.WEEKLY CHURCH NEWS NOTES
Pastor Dale Morgan
June 15, 2008.
The Weekly Church News Notes is designed for use
in churches.
Published by Fundamental Baptist Information
Service.
*
INVENTOR OF WOMAN'S PANTSUIT DIES *
Yves Saint Laurent, who invented the woman's pantsuit, died
on June 1 at age 71. He lived a morally debauched
life, which is typical for the fashion industry.
He was a homosexual, spent time in psychiatric
institutions, and was addicted to drugs. His
long-time homosexual partner, Pierre Berge, said
that Saint Laurent "played a part" in the
liberation of women. In fact, he helped to
enslave them to fashion and tempt them into
rejecting their God-given femininity. He invented
the pantsuit in 1966, as part of the rebellious
rock & roll culture. British journalist Linda
Grant observes that the pantsuit "put women on an
equal sartorial footing with men and "is what
fashion gave to feminism" ("Feminism Was Built on
the Trouser Suit," The Guardian, June 3, 2008).
Pastor David Kidd warns: "Of all the cultural
wolves that prey upon Christian principles, none
has been more merciless toward virtuous, modest
womanhood than modern fashion. Š From short
shirts to tight tops, high-rise hem lines to
low-rise jeans, each new craze dares women to
cast aside their inhibitions and reveal
themselves in a new and bolder way. Tragically,
many Christian women have sacrificed the precious
virtues of modesty, decency, and discretion to
the ruthless determination of the cultural wolf
whose appetite for them is never satisfied"
(David Kidd, The Fall and Rise of Christian
Standards, pp. 87, 88).
*
INDIAN BUSINESS SCHOOL NAMES MONKEY GOD CHAIRMAN *
The Sardar Bhagat Singh College
of Technology and Management in Lucknow, India,
has named the Hindu god Hanuman the chairman. He
even has his own office, complete with a desk and
laptop computer, and all visitors must enter the
office barefoot as a sign of honor. Hanuman is
the Hindu monkey god. Vivek Kangdi, the school's
vice chairman, said: "When we were looking for a
chairman for our institution, we scanned many big
names in the field of technology and management.
Ultimately, we settled for Lord Hanuman, as none
was bigger than him" ("Indian School Names," AP,
June 7, 2008). The Sardar Bhagat Singh College,
which opened last year, awards degrees in
engineering and management. Surely, these Hindus
knew that their action would cause some to
ridicule, but they were willing to bear the
reproach. Bible-believing Christians should be as
courageous for the Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator
and Saviour of the world, as these Hindus are for
Hanuman. "Let us go forth therefore unto him
without the camp, bearing his reproach" (Hebrews
13:13).
*NEW AGE INVADING HEALTH CARE *
The New Age is invading the field of health care. A study
done by David Eisenberg of Beth Israel Hospital
in 1990 found that Americans were spending $14
billion a year on alternative health care,
including practices such as meditation, touch
therapy (including reiki), positive confession,
guided imagery, polarity therapy, aromatherapy,
sound therapy, gemstone healing, magnetic
therapy, spiritual healing, biofeedback,
reflexology, iridology, urotherapy, homeopathy,
emotional freedom techniques (EFT), hypnosis, and
acupuncture. That figure has grown dramatically
since then. According to a report in the U.S.
News & World Report for January 21, 2008,
alternative medicine has gone "mainstream." In
1992 only 2% of U.S. medical schools offered
courses in alternative medicines, but by 2004
that figure had risen to 67% ("More Medical
Schools Teaching Spirituality in Medicine,"
Lighthouse Trails newsletter, March 4, 2008). Dr.
