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New Post has been published on Belize Prayer Network
New Post has been published on http://belizeprayernetwork.com/2013/04/attack-on-coptic-christians-in-egypt/
Attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt
St. Mark’s Coptic Cathedral, Cairo
CHRISTIAN NEWS: SOURCE on Coptic Christians. By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and KAREEM FAHIM. NY Times Published: April 7, 2013. CAIRO — Police officers firing tear gas joined with a rock-throwing crowd fighting a group of Christian mourners Sunday in a battle that escalated into an attack on Egypt’s main Coptic Christian Cathedral that lasted for hours.
The funeral on Sunday for four Christians who were killed on Friday when a sectarian dispute erupted in the town of Khusus outside Cairo.
It was the third day of an outburst of sectarian violence that is testing the pledges of Egypt’s Islamist president to protect the country’s Christian minority. By nightfall, at least one person had died from the day’s clashes, bringing the weekend’s death toll to six.
Later Sunday, President Mohamed Morsi called the Coptic pope, Tawadros II, to reassure him. “I consider any aggression against the cathedral an aggression against me personally,” Mr. Morsi said, according to state media.
The president ordered an investigation of the violence and instructed security forces “to protect the citizens inside the Cathedral,” state media reported, and he pledged to protect both Muslims and Christians.
The violence began Friday when a sectarian dispute in the town of Khusus outside Cairo escalated into a gunfight that killed four Christians and a Muslim — the first major episode of deadly sectarian violence since Mr. Morsi’s election last year. Hundreds of Christians and sympathetic Muslims gathered at the cathedral Sunday for the four Christians’ funeral, chanting for the removal from power of Mr. Morsi and his Islamist allies.
“With our blood and our soul we will sacrifice ourselves for the cross,” the crowd intoned.
Clashes erupted immediately after the service between the emerging mourners and a crowd outside the cathedral. It was unclear who started the violence. But later dozens of riot police with armored vehicles and tear-gas canons appeared to enter the fray on the side of crowds of young Muslim men who were throwing rocks and fire bombs at the mourners.
In what seemed like a siege of the cathedral, tear-gas canisters fell inside the walls of its compound, sending gas into the sanctuary and two nuns running for shelter in a nearby loading dock.
Later, some of the young civilians who had been attacking the cathedral switched to taunts, making lewd gestures involving the sign of the cross. The riot policemen made no attempt to stop them, either from throwing rocks toward the cathedral or insulting the Christians.
“The police are not trying to protect us or do anything to stop the violence,” said Wael Eskandar, a Coptic Christian activist. “On the contrary, they are actively aiding the people in civilian clothes” attacking the Christians, he said.
Dozens rushed to defend the cathedral, and many pulled back their sleeves at the iron entrance gate to display the cross that many Copts tattoo on their wrists.
Groups of young men stood on the cathedral walls and rooftops nearby, throwing fire bombs and the shards of bricks at the riot police. At least two of the young men on the church grounds carried what appeared to be crude pistols. Others prepared crates full of fire bombs.
The Interior Ministry, in a statement on its Web site, said the mourners had started the violence and that the riot police intervened to stop it. “Some mourners vandalized a number of cars, which led to clashes and fights with the people of the area,” the statement said, adding, “Interference to separate the clashing parties is ongoing.”
Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s roughly 85 million citizens, were already anxious about the dominance of elections by the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, the former secular autocrat.
Not that sectarian animosities were absent under Mr. Mubarak. Copts suffered from discrimination as well as recurring episodes of sectarian violence, and the Mubarak government worsened the problem by denying the existence of domestic sectarianism and pinning blame on either local conflicts or foreign conspiracies.
Mr. Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood have sometimes appeared to understand that as Islamists they have more to prove to Egypt’s Copts. During elections, Brotherhood candidates have emphasized their commitment to equal citizenship and security for Copts, even sending young Brotherhood members to stand guard outside churches at a Christmas service one year.
When a dispute over a shirt burned at the laundry exploded into a sectarian battle that killed a Christian and damaged several properties last year, Mr. Morsi departed from the Mubarak script, sending a legal adviser to meet with the Christians, instructing the local governor to compensate the victims and asking the prosecutor to investigate without prejudice.
But on Sunday, many Copts blamed Mr. Morsi for the violence. “Who is responsible for the surroundings of the cathedral being unsecured for more than five hours today?” demanded Bishop Bakhomious, a senior Coptic cleric who had been acting pope until the designation of Tawadros II. “If the security services want to know who is behind these events, they will.”
It is unclear how much practical control Mr. Morsi exercises over the police. He has done little to reform the force left over from Mr. Mubarak despite continuing complaints about its abuses. A rash of police strikes has showcased widespread insubordination, and the riot police lack training in effective crowd control. On Sunday, they sometimes appeared to fire tear gas at random into the surrounding neighborhood.
But even before the police joined the fray, human rights advocates said Mr. Morsi and his party had failed to confront the sectarianism driving the violence. Until late Sunday, both Mr. Morsi and his party appeared to fall into the Mubarak pattern, denouncing the violence but without acknowledging the problem of sectarianism. Instead, the Islamists suggested a conspiracy by some unknown party to sow dissent among Egyptians.
Only on Sunday night, after the clashes had subsided, did Mr. Morsi publicly acknowledge the role of sectarian aggression or personally pledge to protect the Copts. “He seems to have begun to realize the scale of this,” said Hossam Bahgat, founder of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.
Coptic Cathedral is targeted
Coptic, Morsi, Muslim Brotherhood
Related sources on Coptic Christians:
Toll rises in Cairo clashes at Coptic Cathedral
Egypt: Christian killed in attack on Coptic mourners
New Post has been published on Belize Prayer Network
New Post has been published on http://belizeprayernetwork.com/2013/03/response-to-the-homosexual-agenda-pt-1/
The Church’s response to the homosexual agenda, Pt 1
Louis Wade speaks at churches’ rally in front of the Belize City Courthouse
TEACHING: presented for the Belize Association of Evangelical Churches. Our response to the homosexual agenda can be summarized by the following points.
FOLLIES AID LIES
Former homosexuals have gotten free of unwanted sexual desires.
One-way street—is what the rectum is. Don’t go against your body’s design.
Loving someone does not include harming them.
Laws are always meant to discriminate against harmful behavior.
Insurance costs for health will increase as disease increases.
Employment of homosexuals may be forced on churches & businesses.
School indoctrination of children into the homosexual agenda.
Adoption by homosexual couples deprives kids of a mom or dad.
Immune system—natural marriage protects us from disease and social costs.
Degrades the importance of marriage, and makes it seem just about coupling.
Life-span of practicing homosexuals is shortened by up to 20 years.
Infringement on freedom of speech against the homosexual agenda.
Every desire should not be acted on—that would justify stealing, violence, etc.
Statistics show that children do much better with a mom and dad.
Points to make about the homosexual agenda
Sources on the homosexual agenda: American Family Association, OneNewsNow, Focus on the Family, Frank Turek’s Correct, Not Politically Correct
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_the_United_States
http://ww2.onenewsnow.com/legal-courts/2012/12/08/good-news-that-scotus-will-hear-marriage-cases
http://www.wnd.com/2012/08/affirmed-study-that-gay-family-children-more-troubled/
http://townhall.com/columnists/harryrjacksonjr/2013/02/18/gay-marriage-advocates-lose-by-winning-n1514961
Part Two of The Church’s Response to the Homosexual Agenda will be on biblical and constitutional grounds.
Here is the opening statement of the constitution of Belize is: “WHEREAS the People of Belize—
(a) affirm that the Nation of Belize shall be founded upon principles which acknowledge the supremacy of God, faith in human rights and fundamental freedoms, the position of the family… and the equal and inalienable rights with which all members of the human family are endowed by their Creator”
New Post has been published on Belize Prayer Network
New Post has been published on http://belizeprayernetwork.com/2013/03/same-sex-marriage-court-cases-reach-scotus/
Same-sex marriage court cases reach SCOTUS
On same-sex marriage court cases.
PRAYER ALERT: The attack on marriage, family and orphans has reached the Supreme Court of the United States. On March 26 the Court will start hearing oral arguments on both the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and California’s Proposition 8. DOMA was passed by wide margins in Congress in 1996 and affirmed one-man-one woman marriage for federal purposes, while allowing each state to decide its own marriage policy. Proposition 8 was approved by 52% of Californians in 2008 and declared same-sex marriage illegal in California. But Prop 8 was ruled unconstitutional by an actively gay judge despite his clear conflict of interest. This has happened in other same-sex marriage court cases as well. Four US Supreme Court justice will be expected to vote for DOMA and Prop 8, and four against them. The less predictable Justice Kennedy is expected to be the swing vote.
The politically correct view on same-sex marriage court cases denies any difference between homosexual and heterosexual behavior. It says that homosexuality should be promoted by churches, schools, media, the arts and government in order to overcome any lack of approval by the populace. Despite Prop 8, California is already forcing schools to teach gay history to children ages 6 and older. A flood of primary school curricula is encouraging pre-pubescent children to try out different kinds of sex. This flies in the face of medical evidence. Homosexual behavior has proven to be traumatic, injurious, cancer-causing and STD-spreading. 82% of AIDS cases in 2006 resulted from sex between men.
Can we wonder, since it violates the design of our bodies? No judicial decree in same-sex marriage court cases can change that. Sadly, homosexuals also have much higher rates of depression, phobias, drug abuse and suicide. This hold true even in places where gay behavior is legal and accepted. To push children into this behavior is to endanger them with shortened lives of disease, emotional distress and heartbreak. In addition, many children are forced into adoption by same-sex couples. According to a validated University of Texas-Austin study, such children are “more apt to report being unemployed, less healthy, more depressed, more likely to have cheated on a spouse or partner, smoke more pot, had trouble with the law” than children in mom-and-dad households. Same-sex marriage court cases have also produced unstable marriages. Only 15% of marriages between men last more than three years.
The current campaign for the gay agenda suppresses these stark realities. It has worn down resistance to the point that ABC now says that 58% of Americans support same-sex marriage. As recently as 2006, 58% opposed it and 36% supported it, and in 1996, 68% opposed it and only 27% supported it. Thirty states have enacted constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage. Nine more prohibit it by statute. But nine states have legalized it, including Maine, Maryland and Washington. On Nov. 6 they became the first three states to authorize it by popular vote. However, those votes invalidated the argument that gay activists have to bypass the polls and go to court to get what they want. We must pray that the Supreme Court will not be swayed by the winds and waves of public opinion in these same-sex marriage court cases. They should rule in favor of the physical and moral health of the nation, to which the traditional family is so essential. A decision against the traditional family would put all the more pressure on Belize and the world to slide down the same slippery slope.
