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VERMONT BANS BIBLE QUOTE LICENSE PLATE

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New GOD BLOG from The Love Church Worldwide's News Service:
JOHN 3:16 IS BANNED FROM VERMONT LICENSE PLATES. MAN SUES STATE….

A Vermont man has sued that state's Department of Motor Vehicles after his application to have a personalized license plate with a Christian message was rejected.

Last April, Shawn Byrne submitted an application for a personalized plate inscribed with "JOHN316." In May, he received a letter from the DMV informing him that the inscription was "deemed to be a combination that refers to deity and has been denied based on that reason." On appeal, an administrative law judge upheld the DMV's position because the statute governing the license plate program prohibits combinations that refer to "deity," among other things.

Byrne has now sued the state over the matter. He is represented by attorney Anthony Duprey of Middlebury, who is affiliated with the Alliance Defense Fund. Duprey contends the state's position is clearly unconstitutional.

"The state of Vermont has created a forum whereby they allow people to make expression within this license plate forum," the attorney says. "But they said if you happen to have a religious perspective, a Christian perspective, then you need not apply. They're discriminating as to what sort of speech people can put on the license plate -- and I think that's very troubling."

According to Duprey, DMV officials have approved other plates that use names and numbers referring to religion. But those officials, he says, have "selectively censored" his client's expression. "When officials suppress speech because they don't like the message of the plate or the viewpoint it expresses, that's illegal discrimination," he says.

The attorney points out another aspect that he sees as discriminatory. "What's important in my client's life is his relationship with Jesus Christ," he explains. "[But] the state said 'Well, we don't want to hear that -- , we don't want you to express that.' But if you've got somebody [for whom] bowling is their big thing in life and that's what they live for, then you're free to put it on the vehicle."

Duprey says he intends to make sure the DMV "will no longer be able to discriminate against anyone based upon their religious views."

NOTE: Allie Martin is a reporter for American Family Radio News, available online. AgapePress. Gratefully reprinted for academic, research, and educational purposes.

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FIRST BIBLE AD TO APPEAR IN ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE

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New GOD BLOG from The Love Church Worldwide's News Service:
AS WITH DR. HOOK AND THE MEDICINE COMPANY , THE BIBLE WILL BE ON THE COVER OF THE 'ROLLING STONE' !!

The bible of rock 'n' roll, Rolling Stone magazine, will run an ad for the Holy Bible next month — the same ad it rejected two weeks ago for its "spiritual message."

"We have addressed the internal miscommunications that led to the previous misstatement of company policy and apologize for any confusion it may have caused," Lisa Dallos, spokeswoman for Wenner Media, Rolling Stone's parent company, said Monday. She declined to elaborate.

The magazine was drummed by critics last week for turning down a low-key ad for a new translation of Scripture, Today's New International Version (TNIV).

The nation's largest Bible publisher, Zondervan, had inquired about rates for the ad in March and booked the space in July for the ad to run in February.

The ad, which will run unchanged in mid-February, doesn't mention God. But it describes the Bible as "real truth" and ca

rries the new translation's slogan: "Timeless truth: Today's language." Zondervan is launching a $1 million marketing campaign for the TNIV in publications for young adults who rarely, if ever, read the Bible. TNIV is designed to be accessible to modern readers. The Bible.

"We're frankly thrilled that Rolling Stone has decided to accept our ad," said Paul Caminiti, Zondervan's president of Bible publishing.

"We believe that the Bible is relevant for Rolling Stone readers," Caminiti said. "We've always believed they were a cornerstone in our campaign to squarely market to spiritually intrigued 18- to 34-year-old young people, many of whom live outside the embrace of the church."

Other media outlets that will carry TNIV advertising include Modern Bride, the satirical weekly The Onion and MTV.com.

The trouble with Rolling Stone came when the magazine's executives saw the actual advertisement two weeks ago.

It was ruled unacceptable because of a "spiritual message in the text," said Kent Brownridge, general manager for Wenner Media. He told USA TODAY that the magazine "was not in the business of advertising for religious messages."

Zondervan officials were shocked. They said offers to change the advertisement were rebuffed. Christian and conservative media commentators savaged the magazine, which once carried classified advertising for mail-order divinity degrees.

Meanwhile, the controversy has driven such demand for TNIV, Caminiti said, that Zondervan will be moving it into stores ahead of schedule.

All 10 variations of TNIV, including a version with commentary for women called True Identity and a men's version called Strive, will be in stores Feb. 1 ($15 to $60, depending on binding and features).

Then a new batch of critics might be heard from: theologians who disagree over the actual translation.

When Zondervan released the TNIV New Testament in 2002, some scholars and clergy complained that it went beyond updating language, to revising God's word as well.

Zondervan says it welcomes the debate and will be mailing the full Bible to 118 critics next month.

Courtesy of www.usatoday.com online. Gratefully reprinted to academic, research, and educational purposes.

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DEEP THROAT STAR IS NOW A CHRISTIAN. HARRY RHEEMS SELLS REAL ESTATE TODAY

New GOD BLOG from The Love Church Worldwide's News Service:
A NEW FILM HIGHLIGHTS HARRY REEMS’ PORN FAME, BUT NOW HE’S A BORN-AGAIN CHRISTIAN COMMITED TO HIS FAMILY !!

Let Harry Reems count his blessings. It is not a small list.

