Syrian Christians turning to Russia for protection

The Russian media is reporting on the persecution of Christians in Syria, but we hear nothing?

About 50,000 Syrian Christians want to apply for Russian citizenship. In a letter to the Russian Foreign Ministry, they said that they were not planning to flee Syria, but if threatened with physical elimination, they would pin their hopes on Russia as the guarantor of their survival. Analysts think that despite the difficulties their request may involve, it won’t go unheeded.

The letter reached Moscow through diplomatic channels. It says that the West-backed terrorists are prepared to go to any lengths to wipe Christians out of Syria. The authors of the letter have no intention of fleeing the “land on where Jesus walked” and promise to defend their “homeland, dignity and faith”. They see Russia as the guarantor of “peace and stability”. They are not asking for money or humanitarian aid, but just hope to obtain Russian citizenship. “We will be under the protection of Russia if we face the threat of being physically eliminated by terrorists,” the letter says.

Considering what’s going on in Syria, their wish to have Russian passports looks justified, Stanislav Tarasov, Director of the Middle East-Caucasus research center, told the Voice of Russia.

“For them, it’s a laissez-passer. No one knows what will happen to Syria. Some forecasts suggest that, with or without Assad, Syria may become a confederation, or it may split into three or four parts and cease being single state. That’s why the Syrian Christians are trying to secure Russia’s support,” he said.

About 50,000 Syrians put their signatures under the address – medics, engineers, lawyers and businessmen residing in the Kalamoun area near Damascus. The fact that so many people signed the letter throws weight behind it, but on the other hand it makes things more complicated for Russia, said Sergei Sergeichev, a senior fellow at the Institute for Middle East Studies in Moscow.

“Not that it puts us in an awkward situation, but it sort of diverts the Russian Foreign Ministry’s efforts as the ministry is obliged to react to that address", says Sergeichev. "We cannot say ‘no’ to those people. But if we say ‘yes’ and then something happens, then we will have to evacuate huge numbers of Russian citizens. And it doesn’t matter whether those are people solely with Russian citizenship or they have two passports – Russian and Syrian. If the president orders evacuation, they will have to be evacuated, which is a very complicated rescue operation.”

Syria is not the only country where Christians do not feel safe. According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life research organization, Christians are persecuted and harassed in 130 countries.

Today, Christians are the most persecuted religious community. Every hour, one Christian is killed in the world. They are killed because of their faith.
Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/2013_10_16/Syrian-Christians-turning-to-Russia-for-protection-8756/

Father Yahweh, have mercy!

xtnyoda, shalomed

Bashing Christian Students and the Bible

Here is some good old Christian bashing from those who adhere to the idea of openness to discuss differing ideas and beliefs.

http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/anti-bullying-speaker-curses-mocks-christian-teens.html

As many as 100 high school students walked out of a national journalism conference after an anti-bullying speaker began cursing, attacked the Bible and reportedly called those who refused to listen to his rant “pansy assed.”

The speaker was Dan Savage, founder of the "It Gets Better" project, an anti-bullying campaign that has reached more than 40 million viewers ..... Savage was supposed to be delivering a speech about anti-bullying at the National High School Journalism Conference sponsored by the Journalism Education Association and the National Scholastic Press Association. But it turned into an episode of Christian-bashing.

Rick Tuttle, the journalism advisor for Sutter Union High School in California, was among several thousand people in the audience. He said they thought the speech was one thing – but it turned into something else.

“I thought this would be about anti-bullying,” Tuttle told Fox news. “It turned into a pointed attack on Christian beliefs.”

Tuttle said a number of his students were offended by Savage’s remarks – and some decided to leave the auditorium.  “It became hostile,” he said. “It felt hostile as we were sitting in the audience – especially towards Christians who espouse beliefs that he was literally taking on.”

.... They interviewed a 17-year-old girl who was one of students who walked out of the auditorium.

“The first thing he told the audience was, ‘I hope you’re all using birth control,’” she told CitizenLink. “he said there are people using the Bible as an excuse for gay bullying, because it says in Leviticus and Romans that being gay is wrong. Right after that, he said we can ignore all the (expletive deleted) in the Bible.”

As the teenagers were walking out, Tuttle said that Savage heckled them and called them pansy-assed.

“You can tell the Bible guys in the hall they can come back now because I’m done beating up the Bible,” Savage said as other students hollered and cheered. “It’s funny as someone who is on the receiving end of beatings that are justified by the Bible how pansy-assed people react when you push back.” ......

Ah yes, the tolerant left dealing with children.


xtnyoda, shalomed

Being "born-again" leads to mental illness

I guess this story speaks for itself in many ways. A group from Duke University has decided that the Christian experience of being "born-again" leads to brain atrophy? Oh, they did study an astounding 268 people to come up with this discovery.

So if you claim to have been "born-again" then you are subject to be considered in danger of a mental disorder.

(HealthDay News) -- Older adults who say they've had a life-changing religious experience are more likely to have a greater decrease in size of the hippocampus, the part of the brain critical to learning and memory, new research finds.

According to the study, people who said they were a "born-again" Protestant or Catholic, or conversely, those who had no religious affiliation, had more hippocampal shrinkage (or "atrophy") compared to people who identified themselves as Protestants, but not born-again.

As people age, a certain amount of brain atrophy is expected. Shrinkage of the hippocampus is also associated with depression, dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

In the study, researchers asked 268 people aged 58 to 84 about their religious affiliation, spiritual practices and life-changing religious experiences. Over the course of two to eight years, changes to the hippocampus were monitored using MRI scans.

