More Than 400 Rabbis and Cantors urge Netanyahu to Halt Palestnian Homes’ Demolitions

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More Than 400 Rabbis and Cantors urge Netanyahu to Halt Palestnian Homes’ Demolitions

Christian Today report– More than 400 rabbis and cantors from Israel and around the world have signed a petition addressed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urging him to stop the practice of demolishing Palestinian homes.

The letter is in support of a petition to the High Court from Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR) which seeks to end demolitions by reforming planning and zoning laws.

RHR said in a statement: “While we wait for the decision of the judges, these rabbis and cantors are asking the State, at its own initiative, to implement moral, reasonable and fair planning and zoning principles that are in-line with international law and Jewish tradition.”

Every year hundreds of Palestinian homes are demolished because they are deemed to have been built without permission. However, campaigners say that in practice it is impossible to gain permission to build and that Palestinians need homes for their expanding population.

The letter says that “planning and zoning laws severely restrict the ability of Palestinians to build homes, even on the lands that the State recognises as belonging to them”.

It concludes: “The State of Israel has an obligation to ensure that every human being under her control, each created in God’s image, has a fair chance to build a home for him/herself and his/her family, irrespective of the current state of the peace process or differing opinions about what areas will be under Israel’s control in a future final status agreement. We urge the State of Israel to withdraw its opposition to RHR’s petition.”

Signatories come from Israel, the USA, Canada, Britain and other countries.

Source: Christian Today

Libya Forces Push Militants Back in Benghazi

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Libya Forces Push Militants Back in Benghazi

Christian Today report- Clashes erupted in the centre of Libya’s main eastern city Benghazi on Thursday as pro-government forces pushed to take the port district from Islamist militants. Seven soldiers were killed, witnesses and military officials said.

The fighting mirrors a wider struggle in the oil-producing North African state where two governments and parliaments, allied to rival armed groups, are vying for control almost four years after Muammar Gaddafi fell to an armed uprising.

Backed by forces led by General Khalifa Haftar, army special forces in mid-October launched an offensive against Islamists in Benghazi, expelling them from the airport area and from several camps the army had lost during the summer.

Army forces have since been trying to retake the port area and two other districts where pro-government forces say fighters from the militant Islamist Ansar al-Sharia group are holed up.

The port, the main gateway for food imports into eastern Libya, has had to close.

On Thursday morning, army vehicles advanced on the Corniche road towards the port gate and a nearby court building. Soldiers took over several government buildings such as a passport office, a state insurance and a state bank damaged in earlier fighting.

Around 25 soldiers were wounded, army sources said.

“The road to the port is under our control,” said Faraj al-Barassi, a military commander.

Heavy gunfire continued until late at night. The court is famous as the place where the 2011 uprising against Gaddafi started with peaceful protests against his jailing of many opponents.

Army forces in eastern Libya are loyal to internationally recognised Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni, who was forced to leave the capital Tripoli in the west in August for the eastern city of Bayda when a group called Libya Dawn seized the city.

The new rulers in Tripoli set up their own government and parliament, but these have not been recognised by the United Nations. Both sides have fought each other on several fronts.

Libya has failed to build up a national army and efficient state institutions since the end of Gaddafi’s one-man rule, and the country is now effectively dominated by former rebel brigades who have carved out competing fiefs.

Source: Christian Today

India: Government Apologises to Vaticans for denying them Visas

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India: Government Apologises to Vaticans for denying them Visas

Catholic Herald report- The Indian government has apologised to a senior Church official for refusing visas to two Vatican officials travelling to address a meeting of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India.

Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai told the Catholic News Service (CNS) yesterday: “[A] senior officer from the ministry of external affairs called me up a short while ago and apologised for denying visas to the archbishops [from the Vatican].”

Cardinal Gracias, bishops’ conference president, said: “The government has also assured that it will investigate what went wrong.”

The cardinal announced the “bad news” that visas were denied for Archbishop Arthur Roche, secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, and Archbishop Protase Rugambwa, secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples and president of the Pontifical Missionary Societies. The two were trying to get to the opening of the bishops’ meeting in Bangalore on Tuesday.

Archbishop Roche presented his paper by video teleconference and answered several questions from the participating bishops.