"I've been clean and sober for 15 1/2 years. I'm happily and faithfully married and I love my wife dearly. I've been blessed with a tremendous amount of success selling real estate. God is shining his light on me now; I don't think he did for a number of years."

Which is putting it mildly.

For when Harry Reems takes a poetic moment and says "What a ride this thing called life is," he is not being hyperbolic. As Linda Lovelace's costar in "Deep Throat," the most successful pornographic film ever made, he has gone from obscurity to celebrity to criminal notoriety to gutter-dwelling debauchery to born-again sobriety and success in one hectic lifetime.

"I've been through things most people never experience even vicariously, let alone for real," he says. "I'm truly proud of myself; I've overcome some major problems. I really believe God is at work in my life."

A resident of Park City for nearly 20 years with a house next door to the legendary Stein Eriksen, Reems and his wife, Jeannie, usually leave town when the frantic Sundance Film Festival takes over.

And though he has reached the point at which he has no regrets about it, Reems usually does not talk publicly about his past, "the life that nearly killed me," outside of church groups and 12-step programs. He's doing it now because of Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato's comprehensive new documentary, "Inside Deep Throat," produced by Brian Grazer for Universal and HBO, which was scheduled to have its world premiere Friday night. He's doing it because he got paid "a nice chunk of money," because he wants his story to help people, and because of the opportunities it might open up for his first love, acting.

For before he was an adult film star, Reems was Herb Streicher, a young New York actor who took his craft very seriously in the late 1960s. But his salary was no match for his commitment, so when a fellow actor told him "I know where you can pick up $100 for an hour's work," he went for it. "I took two different subways, I thought I was being followed, I was very, very nervous," Reems remembers.

Those 10-minute loops or stag films, "epics that premiered at Kiwanis Clubs," were succeeded by features known as "white coaters" because doctors on screen provided socially redeeming value. "Someone would stand in front of a blackboard in a white coat saying, 'If you're having difficulty with oral sex, here's how to do it,' and then they'd cut to a 30-minute sex scene."

Reems was not even supposed to be in "Deep Throat." He had been paid $250 by director Gerard Damiano to be the lighting director. But when the man hired for the part never showed, "Gerry said to me, 'Put on this coat; you're acting.' "

Then as now a gregarious man with a sense of humor, Reems initially enjoyed the celebrity "Deep Throat's" astonishing popularity brought him. ("Inside" estimates the porn film earned $600 million, so much that the Mafioso who backed it weighed the money rather than counted it). "You could call me the Shirley Temple" of adult films, he told an interviewer then. "Take an X film and make it an R because I have a PG body." That all changed on a hot July night in 1974.

"It was 3 or 4 in the morning, I was in bed with the girl I was going out with then, and I heard this crazy bang, bang, bang at my door," Reems remembers. "I looked through the peephole and saw this badge with two guys behind it with guns drawn. When I opened the door, they pushed it so hard they nearly took my nose off."

Reems was arrested as part of an aggressive strategy developed by a virulently anti-pornography Memphis federal prosecutor named Larry Parrish, who told juries he'd "rather see dope on the streets than these movies." Though only an actor, Reems was named as a co-conspirator in a national conspiracy to distribute "Deep Throat."

This was the first time the federal government had tried to charge an actor for the results of a film's distribution, and it raised issues so serious for the creative community that Alan Dershowitz joined his defense team, and everyone from Jack Nicholson to Gregory Peck contributed to fundraisers.

The trial in Memphis, held in the same courtroom as the Scopes trial, lasted nine weeks, and though Reems was found guilty, the charges were eventually dropped. Still, the experience of the trial, of being lumped together with the brutal men who controlled the film, of people "screaming, spitting, throwing eggs at me" outside the courthouse, had lasting effects.

"The heavy drinking," he says, "began in Memphis."

Reems' stories of being what he calls "a very, very low bottom drunk" in and out of hospitals and jails, of at one time living "in the back of an Albertson's dumpster in Malibu," are no less compelling for having been told before in churches and meetings. "I was so dismally depressed I became a 2-quart-a-day vodka drinker. I'd buy half-gallons by the case," he says. "My mother died while I was in jail. It's by the grace of God that I'm alive today, and that's a fact."

Reems says he was "a blackout drinker. I'd start drinking in New York and wake up in jail in Los Angeles in my own vomit and puke and not know how I got there." After one of these episodes in 1986, Hugh Hefner bailed him out of jail and a friend sent him a ticket to Park City. He continued drinking there, but in 1989 he decided to go to a 12-step meeting in the local police station. He almost didn't make it.

"As soon as I walked into the building they slapped the cuffs on me for not answering a warrant," he remembers. "I pleaded with them to let me go to the meeting, it was my first day sober." The meetings took, and the program's emphasis on a higher power led Reems, born Jewish but never religious, to a charismatic Methodist minister and a decision to convert and be baptized.

Today, though he shaved his trademark mustache at his wife's request, Reems has embraced all of his chaotic past. "I'm proud of what I've done. I wouldn't be the person I am today if I had not gone through all that." A similar feeling led him to keep his adult film stage name when he started Reems Real Estate. "I didn't want anyone coming up to me and saying, 'I know who you really are.' I've been really forthright about what I've been through. And nobody likes the name Herbert anyhow."

