Foster Child Taken Away Because Christian Couple Refuse To Teach Him About Homosexuality
October 26, 2007 by admin
Filed under Moral Decay
To do so, they claim, would force them to promote homosexuality and go against their Christian faith.
The 11-year-old boy, who has been in their care for two years, will be placed in a council hostel this week and the Mathericks will no longer be given children to look after.
The devastated couple, who have three grown up children of their own, became foster parents in 2001 and have since cared for 28 children at their home in Chard, Somerset.
Earlier this year, Somerset County Council’s social services department asked them to sign a contract to implement Labour’s new Sexual Orientation Regulations, part of the Equality Act 2006, which make discrimination on the grounds of sexuality illegal.
Officials told the couple that under the regulations they would be required to discuss same-sex relationships with children as young as 11 and tell them that gay partnerships were just as acceptable as heterosexual marriages.
They could also be required to take teenagers to gay association meetings.
When the Mathericks objected, they were told they would be taken off the register of foster parents.
The Mathericks have decided to resign rather than face the humiliation of being expelled.
Mr Matherick, a 65-year-old retired travel agent and a primary school governor, said: “I simply could not agree to do it because it is against my central beliefs.
“We have never discriminated against anybody but I cannot preach the benefits of homosexuality when I believe it is against the word of God.”
Mrs Matherick, 61, said they had asked if they could continue looking after their foster son until he is found a permanent home, but officials refused and he will be placed in a council hostel on Friday.
She said: “He was very upset to begin with. We are all very close, but he’s a mature young man and he’s dealing with it.”
The couple, who have six grandchildren and one greatgrandchild, are both ministers at the nonconformist South Chard Christian Church.
When they first started fostering they took in young single mothers and their babies.
More recently they have been caring for children of primary school age.
Mr Matherick added: “It’s terrible that we’ve been forced into this corner. It just should not happen.
“There are not enough foster carers around anyway without these rules.
“They were saying that we had to be prepared to talk about sexuality with 11-year-olds, which I don’t think is appropriate anyway, but not only that, to be prepared to explain how gay people date.
“They said we would even have to take a teenager to gay association meetings.
“How can I do that when it’s totally against what I believe?”
IMF Chief Warns Dollar May Suffer Abrupt Fall
The head of the International Monetary Fund, Rodrigo Rato, warned Monday there are risks of an “abrupt fall” in the dollar, linked to a loss of confidence in dollar assets.
“There are risks that an abrupt fall in the dollar could either be triggered by, or itself trigger, a loss of confidence in dollar assets,” Rato told the IMF board of governors.
He also appeared to suggest that Europe could take steps to temper the strong appreciation of the euro.
“There is a risk that exchange rate appreciation in countries with flexible exchange rates — including the euro area — could hurt their growth prospects, and that in these circumstances protectionist pressures could worsen,” he said on the final day of the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank.
The outgoing IMF managing director spoke as the European single currency hit a new high of 1.4347 dollars and global equity markets tumbled amid growing fears a US housing-related credit crunch could pitch the world’s biggest economy into recession.
“The uncertainty … comes from downside risks that are much higher than they were six months ago. The turbulence in the credit markets is a warning that we cannot take the benign economic environment of recent years for granted,” he said.
“We still do not know the full effects of the decline in the housing market and the subprime problems of the US economy. Further disruption in financial markets and further falls in housing prices could lead to a global economic downturn.”
A crisis in the risky US subprime mortgage sector, where loans are given to homebuyers with poor credit histories, erupted this year as borrowers defaulted on mortgages amid rising interest rates and a sharp slump in US housing prices.
The spillover of the US credit crunch into global financial markets roiled stock markets worldwide in August and although they have recovered somewhat, the uncertainties of the extent of the credit problems continues to weigh on investors.
Rato warned that a downturn would exacerbate other risks that already exist in the world economy, citing some emerging economies’ reliance on capital inflows and the potential that central banks may not curb rising inflationary pressures.