PRAY WITH US: Father God, You are good, and what You have created is good. When you created man and woman to be fruitful and multiply, you declared it very good. You have made families the building blocks of nations. When families are broken and homosexuality exalted, nations collapse, as we have often seen in history. Out of Your concern and compassion You have warned us in Your Word against homosexuality. For degrades people physically, morally and spiritually, to something much less than you created us to be. You have warned us that such people cannot enter the kingdom of God. And You have provided a way out for them, through the forgiveness and overcoming power bought by Your Son Jesus’ blood.
We ask that results in a radical restoration of family in the US and the world. We ask that You turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers, that You not strike the land with a curse. Where there are same-sex marriage court cases, let the judges, fathers and mothers hear the heart cries of children who are being exposed prematurely to raw sex and perversion. Let them hear the heart cries of orphans who are trapped with “parents” legalized by same-sex marriages. Let them hear, beyond the hype, the deep heart cries of homosexuals themselves. So often their sexual identity was wounded in childhood because of abuse by predators.
Impress on each judge the seriousness of this decision on same-sex marriage court cases. For “It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.” We cannot make a wrong right by legalizing it. Instead we must forgive and heal it. Release great waves of conviction and healing across the land. Let Americans return to their senses, and uphold family values again. We also ask this for the sake of alll the nations which the US so powerfully influences. Show Your Fatherhood, and restore homosexuals to the true sexual identities you created them with, as men and women. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Sources for prayer alert on same-sex marriage court cases:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_the_United_States
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/support-for-same-sex-marriage-reaches-all-time-high-poll-finds/2013/03/18/86ad3382-8ff7-11e2-9abd-e4c5c9dc5e90_story.html
https://mail.google.com/mail/?hl=en&shva=1#search/AFA/13d6515d85b2f814
http://ww2.onenewsnow.com/legal-courts/2012/12/08/good-news-that-scotus-will-hear-marriage-cases
http://www.wnd.com/2012/08/affirmed-study-that-gay-family-children-more-troubled/
http://townhall.com/columnists/harryrjacksonjr/2013/02/18/gay-marriage-advocates-lose-by-winning-n1514961
More resources on same-sex marriage court cases are available from [email protected]
New Post has been published on Belize Prayer Network
New Post has been published on http://belizeprayernetwork.com/2013/03/us-accused-by-venezuela-n-korea-afghanistan-of-inciting-armed-opposition/
US accused by Venezuela, N. Korea & Afghanistan of inciting armed opposition
Defense Sec. Hagel and US military policemen who were with him in Afghanistan
PRAYER ALERT: In the past week, Venezuela has accused the US of killing its populist president Hugo Chavez by injecting him with cancer, and fomenting armed revolt. Afghanistan has accused the US of conspiring with the rebel Taliban to prolong its civil war so US troops can stay longer. And a North Korean ambassador said, “The U.S. is to blame for the situation on the Korean peninsula which is inching close to an unpredictable phase now.” Last week North Korea threatened South Korea with “final destruction” during a UN-sponsored Conference on Disarmament.
All this is happening only weeks after Chuck Hagel was confirmed as US Secretary of Defense on Feb. 26 and John Kerry was confirmed as Secretary of State on Jan. 29. Both Hagel and Kerry have been vocal critics of past US military actions. Hagel has supported appeasement with US enemies such as Iran, Syria, and Hamas. But that has not stopped the recent wave of accusations against the US foreign policies which Hagel and Kerry now represent.
In fact Hagel’s first foreign visit, to Afghanistan, was marred on March 9 by suicide bombs that killed 19 people in Kabul and in the Khost province. Afghan President Hamid Karzai claimed that those attacks were actually in the “service of America”, and that the US was bypassing his government to negotiate directly with the radical Islamist Taliban. The Taliban retorted that the attacks were meant to send a message to Hagel that the insurgents were a force to be reckoned with. A Hagel-Karzai press conference at Karzai’s presidential palace was cancelled. Then on March 11, the same day Hagel left the war-torn nation, an Afghan police officer shot dead two US soldiers and was himself immediately killed—with two other policemen—by US military troops in response. This was only the most recent in a wave of insider attacks.
Six days earlier in Caracas—just hours before announcing the death of President Chavez—Vice President Nicholas Maduro said he was expelling two US military embassy officials for plotting to destabilize Venezuela. Maduro, Chavez’ chosen successor, who will run in the April 14 special presidential election, also said that, “We have no doubt” that Chavez’ fatal case of cancer was induced by “the historical enemies of our homeland,” clearly referring to the US. Chavez had been a long-time US foe. He called the post-9/11 US military actions in Afghanistan “the massacre of the innocents.” He praised Muammar Gaddafi and criticized the US military”indiscriminate bombing” of Libya as way to get its hands on Libyan oil. He called Venezuela’s vast oil weath as “a card that we are going to play with toughness against the toughest country in the world, the United States.” He used oil money to fund and influence his favored political candidates in Belize and several Latin America nations.
Chavez has been a close friend of Fidel Castro and a major prop and advocate for communist Cuba. He joined with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to declare an “axis of unity” against “US imperialism.” And “Chavez peppered his frequent anti-US tirades with songs, dances and jokes that won him a huge popular following” at home.* But he left Venezuela deeply divided along class lines. His widespread nationalization of industries resulted in skyrocketing inflation, severe currency devaluation, and shortages of basics such as flour, eggs, sugar and gasoline—a heavy economic yoke that the next president will have to bear.
North Korea, probably the most isolated economy in the world, is facing even stricter UN sanctions since it conducted its biggest-yet nuclear test explosion on February 12. Blaming the US for those sanctions, North Korea repeatedly vowed to launch a nuclear strike against the US, with one army general saying one long-range nuclear-armed missile could turn Washington into a “sea of fire.” North Korea threatened to nullify the 60-year-old armistice that ended the Korean War, and start a nuclear war with South Korea. Both Koreas are now staging war exercises. The North’s young Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un has been known for inflammatory rhetoric before, but he now has more nuclear power to back it up. It is time to pray for God’s restraining hand upon these nations.
PRAY WITH US. Father God, we declare that the earth is Yours and everything in it. All power belongs to You, but You have established authorities over the nations for Your purposes. Without You the nations would be at constant war. You oversee the balance of power which restrains them. You have used the power of the US military as a deterrent to war in some regions. But the US has instigated war in other regions, ostensibly for the sake of democracy and against totalitarianism, with conflicting results. Now it has fallen deeply in debt, and the US military is straining to sustain its presence in a world with dangerous and unpredictable nuclear powers.
We turn to You, and ask You to hear the cries of Your people in these nations. Hear the tiny underground church in Afghanistan, for Your own church began that way with 120 people in Jerusalem. Pour Your Holy Spirit on them that they may pray and speak with power, that the oppressive Taliban not prevail, but that freedom of religion would grow so that Your gospel may go forth with Your power for salvation. Bring together Your people in Venezuela, who are planting thousands of churches a year to reach unbelievers and nominal Christians, to pray for more of Your influence in a nation that is veering toward authoritarianism. Bind the strong man spirit and raise up servant leaders in Venezuela. We praise You for the rapid growth of Your church in South Korea into the second largest mission-sending nation. Hear their cries against the hostile threats from the North. Fulfill their longing to reach their brothers with Your good news, and to see the Koreas reunited instead of divided into warring camps.
We come against every form of tyranny and the Antichrist spirit in these nations. Establish in them righteousness, truth, peace and good will toward all men. And restore the US to its constitutional and biblical foundations so that its influence in the world may serve Your good purposes. In Jesus’ name, amen.
*Financial Times, “Venezuela: To the heir, a poisoned chalice”, March 6, 2013
A Time to Pray: Afghanistan, North Korea, Venezuela, Chavez, US military actions
Christian News: Sources
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-10/karzai-accuses-u-s-of-taliban-collusion-as-hagel-visits.html
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/01/31/republican-hagel-faces-gop-critics-at-hearing/#ixzz2NLqEkc00
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/05/world/americas/venezuela-chavez-main
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d7b51912-7467-11e2-b323-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2NP2zhGYp
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/03/11/south-korea-and-us-begin-military-drills-as-north-korea-threatens-war/#ixzz2NLhs89jA\
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/27/us-korea-north-usa-idUSBRE91Q0HX20130227
Belize City House of Prayer, Belize Prayer Network
New Post has been published on Belize Prayer Network
New Post has been published on http://belizeprayernetwork.com/2013/03/wisdom-for-us-budget-weight-loss-program/
Wisdom for US budget weight-loss program
NEWS UPDATE: The deadline to avoid the sequester has passed without an agreement between President Obama and Congress to avert it. Now $85 million worth of automatic spending cuts will start taking effect. The Obama administration has some discretion on the specifics of many of these spending cuts. It will be an rigorous exercise in frugality for a president who has been finding more ways to spend than to save, while the nation has seen its debt climb over $16 trillion. It is easy to talk about cuts in general, but difficult to apply cuts to specific programs, especially when the US will eventually need more than a trilllion dollars of extra spending cuts combined with revenue per year just to balance the budget. The US will have to learn to prioritize essentials, and do without more nonessentials. Stricter budgeting can be a healthy exercise for a bloated government that risks a heart attack if it doesn’t lose a great deal of weight. But the weight loss itself can be deadly. The enemies of the US are glad that half of the cuts will hit the military, and they will attempt to take advantage of any new weaknesses and vulnerabilities. This is a time to pray for unusual wisdom, discernment and grace that only God can give.
A TIME TO PRAY: Father God, we come to You as our Creator and Provider, knowing that You love to answer prayers according to Your will. We know that many sins have brought the US into financial straits, but You are a forgiving God who always provides a way out. We come to You not asking for riches but, as Solomon did, for wisdom and discernment to make right judgments on where to apply the needed spending cuts. You answered his prayer abundantly. You even promised to give him what he did not ask, but what You knew he and his nation needed. You alone know what the US must do, and You alone know just what it really needs. So we submit the nation to You, who have established its authorities, that You will give them the wisdom they need. When they decide wrongly, we ask that You override their decisions, not only for the sake of US population of 313 million, but for the many nations in the world who are tied to the US economy. The majority of missionaries and funding for missionaries originates in the US. For the sake of Your Great Commission too, have mercy on the US. At the same time show the paths of righteousness that the US must follow in order to be restored to Your good graces. and to be a much greater blessing to the world. In Jesus’ name, amen.
