Bartholomew's Notes

A former Orthodox archpriest in the country of Georgia complains about the state of his national church:

“The Georgian Orthodox Church represents serious obstacles to the democratic development of Georgia in every direction including theologically, socially, politically and culturally,” declares [Basil] Kobakhidze.

He says he would add to this list the scientific sphere as well, because the Georgian Orthodox Church “fosters the development of pseudo-science which is not based on rational research”.

For example, he says it’s common for priests to tell their parishioners not to use the internet or watch TV or read Harry Potter books [and]…church teaching is based on Russian pamphlets that only speak about the apocalypse and pseudo-miracles.

Kobakhidze also tells us that the church is “under the thumb” of the Russian Orthodox Church, and that the Patriarch’s University is a “centre of extremism”. What’s more, sexual improprieties are hushed up, and he

…criticizes the Patriarch for buying houses in Israel worth millions of dollars, while thousands of Georgians struggle to survive.

Kobakhidze has been attacking the Georgian religious establishment for some time; he has also accused Orthodox priests of involvement with a violent group that has attacked Jehovah’s Witnesses; described the new Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi as a “pyramid built for the glory of some people and not for the glory of God”; and charged that the church has withdrawn from ecumenical activities because of “fanatics and fundamentalists and in order to avoid an internal schism”. A 2003 interview was particularly explicit:

The scale of corruption in churches is wide. Clergymen respect rich people and thieves; the profanation of values is evident at all levels of the hierarchy…It is our Georgian “Christian casuistry” to say, “That money was stolen from that man, but his money will reach God.”

There are no qualifications or criteria defined for clergymen…That’s why some clergymen have an extremely negative impact on our society.

Let me quote the answer of a priest, which was published in a newspaper under the heading, “What can you tell us, Father?”

Question: “What can you tell us, Father, about the fact that our priests have expensive cars?”

Answer: “Those who ask this question have never sought God. Is it not better that your priest have a good car? If he did not have one, he would spend time repairing it.”

In the same article the same priest says that dinosaurs never existed.

Once the Church was given some tax concessions, lots of organizations were established for making money…There is a candle business and a church plate business. Church plate comes from Russia for free to be sold later here in Georgia, but only certain organizations get these privileges…

The Patriarchate denounced Kobakhidze and all his works in a statement:

All these claims are groundless and baseless…As for the accusations brought by Archpriest Basil Kobakhidze against different clergymen and superiors of the Georgian Orthodox Church as if they serve to various intelligence services of different countries are malicious calumny and big sin before the God. Archpriest Basil Kobakhidze himself is in difficulties. Despite the repeated warnings he has been acting without blessing by the Catholicos Patriarch of All Georgia. He has participated in various meetings and forums without permission, he insults and mocks at the Church and the priests that is rather inadmissible action for any priest. Due to such actions he makes himself out of the Church.

In particular, the Patriarchate affirms that it enjoys friendly relations with other confessions, and that its withdrawal from the World Council of Churches in the 1990s was not a rejection of dialogue.

In 2006, Kobakhidze was arrested in Belarus for taking part (alongside a Georgian Baptist leader) in a protest against Alexander Lukashenko; he is also very supportive of the independent Kiev Patriarchate in Ukraine – the existence of which is a source of continual annoyance to the Russian church – and the Ukrainian patriarch Filaret helped with the creation of a Georgian parish in Kiev, which was denounced by the Georgian hierarchy.

Kobakhidze is based at the Georgian State University’s department of journalism, where he “analyses up to 40 newspapers and magazines published by the Georgian Orthodox Church.” He is also associated with the Center for the Study of Religious Issues, which last year made a complaint to Moscow patriarch Alexy over the treatment of Georgians in Russia:

Unfortunately the Russian Orthodox Church not only does not protest an anti-Georgian hysteria but silently observes the ethnic harassment in Russia and thus supports the strengthening of racism and xenophobia in its flock. Moreover, various official representatives of the Russian Patriarchate even justify the anti-Georgian policy of Russian State authorities. No surprising that no one of Russian clergymen participated in the demonstration “I am a Georgian” held in Moscow. The Russian Orthodox Church appears to be an obedient servant of the Russian State even in the 21st century.

Kobakhidze enclosed a special item:

…Your Holiness, You personally awarded one of us, Archpriest Basil Kobakhidze of the Georgian Orthodox Church, with the Order of the St. Prince Daniel of Moscow. Archpriest Bazil is returning this Order to You as a sign of his protest.

