Jewish Teen’s prayers cause Terrorism hysteria on airplane

Originally here: http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2010/01/jewish-teens-prayers-cause-terrorism-hysteria-on-airplane-10915

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Jewish Teen’s prayers cause Terrorism hysteria on airplane Posted: 28 Jan 2010 07:28 AM PST A Jewish teenager, attempting to say his morning prayers, caused a terrorism alert on a US Airways airplane Thursday. The plane had left New York and was going to Kentucky. Instead, it was redirected to Philadelphia, grounded, and surrounded by local and federal authorities, including dogs sniffing for bombs. The boy had taken out his tefillin, as is stated in the Jewish Torah that every male thirteen and over is supposed to do daily as part of his prayer time. Tefillin are two leather straps attached to small boxes which contain tiny scrolls of biblical passages. The tefillin wrap around the arm and head and serve as a reminder of being spiritually bound to God’s laws. The Jewish Torah is similar to the Christian Old Testament. In both, Deuteronomy 6:4-9 says: Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. (NIV) Today, only very religious Jewish men, most of the Orthodox and Hassidic sectors of Judaism, observe the tefillin prayer ritual faithfully. This is one reason it may be less recognizable in public. Hysteria Demonstrates Americans’ Attentiveness to Terrorism Threats; but also Lack of Knowledge toward Faith-Based Traditions That the boy and his sister were questioned by authorities is not being cited as an incident of anti-Semitism. According to a report by Associated Press, the concensus from most people interviewed was that we can’t be too careful about what is going to get pulled out of a box or suitcase on airplanes anymore. People can use innocent looking things to avoid suspicion. However, one rabbi who spoke to the FBI stated it’s also a show of modern-day unawareness toward biblically based activities and commandments. With today’s interpretation of “separation of church and state” leading people to believe that prayer isn’t allowed in public, Americans aren’t as accustomed to seeing prayer rituals carried out. Nor are so many reading their Torahs and Bibles to learn about it. Rabbi Benjamin Belch of New York’s Yeshiva University told AP that people should be aware of ignorance just as much as we should be aware of terrorism. The teenager was never under arrest. It will be hard to determine how to remain terror-alert while being culturally sensitive.

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Jesus Returns to the Silver Screen with “Resurrection of the Christ,” Easter 2011

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Posted: 29 Jan 2010 01:12 PM PST "Resurrection of the Christ" will focus on the hours just before and after Jesus' return from the grave. Indie film producer and director Billy McKay, alongside director Jonas McCord (“The Body,” 2001, starring Antonio Banderas), is set to take the reins of “Resurrection of the Christ,” according to weekly entertainment magazine “Variety.” Armed with a $20 million budget, the religious drama is scheduled for a ten week shoot on location in Morocco, Israel and throughout much of Europe, beginning in July. The film is being hailed as the sequel to Director/Producer Mel Gibson’s 2004 blockbuster “The Passion of the Christ,” which has raked in an astonishing $611 million worldwide since its release, according to Box Office Mojo. “Resurrection,” however, has no official ties to “The Passion” and will not share any of the same actors or parent production companies. Screenwriter Dan Gordon will be penning the film’s screenplay and script, which will focus on the “power, greed and ambition of those involved in the crucifixion—Pontius Pilate, Herod, Caiaphas and Judas,” according to “Variety” and reports from “The Christian Post.” McKay, who was one of the three producers behind “Billy: The Early Years” (2008), told “Variety” Magazine, “It’s as much about the key players as it is about Jesus. We want to bring in the ‘Gladiator’ dimension of the first century against the political milieu of the time.” There has been no official cast list released. “Resurrection of the Christ” will be distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films of “Amazing Grace” (2006) and “Fireproof” (2008) fame and is slated to release Easter weekend 2011.

Originally here: http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2010/01/jesus-returns-to-the-silver-screen-with-resurrection-of-the-christ-easter-2011-10920

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Baptist Americans Arrested for “Answering God’s Call” in Haiti

Originally here: http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2010/02/baptist-americans-arrested-for-answering-gods-call-in-haiti-10931