Though Reems allows he'd "probably test the waters" if any acting opportunities came to him as a result of this new wave of publicity, being a public figure is not really what he's after. "I've had my 15 minutes of fame," he says with his familiar grin. "What I want now is my 15 minutes of retirement."

COURTESY OF: The Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/features/religion/

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MEXICAN CHURCH PROMISES MIRACLES IN RETURN TO PRE-SPECIFIED LARGE DONATIONS

New GOD BLOG from The Love Church Worldwide's News Service:
MEXICAN CHURCH SAID TO BE ‘GOLD DIGGERS’ OFFER MIRACLES IN RETURN TO SERIOUS CASH!!

Their eyes wet with tears and their ears ringing from the wails and piped music of a ritual blessing, a group of women hastens up to the altar, each clasping banknotes worth two days' wages for many Mexicans.

"Who can give 200 pesos or more? Come up now," a young, slick-suited bishop purrs into a microphone, as pastors in ill-fitting dark suits with the menacing look of nightclub bouncers hold out a crimson velvet bag for the green notes worth roughly $18 (9.5 pounds).

"We want the best from God so we must give him the best. Come along, quickly," he says, in a strong Brazilian accent.

With Catholicism losing its lure for some, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG), a Brazil-based evangelical Christian group that promises miracles for cash, is spreading fast in Mexico, the second-biggest Catholic country after Brazil.

UCKG

Controverial movement, based in Brazil. UCKG - the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God - also uses the name "Stop Suffering."

Promotes word-faith theology with a particular emphasis on the seed-faith doctrine (i.e. if you want to receive money, healing or another blessing, you first must give or 'sow' money).

Since its theology and practices are far outside those of normal, biblical Christianity, this movement is considered to be, theologically, a cult of Christianity

Its global annual income is now pegged at some $1 billion, raised by millions of followers in more than 50 countries from Angola to Venezuela, including the United States and Europe.

While it has survived probes in Brazil and sharp criticism elsewhere, Mexico is investigating whether the church adheres to its regulations for religious groups.

The church says it is being "persecuted like Jesus was." But critics claim it skilfully manipulates the poor.

"They are panic-mongers. They work on people's despair and their message is very effective in poor sectors," said Latin American religion specialist Elio Masferrer in Mexico City.

"It's an organization structured to make money. Its growth here has been meteoric."

MIRACLES

The UCKG is classed as part of the neo-Pentacostal or charismatic movement -- a rebirth of Pentecostal beliefs with strong emphasis on physical manifestations of the Holy Spirit in individuals such as speaking in tongues and working miracles.

Since taking root here around 1992 and winning a license to preach in 2001, the UCKG has expanded its winning formula to 48 temples in Mexico. Some seat several thousand.

On top of regular donations, preachers urge followers to put as much as 50,000 pesos in envelopes with requests for God to be taken to holy sites in the Middle East.

Whereas most religions collect coins for church upkeep, the UCKG tells people desperate to save a dying loved-one, find a job or restore a broken marriage that a large donation could move God to help them.

"My boyfriend ran off and married another woman. Ever since, I suffer. I cry, I can't sleep. I want God to bring me peace," said Monica Priorio, 29, who has attended daily UCKG services in a grimy Mexico City district for a year.

"I'm unemployed but if I find a job I'll give a lot. A good service makes you want to give everything you have."

Flashy services take place several times a day in converted theatres across Mexico. Some include exorcisms.

Prosperity Teaching

The so-called 'prosperity teaching' is a scam. If this teaching works as advertised (i.e. you give money in order to receive more money, or another 'blessing') churches like the UCKG would never have to ask for money again. Instead, they would be giving away money in order to receive the promised return...

To crescendos of sugary piano music, the boyish preacher peppers his sermon with snappy prompts like: "Do you feel Jesus?" Some in the congregation wail and flail their arms.

Followers queue up for a healing blessing, in which pastors with contorted faces press on their heads and chant before flinging their hands away dramatically. As the music peaks some people weep, and the donation bags are brought out.

MONEY MACHINE

Founded in 1977 by Edir Macedo, the UCKG -- Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus in Portuguese -- soon reaped enough cash to buy a leading Brazilian television network, a bank, newspapers and radio stations.

"It has the marketing strategy of a big multinational," said Paris-based anthropologist and UCKG expert Marion Aubree.

"The problem is people give (money) freely. This church has used the miracle fairy tale like no other," said Aubree.

The UCKG denies misconduct, and followers say it brings them hope.

Its publications are packed with tales like the one of a penniless family that sent money to God and soon found itself in a luxury villa with a fleet of new cars.

"If your objective is high then so too must be the price of the sacrifice you pay," an editorial reads.

In mainly Catholic Mexico, evangelicalism has lifted the number of Protestants to 12 percent from 10 percent in 2000.

Macedo, a multi-millionaire, was probed for tax fraud in 1992 and linked to illegal drugs money. In 1995 a video showed him teaching pastors how to raise cash, pulling faces as he counted donations and saying the stingy could "go to hell."

More recently the church was probed in Britain over its money flows and placed on a blacklist in France.

"Most evangelical pastors are decent, respectable people, but this church is about making money," said Masferrer.

Some ex-members have tried to sue the church but hit a wall as collecting voluntary donations is not illegal.

Inside the Mexico City church, a sparkling white sanctuary from the filthy streets outside, pastors seek to convince first-timers. One, called Carmen, told Reuters her terminal lung cancer vanished days after she made a large donation.

