• Home
• About
• Contact
• Prophecy News Search

Subscribe

Gospel of Godlessness

Holy Week has offered an opportunity to cue up the media attacks on Christianity and faith.

The first salvo in the annual Easter faith-flagellation fest came last week from Comedy Central on a show called “Root of All Evil.” Comedian-prosecutors were tasked with making the case as to which defendant was the “root of all evil.” The choices were Oprah and the Catholic Church.

Said the Catholic Church “prosecutor”: “Then there’s the Virgin Mary. The Virgin Mary. God impregnated Mary. We have a whole religion based on one woman who reeeeeeally stuck to her story.”

Sadly, most Christians are not surprised by this kind of invective. The media — entertainment and news — often treat Christianity and faith in God with indifference if not outright hostility.

For atheists it’s a different story. In 2007 three books by atheists — Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens — made the best-seller lists. The news media used this fact to shine the spotlight on atheism and atheists throughout the year. And while there is nothing wrong with reporting a trend, media coverage of the godless and their beliefs was virtually uncritical. Unlike Christianity and Christians, atheism and atheists got a free ride.

At times, the media blatantly promoted atheism. In September, ABC’s “Good Morning America Sunday” ran a feature on an atheist convention. ABC proclaimed that atheism was “unleashed,” that “more and more” people were becoming atheists, and that the “stigma” of being an atheist “may be fading.”

“Apostles of Atheism,” a just-released special report from the Media Research Center’s Culture and Media Institute, examines the 2007 coverage of atheism by several national news outlets. CMI reviewed all news programs on ABC, CBS and NBC, every 2007 issue of Newsweek, Time and U.S.News & World Report, and four news programs aired on taxpayer-funded National Public Radio (”All Things Considered,” “Morning Edition,” “Weekend Edition” and “Talk of the Nation”).

Read More

If this is your first time visiting Bible Prophecy In The News, I'd like to invite you to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Is Atheism Getting a Free Pass

The Institute examined the apparent “rise in atheism,” subject covered in broadcast news programs, three leading weekly news magazines, and four programs on taxpayer-funded National Public Radio, all shown during 2007

Although only eight percent of Americans call themselves atheists, the report found that not only is the news media hostile toward religion, particularly Christianity, but the media may be spreading a “Gospel of Godlessness” on the American public.

“Whether deliberately or not, the news media did not subject atheism or atheists to the same skepticism to which they subject Christians and Christianity,” the report said. “Journalists who look at America’s majority religion through a skeptical prism should equally apply their critical faculties to atheism.”

In their report, CMI details their discovery of imbalances in the media’s coverage of the religion. Among the findings:

Read More

Vatican and Muslims Prepare For Historic Meeting With Pope

Muslim representatives and Vatican officials begin talks this week that they hope will lead to an unprecedented Catholic-Islamic meeting.

Five representatives from each side will meet on Tuesday for two days in Rome to work out the details of a larger meeting that will include Pope Benedict later this year.

“We have to bring the dialogue up to date following the great successes of the pontificate of John Paul II,” said Yahya Sergio Yahe Pallavicini, vice-president of the Italian Islamic Religious Community.

Catholic-Muslim relations nosedived in 2006 after Benedict delivered a lecture in Regensburg, Germany, that was taken by Muslims to imply that Islam was violent and irrational.

Muslims around the world protested and the Pope sought to make amends when he visited Turkey’s Blue Mosque and prayed towards Mecca with its Imam.

After the fallout from the Regensburg speech, 138 Muslim scholars and leaders wrote to the German-born Pontiff and other Christian leaders last year, saying “the very survival of the world itself” may depend on dialogue between the two faiths.

The signatories of the Muslim appeal for theological dialogue, called the “Common Word,” has grown to nearly 225 since.

“Now there is a need for deeper dialogue on doctrine, theology and the character of religions in today’s world and the challenges we face,” Pallavicini told Reuters.

