Magic Statistics

A letter to the global church regarding the three martyrs of Malatya, Turkey, has been posted at the site of the Protestant Church of Smyrna.  It tells the story of what happened to the three, subsequent public reactions, and the funerals.  Here are two excerpts.

In an official televised response from Ankara, the Interior Minister of Turkey smirked as he spoke of the attacks on our brothers in Malatya.  Amid public outrage and protests against the event and in favor of freedom of religion and freedom of thought, media and official comments ring with the same message, “We hope you have learned your lesson. We do not want Christians here.”   
 
It appears that this was an organized attack initiated by an unknown adult tarikat leader.  As in the Hrant Dink murder in January 2007, and a Catholic priest Andrea Santoro in February 2006, minors are being used to commit religious murders because public sympathy for youth is strong and they face lower penalties than an adult convicted of the same crime.  Even the parents of these children are in favor of the acts.  The mother of the 16 year old boy who killed the Catholic priest Andrea Santoro looked at the cameras as her son was going to prison and said, “he will serve time for Allah.”

The ten believers remaining in Malatya have all gone into hiding.

When our Pastor Fikret Bocek went with a brother to give a statement to the Security Directorate on Monday they were ushered into the Anti-Terror Department.  On the wall was a huge chart covering the whole wall listing all the terrorist cells in Izmir, categorized.  In one prominent column were listed all the evangelical churches in Izmir.  The darkness does not understand the light.  “These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also.”  (Acts 17:6)
 
Please pray for the Church in Turkey.  “Don’t pray against persecution, pray for perseverance,” urges Pastor Fikret Bocek.

This is a very powerful and moving testimony to Christian faith in the lion’s den.  Read the whole thing (pdf).

h/t: American Anglican Council BlogSite

Previous related posts:

• Christians tortured before being murdered
• Is Turkey really a secular state?
• Turks mourn Hrant Dink: “We are all Armenians"

So says the Globe and Mail:

UN group falling down on job, watchdogs say

United Nations — The UN Human Rights Council has failed to criticize egregious human-rights violations since it replaced a discredited UN rights body last year, two watchdog groups said yesterday.

The two groups, UN Watch and Freedom House, released reports charging that rights violators such as Cuba, Saudi Arabia and China have shielded themselves, and countries such as Sudan and Zimbabwe, from criticism as members of the new group.

“Falling down on job”?  Come on, G&M, tell it like it is: The Human Rights Council is morally bankrupt.  When it comes to monitoring and reporting human right violations, it has no credibility whatever.  Calling the HRC a lapdog would be an insult to lapdogs.

The worst of it is: This terrible fiasco was foreseen and predicted before the council’s first meeting.

Previous related posts:

• UN Human Rights Council decides to ignore Iran and Uzbekistan
• UN Human Rights Council blocked from considering Darfur
• UN Human Rights Council votes against identifying rights-abusing nations
• New UN human rights body “more contemptible than its predecessor”

The Rev Joseph Walker of St Timothy’s, Edmonton, continues his pilgrimage through the Holy Land.  Today he reports on his visit to Bethlehem.

I spent part of this morning visiting the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, and hanging out with some of the local Christian Palestinian Bethlehemites.  One refrain which I've heard over and over here is that at some point there will be no Christians left in the Holy Land.  For starters, some of the Christians in Bethlehem have found themselves at the wrong end of various "court proceedings" which have attempted to swindle them out of their land.  I'm sure you can google it in BBC. [More here.]

The Christians who have called the Holy Land home for generations have found themselves as a minority within a minority.  Many are emigrating to the West.  One shopkeeper told me that the Christian population of Bethlehem is now in peril, having sunk below 20 % for the first time in memory.

Joe observed a team from the World Council of Churches supposedly spying on monitoring Israeli security.  At least, that’s their cover story.  Their real mission, apparently, is to conduct an in-depth study of the fare at a local bar and grill.

Previous related posts:

• Egypt forbids unapproved Christian religious meetings
• Properties of Bethlehem Christians sold without their knowledge
• Christians being driven from the Holy Land

A letter-writer to the Episcopal Church claims that tithing is a regressive tax.  I think not.

I would like to suggest some remedial arithmetic for leaders of the Episcopal Church. They are profoundly committed to helping people in need, yet constantly urge all Episcopalians to tithe. These ideas contradict each other.