Christina Puchalski, founder of the Institute for
Spirituality and Health at the George Washington
School of Medicine, was the recipient of the John
Templeton Spirituality and Medicine Award in
1996. The famous Mayo Clinic has a section at its
web site on "complementary and alternative
medicine" dealing with touch therapy, yoga, tai
chi, acupuncture, cupping, biofeedback, and
hypnosis. A friend who read a pre-publication
edition of our book The New Age Tower of Babel
observed, "Going into a health food store is like
going into a New Age chapel." God's people need
to be careful. It is certainly not wrong to want
to live in a healthy manner and some "natural"
remedies are effective and legitimate, but when a
practice enters into the realm of the occult, it
is forbidden by God's Word. One example is the
idea that there is a metaphysical life force
energy that permeates everything and that flows
through and/or around the body and affects the
health. This is foundational to the Eastern
approach, which aims to manipulate the flow or
balance of life energy to restore and maintain
health. Hindus call it prana; Chinese call it chi
(pronounced chee); Japanese call it ki. Terms
with similar meaning are kia, huna, mana, ordic,
and orgone. It is purely occultic, with no
biblical or biological basis, and lies at the
heart of yoga, eastern massage, reiki, feng shui,
tai chi, qi gong, acupuncture, acupressure,
polarity therapy, magnetic therapy, biofeedback,
reflexology, iridology, ayurveda, and homeopathy.
Another example is the idea of humors. It is
based on the ancient Greek cosmology that there
are four elements--fire, air, water, and
earth--and these have four corresponding humors
in the body: choler (yellow bile), blood, phlegm,
and melancholy (black bile). An imbalance of the
humors supposedly results in sickness, and humor
practitioners prescribe remedies to control and
balance the humors, but it is pure hocus pocus!
The book The New Age Tower of Babel deals
extensively with this subject.
*
MACLEAN'S MAGAZINE'S HATE CRIMES TRIAL IN CANADA *
The following is excerpted from
"Mark Steyn Human Rights Tribunal 'Show Trial'
Opens in Vancouver," LifeSiteNews, June 3, 2008:
"The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal has
had its first day of hearings in the case being
brought against syndicated columnist and author
Mark Steyn, and Maclean's Magazine that published
an excerpt from his book, 'America Alone'. The
lawyer for the complainants, Faisal Joseph,
opened his statements yesterday saying that the
article depicted Muslims as 'a violent people'
who hold traditional Canadian values 'in
contempt'. ... The complainant, Mohamed Elmasry,
has a reputation in Canada as an Islamic
extremist after appearing on the Michael Coren
Show in Toronto in 2004 and stating that anyone
in Israel over the age of 18 was a justifiable
target of Palestinian attacks. He later
apologized for his remarks calling them his
'biggest mistake' in 30 years of public life. The
opposition to the entire proceeding, however, is
growing and the tribunal today and yesterday has
attracted enormous media attention in Canada and
the US for its attack on freedom of speech and a
free press. ... Ezra Levant writes, 'In a real
court, Joseph and his bigoted client would be
laughed out of court, and have to pay Maclean's
costs. But this isn't a real court. This is a
kangaroo court, with three leftist activists as
panellists.' The chairman of the Tribunal panel
hearing the Steyn/Maclean's case is Heather
MacNaughton, the same commissioner who levied a
$7500 fine, the largest in the history of the
Human Rights Tribunal. That fine was against
Vancouver Rape Relief when that organisation
refused to allow a male-to-female 'transsexual'
to train as a rape and abuse hotline counsellor.
MacNaughton is notorious as the adjudicator of
decisions against Christian plaintiffs, including
a branch of the Knights of Columbus who 'hurt the
feelings' of two lesbians when they refused to
rent their facilities for the women's 'wedding'.
She also fined Christian printer Scott Brockie
and denied an appeal by Christian teacher Chris
Kempling for their religious opposition to
homosexuality. ... Late last week, Liberal MP Dr.
Keith Martin introduced a motion to Parliament
proposing to investigate the practises of the
Canadian Human Rights Commission..."
