Bartholomew's Notes

Hal Lindsey is on top form at WorldNetDaily:

It was hot air all along

When Al Gore first published his tome, “Earth in the Balance” in 1990, few people, if any, believed in global warming. It was a trendy cause; after all, who wouldn’t want to help save the planet – especially if America is the problem.

…Unfortunately, now that Al Gore has convinced the U.N., the Democrats, Barack Obama (and even John McCain, if it would have helped) that catastrophic global warming presents a very real threat, actual, real climate scientists with slide-rules and computer models are starting to inundate us with facts.

About 650 of them from around the world have joined Stanley Goldenberg, an atmospheric scientist at NOAA, who wrote in a report to the IPCC: “It is a blatant lie put forth in the media that makes it seem there is only a fringe of scientists who don’t buy into anthropogenic global warming.”

It’s still the end of the world, though – the Bible predicts that in the Last Days people will believe in untrue things like global warming:

Jesus said that in the last days, “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring.” 

That is pretty much the exact description of the Doctrine of the Global Warming True Believers.

Gore’s failure can be contrasted with Lindsey’s far more successful efforts at predicting the future. A blog called Paleo-Future reminds us of Lindsey’s opus The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon, which contains gems such as:

The alignment of the planets will cause weather pattern shifts. (p. 28)

UFOs are real and, “demons will stage a human spacecraft landing on earth.” (p. 33)

Communism in the U.S.S.R. will overtake American dominace on the world stage. (p. 81)

The U.S. itself will be “taken over by communists.” (p.132)

The U.S. could be “destroyed by a surprise Soviet nuclear attack.” (p.132)

The U.S. could “become a dependent of the 10-nation European confederacy.” (p. 132)

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I am pleased to introduce a guest post by Leo Igwe, executive secretary of the Nigerian Humanist Movement – RB

Some months ago, a British film-maker drew my attention to the plight of children in Akwa Ibom State who had been accused of being witches and wizards and thrown out of their homes by their families and relatives. In August, I travelled to the city of Eket to meet with these kids and the individuals helping to look after them, to find out how my organization could offer help and support.

First of all, I met with Luckyimoh Inyang of Stepping Stones Nigeria. The UK branch of his organization is raising money to support these children. Mr. Inyang told me how they had been rescuing children who had been beaten, burnt and brutalized by their own parents, and he took me to a school block and a football field which some of these children had taken as their home. They sleep there at night and roam the streets during the day in search of food. We also met some of the kids on the streets, who were carrying plastic bags filled with rice, garri and soup. Mr. Inyang told me that was how the children were trying to survive: donations were not enough, so some of them try to support themselves by taking left over food items from ceremonies, even though they are sometimes physically attacked when they do this. The children looked sick, malnourished and unkempt.

After meeting with Inyang, I went to see Mr. Sam Ikpe-Ituama of the Child’s Rights and Rehabilitation Network. Sam and his wife manage a camp where some of the kids live. Sam had been taking care of these children in his house, but eventually he had to set up the camp, with a school and a dormitory, to accommodate the increasing number of child victims. Right now the camp has over 130 children; most of them are less than ten years old. I interviewed some of them and they told me about their horrible and traumatic ordeals. Two girls described how they had been chained to a window for days, before being starved, beaten and thrown into the bush to die by parents and relations who accused them of causing diseases and death in the family by bewitchment. Other kids explained how they had been taken to churches and subjected by pastors to various forms of torture, and inhuman and degrading treatment, all in the name exorcism and deliverance. Most of the children had scars on their bodies. Some were still nursing wounds which they sustained in the course of this terrible experience. I was totally shocked and dumbfounded by what I saw. Particularly, I was stunned to hear that many of the kids had been in the camp for over three years. It was obvious that the local authorities had neglected and completely ignored this tragic situation. I was told that some officials of the Akwa Ibom State Government had visited the camp, but that nothing had been heard afterwards. So the camp and children were surviving on the limited donations they were receiving from overseas.

So I was delighted to hear that on November 4, the documentary Saving Africa’s Witch Children was broadcast in the UK, on Channel 4. This documentary has brought to the attention of the world the pain, agony, abuse and trauma which these children have suffered and endured over the years. It has exposed to the world the intellectual anomie, cultural darkness, social stagnation, moral decadence and primitive mentality that prevail in Nigeria as a result of ignorance, poverty, superstition and religious fanaticism. It has also demonstrated graphically the greed, thievery, mischief and charlatanism of pastors and other men and women, who deceive, debase, defraud and degrade human beings in the name of God. Witch-hunting is history in the western world, but in Nigeria and in Africa it is an ongoing experience.