A group of ten Americans, most of who hail from Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho, have been arrested and detained in quake-ravaged Haiti after illegally transporting 33 Haitian children into the Dominican Republic, according to CNN, FOX and several other national news outlets. The group was recently released from their cells for brief interviews with reporters. Group leader Laura Silsby, 40, told CNN, “We believe we’ve been charged very falsely with trafficking […]. We literally all gave up everything we had and used our own funds to come here and help these children.” “God is the one who called us to come here,” said group member Carla Thompson, “and we just really believed this was his purpose.” The group was arrested by Haitian officials last Saturday after it was discovered that they did not have the proper documentation to transport the alleged orphans out of the country. The children ranged in age from two months to 12 years. Subsequent investigations revealed that at least ten of the children have at least one surviving parent. Silsby told the Associated Press that their group received the children from Haitian Pastor Jean Sanbil of Sharing Jesus Ministries. Prior to the group’s arrest, Sharing Jesus reported that they planned to drive a bus from Santa-Domingo, Haiti into Port-au-Prince and “gather 100 orphans from the streets and collapsed orphanages, then return to the Dominican Republic,” according to Christian Today News. The children would then be placed in a 45-room hotel located in Cabarete while it underwent a conversion into an orphanage. Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told the Associated Press on Sunday that he was angered and outraged by the group’s “illegal trafficking of children” in a country that has long been pestered by meddlesome foreigners. According to FOX News, Central Valley Baptist’s Revered Clint Henry has denied the allegations of child trafficking brought against his members and even told his worried congregation to pray that God would “help them as they seek to resist the accusations of Satan and the lies that he would want them to believe and the fears that he would want to plant into their heart.” “The intention was simply to go down and try to be an aid in ministering to children that had been orphaned in the quake,” said Henry. “It was our intention to be part of a new orphanage. The decision was made that we could house those children in the temporary sites.” Prime Minister Bellerive, however, disagrees and told CNN, “From what I know until now, this is a kidnapping case. Who is doing it, I don’t know. What are the real objectives or activities, I don’t know. But that is kidnapping, and it is more serious because it’s involving children.” Bellerive also added, “The children certainly were not fully willing to go, because in some cases, from what I heard, they were asking for their parents, they wanted to return to their parents.” Even Haitian Social Affairs Minister Yves Christallin was quoted by the Times as terming the group’s action “an abduction, not an adoption.” The Baptist group of five men and five women received a visit from U.S. Embassy officials over the weekend, who reported that the Americans were receiving fair treatment and were holding tight to their faith. U.S. officials did note, however, that the Americans had been detained for “alleged violations of Haitian laws related to immigration.” The group was informed that government approval is required before any Haitian child can leave the country and/or be transported to another location outside Haitian borders. Members of the Baptist group also confessed that none of the 33 children had passports or identification paperwork of any kind. Currently, the Haitian government has halted all adoptions for fear that children may be more vulnerable to being seized and sold.

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Remembering the Holocaust, Part 2

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Remembering the Holocaust, Part 2 Posted: 26 Jan 2010 08:06 AM PST Christian Heroines of the Holocaust As mentioned in Part 1, the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem has a feature called “Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations.” Here, the museum honors Christians and others who assisted the Jews at the risk of their own lives. Many people have heard of Oskar Schindler, a Polish businessman who saved 1,000 Jewish people by employing them and falsifying their records, through the Steven Spielberg movie “Schindler’s List.” Along with Schindler, here are some Christian heroines of the Holocaust who are also honored at Yad Vashem. Miep Gies, Holland – Miep Gies was a Christian secretary to Otto Frank, a Jew. She concealed the Frank family for over two years. Gies is the person responsible for saving Anne Frank’s diary (the famous Diary of Anne Frank, who died in Bergen-Belsen only two weeks before the concentration camps were liberated). Anne Frank’s diary ended up being instrumental in some of the post-war Nazi trials. Miep Gies recently died at 100 years old (January, 2010), and was the last survivor of those known for helping the Jewish people during the Holocaust. She was Austrian, but had married a Dutchman. See a succinct telling of Gies’ life and heroic acts here at Associated Press. Irena Sendler, Poland – Irena Sendler single-handedly organized efforts to save 2,500 Polish children. She and other non-Jewish volunteers worked tirelessly, every day at the risk of their own lives, to smuggle the children through all sorts of channels. Cleverly, Sendler devised a plan for the Jewish children to be adopted into Protestant and Catholic families to conceal their identity. She saved every single child’s name and location in glass jars so they could be re-united with their families after the war. When Sendler was discovered, she was tortured with both legs and feet broken. But a German officer listed her as executed and helped her escape. Sendler, who passed away in 2008, was nominated for a 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. It went to Al Gore for his global warming work. But her story of bravery is captured here at the “Life in a Jar” Project by a group of Kansas schoolchildren. Corrie ten Boom and Betsie ten Boom, Holland – The ten Boom sisters and their father Casper were avid followers of Jesus. They owned a clock shop in Haarlem, Holland (now a Museum). They used a hidden room in their upstairs residence to hide a large number of Jewish people. When it was thought safe, the people would come out into the house for meal and prayer times. The ten Booms even provided kosher food. Upon discovering the room, the Gestapo arrested all three ten Booms plus a nephew who had helped them. They were placed in the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Corrie was the only one of the four to survive the death camp. She is famous for writing the book, “The Hiding Place” (with John and Elizabeth Sherrill), telling all the events that happened in occupied Holland and at the shop. In the book, Corrie also tells of the miracles of how she smuggled a Bible into her barracks, and how she and Betsie shared the Gospel with many Jewish captives. Corrie ten Boom later established halfway houses for survivors of the Holocaust to get re-adjusted and relocated into outside life. Her most amazing testimony came at a speaking engagement, where she was approached by an ex-officer of the Nazi regime – one of the very men who had guarded her in prison. He had come to know Jesus, and was begging her forgiveness! Corrie said, “I discovered it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself” (page 215, The Hiding Place).

