Thursday, August 13, 2009

The New Inquisition: Pastors who have sinned.(Only the perfect need apply)


LifeWay: 1 in 7 Church Background Checks Uncover Criminal History


Since LifeWay Christian Resources teamed up with Backgroundchecks.com last year to offer discounted background checks to ministries around the nation, some 450 churches have requested for more than 5,000 background checks.

While most of those searches returned clean records or minor traffic-related offenses, 80 screenings reportedly uncovered serious felony offenses, and more than 600 people had some type of criminal history that may have disqualified them from volunteering or working at a church.


That means around 13.6 percent, or roughly one in seven, of applicants were found to have a criminal history.


“Good guys don’t wear superhero capes, and bad guys don’t always have shifty eyes and devious-sounding chuckles. In real life, discerning the heroes from the villains often requires more than a visual assessment,” commented Brooklyn Noel Lowery, a spokesperson for LifeWay.


“That means you can’t know whether someone is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ by looking at them when they walk through the front door of your church and volunteer to serve,” she added. “That’s why LifeWay Christian Resources entered an agreement with Backgroundchecks.com to provide discounted screenings for churches.”


According to a 2005 study conducted by researchers at the University of New Hampshire and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, one in 12 (82 of 1000) youth aged 2 to 17 nationwide experienced sexual victimization, including sexual assault (32 per 1000) and attempted or completed rape (22 per 1000).


"Of all the crimes against children in the U.S. every year, thousands will occur within the walls of churches and youth centers," commented Matthew Robbins with Backgroundchecks.com. "With crime and abuse at an all time high, churches must develop hiring programs that work to prevent dangerous situations before they occur."


When LifeWay entered into the agreement with Backgroundchecks.com, its affiliated denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, was under pressure to fight child sex abuse amid a few high-profile allegations against Baptist clergy.


The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) began lobbying the SBC about three years ago after having been a key advocate for victims of clergy sexual abuse in the U.S. Roman Catholic Church, which was rocked by abuse scandals starting in 2002.


Though the SBC has witnessed far fewer cases of abuse, SNAP has been calling on the nation’s largest Protestant denomination to establish an independent review board to hear molestation reports and to institute a national zero-tolerance policy.


During the SBC’s annual convention last year, however, the denomination’s executive committee opted against establishing an office to field abuse claims and against creating its own database to help churches identify predators.


While the committee decried sexual abuse as reprehensible and a sin, it said the Southern Baptist principle of local church autonomy means it's up to individual churches - and not the church body - to screen employees and take action against offenders.


The committee did, however, urge churches to vigorously conduct background checks using a U.S. Department of Justice database of sexual offenders.


In its report, "Responding to the Evil of Sexual Abuse," the committee also urged local congregations to share information when warranted with other churches.


"It is unfortunate that everyone must be checked out before they are given trust or confidence in their goodwill, especially when they are only trying to give back to the community through the giving of themselves to support a ministry," commented Robbins. "But child protection statistics tell a gruesome story that needs to change."


Barbara Strong, church secretary at Jubilee Worship Center in Westmoreland, Tenn., told LifeWay that her organization began using Backgroundchecks.com about a year ago and stressed how important it is these days to run background checks.


"We just don’t know who is coming into our church. We’d like to think everyone is a good Christian, but we can’t know that," she commented.


Wayne Rogers, associate pastor at First Baptist Church, Estero, Fla., also highlighted the importance of running checks.


"Children are our precious commodity," said Rogers, who runs the checks for FBC Estero . "They’ve been entrusted to us, and we have to protect them at any cost."


Because most criminal records are kept at three levels – federal, state and county records – Backgroundchecks.com has compiled its own proprietary database called US OneSEARCH, the largest publicly available national criminal conviction database available.


The company also offers individual services such as motor vehicle record screening as well as education and employment verification.


Churches and ministries that register for Backgroundchecks.com's services through LifeWay are eligible discounts of up to 28 percent.

US Administration is Preparing a Second Stimulus~Gerald Celente




Wednesday, August 12, 2009

US Administration is Preparing a Second Stimulus

Second try to bring the U.S. dying economy to life


Washington says it's preparing a second stimulus package by the end of the year, after White House claims that the U.S. economy is showing signs of improvement. But analyst Gerald Celente is skeptical about the move.

The Obama administration says the first stimulus package of almost $800 billion helped reduce unemployment rates and caused the dollar to rise.

However, these claims are a bit premature, says forecaster and analyst Celente, founder of the Trend Research Institute:

“There is no recovery with recession. It’s nearly in remission. They’ve given it loads of stimulus drugs and monetary infusions. But it’s not going to cure the chronic degenerative disease of a failing economy,” says Celente.

