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President Obama continued his outreach to the world's Muslims today, sending greetings to pilgrims to Mecca. .... "Michelle and I would like to send our best wishes to all those performing Hajj this year, and to Muslims in America and around the world who are celebrating Eid-ul-Adha. The rituals of Hajj and Eid-ul-Adha both serve as reminders of the shared Abrahamic roots of three of the world’s major religions," Obama said in a statement. "During Hajj, the world’s largest and most diverse gathering, three million Muslims from all walks of life – including thousands of American Muslims – will stand...

You notice he's not going to Ft. Hood to build bridges to our troops or kissing the wounds of our brave soldiers.

The day after he was elected then President-elect Barack Obama sent Anti-Israel adviser Robert Mally to reach out to Syria. WASHINGTON [MENL] -- Presidential-elect Barack Obama has promised to improve U.S. relations with Egypt and Syria. Aides said Obama had sent senior foreign policy adviser Robert Malley to Egypt and Syria over the last few weeks to outline the Democratic candidate's policy on the Middle East. The aides said Malley, who served in the administration of President Bill Clinton, relayed a pledge from Obama that the United States would seek to enhance relations with Cairo as well as reconcile with...

Red shoulder hawk animation singing a Christian song, This Little Light of Mine! Song sung by Revski - o7jimmy!

HERAT, Afghanistan, Oct. 20, 2009 – Men, women and children from villages near here came to a cooperative medical engagement near Camp Zafar to receive medical care Oct. 6 through 8. U.S. and Italian medical personnel apply lotion to an Afghan child’s face during a cooperative medical engagement near Camp Stone, Afghanistan, Oct. 7, 2009. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Marc I. Lane  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Afghan soldiers and civilian medical personnel, with the assistance of Italian, Spanish and U.S. forces, treated more than 300 people every day of the event. The Afghan army sent...

What Nick Vujicic lacks in stature, he makes up for in faith. Vujicic, a 26-year-old man born without arms or legs, spoke about hope and faith in Jesus Christ to approximately 5,000 people at the Salt Palace Convention Center on Saturday night. Vujicic is using his unique situation to spread the message of being born again in Christ. An Australian native, Vujicic now resides in California where he runs his Christian ministry Life Without Limbs. “The world sees something special in a man without arms and legs,” Vujicic said. “I love being able to be used by God.” People’s reasons...

And in a big way. A lot of you have seen the great ads produced by a group called Catholics Come Home. The ads, evidently, are working. And spreading. From the Los Angeles Times: The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento is home to nearly 1 million Catholics. On a typical Sunday, less than 137,000 can be found in church. Now, using a strategy straight from the secular playbook, its leaders hope to lure back those who have drifted. The diocese and nearly a dozen others across the country are preparing to air several thousand prime-time TV commercials in English and...

WASHINGTON – The U.S. military is bungling its outreach to the Muslim world and squandering good will by failing to live up to its promises, the nation's highest-ranking military officer wrote Friday. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said there is too much emphasis on telling the U.S. story and not enough on building trust and credibility. "We hurt ourselves and the message we are trying to send when it appears we are doing something merely for the credit," Mullen wrote in an essay published in a military journal. "We hurt ourselves more when our words...

Sacramento, Calif., Aug 26, 2009 / 01:31 am (CNA).- Hoping to encourage at least 100,000 non-practicing Catholics to return to church, the Diocese of Sacramento is preparing a “come home” advertising campaign for this December and January. At Mass over the next several weeks, church leaders will outline the program and ask parishioners to help pay for the ads. The ads are produced by the Catholics Come Home project."There's a large number of people who have left the church and are waiting for an invitation to come back," Msgr. James Murphy, vicar general of the diocese, told the Sacramento...

Sacramento Catholic leaders hope TV commercials will achieve what the diocese has struggled to do for years: bring lapsed Catholics back to the church. In a series of feel-good commercials promoting the church, diocesan leaders are reaching out to Catholics who may not have attended church in years. It is the first time in recent memory the Sacramento Diocese has launched an advertising campaign. "There's a large number of people who have left the church and are waiting for an invitation to come back," said Monsignor James Murphy, vicar general of the diocese. "This is their invitation." The Sacramento Diocese...

"The questions [people are asking] have changed quite significantly in the past 30 years," he told me. "It used to be, 'Is there a God?' and now it's 'What I know about God I don't like.' Their biggest complaint is that God acts in morally inferior ways compared to us." Not only that, but the God who appears in the Bible is especially offensive. The God who gets communicated to the young sounds vengeful and angry and over-anxious to consign people to hell, plus he gets all wrought up about divorce, homosexuality and whether people sleep together before marriage --...

by Debra Medina, Republican candidate for Governor of Texas It’s a shame isn’t it, that Republicans continue to ignore Hispanics especially here in Texas? The writing has long been on the wall that unless the GOP begins to better work with Latinos, the GOP will continue to lose races and be a minority party. It is equally important, of course, for the Latino community to realize that true political identity will be achieved only through participation in all national party structures - Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Independent, etc. We are not all the same and we shouldn’t all be attracted to...

