21 October 2009

Presbyterians Week Headlines

[1] Christian Observer Tribute to Long-Time Publisher Dr. Edwin P. Elliott
[2] PCUSA Baltimore Presbytery Passes First Reading of Marriage Redefinition Overture
[3] Israel-Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA) Promotes Hezbollah Website
[4] RedState Blogger Erik Erikson, Referencing Confidential State Department Memo, Accuses Obama Administration of Deliberately Destabilizing Pakistan
[5] Calvin College Faculty Asks Trustees to Withdraw Memo Against Homosexual Advocacy
[6] Guttmacher Institute Report Suggests Over One Billion Abortions Performed Worldwide Since 1980
[7] New York Times Reporter Suggests Carbon Credits be Given for Having Less Children
[8] Pennsylvania Middle School Student Ordered to Remove “Abortion is not Health Care” T-Shirt on Day of President Obama’s Address to Public School Students
[9] Taliban in Pakistan Warn Christians to Convert to Islam, Pay Jizya Tax, Leave Pakistan, or be Killed and have Women in Family Become Sex Slaves
[10] Somali Sharia Law has Women Whipped for Wearing Wrong Kind of Brassiere
[11] Florida Judge Orders Girl Afraid of Honor Killing by Family Returned to Ohio and Foster Care
[12] Talk to Action Blogger Rob Boston Warns of “Fundamentalist” Gideons Usurping Public School Students’ Parents’ Rights
[13] First Open-Air Coventicle in More Than 300 Years Held at 800-Year Old Covenanter’s Oak in Motherwell, Scotland, on 20 September 2009
[14] Free Church of Scotland Announces the Rev. David Meredith to be Moderator of 2010 General Assembly
[15] Scots Politicians Make Strange Bedfellows in Separate Bedrooms
[16] Tenth Anniversary of Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification Being Celebrated by Lutheran World Federation and Rome on 30-31 October 2009
[17] Rome Picks Up Some Pieces of Broken Worldwide Anglican Communion with Blessing of Canterbury
[18] Middletown Reformed Church Forced to Cancel Cowpie Bingo Fundraiser


[1] Christian Observer Tribute to Long-Time Publisher Dr. Edwin P. Elliott

A tribute to the long-time Publisher of the Christian Observer and Presbyterians Week, Dr. Edwin P. Elliott, titled “Dr. Edwin Elliott, John Brown, and The Christian Observer” was published in the Christian Observer on 16 October 2009.

Dr. Elliott suffered a massive heart attack on 9 October 2009, and died two days later.

+ Christian Observer, 9400 Fairview Avenue, Manassas, Virginia 20110, christianobserver@christianobserver.org


[2] PCUSA Baltimore Presbytery Passes First Reading of Marriage Redefinition Overture

At a 24 September 2009 meeting of the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)’s Presbytery of Baltimore (POB), the first reading of a proposed overture to the 219^th PCUSA General Assembly (GA) in 2010 to redefine biblical marriage by striking any references to marriage being a civil contract between a man and woman from the Directory of Worship in the Book of Order, by defining marriage as a “covenant” between “two people,” by replacing “husband and wife” with the word “couple,” and by recognizing state laws that create a “civil contract.”

The overture is identical to one the POB submitted to 2008’s 218^th GA, which was defeated by the presbyteries voting 540 against to 161 in favor.

+ Presbyterian Lay Committee, Post Office Box 2210, Lenoir, North Carolina 28645, 828-758-8716, Fax: 828-758-0920, laymanletters@layman.org

+ Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, 888-728-7228, Fax: 502-569-8005

+ Presbytery of Baltimore, 5400 Loch Raven Boulevard, Baltimore, Maryland 21239, 410-433-2012, Fax: 410-433-2066, Office@baltimorepresbytery.org


[3] Israel-Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA) Promotes Hezbollah Website

In a 14 October 2009 article titled “Presbyterian Peacemakers Promote Hezbollah Website and Anti-Israel Incitement,” the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) reports that:

“The Israel-Palestine Mission Network (IPMN) of the [Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)], is promoting anti-Israel incitement from a number of different sources, including Al Manar, a Hezbollah-controlled television station which was designated as a “Global Terrorist Entity” by the U.S. Department of Treasury in 2006. The Israel-Palestine Mission Network (IPMN) was established by the General Assembly of the [Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)] in 2004.”