"I went for a test and the doctor said: 'why are you here? there's nothing wrong with you.' God can move mountains."

Courtesy: www.swissinfo.or

COURTESY OF: thefire.org

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January 19, 2005 in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0)

New GOD BLOG from The Love Church Worldwide's News Service:
FLORIDA COLLEGE ACCUSED OF REPRESSION BY BANNING ‘THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST’!!

Florida’s Indian River Community College (IRCC) is engaging in a campaign of repression against a Christian student group for attempting to show Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ on campus. The college banned the Christian Student Fellowship (CSF) from showing the film because it was R-rated, despite the fact that the college has hosted a live performance entitled “F**king for Jesus” that describes simulated sex with “the risen Christ.” CSF students report that after their group wrote President Edwin R. Massey in protest, administrators pulled group leaders out of class and, astoundingly, demanded an apology from them for their actions. Now, CSF is unable even to officially meet because its advisor resigned after IRCC imposed a burdensome new policy requiring that faculty advisors attend all student group meetings.

“IRCC’s assault on CSF must end immediately,” declared David French, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which wrote to IRCC on behalf of CSF. “Not only has the college adopted a breathtaking double standard for expression, but it has also abused administrative power in the worst way. As a public institution bound by the First Amendment, IRCC has no right to ban either the movie or the play, and it is shameful to demand an apology from students for trying to preserve their constitutional rights. IRCC’s arbitrary and authoritarian actions demonstrate that the college has no respect for its students or for the U.S. Constitution.”

FIRE Director of Legal and Public Advocacy Greg Lukianoff remarked, “If IRCC has consistently prevented adult students from showing R-rated movies on campus, it has imposed on them an unconstitutional, paternalistic, and patronizing rule. IRCC’s recent actions make it more likely that IRCC has singled out The Passion of the Christ for censorship in an astonishing instance of unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination and abuse of administrative power. Either way, the college has shown extraordinary arrogance and foolishness.”

IRCC has also taken its policy of intrusive monitoring of student organization activities to absurd heights. In early December, one CSF student reported that an administrator and security guard interrupted a private discussion between her and a fellow student and demanded to know what they were doing. IRCC’s enforcement of the unlawful new rule prohibiting club meetings without the presence of a faculty advisor makes it impossible for CSF, a group that would normally meet at least three times a week, to function as a recognized student organization, as it is unable to find a new advisor who can attend every group meeting.

“It is absurd that IRCC believes that a government representative must monitor the meetings and control the expressive activity of every student group. This requirement is as insulting as it is Orwellian,” stated FIRE’s French.

FIRE is a nonprofit educational foundation that unites civil rights and civil liberties leaders, scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals from across the political and ideological spectrum on behalf of individual rights, due process, freedom of expression, academic freedom, and rights of conscience at our nation’s colleges and universities.

COURTESY OF: thefire.org

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New GOD BLOG from The Love Church Worldwide's News Service:
MERCY KILLLING TABOO IS ENDED BY THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND!!

• Archbishop's aide signals new approach
• 'Compassionate case' for voluntary euthanasia

The Church of England took a radical step towards backing 'mercy killing' of terminally ill patients last night after one of its leading authorities said that there was a 'strong compassionate case' for voluntary euthanasia.

Canon Professor Robin Gill, a chief adviser to Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said people should not be prosecuted for helping dying relatives who are in pain end their lives. Last week Gill was sent by Williams to give evidence to a parliamentary committee investigating euthanasia.

Gill's stance marks a major shift by the Church of England and was welcomed by groups campaigning for a change in the law to allow for people to be helped to die under strictly limited circumstances.

'There is a very strong compassionate case for voluntary euthanasia,' Gill told The Observer . 'In certain cases, such as that which involved Diane Pretty [the woman who was terminally ill with motor neurone disease and who campaigned for the right to be helped to die], there is an overwhelming case for it.'

His claims were last night seized on by pro-euthanasia groups as evidence that the archbishop is prepared to engage in a debate on an issue that has long divided the clergy.

They described Williams's decision to send Gill to give evidence to the committee hearing Lord Joffe's private member's bill on assisted dying for the terminally ill as 'highly significant' and suggested that it represented a softening of the Church's attitude to mercy killings.

'The archbishop's choice of Gill represents a willingness to enter into a more constructive dialogue than before about this important issue. We hope it will encourage other members of the clergy to speak out openly in support,' said Deborah Annetts, chief executive of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society.

Gill's comments come after Brian Blackburn, a retired policeman who killed his terminally ill wife in a suicide pact, walked free from the Old Bailey last Friday with a nine-month suspended sentence.

The court heard that Blackburn's wife, Margaret, 62, had only weeks to live and had asked her husband to cut her wrists. Judge Richard Hawkins described the action 'as the last loving thing' Blackburn could do for his wife.

Annetts said the case confirmed that Gill was right to call for those involved in similar mercy killings not to be prosecuted.

'Christianity is about compassion, and one has only to look at the sad circumstances in the Blackburn case to recognise that the current law is not a compassionate response,' she said.

'Using the criminal law to determine end-of-life decisions is not medically, legally or ethically appropriate, nor is it a proper public policy approach.'