Name variations: Vasyl Kobakhidze; Vasily Kobakhidze; Vasili Kobakhidze; Vasil Kobakhidze; Basil Kobakhidze; Basili Kobakhidze; Bazil Kobakhidze

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From the Christian Post (links added):

Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., has responded to a number of charges against its founding pastor, Purpose Driven Life author Rick Warren, for not disciplining global media executive Rupert Murdoch over his alleged ownership and expansion of pornographic channels in Europe.

Chris Rosebrough, head of the Calif.-based Christian Accountability Network, was one of a number of Christians who earlier this month said that Warren should “call Murdoch to repentance and/or put him out of the church.”

…According to London-based magazine The Business, Murdoch has been secretly building a stable of wholly-owned pornographic channels for his BSkyB subsidiary. The British publication claims that BSkyB now owns and operates its own pornographic channels – the 18+ Movies selection – after years of hosting third-party content only.

(The report in The Business actually appeared a year ago)

According to Rosebrough, Warren has declined to criticise Murdoch because Murdoch’s News Corp owns Zondervan, the evangelical imprint that publishes Warren’s The Purpose-Driven Life. Warren, however, now says that Murdoch has no links with his church – which is a bit embarrassing for him since he had previously boasted of being the Dirty Digger’s pastor. Joseph Farah, who hates Warren for his support for causes such as action on global warming and dialogue with Syria, has seized the opening:

The only person I know who ever made the claim to be Murdoch’s pastor is Rick Warren, who has done so at least twice publicly in reports he has never repudiated. In fact, his church has reprinted those reports appearing in the Orange County Register and the New Yorker.

In the New Yorker interview published in September 2005, Warren is quoted as saying: “I had dinner with Jack Welch (former chief executive officer of GE) last Sunday night. He came to church, and we had dinner. I’ve been kind of mentoring him on his spiritual journey. And he said to me, ‘Rick, you the biggest thinker I have ever met in my life. The only other person I know who thinks globally like you is Rupert Murdoch.’ And I said, ‘That’s interesting. I’m Rupert’s pastor! Rupert published my book!'”

In the Nov. 12, 2006, Orange County Register story, Warren was asked about pastoring a man who publishes tabloids featuring topless women. He responded: “I don’t have to agree with 100 percent of what another person does in order to work with them on the 20 percent that we do agree on.” The article also points out Murdoch was among the first patrons to support Warren’s PEACE plan, contributing $2 million.

But while aiming at Warren, Rosebrough and Farah have missed an even bigger target: the Vatican. As the Independent reported in 1998:

The Roman Catholic church is receiving complaints from worshippers following news that Rupert Murdoch has been awarded a papal knighthood from Pope John Paul II.

Senior Catholics are said to have been “mystified and astonished” when they heard that the purveyor of newspaper sex, scandal and nudity was made a Knight Commander of St Gregory at a ceremony in Los Angeles last month.

News of the award was kept out of Mr Murdoch’s British titles – the Sun, the Times, the Sunday Times and the News of the World – at his request, although it is provoking outrage in the religious media and in Ireland, where many Catholics have reacted with anger that Mr Murdoch, who is not a Catholic, appears to have been honoured purely for donating large sums of money to the church.

(Murdoch showed his gratitude for the honour by announcing the appointment of Pope Benedict XVI with the UK Sun headline “From Hitler Youth to Papa Ratzi“)

But the bigger story here is what it means for someone like Murdoch to have control of a religious publishing empire. I’ve already blogged some previous disputes: in 2005 there were Christian complaints about Zondervan’s use of Chinese labour to print Bibles, and in the early 1980s Murdoch’s take-over of the British Christian publishing house of Collins led to the departure, in disgust, of editor Robin Baird-Smith, who had been asked to produce a sensationalist book concerning a serial-killer. Of course, the picture is more complicated than that: both imprints also publish good deal of thoughtful material by authors such as Philip Yancey, and (as I noted here) Zondervan is now much more up-market than it was in days when it was churning out crap by the likes of Hal Lindsey. Defenders of Zondervan have also pointed out that, as a businessman, Murdoch is hardly going to risk de-valuing the imprint by interfering with it. However, ownership by Murdoch is always a problem for credibility – and the Rosebrough-Warren spat shows that any association is now suspect.

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Staying with Israel, a report on WorldNetDaily:

A controversy is raging in Israel, in evangelical circles in the U.S. and on kabbalah web forums worldwide following the posthumous release of what a revered Sephardic rabbi claimed to be the name of the Messiah.

