The Scriptorium

I find it sad that so many areas in the Middle East that were historically peopled with Christians now find their Christian populations dwindling as people run from Islamic oppression and the poverty caused by corrupt governments. Bethlehem is one of those areas. Churches in the West need to take a lesson from stories like this as does our government.

The U.S. gives billions in aid to the P.A., and the people it’s intended to help never see a dime of it. Instead, Hamas hands out money to those Muslims suffering under a corrupt government, and by doing so recruit new members and take over large areas of Palestine. Since the Christians remain poor and their local governments are taken over by radical Muslims, they’re eventually forced to leave.

If our government won’t send aid directly to these people, perhaps our churches should. We can counter our government’s ignorant policy of funding terrorists in the Middle East by funding our brothers and sisters in Christ. The answer is certainly not to let Islam wipe out any and all Christianity in the Middle East, and especially in places like Bethlehem – the place where our Lord was born and a home for Christians in the Middle East for centuries.

Christians in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, are concerned that their city may slowly become an Islamic stronghold following recent municipal elections in which radical Islamic groups took a number of seats.

For the first time ever, Bethlehem’s municipal council now includes members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, both on the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations. With seven seats between them, Muslims have a near majority in the 15-seat council.

Christian candidates from Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party and the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine share the remaining eight seats that are allotted to the Christians.

Christians are upset because the newly elected members will want to give a more Muslim religious tone to the municipality, said one Christian Arab with ties to Bethlehem.

People voted for Hamas because it is “being perceived as more pure, more clean,” said the Christian from Jerusalem, who asked not to be named. “[People] are angry over the corruption [in the P.A.].”

Bethlehem, a once-thriving, predominantly Christian town with a booming tourist trade and easy access to jobs in neighboring Jerusalem, now has high unemployment, cut off as it is by more than four years of violent uprising and now by Israel’s security barrier.

During what should have been the busiest time of the day, there were few people on the streets. Even though the sun was shining, many shops were shuttered.

Such circumstances provide fertile ground for Hamas, which draws the needy into the fold by providing social, educational and other services.

One Christian leader in Bethlehem said he was “very concerned” about the radical Islamic win in the municipal council.

“It will affect [the community] in the future,” said the man, who asked not to be named. “Slowly, slowly they will take over [and] have Palestine as an Islamic state.”

Hamas is working very aggressively on gaining control, he said. “That’s dangerous.”

Thirty years ago no one in the city had ever heard of Hamas; now more than 30 percent of the city is Hamas and it’s growing every year. They have the money. They help people open shops and build apartments, he said.

“They have the means to draw people close to them,” he said, and once the people begin to attach themselves to Hamas, then they fall under its influence.

“The Christians are sleeping. I blame the West for that. They are encouraging these groups in an indirect way,” he said. . . . . .

Talk to your churches and pastors about this. It is our responsibility as Christians to help those in need, especially within the body of Christ.

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CNS News

Very interesting article. There are quite a few facts in here that you’ll never hear from the media. For example, have you ever heard from the media or people who support embryonic stem cell research that embryonic stem cells have been shown to be highly unstable and difficult to control, and they tend to form tumors? I’d also never heard that adult stem cells – obtained, without ethical objections, from sources such as cord blood – already have provided treatments for patients suffering from more than 50 diseases. Yet, embryonic stem cells are always held up as the answer to cancer and other diseases. Lies, deception, and exaggerations are too often used by the left to entice new followers into their death cult.

The nation’s largest faith-based group of physicians condemned human cloning experiments by Hwang Woo-suk of South Korea and Ian Wilmut of Britain’s Edinburgh Medical School, saying they should be halted for ethical and medical reasons.

“In just a few short years since the cloning of Dolly the sheep, we have witnessed a breathtaking jump to cloning and destroying human beings,” said Dr. David Stevens, executive director of the Christian Medical Association. “These researchers don’t seem to recognize the difference between human beings and barnyard animals.”

Hwang reportedly cloned and destroyed the world’s first human embryos for stem cells last year, and Wilmut cloned ‘Dolly’ the sheep in 1998. Thursday they announced a partnership in cloning experiments. . . . . . .

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WND

I can understand the Jews anger here. The Temple Mount is the Jews holiest site. It only became Islam’s THIRD holiest site, centuries after Islam’s beginning, in order to claim Jewish lands. To honor Islam at the Jews holiest site is bound to be insulting to religious Jews. It also lends legitimacy to the Palestinian’s rewritten version of history and their plans to take control of the Temple Mount and Jerusalem.

A group that led a Jewish protest at the Temple Mount last month in hopes of reclaiming the site from its Islamic custodians has expressed disappointment that U.S. First Lady Laura Bush, who arrives here tomorrow, plans to visit the Mount to honor Muslim tradition.

Bush, touring Jordan today, arrives in Israel tomorrow as part of a wider Middle East tour aimed at advancing regional peace and encouraging Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in accordance with the U.S.-backed road map.

According to Israeli media reports, the First Lady will visit the Temple Mount, among other religious sites.

U.S. officials said Bush had requested activities to honor Israel’s three religions during her Israel visit. She will tour the Western Wall to pay respects to Judaism, visit a church in Jericho to honor Christianity, and ascend the Temple Mount to express good will toward Islam, said an official.

But David Ha’ivri, director of Revava, a Jewish Temple Mount activist group, said he is concerned Bush’s visit will be perceived as official American recognition of Islamic control of the Mount.

“It’s a major misconception,” Ha’ivri told WND. “Many think the Temple Mount is the holy place of Muslims and the Kotel (Western Wall) is the holy place for Jews. No, the Kotel is only holy because it’s part of a retaining wall for the Temple Mount, which itself is the holiest place for Jews. It was the location of our first and second Temples, and will be the site of our third.” . . . . . .

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WND