At the 1998 Lambeth Conference, Anglican bishops agreed that withholding excessive medical treatment when there is no 'reasonable prospect of recovery' was consistent with Christian princi ples. But Gill's new claims, which will be seen as having been endorsed by the archbishop, go much further and will rekindle the debate over the morality of mercy killings.

Gill acknowledged that the Church's views on euthanasia are divided and out of step with the majority of its congregation. 'Anglicans are not united on whether we should legalise euthanasia,' he said. 'The bishops have consistently shown they don't believe in changing the law, but the majority of churchgoers think it should be amended.'

Last week several leading clerics, including the Reverend Professor Paul Badham, who is also an expert on the morality of euthanasia, wrote to the Daily Telegraph arguing that helping the terminally ill end their lives was 'compatible with faith'.

'It worries us when organised religion is not sharing the heartfelt view of mainstream faith-based opinion in this country,' the clerics noted.

Gill stressed he did not believe relaxing the ban on euthanasia was the way forward. 'I feel that would make vulnerable people more vulnerable,' he said, but agreed the issue was a grey area.


COURTESY OF:UK religion news from The Guardian & The Observer.  www.guardian.co.uk/religion/0,2759,179375,00.html

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New GOD BLOG from The Love Church Worldwide's News Service:
_____A CHARTITY RELATED TO THE CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY GETS THE THUMBS-DOWN FROM SANTA CLARITA!!

The city has declined a request from a group linked to the Church of Scientology that is seeking donations to assist orphans in nations struck by the Indian Ocean tsunami.

The Santa Clarita City Council was considering a $10,000 donation to Los Angeles-based International Foundation for Human Rights and Tolerance and ordered the city staff to conduct standard background checks, after foundation President Michelle Seward pleaded for cash before the panel Tuesday.

But City Manager Ken Pulskamp, on advice from the city attorney, decided against the donation when staffers found possible ties between the foundation and Scientology during the vetting process.

City spokeswoman Gail Ortiz said the First Amendment forbids government from making direct donations to religious groups, and that there will be no further discussion of the request by the City Council. SOURCE:  www.dailynews.com

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New GOD BLOG from The Love Church Worldwide's News Service:
_____PRAYING CAN EXTEND LIFE, ACCORDING TO NEW UNIV. IOWA RESEARCH!!

New research from the US - a country currently undergoing a religious revival - shows that regular churchgoers live longer than non-believers.

A 12-year study from the University of Iowa tracking mortality rates of more than 550 adults over age 65 found that those who attend services at least once a week were over three times more likely to live longer than those who never darkened the studded oak door. Psychology professor Susan Lutgendorf, who conducted the survey, says: "There's something beneficial involved in the act of religious attendance, whether it's the group interaction or just the exercise to get out of the house."

Over one in three of participants who never attended church died before the end of the study. By comparison, over eight out of 10 twice-weekly churchgoers survived. Regular attendance was associated with lower levels of Interleukin-6, a chemical linked to age-related diseases and stronger immune systems, plus reduced risk of heart disease.

But could it be that churchgoers just choose a safer existence and so reduce their health risks? While the researchers acknowledged that regular worshippers may be more generally abstemious, they insisted they had factored in these variants. Report co-author Robert Wallace even suggested that GPs prescribe a course of a church attendance for patients - to be taken at least once a week.

Thanks to source:  www.truthlover.com/news/2005/01/can-praying-really-make-you-live.html" 

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New GOD BLOG from The Love Church Worldwide's News Service:
_____ENGLISH SCIENTISTS INTEND TO TORTURE -- CAUSE PAIN -- IN VOLUNTEER SUBJECTS AND WATCH TO SEE IF RELIGIOUS FAITH CAN HELP BRING COMFORT!!

Scientists at Oxford University are to torture people in laboratories in an experiment to see whether a belief in God is effective at relieving pain.

The scientists will apply a chilli-based gel to the skin of volunteers and ask them to try different strategies to lessen the burning sensation, including asking people with strong religious beliefs to draw on their faith to cope with the pain.

The experiment is one in a series that sees scientists join forces with philosophers, theologians and brain surgeons to tackle some of the most profound questions of the human condition: what is the nature of consciousness and how do religious beliefs manifest themselves in our brains?

The Oxford Centre for Science of the Mind will be led by the neuroscientist Lady Greenfield. "I believe the time is now ripe for the machinery of scientific method to come to bear on some of these questions," she said.

The study of consciousness and brain processes that give rise to strongly held beliefs have for long been on the periphery of scientific research.

With the advent of techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging, which can take snapshots of brain activity, scientists believe they can obtain meaningful answers about how consciousness arises and what makes belief systems so widespread and resilient.

The group will first assess claims about consciousness and religion, including the suggestion that people with strong faith can use that to cope with pain.

In one experiment, Toby Collins, deputy director of the centre, will use anaesthetics and brain scanning equipment to investigate the boundary between consciousness and unconsciousness. In another, Dr Collins's team will use the chilli gel and ask volunteers to try to cope with the pain.

"We can ask them to try different beliefs, whether spiritual or otherwise. People can cope with pain in many different ways and what we'll be doing is looking at the activity in the brain."

The study could help to reveal how faith is represented in the brain. Other projects will look into the conditions that make people susceptible to strong yet irrational beliefs, such as the age people are exposed to certain ideas and the frequency with which religious messages are reinforced.

