Condemnation of homosexuality 'worrying,' says 'gay' activist
Iris Robinson
Iris Robinson, considered Northern Ireland's first lady as the wife of First Minister Peter Robinson, has been accused of "hate crimes" and is facing both a police investigation and the possibility of a civil complaint, according to reports.
A report in An Phoblacht, an online political weekly in Ireland, said Robinson had been invited onto the BBC Radio Ulster's "The Stephen Nolan Show" to talk about a recent physical assault on a homosexual by a team of thugs described by the reporter as "gay-bashing."
She condemned the violence, then described homosexuality as "disgusting, nauseous, shamefully wicked and vile," and said, "It's an abomination."
Now, the report said, a government agency has confirmed it is investigating complaints that have been filed against her, and one homosexual activist said he's contacted a lawyer about the situation.
The reports said complaints against Robinson have been lodged by Andrew Muir, vice-chair of the Gay and Lesbian Across Down, as well as John O'Doherty, a member of the South Belfast District Policing Partnership.
"O'Doherty described Iris Robinson¢s comments as 'amazing' and warned that such views could lead to further attacks against gay and lesbian people. 'People ...   more »

By Brigid Schulte
The Rev. Todd Thomason looked out at the nearly empty pews of his congregation at Baptist Temple Church last Sunday. He had preached long and hard about Abraham leaving all that he knew and setting out into an unknown future on nothing more than faith in God. He was hoping that, after the service, what was left of his flock would have the courage to do the same.
After 100 years, Baptist Temple, he feared, was dying. In its heyday in the 1950s, more than 900 members crammed into the sanctuary of the pretty white church in Alexandria that was built for 500. Now he was lucky to get 30. Perhaps the problem, he began to think, was the name itself.
"We're probably the most progressive church in the city, but 'Baptist Temple' sounds weird, like it's charismatic and conservative," Thomason said. He worried that the word "Baptist" had become indelibly tied to the political religious right and that when combined with "Temple" it sounded like a fundamentalist "bring out the snakes" kind of place.
So after the service, Thomason would ask the remaining members of the church to save themselves, so to speak, and vote to ...   more »

By George Pitcher and Jonathan Wynne-Jones
It is "common sense" for Christianity to be sidelined at the expense of Islam, a Government minister claimed on Sunday.
Hazel Blears, the Communities Secretary, defended Labour’s policy on religion after a report backed by the Church of England claimed that Muslims receive a disproportionate amount of attention.
She said it was right that more money and effort was spent on Islam than Christianity because of the threat from extremism and home-grown terrorism.
Ms Blears told BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme: “That’s just common sense. If we’ve got an issue where we have to build resilience of young Muslim men and women to withstand an extremist message.”
She added: “We live in a secular democracy. That’s a precious thing. We don’t live in a theocracy, but we’ve always accepted that hundreds of thousands of people are motivated by faith. We live in a secular democracy but we want to recognise the role of faith.”
The Church of England bishop responsible for the report, the Rt Rev Stephen Lowe, Bishop for Urban Life and Faith, said afterwards: “She said we live in a secular democracy. That comes as news to me – we have an ...   more »

Curriculum review finds Islamic schools in America breeding anti-Semitism
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has suspected since last year that textbooks used at a Saudi-run school in Alexandria, Va., advocated religious bigotry. Now, the commission says, it has proof of its suspicions.
In October of 2007, the congressionally-formed, bipartisan commission actually recommended closing the Islamic Saudi Academy, even though at the time, it had not reviewed the school's textbooks.
But through congressional offices and other private sources, the commission was able to review curriculum used at the school and released their report this week.
The commission's spokeswoman, Judith Ingram, told the Associated Press, "We feel more confident that the potential problems we flagged before really are there."
Among the commission's most disturbing finds was the teaching that it was the Jews who conspired to create the schism between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.
A textbook on social science that the commission reviewed reads, "The cause of the discord: The Jews conspired against Islam and its people. A sly, wicked person who sinfully and deceitfully professed Islam infiltrated" the Muslim faith.
Dr. Andrew Bostom, an associate professor and researcher of medicine and author of The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism explained ...   more »

Weather of Biblical Proportions Sets Off Debate Among Theologians and Scientists
By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES
In the beginning, God created heaven and Earth, and he saw that it was good. So begins the Book of Genesis, the dramatic opener of the Old Testament.
But things went downhill from there.
God's wrath seems at work these days, as the heavens and Earth have unleashed earthquakes in China, a cyclone in Burma, killer tornadoes and record floods across the U.S. and even a plague of locusts (cicadas) in New England.
In Cedar Rapids, Iowa today, floodwaters forced the evacuation of a downtown hospital after residents of more than 3,000 homes fled for higher ground. A railroad bridge collapsed, and 100 city blocks were underwater.
"We're just kind of at God's mercy right now, so hopefully people that never prayed before this, it might be a good time to start," Linn County Sheriff Don Zeller said this week as record floods hit the Midwest. "We're going to need a lot of prayers and people are going to need a lot of patience and understanding."
By the final Book of Revelation in the New Testament, the Earth suffers "Seven Plagues" -- from disease to ...   more »

GLOBAL INSECURITY
UNICEF works with terror-linked Islamics on children's rights
The United Nations Children's Fund has announced an agreement with an organization linked by the U.S. government to al-Qaida and the Taliban to work to improve services to children in Saudi Arabia.The announcement from UNICEF this week confirmed a new memorandum of understanding with the International Islamic Relief Organization "to strengthen cooperation and support for children's rights, health, equality and protection in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other countries."
The U.S. Treasury Department, however, identifies the IIRO as a group with one leader who "provided donor funds directly to al-Qaida and is identified as a major fundraiser for the Abu Sayyaf (ASG) and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) (terror organizations)."
A leader, Adb Al Hamid Sulaimian Al-Mujil, often directs funds be transferred to the IIRO organizations blamed by the government for terrorism, including training al-Qaida operatives, in the Philippines and Indonesia, the report said.
"The partnership with IIROSA is in-line with UNICEF's policy that encourages the exchange of expertise and experiences regionally and internationally; and to collaborate and join forces as part of the Millennium Development Goals," said Ayman Abu Laban, who is the UNICEF representative for the region.
"Building partnerships ...   more »

By Malcolm Moore in Rome
George W Bush and Pope Benedict XVI have held an intimate meeting in Rome as rumours mounted in Italy that the president may follow in Tony Blair's footsteps and convert to Catholicism.
The two men spoke for half an hour in the 12th century Tower of St John, a private area in the Vatican gardens which is used by the pope for private reflection.
The usual protocol for heads-of-state is a meeting in the pope's library in the Apostolic Palace, but a spokesman for the Vatican said Benedict wanted to reward Mr Bush for the "warmth" of his reception at the White House earlier this year.
The two men have grown increasingly close in the past two years, and Mr Bush was overheard whispering: "What an honour, what an honour, what an honour!" as he ascended the steps to the tower.
After a stroll through the Vatican gardens, the men listened to a recital by the choir of the Sistine Chapel. However, Mr Bush did not, as expected, kneel in prayer before the Grotto of the Madonna of Lourdes. It was thought that he may have prayed with the pope in private. Mr Bush prayed ...   more »