*
PASTOR PERSECUTED BY "HATE CRIMES" LAWS IN CANADA *
The following is excerpted from
"Government to Pastor: Renounce Your Faith,"
WorldNetDaily, June 9, 2008: "The Canadian
government has ordered a Christian pastor to
renounce his faith and never again express moral
opposition to homosexuality, according to a new
report. In a decision handed down just days ago
in the penalty phase of the quasi-judicial
proceedings run by the Alberta Human Rights
Tribunal, evangelical pastor Stephen Boisson was
banned from expressing his biblical perspective
of homosexuality and ordered to pay [$7,000] for
'damages for pain and suffering' as well as
apologize to the activist who complained of being
hurt. ... Boisson had written a letter to the
editor of his local Red Deer newspaper in 2002
denouncing the advance of homosexual activism as
'wicked' and stating: 'Children as young as five
and six years of age are being subjected to
psychologically and physiologically damaging
pro-homosexual literature and guidance in the
public school system; all under the fraudulent
guise of equal rights.' The activist, local
teacher Darren Lund, filed a complaint and the
guilty verdict from Lori G. Andreachuk, a lawyer,
was handed down some weeks ago. The latest
decision involved the penalty phase of the trial.
... And as for the future, Andreachuk wrote: 'Mr.
Boissoin and The Concerned Christian Coalition
Inc. shall cease publishing in newspapers, by
e-mail, on the radio, in public speeches, or on
the Internet, in future, disparaging remarks
about gays and homosexuals. ... Further, all
disparaging remarks versus homosexuals are
directed to be removed from current Web sites and
publications of Mr. Boissoin and The Concerned
Christian Coalition Inc,' the lawyer opined. ...
Ezra Levant, an author and lawyer who himself was
targeted by an HRC attack, said at his blog:
'[The] government now believes that if it can't
convince a Christian pastor that he's wrong, it
will just order him to condemn himself? Other
than tribunals in Stalin's Soviet Union and Mao's
China, where is this Orwellian order considered
to be justice? ... In essence, the Alberta Human
Rights Tribunal is ordering the minister to
renounce his Christian faith, since his
opposition to homosexuality is based upon the
Judeo-Christian Bible.'"
*
PLASTIC BAGS AND POLAR BEARS*
The radical environmentalist agenda is not based on proven
science. Take the frenzy to ban plastic shopping
bags. "Scientists are attacking the global
campaign to ban plastic shopping bags, saying the
activists' claim that the modern conveniences are
responsible for the deaths of 100,000 animals and
one million seabirds is based on a 'typo' in a
2002 report [by the Australian government] and
there is no scientific evidence showing the bags
pose a direct threat to marine mammals. [The
report was derived from a Canadian study in
Newfoundland that sited the death of marine
mammals by discarded fishing nets and made no
mention of plastic bags!] Researchers and marine
biologists have told the London Times that
plastic bags pose, at best, a minimal threat to
most marine species, including seals, whales,
dolphins and seabirds" ("Anti-plastic Crusaders
Stuck Holding the Bag," WorldNetDaily, March 9,
2008). It takes more energy to make and recycle
paper shopping bags than plastic ones, but
banning plastic bags makes the environmental
activists felt better and that is what is really
important. And what about the frenzy to save the
polar bears? "The U.S. government just put polar
bears on the threatened species list because
climate change is shrinking the Arctic ice where
they live. Never mind that polar bears are in
fact thriving--their numbers have quadrupled in
the last 50 years. Never mind that full
implementation of the Kyoto protocols on
greenhouse gases would save exactly one polar
bear, according to Danish social scientist Bjorn
Lomborg, author of the 2007 book Cool It! Yet
about 300 to 500 polar bears could be saved every
year, starting right now, Lomborg says, if there
were a ban on hunting them in Canada. What's
cheaper, trillions to trim carbon emissions or
paying off the Canadians to stop killing polar
bears?" ("The Church of Green," Los Angeles
Times, May 20, 2008).
CONCLUSION: Friends in Christ, do not be
discouraged by what is happening today. It is
God's will that we know the times (1 Ch. 12:32;
Mat. 16:3) and that we be as wise as serpents and
harmless as doves. These things remind us that
the hour is very late, and we need to be ready
for the coming of the Lord. Are you sure that you
are born again? Are you living for Christ day by
day? "And that, knowing the time, that now it is
high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our
salvation nearer than when we believed. The night
is far spent, the day is at hand: let us
therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let
us put on the armour of light. Let us walk
honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and
drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness,
not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the
flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof" (Rom.
13:11-14).