The centre has been set up for an initial two years with a $2m (£1m) grant from the US-based John Templeton Foundation, which promotes research into theology and science.

"People are realising these are the most exciting questions that anyone can ask," said Lady Greenfield. Understanding the basis of religious and other types of belief could help to shed light on the surge in fundamentalism and terrorism.

"One of the fundamental reasons why religious beliefs have to be taken seriously ... is that they are potentially very dangerous, and that can be true of other dogmatisms too," said John Brookes, professor of science and religion at Oxford. SOURCE: The Guardian. http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,9830,1388227,00.htmlbr id="articleend">

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New GOD BLOG from The Love Church Worldwide's News Service:
_____PREACHER SAYS FROM PULPIT: "WHEN I GO TO HEAVEN..." THEN COLLAPSES AND DIES!!

A Presbyterian minister collapsed and died in mid-sentence of a sermon after saying "And when I go to heaven ...."

The Rev. Jack Arnold, 69, was nearing the end of his sermon Sunday at Covenant Presbyterian Church in this Orlando suburb when he grabbed the podium before falling to the floor, said the Rev. Michael S. Beates, associate pastor at Covenant Presbyterian.

Before collapsing, Arnold quoted the 18th century Bible scholar, John Wesley, who said, "Until my work on this earth is done, I am immortal. But when my work for Christ is done ... I go to be with Jesus," Beates said in a telephone interview.

Several members of the congregation with medical backgrounds tried to revive the minister and paramedics were called, but Arnold appeared to die instantly, Beates said.

Arnold had been the senior minister at the church until the late 1990s when he began traveling to Africa and the Middle East to teach pastors. The cause of death was believed to be cardiac arrest. He had bypass surgery five years earlier.

Beates also recounted Arnold's death in an e-mail he sent to members of the Central Florida Presbytery.

"We were stunned," Beates said. "It was traumatic, but how wonderful it was he died in his own church among the people he loved the most." SOURCE: Yahoo! news

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FT. PIERCE, FLORIDA, COLLEGE BANS ‘PASSION’ BECAUSE OF ‘R’ RATING

New GOD BLOG from The Love Church Worldwide's News Service:
FLORIDA COLLEGE ACCUSED OF REPRESSION BY BANNING ‘THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST’!!

Florida’s Indian River Community College (IRCC) is engaging in a campaign of repression against a Christian student group for attempting to show Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ on campus. The college banned the Christian Student Fellowship (CSF) from showing the film because it was R-rated, despite the fact that the college has hosted a live performance entitled “F**king for Jesus” that describes simulated sex with “the risen Christ.” CSF students report that after their group wrote President Edwin R. Massey in protest, administrators pulled group leaders out of class and, astoundingly, demanded an apology from them for their actions. Now, CSF is unable even to officially meet because its advisor resigned after IRCC imposed a burdensome new policy requiring that faculty advisors attend all student group meetings.

“IRCC’s assault on CSF must end immediately,” declared David French, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which wrote to IRCC on behalf of CSF. “Not only has the college adopted a breathtaking double standard for expression, but it has also abused administrative power in the worst way. As a public institution bound by the First Amendment, IRCC has no right to ban either the movie or the play, and it is shameful to demand an apology from students for trying to preserve their constitutional rights. IRCC’s arbitrary and authoritarian actions demonstrate that the college has no respect for its students or for the U.S. Constitution.”

FIRE Director of Legal and Public Advocacy Greg Lukianoff remarked, “If IRCC has consistently prevented adult students from showing R-rated movies on campus, it has imposed on them an unconstitutional, paternalistic, and patronizing rule. IRCC’s recent actions make it more likely that IRCC has singled out The Passion of the Christ for censorship in an astonishing instance of unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination and abuse of administrative power. Either way, the college has shown extraordinary arrogance and foolishness.”

IRCC has also taken its policy of intrusive monitoring of student organization activities to absurd heights. In early December, one CSF student reported that an administrator and security guard interrupted a private discussion between her and a fellow student and demanded to know what they were doing. IRCC’s enforcement of the unlawful new rule prohibiting club meetings without the presence of a faculty advisor makes it impossible for CSF, a group that would normally meet at least three times a week, to function as a recognized student organization, as it is unable to find a new advisor who can attend every group meeting.

“It is absurd that IRCC believes that a government representative must monitor the meetings and control the expressive activity of every student group. This requirement is as insulting as it is Orwellian,” stated FIRE’s French.

FIRE is a nonprofit educational foundation that unites civil rights and civil liberties leaders, scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals from across the political and ideological spectrum on behalf of individual rights, due process, freedom of expression, academic freedom, and rights of conscience at our nation’s colleges and universities.

COURTESY OF: thefire.org

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ANGLICAN CHURCH NOW OPEN TO 'COMPASSIONATE' EUTHANASIA

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MERCY KILLLING TABOO IS ENDED BY THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND!!

• Archbishop's aide signals new approach
• 'Compassionate case' for voluntary euthanasia

The Church of England took a radical step towards backing 'mercy killing' of terminally ill patients last night after one of its leading authorities said that there was a 'strong compassionate case' for voluntary euthanasia.

Canon Professor Robin Gill, a chief adviser to Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said people should not be prosecuted for helping dying relatives who are in pain end their lives. Last week Gill was sent by Williams to give evidence to a parliamentary committee investigating euthanasia.

