be heard over the internet at: 9:30 pm PST at: www.kkla.com
In HIM,
Jeff Downs
Around the World:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Fwd: Amazon.com Delivers Christian Books
From: ahein@apologeticsindex.org (Anton Hein)
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 21:55:13 GMT
X-Message-Number: 3
On Wed, 21 Jul 1999 13:51:59 -0000 Rich Poll wrote:
>"God's Funeral"
>by A.N. Wilson
>http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393047458/ref=ad_chb1
>A.N. Wilson discusses the decline of orthodox Christianity
>in Victorian Britain in "God's Funeral," a perceptive
>intellectual history detailing the purported "death of God."
Book Review:
'God's Funeral' Shows Old Issues Endure
Los Angeles Times, July 10, 1999
http://www.latimes.com/excite/990710/t000061588.html
(...) The funeral was widely anticipated, but as A. N. Wilson shows in
his eloquent, quirky book, reports of God's demise were premature.
The title of Wilson's latest work comes from a poem by Thomas Hardy.
Wilson, whose previous books have tackled religious icons such as St.
Paul and religious thinkers such as C. S. Lewis, uses the poem as an
organizing principle. He depicts the 19th century as a steady
progression from skepticism about God to agnosticism and then finally
to disbelief. Yet, Wilson shows, the need for God and the desire to
believe in an immanent, transcendent power was more deeply rooted than
thinkers such as Freud and Nietzsche had supposed.
(...)
In part, Wilson's goal is simply to show that the contest today between
Protestant fundamentalism and secular society, or between militant
Islamic fundamentalism and Western mores, is a rehash of similar
battles in the 19th century. But he also uses the theme of how science
and reason corroded traditional notions of God and religion as an
excuse for writing a rambling, tangential series of biographical
sketches of the leading intellectual and literary lights of 19th
century Britain.
The result is a book that is at once entertaining, complicated,
obscure, confusing and poetic. It is also very English, in that it
assumes an education that would make the reader familiar with names
such as Matthew Arnold, Thomas Carlyle, David Hume, Immanuel Kant,
Alfred Lord Tennyson, Lord Gladstone, Herbert Spenser and dozens of
other figures who fueled the engine of 19th century English culture.
(...)
He offers compelling portraits of everyone he discusses, but at times
he seems to be writing about a world as alien and distant from us today
as ancient Babylon.
(...)
Wilson depicts not only those who spurred God's death, but also those
who reacted.
(...)
It's impossible to do justice to the multilayered sophistication of
Wilson's prose. The book is a trove of hidden gems, and if Wilson
occasionally wanders from the central narrative, and if he sometimes
gets so enamored of his own erudition that he leaves the reader gasping
for air, those prices are not too steep for a book as rich as this. He
also tends to conflate "God" and "religion," which he knows are quite
distinct, but which the 19th century protagonists of his narrative did
not.
Wilson ends bemused at how wrong some of the prognosticators of God's
doom were: "If some friends we have made in the book . . . could return
to Earth today, they would perhaps be surprised by the extent to which
religion survives." He is evidently pleased that both religion and God
are alive and well, and anyone who takes the time to delve into this
book cannot help but be pleased that the same is true for A.N. Wilson.
Anton
--
Apologetics Index: http://www.apologeticsindex.org/
Apologetics and Countercult Information about Cults, Sects,
and Alternative Religious Movements - for Research and Ministry.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Religion Items in the News - July 22, 1999 (Vol. 3, Issue 96)
From: ahein@apologeticsindex.org (Anton Hein)
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 23:20:46 GMT
X-Message-Number: 4
=== Noted
20. Health, Not Size, Is Main Issue for Churches
21. Spirituality seekers may be headed in the wrong direction
22. The most exclusive club of upper nobility
23. False Prophet: The Aum Cult of Terror
=== The Church Around The Corner
24. Preacher Can Clean Toilets To Avoid Trial
=== Main
1. Falun Gong Organizers Arrested In China
Washington Post, July 21, 1999
In a series of raids in at least 17 cities, Chinese police have
arrested more than 70 organizers of a popular spiritual sect that held
a massive, peaceful protest outside the headquarters of the ruling
Communist Party in April, sect leaders and a human rights group said.