“We must try, together with the Pope, to get on a path of dialogue on issues confronting humanity today,” he said.

Besides Pallavicini, the Muslim delegation to the preparatory talks will include a Turk, a Briton, a Jordanian and a Libyan.

The Vatican delegation includes Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Vatican’s Council for Interreligious Dialogue, the head of the Pontifical Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies in Rome and a professor from Rome’s Gregorian University.

Read More

Study: 3 in 4 U.S. Mosques Preach Anti-West Extremism

An undercover survey of more than 100 mosques and Islamic schools in America has exposed widespread radicalism, including the alarming finding that 3 in 4 Islamic centers are hotbeds of anti-Western extremism, WND has learned.

The Mapping Sharia in America Project, sponsored by the Washington-based Center for Security Policy, has trained former counterintelligence and counterterrorism agents from the FBI, CIA and U.S. military, who are skilled in Arabic and Urdu, to conduct undercover reconnaissance at some 2,300 mosques and Islamic centers and schools across the country.

“So far of 100 mapped, 75 should be on a watchlist,” an official familiar with the project said.

Source

Oxford To Spend 4 Million To Understand Why Man Embraces God

University of Oxford researchers will spend nearly $4 million to study why mankind embraces God. The grant to the Ian Ramsey Center for Science and Religion will bring anthropologists, theologians, philosophers and other academics together for three years to study whether belief in a divine being is a basic part of mankinds makeup.

“There are a lot of issues. What is it that is innate in human nature to believe in God, whether it is gods or something superhuman or supernatural?” said Roger Trigg, acting director of the center.

He said anthropological and philosophical research suggests that faith in God is a universal human impulse found in most cultures around the world, even though it has been waning in Britain and western Europe.

“One implication that comes from this is that religion is the default position, and atheism is perhaps more in need of explanation,” he said.

The study will be funded by the John Templeton Foundation, a U.S.-based philanthropic organization that funds wide-ranging research into questions that deal with the laws of nature and issues of spirituality.

Source

Vatican Rejects Criticism Of New Prayer For Jewish Conversion

The top Vatican cardinal in charge of relations with Jews on Thursday denied that a new prayer for their conversion was offensive and said Catholics had the right to pray as they wish.

The Vatican had come under fire from Jewish groups in recent days for changing its Good Friday service to include a prayer urging God to let Jews “recognize Jesus Christ as savior of all men.”

Earlier this week, Pope Benedict ordered changes to a Latin prayer for Jews at traditionalist Good Friday services, deleting a reference to their “blindness” over Christ.
Advertisement
Cardinal Walter Kasper spoke in an interview in a leading Italian newspaper a day after world Jewish leaders said the new prayer could set back inter-religious dialogue by decades.

“We think that reasonably this prayer cannot be an obstacle to dialogue because it reflects the faith of the Church and, furthermore, Jews have prayers in their liturgical texts that we Catholics don’t like,”

“I must say that I don’t understand why Jews cannot accept that we can make use of our freedom to formulate our prayers,” Kasper, a German, told the Corriere della Sera.

“One must accept and respect differences,” said the cardinal.

In a separate interview with Vatican Radio, Kasper said: “The Holy Father wanted to say ‘yes, Jesus Christ is the savior of all men, including the Jews’.”

He added: “But this does not mean we are embarking on a mission [to convert Jews]. We are giving witness to our faith.”

The Anti-Defamation League on Thursday called the revision to the prayer “cosmetic revisions,” saying that the prayer is still “deeply troubling” because of its call to convert Jews.

Source

Malaysia Seizes Christian Books

Malaysian authorities confiscated Christian children’s books, claiming the illustrations of prophets such as Moses and Abraham violate Islamic Shariah law.

The independent news agency Malaysakini reported the Internal Security Ministry confiscated the literature from bookstores in two cities and one small town in mid-December.

The Malaysian Embassy declined to comment on the news service’s Jan. 11 report.