Gill's stance marks a major shift by the Church of England and was welcomed by groups campaigning for a change in the law to allow for people to be helped to die under strictly limited circumstances.

'There is a very strong compassionate case for voluntary euthanasia,' Gill told The Observer . 'In certain cases, such as that which involved Diane Pretty [the woman who was terminally ill with motor neurone disease and who campaigned for the right to be helped to die], there is an overwhelming case for it.'

His claims were last night seized on by pro-euthanasia groups as evidence that the archbishop is prepared to engage in a debate on an issue that has long divided the clergy.

They described Williams's decision to send Gill to give evidence to the committee hearing Lord Joffe's private member's bill on assisted dying for the terminally ill as 'highly significant' and suggested that it represented a softening of the Church's attitude to mercy killings.

'The archbishop's choice of Gill represents a willingness to enter into a more constructive dialogue than before about this important issue. We hope it will encourage other members of the clergy to speak out openly in support,' said Deborah Annetts, chief executive of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society.

Gill's comments come after Brian Blackburn, a retired policeman who killed his terminally ill wife in a suicide pact, walked free from the Old Bailey last Friday with a nine-month suspended sentence.

The court heard that Blackburn's wife, Margaret, 62, had only weeks to live and had asked her husband to cut her wrists. Judge Richard Hawkins described the action 'as the last loving thing' Blackburn could do for his wife.

Annetts said the case confirmed that Gill was right to call for those involved in similar mercy killings not to be prosecuted.

'Christianity is about compassion, and one has only to look at the sad circumstances in the Blackburn case to recognise that the current law is not a compassionate response,' she said.

'Using the criminal law to determine end-of-life decisions is not medically, legally or ethically appropriate, nor is it a proper public policy approach.'

At the 1998 Lambeth Conference, Anglican bishops agreed that withholding excessive medical treatment when there is no 'reasonable prospect of recovery' was consistent with Christian princi ples. But Gill's new claims, which will be seen as having been endorsed by the archbishop, go much further and will rekindle the debate over the morality of mercy killings.

Gill acknowledged that the Church's views on euthanasia are divided and out of step with the majority of its congregation. 'Anglicans are not united on whether we should legalise euthanasia,' he said. 'The bishops have consistently shown they don't believe in changing the law, but the majority of churchgoers think it should be amended.'

Last week several leading clerics, including the Reverend Professor Paul Badham, who is also an expert on the morality of euthanasia, wrote to the Daily Telegraph arguing that helping the terminally ill end their lives was 'compatible with faith'.

'It worries us when organised religion is not sharing the heartfelt view of mainstream faith-based opinion in this country,' the clerics noted.

Gill stressed he did not believe relaxing the ban on euthanasia was the way forward. 'I feel that would make vulnerable people more vulnerable,' he said, but agreed the issue was a grey area.


COURTESY OF:UK religion news from The Guardian & The Observer.  www.guardian.co.uk/religion/0,2759,179375,00.html

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SCIENTOLOGY-RELATED CHARITY DENIED GRANT FOR TSUNAMI AID

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_____A CHARTITY RELATED TO THE CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY GETS THE THUMBS-DOWN FROM SANTA CLARITA!!

The city has declined a request from a group linked to the Church of Scientology that is seeking donations to assist orphans in nations struck by the Indian Ocean tsunami.

The Santa Clarita City Council was considering a $10,000 donation to Los Angeles-based International Foundation for Human Rights and Tolerance and ordered the city staff to conduct standard background checks, after foundation President Michelle Seward pleaded for cash before the panel Tuesday.

But City Manager Ken Pulskamp, on advice from the city attorney, decided against the donation when staffers found possible ties between the foundation and Scientology during the vetting process.

City spokeswoman Gail Ortiz said the First Amendment forbids government from making direct donations to religious groups, and that there will be no further discussion of the request by the City Council. SOURCE:  www.dailynews.com

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CAN PRAYING REALLY HELP YOU LIVE LONGER? New GOD BLOG from The Love Church Worldwide's News Service:_____PRAYING CAN EXTEND LIFE, ACCORDING TO NEW UNIV. IOWA RESEARCH!! New research from the US - a country currently undergoing a religious revival - shows that regular churchgoers live longer than non-believers. A 12-year study from the University of Iowa tracking mortality rates of more than 550 adults over age 65 found that those who attend services at least once a week were over three times more likely to live longer than those who never darkened the studded oak door. Psychology professor Susan Lutgendorf, who conducted the survey, says: "There's something beneficial involved in the act of religious attendance, whether it's the group interaction or just the exercise to get out of the house." Over one in three of participants who never attended church died before the end of the study. By comparison, over eight out of 10 twice-weekly churchgoers survived. Regular attendance was associated with lower levels of Interleukin-6, a chemical linked to age-related diseases and stronger immune systems, plus reduced risk of heart disease. But could it be that churchgoers just choose a safer existence and so reduce their health risks? While the researchers acknowledged that regular worshippers may be more generally abstemious, they insisted they had factored in these variants. Report co-author Robert Wallace even suggested that GPs prescribe a course of a church attendance for patients - to be taken at least once a week. Thanks to source: www.truthlover.com/news/2005/01/can-praying-really-make-you-live.html" Click to return to THE LOVE CHURCH WORLDWIDE's HOME PAGE Please Email Us your comments! January 14, 2005 in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0)

New GOD BLOG from The Love Church Worldwide's News Service:
_____PRAYING CAN EXTEND LIFE, ACCORDING TO NEW UNIV. IOWA RESEARCH!!