“We are happy that the government has acknowledged and responded to our anguish,” Cardinal Gracias at the end of the two-hour programme.

Although both Vatican officials had applied for a visa in mid-December, the application was pending until the last minute, and the denial was communicated to them shortly before their departure to India, Fr Stephen Alathara, deputy secretary-general of the bishops’ conference, told CNS.

Source: Catholic Herald

Faith-Based Colleges Roles in Today’s Society

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Faith-Based Colleges Roles in Today’s Society

Christian Post report– The presidents from three leading American faith-based universities convened Wednesday to discuss the role of faith-based colleges in an increasingly secular society and agreed that faith-based schools, more so than secular schools, stress the importance of living lives filled with morals, ethics and responsibility to others.

John Garvey of Catholic University of America and Richard Joel of the the New York-based and Jewish Yeshiva University participated in a Wednesday night discussion on the state of higher education and the calling of faith-based universities, which was moderated and hosted by Baylor University President and Chancellor Ken Starr at the National Press Club.

Although all the presidents agreed that that it is imperative for colleges to provide students with the skills and knowledge needed to be successful in a career, what is equally as important and often overlooked by state and secular schools in today’s secular environment, is making sure that students are prepared to make tough moral and ethical choices when they are faced with many of life’s tough dilemmas.

“The Jewish tradition believes that there is no bad ideas, that you should explore everything but that you bring a moral, ethical and purposeful judgement to how we relate to those ideas,” Joel said. “Ideas are never the enemy, it is how we abuse or pervert those ideas …. We have enough confidence in our ethos and our values to believe that our ideals can confront ideas and hopefully shape them.”

Joel further added that the responsibility of faith-based schools goes deeper than just instilling morals and righteousness, but also to keep alive the idea that humans beings are more than just the top of the food chain. Joel explained that Yeshiva University strives on the motto that “education is meant to Ennoble and Enable.”

“I think it comes to the initial conceptualization of the worth of a human and whether we are simply the highest animals in the food chain or whether there is something noble about us or sacred. Do we teach them that they are supposed to do more than graze, make money and go shopping?” Joel asked. “I understand that in America, unless you choose to go to a faith-based or mission-driven university, you want to go somewhere where you don’t have to buy into an orthodoxy. It seems to me that we have gone a little too far to divorce that sense of struggling with the essence of the human being and saying that it is too dangerous in our pluralistic society to deal with it, so just deal with arts and science.”

Garvey agreed with Joel’s notion that education’s role is to “ennoble and enable” and put it into his own context of providing “wisdom and virtue.”

“I am fond of saying that the point of education is to help our students advance in wisdom and virtue. These are both things that we do and they are connected to one another in a surprising way,” Garvey said. “I like Aristotle’s phrase that ‘when we are educating people, virtue makes us aim at the right mark and wisdom tells us how to choose the proper means.’

“What he means is when we are learning about subjects like the history of capitalism, or the economy, or the environment, or mercantilism, we cannot make proper judgements about these without having an ethical foundation to make our judgements,” Garvey added. “Our judgements will be better or worse depending on what kind of people we are.”

Joel said another major part of the Yeshiva education experience is making sure students gain an understanding of their responsibility to help the less fortunate. He explained that Yeshiva students have helped the distraught people in Haiti, taught middle school science to inner city Dominicans, and taught English to people in the South of Israel.

“The student experience at Yeshiva University is one of… wholeness or integrity. The goal at Yeshiva University is to provoke the student to have his or her pieces come together,” Joel said. “‘My intellectual piece, my dreaming piece, my service to society piece, my aspiration for career, my communal piece, how do I get whole so I get to have that great gift, which is responsibility?'”

Garvey explained that the student life at Catholic University is in many ways similar to that of Yeshiva, adding that Catholic University students also go on mission trips.

Starr said that at Baylor University there is a Christian calling to ensure that the students understand the concept of maintaining a “caring community” and living to serve the needs of others.

“The creation of a very purposeful community, what we call the caring community, is vibrant and evident. It makes for a joyful place that sets us apart in terms of degrees of happiness,” Starr told reporters after the event. “We talk about ‘live life greatly.’ That means in our Christian tradition, ‘don’t live for yourself.'”