Chinese police ransacked houses, broke statues of the sect's
Chinese-American founder and rounded up its local leaders in a campaign
that began Monday night, according to the Hong Kong-based Information
Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China.
(...)
"It's not like if some key contact people are arrested then the others
will keep quiet," said Feng Yuan, a Falun Gong organizer in New York,
who said local practitioners would decide on their own how to protest
the detentions. "They cannot arrest all of the followers because there
are so many of them."
[...more...]
2. Falun Gong leaders arrested
South China Morning Post, July 21, 1999
Mainland public security authorities have detained 70 leaders of the
Buddhist cult Falun Gong in a nationwide crackdown that began early
yesterday, group sources said.
The round-up came after more than 13,000 members of the sect called on
leaders in an open letter last month to stop suppressing them, a Hong
Kong-based human rights group said.
(...)
Officers confiscated literature on the cult and busts of sect leader Li
Hongzhi from the homes of members during the operation, Falun Gong
sources said.
[...more...]
3. China Cracks Down On Sect, Thousands Protest
Yahoo!, July 21, 1999
(...) Several thousand members of the Falun Gong sect tried to protest
at Beijing's Zhongnanhai leadership compound Wednesday against the
detention of key members, witnesses said.
Police rounded up more than 1,000 people -- mostly elderly men and
middle-aged women suspected of belonging to the sect -- and took them
in buses to stadiums on the outskirts of Beijing, witnesses and stadium
officials said.
(...)
Police launched a crackdown Monday and have rounded up more than 100
key members of the sect, a Hong Kong-based human rights group said.
In a letter posted on the Internet at http://falundafa.org, Falun Gong
appealed to members to ``protect'' the sect by organizing, explaining
their aims to officials and demanding the release of detained members.
About 10,000 members protested at the government headquarters of the
southern province of Guangdong Wednesday, witnesses said. Security was
tight around the headquarters in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, but
no incidents were reported, they said. The crowd dispersed later in the
day.
[...more...]
4. Rightist rams truck into Aum facility
Daily Yomiuri, July 22, 1999
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/index-e.htm
A truck driven by a right-wing activist crashed into a facility
occupied by members of the Aum Supreme Truth cult in Otawara, Tochigi
Prefecture, on Wednesday, injuring two members, police said.
Right-wing groups have been picketing around the facility since cult
members converted the inn into a residential facility.
[...more...]
5. Tokyo ward task force agrees to ban AUM
Mainici Daily News, July 20, 1999
http://www.mainichi.co.jp/english/news/news04.html
AUM Shinrikyo cult members will be barred from moving into Tokyo's
Adachi-ku, the ward's government decided on Monday, officials said.
The anti-AUM task force at the ward office, headed by Mayor Tsunetoshi
Suzuki and comprising department managers concerned about the doomsday
cult, made the decision at its first meeting held on Monday.
(...)
About 180 cult members are estimated to be living in the ward.
Adachi-ku is also home to the cult's headquarters, which includes its
decision-making and public-relations divisions, as well as a cult
computer factory. Many cult members live in the ward because AUM
founder Shoko Asahara is being detained at the Tokyo Detention Center
near the ward.
[...more...]
6. Warning about Scientology Letters
Die Presse (Germany), July 14, 1999
Translation: German Scientology News
http://cisar.org/990714a.htm
The Archdiocese of Vienna warns of letters from the Scientology sect.
In the letters an alleged Commission for Violations of Psychiatry
against Human Rights portends to be a partner against the undermining
of faith and religion. The one behind this is Scientology, according to
the archdiocese.
[...entire item...]