A time to pray, spending cuts, sequester
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-04/automatic-spending-cuts-start-with-few-initial-effects.html
http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2013/03/04/economists-were-opposed-to-automatic-spending-cuts
New Post has been published on Belize Prayer Network
New Post has been published on http://belizeprayernetwork.com/2013/03/belize-border-cutters-wont-wait-for-vote/
Belize border-cutters won't wait for vote
PRAYER ALERT: The most inflammable international issue in Belize—its disputed border with Guatemala—just got a match thrown into it. On March 2 third-party leader Wil Maheia took 200+ volunteers, including many former Belize Defense Force troops, to start marking off the border with machetes. They plan to clear a 3-foot-wide path and make rock-pile markers every 1000 yards. Many never realized until now that there is no clearly defined border in much of the Belizean frontier, except on maps of the entire nation, and in the general terms of still-disputed treaties. But where does that border fall in the jungle? Belize Defense Force (BDF) troops have claimed to know and have been arrested by Guatemalan troops for trespassing. Guatemalans have claimed to know and have been shot at and arrested by BDF troops. More Guatemalans have ignored the issue and made frequent and deep incursions into the sparsely-populated Belizean side, to help themselves to large stands of timber, game animals and gold.
Belizeans are greatly troubled by these incursions. But the Guatemalan government has not stopped them because it claims that most of Belize belongs to Guatemala. Maps in government offices and schools actually show Belize as part of Guatemala. The dispute goes all the way back to Spain’s claim to divide the entire “New World” with Portugal in 1494. In the most recent treaty, in 1859, Guatemala consented to recognize Belize and Great Britain (which was in the process of making Belize an official crown colony, to be known as British Honduras), promised to construct a road from Guatemala to the Belizean city of Punta Gorda. In 1940 Guatemala declared that treaty void because the British never made good on that promise. The UN recognized Belize (British Honduras) in its present borders, but on the verge of Belize’s independence from the UK in 1981, Guatemala renewed its claim, and Belizeans rioted when they perceived that their outgoing British government was making too many concessions to Guatemala.
Since then, in contrast to the US July 4th Independence Day, Belizeans spend the entire month of September in boisterous Independence celebrations. This year, directly after those celebrations, on October 6, Belize will vote on a referendum on whether to submit its independent status to the decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Guatemala will hold a similar referendum on the same day. If both vote to submit to the ICJ, as the government of Belize hopes, a final ICJ legal verdict would be expected to settle the dispute. But many say Belize already has sovereignty and UN recognition. Why risk that by putting it into the hands of a foreign court? Belizeans who want to assert their sovereignty now greatly sympathize with the 200 volunteers who are marching off, with machetes and GPS instruments, to cut a dividing line between the two nations. But are machetes the best tools for conflict resolution? The Belizean government, not wanting to spark a border war, has refused to support or defend them against expected Guatemalan resistance, or possible mass arrest. The Guatemalan Ministry of Foreign Affairs has express its displeasure with border-cutting project through diplomatic channels to the Government of Belize. This is a time to pray that this initiative ends up bringing more light than heat.
A TIME TO PRAY: Father God, You are the Sovereign and Judge of the whole earth. We submit this dispute to You. Belize in its constitution declares it is a nation “founded on principles that acknowledge the supremacy of God.” You have established authorities by popular vote in Belize during the 31 years of its independence. You have protected Belize from foreign homosexual agendas in the courts. You have kept border conflicts from escalating into war. Now move upon those 200 volunteers, protect them, and have Your way with them. The devil wants to stir up antagonists to steal and kill and destroy. You sent Jesus that we might have life and have it abundantly.
Show both nations how to live together and agree on borders that have fallen in pleasant places. Raise up voices of understanding, mutual respect and cooperation. Affirm the commandments that fulfill Your supreme and greatest laws, to love You and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Show us how to clarify our boundaries and how to be good neighbors. Let right relations begin with the churches of Belize and Guatemala, Help them to agree on Your good will in prayer, and see Your will be done in our nations as it is in heaven. We face common enemies in the spread of drug cartels, organized crime, and human trafficking. Good borders can help to stop them. Have Your way with the referendum and, if it goes that far, with the ICJ. Reconcile the voters, judges and governing authorities with Your good will. Bless the peacemakers, and show them how to show these nations Your kingdom ways. In Jesus’ name, amen.
A time to pray: Belize, Belizeans, BelizeIndependence, CelebrateBelize, Guatemala, Guatemalan, ICJ
Related sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belizean-Guatemalan_territorial_dispute
http://amandala.com.bz/news/gob-scare-tactics-fail/
http://amandala.com.bz/news/gob-scare-tactics-fail/
http://amandala.com.bz/news/pgs-wil-maheia-territorial-volunteers-on-own/
New Post has been published on Belize Prayer Network
New Post has been published on http://belizeprayernetwork.com/2013/02/cnns-vaticanologist-praises-benedict-xvis-prosecution-of-sexual-abuse-cases/
CNN's vaticanologist praised Benedict XVI's prosecution of sexual abuse cases
NEWS UPDATE: CNN is one of the networks leading the charge against the Catholic Church’s handling of sexual abuse cases. It is grievous that such cases ever occurred, but is less surprising when we consider the rampant immorality in the world today, including in the mainstream media itself. A fair approach would acknowledge that CNN’s own vaticanologist (who also serves in that capacity for NPR), John L. Allen, Jr., said that even before Benedict XVI became pope, he zealously led the charge against sexual abuse in the Church. Allen lives in Rome, and specializes in Catholic Church news, and has written two biographies of Pope Benedict XVI. See Allen’s quote in the below excerpt from the Wikipedia article which reports the main points in Benedict XVI’s history of earnest and diligent prosecution of sexual abuse.
‘Prior to 2001, the primary responsibility for investigating allegations of sexual abuse and disciplining perpetrators rested with the individual dioceses. In 2001, Ratzinger [who became Pope Benedict XVI in 2005] convinced John Paul II to put the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith [which was led by the future Benedict XVI himself] in charge of all investigations and policies surrounding sexual abuse in order to combat such abuse more efficiently.[147][148] According to John L. Allen, Jr., Ratzinger in the following years “acquired a familiarity with the contours of the problem that virtually no other figure in the Catholic Church can claim” and “driven by that encounter with what he would later refer to as ‘filth’ in the Church, Ratzinger seems to have undergone something of a ‘conversion experience’ throughout 2003–04. From that point forward, he and his staff seemed driven by a convert’s zeal to clean up the mess”.[149] In his role as Head of the CDF, he “led important changes made in Church law: the inclusion in canon law of internet offences against children, the extension of child abuse offences to include the sexual abuse of all under 18, the case by case waiving of the statute of limitation and the establishment of a fast-track dismissal from the clerical state for offenders.”[150] As the Head of the CDF, Ratzinger developed a reputation for handling these cases. According to Charles J. Scicluna, a former prosecutor handling sexual abuse cases, “Cardinal Ratzinger displayed great wisdom and firmness in handling those cases, also demonstrating great courage in facing some of the most difficult and thorny cases, sine acceptione personarum (without exceptions)”.[149][151]
‘One of the cases Ratzinger pursued involved Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, a Mexican priest and founder of the Legion of Christ, who had been accused repeatedly of sexual abuse. Biographer Andrea Tornielli suggested that Cardinal Ratzinger had wanted to take action against Marcial Maciel Degollado, but that John Paul II and other high-ranking officials, including several cardinals and notably the pope’s influential secretary Stanisław Dziwisz, prevented him from doing so.[148][152] According to Jason Berry, Angelo Sodano “pressured” Cardinal Ratzinger, who was “operating on the assumption that the charges were not justified”, to halt the proceedings against Maciel in 1999[153] When Maciel was honored by the Pope in 2004, new accusers came forward[153] and Cardinal Ratzinger “took it on himself to authorize an investigation of Maciel“[148] After Ratzinger became pope he began proceedings against Maciel and the Legion of Christ that forced Maciel out of active service in the Church.[147] On 1 May 2010 the Vatican issued a statement denouncing Maciel’s “very serious and objectively immoral acts”, which were “confirmed by incontrovertible testimonies” and represent “true crimes and manifest a life without scruples or authentic religious sentiment.” Pope Benedict also said he would appoint a special commission to examine the Legionaries’ constitution and open an investigation into its lay affiliate Regnum Christi.[154] Cardinal Christoph Schönborn explained that Ratzinger “made entirely clear efforts not to cover things up but to tackle and investigate them. This was not always met with approval in the Vatican”.[147][155] According to Schönborn, Cardinal Ratzinger had pressed John Paul II to investigate Hans Hermann Groër, an Austrian cardinal and friend of John Paul accused of sexual abuse, resulting in Groër’s resignation.[152]
‘In March 2010, the Pope sent a Pastoral Letter to the Catholic Church in Ireland addressing cases of sexual abuse by Catholic priests to minors, expressing sorrow, and promising changes in the way accusations of abuse are dealt with.[156] Victim groups claim the letter failed to clarify if secular law enforcement has priority over canon law confidentiality pertaining to internal investigation of abuse allegations.[157][158][159][160] The Pope then promised to introduce measures that would ‘safeguard young people in the future’ and ‘bring to justice’ priests who were responsible for abuse.[146] In April, the Vatican issued guidelines on how existing Church law should be implemented. The guideline dictates that “Civil law concerning reporting of crimes… should always be followed.”[161] The guideline was intended to follow the norms established by U.S. bishops, but it does not require the reporting of “allegations” or crimes where reporting is not required by law.[162]
A TIME TO PRAY: Father God, You are a loving, caring and jealous Father who grieves when You see children abused. Your own Son said, “Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to the person through whom they come. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millston hung around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin” (Luke 17:1-2). Show Your zeal by coming on predators with deep conviction of sin, so they will stop their sexual abuse and turn to You for radical changes in their lives. Hold media reporters to the same standards since their examples are so highly visible to the world. After Benedict XVI raise up another pope, as well as more Christian leaders, who will also show no tolerance of immoral conduct in the church, which is so destructive to individuals and family life. Pour out Your Holy Spirit on all wicked flesh for a new movement of holiness to flood the earth, to cleanse sin for all who receive You, to restore the sexually wounded to wholeness, to raise the standards for purity in singleness and faithfulness in marriage, and to exalt Jesus as the desire of the nations. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Christian news: sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Benedict_XVI
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BELIZE BORDER-CUTTING: PG’s Wil Maheia and territorial volunteers “on their own!”