Now, the question is: How do we save these children?

First of all we need to raise money to support them and provide them with basic necessities of life: food, shelter, clothing and education. The children need medical care, counselling and rehabilitation programs. The government of Akwa Ibom State must wake up to its duties and responsibilities. The police should investigate and ensure that parents and the persons who perpetrated these atrocities – including the pastors who aided and abetted these criminal acts – are adequately punished.

More importantly long-term, we need to launch a nationwide campaign against superstition and belief in witchcraft. Nigerians should be told that witches are not real, and that witches and spirits are imaginary entities created by primitive minds during the infancy of human race to explain situations and issues they could not understand or resolve commonsensically. This campaign should be taken to all Nigerian schools, colleges and universities. It should be publicized over the radios and television, in the newspapers, in market places, in churches and mosques.

In particular, we need to check the activities of our so called pastors and other self styled men and women of God who use the Bible or Holy books to perpetrate and justify atrocious acts and human right abuses. These religious charlatans continue to act and preach in ways that reinforce the belief in witches and provoke acts of witch accusation, persecution and killing. This has been the driving force in Akwa Ibom State, and until Nigerians learn to reject superstition and irrationalism such tragedies will continue to occur.

In most cases pastors invoke the Biblical verse Exodus 22:18, which says “Thou shall not suffer a witch to live”, to justify their position,  so we also need combat this wave of Pentecostalism that promotes literal interpretation and blind faith in the “word of God”. To save the witch-children in Nigeria and rescue this nation from witch-believing forces, we need to get all Nigerians to exercise their common sense, reason and critical intelligence when practicing or professing their religion or belief. This is especially important when they are reading, preaching and interpreting messages and doctrines contained in their holy books.

(c) Leo Igwe 2008. Permission granted for non-profit re-publication, although please acknowledge authorship. The author asserts his moral rights.

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From Macedonia Online:

Romania’s withdrawal of the theory of evolution from the school curriculum could be evidence of a growing conservative tendency in teaching. Evolution has been removed from the school curriculum in a move which, pressure groups argue, distorts children’s understanding of how the world came into being.

…Meanwhile, in religious classes, pupils are taught that the world was created in seven [sic – should be “six”] days and God made plants on the third day and the sun on the fourth. Textbooks claim the first man was Adam, who was ‘made of ground’, and that Eve, the first woman, was made from one of her husband’s ribs.

The Education Minister, Cristian Adomnitei, claims that evolution remains “implicit” in the science curriculum, and Remus Cernea of Solidarity for Freedom of Conscience believes “lack of vision” is the reason for the changes, rather than Orthodox Christian machinations.

Back in 2006, I wrote about Alfa Omega, an American-lined neo-Pentecostal TV studio in Romania which promotes creationism in schools, and I linked to the station’s English-language website. That website has now disappeared, but can be accessed via Wayback. It includes the following, under the heading “CHRISTIAN EDUCATIONAL VIDEO-LIBRARIES FOR ROMANIAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS”:

 Main Thematics

Building the character of the young people

-This project may include Sunday schools, churches or Christian organizations that have educational activities for youth.

-To strengthen the influence of this project, the district departments of the Romanian Government and the Ministry of Education will be involved.

Raising the cultural level – by presenting the true values in literature, history, philosophy and music.

Enriching general knowledge: documentaries on nature, geography, science and technology.

Religious education, spirituality::

-the history of civilizations and religions

-creationism

-Christian values

-biblical teachings

Music, uncorrupted entertainment

Endorsements from teachers follow.

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The BBC dusts off an archive recording of war-time British fascist John Gaster, who explains the real reason why Edward VIII was forced to abdicate in 1936:

he had been entrapped and ensnared by the king watchers, who knew he was dangerous, and their instrument was one of a group of black magical osteopaths. The head of it was a quack doctor called Doctor Alexander Cannon. Original arrangements with Cannon had been established in Austria because [Edward] needed a dry out cure for addictive drinking. But bit by bit he had become immersed in a world of black magic and sexual yogic activities… Like a sling round the throat of Edward VIII and which in fact was the mechanism which made it possible for the establishment to dethrone him.

Alexander Cannon’s influence over Edward VIII is examined in a fascinating documentary on BBC Radio 4, which should be available online until Sunday. There’s also a summary here (Gaster, who from what little can be gleaned on-line was an unsavoury character, is misspelt by the BBC as “John Gastor”).