7. Parliament should keep its eye on sects
Taz (Germany), July 13, 1999
Translation: German Scientology News
http://cisar.org/990713a.htm
The sect experts would like the German Parliament to renew their
discussion of new religious communities and world view groups. Twelve
experts from the areas of science, church and society say that the
final report of the Enquete Commission's "Sects and Psychogroups" which
was presented in May 1998 should once again be introduced into
parliamentary discussion. The letter's signers, who were all members of
the "Sects Enquete," expressed their regret that the Commission's
report, outside of one session, had not been taken into consideration.
Even though it was said that there is no danger in general from sects
and psychogroups, individual groups have exhibited a high potential
or conflict.
[...entire item...]
8. Accused of dangerous psycho-practices by German "sect researchers"
Kleine Online (Austria), July 15, 1999
Translation: German Scientology News
http://cisar.org/990715b.htm
For years seminars have been given by the "Study Circle for Health and
Personality Development, Inc." in the community of Bad Gams.
Headquarters of the association is Meschede in Germany, the chairman is
Gordon Freeman Fraser. For sect researchers the "system" of the 85 year
old American has long been a thorn in the side: "It behaves like a
small but dangerous sect which can bring people into mental and other
dependencies."
(...)
Fraser has people venerating him as an incarnation of the "Holy Spirit"
and has willing "disciples" gather around him.
[...more...]
9. Red Carpet for Charlatans
Tages Anzeiger (Switzerland), June 28, 1999
Translation: German Scientology News
http://cisar.org/990628a.htm
When spirit and nature healers may carry on a practice without a
license, Zurich will turn into a Mecca for Charlatans. Therefore there
needs to be provisions in the new health care law.
(...)
It is especially important today to protect patients from charlatans
because the number of unprofessional healers has rapidly sprouted up in
the last few years. The unprecedented wave of esoterica has made the
alternative healing methods popular and had promoted ill humor for
school medicine. Today about 10,000 spiritual healers and healing
practitioners vie for the patients' favor. Many have made their hobby
into a profession and treat patients without formal education on the
subject.
[...more...]
10. Cheating Buddhist gets 6 years for fraud
Mainichi Daily News, July 20, 1999
http://www.mainichi.co.jp/english/news/news06.html
The leader of a Buddhist group was sentenced Monday to six years in
prison for defrauding a dozen people by charging them for false
purification services. Gishun Nishikawa, 59, representative executive
and founder of the religious corporation, Myokakuji Temple group, based
in Koya, Wakayama Prefecture, was convicted of fraud at the Nagoya
District Court.
(...)
According to the ruling, Nishikawa conspired with his fellow monks to
defraud about 21.5 million yen from 12 people who visited the group's
Manganji Temple in Nagoya between December 1994 and April 1995 to
consult about their personal problems. Nishikawa and the monks told
the visitors that they were possessed by ancestral spirits and that
their grandchildren would die unless they did not hold memorial
services for aborted or miscarried offspring.
(...)
Nishikawa maintained that his deeds were justifiable religious actions.
"It is not fair to deny religion, which is an irrational world in the
first place, only in the light of rational interpretation," he said.
"Even if (our activities) externally correspond to fraud, they were
based on our religious beliefs and were within the boundaries of social
recognition," Nishikawa said.
[...more...]
11. French Druids seek British sanctuary
The Times (London), July 20, 1999
FRENCH Druids are to ask for British citizenship to escape the
"oppression" to which they are subjected in their own country. The
Druids, from Brittany, say they are victimised by a centralised state
apparatus that refuses to recognise their Celtic origins.
(...)
The letter followed M Chirac's refusal to allow a small constitutional
change enabling France to sign a European charter for regional
languages. This caused anger in many French provinces, but especially
Brittany, where 93 per cent of local people told a recent opinion poll
they were proud of their Celtic roots.
[...more...]