The tithe is a regressive tax on the poor. To understand this, let's suppose a minimum sufficient standard of living for two people in America today requires a $25,000 income. If couple A earns $30,000 and tithes $3,000, they will have only $2,000 a year left over for savings, emergencies, a few small pleasures and gifts to others. But couple B, earning $50,000 and tithing $5,000, would have $20,000 left, and couple C, earning $100,000 and tithing, would have $65,000 to play with.

We are thus asking family A to give 60 percent of its disposable income, family B 20 percent and family C only 13.33 percent, reversing Jesus' principle requiring the most from those "to whom much is given." Clearly, the one-size-fits-all tithe does not represent Christian compassion or common sense.

In fact, of course, tithing is neither regressive nor a tax.

A regressive tax is one in which the tax rate as a percentage of income falls as income level increases.  Classic examples of regressive taxes are excise taxes, such as those levied on gasoline and liquor.  The tax is a fixed amount (e.g., the excise tax on gasoline in Yukon is 6.2 cents per litre); so, the lower a gasoline buyer’s income, the higher the excise tax as a proportion of income.

The tithe is a fixed percentage of income—10%—irrespective of income level, so it is not regressive but rather proportional.  Also known as a “flat tax”, a proportional tax is one in which the tax rate, as a percentage of income, remains constant over all income levels.

Neither is the tithe a tax, as can be seen by reading this verse from the Old Testament prophet Malachi:

Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

The tithe is an opportunity to be blessed by the Lord, who will fulfill all needs.  Anyone who views taxes as an opportunity for the government to satisfy every need will soon suffer bitter disappointment.  Moreover, the tithe is given freely.  Anyone who thinks taxes are a free-will offering and acts accordingly will quickly find the beast on his back, and in his pocket.

Our letter-writer seems to think the church made up this whole tithing business.

Church leaders should go back to the drawing board and develop a more reasonable standard of giving based on a graduated scale that asks for more from those who have more and less from those who can ill afford it.

Jesus must have been out of his mind to praise the widow who contributed all she had.

h/t: Midwest Conservative Journal

Green Party leader Elizabeth May caused a flap when she compared leaders who do not accept man-made climate change with Nazi appeaser Neville Chamberlain.  In all the uproar, the rest of her sermon has been overlooked.  To Halifax Daily News columnist Brian Flemming, her brand of environmentalism sounds like a new religion.

More troubling was May's assertion that climate change is a "moral" issue that transcends mere politics, and requires everyone in the world to change their (evil) ways. She said: "Through the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, we can meet this moral obligation."

Fearing for the planet's future by studying climate-change data that appear to be getting scarier every year is not irrational. Nor is it bad politics or morality to try and encourage political leaders to pay attention to what climatologists are saying.

No, what should make everyone wary is the potent mix of politics and prophecy that many environmentalists - like May - conflate in an attempt to establish a new environmental religion that will punish us for our sins of emission and make us buy carbon-credit "indulgences" to absolve those sins.

In place of the Bible or the Qur'an, the new eco-religion views Gaia as goddess and the Kyoto Protocol and the IPCC report as sacred texts.  David Suzuki plays the part of John the Baptist.  Now there's a scary thought.

And what role does Al Gore play?

h/t: e-mail from the See of Pisiquid.

Previous related posts:

• Green Party will be painfully honest yet inclusive
• The Gospel according to Saint Al
• “Forgive me, Al Gore, for I have sinned”
• Will Gaia have her revenge?

Rome’s chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni, spoke out against a proposal to legalise civil unions for homosexuals, whereupon a homosexual activist accused him of “racism”.

The ANSA news agency quotes Di Segni: “Society is about to make a decision which, according to our traditions, abundantly exceeds permitted limits and it is our duty to oppose these decisions and not remain indifferent.”

Franco Grillini, a homosexual MP accused Rabbi Di Segni of “unacceptable anti-homosexual racism.” Grillini is honorary chairman of top Italian gay rights' association Arcigay that is campaigning for the bill.

Homosexuals are a race?  You learn something new every day.

The phrase “unacceptable anti-homosexual racism” is also puzzling.  Does Mr Grillini believe that some “anti-homosexual racism” is acceptable?

A few days ago, a Roman Catholic archbishop was threatened with death after denouncing the civil union proposal.  If today’s remarks by Mr Grillini accurately indicate the logical and rhetorical skills of Italy’s gay lobby, one can see why they feel the need to resort to intimidation.