The researchers suggested that stress over holding religious beliefs that fall outside of the mainstream may help explain the findings.

"One interpretation of our finding -- that members of majority religious groups seem to have less atrophy compared with minority religious groups -- is that when you feel your beliefs and values are somewhat at odds with those of society as a whole, it may contribute to long-term stress that could have implications for the brain," Amy Owen, lead author of the study and a research associate at Duke University Medical Center, said in a Duke news release.

The study authors also suggested that life-changing religious experiences could challenge a person's established religious beliefs, triggering stress.

"Other studies have led us to think that whether a new experience you consider spiritual is interpreted as comforting or stressful may depend on whether or not it fits in with your existing religious beliefs and those of the people around you," David Hayward, research associate at Duke University Medical Center, added. "Especially for older adults, these unexpected new experiences may lead to doubts about long-held religious beliefs, or to disagreements with friends and family."

The researchers noted other factors related to hippocampal atrophy, such as age, depression or brain size, as well as other religious factors such as prayer or meditation, could not explain the study's findings.

I would just laugh this off ... but ... this kind of persecution always begins small ... then the lie grows and is broadcast more widely ... without going back to see where the whole lie began.

So, we document it today.

xtnyoda, shalomed

Lawsuit: Prayer rally promotes 'rabid Christian agenda'

You just had to know that the Governor's call to fasting and prayer would not go unchallenged ...

An atheist organization is suing Texas Governor Rick Perry, a possible presidential candidate, for initiating a private prayer event scheduled for August 6 in Houston.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation is suing in federal court over Perry's upcoming prayer event ....

One News Now article

Gets to be kind of fun after a while doesn't it!

xtnyoda, shalomed

Discrimination against Christians is quite the acceptable position in America these days.

"Freedom of Religion" has grown into "Freedom FROM Religion" as long as it is Christianity that is the religion we are to be freed from.

Yahoo news report

Scientist alleges religious discrimination in Ky.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – An astronomer argues that his Christian faith and his peers' belief that he is an evolution skeptic kept him from getting a prestigious job as the director of a new student observatory at the University of Kentucky.

Martin Gaskell quickly rose to the top of a list of applicants being considered by the university's search committee. One member said he was "breathtakingly above the other applicants." Others openly worried his Christian faith could conflict with his duties as a scientist, calling him "something close to a creationist" and "potentially evangelical."
...
Gaskell later learned that professors had discussed his purported religious views during the search process.... University scientists wondered to each other in internal e-mails if Gaskell's faith would interfere with the job, which included public outreach, according to court records.... "We might as well have the Creation Museum set up an outreach office in biology," biology professor James Krupa wrote to a colleague in an October 2007 e-mail. The museum was making national headlines at the time for exhibits that assert the literal truth of the Bible's creation story.
...
Gaskell was uniquely qualified for the new position at the University of Kentucky, according to court records, because he oversaw the design and construction of an observatory at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He also advised UK during the building of the MacAdam facility. He currently teaches at the University of Texas....

Christians are a great embarrassment to our society you know... esp. the brand of Christian that holds to the sacred scriptures as worthy of serious contemplation for fruitful living.

xtnyoda, shalomed

If the adherents of a religion cannot make it a truly "peaceful" religion... then they obviously will try to pass laws that would make it illegal to call the said religion "non-peaceful"... and this now on a world wide scale.

... So it goes kind of like this... "Ours is a religion of peace and tolerance... and if you say anything otherwise then we will lock you up in a prison for spewing hatred."

Where does logic like this come from?

One News Now

Pro-Islam U.N. resolution nearing vote

The United Nations is about to consider the "Defamation of Religions Resolution" -- but as Open Doors USA points out, the measure is really designed to protect only one religion: Islam.

The resolution, which has been floated at the U.N. in various forms for more than a decade, is touted as promoting tolerance and protecting religious freedom. "But in reality it does the exact opposite of that," explains Lindsey Vessey, a spokesperson for Open Doors USA.

"It's a resolution that is backed by the Organization of Islamic Conference States," she continues, "and it seeks to criminalize words or actions that are deemed to be against particular religions -- and of course we can guess what that is. It's particularly to protect Islam."

Vessey says the measure was originally introduced in 1999 as the "Defamation of Islam" resolution, but language was changed later to broaden its appeal. It contains multiple mentions of Islam, but only one of Christians and Jews. She explains that in its current form, it would give international legitimacy to blasphemy laws.

"So [it is] basically taking [those] laws in certain countries like Egypt and Pakistan that make it illegal to say anything negative of Islam, or anything that can even be perceived as negative of Islam and the Prophet Mohammed, ...and making that something that would be on an international scale," she says. According to Vessey, it could eventually impact the United States.

Open Doors has launched an online advocacy campaign -- "Free to Believe" -- that allows individuals to voice their opposition to the Defamation of Religions Resolution. The resolution is expected to be voted on later this week in a United Nations committee, and will likely be voted on before the General Assembly early next month.

And... how do you delude a "world body" such as the UN, that is supposed to be built on a mission for peace and tolerance... into becoming a voice and advocate for worldwide discrimination against those that simply speak the truth about the intentions... clearly taught... by an opposing group?

I don't know if you understand demonic delusion... but here it is on display for all to see... that have eyes to see.

xtnyoda, shalomed