The rabbi was Yitzchak Kaduri, kabbalist and ideologue of the Israeli religious right (Kaduri favoured a monarchical rule in Israel, and complained that Sharon’s compromises amounted to the country being run by a “fascist regime”). He died last year, around the age of 108, leaving an enigma behind him:

Before Kaduri died, he reportedly wrote the name of the Messiah on a small note, requesting it remained sealed for one year after his death. The note revealed the name of the Messiah as “Yehoshua” or “Yeshua” – or the Hebrew name Jesus.

The note – in which the name is spelt out in an acrostic – was actually released in February. Kaduri’s son believes it to be a forgery. Others, however, have different explanations: that Kaduri was a secret Christian all along, or that he was deceived by Satan:

Kaduri was also quoted as saying the imminent arrival of the Messiah will “save Jerusalem from Islam and Christianity that wish to take Jerusalem from the Jewish Nation – but they will not succeed, and they will fight each other.”

Statements like that have some Christians wondering if Kaduri might be talking about another Yeshua – perhaps even a miracle-performing “false Christ” many evangelicals believe will precede the return of Jesus.

This, of course, accords with the late Jerry Falwell’s claim that the anti-Christ is alive and Jewish; apparently, while criticizing Israel is anti-Semitic, suggesting that Jews will manifest and be seduced into venerating the embodiment of Satanic evil is just fine.

WND adds:

A few months before his death, Kaduri gave a Yom Kippur address in which he gave clues as to how to recognize the Messiah. He told those gathered for the Day of Atonement in his synagogue the Messiah would not come until former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon dies.

That’s a bit different from earlier reports on the supposed “prophecy”. According Arutz Sheva around the time:

Rabbi Kaduri has told his students that the current government will be the last one of the “old era.” He is on record as saying that Sharon will be the last prime minister in Israel, and that the new government will already have leadership of the Messianic era.

(I blogged on this here) For some reason, though, the idea that Ehud Olmert might be the messiah hasn’t caught on, and it looks as though the mystic prediction has been revised.

So, if Kaduri wasn’t a Christian, just whom did he have in mind for the Messiah role? Kaduri claimed to have met the person concerned, and that the nation would call on him to lead them. Possibly he had in mind Yosef Dayan, an Israeli far-rightist who claims to be the legitimate King of Israel. But perhaps he was thinking of the man who was most likely to succeed Sharon at the time?

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Jewish settler leader: “I’m a racist”

Palestinian archaeologist: There was a Jewish temple, but I can’t admit it

Greek Orthodox Patriarch: Conflict with laity to be resolved in less than a year

On Saturday there was a very interesting documentary on the UK’s Channel 4, entitled Battle for the Holy Land: Jerusalem and presented by British politician Paddy Ashdown. Ashdown spent several months talking with Jewish and Palestinian groups and officials, and the programme explored the reasons for some of the strife in the city.

Ashdown had some criticisms of current Israeli policies, and the reaction has been predictable. Carol Gould, a Frontpager and former ITV Drama Executive, has written one particularly hysterical response:

Once again a British television programme has taken the complex and tragic story of Israel and turned it into a polemic about the endlessly victimised Palestinians and those brutal, hate-filled, despicable Jews…[P]rogramming bordering on the criminal because the extreme bias against Israel and Jews could very easily incite young Muslims to attack Jewish targets after watching two hours of ‘bad Jews, racist Jews, violent Jews’ and their relentless campaign of pillage against helpless Palestinians.

Ashdown’s perspective was indeed critical of Israel – but, as he also showed, he didn’t say anything that’s unheard of in Israel itself: former Jerusalem city councillor Meir Margalit complained of “racism in the municipal policy”, while Gershom Gorenberg spoke of the need to pursue peace rather than territory.

One of Ashdown’s interviewees was Aryeh King, who runs one of the most aggressive organisations that seeks to squeeze Palestinians out of East Jerusalem through Jewish settlement (I’ve discussed him on this blog before – Aaron Klein of WorldNetDaily has given him sympathetic coverage, ignoring his links to the Israeli far-right). King explained to Ashdown that

…I’m a racist. I must be a racist in order to protect my future.

Apparently, if such a statement reflects poorly on Israel this is somehow Ashdown’s fault for reporting it, rather than King’s for uttering it

Also providing a bit of poor PR for Israel was Gabi Barkai, an archaeologist from Bar Ilan University. One of Barkai’s jobs is sifting through the rubble created by the Islamic waqf’s disastrous excavation at the Temple Mount in 1999, which – either through design or recklessness – ruined an archaeological site containing artefacts from the First and Second Temple periods (and much else besides). Ashdown was sympathetic, but he also raised the question of how Israeli excavations near the Mugrabi Gate had been conducted. Barkai’s response:

I don’t like your attitude and I don’t like this conversation at all, I’m sorry to say.