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From the UK Daily Telegraph:

Canadian leader suspends Parliament to keep power

Canada’s parliament was closed on Friday after Stephen Harper, the prime minister, succeeded in suspending it until the new year in order to avoid almost certain defeat in an imminent confidence vote…As constitutional scholars denounced the move, Mr Harper said he was going to use the time to think about the economy.

OneNewsNow has its own spin on that:

Canada’s conservative P. M. survives coup attempt

A Canadian pro-family leader says he’s very pleased that Prime Minister Stephen Harper was able to avert a coup d’etat attempt by a left-wing coalition bent on ousting him from office.

…Brian Rushfeldt, executive director the Canada Family Action Coalition, says one would expect a coup attempt in developing dictator nations — but not in a 146-year old democracy.

The Canada Family Action Coalition is a creation of Victory Churches International, an international charismatic grouping founded by George and Hazel Hill in Alberta in 1979 – I haven’t been able to find any biographical details about the Hills prior to the establishment of their first church, and they are now based in California. Rushfeldt used to be Dean of the associated Victory Bible Colleges International.

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Climate scientists are suddenly no longer the enemy at WorldNetDaily:

Confirming a rabbi’s reading of Bible prophecy, scientists reported yesterday that an analysis of rings on stalagmite from a cave near Jerusalem reveals the climate of the region got drier shortly after the Roman dispersion of the Jews in A.D. 70…Geologists John Valley and Ian Orland concluded the climate was drier in the eastern Mediterranean between 100 A.D. and A.D. 700, with steep drops in rainfall around 100 A.D. and A.D. 400 – a period of waning Roman and Byzantine power in the region.

…Researchers from the Geological Survey of Israel and Hebrew University in Jerusalem helped with the study, which was to appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Quaternary Research. The latest scientific study was tied to research into global warming.

A stalagmite found near Jerusalem which grew between 200 BCE and 1100 CE provided the evidence. Further details are available on Science Daily; however, the connection between climate change and the presence of Jews is purely WND‘s spin on the research.

The rabbi referred to is a certain Rabbi Menachem Kohen, of Brooklyn, who is the author of a book entitled Prophecies for the Era of Muslim Terror:

Rabbi Kohen points out the land suffered an unprecedented, severe and inexplicable (by anything other than supernatural explanations) drought that lasted from the first century until the 20th – a period of 1,800 years coinciding with the forced dispersion of the Jews.

WND, of course, wants us to believe that the drier climate post-100CE is some kind of supernatural sign from God about the continuing divine connection between Jews and the land of Israel. But how well has it been thought through? If the rainfall increased again after 700, does that mean God favoured the Muslim presence? And how is this linked to the supposed “unprecedented, severe and inexplicable” drought which Kook suggests lasted until 1900? And it should be remembered that the “Roman dispersion of the Jews in A.D. 70” was of very limited scope; Jews remained a significant presence in the Galilee for centuries afterwards. Indeed, their decline can perhaps in part be ascribed to the very climate change noted by Valley and Orland (incidentally, desertification in the eastern Mediterranean during this period has been long recognised).

Kohen’s book argues that the Torah predicted recent events such as 9/11 (“date & number of buildings”) and Saddam Hussein’s fall from power – which would perhaps have been impressive had the book been published before those events, rather than after. The book carries a foreword by Simcha Hacohen Kook, an Israeli Rabbi who has an intense distrust of Christian Zionism.

WND will doubtless find another aspect of Valley and Orland’s research less congenial; Science Daily reports:

The team is now applying the same techniques to older samples from the same cave. “One period of interest is the last glacial termination, around 19,000 years ago — the most recent period in Earth’s history when the whole globe experienced a warming of 4 to 5 degrees Celsius,” Orland says.

According to WND, the universe is 6,010 years old.

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From the AP:

The Cincinnati Zoo has canceled a joint ticket promotion with the nearby Creation Museum in Kentucky…

Ham says it is not true that the zoo is scientific while the museum is not. “The zoo talks about animals and animal behavior and so on. We would agree with all of that,” he points out. “The only statements [with which] we would disagree is [sic] when they talk about the origin of the animals — where they came from in the first place — which is not observational science.”

There you have it. Total agreement on all other points…

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From WorldNetDaily, last month:

A New York man is linking the suicide of his 22-year-old son, a military veteran who had bright prospects in, to the anti-Christian book “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins after a college professor challenged the son to read it.

“Three people told us he had taken a biology class and was doing well in it, but other students” and the professor were really challenging my son, his faith. They didn’t like him as a Republican, as a Christian, and as a conservative who believed in intelligent design,” the grief-stricken father, Keith Kilgore, told WND about his son, Jesse.