New research from the US - a country currently undergoing a religious revival - shows that regular churchgoers live longer than non-believers.

A 12-year study from the University of Iowa tracking mortality rates of more than 550 adults over age 65 found that those who attend services at least once a week were over three times more likely to live longer than those who never darkened the studded oak door. Psychology professor Susan Lutgendorf, who conducted the survey, says: "There's something beneficial involved in the act of religious attendance, whether it's the group interaction or just the exercise to get out of the house."

Over one in three of participants who never attended church died before the end of the study. By comparison, over eight out of 10 twice-weekly churchgoers survived. Regular attendance was associated with lower levels of Interleukin-6, a chemical linked to age-related diseases and stronger immune systems, plus reduced risk of heart disease.

But could it be that churchgoers just choose a safer existence and so reduce their health risks? While the researchers acknowledged that regular worshippers may be more generally abstemious, they insisted they had factored in these variants. Report co-author Robert Wallace even suggested that GPs prescribe a course of a church attendance for patients - to be taken at least once a week.

Thanks to source:  www.truthlover.com/news/2005/01/can-praying-really-make-you-live.html" 

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Oxford Scientists Will Torture Volunteers To Test Whether Or Not Prayer Will Bring Relief

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_____ENGLISH SCIENTISTS INTEND TO TORTURE -- CAUSE PAIN -- IN VOLUNTEER SUBJECTS AND WATCH TO SEE IF RELIGIOUS FAITH CAN HELP BRING COMFORT!!

Scientists at Oxford University are to torture people in laboratories in an experiment to see whether a belief in God is effective at relieving pain.

The scientists will apply a chilli-based gel to the skin of volunteers and ask them to try different strategies to lessen the burning sensation, including asking people with strong religious beliefs to draw on their faith to cope with the pain.

The experiment is one in a series that sees scientists join forces with philosophers, theologians and brain surgeons to tackle some of the most profound questions of the human condition: what is the nature of consciousness and how do religious beliefs manifest themselves in our brains?

The Oxford Centre for Science of the Mind will be led by the neuroscientist Lady Greenfield. "I believe the time is now ripe for the machinery of scientific method to come to bear on some of these questions," she said.

The study of consciousness and brain processes that give rise to strongly held beliefs have for long been on the periphery of scientific research.

With the advent of techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging, which can take snapshots of brain activity, scientists believe they can obtain meaningful answers about how consciousness arises and what makes belief systems so widespread and resilient.

The group will first assess claims about consciousness and religion, including the suggestion that people with strong faith can use that to cope with pain.

In one experiment, Toby Collins, deputy director of the centre, will use anaesthetics and brain scanning equipment to investigate the boundary between consciousness and unconsciousness. In another, Dr Collins's team will use the chilli gel and ask volunteers to try to cope with the pain.

"We can ask them to try different beliefs, whether spiritual or otherwise. People can cope with pain in many different ways and what we'll be doing is looking at the activity in the brain."

The study could help to reveal how faith is represented in the brain. Other projects will look into the conditions that make people susceptible to strong yet irrational beliefs, such as the age people are exposed to certain ideas and the frequency with which religious messages are reinforced.

The centre has been set up for an initial two years with a $2m (£1m) grant from the US-based John Templeton Foundation, which promotes research into theology and science.

"People are realising these are the most exciting questions that anyone can ask," said Lady Greenfield. Understanding the basis of religious and other types of belief could help to shed light on the surge in fundamentalism and terrorism.

"One of the fundamental reasons why religious beliefs have to be taken seriously ... is that they are potentially very dangerous, and that can be true of other dogmatisms too," said John Brookes, professor of science and religion at Oxford. SOURCE: The Guardian. http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,9830,1388227,00.htmlbr id="articleend">

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PASTOR DIES WHILE PREACHING THAT HE'S GOING TO HEAVEN

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_____PREACHER SAYS FROM PULPIT: "WHEN I GO TO HEAVEN..." THEN COLLAPSES AND DIES!!

A Presbyterian minister collapsed and died in mid-sentence of a sermon after saying "And when I go to heaven ...."

The Rev. Jack Arnold, 69, was nearing the end of his sermon Sunday at Covenant Presbyterian Church in this Orlando suburb when he grabbed the podium before falling to the floor, said the Rev. Michael S. Beates, associate pastor at Covenant Presbyterian.

Before collapsing, Arnold quoted the 18th century Bible scholar, John Wesley, who said, "Until my work on this earth is done, I am immortal. But when my work for Christ is done ... I go to be with Jesus," Beates said in a telephone interview.

Several members of the congregation with medical backgrounds tried to revive the minister and paramedics were called, but Arnold appeared to die instantly, Beates said.

Arnold had been the senior minister at the church until the late 1990s when he began traveling to Africa and the Middle East to teach pastors. The cause of death was believed to be cardiac arrest. He had bypass surgery five years earlier.

Beates also recounted Arnold's death in an e-mail he sent to members of the Central Florida Presbytery.

"We were stunned," Beates said. "It was traumatic, but how wonderful it was he died in his own church among the people he loved the most." SOURCE: Yahoo! news

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