12. 'It's not about paganism'
The Times (London), July 20, 1999
THE Reverend Meirion Lewis, who says he has never seen Druids dancing
naked beneath the full moon in an oak grove, yesterday defended the
right of Bretons to worship in their own language. Mr Lewis, the
Archdruid of Wales, said it was "sad and tragic" that the French Druids
were not officially allowed to chant and espouse their beliefs in their
ancient tongue.
(...)
"It is really an issue of cultural and linguistic freedom and little to
do with people worshipping pagan gods and dancing in the nude. I have
certainly never encountered such practices in Llanelli."
[...more...]
13. Is Hate on The Rise?
TIME, July 19, 1999
(...) To be sure, organized hate groups have not achieved great
financial or political power; in fact, the old Aryan Nation-style
groups are struggling. But authorities believe violence motivated by
hate is increasing, in part because hate groups now wield powerful new
tools, including the Internet and the arts of media management, to
attract a different breed of racist.
[...more...]
14. Internet's Hate Sites Can Be Hidden, but They Can't Be Ignored
Los Angeles Times, July 19, 1999
http://www.latimes.com/excite/990719/t000064323.html
(...) The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center
(http://www.wiesenthal.org), which tracks hate sites, identified more
than 1,400 "problematic" Web sites as of March--twice as many as it
found the year before. Even that number may be conservative. Rabbi
Abraham Cooper, the center's associate dean, estimates that there may
be as many as 2,100.
(...)
After spending three days wallowing in other people's racist, sexist,
homophobic, anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant propaganda,
I've come to the conclusion that the only way to drown out this type of
hate speech is through a massive education campaign that encourages our
society--especially our youth--to think critically and question anyone
who blames their problems on people who look, act, speak or think
differently. Web sites operated by ADL and the Wiesenthal Center are a
good starting point for ideas.
[...more...]
15. Suspects' Ties to Anti-Semitic Sect Investigated
Los Angeles Times, July 19, 1999
http://www.latimes.com/excite/990719/t000064336.html
(...) As investigators try to piece together a case against Benjamin
Matthew Williams, 31, and his 29-year-old brother, James Tyler
Williams, it remains unclear whether the pair were part of any
particular organized militia or hate group.
But law enforcement officials probing the June 18 arson blazes and
the double murder two weeks later increasingly believe the brothers
were swayed by Christian Identity, a fringe faith that considers Jews
and people of color subhuman, and views abortion and homosexuality as
unpardonable sins.
(...)
Joe Roy, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence
Project, said it appears the Williams brothers were driven by the
canons of Christian Identity. "People don't connect the dots," he said,
"but a lot of the terrorism in this country is perpetrated by people
linked to Christian Identity."
Experts in domestic terrorism say Christian Identity, which has more
than 90 active ministries in 34 states, is the religion of choice for
white supremacist groups such as Aryan Nations, Posse Comitatus and
factions in the Ku Klux Klan and militia movement.
[...more...]
16. The Ku Klux Klan is here
The Times (London), July 20, 1999
(...) Welcome to Wales, home to rugby players, male choirs and, now,
the Ku Klux Klan. Fifteen years ago the nationalist extremist minority
burnt the summer cottages of visiting English. Today the Klan burns
Asian-owned shops. This time it is being done within the remit of an
organisation that we all associate with the darkest hours of the
American South.
Wales, where only 1 per cent of the population is from an ethnic
minority compared with the national average of 5 per cent, seems a
bizarre place to find the Ku Klux Klan. Yet the tiny former mining
village of Caerau, now part of Maesteg, in South Wales has for the past
11 years been home to a British branch of the Klan, since Beshella, a
Briton - and convicted paedophile - who grew up in America, where he
was a leader of the movement, moved here in the late 1980s.
(...)
In fact, since Beshella arrived, apparently bent on recruiting the
young and disaffected to his organisation, racial attacks have shot up.
In the past year alone there were 752 racial incidents reported in
South Wales - up 100 per cent from the year before and, police believe,
a 16th of the real number of attacks. If this is true then racial
attacks numbered more than 12,000 last year.