Source: Christian Today

EU Leaders set for New Ukraine Peace Plan

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EU Leaders set for New Ukraine Peace Plan

Christian Today report–  The leaders of Germany and France announced a new peace plan for Ukraine on Thursday, flying to Kiev with a proposal they would then take on to Moscow.

The coordinated trip by Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Francois Hollande comes as rebels advanced on a railway hub held by Ukrainian troops after launching an offensive that scuppered a five-month-old ceasefire.

The importance of reaching a deal was demonstrated by a dramatic collapse in Ukraine’s hryvnia currency, which lost nearly a third of its value after the central bank halted daily auctions at which it sold hard currency to banks.

With Washington moving towards a decision soon on arming Ukraine, US Secretary of State John Kerry also visited Kiev on Thursday. He had no plans to go to Moscow and was not involved in the Franco-German initiative, although he supported it.

Moscow said it hoped talks with Merkel and Hollande would be “constructive”.

German government sources said the key problem for resuming peace talks was that the current front line no longer tallies with what was agreed at talks in Minsk, Belarus, last year. One idea was that a new attempt at a ceasefire should take in the current front line, which reflects rebel gains.

For talks to begin anew, Kiev would have to accept that the separatists now control several hundred square kilometres more than agreed in Minsk – without Kiev having to give up its claim to these areas as part of the Ukrainian state.

In the end, the goal of the peace process should be the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the sources said.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said Kiev would not consider any peace plan that casts doubt on the nation’s territorial integrity, sovereignty or independence.

The Franco-German plan looks like an eleventh-hour bid to halt the escalation of the conflict ahead of diplomatic deadlines likely to make east-west confrontation even worse.

Peace talks collapsed on Saturday in Belarus and EU leaders are expected to consider new sanctions against Moscow next week.

“Together with Angela Merkel we have decided to take a new initiative,” Hollande told a news conference. “We will make a new proposal to solve the conflict which will be based on Ukraine’s territorial integrity.”

He and Merkel met President Petro Poroshenko in Kiev on Thursday and were expected to go to Moscow to see Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Friday.

Poroshenko said the talks “gave hope that there will be a result in a ceasefire”, his office said in a statement.

Hollande said earlier: “For several days Angela Merkel and I have worked on a text … a text that can be acceptable to all.”

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier played down the prospect of a breakthrough: “I don’t want to talk about the chances (of success). At this stage there is hope, rather than chances.”

NATO says Russia has sent weapons, funds and troops to assist the rebel advance, negating a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine where war has already killed more than 5,000.

Moscow denies involvement in fighting for territory the Kremlin now calls “New Russia”.

LETHAL WEAPONS

Speaking after meeting Poroshenko in Kiev, Kerry said Washington supported diplomacy, but would “not close our eyes” to Russian tanks and troops crossing the border.

“We are not seeking a confrontation with Russia. No-one is,” Kerry said. “We are very hopeful that Russia will take advantage of our broad-based, uniform acceptance of the notion that there is a diplomatic solution staring everybody in the face. That is what we want.”

US President Barack Obama will decide soon whether to provide Ukraine with lethal weapons to fight the separatists, Kerry said.

In Washington, Republican Senator John McCain said US lawmakers would write legislation requiring the United States to send arms to Ukraine if Obama does not do so. But European defence ministers meeting in Brussels opposed sending arms, suggesting a transatlantic split over the issue.

Moscow said it would consider any US arms sent to Kiev to be a security threat.

Ukraine’s Poroshenko told a German newspaper it was time for NATO to send “modern weapons for protection and for resisting the aggressor.”

The rebels have been concentrating on Debaltseve, a rail hub where a government garrison has held out despite being nearly encircled.

On Wednesday, the rebels appeared to have captured Vuhlehirsk, a nearby small town where government troops had also been holding out. The army said it was still contesting the town, but Reuters journalists saw no sign of areas under army control. Four dead Ukrainian soldiers lay in a garden.

“Someone should come to remove these corpses, it is inhumane to leave them here to rot,” said Sergey Kopun, 50, a metal worker, emerging from a cellar where he had been sheltering with his wife and quadriplegic mother from days of fighting.

War and corruption have nearly bankrupted Ukraine, and Western sanctions and falling oil prices have also hurt Russia.