It took a couple of pints of Shock Top ale, but eventually Danyelle Price knew what she wanted to ask her pastor about the book of Psalms...Price, 31, was sitting in the Tavern bar with about 20 members of an after-church gathering called Austin Inklings and hosted by Immanuel Church. Like several other groups in Austin, the Inklings pair drinking with spontaneous dialogue about faith. Price said she thinks such groups should be called "Christians like beer, too."

Poll: If Jesus were on earth today in bodily form, would he frequent bars and pubs to befriend "sinners"? A Daily Poll

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Thursday urged fellow Republicans to welcome outsiders into the party ranks, not scorn them, as the GOP rebuilds from defeats that left the White House and Congress in Democratic hands. The potential 2012 presidential candidate, addressing a meeting of the Republican National Committee, appealed to members to build bridges to independents and conservative-leaning Democrats that would win converts and, in turn, elections. To move forward at a time when Republican numbers are shrinking in many states, the party should show "respect of those who don't agree with us," Pawlenty said. "Let's make sure that we...

Dearest, Beloved, and Everlasting God; It the past, it has been wonderfully nice to talk to you on my knees in prayer and it has always been a divine blessing to talk to you about the values of life and the fullness of family; my Beloved God Almighty, it has always seemed like you have had such great wisdom and optimism to give throughout the very fibre of my being! I know that it has been years since I actually set down and wrote you a letter through prayer from the heart; yet, I have at times been afraid to...

Exodus Youth, part of the evangelical ministry Exodus International that deals with the issue of homosexuality, is aiming to reverse a "disturbing" trend seen across churches and perceived widely by young Americans – that the Church is anti-homosexual. Homosexuality is a topic that churches are still struggling to address in a culture that is increasingly accepting gay and lesbian lifestyles. It's a struggle that hasn't come across to many Americans in a positive light. "I think for a long time, the church just hasn't known how to talk about homosexuality," said Exodus Youth Director Scott Davis. "They've been very uncomfortable...

My 16 year old daughter made this video to a song she loves by Sarah Kelley, Living Hallelujah! Enjoy...

Rick Warren on July 4th spoke at the Islamic society of North America’s annual conference (ISNA.) Warren talked about Christians and Muslims working together to fight what he calls the big five, spiritual emptiness, corrupt leadership, extreme poverty, pandemic disease, and illiteracy or lack of education. This sounds good until you think about it for a second.   Even though everyone should want the best for themselves and their neighbors, there is something wrong with what Warren proposes. We should love our neighbors but Warren seems to have has his priorities all wrong. The Gospel is the first priority but...

WASHINGTON, DC – Defying some of his fellow conservative Christian critics, one of the most prominent religious leaders in the country told several thousand American Muslims on Saturday that "the two largest faiths on the planet" must work together to combat stereotypes and solve global problems. "Some problems are so big you have to team tackle them," evangelical megachurch pastor Rick Warren addressed the annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). Warren said Muslims and Christians should be partners in working to end what he calls "the five global giants" of war, poverty, corruption, disease, and illiteracy....

Irrespective of race, it seems that nowadays the primary question asked when deciding which party to support is, “What will you do for me (and my downtrodden brethren)?” Looking at the “comments” section of an article about diversifying the GOP, it’s clear that for many African Americans, the answer expected from and assumed of Republicans is: nothing. (One of Asim’s reader’s comments: ” The Republican Party has not done anything in recent time to warrant an AFRICAN AMERICAN caring about it.”) This despite the fact that it was Richard Nixon who signed the first major application of affirmative action into...

Please view the link below; enter a birth date and watch Anthem V1 & V2. http://cervezatecate.com/ Why in the HELL is the RNC not all over this demographic with commercials like this. Hispanics/Mexicans, whomever are ardent conservatives and the RNC has not reached them. These ads run during Friday Night Fights on ESPN. Large waves of southern immigration are changing our politics, and most Republicans believe the most effective way to reach them- which we know doesn't work- is to reward lawbreakers with citizenship and hope for the best. And please don't call us racists or we're gonna cry and...

Islamic Society convention lands appearance from Rick WarrenThe Indiana-based Islamic Society of North America will be holding its annual convention -- the largest yearly gathering of Muslims on the continent -- in Washington, D.C. over the Fourth of July weekend. And while convention leaders are holding out hope that President Barack Obama might make the convention his latest stop in his outreach to the Muslim world, the convention has landed another pretty big fish as a featured speaker.Purpose-Driven pastor Rick Warren has agreed to appear at the convention and be part of its main session discussing the convention's theme --...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican Party needs to broaden its base rather than move farther to the political right to make gains against President Barack Obama's Democrats, former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday. "Let's debate the future of the party. And let's let all the segments of the party come in," Powell, a Republican who served in President George W. Bush's Cabinet but endorsed Obama last year, told CBS's "Face the Nation."