“Some emerging economies that have relied on external financing to fund large current account deficits could be tipped into crisis by a combination of reduced demand for their exports and tighter financial market conditions,” he said, adding that those developments would also worsen the prospects of low-income countries.
“And there is a risk that central banks may falter in fighting the inflation which has been spurred in some countries by higher oil and food prices.”
Rato told the governors of the 185-nation financial institution aimed at fostering global financial stability that it was imperative to take action to avoid such a calamitous downturn from global imbalances.
“All of these risks make action on already agreed policies more urgent,” he said.
“Major economies need … to take supporting policy actions,” said the former Spanish finance minister, who is stepping down nearly two years before the end of his five-year mandate.
His successor, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a former Socialist finance minister of France, takes office on November 1.
In an apparent reference to recent pressures from France and other members of the 13-nation eurozone on the European Central Bank to take action to curb the euro’s sharp appreciation, which is weighing on eurozone exports, Rato said: “Policymakers need to respect the independence of central banks and support their vigilance on inflation.”
Syria Was Preparing For Large Scale Attack On Israel
Syria was preparing for a large-scale Israeli attack some two weeks ago, the Al-Khaleej newspaper, published in the United Arab Emirates, reported Wednesday.
Al-Khaleej quoted “senior sources” in Damascus as saying that Syria had received intelligence that Israel was seriously considering launching an offensive during the Id al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of Ramadan.
Therefore, the article said, Syria began taking “defensive steps.”
The Syrian sources, who were unnamed, told Al-Khaleej that Russia and China, when apprised of Syria’s concerns, sent “stern warnings” to both Jerusalem and Washington that an Israeli attack would destroy the balance of the Middle East. According to the report, China and Russia asked the United States to intervene and “rein in” what Syria perceived as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s threats of war.
“Despite Israel’s calming messages, sent through mediators, there is still a possibility of a military confrontation,” the sources told the UAE paper.
The sources added that Syrian President Bashar Assad had raised the issue during his visit with Turkey’s leaders last week, and said that Turkey’s deputy military chief had given Assad his word that Turkey would not allow Israel to use its air space to attack Syria.
Meanwhile, US experts said they have identified the Euphrates River nuclear site in Syria that was allegedly bombed by IAF planes last month, as well as satellite imagery of the facility showing buildings under construction, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. According to the report, the facility was similar in design to a North Korean nuclear reactor capable of producing nuclear material for one bomb a year.
Photographs of the area taken before the September 6 raid show an isolated compound which included a boxy structure similar to the type of building used to house a gas-graphite reactor. They also show what could have been a pumping station used to supply cooling water for the reactor, expert David Albright of the US Institute for Science and International Security was quoted as saying by The Washington Post.
The newspaper also reported that International and American experts familiar with the site, who were shown the photos on Tuesday, said there was a strong possibility that they show the remote compound which was allegedly attacked by Israel. Israeli officials and the White House declined to comment.
The facility depicted was located approximately 10 kilometers north of At Tibnah in the Dayr az Zawr region, according to an ISIS report to be released Wednesday. Albright, a former UN weapons inspector, said the size of the structures suggested that Syria might have been building a gas-graphite reactor of about 20 to 25 megawatts of heat, which is similar to the reactor North Korea built at Yongbyon.
Palestinians Using Internet To Target Israel
Palestinian militants are using Google Earth to help plan their attacks on the Israeli military and other targets, the Guardian has learned.
Members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a group aligned with the Fatah political party, say they use the popular internet mapping tool to help determine their targets for rocket strikes.
“We obtain the details from Google Earth and check them against our maps of the city centre and sensitive areas,” Khaled Jaabari, the group’s commander in Gaza who is known as Abu Walid, told the Guardian.
Abu Walid showed the Guardian an aerial image of the Israeli town of Sderot on his computer to demonstrate how his group searches for targets.
The Guardian filmed an al-Aqsa test rocket launch, fired into an uninhabited area of the Negev desert, last month. Despite the crudeness of the weapons, many have landed in Sderot, killing around a dozen people in the last three years and wounding scores more.