Ashdown also met the leading Palestinian archaeologist at the waqf (His name was something like “Yousef Nachey”, but it didn’t appear on-screen). A rather unimpressive figure, when asked about evidence for the ancient Israelite and Jewish Temples, he would only admit to a “complicated architectural development” on the site in pre-Islamic times, prompting Ashdown to observe that

I think you’re saying as an archaeologist, a temple was here, but as a Palestinian within the politics of Jerusalem I can’t admit that.

His response was:

Maybe, yeah.

Of course, such “temple denial” does nothing to help “Palestinian politics” since a) it’s cranky pseudo-history that debases the discourse and even Islamic theology (why does the story have Muhammad ascending to heaven from that spot in the first place?) and b) it implicitly accepts the argument that the existence of the ancient Jewish Temple bolsters Israeli claims for hegemony.

Ashdown also explored the dispute within the Greek Orthodox church between the Palestinian laity and the Greek hierarchy, which perhaps reached its nadir in 2005 when a prime site in East Jerusalem was sold off to an Israeli settler group (as blogged by me here). Ashdown met the new Orthodox Patriarch, Theophilos III, and asked him about Palestinian demands for a greater presence within the clergy and decision-making processes. Theophilos denied there was a problem, but at the same time that he was working to improve matters:

I don’t think that this is the problem, we are working on this. We’ve already started…it’s very soon.

…Within a year or so, you think?

Less than that.

That’s one to keep an eye on.

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Faith-Healing Evangelist Invited by President’s Wife

Benny Hinn has just visited Uganda. The New Vision reports on his “glorious presence”:

RENOWNED international evangelist, Pastor Benny Hinn yesterday arrived in the country to a massive crusade at Nelson Mandela Stadium, Namboole.

Hinn in the country at the invitation of the First Lady, Janet Museveni, arrived at Namboole at around 6:40pm in a chopper.

…When the thousands of believers who filled the stadium to capacity noticed his glorious presence, he garnered a deafening applause. Prolonged screaming, chants of praise and clapping reverberated in the stadium.

Elsewhere, the New Vision tells us that “Uganda…rejoices to finally have him”, and the Sunday Vision continues in similar hard-hitting investigative vein:

THE lame walked, the blind had their eyes opened, the deaf heard and the sick recovered…

Mrs Museveni, meanwhile, got what she wanted out of the invitation:

The pastor on the first day of his two-day crusade implored God to bless president Yoweri Museveni, his family and staff.

“Make this nation become your nation,” he cried out to God.

This endorsement echoes that of Morris Cerullo, which we saw in February:

Cerullo thanked the President for the impressive performance of his government in the last 20 years. He was particularly impressed by the freedom of worship that has resulted in a great number of born-again Christians.

“You are the right man in the right country at the right time and God has blessed your leadership,” Cerullo told Museveni.

Hinn’s blessing comes at quite a useful time – the Musevenis are currently embroiled in a scandal involving the misappropriation of the “Gavi” child immunisation funds for political campaigning.

According to reports, Hinn’s visit cost $2.5million, and was broadcast live by God TV, which I blogged on here. Apparently,

To illuminate the place enough for the television cameras, the same lighting system that was used on the 2004 Oscar winning Hollywood film The Constant Gardener, which was shot in Nairobi’s Kibero slum, was brought.

Sharing the stage with Hinn was (as ever) Pastor Robert Kayanja, another strong supporter of the Musevenis, and whom I blogged on here. Kenyans and Rwandans were among those who travelled to the crusade in search of miraculous healing of illnesses such as AIDS:

Pastor Joseph Serwadda, of Victory Christian Centre in Ndeeba, says Benny Hinn’s visit is a blessing to Uganda because he has come at a time when Ugandans need spiritual intervention and revival.

…”Many people are suffering from HIV/AIDS and other diseases yet Benny Hinn is known for his healing ministry. I have no reservation whatsoever that he will bless and quench the spiritual thirst of this country.”

Meanwhile, Mrs Museveni has been accused of undermining her husband’s successful “ABC” approach to AIDS prevention (Abstain, Be Faithful, or use a Condom) in favour of a stricter stance against condoms.

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Time calls new united Orthodox church Putin’s “main ideological arm and a vital foreign policy instrument”

Eyes on ROCOR property in Palestinian territory

Interfax reports the latest from the Putin-Alexy double-act:

Patriarch Alexy II, the head of the Moscow-based Russian Orthodox Church [ROC], gave Russian President Vladimir Putin a present on Thursday, crediting him with serious contribution to the unification of the Moscow-based Church and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR)… Alexy and Laurus signed the agreement at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow.