This video arrangement has an Merlin falcon expounding the Biblical New Testament scripture verse John 3:16-17.

In a sign that the world may be coming to an end, the head of the Republican party says he wants a mic check. Word? Word. Michael Steele, the head of Republican National Committee, wants his party to become the Grand Ol' Hip-Hop Party. Respect. The new head of the party, and the first African-American to ever fill his chair, wants to spin an "off the hook" public relations blitz into "urban-suburban hip-hop settings" in hopes of getting young Latinos, African-Americans and others down with the good beats to rep the elephant and to rep him hard, son. "We need...

The Scene: A fictitious meeting in the new era of the GOP’s ever-expanding “big tent.” ------------------------------- I had the pleasure of sitting down to dinner with two members of my county Republican Party steering committee this week to discuss the GOP’s options as we move into the 2010 election cycle. I was joined by Dr. Eric von Dersgarten (of the Rhine Valley Dersgartens, of course) and Cecilia Montgomery. Ms. Montgomery chose the venue for our meeting and I have to say it was one of the most unusual ever, nicely setting the tone for what was to come. It was...

When Pastor Rick Warren’s “Global Peace Coalition” presented President Bush with the International Medal of Peace recently, one of the groups invited to attend the ceremony was the Islamic Society of North America—one of the unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation Hamas funding trial: ISNA ATTENDS SADDLEBACK CHURCH CIVIL FORUM ON GLOBAL HEALTH. This event took place after the convictions of the Holy Land Foundation defendants.

<p>Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ 2000 years ago. In the days of the Kingdom of Israel, when David and Solomon reigned, a king who was named by God would have oil poured over their heads prior to ruling. This is called "Anointing". The Hebrew form of this word is “Mashiach” which is anglo-ized into "Messiah".</p>

An overwhelming majority of conservatives understand that we must not emulate the Bush haters. Liberals believe in a cult of personality. Conservatives believe in ideas. Our support of President Bush is linked first and foremost to policy. Likewise, our opposition to President-elect Obama is based on policy. But for those who will soon join us as they see the harm of liberal policies and become disillusioned: your opposition to Obama must be based on the issues and on what he does.

John McCain is a class act. A good and decent man who loves his country and that is why he lost. What has been made absolutely clear in this election is that the Republican Party has an abundance of class acts when what it really needs are hard core community organizers. On Tuesday, my Democrat neighborhood was inundated with canvassers leaving posters of Democrat candidates and offering assistance to get to the poll. I have never seen a Republican do the same but then I've always lived in the poorer part of town. Back in 1999, I was asked to...

NEW YORK – Transition officials call it Obama 2.0 — an ambitious effort to transform the president-elect's vast Web operation and database of supporters into a modern new tool to accomplish his goals in the White House. If it works, the new president could have an unprecedented ability to appeal for help from millions of Americans who already favor his ideas, bypassing the news media to pressure Congress."He's built the largest network anyone has ever seen in politics, and congressional Republicans are clueless about the communications shift that has happened," Democratic strategist Joe Trippi proclaims. The results, he says, "will...

Based on the prostitutes' voter registration cards, they're destined to become Obama girls in November. That's because 78 percent of them registered as Democrats.

New McCain ad blames Obama and Democrats for death of immigration overhaul effort.(CNN) – John McCain’s campaign is running a Spanish language ad in battleground states that blames Barack Obama and Senate Democrats for the failure of attempts to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws — even though the Republican nominee and his Democratic counterpart cast identical votes in the key Senate showdowns on that issue last year “Obama and his congressional allies say they are on the side of immigrants. But are they?” asks the announcer in the 30-second spot, “Which Side Are They On?” “The press reports that their...

In this new ad, McCain praises immigrants as Symbols of Hope.

ARLINGTON, Va., Sept. 12 /Standard Newswire/ -- Today, McCain-Palin 2008 released its latest Spanish television ad, entitled "Which Side Are They On?" The ad highlights Barack Obama's record of saying that he supports immigration reform but actually backing "poison pill" amendments meant to undermine the bipartisan compromise for reform. The ad will air in Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico. VIEW THE AD HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyKGHvRL2_U Direct link to adEnglish Script For "Which Side Are They On?" (TV:30) ANNCR: Obama and his Congressional allies say they are on the side of immigrants. But are they? The press reports that their efforts were...