CHRISTIAN NEWS: SOURCE. Amandala Headline — 26 February 2013
Belize government refuses protection to the nationalist group planning to cut border path between Belize and Guatemala – on the Belize side of the border!
Wil Maheia told Amandala today that plans for the Belize Territorial Volunteers to execute the project, “Clearing Our Borderline,” at the border between Guatemala and Belize on Saturday, March 2, remain the same.
The Belize Territorial Volunteers was formed, said Maheia, because “our borders have been neglected and as a result, there have been several incursions into our beautiful, sovereign country,” and their aim is “to ensure that Belize’s territorial sovereignty is never called into question.”
Guatemalans, said Maheia, “have come into the villages and pillaged people’s farms and stolen their horses, and when they are caught, they claim ignorance about entering Belizean territory.”
The plan, therefore, is to cut a path along the border three feet wide and in the first instance, six miles long, with “corn markers,” which are simply piles of rock, every 1,000 yards.
Maheia and the volunteers, made up of members of like-minded organizations such as The Belize Coalition for Justice, People’s National Party, COLA and others, will do so without protection from the Belize government, however, because last Friday, Belize Foreign Affairs Minister Wilfred Elrington appeared on Channel 7 and warned the group that not only will his government not offer support, but that the group “could be arrested,” presumably by Guatemalan security personnel.
Elrington did not explain how it is possible for a Belizean to legally be arrested by a Guatemalan on the Belize side of the border.
Chief Executive Officer in the Belize Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Alexis Rosado, told Amandala today that the Guatemala Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a diplomatic note to Belize last week expressing their concerns about the planned project, and saying that what Maheia and the volunteers plan on doing might create some tensions along the border.
Rosado said that the Guatemalans have indicated that they would seek OAS intervention to diffuse any type of conflict or confusion that may arise.
Rosado said that Belize has not responded to the note.
Today, Monday, via the Belize Press Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a release which said, among other things, that it “advises all members of the public that any attempt on their part to clear the Western Border can give rise to serious danger to themselves and we therefore strongly advise against participation in any such action.”
The Ministry says that the actions by the group “may conduce to a disturbance of the peace and to unnecessary tensions between [the] two countries…”
In an attempt to drive home the point, the Ministry referred to a press conference called almost exactly thirteen years ago by then Prime Minister Said Musa, “concerning an incident that occurred on Thursday, February 24, 2000, in an area of Belizean territory near our Belizean Defence Force border posts at Treetops, south southwest of Jalacte Village in the Toledo District.”
In that incident, four Belizean soldiers were on routine patrol “along a route used by our security forces well within Belizean territory” when they encountered a group of “about twenty-five Guatemalan military personnel.”
The BDF soldiers insisted that they were in Belizean territory, but the Guatemalan soldiers disputed this, and the Belizean soldiers were arrested and taken to the Guatemalan post of Santo Cruz, then to San Luis, where they were handed over to police.
“They were later moved to Santa Elena [Guatemala], where there is a district court, to await the arrival of a magistrate …they are awaiting trial,” said Musa at the 2000 press conference, as reported by the Ministry.
Through diplomatic intervention, the soldiers arrived home on March 3, after spending about nine days in prison.
We asked Rosado if today’s Foreign Affairs press release was triggered by the diplomatic note from Guatemala. He said that the Ministry issued the press release merely to alert the group of the possible implications of their actions which they should consider before proceeding.
7News, on its newscast of Friday, February 22, 2013, had quoted Elrington as saying that no one knows where the border between Belize and Guatemala is, and those who participate in the project can risk being arrested by Guatemalan authorities. The Minister also said that the participants “can cause an international incident and likely all end up in jail.”
We asked Rosado today if the diplomatic note from Guatemala suggested that the Belizeans could be arrested, and he said no.
Activist and People’s National Party (PNP) leader, Wil Maheia, said that plans for the project are confirmed, regardless of the warnings by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“As Belizeans, we have the right to move freely in our country,” he asserted. “Because of the Minister of Foreign Affairs’ statement on Friday, concerns were raised, but I assure people that we will be on the Belize side of the border.”
Maheia said he is not blind to the safety concerns of himself and others, and he believes that the Government should offer protection for the Belizeans who choose to go out to the border. He said that he doesn’t know if the Government will provide any form of protection for them at all, but he has contacted the commander of the Belize Defense Force and the Minister of National Security informing them of the group’s whereabouts.
“We believe that the Government has a right to protect the Belizean public, and we believe that they would want to protect their own citizens, which is the duty of the Government to protect its people,” he said.
With or without protection, the group is sticking with its plans, because the members see it as their patriotic duty to stand up for what they believe is right.
“Too long our country has been neglected, about 30 years now our borders have been neglected and it’s time for us Belizeans to step up,” Maheia said. “It’s just too much that is going on at our border, too many incursions. I was there yesterday at the border, and it’s just alarming to see the amount of invasions that are taking place. We are Belizeans, Belizeans who want to stand firm: we’ll be out there. Guess we’ll see who will walk the walk and talk the talk right now,” he said.
Maheia said that he is aware of the diplomatic note from Guatemala, but will not allow that to deter their plans.
“I am in no way going to let the Guatemalans or the Organization of American States dictate my Belizean freedom,” he said.
Maheia said that he appreciates all the support that he receives from Belizeans countrywide, and he calls on everyone, including the organizations that have committed their support, to not be intimidated by the Guatemalans or the Belize Foreign Ministry.
The Belize Constitution defines the entire territory of Belize, and it stipulates that “the frontier with Guatemala is the line prescribed by the Treaty between the United Kingdom and Guatemala signed on 30 April, 1859.”
The document, captioned Legal Opinion on Guatemala’s Territorial Claim to Belize, by Sir Elihu Lauterpacht, Judge Stephen Schwebel, Professor Shabtai Rosenne & Professor Francisco Orrego Vicuña, legal advisors to Belize, points to a note from the British Minister to Guatemala dated 25 August 1931 stating that, “The boundary between British Honduras and the Republic of Guatemala was laid down in the convention between the Republic of Guatemala and Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, signed at Guatemala on the 30 April, 1859, article 1 (paragraph 2) of which defines the line as ‘beginning at the mouth of the River Sarstoon in the Bay of Honduras and proceeding up the mid-channel thereof to Gracias á Dios Falls; then turning to the right and continuing by a line drawn direct from Gracias á Dios Falls to Garbutt’s Falls on the River Belize and from Garbutt’s Falls due north until it strikes the Mexican frontier.’”
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Deadline near for serious US spending cuts
The Department of Defense at the Pentagon is just one government branch that faces deep spending cuts
NEWS UPDATE: In 2011 it was hard to find an economist who gave the US any chance of surviving a major economic collapse in 2012, unless it made drastic spending cuts. The one bipartisan plan that most economists agreed would succeed was the Simpson-Bowles plan, authored by Republican Alan Simpson (former senator from Wyoming) and Democrat Erskine Bowles (former president Clinton’s chief of staff). Simpson and Bowles knew the urgency of their task. In February 2011 Simpson gave the US one year to survive without a comprehensive plan for spending cuts; Bowles gave it two years at the most. The two were co-chairs of President Obama’s own debt reduction panel. But both Obama and Congress rejected their plan. Instead, Obama made a deal with Congress to raise the debt ceiling and impose a future sequester— $85 billion across-the-board spending cuts due to start March 1, 2013. Such spending cuts were so arbitrary and draconian that they all knew they all would be forced to make a better deal before that time.
Well, two years later, that time has nearly arrived, and still no deal. The US faces sudden and massive layoffs and widespread national dysfunction; for instance, lack of firefighters, release of criminals, and 3-hour waits in airport security lines. And the only plausible bipartisan plan for spending cuts has been proposed by—Simpson and Bowles. Yes, they are back at the brink of Bowles’ own deadline with a similar plan. This Simpson-Bowles plan rewrites the tax code and mandates deep spending cuts in order to decrease the budget deficit by $2.4 trillion over the next 10 years. It targets the costliest programs—Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, farm subsidies, the military and discretionary domestic spending. And it gives Congress until the end of 2013 to make spending cuts—which will have to be far more than $85 billion—and tax adjustments to meet these goals. (For a bigger picture of the US and world financial crisis, see our BPN Prayer Alert at http://belizeprayernetwork.com/2013/01/us-pushes-world-to-steeper-fiscal-cliff/). But at this point Congress still cannot agree on a basic debt-to-GDP ratio, let alone a comprehensive plan. The approaching sequestration looks like a chainsaw massacre. Instead, the US needs deep surgical cuts and a rigorous weight loss and exercise program. Let’s find a time to pray for God to show His way through this impasse.
A TIME TO PRAY: Father God, You are the Maker of the Universe and in You all things hold together. Some of the best human minds have seen the signs of the times and predicted economic collapse long before now. Yet You have answered prayer and held us back from the disastrous judgments that this nation deserves. The US is a colossus that produces 30% of the world’s goods and consumes 50% of them in many lustful and sinful ways. Yet you are daily performing economic miracles for the world because of Your awesome mercy. You have extended one grace period after another, giving us more time to change our ways. As Abraham did for Sodom, we ask for another extension of grace. Let us seek You and find Your way through this, and turn from our wicked ways so You will forgive and heal this land. Send forth waves of repentance, revival and righteousness across the US. Establish the plan for financial recovery that most pleases You. Set a course for Your kingdom economy to succeed where the world economy has failed. We thank You because only with You are all these things possible. In Jesus’ name, amen.
a time to pray: Simpson-Bowles, economic collapse, debt, spending cuts
Related sources:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB0001424127887324449104578314113835559092.html
http://www.forbes.com/sites/beltway/2013/02/19/bowles-simpson-ii-a-new-plan-to-avoid-the-sequester/
http://debt.ezinemark.com/the-marc-nuttle-debt-wall-7d2fdaa7c704.html
http://www.wnd.com/2013/02/exploding-debt-why-you-should-care/#62P4066uHYM1oRmL.99
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Chinese army unit hacks into US infrastructure
PRAYER ALERT: A large majority of computer hacker attacks on US corporations and government agencies originate from one white tower in Shanghai—the headquarters of Chinese Army Unit 61398, according to Mandiant, a US computer security firm. Since Mandiant began its investigation in 2006, it has documented 141 confirmed attacks while other security experts have estimated thousands more. One prominent target was Coca Cola in 2009, when it attempted to buy out China’s Huiyuan Juice Group for $2.4 billion, but failed. Other targets of the army unit have included Apple, Facebook, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. China denied Mandiant’s report and charged that most cyberattacks aimed at China came from the US.