But Ukraine is by far the poorer of the two, and the collapse in the hryvnia was stunning. The central bank auctions scrapped on Thursday had enabled banks to set a value for the hryvnia, and without them traders had trouble finding a floor. A dramatic hike in the main interest rate to 19.5 per cent from 14 per cent did nothing to stop the plunge.

Source: Christian Today

Elderly Christians who escaped ISIS Share Experience About What They Suffered

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Elderly Christians who escaped ISIS Share Experience About What They Suffered

Christian Today report– Ten elderly Christians who managed to escape from the ISIS militant group have spoken about their ordeal.

According to Assist News Service, the elderly Christians travelled for two days after being freed and reached Kirkuk on January 7, an area now controlled by the Kurdish Peshmerga Forces. The journey took that so long because all the roads were blocked between Mosul and Kirkuk. When they arrived in Kirkuk, they were transferred to the care of the Chaldean Diocese.

The militant group reportedly drove away the elderly Christians, eight men and two women, after they refused to convert to Islam. The Christians originally came from a nursing home in Qaraqosh.

“We did not want to become Muslim; we just wanted to leave,” said a woman named Rahel.

The group moved to Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, and stayed there for three months, according to World Watch Monitor.

A nun, Sister Teresa, whose name is changed for security reason, met the elderly group in Qaraqosh. She was also driven from the monastery in Erbil and ended up in Qaraqosh. She confirmed that the militant group stole their money, jewellry and CDs.

According to Sister Teresa, the militant group detained several Christians and the church paid money for their release. Among the detained Christians were a three-year old girl, for whom they demanded thousands of dollars in ransom.

An estimated 40 Christians from Qaraqosh, Bartella and Karamles are still detained in a nursing home in Mosul, according to Sister Teresa. One of the elderly men told the nun about their ordeal under the hands of the militant group.

“When we were in Qaraqosh, ISIS used to beat us every day with their weapons or hands,” he reportedly said.

The elders added that when they were in Mosul they were held in a hall with others and could hear more people detained in another hall beside them.

“They had thrown us out from our villages and our homes, so they could occupy them and then we were all clumped together in a residence in Mosul. We managed to survive thanks to the assistance of some Muslim families, who brought us food and what we needed,” one of the elders told Agenzia Fides news outlet.

“Then, at some point, those of the Caliphate told us we could stay there only if we converted to Islam. I refused. If you want, send me away.”

Source: Christian Today

House Speaker John Boehner Announces Pope Francis Will Address Congress

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House Speaker John Boehner Announces Pope Francis Will Address Congress

CNS report– House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, announced Feb. 5 that Pope Francis will address a joint meeting of Congress Sept. 24.

The pontiff’s “historic visit” would make him the “first leader of the Holy See to address a joint meeting of Congress,” Boehner said in a statement, adding that he was “truly grateful that Pope Francis has accepted our invitation.”

Boehner noted that “in a time of global upheaval, the Holy Father’s message of compassion and human dignity has moved people of all faiths and backgrounds. His teachings, prayers, and very example bring us back to the blessings of simple things and our obligations to one another.”

“We look forward to warmly welcoming Pope Francis to our Capitol and hearing his address on behalf of the American people,” he added.

A statement from the Archdiocese of Washington called it “a great honor and tremendous joy to welcome our Holy Father, Pope Francis, to the Archdiocese of Washington during his proposed pastoral visit to the United States in September.”

The statement said the announced visit “will be a time of grace for all of us.” It also said the archdiocese looks forward “to the official announcement of more details of the visit.”

On Jan. 19 when the pope was on the plane returning to Rome from his visit to the Philippines, he told reporters that his September trip to the U.S. would take him to Philadelphia, New York and Washington — where he intends to canonize Blessed Junipero Serra.

The pope also confirmed he would visit the United Nations in New York. He had already announced his participation Sept. 26 and 27 in Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families there.