Obama's Muslim Outreach Coordinator, Mazen Asbahi, resigned in August after only ten days in his position, when it was revealed that he had ties to groups associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. The question is no longer about what kind of judgment was used in bringing Asbahi on a campaign that has been plague with questionable advisors and mentors, but whether Asbahi has actually left. Asbahi's official stint on the Obama team ended when it came to light that he was one of six trustees of Allied Asset Advisors Funds, a subsidiary of "subsidiary of the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT)...

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (Reuters) – Republican nominee John McCain said in an interview aired on Sunday he would bring Democrats into his Cabinet and administration as part of his attempt to change the political atmosphere in Washington. "I don't know how many, but I can tell you, with all due respect to previous administrations, it is not going to be a single, 'Well, we have a Democrat now,"' McCain said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "It's going to be the best people in America, the smartest people in America," he said in an interview taped on Saturday. Both McCain and...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Gov. Sarah Palin's church is promoting a conference that promises to convert gays into heterosexuals through the power of prayer.

A friend of mine recently put me up to trying out for a radio show. We both assumed it was in a typical airwave format. But it turned-out to be "internet radio," instead. Anyway, I got one of the slots that opened up, and I now am in the eighth week of airing a half-hour show in my talk-show format. Since the series is still fairly new, I am still canvassing some pretty broad topics, in an overview approach to each. I hope to start narrowing the focus in the next few weeks, however. As a general rule, the show...

For years, Juan Hernandez was a familiar sight at Joe T. Garcia’s — strolling among diners and singing as a local troubadour. His work there led to singing at weddings and recording albums in Spanish and English. He earned enough money to pay for graduate school and learned lessons that would help him through the years, said his father, Francisco Hernandez Sr. "His years as a troubadour gave him so much time working with people," he said. "He learned to win the appreciation of people." That may have helped, as Juan Hernandez — a lightning rod because of his passionate...

It may not be inclusive or politically correct, but the unabashed aim of The Grove Church in Peoria, IL, is to attract one hitherto unreached demographic: men. Inspired by David Murrow's Why Men Hate Going To Church, Murrow and Pastor Mark Doebler freely admit they are inventing a new style of worship. "We're not going after low-hanging fruit," said Murrow. "We're building a ladder to reach men, the fruit most churches ignore." The first couple of rungs were hammered together in Peoria, IL, on a September weekend when the Murrow conducted a Church for Men Summit in the city and...

I do want John McCain to win in November. Consider the alternative. I've personally been told to tread easy and not make the McCain Campaign mad, but there's certain things that need be said, and I'm proud of my tendency of saying things that need be said by those who don't want to make waves. John McCain's overtures to black groups like the NAACP, and now the Urban League may make for well-needed press, but at the same time, why do Republicans continue to ignore the one group of black folk they KNOW will vote for them: black Republicans?

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Facing a tough crowd, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain opened with an attack on his opponent Friday before a polite but unenthusiastic audience at the National Urban League's convention. "(Sen. Barack Obama's) ideas are not always as impressive as his rhetoric," said McCain in the opening sentences of his 11 a.m. speech. The presumed Republican presidential candidate spoke to a crowd of about 1,500 in the Orlando World Center Marriott Resort and Convention Center. McCain also slammed Obama's failure to support school vouchers and school choice for parents, Local 6 News partner Florida Today reported. "Where...

Israel’s Ministry of Interior has decided to reinstate an old regulation that is threatening to cripple, if not shut down, several Christian ministries by limiting the time volunteers can spend serving in Israel to 27 months. The ruling was as sudden as it was drastic. The effects began to be felt earlier this month when three volunteers from Christian Friends of Israel, assuming their visas would be renewed at the Interior Ministry under the previous five-year agreement, were instead told they had two weeks to pack up and leave the country.

In their speeches this week to the National Council of La Raza, Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain illustrated why the American public holds Congress — and politicians in general — in such low regard, particularly on the issue of illegal immigration.

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama and John McCain vie for African-American votes this week with appearances before the NAACP convention in Cincinnati, a stop with potential opportunities and pitfalls for both candidates.

John McCain today is poised to make the biggest mistake of his 2008 presidential run. The presumptive Republican nominee will address the annual convention of the National Council of La Raza in San Diego. La Raza is billed by too many as simply "the nation's largest Hispanic rights group." But this is perhaps the most radical apologist group for illegal immigration and the "rights" of illegal aliens -- and worse.

Dozens of Fox Valley Hispanics will get the chance to talk with Sen. John McCain, the Republican Party's nominee for president, later this month. And they'll get to do it for free. McCain will be in Chicago on June 18 for a fundraiser at the Drake Hotel, but he'll stick around that night to hold a town hall meeting with Illinois Hispanics. » Click to enlarge image John McCain to speak in Chicago More than 100 are expected to attend, according to the meeting's organizers, Julie Brady and Gabriela Wyatt. Brady, of St. Charles, is the deputy co-chairman of McCain's...