China became the world’s second largest economy in 2010, and various economists have predicted it will surpass the US between 2015 and 2030. China is also the largest foreign holder of the bloated US debt. When Standard & Poor’s downgraded the US credit rating in August 2011, China severely criticized the US “addiction to debt,” warned that it could no longer “borrow its way out of messes,” and demanded that it safeguard China’s dollar assets in the US.
China is also challenging the military resources of the US. China’s military spending, much of which is kept secret, is estimated at between one-fourteenth to one-fourth of that of the US. But a 2011 report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies stated that if spending trends continue, China will equal US military strength in 15-20 years. It is multiplying its naval forces in the Pacific, modernizing its nuclear technology, expanding its space program, and developing its capacity for attacking satellites, as well as escalating its cyberattacks.
Chinese Army Unit 61398 has aimed many hacker attacks at the US Defense and State Departments, highlighting tense relations with the US government, which announced in 2010 that it would sell $6.4 billion worth of arms to Taiwan, China’s long-time neighboring rival. In 2011 the number of Unit 61398 attacks spiked, and became increasingly focused on the US’s critical infrastructure—its waterworks, power supply and gas lines. According to researchers cited by Wikipedia, “one target was a company with remote access to more than 60 percent of oil and gas pipelines in North America. The unit was also among those that attacked the computer security firm RSA, whose computer codes protect confidential corporate and government databases.” This is a time to pray that this military and technological race between China, with its 1.3 billion-strong population, and the US, with its dominant economy—which consumes half of the world’s goods—will not explode and shake the rest of the world.
A TIME TO PRAY: Father God, we thank You for Jesus Christ, the superpower of the universe, who destroyed the works of the devil on the cross, and now reigns in heaven and on earth. “For wisdom and power belong to Him. And it is He who changes times and epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings” (Dan. 2:20-21). Without You the nations of the world would quickly crumble. But You sustain all things for You so loved the world that You want all to have the opportunity to know Your Son, and the abundant life He offers. We thank You for the great harvest in China, where evangelicals have increased from 2.7 million in 1975 to 75 million in 2010, the most in the world except for the United States, with its 92 million. We grieve that the two greatest superpowers with the greatest numbers of Your people are increasingly at odds with each other, and threaten the stability and economy of this whole earth which You sustain.
This is a time to pray for prayer movements to release power for greater harvests instead of greater wars. We pray that this time of harvest will not end, and that You will disable cyberattacks and the massive buildup of weapons, until the time of Your return. We pray that Your mighty hand will steady the shaking economies of the earth, and set a course for the kingdoms of the world to become the kingdoms of the Lord. We pray that You will raise up and establish authorities in China and the US who will know You, and carry out Your plans to prosper Your people and not to harm them. We declare a new era of greater cooperation between true Christians in China and the US, that they will recognize their oneness in Christ and Your incomparably great power for us who believe. Show them how to lay foundations for true prosperity and peace in You that warmongers cannot shake. Fulfill the great destinies to which You have called these great nations. In Jesus’ name, amen. A time to pray for US-China relations, Unit 61398, Mandiant
Main sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-American_relations
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/19/technology/chinas-army-is-seen-as-tied-to-hacking-against-us.html?pagewanted=5&_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130219&
http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/02/19/apple-attacked-by-chinese-hackers-mac-software-tool-coming-to-protect-consumers
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One billion Catholics seek new pope
PRAYER ALERT: Pope Benedict XVI, now 85 years old, has announced that he will retire on February 28. There is already widespread speculation about who the next pope will be and what direction he will take. While the Catholic Church and evangelicals do have differences, there is much we can agree on and much we can appreciate Pope Benedict for (see below). We can maintain that only God and His Word are infallible, but at the same time avoid the extreme prejudice shown in old and unfounded charges that the harlot Babylon is the Catholic Church or any religion at all. Nowhere in Revelation 17-18 is the harlot Babylon spoken of as a religion. The only religion that could ever be identified with the harlot Babylon would be one with doctrines exalting money and sex as well as political power—the horns on which she rides (Rev. 17:7-13).
We do know that there will be a great apostasy from the faith (Matt. 24:9-13; 2 Thess. 2:3), but there is nothing in Scripture that says a Catholic pope has to be a part of it. The harlot Babylon is the spirit and symbol of materialistic lust and greed, seducing people into taking the mark of the Antichrist—who outlaws all religions except worship of Him led by the false prophet (13:11:18). The mark allows people to buy and sell in an extreme of the consumerism which Pope Benedict himself has denounced, as especially corrupting to the younger generation: “youths and even children are easy victims of the corruption of love, deceived by unscrupulous adults who, lying to themselves and to them, draw them into the dead-end streets of consumerism.”
Pope Benedict also often criticizes relativism—which “leaves as the ultimate criterion only the self with its desires”—as “the central problem of our faith today.” A favorite theme for his preaching has been intimate friendship with Christ. Like John Paul II before him, he has taken strong and articulate biblical stands for one-man, one-woman marriages and against abortion, immorality and the homosexual agenda. Even before his election as pope in 2005, he was among the most proactive Catholic authorities in investigating and bringing to justice cases of sexual abuse in the church. As pope he has diligently continued this course and affirmed that “Civil law concerning reporting of crimes… should always be followed.” And we can be thankful that the Catholic church in general has been at the forefront of the struggle for religious freedom, and against Obamacare mandates forcing religious institutions to provide free insurance coverage of abortifacients, contraceptives, and sterilization.
We also have in common the essentials of the faith as expressed in the Apostle’s Creed. When we differ on the place of authority of popes, priests, the saints and Mary, we must remember that the Catholic Church opposes idolatry as much as evangelicals do. If some in the Catholic Church tend to make idols of revered figures, do not some evangelicals tend to do the same? Let us humbly acknowledge our human faults before each other and emphasize what we can agree on. Let us take a time to pray together to the Father who seeks to make us one with Him and the His Son Jesus Christ.
A TIME TO PRAY: Father God, we are thankful for the only way to You through Jesus Christ, Your only begotten Son. We thank You for loving us so much that You made Him human like us, so that through His death we might die to sin, and through His resurrection we might have new life as Your children. We thank You for the Great Commission that has spread this gospel from a few disciples to us and to the whole world, so that now there are more than 2 billion professed Christians, one half of which are Catholic. As Your children we are still learning what great plans You have for us, to grow up and “reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature” (Eph. 4:13).
Forgive us for our sins, and help us be merciful to each other in our immaturity, as we grow into the stature of Your Son. Help us to together represent You to the world which so deeply needs You. Raise up mature representatives whom we may imitate as they imitate Christ. We thank You for those You have already given us, and particularly for Pope Benedict. We honor him as one who has been faithful to stand for intimacy with Your Son, for the unborn who cannot speak for themselves, for right relationships in marriages and families, and against the immorality, relativism and consumerism which threaten to tear them apart. We ask that You would raise up another Pope who will continue in these paths of righteousness, and meet every challenge of the unbelieving world with the grace and truth found in Jesus Christ. We are still far from being the church You want us to be. But we pray in agreement with Your Son, because we know You will answer Him, in His amazing prayer for all Your children, that “they may be one, just as We are one” (John 17:22). Set the course for this to happen, and conform us more and more to Your will, until Jesus returns for His pure spotless bride, in Jesus’ name, amen.
A time to pray: Pope Benedict resigns Main sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Benedict_XVI#Consumerism on Pope Benedict
http://onenewsnow.com//church/2012/10/29/catholic-survey-skewed-intentionally-says-priest
http://onenewsnow.com//ap/religion/pope-to-resign-feb-28-says-hes-too-infirm on Pope Benedict Note: Pope Benedict was appointed Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith by Pope John Paul II in 1981.
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Pope Benedict to resign Feb. 28, says he's too infirm
CHRISTIAN NEWS: SOURCE. 2/11/13 Associated Press Pope Benedict XVI said Monday he lacks the strength to fulfill his duties and on Feb. 28 will become the first pontiff in 600 years to resign. The announcement sets the stage for a conclave in March to elect a new leader for world’s 1 billion Catholics. The 85-year-old pope announced the bombshell in Latin during a meeting of Vatican cardinals, surprising even his closest collaborators, even though Benedict had made clear in the past he would step down if he became too old or infirm to do the job.
Benedict called his choice “a decision of great importance for the life of the church.”
Indeed, the move allows the Vatican to hold a conclave before Easter to elect a new pope, since the traditional mourning time that would follow the death of a pope doesn’t have to be observed.
It will also allow Benedict to hold great sway over the choice of his successor. He has already hand-picked the bulk of the College of Cardinals _ the princes of the church who will elect the next pope _ to guarantee his conservative legacy and ensure an orthodox future for the church.
There are several papal contenders in the wings, but no obvious front-runner _ the same situation when Benedict was elected pontiff in 2005 after the death of Pope John Paul II.
The Vatican stressed that no specific medical condition prompted Benedict’s decision, but in recent years, the pope has slowed down significantly, cutting back his foreign travel and limiting his audiences. He now goes to and from the altar in St. Peter’s Basilica on a moving platform, to spare him the long walk down the aisle. Occasionally he uses a cane.
His 89-year-old brother, Georg Ratzinger, said doctors had recently advised the pope not to take any more trans-Atlantic trips.
“His age is weighing on him,” Ratzinger told the dpa news agency. “At this age my brother wants more rest.”
Benedict emphasized that carrying out the duties of being pope _ the leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics worldwide _ requires “both strength of mind and body.”
“After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths due to an advanced age are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,” he told the cardinals.
“In order to govern the bark of St. Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary _ strengths which in the last few months, have deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me,” he said.
Popes are allowed to resign; church law specifies only that the resignation be “freely made and properly manifested.” But only a handful have done it.