Easy credit, cheap money and masses of borrowing caused the problem, explains Celente. That’s what caused the current economic crisis, he says, adding:

“To put more cheap money, more easy credit and more ramped buying is only going to escalate a bad situation,” concluded the analyst.





Public Prayer NOT AS JESUS SAID TO DO

Jesus warned the Scribes and Pharisee's WHO LOVED TO BE SEEN in Public praying.

I am told I intimidate people when I pray because I frankly go off and Me and God have a conversation and people don't pray after me...,


so I Pray in my "closet" or deserted parking lot at night as Jesus said to do....,


The Failure of this post is to recall, the Point of Prayer is not to be Seen, but to be heard by God.....,

NOT MAN.



To Pray or Not to Pray in Public Places

Chuck Missler
By Chuck Missler

Lodi, California has become a hotspot in the public prayer controversy. In May, the Lodi City Council opened its bi-monthly meeting with a public prayer like it always did, but that time somebody decided to make a stink about it. That person contacted the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation to get the city council to stop praying "in Jesus name." Since then, the pre-meeting prayers have continued, but without specific reference to Jesus or anybody else.

The city council was supposed to make a decision about its prayer policy last week, and crowds of people on both sides of the argument gathered to make their opinions known and to hear the final resolution. For two hours a huge crowd of pro-prayer supporters rallied right next to a smaller, but still large group of those who favored having a moment-of-silence instead. In the packed Wednesday meeting itself, people from each side had the opportunity to make their arguments. In the end, the city council decided to postpone their final decision until the September 30th meeting.

The Pacific Justice Institute, a legal defense organization that specializes in parental rights and defending religious freedom, offered the city council a solution to help them resolve the controversy. PJI suggested that the city council simply allow ministers or other members of the public to open the meetings with uncensored prayer of their own, giving the persons praying the freedom to pray in Jesus name or not as they chose.

Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute, commented,
"It is simply un-American for the government to censor speech, including the mention of God or Jesus, by private citizens in a public setting. We are offering the City of Lodi a practical, constitutional solution to this needless controversy so the out-of-state special interests can fold their tents and go home."
Across the country in Pace, Florida, a similar and even more heated controversy has been going on. The principal of Pace High School, Frank Lay, is headed for a court hearing on September 17th because he asked the school athletic director, Robert Freeman, to "bless the food" at a luncheon for school personnel and booster club members at Pace High School. For those three words, Lay and Freeman were accused of violating a court order to keep religion out of the school.

Sixty-year-old Lay comes across as a down-to-earth southern country man with a sparkle in his eye and a fun sense of humor. You can't detect a smidgen of pride or vinegar in him. He also loves Jesus and is very transparent about that fact, even as the principal of a public high school. As Lay put it during a speech at his church, his Christianity is who he is. It's "gonna ooze out" of him.

The southern town of Pace, Florida, where Lay was raised, is still a conservative, family-oriented community, and a majority of the teachers and students at Pace High School are also Christians. The idea of kicking God out of the schools had never really gotten through to Pace. Until August 2008, the high school had developed a fairly Christian flavor about it, and students and outside leaders were regularly asked to pray at school events. Teachers were free about discussing religious matters in class and did not shy from talking about their churches or encouraging students to join religious clubs.

That is, until two high school students contacted the ACLU, which sued the Santa Rosa County School board, the then-superintendent, and Frank Lay. By January of 2009, the school district had worked out an agreement to keep religion out of the schools. US District Judge Casey Rodgers approved the agreement and issued an injunction on January 19th, and Lay signed it.

Then, nine days later, Lay made that fatal suggestion for a blessing over the booster club members' food. School Board member Jo Ann Simpson was at the luncheon and reported what she considered to be a violation of the consent decree.

There has been a mixed reaction from the residents of Pace over the whole ordeal. Dana O'Keefe, the mother of two Pace High graduates, did not think Lay had done anything wrong.
"A blessing over a meal to me is not evangelism or proselytizing. It's just thanking a higher power for a meal."
A huge portion of the community is behind Lay, but there are those who wonder why he still has his job. Philip Yale, father of three Pace High graduates said,
"He is not above the law. There is only one God, and it isn't Frank Lay."
Lay is weary over the whole thing.
"You are fearful what you can and cannot say," he said. "If a kid sneezes and you say ‘Bless you,' what then?