[...more...]
17. Who is a Christian? The staggering growth of Latter-day Saints also
brings a debate over doctrine
Dallas Morning News, July 10, 1999
http://www.dallasnews.com/religion/0710rel1main.htm
Klause and Vickie Oehring wanted a school for their 8-year-old son that
would reinforce the values they tried to instill at home and in church.
(...)
Everything seemed perfect until the day the letter came. "It said Kyle
couldn't go there because of fundamental doctrinal differences between
us," Mr. Oehring said.
The problem: The Oehrings belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. And despite the church's name, many orthodox
Christians consider the Mormons badly misguided at best, and at worst a
cult worshiping a considerably different God.
(...)
As the LDS church continues its staggering growth - it boasts more than
10 million members worldwide compared with just 1 million 40 years ago
- the enmity from other churches increases, some Mormons believe.
(...)
While the LDS church is expanding rapidly in the United States, most of
its growth is in Latin America and other places around the world. The
growth is so rapid, in so many places, that University of Washington
sociologist Rodney Stark has predicted that the LDS church will double
in size nearly five times - to 267 million members - by 2080.
He made the prediction 20 years ago but now notes that the Mormons are
already 1 million members ahead of schedule.
(...)
While a considerable portion of LDS growth stems from traditionally
large Mormon families, much comes from converts - an average of 300,000
a year, with more than half moving from traditional Christian
denominations.
(...)
Though the Mormons' 13 main articles of faith wouldn't raise an eyebrow
in most cross-topped churches, other core beliefs, beginning with the
Book of Mormon, place them far apart from virtually every group that
claims Jesus as lord and savior. Most orthodox Christians, and
particularly evangelical Chris-tians, say the Mormons simply aren't
Christian. Some go so far as to call the LDS church a cult.
"The Jesus they reference in the title of the church is not the Jesus
of the Bible," said Timothy Oliver, a former Mormon and a researcher
with the Watchman Fellowship, an Arlington-based organization that
monitors groups it considers cults.
(...)
"I've had some long conversations with evangelicals, and if I were to
narrow it down to a couple of things that really separate us, I'd say
one is our notion of being the only true church, and our belief that
salvation is by both faith and works," [Brigham Young
University professor Robert L. Millet - awh] said.
(...)
The Mormon emphasis on Christianity isn't intended to deceive, Dr.
Millet said, but rather to reveal what the church believes.
Still, given the unflinching theological differences, no orthodox
Christian denominations have embraced the Mormons as believers, and
none seems likely to do so.
"Ultimately, whether a person either in another denomination or a
person who is not religious accepts the LDS claim about being Christian
depends on the person's definition of Christian," said Dr. Mauss,
author of The Angel and the Beehive: The Mormon Struggle for
Assimilation.
[...more...]
18. Mormon church thriving
Austin American-Statesman, July 18,. 1999
http://www.austin360.com/news/1metro/1999/07/18mormons.html
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not exactly a
household name in the buckle of the Bible belt, where Baptists have
cornered the Protestant religious market. But in the past two decades,
the Mormon church's growth has taken off in Central Texas and across
the state. In the past 10 years alone, the Mormon church in the Austin
metropolitan area has more than doubled its congregations and
membership. Church membership jumped from 6,500 in 1990 to 13,500 this
year, and the number of congregations increased from 12 to 25.
(...)
The church has been in Texas since 1843. It took more than 100 years
after the arrival of Mormon missionaries for the church's membership to
reach 2,000. Today, Texas' 209,000 Mormons make up the sixth-largest
Mormon population in the United States.
[...more...]
19. Mormons enter mainstream of modern American politics
Washington Times, July 21, 1999
http://www.washtimes.com/culture/culture1.html
(...) Followers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had
nowhere to go but up, and that's where they went. Despite the church's
small size -- it has just 4.9 million members nationwide, or 1.8
percent of the population -- Mormons approach the end of this
millennium with political representation that far outstrips their
numbers.