The last pope to resign was Pope Gregory XII, who stepped down in 1415 in a deal to end the Great Western Schism among competing papal claimants. The most famous resignation was Pope Celestine V in 1294; Dante placed him in hell for it.
When Benedict was elected at age 78, he was the oldest pope chosen in nearly 300 years. At the time, he has already been planning to retire as the Vatican’s chief orthodoxy watchdog to spend his final years writing in the “peace and quiet” of his native Bavaria.
On Monday, Benedict said he would serve the church for the remainder of his days “through a life dedicated to prayer.” The Vatican said immediately after his resignation, Benedict would go to Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer retreat south of Rome, and then would live in a cloistered monastery.
Contenders to be his successor include Cardinal Angelo Scola, archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, the archbishop of Vienna, and Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the Canadian head of the Vatican’s office for bishops.
Longshots include Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York. Although Dolan is popular and backs the pope’s conservative line, the general thinking is that the Catholic Church doesn’t need a pope from a “superpower.”
Given half of the world’s Catholics live in the global south, there will once again be arguments for a pope to come from the developing world.
Cardinal Antonio Tagle, the archbishop of Manila, has impressed many Vatican watchers, but at 56 and having only been named a cardinal last year, he is considered too young.
Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson of Ghana is one of the highest-ranking African cardinals at the Vatican, currently heading the Vatican’s office for justice and peace, but he’s something of a wild card.
All cardinals under age 80 are allowed to vote in the conclave, the secret meeting held in the Sistine Chapel where cardinals cast ballots to elect a new pope. As per tradition, the ballots are burned after each voting round; black smoke that snakes out of the chimney means no pope has been chosen, while white smoke means a pope has been elected.
The pontiff had been due to attend World Youth Day in July in Rio de Janeiro; by then his successor will have been named and will presumably make the trip.
Benedict himself raised the possibility of resigning if he were simply too old or sick to continue on, when he was interviewed in 2010 for the book “Light of the World.”
“If a pope clearly realizes that he is no longer physically, psychologically and spiritually capable of handling the duties of his office, then he has a right, and under some circumstances, also an obligation to resign,” Benedict said.
The former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had an intimate view as Pope John Paul II, with whom he had worked closely for nearly a quarter-century, suffered through the debilitating end of his papacy.
The announcement took the Vatican _ and the rest of the world _ by surprise.
Several cardinals on Monday didn’t even understand what Benedict had said during the consistory, said the Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman said. Others who did were stunned.
“All the cardinals remained shocked and were looking at each other,” said Monsignor Oscar Sanchez of Mexico who was in the room when Benedict made his announcement.
Benedict was born April 16, 1927 in Marktl Am Inn, in Bavaria, but his father, a policeman, moved frequently and the family left when he was 2.
In his memoirs, Benedict dealt what could have been a source of controversy had it been kept secret _ that he was enlisted in the Nazi youth movement against his will when he was 14 in 1941, when membership was compulsory. He said he was soon let out because of his studies for the priesthood. Two years later he was drafted into a Nazi anti-aircraft unit as a helper. He deserted the German army in April 1945, the waning days of the war.
He called it prophetic that a German followed a Polish pope _ with both men coming from such different sides of World War II.
Benedict was ordained, along with his brother, in 1951. After spending several years teaching theology in Germany, he was appointed bishop of Munich in 1977 and elevated to cardinal three months later by Pope Paul VI.
John Paul named him leader of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1981 and he took up his post a year later. Following John Paul’s death in 2005, he was elected pope April 19 in one of the fastest conclaves in history, just about 24 hours after the voting began.
New Post has been published on Belize Prayer Network
New Post has been published on http://belizeprayernetwork.com/2013/02/affirming-israels-borders-from-scripture-history/
Affirming Israel's borders: Scripture & history
TEACHING: We would like to present a case for defending Israel against further attacks by her enemies—who vow to destroy her—by affirming her current borders and denying legitimacy to those attacks. We feel this to be in the best interests for Belize, since we need to maintain international respect for our own borders. We cite important moral, biblical, historical and patriotic grounds for this position.
Moral Grounds
Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East except for the fledgling democracy in Iraq, has long been surrounded by hostile nations with vast majorities of Muslims. A central tenet of Islam, often repeated in the Quran, is the destruction of the Jews. This is a cause openly espoused by Hezbollah and Hamas and their parent organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, which is now becoming dominant in Egypt. In 2005, under pressure from the UN, Israel gave the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians in the hope of making peace with them. Instead of reciprocating with peace, Hamas continued to support suicide bombings in Israel in order to kill the maximum number of Jews. Hamas has continually fired rockets on Israel from the Gaza Strip that Israel gave to them. Fatah, the other major Palestinian political party which is supposed to be in charge of the Palestinian Authority, has failed to restrain Hamas. Hamas’ sister organization Hezbollah has built and armed more than 500 armed bunkers just to the north of Israel, many near Lebanese population centers that they are using as human shields. Both Hamas and Hezbollah now have specially guided rockets capable of hitting targets in central Israel. That means that all of Israel is within range of enemy rockets.
Instead of objecting to this belligerent behavior, the UN plans a vote on a resolution and to grant statehood to the Palestinian Arabs—further legitimizing their campaign to destroy Israel—and to reduce Israel to its pre-1967 borders, which are indefensible against such a campaign. For the sake of peace, democracy, freedom and self-determination, this resolution must not pass.
Self-determination for the Palestinian Arabs is not the issue. They are self-governed in the areas where they live in the West Bank and Gaza. But the Palestinian Authority has held only one election in the West Bank and Gaza with any real opposition party—the 2006 election which was won by Hamas. Since then Palestinians have suffered several changes in government due to the often violent struggle between Hamas and Fatah. And yet the Palestinian Authority has received more than 6 billion dollars in foreign aid since 2001. Here are some details from Wikipedia’s article on “Palestinian Authority”:
“the Palestinian Authority (PA) has received unprecedented financial support from the international community. According to the World Bank, USD 929 million were given by the international community to the PA in 2001, $891 million in 2003 and $1.1 billion in 2005 (representing 53% of the budget in 2005). The main objectives are support to the budget, development aid and public health…” However, “‘The PA’s fiscal situation has become increasingly unsustainable mainly as a result of uncontrolled government consumption, in particular a rapidly increasing public sector wage bill, expanding social transfer schemes and rising net lending,’ said the World Bank report. Government corruption is widely seen as the cause of much of the PA financial difficulties.”
Furthermore, “ The majority of aid to the Palestinian Authority comes from the United States and European Union. According to figures released by the PA, only 22 percent of the $530,000,000 received since the beginning of 2010 came from Arab donors. The remaining came from Western donors and organizations. The total amount of foreign aid received directly by the PA was $1.4 billion in 2009 and $1.8 billion in 2008.”[85]
Why is the Palestinian Authority not using more of this money to improve conditions in the West Bank, and especially in the refugee camps, where there is lack of water, housing, and healthcare? Why are oil-rich Arab nations not contributing more, and allowing more refugees to migrate and become citizens of their countries? The total land mass of Arab nations is 562 times the land mass of tiny Israel. Why take away more land from Israel?
The answer is clear. The issue, again, is not self-determination for the Palestinian Arabs—they already have that, and it is well-financed. The issue is the determination of Palestinian Arab leaders to destroy Israel and the Jewish people—which Hamas, Fatah, and the whole Muslim Brotherhood throughout the world openly advocate. In response, the world should refuse to give the Palestinians statehood until they stop their armed attacks against Israel, recognize Israel, respect her borders, negotiate peace with her, and prove they can keep that peace. Anything less would be grave injustice and serve to rationalize suicide bombings, genocidal campaigns, and border wars throughout the world
Biblical Grounds
In its opening statement, our Constitution affirms “that the Nation of Belize shall be founded upon principles which acknowledge the supremacy of God.” The God of the Bible says of Abraham and his descendants, “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). If Belize blesses Israel, we will be blessed. If we curse them, we will be cursed. History has borne out this verdict on nations who have opposed the Jewish people.
God gave Abraham and his descendants “all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession” (Gen. 17:8; see Ps. 105:8-11). Canaan was all the land west of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea, later known as Judah and Israel. Jesus and Stephen affirmed that the Promised Land belonged to the Jews even when they were under Roman rule (Acts 1:6-7; 7:5). The failure of the Jewish Bar-Kochba revolt against the Romans in 136 AD sent many Jews into exile. But the Bible always predicted a second regathering of the Jews, just as there was a first regathering after their sixth century BC exile to Babylon. “Then it will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover the second time with His hand the remnant of His people…and will assemble the banished ones of Israel, and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth” (Isa. 11:11-12). That second regathering began when Israel gained independence in 1948 after 18 centuries of foreign domination (see Historical Grounds below).
According to many passages in the Bible, Israel also has a crucial role in the last days. After the fullness of the Gentiles have been reached with the gospel, Israel will turn to her God like never before (Rom. 11:25-27). And then judgment will come. “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. Then I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of My people Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; and they have divided up My land” (Joel 3:1-2). It is God’s land and God’s people. Other nations who oppose His chosen people and divide His land do so at their peril.
In the end the peoples of the whole earth will come to Jerusalem for God’s counsel and judgments: “And many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us concerning His ways, and that we may walk in His paths.’ For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He will judge between the nations, and will render decisions for many peoples; and they will hammer their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war” (Isa. 2:3-4). The last four clauses of that Scripture are engraved on a wall across the street from the UN headquarters building. The UN would do well to heed those words.
Historical Grounds (principal reference for sources: Wikipedia, except where otherwise noted)
Jewish people have lived in the Promised Land almost continually since they entered under Joshua after gaining freedom from slavery in Egypt more than 3200 years ago. The only exception was the 605-536 BC Babylonian exile (during which remnants remained in Israel in 605-586). The continual occupation of the Promised Land by Jews is thoroughly documented in the book From Time Immemorial by acclaimed journalist Joan Peters. After the failed Bar-Kochba revolt in Jerusalem in AD 136, many of the three million Jewish inhabitants fled to European, Arab and North African lands. But Jewish communities in the Promised Land continued during the Roman Empire and the Byzantine period through the sixth century, when more than forty Jewish communities survived on the coast, in the Negev, in Galilee, in the Jordan Valley, and east of the Jordan. They made their capital at Gaza. They helped the Persians defeat the Byzantine garrison at Jerusalem in AD 614.