The present was an icon of the “Life-giving Trinity”.

The ROC (also known as the “Moscow Patriarchate”) and the ROCOR had been in schism since the Russian Revolution. Time has more about the reunification:

Nationalism, based on the Orthodox faith, has been emerging as the Putin regime’s major ideological resource. Thursday’s rite sealed the four-year long effort by Putin, beginning in September 2003, to have the Moscow Patriarchate take over its rival American-based cousin and launch a new globalized Church as his state’s main ideological arm and a vital foreign policy instrument…The Church’s assertiveness and presence is growing — with little separation from the State.

Last November, as unification talks were underway in San Francisco, a British ROCOR priest named Andrew Phillips claimed that the CIA had bugged the discussions – although his only evidence was a “mysterious black SUV” parked nearby.

The unification deal will have repercussions in East Jerusalem and the West Bank:

One of the first tests of the new union will be in the Holy Land, where the ROCOR maintains religious properties — and has had run-ins with representatives of the Moscow patriarchate in the past. In 1997, for example, Yasser Arafat forcibly turned over the only Christian church in Hebron, run by the ROCOR, to the ROC.

The New York Times reported on this at the time:

According to witnesses, officers of the Palestinian Preventive Security Service arrived at the church on Saturday morning and ordered the monks and nuns to leave. When they refused, they were evicted by force.

What apparently persuaded Arafat to accede to the request of the Moscow patriarch was an incident during Alexy’s visit last month, when he and a large group of Palestinian, Russian and Greek Orthodox dignitaries were barred by emigre nuns from visiting the Hebron church.

The emigres had earlier refused to receive the patriarch at a Russian Orthodox convent on the Mount of Olives. Then, evidently expecting that the Moscow delegation would try to visit Hebron, they hid the key to the church there.

(The convent is the Church of St Mary Magdalene, a distinctive structure. Prince Philip’s mother is buried there.)

The Patriarch arrived in Hebron from a formal lunch with Arafat, and his Palestinian hosts, chagrined to find the door locked, pried it open. According to Palestinian officials, Arafat was furious.

Evidently adding to Palestinian pique was the fact that the emigre church had refused a request by Mayor Mustafa Natshe of Hebron to lease some church-owned lands.

Arafat’s autocratic and forceful intervention in an internal church dispute was bound to raise objections and apprehensions. But in his decision to recognize Moscow’s claim, he was following a precedent set by Israel.

However, the Times account was challenged in a letter from Sister Anastasia Stephanopoulos (brother of George, and a Jerusalem-based nun). This was followed by the seizure of a ROCOR mission building in Jericho in 2000.

According to a report on Asia News, the unification of ROC and ROCOR does not mean the end of ROCOR:

…the Church in exile [ROCOR] however will maintain a certain autonomy: it will continue to appoint its own priests, it will maintain control of its properties and daily affairs and it will have the right to send representatives to the annual bishops conference in Moscow.

Time tells us that this should mean that other ROCOR properties in the Holy Land should not change administration. However, it also adds that “some observers remain sceptical” – and with Hamas enjoying close links with Moscow, we can guess which way any dispute is likely to go.

Of course, the Palestinian Authority is not the only body known to have interfered with Orthodox Christian affairs in the Holy Land – I’ve blogged several times on a murky land deal by which Israeli settlers gained a lease to Greek Orthodox property in East Jerusalem, leading to a major scandal and the deposition of the Greek patriarch Irenios. Irenios blamed his treasurer, Nicholas Papadimas, who – so far as I am aware – remains missing after two years…

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The Church of Scientology has responded to John Sweeney’s lame “exposé” of the religion with an “exposé” of Sweeney and the BBC. Sweeney’s documentary, for the Panorama news programme, has received considerable media attention due to Sweeney’s ridiculous screaming at Tony Davis. Sweeney says that he lost control in order to resist “brainwashing” – a process that appears to consist of Davis annoying Sweeney with aggressive and irritating comments. Other than that, most of the show features Sweeney roaming around with a camera-crew in an affected “investigative journalist” raincoat. Indeed, it wasn’t really clear what, ultimately, Sweeney was trying to find out, and one was put in mind of Brass Eye. One instance of Sweeney’s failure: when various celebrity Scientologists and Davis claim to know nothing about the science-fiction story which serves as the Scientology mythos, Sweeney fails press Davis on the point. A clip from a previous, 1987, Panorama programme (available here) served only to remind us how much better the programme was in the old days.