Church members now count among their brethren 5 percent of the
Senate, 2.8 percent of the House and, in Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, a
nationally recognized candidate for the presidency. Mormons are
increasingly mentioned in the same breath as Jews as a small but potent
"model minority" whose cultural emphasis on hard work, education and
community service has translated into political clout.
"Other religions have the numbers, but not the same influence," said
John Green, a religious scholar and director of the Bliss Institute at
the University of Akron in Ohio, a political think tank. "Look at the
Pentecostals. There aren't five Assembly of God senators. There's only
one. All things being equal, there should be more Pentecostals than
Mormons in Congress, but all things aren't equal."
[...more...]
19. Mormon Myth Stalks Hatch in Presidential Race
Salt Lake Tribune, July 15, 1999
http://www.sltrib.com/1999/jul/07151999/nation_w/8336.htm
If radical polygamists, a decaf lifestyle and the tiresomely wholesome
example of Donny Osmond weren't bad enough, Mormon national political
hopefuls also are forced to grapple with an apocryphal Mormon legend.
Sometimes called the "White Horse Prophecy," the obscure bit of
19th-century LDS folklore has reared its head again, this time
potentially hobbling Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch in his presidential bid.
According to a 150-year-old statement from Mormon Church founder
Joseph Smith, a time would come when the U.S. Constitution "is on the
brink of ruin" and Mormons would be "the staff upon which the nation
shall lean." Though the later idea that Mormons in general would ride
in on a metaphoric white horse to save the Constitution was denounced
as "ridiculous" and "false" by 20th-century church leader Joseph F.
Smith, the myth has lived on in folklore.
(...)
Fearing a "cult" backlash from mainstream American voters, national LDS
candidates avoid discussing the old prophecy or divine revelation -- a
cornerstone of Mormon belief. Hatch, in fact, called The Salt Lake
Tribune immediately upon learning the newspaper was checking out the
story.
[...more...]
=== Noted
20. Health, Not Size, Is Main Issue for Churches
Los Angeles Times, July 17, 1999 (by Rick Warren)
http://www.latimes.com/excite/990717/t000063820.html
In 1965, there were only 93 churches in America that averaged over
1,000 in attendance. Today there are more than 8,000 of these larger
churches in our nation, with many here in Southern California. Contrary
to the claims of some pundits, the trend toward larger churches is not
abating. Last year, another American church joined the above-1,000
category every three days.
(...)
Today, the largest congregations are not in America but in Asia,
Africa and South America. Recently I spoke at the largest independent
church in the world, the largest Methodist church in the world, and the
largest Presbyterian church in the world--all three in Seoul, South
Korea. In Lagos, Nigeria, there is a congregation with 80,000 members
and in Bogota, Colombia, you can visit a church that holds services in
a soccer stadium to accommodate its 160,000 members. There are many
congregations overseas that dwarf our largest American churches.
But church leaders who focus on the size of these churches--as
illustrated by last week's On Faith column--miss the point. Instead,
they should focus on the health of these churches, which causes the
amazing growth.
(...)
A common misconception is that to attract a large crowd you must
somehow dilute the demands of Christ, compromise your convictions,
sanitize the message, and cater to current marketing fads. This is pure
baloney. In fact, we've found the opposite to be true: People are
hungry to be told the truth in a clear, convincing way, and they want
to be challenged to sacrifice for something greater than themselves.
[...more...]
21. Spirituality seekers may be headed in the wrong direction
Star-Telegram, July 19, 1999
(...) But does this longing for faith have any spiritual substance?
And, like the latest fad in fashion, will it eventually fade?
Jonathan Yardley, book editor for The Washington Post, took dead aim at
that question when he reviewed Winifred Gallagher's "Working on God"
(Random House, $24.95). The review was published in Book World and
reprinted in part in Context Newsletter. The book examines new
approaches to Western faiths, the impact of Eastern traditions, the
influence of science and psychology, and the democratization of
religious authority.