"You get tired of it — tired of hearing it, tired of dealing with it. We should be pushing on toward academic achievement, helping kids grow and develop, and moving on into the world. It's been a distraction."
Lay will submit to the judgment of Judge Rodgers in September.
"I'm hoping she'll be very gracious that day," he smiled. "She will do what she is called to do. If that means hammering me, so be it. But I hope that's not the case."
Lay and Freeman could each face up to six months in jail or a $5,000 fine. The Liberty Counsel is intervening on behalf of the Santa Rosa County educators. "Pray for our schools" has become a common yard sign in the area, and financial and moral support is flying to Pace from all over the county.

According to US Supreme Court rulings, public school teachers are not to proselytize students, but there are still a lot of religious freedoms that students and teachers retain in school. It's a difficult area, especially when people do not know where the legal lines are drawn.

Related Links

PJI Offers Solution to Lodi Prayer Controversy - Pacific Justice Institute
Tempers Flare as Lodi Council Tackles Prayer Debate - ABC News 10
A Principal's Principles - Pensacola News Journal
Prayer In Contempt? Pace High Administrators May Face Charges - Northwest Florida Daily News
Local Residents Battle ACLU Lawsuit - Fox News

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Whither the Watchdogs? (WND IS NOT ACCURATE)

It's almost funny with the poor journalism and embarassing failure of WND over the Birth Certificate Issue to hear this author criticize, but that is HOW he makes his money. Criticism not journalism.







Whither the Watchdogs?

Joseph Farah
By Joseph Farah

The largest and most influential news-gathering organization in the world, the Associated Press, is delivering content to its subscribers created by groups with financing from philanthropist George Soros and another "progressive" billionaire who campaigned for Barack Obama and topped donor lists to groups like ACORN and MoveOn.org.

AP content drives the news agenda more than any other agency in the world, including the New York Times. It not only provides most of the national and international copy for newspapers, but, because of its influence and worldwide reach, directly affects what is reported as news on the major networks, cable networks, radio networks and even the other international wire services.

When you ask yourself why the news media has a pro-socialist and globalist bias, one need look no further than the total corruption of the nonprofit cooperative known as the AP.

As I wrote in my book "Stop the Presses! The Inside Story of the New Media Revolution," the free press is a uniquely American institution designed to serve as a watchdog on government and other powerful institutions. That's what the founders had in mind when they enshrined in the Constitution special protections for the press. Though a free press as it has been known in the U.S. for the last 230 years was unknown anywhere in the world at any time before, the founders recognized how this independent "Fourth Estate" would be vital to the maintenance of a free society – not only in keeping the people informed, but in exposing waste, fraud, abuse and corruption in government, which they saw as the greatest threat to liberty.

They thought of the free press as yet another check and balance in a system loaded with checks and balances. They wanted government – especially any central or national government – to be kept off-balance, if you will, so that the chains removed from the people through their new form of government would not be easily reaffixed. The greatest accomplishment of the Constitution was removing those chains from the people and placing them on the government.

Because the great temptation of those in power is to increase their power, the press would serve, the founders believed, as a guardian of the people and the rule of law.

That was then. This is now.

Today, most of my colleagues in the news media have literally sold their souls to the god of government. They have forsaken their watchdog role. They have traded their birthright and the noble mission of the free press for a mess of pottage.

The example of the AP being subsidized by wealthy partisan hacks with a pro-socialist and pro-globalist agenda is not the first straw, it is the last. There's no going back for institutions like the AP. They have been corrupted beyond repair.

All the ethics rules in the world won't help when both the leadership and the rank and file of a once-great media institution lose their moral bearings. They cannot even see how they have been fundamentally compromised. They have long ceased to be the watchdogs on government and have actually become public relations mouthpieces for the ever-expanding role of government in the lives of individuals.

Even for a media insider like me who has worked with institutions like the AP for 30 years, it's hard to believe how completely they have become debauched, faithless, nefarious, reprobate and unprincipled.

The watchdogs have gone to the dogs.

Remember this when you turn on the TV for your news – it doesn't matter which channel. Remember this when you open your newspaper – it doesn't matter where you live. Remember this when you turn on the radio for news – it doesn't matter which station.

That's the sad reality of where the media are today. And when you hear the cacophony of voices all telling you the same thing, understand why.

I can only hope that my little Internet-based news organization provides something of an antidote to this mind-control, liberty-denying poison all around us.

Related Links

AP to distribute Soros-funded 'journalism' - WorldNetDaily (Aaron Klein)
Stand-Up Guy - Wall Street Journal
ABC: Obama's 'state-run television network'? - WorldNetDaily

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