Jews were living peacefully with Arabs in Arabia when the self-proclaimed prophet Muhammad began his war campaign with the statement: “Two religions may not dwell together on the Arabian peninsula.” Muhammad drove the Jews out of Medina and slaughtered Jews in many other communities, including the large and thriving Jewish settlement at Khaibar. Jewish refugees fled and returned to the Promised Land, settling in places including the Transjordan and the West Bank, which Arabs now claim as “purely Arab Palestinian areas since time immemorial.” The Muslims conquered the Promised Land in AD 636 but left only enough forces there to collect tribute from the Jews (Peters, pp. 144-149).
In AD 1099 the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem, slaughtering both Jews and Muslims, and ruled parts of Palestine until 1291. “Although the Crusaders had almost ‘wiped out’ the Jewish communities of Jerusalem, Acre, Caesarea and Haifa, some Jews remained, and whole ‘village communities of Galilee survived’” (Peters, p.84, quoting an authority on the Middle East, James Parkes). During the AD 1260-1517 Egyptian Mamluk domination of the Promised Land, 14th century monk Jacques of Verona “noted the long established Jewish community at the foot of Mount Zion, in Jerusalem,” and wrote “The Jews were able to recount the history of these places [in the Holy Land] since this knowledge had been handed down from their forefathers and wise men” (Peters, p.85).
During the AD 1517-1917 Ottoman period, “the Jews in Jerusalem and Gaza maintained ‘cultural and spiritual unity,’” and many Jews were allowed to return to the Holy Land (Peters, p.85, quoting historian Martin Gilbert). This was in contrast to the treatment of descendants of Jewish refugees in the Muslim-dominated Arab nations. There they suffered many persecutions including mandatory clothing identifying them as hated Jews, segregation into ghettoes, high tribute payments, forced labor, forced conversions, desecration of their synagogues, blood libel charges (accusations of drinking their slain enemies’ blood), and periodic beatings, extortions, rapes, pillages and massacres. In the midst of this suffering in the diaspora, the Jews never lost hope of returning to the Promised Land, often encouraging each other by saying, “Next year in Jerusalem.”
The idea of establishing a Jewish homeland in the Promised Land began to gain momentum in the nineteenth century. Napoleon “launched his campaign to conquer Palestine in 1799 with a pledge to ‘restore the country to the Jews’” (Peters, p.91). While he was unsuccessful, others later advocated this cause including Lord Shaftesbury, Benjamin Disraeli, and novelist George Eliot. Increasing numbers of prominent Jews in both Arab and European nations espoused a return to the Holy Land following the blood libel charges in that provoked widespread massacre and pillage of Jews in Damascus in 1840.
As a result, many Jews began to come home. “Not only were the Sephardic Jews [refugees from Arab nations] ‘numerous’ in the Holy Land, but their language, Hebrew, was popularly used ‘in the ordinary affairs of life’ long before the ‘new Jewish immigration of the early eighteen-eighties’” known as the Zionist movement (Peters, p. 90). They were welcomed by Jews whose ancestors had lived in the Holy Land generation after generation for more than two thousand years. In contrast, the ancestors of most Arabs now in Israel began arriving from other parts of the Ottoman Empire in the late 1800s, finding jobs offered by growing Jewish businesses and developmental activities.
Before the Palestinian Arabs developed a distinct national identity, they mostly identified with their own different migratory tribes, or with whatever foreign power was ruling them at the time. According to the Wikipedia article on the “Palestinian people”: ” The history of a distinct Palestinian national identity is a disputed issue amongst scholars with some arguing that it can be traced as far back as the 1834 Arab revolt in Palestine [against Egyptian forced conscription to fight Ottoman rulers, which lasted three months] while other argue that it didn’t emerge until after the Mandate Palestine period [1917-1948]. According to legal historian Assaf Likhovski, the prevailing view is that Palestinian identity originated in the early decades of the twentieth century.” Most Palestinian Arabs came to the Promised Land from the surrounding Arab lands. As Reuven Doron says in One New Man, “There was never a Palestinian government, language, anthem or any defined national traditions.”
When WWI ended the Ottoman Empire in 1917, the British issued the Balfour Declaration: “His Majesty’s government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.” This declaration was approved by the League of Nations. However, many Muslim Arabs objected to this arrangement, to a large degree due to Muslim intolerance for Jews. Arabs rebelled in 1936-1939, and open war resulted as Arabs and Jews fought for control of Jerusalem.
At the end of WWII, the world was shocked by the revelation that six million Jews were executed in 1939-1945 under Adolph Hitler. Worldwide sentiment grew for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the Promised Land. In November 1947, the UN voted 33 to 13 to partition the Promised Land west of the Jordan River: one part for Jews, one for Arabs. The Jews proclaimed their part as the independent state of Israel on May 14, 1948 when British forces withdrew. The next day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt attacked Israel. Though Israel won this struggle for independence, Jordanian soldiers did not return to Jordan but remained in the West Bank with the Palestinian Arab refugees.
These refugees were Arabs who had left the state of Israel during its war for independence, though many Jewish leaders pled with them to stay. They settled in refugee camps set up by Jordanians and the UN. Arab leaders prevented them from migrating to the surrounding Arab nations, saying that Israel was the historic homeland of the Palestinian Arabs, not of the Jews. But the UN defined “Palestinian refugee” as a person who had been in “Palestine” for only two years or more. (“Palestine” was the Roman Empire’s name for the Promised Land).
Since the 1967 Six Days War, those same Arab nations have been preventing Palestinian Arabs from migrating back to Arab lands, preferring to keep them in refugee camps on the West Bank so they can be used in political and military attacks, including suicide bombings, against the Jews in Israel.
In 1967 the PLO used Palestinian Arab refugees to mount a guerilla campaign against Israel from the Jordanian-occupied West Bank. At the same time Egypt massed troops on its own border with Israel, expelled UN peacekeeping forces from Gaza and Sinai, closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, and signed a defense pact with Jordan. At Jordan’s invitation, Iraq deployed troops in Jordan. Surrounded by such hostile activity, Israel launched the air strikes that began the Six-Day War. Israel quickly took control of Gaza, Sinai and the West Bank—as well as East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, two areas from which it was also easy to launch attacks against Israel.
What was Israel to do with the Arabs who were living in those areas taken in the 1967 war—including the Palestinian Arab refugees—areas that had proved so essential to israel’s defense?. A compassionate solution to the refugee crisis would be to find them homes in Arab nations. But many Arab leaders prefer to use them in political and as well as armed attacks—including suicide bombings—against Israel.
(See more recent history in Moral Grounds above).
Patriotic Grounds
We must be mindful that there are those in the world, including Guatemalans, who would like more reason to take territory from Belize. Approving of taking away Israel’s land—without negotiating with or even consulting Israel—would set a precedent for our enemies to do the same to us. Israel may have its shortcomings, but so do we. Our border is also very vulnerable. Let us instead do to others as we would have others do to us, by respecting other nations’ borders and condemning genocidal attacks.
New Post has been published on Belize Prayer Network
New Post has been published on http://belizeprayernetwork.com/2013/02/affirming-israels-borders-from-scripture-history/
Affirming Israel's borders: Scripture & history
TEACHING: We would like to present a case for defending Israel against further attacks by her enemies—who vow to destroy her—by affirming her current borders and denying legitimacy to those attacks. We feel this to be in the best interests for Belize, since we need to maintain international respect for our own borders. We cite important moral, biblical, historical and patriotic grounds for this position.
Moral Grounds
Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East except for the fledgling democracy in Iraq, has long been surrounded by hostile nations with vast majorities of Muslims. A central tenet of Islam, often repeated in the Quran, is the destruction of the Jews. This is a cause openly espoused by Hezbollah and Hamas and their parent organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, which is now becoming dominant in Egypt. In 2005, under pressure from the UN, Israel gave the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians in the hope of making peace with them. Instead of reciprocating with peace, Hamas continued to support suicide bombings in Israel in order to kill the maximum number of Jews. Hamas has continually fired rockets on Israel from the Gaza Strip that Israel gave to them. Fatah, the other major Palestinian political party which is supposed to be in charge of the Palestinian Authority, has failed to restrain Hamas. Hamas’ sister organization Hezbollah has built and armed more than 500 armed bunkers just to the north of Israel, many near Lebanese population centers that they are using as human shields. Both Hamas and Hezbollah now have specially guided rockets capable of hitting targets in central Israel. That means that all of Israel is within range of enemy rockets.
Instead of objecting to this belligerent behavior, the UN plans a vote on a resolution and to grant statehood to the Palestinian Arabs—further legitimizing their campaign to destroy Israel—and to reduce Israel to its pre-1967 borders, which are indefensible against such a campaign. For the sake of peace, democracy, freedom and self-determination, this resolution must not pass.
Self-determination for the Palestinian Arabs is not the issue. They are self-governed in the areas where they live in the West Bank and Gaza. But the Palestinian Authority has held only one election in the West Bank and Gaza with any real opposition party—the 2006 election which was won by Hamas. Since then Palestinians have suffered several changes in government due to the often violent struggle between Hamas and Fatah. And yet the Palestinian Authority has received more than 6 billion dollars in foreign aid since 2001. Here are some details from Wikipedia’s article on “Palestinian Authority”:
“the Palestinian Authority (PA) has received unprecedented financial support from the international community. According to the World Bank, USD 929 million were given by the international community to the PA in 2001, $891 million in 2003 and $1.1 billion in 2005 (representing 53% of the budget in 2005). The main objectives are support to the budget, development aid and public health…” However, “‘The PA’s fiscal situation has become increasingly unsustainable mainly as a result of uncontrolled government consumption, in particular a rapidly increasing public sector wage bill, expanding social transfer schemes and rising net lending,’ said the World Bank report. Government corruption is widely seen as the cause of much of the PA financial difficulties.”
Furthermore, “ The majority of aid to the Palestinian Authority comes from the United States and European Union. According to figures released by the PA, only 22 percent of the $530,000,000 received since the beginning of 2010 came from Arab donors. The remaining came from Western donors and organizations. The total amount of foreign aid received directly by the PA was $1.4 billion in 2009 and $1.8 billion in 2008.”[85]
Why is the Palestinian Authority not using more of this money to improve conditions in the West Bank, and especially in the refugee camps, where there is lack of water, housing, and healthcare? Why are oil-rich Arab nations not contributing more, and allowing more refugees to migrate and become citizens of their countries? The total land mass of Arab nations is 562 times the land mass of tiny Israel. Why take away more land from Israel?