What Yardley strongly disagrees with from a Christian perspective is
Gallagher's contention that baby boomers are finding personal
fulfillment as more and more of them focus on spiritual matters -- in
what Yardley says are all the wrong places. Yardley calls their search
narcissism.
This "psychospirituality," he writes, "is a blend of all the most
self-absorbed aspects of pop psychology, new age pseudo-mysticism, Zen
Buddhism's 'upbeat, take-charge approach' and half-baked religiosity."
And that's just his opening salvo.
[...more...]
22. The most exclusive club of upper nobility
Berliner Morgenpost, July 18, 1999
Translation: German Scientology News
http://cisar.org/990718a.htm
900 years ago in conquered Jerusalem, the Order of the Knights of Malta
was founded. It is the oldest knighthood order in the world - and
dedicated to the future
(...)
A unique charter guarantees the Maltese Knights this state. The area of
the state is restricted to the governmental seat, which is two palaces
in Rome. They have all the rights of a nation; they issue passports
which are recognized by 83 countries of the world.
(...)
They wish to once again fight for the Pope, to whom the Maltese Knights
have pledged their allegiance since the call of Pope Urban in 1095 to
the Crusades, but against different opponents now. Condojanni: "We
dedicate ourselves on the spiritual plane to the fight against
religious sects. That is a great tragedy. The threat is very high and
bears a risk for all of humanity. We want to support families so that
they do not fall prey to sects."
[...more...]
23. False Prophet: The Aum Cult of Terror
An entry in "The Crime Library." (13,600 words)
http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists/aum/main.htm
[ Patrick Bellamy, formerly a Scientific Investigator with a prominent
Australian police department, is now a full-time writer, currently
working on a psychological crime thriller. He lives in Queensland,
Australia, with his family]
(...)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The main reference points for this story were taken mainly from two
excellent books on the sect: Holy Terror – Armageddon in Tokyo by D.W.
Brackett (New York: Weatherhill, 1996) and The Cult at the End of the
World by David E. Kaplan and Andrew Marshall (Crown Publishers, 1996).
Additional information was also gleaned from various newspapers that
ran coverage of the sect, the most notable being the Japan Times and
the Kyodo News.
[...more...]
=== The Church Around The Corner
24. Preacher Can Clean Toilets To Avoid Trial
Excite News, July 19, 1999
A judge has told Argentina's best-known television preacher to chose
between cleaning public bathrooms for two years or standing trial for
alleged criminal fraud, a court source said Friday.
Evangelist preacher Hector Gimenez faces charges that he defrauded a
worshiper at his "Good Waves" shrine in Buenos Aires and must now opt
between cleaning bathrooms or going to trial, the source told Reuters.
[...more...]
Compiled by Anton Hein
Apologetics Index
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/
Subject: Re: Piece on Scientology
From: matthew d bratschi <freedomforreligionsingermany@juno.com>
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 17:56:49 -0400
X-Message-Number: 5
On Thu, 15 Jul 1999 11:10:37 -0400 Brian Lucas <brianl@globalbiz.net>
writes:
>There was a writer named Cox who was going to publish an
>investigative report on scientology (in Harper's or Variety, I can't
remember which
>one) but ended up having his piece pulled by the editor and getting
fired.
>He indicated that he was going to find someone else to publish it.
>Anybody know if that's happened? And if so, where? Or how to get a hold
of
>the writer? I can't remember his first name. Thanks.
>**********************************
>Brian Lucas,
>--
At the risk of stirring up an issue which would involve an attack on my
religion, Scientology, I want to inform Mr. Lucas that the alleged
article has not been written and has not been found to be picked up
anywhere at this time. Information as to getting in touch with author I
do not have, however. The author was not fired, he quit for a better
job.
Matt Bratschi
International Coordinator, Freedom for Religions in Germany
"The way to happiness is far more easily followed when
one supports people of good will."
L. Ron Hubbard
______________________________
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---
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