…The first inkling of a reason for the suicide came, Keith Kilgore told WND, when one of Jesse’s friends came to visit after word of his son’s death circulated.

“She was in tears [and said] he was very upset by this book,” Keith Kilgore said. “‘It just destroyed him,’ were her words.

From This is Bristol (UK):

A Bristol teenager who killed himself with painkillers was upset that his school had sidelined Christianity in favour of “alternative religions”, an inquest heard.

…Mr Tucker, 53, an ex-marine, told the inquest in Flax Bourton his son had problems at St Katherine’s comprehensive school, in Pill, over a number of issues.

He said:…”He was deeply concerned that his religious education consisted mainly of alternative religions and ignored Christianity.

“The religious education concentrated on the Muslim faith at the expense of Christianity.”

Both cases have predicably been seized on by certain elements of the right as evidence for the need to re-Christianize education; of course, the reality of the motives for the suicides are somewhat more complicated. Tucker was

…also troubled by what he saw as unfair detentions, his sexuality, and the fact his mother’s ex-partner threatened to burn down the family home in his early childhood.

Kilgore, meanwhile, was a self-described “culure warrior” who appears to have enjoyed and invited religio-political debate.

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Timotheos Samuel Aktas, the Metropolitian of Tur Abdin in Turkey, has written a report complaining that the ancient monastery of St. Gabriel, in Midyat, has been the victim of false accusations:

Upon reviewing the petition submitted on 20.08.2008 to Midyat Public Prosecution Office by the Mayors (Muhtars) of Yayvantepe, Eglence and Çandarl? villages… it has been falsely claimed that Mor Gabriel Monastery have cut oak trees by occupying the forest land. Further to this…are a series of unfounded and wild allegations that Mor Gabriel Monastery Community Foundation has: occupied the forest land; settled on such land as an occupant without having any permits; conducted missionary activities through children between ages 10-12; that no identity declaration was made regarding such children; the Mor Gabriel Monastery building owned by the Community Foundation is a historical 10 museum and therefore required to have permission for prayer; children undergo religious education in the Monastery and anti-Turkish activities are carried out; the Community Foundation acts in contrary to Unity of Education Law; monks and metropolitans of the monastery are trying to destroy national unity and incite people to insurgency; the Community Foundation receives funds with from doubtful origins; and, that the bank accounts of the Community Foundation should be confiscated. All the allegations are frivolous and vexatious; devoid of any logic or evidence, solely aimed with the malicious intent of rousing anti-Christian sentiments by the surrounding Moslem villages.

Aktas (who was formerly himself aboot of the monastery) also complains that the villages are encroaching on monastery land. The AINA newsagency adds the detail that the Mayors are Kurdish, although Aktas himself doesn’t make that distinction.

The monastery of St. Gabriel was founded in 397. A 1990 visit by Rev Dale Jones is described here, and gives some interesting details:

Compared with the showcase of Deyr-az-Zaferan, Mar Gabriel is a working community set amongst gardens and orchards, and somewhat disfigured by a 1960s-vintage hostelry. The monastery’s primary purpose is to keep Syrian Orthodox Christianity alive in the land of its birth by providing schooling, ordination of native-born monks, and – if necessary – physical protection to the faithful. You visit for the opportunity to gain some insight into the church – provided by an informative pamphlet in English – and secondarily to stay at night, for which you need to ask permission. This will be readily granted late in the day, since the heavy steel gates of what in effect is a fortress are locked tightly at sunset, not opening until dawn except for life-or-death emergencies. The high walls of the compound have retained their medieval function as barriers to marauders, since the Syrian Orthodox communities of the Turabdin live in fear of attacks from both the PKK and Islamic fanatics; the bishop receives regular phone calls from villagers requesting guidance as to how to respond to the latest provocation.

Other travellers have also visited; William Dalrymple (1) was guided around the site by a novice a few years ago; the novice, Yacoub, explained that in previous centuries the monks had fought with local villagers in order to protect their holy relics, and that that may be why the monastery can only boast the arm of St. Gabriel, rather than the entire body:

‘Do the villagers still take an interest in your relics?’ I asked.

‘Certainly,’ said Yacoub. ‘And not just the Christians: we get Muslims and even Yezidis…coming here to pray to our saints. Many of the Muslims in the region are descended from Suriani Christians who converted to Islam centuries ago. They go to the mosque, and listen to the imams – but if ever they are in real trouble they still come here.