Source: CNS

Dad Conducts Interview With His Baby Girl – Very Funny

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Dad Conducts Interview With His Baby Girl – Very Funny

You have got to give it to this dad for his great sense of humor. His name is La Guardia Cross, a Miami native with many different talents and a brand new baby girl named Amalah. Cross uploaded the video below in December 2014 when Amalah was just six weeks old. He begins the video by explaining that he’s going to be interviewing an infant because there’s no better way to get answers about babies other than by simply asking one. Amalah is nothing but adorable in this video; her goofy dad adds the perfect commentary to her precious facial expressions.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_5-rwmIink[/youtube]

According to Cross’ bio, he works in a number of different areas. From rapping to public speaking, to graphic design and acting, Cross has a variety of skills that he’s been putting to use for years. His newest trade is learning how to be a good dad to Amalah. This video is a part of Cross’ new series, “New Father Chronicles.” He uploads the episodes every Wednesday to his YouTube channel, La Guardia Cross.
Who can possibly understand a baby better than a BABY?
I sat down with 6 week old Amalah to talk all things Infant. I learned a lot.
We hope you enjoy this video as much as we did.
Don’t forget to tell us what you think in the comments section after you’re done watching.

Church of Satan and Town of Bolsover Denies Claims of Being Satanist capital of Britain

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Church of Satan and Town of Bolsover Denies Claims of Being Satanist capital of Britain

Christian Today report– Both the Church of Satan and the local council of the town of Bolsover have denied that the town has the highest concentration of Satanists in the United Kingdom.

The town was dubbed the capital of Satanism in the UK after the 2011 Census revealed that there werere 17 Satanists out of the town’s population of more than 75,000 people, RT UK reports.

The town, according to the Census, had the highest number of Satanists in a single location in the United Kingdom.

But the Church of Satan apparently disputes the suggestion that the findings of the census mean it is the satanist capital.

“While we have many members throughout the UK, that area does not have any exceptional concentration of our adherents,” Church of Satan Priestess Serena Malone told RT UK.

Malone said the results may reflect locals’ sense of humour more than any sincere Satanist convictions and that people may have checked Satanism as their religion in the Census forms because they “think it’s funny.”

The Church of Satan is an organisation of atheists that was founded in the United States in 1966. The group claims to acknowledge man’s nature as a “carnal beast” and has said that it does not engage in devil worship.

Bolsover District Council Chairman Ken Walker also said that there was no presence of any Satanists in the town and that nobody in his jurisdiction has ever heard of the religion. He said the results were “a load of rubbish.”

Walker said the town holds an annual ritual for its harvest but it is not based on Satanism. The council chairman told RT UK that local priests fund the ritual.

Source: Christian Today

Iraq Christians Form Militia to Fight Islamic State

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Iraq Christians Form Militia to Fight Islamic State

Christian Today report– They have had enough of the terror and now Iraqi Christians are signing up to receive training to protect their homes and loved ones from the threat brought on by the Islamic State (ISIS).

According to a report by Newsweek, 3,000 Assyrian Christian men have registered for the Nineveh Plains Protection Units (NPU) while 500 are already being trained for combat. The NPU is a militia unit founded by the Assyrian Democratic Movement to counter the further advancement of ISIS forces on Assyrian lands.

“This is our last stand, if this fails then Christianity will be finished in Iraq,” said John Michael, a British American in Iraq.

In an interview with the Assyrian International News Agency, 26-year-old Nasser Abdullad shared that they joined the militia because government forces abandoned them last summer. “I want to defend our own lands, with our own force.”

Abdullah is among those who train the new recruits in the art of combat.

According to the Catholic Herald, the NPU is being supported by fellow Assyrians in the United States, Australia, and Sweden. The first to join are also reportedly receiving training from an American security company.

It remains unclear, however, whether the organisation could support the training of the rest of the recruits. Organisers expressed optimism that the US National Defense Authorization Act, passed last December by the US Congress could become a source of funds in the fight against the ISIS.

The USNDAA has earmarked roughly $1.6 billion funding for “local forces that are committed to protecting highly vulnerable ethnic and religious minority communities in Nineveh Plains and elsewhere.”

Of the territory, only Al Qosh, and three small villages remain free as most of the Christians have been forced out of the Nineveh Plains by ISIS attacks.

“It’s also important for the locals to send a message to ISIS that they are not going to allow the demographic change to become permanent. The Assyrians want their land back and they – as well as the Turkmen and the Yazidis – are sending a message that: ‘We are going to come back and we are not going to leave our villages and towns and our cultures to be destroyed. We want to come back to our homes and, no matter what we face, we’re willing to fight and take that back.’ I think that is a positive message for the entire nation,” Iraq expert Sajad Jiyad said.

Source: Christian Today

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