Additionally, CAMERA reports that the IPMN is “…also promoting false allegations about Israel tunneling beneath the Temple Mount – allegations which in the past have incited violence. The IPMN is also relaying a false report of Palestinians attacking right-wing Jews who had entered the Temple Mount to pray the day before Yom Kippur. In fact, Palestinians had attacked non-Jewish French tourists.”

+ Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, Post Office Box 35040, Boston, Massachusetts 02135, 617-789-3672, Fax: 617-787-7853, feedback@camera.org

+ Israel-Palestine Mission Network, c/o Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)
Post Office Box 643700, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15264, info@israelpalestinemissionnetwork.org

+ Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, 888-728-7228, Fax: 502-569-8005


[4] RedState Blogger Erik Erikson, Referencing Confidential State Department Memo, Accuses Obama Administration of Deliberately Destabilizing Pakistan

In a 12 October 2009 article titled “U.S. Begins Official Effort to Destabilize Pakistan,” RedState blogger Erik Erikson references a confidential U.S. State Department memo obtained by USA TODAY and described in an 11 October 2009 USA TODAY article titled “State Dept. Split over Pakistan Aid,” describing Obama Administration special representative Richard Holbrook’s efforts to shift U.S. aid from American contractors to local Pakistani organizations, and a dissenting confidential (but not classified) memo from U.S. AID economist C. Stewart Callison asserting, according to Erikson, that “Holbrooke is canceling successful programs run by U.S. contractors and preparing to bypass them by giving large sums to local organizations with shaky financial track records” and that “Holbrooke, the top civilian overseeing Obama administration policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan, has asked to personally approve every project funding renewal involving U.S. contractors, of which Callison concludes, “the disapprovals already received are shockingly counterproductive.””

Erikson concludes that, “the United States is shifting money from efficient operations that work to inefficient operations that line the pockets of people who we probably don’t want to make wealthy, given their loyalties….It is willfully naive. And it is dangerous….If Pakistan falls, war will come with India. Both have nukes. The consequences for this administration’s ineptitude will be major and the lives lost catastrophic.”

+ RedState, 1 Massachusetts Avenue Northwest, Suite 600, Washington DC 20001, contact@redstate.com

+ USA TODAY, 7950 Jones Branch Drive, McLean, Virginia 22108, 800-872-0001


[5] Calvin College Faculty Asks Trustees to Withdraw Memo Against Homosexual Advocacy

In a meeting held the week of 28 September 2009, the Faculty Senate of Calvin College voted thirty-six for to four against to ask the Calvin College Board of Trustees to withdraw a memorandum sent the week of 17 August 2009 directing faculty and staff members to not advocate homosexuality and same-sex marriage.

Presbyterians Week for 2 September 2009 article [10] titled “Calvin College Prohibition of Homosexual Advocacy has Some Faculty in an Uproar” reported on the original memorandum.

+ The Chronicle of Higher Education, 1255 Twenty-Third Street Northwest, Seventh Floor, Washington DC 20037, 202-466-1000, Fax: 202-452-1033, editor@chronicle.com

+ Calvin College 3201 Burton Southeast, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 49546, 616-526-6000


[6] Guttmacher Institute Report Suggests Over One Billion Abortions Performed Worldwide Since 1980

The Guttmacher Institute (GI) was founded in 1968 as a semi-autonomous division of Planned Parenthood known as the Center for Family Planning Program Development. Renamed in 1977 for former PP director Alan F. Guttmacher, the organization became an independent, not-for-profit corporation.

A new report published by GI says that annual worldwide abortions have declined between 1995 and 2003, but that 41.6 million abortions were performed worldwide in 2003. Pro-lifers point out that there is an abortion performed worldwide for every second of time contained in one year, and that a conservative extrapolation of the GI figures imply that at least 1.12 billion abortions have been performed worldwide since abortions became very widely available in 1980.

+ Guttmacher Institute , 125 Maiden Lane, 7th floor, New York, New York 10038, 212-248-1111, Fax: 212-248-1951, Information Contact

+ LifeSiteNews.com, Incorporated, Post Office Box 25382, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15220, 866-787-9947, lsn@lifesitenews.com


[7] New York Times Reporter Suggests Carbon Credits be Given for Having Less Children

New York Times (NYT) reporter Andrew Revkin was a member of a 14 October 2009 panel discussion titled “Covering Climate: What’s Population Got to Do With It,” held at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC, and broadcast on the web.