Dust from the arm’s grave is supposed to be particularly effective. There is also a Shrine of St John the Arab:

‘This is his tomb.’ said Yacoub. ‘Or rather it is the tomb of his torso.’

‘The villagers have been at your bones again?’

‘No. The nuns this time.’

The current threat to the site was also highlighted by the European Syriac Union in September:

This attempt of occupying the historical lands of St. Gabriel Monastery is a joint and organized effort by the Arab and Kurdish residents of the surrounding villages together with the Kurdish Aghas as well as the state-sponsored village guards. However, their real ambition is to occupy all the lands and properties of the historical Monastery of St. Gabriel so that they could abolish the most important Christianity centre in the region.

…The continuous attacks against the St. Gabriel Monastery have become a systematic campaign since 1980s. And since mid 1980s, the St. Gabriel Monastery has been subject to the force of the state authorities. In 1997 the then government of Turkey banned the Syriac language education in the St. Gabriel Monastery. And now in 2005 and in 2008 the land of St. Gabriel Monastery is being subject to occupation.

It is incomprehensible that Turkey as an applicant state in the process of negotiations to join the European Union cannot protect its native citizens against such attempt of occupation, because they are members of different faith (Christians), especially when these attempts are being carried out by the state-sponsored village guards.

****

(1) William Dalrymple, From the Holy Mountain: A Journey among the Christians of the Middle East, HarperCollins, 1997, p. 102.

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From Alex Hilton, founder of Labourhome:

…last year, someone started a defamation action against me over a Labourhome article and the expenses are bourne by me, they were not transferred to Progressive Media, the new owner.

…I can’t tell you too much about the case because I don’t want to annoy the court. But this is what I am comfortable telling you.

1. An active Labourhome user wrote a piece about the past of a Labour member who had defected to Respect. That person has since joined the Conservative Party.
2. The Labourhome user is also being sued by this particular Tory, who is a litigant in person and has no lawyer.
3. The offended person contacted me about the piece, which I immediately deleted. I offered the front and centre spot on Labourhome to the offended person for their right of reply or to write something else of their own choice. My offer was declined.
4. Because of my actions, my lawyer says I have an absolute defence under Section One of the Defamation Act. I also have other defence strategies available, one of which is the possibility that the article was not defamatory, thought this is still being explored.
5. Because the complainant is a litigant in person, this case has been more complicated than normal and I have actually received a total of four writs before it got tidied up into one action. This is partly why this defence is so expensive.
6. Despite the likelihood that I will probably win this case, I do not have a strong prospect of recouping my costs, at least in a reasonable timescale. I don’t have the five-figure sum the complainant wants as a settlement.

It says something about the fear which UK libel law can engender that a defendant is reluctant even to name his accuser, lest it cause extra problems. However, various other sites identify her as a certain Johanna Kaschke. Even I have to be careful what I say and where I link to, and Harry’s Place‘s piece on the libel threat carries the warning:

As you can appreciate, you can say NOTHING about this woman at all. Particularly not in these comment boxes. Therefore, anything you do say must not relate to her at all. She can, does, and will sue.

It should be noted, though, that Kaschke has a blog in which in the past she has discussed the matters which she considers libellous – although some of these entries have now been removed. In one entry she wrote that:

I am pleased to notice that Private Eye have finally apologised for their article about me in a May 2007 issue. Please read bottom of page 6 right…

It surely cannot be dangerous to point to an apology in Private Eye which she herself has implored her readers to look at, and as it happens it is available online here. She has also sent rebuttals which she has described as “press releases” to certain blogs, and in one of these she states that she “would not object” to the facts alone being discussed, just the “sensationalist” reporting of them.

The ultimate origin of the material to which Kaschke objects is a very old newspaper article from Der Spiegel. Kaschke appears now to identify with the libertarian end of the Conservative Party, and this is interesting as old newspaper articles that right-libertarians don’t want being publicised have more than once now resulted in libel threats – most famously Paul Staines’ February 2007 threat against Sunny Hundal.

Meanwhile, Hilton has asked for donations in order to fight his corner. I haven’t seen the piece he is being sued over, so I cannot say whether his claim of having an “absolute defence” is valid. Tim at Bloggerheads is unimpressed with Hilton’s journalistic standards, and notes his failure to stand up for other bloggers facing libel threats. Indeed, when Staines was after Tim (on another matter), Tim recalls that Hilton opined that

I… can’t really be bothered to look into it. If Tim’s done something wrong, then there are consequences. If not, he has nothing to worry about.

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