The Rev. Hermen Shastri, general secretary of the Malaysian Council of Churches, confirmed the report and accused the government of persecuting Christians.

“The officials have offended the sensitivities of Christians because their publications and depictions of their Biblical personalities have now become targets of unscrupulous Muslim officials bent on curtailing religious freedom in the country,” Mr. Shastri said.

Read More

Should Proselytism In West Be Prohibited

Christian proselytism is discouraged, where not outright prohibited, throughout the Muslim world and Muslims who convert to Christianity (or any other religion) are subject to death according to Sharia law. Ironically, this situation is not applicable to the Muslim communities in the West: for where Muslim clerics struggle against the Christian missionaries in Islamic countries, Muslim missionaries in the West enjoy many freedoms and may welcome new converts.

The laissez-faire Western attitude concerning Muslim missionaries must be reviewed to deal with the case in the West regarding the principle of reciprocity – whether or not one is to sanction Islamic proselytism or prohibit it depends on how Islamic institutions perceive freedom of religion.

Westerners have the right to get clear answers from Islamic organizations in the West as to (1) Muslim attitudes toward Christianity and Judaism; (2) whether it is permissible for Muslims to covert to Christianity or any other religion; and, (3) whether those who leave the Islam may go about their lives absent threats on their lives from the community to which they belong. These are questions that must be addressed to representatives of “Western” Islamic organizations.

This can be done by starting a dialogue with Islamic organizations which work within Christendom. Important preliminary knowledge can be obtained from the Koran, the holy text of Islam. Once familiar with Koranic views on religion, Westerners will then be able to engage in dialogue with “their” Islamists.

We should now review some Koranic texts that pertain to religion.

Read More

Muslim Store Clerk Refuses To Sell Bible Book To Grandmother - Calls It Unclean

A Muslim store worker at Marks & Spencer refused to serve a customer buying a childrens book on biblical stories because she said it was “unclean”.

Sally Friday, a customer at a branch of one of the famous stores, felt publicly humiliated when she tried to pay for First Bible Stories as a gift for her young grandson.

When the grandmother put the book on the counter, the assistant refused to touch it, declared it was unclean and then summoned another member of staff to deal with the purchase.

Mrs Friday was so upset that she has now complained to the stores manager.

Politicians and religious leaders supported her in condemning the high street chain and it has reignited the debate over religious beliefs in the workplace.

Conservative MP Philip Davies said the refusal to serve Mrs Friday, 69, was “unacceptable” and “damaging” to community relations.

Inayat Bunglawala, assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, described the assistants comments as “offensive” and called for Marks & Spencer to conduct an investigation.

He said: “This appears to be a very regrettable incident and the unclean remark was clearly very offensive and unacceptable.

“Many Biblical stories complement the teachings of the Koran. We hope that M&S will investigate this incident.”

Read More

Islamic Jesus Hits Iranian Movie Screens In Film Jesus The Spirit of God

An Islamic view of Jesus Christ is being portrayed by a director who shares the ideas of Iran’s hardline president in what he says it is the first film to show the “common ground” between Muslims and Christians.

Nader Talebzadeh sees his movie, “Jesus, the Spirit of God,” as an Islamic answer to Western productions like Mel Gibson’s 2004 blockbuster “The Passion of the Christ,” which he praised as admirable but quite simply “wrong”.

“Gibson’s film is a very good film. I mean that it is a well-crafted movie but the story is wrong — it was not like that,” he said, referring to two key differences: Islam sees Jesus as a prophet, not the son of God, and does not believe he was crucified.

Talebzadeh said he even went to Gibson’s mansion in Malibu, California, to show him his film. “But it was Sunday and the security at the gate received the film and the brochure and promised to deliver it,” though the Iranian never heard back.

Even in Iran, “Jesus, The Spirit of God” had a low-key reception, playing to moderate audiences in five Tehran cinemas during the holy month of Ramadan, in October.

The film, funded by state broadcasting, faded off the billboards but is far from dead, about to be recycled in a major 20 episode spin-off to be broadcast over state-run national television this year.