The Church’s “rebuttal” programme manages to make the hapless Sweeney look even more out of his depth. Asked to define “brainwashing”, he doesn’t have an answer. We also see a few stunts that Sweeney wisely left out of his finished product: in particular, we see him trying to goad John Travolta at a Leicester Square film premiere, in a manner reminiscent more of Dennis Pennis than of a serious journalist. However, the video also cuts its footage of Sweeney for dramatic – and, quite obviously, propagandistic – value. There’s also a silly attempt to discredit Sweeney more generally by mentioning his 1997 conviction for criminal libel, but without going into the details (the case was brought in France by the Barclay brothers on the grounds that something Sweeney had said on Radio Guernsey could be heard in France).

The “rebuttal” concludes with the claim that Sweeney orchestrated a demonstration against the Church’s centre in Tottenham Court Road, and that this turn inflamed a “terrorist” threat against them. The “evidence” presented for this is a comment left on the blog of Xenu TV. But the text does not support the contention that Sweeney staged the event, let alone that he had anything to do with any threat:

London Critic Says:

December 13th, 2006 at 3:03 pm

I’d just like to point out (as one of the critics featured in [a short film included on the Xenu website]) that we were not told by the individual who filmed that she was intending to release this film on the internet, nor were we shown it before she released it to you.

We had a team of researchers from BBC’s “Panorama” filming us, but that film is not intended for broadcast; “Panorama” have requested permission to film us for a demo planned next year, and wanted some private footage to get some idea of what typically happens during one of our demos. For the “official” filming, we will be required to sign consent forms.

We have no problems with someone filming if they ask consent and clear it with us first. But this was not done with our knowledge and consent.

I should also point out that the person who sent you this film is not one of the regular UK critics, being a visiting critic from Germany.

Several critics of television news reporting are also featured on the “rebuttal” (although none refer to the Sweeney programme directly): the Rt Rev Graham James of the BBC Religious Advisory Committee and Jay Lakhani of the Hindu Council complain about the representation of religion (Lakhami states that “BBC programmes that relate to religion or spirituality are run by people who should not be in a position of power there”), and journalists Robin Aiken and Ted Hynds critique the way news is created for television. There’s also input from Ron Williams, an “International Security Consultant” – but no mention that he actually runs Talon Executive Services, which a number of sources claim has links with the church.

Lesson: if the BBC wants to find out what makes an unusual religious group tick, it would be far better off sending in Louis Theroux than a sensation-seeking and poorly-informed news hack.

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Ted Baehr is the publisher of MovieGuide, which tells Christians what films to avoid (See my blog entry here). Recently, he gave his thoughts on the reasons for the Virginia Tech massacre:

…We live in a culture of violence and sex. It’s a culture that has been made by the media. The media creates the culture, and the culture of course influences susceptible people, such as the gunmen at Colombine Klebold and Harris, and the other gunmen over the past twenty years.

Indeed. Consider, for instance, this picture of Chuck Norris:

Whoops, wrong pic. That’s Baehr and his father giving an award to Norris for his family-friendly work. I meant, of course, this picture:

Sorry, wrong again. Third time lucky:

Meanwhile, at WorldNetDaily (hat tip: Jesus’ General), Norris, in his capacity as sociologist of religion, offers a contribution to the secularisation debate (links in original):

Though the majority of Americans continue to claim to be Christians, a Gallup poll discovered 45 percent of us would support an atheist for president, 55 percent would support a homosexual candidate and 72 percent would support a Mormon candidate.

Such a survey is a clear indication that most Americans are simply confused about what it means to be Christian. It also shows that the secularization of society is alive and well, especially when almost half would endorse an atheist president.

…Atheists also received a proverbial shot in the arm by locating a representative and advocate of sorts in Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., who “is the first member of Congress – and the highest-ranking elected official in the country – to make known that he is a nontheist.”

His election stands in stark contrast to the wishes of our Founding Fathers, who encouraged American citizens to vote Christians into public office.

One wonders if he finds the forty-three Jewish members of Congress just as much of a betrayal of the Founding Fathers’ wishes.

(Third pic via Pandagon)

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Staying with WorldNetDaily, Art Moore reports from the World Congress of Families:

While the rest of Europe largely accommodates a rising tide of secularism, many Polish leaders are prepared to fight back with a bold, traditional social agenda they envision not only for their own country but for the continent and the world.

Poland’s vice premier and minister of education, Roman Giertych told the World Congress of Families here his multi-pronged plan – including a proposal issued last month to ban “homosexual propaganda” in schools – is “something I have to do.”

…Giertych, whose father and grandfather were prominent Polish politicians, says Poland is threatened by “various ideologies … that have nothing to do with the well-being of children, that promote attitudes which are not true to life.”