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Remembering the Holocaust, Part 1

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Remembering the Holocaust, Part 1 Posted: 22 Jan 2010 02:12 PM PST Auschwitz buildings today. From Wikimedia Commons, Public domain. International Holocaust Remembrance Day In 2005, the United Nations designated Jan. 27 as an annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Why Jan. 27? It was on this day in 1945 that the largest World War II concentration camp, Auschwitz, was liberated. Auschwitz, a network of three camps, was operated in Poland under German occupation from 1940-1945. It probably accounted for the death of over one million Jews. Among other well-known “death camps” were Dachau, Treblinka and Bergen-Belsen. Claims that the Holocaust Didn’t Happen Currently, there are claims being made that the Holocaust never happened. These claims are frightening and outrageous to Jewish people, and could not be farther from the truth. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. houses more than 85,000 Holocaust photographs, twenty percent of which can be viewed online. There are traveling exhibits and several stationary USHMM branches around the U.S. The Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem has archived 62 million pages of documents, photos, testimonies of survivors and other articles as proof of the Holocaust. How/Why did the Holocaust happen? Adolph Hitler intended to create the perfect Aryan race, eliminating those people who didn’t fit his description of “perfect.” Beside the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust, it is estimated that two million other people lost their lives for either assisting the Jewish people or being imperfect themselves. Extending beyond his takeover of Germany, Hitler wanted to rule at least all of Europe, and perhaps the world. See a history with more details here at USHMM. Do Christians hate the Jewish People? Because some churches and Christian organizations either looked the other way or went along with Hitler’s bidding due to their own fear, some Jewish people are convinced to  this day that Christians hate them. However, Yad Vashem has a special memorial called “Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations” dedicated to Christians and others who lovingly and bravely assisted the Jewish people at the risk of their own lives (watch for Part 2 of this article for portraits of several Christian “Holocaust Heroes”). There are many organizations of Christians and Jewish people working alongside each other today to make the way for better relationships between Christians and Jews, to erase rumors that the Holocaust never happened, and to stand against anti-Semitism and anti-Christianity. Want to get involved in this effort? Here are a few such organizations:* American Alliance of Jews & Christians Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, Inc. Christians United for Israel Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation (JAACD) *(The Underground is not connected to these organizations, and the views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of these organizations.) Underground staff writer Sheryl Young is the author of What Every Christian Should Know about the Jewish People: Improving the Church’s Relationship with God’s Original Chosen Nation.

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Should Christians worry about “Avatar’s” New Ageism?

Originally here: http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2010/01/should-christians-worry-about-avatars-new-ageism-10808

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Should Christians worry about “Avatar’s” New Ageism? Posted: 01 Jan 2010 12:21 PM PST Official theatrical poster: (c)2009 20th Century Fox Film Corporation Legendary Canadian-American filmmaker, director, producer and screenwriter James Cameron of “Titanic” (1997) fame is back and he’s taking names with his latest sci-fi fantasy action thriller “Avatar.” The simple story of the blue-skinned alien tribe known as the Na’vi hit theatres nationwide earlier this month and has already grossed over $212 million, according to Box Office Mojo. Armed with groundbreaking visual effects, the technologies of which have been in the works for over a decade, Cameron takes his viewers deep into the stunning world of Pandora, the native planet of the Na’vi and home to a myriad of breathtaking flora and spectacular creatures. “Avatar” tells the tale of paraplegic marine Jake Sully (actor Sam Worthington, “Terminator: Salvation,” 2009), who “becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home,” according to an IMDB plot summary. With his mind operating inside an artificial Na’vi body (known as an Avatar), Sully must infiltrate their world, learn about their culture and ultimately aid in the brutal genocide of their race. After falling in love with Na’vi tribeswoman Neytiri (actress Zoe Saldana, “Star Trek,” 2009), Sully turns on his commanding officer, his orders and his own race. Since its release, several conservative Christian writers have published critical reviews of the film, condemning its alleged promotion of New Ageism, mysticism and elements of Wicca, mingled with “Native American-style spirituality [and] a heavy dose of environmentalism and antiwar rhetoric,” according to Crosswalk contributing writer Christian Hamaker. Hamaker also warned viewers to “be prepared for a gooey, New Age romance with thematic elements that will likely make you squirm.” “Christianity Today” entertainment columnist Todd Hertz, however, had nothing but praise for the film, despite its less than perfect script and storyline. “James Cameron may not be [the] greatest writer,” says Hertz, “or one known for original and complicated plotlines…but he is one of Hollywood’s best storytellers in terms of using all sides of the cinematic journey (visuals, story, music, etc.) to stir and capture imaginations for a satisfying ride.” On the topic of religion, Hertz noted, “Some Christians will be bothered by the Na’vi’s worship of the unseen female deity [called Eywa in the film, said to be “in all living things”]…But vagueness about this entity makes it possible to view her not as a New Age goddess but as just one more strange piece of fantasy in this alien world.” So, should Christians avoid seeing “Avatar?”  No. Rather, as with most secular films, they should be prepared to encounter strange anti-Christian elements, including language and sensuality, while still enjoying a phenomenally well-crafted and brilliantly orchestrated visual masterpiece. Ultimately, the decision rests within the personal stance and belief of the individual. It seems, however, that there is little need to become anxious or angered about such a small part of a purely fictional piece of entertainment.

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