During the panel discussion, Revkin said: “Well, some of the people have recently proposed [that] there be carbon credits for a family planning program in Africa let's say?...[I]f you can measurably somehow divert fertility rate, say toward an accelerating decline in a place with a high fertility rate, shouldn't there be a carbon value to that?... [T]he single most concrete and substantive thing an American…could do to lower our carbon footprint is…having fewer kids, having fewer children….And obviously it's just a thought experiment, but it raises some interesting questions about all this.”

In a 15 September 2009 NYT environmental issues blog article titled “Are Condoms the Ultimate Green Technology?,” Revkin referenced a London School of Economics study from August 2009 that spoke favorably about diminishing carbon footprints by having fewer children.

+ Cybercast News Service, 325 South Patrick, Alexandria, Virginia 22314, 703-683-9733

+ New York Times, 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, New York 10018, 212- 556-1234, executive-editor@nytimes.com

+ London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, England, 20-7405-7686, pressoffice@lse.ac.uk


[8] Pennsylvania Middle School Student Ordered to Remove “Abortion is not Health Care” T-Shirt on Day of President Obama’s Address to Public School Students

On the day of U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama’s September 2009 televised address to public school students, Principle Robert Savidge of the Crossroads Middle School in Lewisberry, Pennsylvania, ordered a student wearing a t-shirt reading “Abortion is not Healthcare” to remove the shirt because the principle deemed the shirt "inappropriate" and that it might insult someone. The student turned the shirt inside-out in the school nurse’s office because there was not another shirt available.

Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorneys filed a lawsuit in federal court on 5 October 2009 against the West Shore School District for prohibiting the student from wearing the T-shirt, saying that the school usually allows other students to wear a wide variety of messages on their clothing.

ADF Senior Legal Counsel David Cortman wrote in a press release: "Pro-life students shouldn't be censored for their views. It's clearly unconstitutional for school officials to prohibit a student's message on the grounds that someone might not like it. The school routinely allows students to wear a wide variety of messages on their shirts without any concerns, but this student has been singled out even though his shirt caused no disruption and is clearly within the bounds of constitutionally guaranteed free speech."

+ LifeSiteNews.com, Incorporated, Post Office Box 25382, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15220, 866-787-9947, lsn@lifesitenews.com

+ Alliance Defense Fund, 15100 North 90th Street, Scottsdale, Arizona 85260, 800-835-5233, Fax: 480-444-0025


[9] Taliban in Pakistan Warn Christians to Convert to Islam, Pay Jizya Tax, Leave Pakistan, or be Killed and have Women in Family Become Sex Slaves

On 6 October 2009, Taliban members in Pakistan sent letters to Christian leaders in Sargodha, Pakistan, including the Rev. Zafar Akhter, pastor of the United Presbyterian Church, ordering the Christians to convert to Islam, pay the Jizya tax (tax imposed on non-Muslims), or leave Pakistan, else the Christian leaders will be killed, their homes and properties burned to ashes, and the women of the Christian families will be turned into sex slaves.

Jonathan Racho of International Christian Concern said: “Christians in Pakistan are soft targets for attacks by Islamic extremists. Over the past four months alone, twelve Christians have been killed by Muslims due to their faith. We are alarmed by the increase in attacks against Christians in Pakistan. We urge Pakistani officials to take the threatening letters seriously and take measures to protect the Christians and their institutions from attacks.”

+ Assist USA, Post Office Box 609, Lake Forest, California 92609, 949-380-1558, danjuma1@aol.com

+ International Christian Concern, 2020 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest #941, Washington DC 20006, 800-422-5441, Fax: 301-989-1709, superadmin@persecution.org

+ Church of Pakistan


[10] Somali Sharia Law has Women Whipped for Wearing Wrong Kind of Brassiere

Al Shabaab Islamists in Somalia, enforcing their interpretation of Sharia Law, have begun publically whipping women found wearing what Al Shabaab considers to be the wrong kind of brassiere. Al Shabaab’s evaluation process involves several other humiliations to the Somali women.

Other Al Shabaab enforcement of Sharia Law involves forcing Somali women to wear full veils, amputating a foot and a hand from two men accused of robbery, and whipping men and boys for not having a beard, accusing boys who can’t yet grow beards of shaving their non-existent beards.

