Homeland Security Newspeak

The Department of Homeland Security thinks it's a bad idea to use the word "liberty" when describing America's foreign policy goals. Nor does it much like the terms "Islamist" and "jihadist." Heaven forbid the federal government cause needless offense in the current war against, well, whoever.
By Bret Stephens

Aiding China's Shaken Church

Franklin Graham discusses outreach after the Sichuan earthquake.

We're Not Finished

Abortion is not simply one item on our social agenda.

Links to My Work

Jews for Jews notes my recent commentary on Jewish evangelism.

Seismic Tremors

IT is a cruel and poignant certainty that the children who died in the wreckage of their school during the earthquake this week in Dujiangyan, China, knew all too well that their country once led the world in the knowledge of the planet’s seismicity.
By Simon Winchester

Democracies Don't Let People Die

Tectonic plates in motion don't distinguish between democracies and autocracies, but the record shows that getting hit by an earthquake or cyclone in an authoritarian government is a high-risk proposition for the survivors.
By Daniel Henninger

Double Divorce

A CT news story.

By Sarah Pulliam

What's So Odd About Religious Colleges?

Wheaton College's stance on divorce is refreshingly countercultural.

By William McGurn

China Update

While in China, Franklin Graham and Samaritan's Purse
Respond to Earthquake Destruction

SHANGHAI, China, May 13, 2008 (Press Release) - Within hours of a 7.9 magnitude earthquake that crumbled buildings and killed thousands of people in the Sichuan Province of western China on Monday, international Christian relief organization Samaritan's Purse responded to the crisis.

Franklin Graham, president and CEO of Samaritan's Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, is currently on a 10-day visit to China where he is meeting with government and church leaders in Beijing, Hangzhou, Nanjing and Shanghai. When he learned about the devastating earthquake, Graham committed 1 million RMB ($150,000) to assist with the immediate disaster response. While the relief organization is continuing to look for additional ways it can contribute to the earthquake relief efforts, Graham issued the following statement of condolence:

"On behalf of my father, Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, we want the people of China to know that we are praying for each person impacted by this disaster. Recovery efforts are under way, but you can never recover the loss of a life. We want to do anything we can to assist with this crisis so we are committing these funds for initial support of the local church as they assist with the relief efforts. I've been impressed with the effective and immediate response of the Chinese government and how they’ve responded to this devastating earthquake. Each day I’m here in China I am meeting with officials to assess the need and offer our assistance. Finally, I would ask all Christians in the United States to pray for the people of China and the church here as they reach out to their fellow citizens with God’s love and compassion."

Today Graham met with Elder Fu Xian-Wei, chairman of the Three Self Patriotic Movement, and Rev. Gao Feng, president of the China Christian Council, at the organizations’ national headquarters in Shanghai. "This donation is very important to the people of China because it shows the love of God for all people," said Rev. Gao. "This will encourage more Chinese people to do the same and to reach out to their neighbors in need. Franklin Graham's visit is bringing us much more understanding and encouragement for each other." Later in the day Graham met with the Shanghai Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee.

Myanmar Cyclone Aid Caught in Red Tape

Military junta limiting ability of relief groups to deliver and distribute food, medicine, shelter.

Prayer for Burma

Pioneer American missionary Adoniram Judson arrived in Burma in
1813. He was 24 years old and Burma was a hostile place. Judson
laboured for six years before seeing even one convert. In 1828 a
former slave and hardened criminal named Ko Tha Byu became the
first ethnic Karen to receive Christ. By God's grace Ko Tha Byu
became a mighty evangelist. After 18 years of ministry Judson
observed in 1831 that a 'spirit of inquiry' was spreading across
the whole land. Operation World (2000) estimates that Burma is now
8.7 percent Christian. The 70 percent Burmese majority is strongly
Buddhist, whilst the ethnic minorities are predominantly Christian.