Al-Aqsa is one of several militant groups firing rockets, known as Qassams, from Gaza into Israel. A rocket attack by Islamic Jihad on a military base last month wounded more than 50 soldiers. Hamas’s military wing, the Izzedine Qassam Brigades, is not believed to be firing rockets.
Abu Walid insists there is no contradiction between his group’s actions and talk of peace by Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah’s leader.
Bringing up archive footage of rocket launches on his computer, he said that the group had modified the homemade rockets to travel longer distances by cultivating salt from the sea. “It’s a secret process, but we’re very excited by the results.”
The Google Earth mapping program includes satellite maps and detailed 3D models of some areas. Although the satellite images are only updated on an irregular basis – meaning that pictures of mobile targets would be unusable – some defence experts have said the easy availability of information can increase the risks for military organisations.
“There is a constant threat of reconnaissance missions to access our bases and using these internet images is just another method of how this is conducted,” said British military spokesman Major Charlie Burbridge earlier this year.
It is not the first time that Google has been accused of unwittingly abetting the activities of militant groups or terrorist organisations. In January, British officials claimed that insurgents sympathetic to al-Qaida were using aerial photography in Google Earth to locate potential targets inside British bases around the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
Atheism For Kids
J.K. Rowling sparked headlines this week by declaring that a major character in her Harry Potter book series is homosexual. Christian critics, meanwhile, are paying more attention to Britain’s second-most-popular children’s author.
His name is Philip Pullman, whose best-known work is the “His Dark Materials” trilogy, which has won critical acclaim, but Mr. Pullman’s critics charge that the books undermine the Christian faith and promote atheism.
The first book, “The Golden Compass” (originally titled “Northern Lights”), won England’s Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Fiction Prize. The American Library Association deemed it a Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults. “The Golden Compass” also attracted the attention of Hollywood. A movie adaptation starring Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman and Dakota Blue Richards is due for release Dec.
Volcano Erupts in Indonesia
A volcano erupted in central Indonesia on Thursday, shooting plumes of white smoke and sand 1,500 yards into the air and covering nearby villages in ash, officials said.
Violent tremors sent farmers tilling land near Mount Soputan’s crater fleeing before the blast, said Sandy Manengke, a local monitoring official, adding that there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
The nearest villages are five miles from the crater’s mouth, well clear of the danger zone, he added, but many houses were covered in black soot and residents wore face masks to protect themselves against the smoke.
Indonesia has more active volcanoes than any other nation because of its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” — a series of fault lines stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia.
Mount Soputan, 1,350 miles northeast of the capital, Jakarta, is one of its most active. The 1,950-yard-high volcano rarely spews lava, however, Manengke said.
The mountain’s alert remained at the second-highest level despite Thursday’s activity, said Surono, a senior government vulcanologist, who goes by only one name. No evacuation order had been issued, because most people live well away from the crater, he added.
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Netanyahu – Jerusalem Must remain Undivided and Israels
Standing at the site of ancient Jerusalem’s most strategically vulnerable point, Opposition Leader Binyamin Netanyahu launched an offensive Tuesday to maintain Jewish control of Jerusalem.
The Tower of David, a citadel built to protect the weakest point in the city’s defenses, was the site of countless battles dating from the first century CE to Israel’s capture of the Old City in 1967. Citing that history, Netanyahu vowed to fight against any territorial concessions in or around the capital.
“Jerusalem has been the pulsating heart of the Jewish people. Now there are those who come and say, let’s divide this heart,” Netanyahu said. “The prime minister wants to come and divide this city. If we leave any part of Jerusalem, militant Islam walks in. That is the reality of the Middle East.”
Atheists Say Morality Possible Without God
One of the biggest obstacles facing whats called the “New Atheism” is the issue of morality. Writers like Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchens have to convince people that morals and values are possible in a society that does not believe in God.