+ Cybercast News Service, 325 South Patrick, Alexandria, Virginia 22314, 703-683-9733

+ The Daily Mail, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT, England, 020-7938-6000, news@dailymail.co.uk


[11] Florida Judge Orders Girl Afraid of Honor Killing by Family Returned to Ohio and Foster Care

An Orlando, Florida, judge ruled 13 October 2009, that Rifqa Bary, an Ohio seventeen-year-old from a Muslim family who became a Christian - then fled to Florida to escape an honor killing that she feared would be carried out by her family, must be returned to foster care in Ohio, where Bary’s parents will continue their court fight to regain custody of their daughter. The judge did not set a deadline for the teen’s return to Ohio, and Bary remains with another foster family in Florida.

A 26 August 2009 Presbyterians Week article titled “Muslim Honor Killings Come to America,” described several instances where women from Muslim families living in the U.S. were murdered by their fathers in so-called honor killings.

+ Crosswalk.com, Salem Communications, 4880 Santa Rosa Road, Camerillo, California, 805-987-0400

+ Religion News Service, 1930 18th Street Northwest, Suite B2, Washington DC 20009, 202-463-8777, Fax: 202-463-0033, info@religionnews.com


[12] Talk to Action Blogger Rob Boston Warns of “Fundamentalist” Gideons Usurping Public School Students’ Parents’ Rights

In a 13 October 2009 Talk to Action article titled “Genesis Of Controversy: Report On Gideons' Bible Distribution Is A Revelation,” blogger Rob Boston warns that Gideon Bibles emphasize in several languages John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” that the Gideon Bible contains “information about what the Bible says about sin, family life, Heaven and Jesus Christ,” and so concludes that the Gideons distribute a “certain type of Bible, one that reflects a fundamentalist interpretation of that book,” and that the Gideons go behind the backs of court rulings forbidding school-sanctioned Bible distribution to continue their court-ruling spurning activity “much to the detriment of parents' rights and students' religious liberty.”

Boston then cites an 8 October 2009 American Civil Liberties Union of Texas (ACLUTX) investigative report titled "Distribution of Gideon Bibles in Texas Public Schools: Impact on Students' Religious Liberty," that Boston found “illuminating,” which described several problem instances out of the open records requests the ACLUTX sent to ten Texas school districts including a high school that was “inundated” with so many Gideon Bibles that some students threw the Bibles at each other and ripped pages out of the Bibles, three middle schools where an unspecified number of Jewish students were harassed by their classmates for not taking a Bible from the Gideons, and a school district where the Gideons worked through a school district director to distribute Bibles to students at thirteen schools, supposedly without the schools’ principles’ knowledge.

Boston concludes that Gideon Bible distribution in public schools usurps parental rights, that the Gideons have “no right” to distribute Bibles to public school students, and that the Gideons should go elsewhere to distribute Bibles.

+ Talk to Action

+ The Gideons International, Post Office Box 140800, Nashville, Tennessee 37214, 615-564-5000, tgi@gideons.org


[13] First Open-Air Coventicle in More Than 300 Years Held at 800-Year Old Covenanter’s Oak in Motherwell, Scotland, on 20 September 2009

More than 120 worshipers gathered at the first Conventicle, or Covenanter open-air worship service, in more than 300 years that was held 20 September 2009 in front of the 800-year old Covenanter’s Oak on the Dalzell Estate in Motherwell, Scotland.

A service of dedication was led by the Rev. Georgina Baxendale of the Motherwell South Church of Scotland, who told the assembled worshipers:

“Under this great oak, the Rev. John Laurie conducted Conventicles between 1638-1688, often attracting around 400 people of all age-groups; children were allowed to play because sermons were very, very long. During those five decades, some 18,000 people were persecuted and perished for their belief in Jesus Christ. In recent years, it is estimated the decline in membership within the Church of Scotland is in the region of 15,000 – 19,000 per year. What would our Covenanting forefathers think – that, what violence, bullying and persecution could not achieve, apathy is achieving today?”

+ East Kilbride News, 2 Olympia Arcade, Town Centre, East Kilbride G74 1LX, Scotland, 01355-265-000, jkelly@s-un.co.uk

+ Church of Scotland, 121 George Street, Edinburgh, Scotland EH2 4YN, 0131-225-5722


[14] Free Church of Scotland Announces the Rev. David Meredith to be Moderator of 2010 General Assembly

The Free Church of Scotland announced 7 October that the Rev. David Meredith, minister of Smithton Free Church of Inverness, Scotland, will be the Moderator of the 2010 General Assembly.