In 1962 the Marxist-influenced military seized power in a coup.
Foreign missionaries were then expelled and all private (mostly
Christian mission) schools and hospitals were nationalised.
Political repression and isolation escalated further after the
major crackdown of 1988, and again after the junta received an
influx of arms and military hardware in 2005. The junta is no
longer defined by ideology but by its addiction to the perks of
totalitarian power. Its violent, corrupt, discriminatory and self-
serving regime fuels resistance to its rule, which the military
then violently represses. Thus goes the perpetual cycle of
conflict.

A genocidal conflict is presently being waged against the ethnic
Karen. (See 'Burmese Darfur: The Silent Genocide of Myanmar',
Spiegel online, 6 Sep 2007.) This has created around 540,000 IDPs
(internally displaced people) in eastern Burma and forced some
200,000 Karen into refugee camps on the Thai-Burma border. Most of
these refugees are Christians.

The United States 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA)
decrees that the US Commission of International Religious Freedom
(USCIRF) designate as Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) those
countries whose governments engage in or tolerate systematic and
egregious violations of religious liberty. Burma has always been on
the USCIRF's CPC list, being re-designated a CPC most recently on 2
May 2008. Over recent years the increasingly desperate and paranoid
junta has escalated its efforts -- as its official policy states --
to 'destroy the Christian religion in Burma'.

On 3 May 2008 the 190 km/hr (120 miles/hour) winds of Cyclone
Nargis ripped through Burma's Irrawaddy delta. The toll of injured,
dead and missing is spiralling upwards at a horrendous rate. On
Tuesday 6 May Burma's state television reported that 10,000
perished in the town of Bogalay alone. Rescue operations will be
difficult due to the remoteness of the disaster region which is a
major rice-producing area and home to 24 million people. The risk
of disease is high. However, Cyclone Nargis has blown open a door.
The junta that has kept Burma closed, isolated and violently
repressed for decades has now issued an appeal for international
assistance.

PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY FOR GOD TO --

* work through the affliction caused by Cyclone Nargis, to deliver
Burma from its affliction of violent, repressive, totalitarian
rule; may he open the ears of multitudes of Burmese to the
gospel of Jesus Christ.

'He delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ears
by their adversity' (Elihu, Job 36:15 ESV).

* bless all Burmese pastors, Christian leaders and teachers: inside
Burma; in the refugee camps; in the Burmese diaspora; and
especially those who are presently fleeing or suffering in
terror. May the Holy Spirit fill the leaders with the wisdom,
faith, grace and strength to shepherd the Lord's flock through
these difficult times.

--Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | No. 477 | Wed 07 May 2008

Good News for Embryos

The end may be in sight for the debate over "harvesting" human embryos for their stem-cells in the pursuit of possible medical cures. Apparently adult stem cells--those cells gotten from human body tissues and not embryos--have the potential to be just as versatile for medical research as ESCs--but without the need to kill nascent human life. An article in Newsweek:

In June 2006, a Japanese group led by Shinya Yamanaka reported the first successful result with mouse skin cells, and between November 2007 and January 2008, Yamanaka's group and two American groups led by James Thomson and George Daley at Harvard University all reported the successful reprogramming of human skin cells into a state that is indistinguishable from human embryonic cells. Over the last several months, progress made along this new scientific path has been breathtaking. The laboratory of Rudolf Jaenisch at MIT has taken in the lead in developing therapies with this new technique in mice, demonstrating a cure for a mouse version of sickle cell anemia and alleviating the symptoms of Parkinson's disease in mice.

What these scientists can now do is essentially to take any type of cell and turn it into the equivalent of an embryonic stem cell—without needing embryos or egg cells. So what exactly are these new cells? Cells are fundamentally defined not by where they come from, but by their program of gene activity. In this sense, the new cells should be called embryonic stem cells. And since they are genetically identical to the person who provided the original sample, they are technically embryonic cell clones of that person. But scientists have discovered the power of words to elicit positive or negative emotional responses. "Clone" and "embryo" are words to be avoided. And so by consensus, the new cells are being called induced pluripotent stem cells.

Researchers say more work must be done on the promising technique.

Obama Breaks Ties with Wright

Controversial remarks provoked Obama's denunciation.
By Sarah Pulliam