Alas, Moore doesn’t tell us anything more about Roman’s “prominent” forebears. Roman’s father, of course, is Maciej Giertych, who was recently responsible for a notorious pamphlet which explains how Jews seek to settle “among the rich”; back in November he was obliged to fire his assistant when a video emerged which showed her at a neo-Nazi rally (Maciej is also a Creationist). And the “prominent” grandfather was Jedrzej Giertych, a Catholic traditionalist known for suggesting that Jews ought to be removed from Poland. Roman himself is the honorary chairman of the All Polish Youth, a skinhead group that he used to lead – another detail Moore doesn’t trouble his credulous readers with (Roman’s uncle, Fr Wojciech Giertych, is a speechwriter for the Pope, but there is no suggestion that he has inherited his family’s propensities).

ASSIST Ministries also reports from the Congress:

Allan Carlson, co-founder of the Congress on Families said in an interview with ANS, that the delegates were discussing ways to counteract what has been called the “demographics winter.”

Carlson explained that this expression related to “the sharp decline in fertility in most developed western countries particularly so in Europe which is related in turn to a retreat from marriage that’s been going on for several decades now and which we also believe is related in turn to secularization to the declining influence of religion in public life and in people’s lives.”

He continued: “We meet in Warsaw in the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which affirms in Article C that the family is the natural fundamental of society entitled to protection by society and the state and the architects of that declaration had a very clear idea of what they meant by family. They meant a man and a woman coming together in a life long bond of marriage for the purposes of procreation and rearing of children, binding together the generations. These are lessons that have been largely forgotten in parts of the world over the last several decades.

“It is kind of ironic that we are meeting here, the very place where the Communist Party of Poland used to hold their annual meetings. Stalin designed this building, so maybe in a way we’re doing a bit of informal intellectual exorcism here and in fact trying to restore the spirit of the natural family as a guiding force in western life.”

The event has also been documented by a series of press releases (here, here, here, here, and here). Some highlights:

…Ellen Sauerbrey (Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Immigration) echoed Minister Giertych’s remarks: “As you know, the family is the oldest human institution, the first and most enduring community of individuals working together for the common good. The family predates all states, and can be found in every culture, in every era…. The state did not create the family; rather, families created the state.”

…At a press conference preceding the opening of the Congress, Christine deVollmer, president of the Latin American Alliance for the Family, declared, “Europe has espoused not only anti-natalist policies of all kinds, but policies of sexual permissiveness which are proven to create infertility on a wide scale.”

…In a plenary session address, Fagan declared, “Feminists of Europe take note, the safest place for children is in the natural family. The most dangerous is cohabiting couples.”

Speaking on the impact of pornography, Bob Knight of the Media Research Center disclosed: “The leftist wants every aspect of life regulated except sex. Sex advances their reshaping of society.”

…”When I go back to my campus in the fall, I’ll be better prepared to confront abortion advocates and students whose lifestyles aren’t preparing them for a healthy marriage and family life.”  Andrea Summers, student at Arizona State University.

I’m sure the students of Arizona will look forward to that. A celibate Catholic prelate also contributed:

…Cardinal López Trujillo noted, “The vocation of marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman.”

However, an undercover reporter for RH Reality Check has a rather different perspective:

Giertych and his hate-rousing speech was followed today by several other speakers, including Ellen Sauerbery, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration, who opened her speech by saying to the audience “I bring you greetings from President Bush!” She then went on to say that this Administration “values strengthening the family as an important goal for the sake of our common humanity” and congratulated Poland on its own courageous “pro-family” policies. Sauerbery did say a few things, however, that seemed out of place with the views of many of the other speakers—like advocating for the education of women as a way to protect the family.

Educated women were a sour note with several male speakers who blamed the “demographic crisis” in Europe on women attending university and choosing (imagine women with a choice!) not to have children until it was too late. In fact, there was a lot of blame being passed around today for the deterioration of the natural family. Educated women, law professors, liberal academics, LGBT individuals, judges, national governments, and local governments, and of course, the United Nations all share the blame.

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I missed this from a couple of weeks ago (emphasis added for mirth value):

A pro-Israel Christian group has changed its Web site banner image after learning the photo was doctored…The Muslim mosques on the Temple Mount were missing.

…[Christians United for Israel], as the pro-Israel group is known, was unaware that the photo was altered when it was selected for the Web site, the group’s executive director, David Brog, told JTA.

I blogged on Brog (who hasn’t made any declaration of belonging to the Christian faith that I can find) a few months ago. We can see how he and his associates might have overlooked the bit of Islamic architecture.