Mr. Meredith says he has a desire to bring contemporary applications to ancient truths, and to see vibrancy within a Free Church which is free from parochialism and focused on the spiritual needs of Scotland.

+ Free Church of Scotland, 15 North Bank Street, The Mound, Edinburgh, Scotland EH1 2LS, 0131-226-5286, Fax: 0131-220-0597, catherine@freechurchofscotland.org.uk


[15] Scots Politicians Make Strange Bedfellows in Separate Bedrooms

The Scottish Labour Party (SLP), on 17 October 2009, moved to distance itself from the Orange Order (OO), after Grand Master of the OO Ian Wilson called for OO members to vote for SLP candidates in the next general election in areas where they can defeat the Scottish National Party (SNP). Wilson made the surprising recommendation because the SNP has become too nationalistic for the Unionist-oriented OO, and the OO is unhappy with recent SNP moves to forge links with the Roman Catholic Church.

+ The Times, Times House, 1 Pennington Street, London E98 1TT, England, 44-0-20-7782-5971, pressoffice@thetimes.co.uk

+ Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland, Olympia House, 13 Olympia Street,
Glasgow G40 3TA, Scotland, 0141-414-1418, Fax: 0141-414-1419, info@orangeorderscotland.org.uk

+ Scottish Labour Party, John Smith House, 145 West Regent Street, Glasgow G2 4RE, Scotland, 0141-572-6900, Fax: 0141-572-2566, scotland@new.labour.org.uk

+ Scottish National Party, Gordon Lamb House, 3 Jackson's Entry, Edinburgh EH8 8PJ Scotland, 0131 525 8900, snp.hq@snp.org

+ The Vatican


[16] Tenth Anniversary of Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification Being Celebrated by Lutheran World Federation and Rome on 30-31 October 2009

The Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church will celebrate the tenth anniversary of the signing of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, on Reformation Day, 31 October 1999, with a ceremony 30 October 2009 in Augsburg, Germany, at the ‘Rathaus;’ and will conclude with a 31 October 2009 ecumenical worship service in the Augsburg Cathedral (High Cathedral of the Virgin Mary) followed by a reception in the Michael Sailer Hall.

+ Lutheran World Federation, 150, route de Ferney, CH-1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland, 22-791-61-11, Fax: 22-791-66-30, info@lutheranworld.org

+ The Vatican


[17] Rome Picks Up Some Pieces of Broken Worldwide Anglican Communion with Blessing of Canterbury

A joint announcement by Rome and the Anglican Communion on 20 October 2009, unveiled the new Apostolic Constitution approved by Rome’s Pope Benedict XVI, which is a canonical structure that provides for Personal Ordinariates, allowing former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Roman Catholic Church while preserving elements of distinctive Anglican spiritual patrimony; and is considered further recognition of the substantial overlap in faith, doctrine, and spirituality between the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican tradition.

+ Anglican Communion, St. Andrew's House, 16 Tavistock Crescent, London W11 1AP, England, 20-7313-3900, Fax: 20-7313-3999, aco@anglicancommunion.org

+ The Vatican


[18] Middletown Reformed Church Forced to Cancel Cowpie Bingo Fundraiser

Middletown Reformed Church (Reformed Church in America) of Middletown, New Jersey, was forced to cancel its sixth annual Cowpie Bingo fundraising event scheduled for 26 September 2009, at Potter's Farm in Holmdel, New Jersey, after the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (NJDGE) determined that Cowpie Bingo does not fit into the strict definition of a bingo game and that it is illegal to wager on farm animals, and told the Holmdel Township Clerk that an event permit could not be issued.

Cowpie Bingo is played by entrants buying a ticket giving them “ownership” of a random square on the field, and if the cow plops in the square owned by the entrant, that person is the winner of half the money. The church receives the other half.

No mention was made by the NJDGE as to whether they will be prosecuting grandmothers patronizing casino drug stores in any one week period buying their sick grandchildren cold medicine containing more than three grams of pseudoephedrine.

+ Asbury Park Press, 3601 Highway 66, Neptune, New Jersey, 732-922-6000, htowns@gannett.com

+ Ministry of Silly Walks

+ Reformed Church in America, 4500 60th Street Southeast, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49512, 800-968-6065, questions@rca.org