Its important to understand what is not in doubt: whether an individual atheist or agnostic can be a “good” person. Of course they can, just as a professing Christian can do bad things.
The issue is whether the secular worldview can provide a basis for a good society. Can it motivate and inspire people to be virtuous and generous?
Not surprisingly, Richard Dawkins offers a “yes”�grounded in Darwinism. According to him, natural selection has produced a moral sense that is shared by all people. While our genes may be, in his words “selfish,” there are times when cooperation with others is the selfish genes best interest. Thus, according to him, natural selection has produced what we call altruism.
Except, of course, that it is not altruism at all: It is, at most, enlightened self-interest. It might explain why “survival of the fittest” is not an endless war of all against all, but it offers no reason as to why someone might give up his life or even his lifestyle for the benefit of others, especially those whom they do not even know.
Darwinist accounts of human morality bear such little resemblance to the way real people live their lives that the late philosopher Michael Stove, an atheist himself, called them a “slander against human beings.”
What Did Israel Bomb In Syria
Why did Israeli aircraft fly into Syria in early September? And what, if anything, did they bomb? Six weeks later, those questions remain unanswered. Reports from Syria are contradictory. Jerusalem, Washington and Tehran are still uncharacteristically quiet. And leaks to the media raise as many questions as answers.
At this point, I see three possibilities of what took place: Israel discovered and tried to set back a nascent nuclear program, it ordered the air strikes based on faulty intelligence, or that the raids are, in fact, a red herring.
Supporting the first scenario, ABC News reported Friday that an Israeli spy had produced detailed photographs of a suspected nuclear facility. And that U.S. satellite imagery provided confirmation. According to ABC News, the Israelis asked the Bush administration to destroy the complex. But, after considering options, “word came back from the White House that the United States was not interested in carrying out the raid.”
Bird Flu Spreads Human To Human – WHO
The h5n1 strain of bird flu has finally managed to spread from person to person, according to officials of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Until now, it was spread from birds to humans. They warned that if the bird flu virus mutated to easily spread between humans, it could spark a global pandemic, killing millions.
In Thailand, when a mother was hospitalised with avian influenza, her daughter, who lived away from bird-rearing contracted the virus when she came to visit her in hospital.
The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle, US also examined a second family cluster outbreak in Turkey last year, but did not have the evidence to confirm or refute human-to-human transmission.
The researchers have for the first time proved that the virus has spread between a “cluster” of people.
Indonesia, with 84 bird flu deaths, the highest toll in the world, has tried to downplay fears of the spread.
The head of research at the Indonesian health ministry, Triono Soendono, said the findings were “just one” piece of research.
But the WHO assistant director for communicable diseases, David Heymann, said it was likely the Sumatran virus was spread by human-to-human contact.
“We believe there has likely been transmission through intimate or close contact,” he said.
Dr. Sam Okware, the commissioner, community health, who is also the chairman of the National Task Force on the disease, said it was sad news.
“But we are also improving capacity and training for surveillance to handle it every day. The laboratory at the Virus Research Institute is ready,” he affirmed.
Fires Rage In California
Fires in Southern California have burned more than 267,000 acres (106,800 hectares), making them among the worst in the state’s history as the blazes destroyed hundreds of homes.
“This is what is left of my home,” Larry Himmel, a reporter for San Diego’s Channel 8, said yesterday during a broadcast while standing in front of his house in flames. “This is what I came home to.”
More than 4,000 firefighters are fighting 15 wildfires in seven counties, according to Mary Ann Aldrich, a spokeswoman for the State Joint Information Center. At least 576 homes and 102 commercial buildings have been destroyed and more than 15,000 additional homes are threatened, she said.
In San Diego, an estimated 250,000 people were evacuated, jamming roads and freeways. Two major freeways that connect the city to the rest of Southern California, Interstates 15 and 5, were closed at times during the day. At least one person was killed and four injured.
San Diego officials said they were so overwhelmed by the size and number of fires that they initially couldn’t get an accurate count of how many homes have been destroyed. They fear the fires may be worse than the 2003 blaze that caused $1.1 billion in damage, destroying 4,847 structures.