The answer is clear. The issue, again, is not self-determination for the Palestinian Arabs—they already have that, and it is well-financed. The issue is the determination of Palestinian Arab leaders to destroy Israel and the Jewish people—which Hamas, Fatah, and the whole Muslim Brotherhood throughout the world openly advocate. In response, the world should refuse to give the Palestinians statehood until they stop their armed attacks against Israel, recognize Israel, respect her borders, negotiate peace with her, and prove they can keep that peace. Anything less would be grave injustice and serve to rationalize suicide bombings, genocidal campaigns, and border wars throughout the world
Biblical Grounds
In its opening statement, our Constitution affirms “that the Nation of Belize shall be founded upon principles which acknowledge the supremacy of God.” The God of the Bible says of Abraham and his descendants, “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). If Belize blesses Israel, we will be blessed. If we curse them, we will be cursed. History has borne out this verdict on nations who have opposed the Jewish people.
God gave Abraham and his descendants “all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession” (Gen. 17:8; see Ps. 105:8-11). Canaan was all the land west of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea, later known as Judah and Israel. Jesus and Stephen affirmed that the Promised Land belonged to the Jews even when they were under Roman rule (Acts 1:6-7; 7:5). The failure of the Jewish Bar-Kochba revolt against the Romans in 136 AD sent many Jews into exile. But the Bible always predicted a second regathering of the Jews, just as there was a first regathering after their sixth century BC exile to Babylon. “Then it will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover the second time with His hand the remnant of His people…and will assemble the banished ones of Israel, and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth” (Isa. 11:11-12). That second regathering began when Israel gained independence in 1948 after 18 centuries of foreign domination (see Historical Grounds below).
According to many passages in the Bible, Israel also has a crucial role in the last days. After the fullness of the Gentiles have been reached with the gospel, Israel will turn to her God like never before (Rom. 11:25-27). And then judgment will come. “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. Then I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of My people Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; and they have divided up My land” (Joel 3:1-2). It is God’s land and God’s people. Other nations who oppose His chosen people and divide His land do so at their peril.
In the end the peoples of the whole earth will come to Jerusalem for God’s counsel and judgments: “And many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us concerning His ways, and that we may walk in His paths.’ For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He will judge between the nations, and will render decisions for many peoples; and they will hammer their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war” (Isa. 2:3-4). The last four clauses of that Scripture are engraved on a wall across the street from the UN headquarters building. The UN would do well to heed those words.
Historical Grounds (principal reference for sources: Wikipedia, except where otherwise noted)
Jewish people have lived in the Promised Land almost continually since they entered under Joshua after gaining freedom from slavery in Egypt more than 3200 years ago. The only exception was the 605-536 BC Babylonian exile (during which remnants remained in Israel in 605-586). The continual occupation of the Promised Land by Jews is thoroughly documented in the book From Time Immemorial by acclaimed journalist Joan Peters. After the failed Bar-Kochba revolt in Jerusalem in AD 136, many of the three million Jewish inhabitants fled to European, Arab and North African lands. But Jewish communities in the Promised Land continued during the Roman Empire and the Byzantine period through the sixth century, when more than forty Jewish communities survived on the coast, in the Negev, in Galilee, in the Jordan Valley, and east of the Jordan. They made their capital at Gaza. They helped the Persians defeat the Byzantine garrison at Jerusalem in AD 614.
Jews were living peacefully with Arabs in Arabia when the self-proclaimed prophet Muhammad began his war campaign with the statement: “Two religions may not dwell together on the Arabian peninsula.” Muhammad drove the Jews out of Medina and slaughtered Jews in many other communities, including the large and thriving Jewish settlement at Khaibar. Jewish refugees fled and returned to the Promised Land, settling in places including the Transjordan and the West Bank, which Arabs now claim as “purely Arab Palestinian areas since time immemorial.” The Muslims conquered the Promised Land in AD 636 but left only enough forces there to collect tribute from the Jews (Peters, pp. 144-149).
In AD 1099 the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem, slaughtering both Jews and Muslims, and ruled parts of Palestine until 1291. “Although the Crusaders had almost ‘wiped out’ the Jewish communities of Jerusalem, Acre, Caesarea and Haifa, some Jews remained, and whole ‘village communities of Galilee survived’” (Peters, p.84, quoting an authority on the Middle East, James Parkes). During the AD 1260-1517 Egyptian Mamluk domination of the Promised Land, 14th century monk Jacques of Verona “noted the long established Jewish community at the foot of Mount Zion, in Jerusalem,” and wrote “The Jews were able to recount the history of these places [in the Holy Land] since this knowledge had been handed down from their forefathers and wise men” (Peters, p.85).
During the AD 1517-1917 Ottoman period, “the Jews in Jerusalem and Gaza maintained ‘cultural and spiritual unity,’” and many Jews were allowed to return to the Holy Land (Peters, p.85, quoting historian Martin Gilbert). This was in contrast to the treatment of descendants of Jewish refugees in the Muslim-dominated Arab nations. There they suffered many persecutions including mandatory clothing identifying them as hated Jews, segregation into ghettoes, high tribute payments, forced labor, forced conversions, desecration of their synagogues, blood libel charges (accusations of drinking their slain enemies’ blood), and periodic beatings, extortions, rapes, pillages and massacres. In the midst of this suffering in the diaspora, the Jews never lost hope of returning to the Promised Land, often encouraging each other by saying, “Next year in Jerusalem.”
The idea of establishing a Jewish homeland in the Promised Land began to gain momentum in the nineteenth century. Napoleon “launched his campaign to conquer Palestine in 1799 with a pledge to ‘restore the country to the Jews’” (Peters, p.91). While he was unsuccessful, others later advocated this cause including Lord Shaftesbury, Benjamin Disraeli, and novelist George Eliot. Increasing numbers of prominent Jews in both Arab and European nations espoused a return to the Holy Land following the blood libel charges in that provoked widespread massacre and pillage of Jews in Damascus in 1840.
As a result, many Jews began to come home. “Not only were the Sephardic Jews [refugees from Arab nations] ‘numerous’ in the Holy Land, but their language, Hebrew, was popularly used ‘in the ordinary affairs of life’ long before the ‘new Jewish immigration of the early eighteen-eighties’” known as the Zionist movement (Peters, p. 90). They were welcomed by Jews whose ancestors had lived in the Holy Land generation after generation for more than two thousand years. In contrast, the ancestors of most Arabs now in Israel began arriving from other parts of the Ottoman Empire in the late 1800s, finding jobs offered by growing Jewish businesses and developmental activities.
Before the Palestinian Arabs developed a distinct national identity, they mostly identified with their own different migratory tribes, or with whatever foreign power was ruling them at the time. According to the Wikipedia article on the “Palestinian people”: ” The history of a distinct Palestinian national identity is a disputed issue amongst scholars with some arguing that it can be traced as far back as the 1834 Arab revolt in Palestine [against Egyptian forced conscription to fight Ottoman rulers, which lasted three months] while other argue that it didn’t emerge until after the Mandate Palestine period [1917-1948]. According to legal historian Assaf Likhovski, the prevailing view is that Palestinian identity originated in the early decades of the twentieth century.” Most Palestinian Arabs came to the Promised Land from the surrounding Arab lands. As Reuven Doron says in One New Man, “There was never a Palestinian government, language, anthem or any defined national traditions.”
When WWI ended the Ottoman Empire in 1917, the British issued the Balfour Declaration: “His Majesty’s government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.” This declaration was approved by the League of Nations. However, many Muslim Arabs objected to this arrangement, to a large degree due to Muslim intolerance for Jews. Arabs rebelled in 1936-1939, and open war resulted as Arabs and Jews fought for control of Jerusalem.
At the end of WWII, the world was shocked by the revelation that six million Jews were executed in 1939-1945 under Adolph Hitler. Worldwide sentiment grew for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the Promised Land. In November 1947, the UN voted 33 to 13 to partition the Promised Land west of the Jordan River: one part for Jews, one for Arabs. The Jews proclaimed their part as the independent state of Israel on May 14, 1948 when British forces withdrew. The next day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt attacked Israel. Though Israel won this struggle for independence, Jordanian soldiers did not return to Jordan but remained in the West Bank with the Palestinian Arab refugees.
These refugees were Arabs who had left the state of Israel during its war for independence, though many Jewish leaders pled with them to stay. They settled in refugee camps set up by Jordanians and the UN. Arab leaders prevented them from migrating to the surrounding Arab nations, saying that Israel was the historic homeland of the Palestinian Arabs, not of the Jews. But the UN defined “Palestinian refugee” as a person who had been in “Palestine” for only two years or more. (“Palestine” was the Roman Empire’s name for the Promised Land).
Since the 1967 Six Days War, those same Arab nations have been preventing Palestinian Arabs from migrating back to Arab lands, preferring to keep them in refugee camps on the West Bank so they can be used in political and military attacks, including suicide bombings, against the Jews in Israel.
In 1967 the PLO used Palestinian Arab refugees to mount a guerilla campaign against Israel from the Jordanian-occupied West Bank. At the same time Egypt massed troops on its own border with Israel, expelled UN peacekeeping forces from Gaza and Sinai, closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, and signed a defense pact with Jordan. At Jordan’s invitation, Iraq deployed troops in Jordan. Surrounded by such hostile activity, Israel launched the air strikes that began the Six-Day War. Israel quickly took control of Gaza, Sinai and the West Bank—as well as East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, two areas from which it was also easy to launch attacks against Israel.
What was Israel to do with the Arabs who were living in those areas taken in the 1967 war—including the Palestinian Arab refugees—areas that had proved so essential to israel’s defense?. A compassionate solution to the refugee crisis would be to find them homes in Arab nations. But many Arab leaders prefer to use them in political and as well as armed attacks—including suicide bombings—against Israel.
(See more recent history in Moral Grounds above).
Patriotic Grounds
We must be mindful that there are those in the world, including Guatemalans, who would like more reason to take territory from Belize. Approving of taking away Israel’s land—without negotiating with or even consulting Israel—would set a precedent for our enemies to do the same to us. Israel may have its shortcomings, but so do we. Our border is also very vulnerable. Let us instead do to others as we would have others do to us, by respecting other nations’ borders and condemning genocidal attacks.