The connotations of the first image were rather embarrassing – after all, a deranged follower of Herbert Armstrong had tried to burn down the al-Aqsa mosque in 1969, while certain far-right Israeli groups have plotted to blow up the Dome of the Rock:

“If there is any doubt, I didn’t want that picture,” Brog said. “I don’t want people to be able to attribute to us an agenda that does not exist. We were looking for a pretty picture of Jerusalem and nothing more.”

But what is the “agenda” of CUFI? The involvement of pastor John Hagee (responsible for the baroque “New World Order” sermon available here) has already put off one invitee to one of its “Night to Honor Israel” events:

A Minnesota congresswoman declined an invitation to attend “A Night to Honor Israel,” saying the views of the event’s evangelical founder are “repugnant.”

…”Well-publicized statements by Pastor Hagee demonstrate extremism, bigotry and intolerance that is repugnant,” U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, a Democrat, said in a two-page reply declining a form invitation from Pastor Mac Hammond.

(Mac Hammond is another figure I blogged recently – he’s linked with Christian Zionist/prosperity preacher Kenneth Copeland, and he’s recently come under investigation over “a sweetheart deal on a plane lease, possibly violating federal tax law”)

However, while McCollum missed out on the Minneapolis honour-fest, presidential candidate Duncan Hunter is still up for a similar shindig planned for Northern Virginia (let’s hope he doesn’t send his son instead). World Net Daily has more details:

WND founder and Editor Joseph Farah will deliver the keynote address at “A Night to Honor Israel,” sponsored by the Jerusalem Connection and Christians United for Israel…

“We will be celebrating Israel’s 59th birthday with our Jewish friends and acknowledging the relevance of Shavuot for Christian Zionists,” explained James M. Hutchens, president of the Jerusalem Connection. “Shavuot is the time when the book of Ruth is emphasized. Ruth is the proto-type of the non-Jew who pledges unconditional allegiance to Naomi, her Jewish mother-in-law. Ruth is a symbol of the Christian Zionist support for Israel and the Jewish people today.”

(I recently noted a comment by an African evangelist that African Christians would “would love to kiss the feet of a Jew”; perhaps he meant that he wanted to “lie at the feet of Boaz”?)

Jerusalem Connection is particularly keen to help Jews move to Israel, in accordance with its understanding of Biblical prophecy. One of its projects is the “Cyrus Fund“, which aims to track down Shepardic Jews who headed from Spain to South America post-1492:

After the Spanish Expulsion in 1492, many Sephardic Jews migrated to the “New World,” to the Americas… Now, many Bnai Anusim, the lost Sephardic Jews in Latin and South America, are—five hundred years after their ancestors were forcefully converted to Catholicism—discovering their Jewish identities and Hebraic roots for the first time.

…The Jerusalem Connection will even provide a means whereby Bnai Anusim can check to find out if their DNA actually qualifies them as a Sephardic Jew. If the DNA tests confirm their identity and they want to make Aliyah (immigrate) to Israel, we want to help them do just that through our own Cyrus Fund.

But what about those living in Israel and the West Bank not fortunate enough to have the right DNA? Hutchens (a former military man) is OK with Arab-Israelis, but

…the Palestinians do not qualify for the protections to be given to those under Israel’s God-ordained governance. The so-called “Palestinians” under the leadership of Yasser Arafat, are loath to have Israel as their sovereign authority. The Palestinian, as well as the Arab, goal of peace envisions the total elimination of Israel as a nation and a people. The Palestinian flag portrays the current boundaries of Israel as being the boundaries of a future Palestine.

Also in attendance will be David Rubin, who is a former mayor of the West Bank settlement of Shiloh (a stronghold of the militant Gush Emunim) and the survivor of a terrorist attack that also nearly killed his child. His Shiloh Israel Children’s Fund provides a palatable way for Christians to donate money to the settlers’ cause.

However, McCollum is not the only CUFI-sceptic:

Jewish leaders who have been critical of Jewish participation in local “Nights to Honor Israel” say they have been pressured into silence.

“The pressure has been enormous,” said a prominent Jewish leader who said he was contacted by local community officials after he raised questions about a local CUFI event. “I can’t even talk about it now; I feel a real sense of intimidation because people in our own community are saying I’m opposing something that’s good for Israel, that I’m hurting Israel.”

On the other hand, there have been complaints coming from some conservative Christians about pressures to tone down the evangelising; in 2006 the executive director of Jews for Jesus claimed that there was

…an “ongoing agenda” among certain Jewish leaders who he says want to “undermine Christian evangelism by trying to shape Christian theology.”

In March, Christian Zionist Janet Parnell broke with the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus over the issue.

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