White House Staff Members Helped Craft Gay/Transsexual Rights Bill
October 23, 2007 by admin
Filed under Moral Decay
Staff members for President Bush have helped congressional staffers work on “religious exemption” language for a new “anti-discrimination” proposal that actually would codify in federal statutes an anti-Christian bias, and that will make it harder for him to veto, according to an activist group.
“Americans For Truth has learned that a White House official has boasted to pro-family leaders attending a private administration briefing that White House staffers were involved in the negotiations to craft expanded religious exemption language for the new ENDA bill,” according to Peter LaBarbera’s Americans For Truth organization.
The Financial Meltdown Has Just Begun
The real credit troubles in these commercial, retail and investment banks are much worse that what is exposed yet. The major banks have exposed not much of skeleton in their closet.
The subprime fiasco is just the tip of the iceberg. The scandal and scam on credit instruments will surprise every one once everything is exposed. The problem for these Banking executives is that they work for public companies. They will be exposed one after the other.
You are talking about mega Enrons and hundreds of them. The credit infrastructure can collapse in no time. If credit is not available, recession is imminent and that will soon change into depression.
The Government will try to bail out these large banks to maintain stability in the financial systems. But the magnitude of the losses is so large, even the Fed will have to think many times.
Dollar market is guessing it. People are dumping dollar and buying gold. The stock market realized the same very late. But the route in Wall Street is real. Stocks are getting distributed fast into the eager crowd that wants to buy them. Even the distribution stage is coming to an end signifying a fast fall in the equities markets worldwide.
Cheney: US Will Not Let Iran Go Nuclear
The United States and other nations will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon, Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday. “Our country, and the entire international community, cannot stand by as a terror-supporting state fulfills its grandest ambitions,” Cheney said in a speech to the Washington Institute for Near East Studies.
He said Iran’s efforts to pursue technology that would allow them to build a nuclear weapon are obvious and that “the regime continues to practice delay and deceit in an obvious effort to buy time.”
If Iran continues on its current course, Cheney said the U.S. and other nations are prepared to take action. The vice president made no specific reference to military action.
“We will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” he said.
Cheney’s words seemed to only escalate the U.S. rhetoric against Iran over the past several days, including President Bush’s warning that a nuclear Iran could lead to “World War III.”
Cheney said the ultimate goal of the Iranian leadership is to establish itself as the hegemonic force in the Middle East and undermine the Shiite community in Iraq as a rival for influence in the Muslim world.
Iran’s government seeks “to keep Iraq in a state of weakness to ensure Baghdad does not pose a threat to Tehran,” Cheney said.
While he was critical of that government and President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, he offered praise and words of solidarity to the Iranian people. Iran “is a place of unlimited potential … and it has the right to be free of tyranny,” Cheney said.
Cheney accused of Iran of having a direct role in the deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and said the government has “solidified its grip on the country” since coming to power in 1979.
The U.S. and some allies accuse Iran of secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons and have demanded it halt uranium enrichment, an important step in the production of atomic weapons. Oil-rich Iran says its program is for peaceful purposes including generating electricity.
At a news conference Wednesday, Bush suggested that if Iran obtained nuclear weapons, it could lead to a new world war.
“I’ve told people that if you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them (Iran) from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon,” Bush said.
Bush’s spokeswoman later said the president was making not making any war plans but rather “a rhetorical point.”
Also, on Thursday, the top officer in the U.S. military said the U.S. has the resources to attack Iran if needed despite the strains of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Navy Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said striking Iran is a last resort, and the focus now on diplomacy to stem Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but “there is more than enough reserve to respond” militarily if need be.
The Bush administration’s intentions toward Iran have been the subject of debate in Congress.
Last month the Senate approved a resolution urging the State Department to label Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization.
Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., said he feared the measure could be interpreted as authorizing a military strike in Iran, calling it Cheney’s “fondest pipe dream.”