Talebzadeh insists it aims to bridge differences between Christianity and Islam, despite the stark divergence from Christian doctrine about Christ’s final hours on earth.

“It is fascinating for Christians to know that Islam gives such devotion to and has so much knowledge about Jesus,” Talebzadeh told AFP.

“By making this film I wanted to make a bridge between Christianity and Islam, to open the door for dialogue since there is much common ground between Islam and Christianity,” he said.

The director is also keen to emphasise the links between Jesus and one of the most important figures in Shiite Islam, the Imam Mahdi, said to have disappeared 12 centuries ago but whose “return” to earth has been a key tenet of the Ahmadinejad presidency.

Talebzadeh made his name making documentaries about Iran’s 1980-1988 war against Iraq, an important genre in the country’s post-revolutionary cinema.

But such weighty themes, and his latest film on Jesus, compete with domestic gangster thrillers and sugary boy-meets-girl love stories, the movies that continue to draw the biggest audiences in the Islamic Republic.

The bulk of “Jesus, the Spirit of God”, which won an award at the 2007 Religion Today Film Festival in Italy, faithfully follows the traditional tale of Jesus as recounted in the New Testament Gospels, a narrative reproduced in the Koran and accepted by Muslims.

But in Talebzadeh’s movie, God saves Jesus, depicted as a fair-complexioned man with long hair and a beard, from crucifixion and takes him straight to heaven.

“It is frankly said in the Koran that the person who was crucified was not Jesus” but Judas, one of the 12 Apostles and the one the Bible holds betrayed Jesus to the Romans, he said. In his film, it is Judas who is crucified.

Islam sees Jesus as one of five great prophets — others being Noah, Moses and Abraham — sent to earth to announce the coming of Mohammed, the final prophet who spread the religion of Islam. It respects Jesus’ followers as “people of the book”.

Iran has tens of thousands of its own Christians who are guaranteed religious freedoms under the constitution — mainly Armenians, though their numbers have fallen sharply since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Every Christmas, Ahmadinejad and other officials lose no time in sending greetings to Christian leaders including the pope on what they describe as the “auspicious birthday of Jesus Christ, Peace Be Upon Him (PBUH).”

In this year’s message, Ahmadinejad said that “peace, friendship and justice will be attained wherever the guidelines of Jesus Christ (PBUH) are realised in the world.”

Shiite Muslims, the majority in Iran, believe Jesus will accompany the Imam Mahdi when he reappears in a future apocalypse to save the world.

And Talebzadeh said the TV version of his film will further explore the links between Jesus and the Mahdi — whose return Ahmadinejad has said his government, which came to power in 2005, is working to hasten.

Shiites believe the Mahdi’s reappearance will usher in a new era of peace and harmony.

“We Muslims pray for the ‘Return’ (of Imam Mahdi) and Jesus is part of the return and the end of time,” Talebzadeh said.

“Should we, as artists, stand idle until that time? Don’t we have to make an effort?”

Source

« Previous Page — Next Page »

Prophecy In The News Ads

Did God Send A Prophet In The Last Days?

Latest Bible Prophecy In The News Headlines

• The Return of Hillary? Clinton Seeks Democratic Convention Voice
• China Cracks Down To Clean Christians Out Of Beijing
• 13 Suffering Bird Flu Symptoms In North Sumatra
• Belief in God Drops Among Educated, Universal Spirit Belief Grows
• Adultery Revealed: 500,000 Swapping Partners In Italy?
• Russia Mulls Strategic Bombers in Belarus To Counter U.S. Shield
• Israel Mulls Military Option For Iran Nukes
• Ventura County Hot Spot Puzzles Experts - 812 Degrees!
• Los Angeles Earthquake Uncovers New Fault
• Young Man Beheaded On Greyhound Bus By Passenger - Canada

Copyright © 2007 Bible Prophecy In The News · Bible Prophecy In The News Log in