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QUESTION: Should we make an issue out of Bible translations? ANSWER: Only if you believe anything OUT of it.

[...] Ilan Ramon was a Jew but not religious. Rick Husband, his commander, was a born-again Christian. He sometimes attended a church near Cape Canaveral where the preacher, remembering him on Sunday, made a point of saying that Rick was going to heaven, but "I don't know about the others." Still, the secular Jew and the Bible-thumping choirboy were closer than friends, really — they spoke of one another as family. The Ramons used to invite the Husbands over for Friday-night dinners — all the crew families, in fact — and the bonds cemented. [...]

MIDI - ALL OUT OF LOVE It’s twenty one weeks and the baby is ill But what is the doctor to do? He’s there in the womb and there isn’t much hope A miracle soon comes true Mom says “Operate…because Samuel needs help” The whole thing is very well planned The doctor’s surprised when his finger is grabbed “My God, it is Samuel’s hand…tiny hand They’re not tissue mass…they are not a choice, now Come join if you will…by raising your voice now They’re not tissue mass…my God, they are babies Abortion is wrong…it’s got to be stopped somehow...

The corpses of white Zimbabweans are piling up in Harare mortuaries because there is no gas to fire the capital's only crematorium. Black Zimbabweans traditionally bury their dead and undertakers said only whites ask for cremations. But a crippling shortage of fuel has closed Warren Hills crematorium and some mortuaries have been forced to hold bodies in refrigerators for more than three weeks. In the midsummer heat, the corpses will soon start to deteriorate but the crematorium's pleas have been ignored. The Rev Noel Alfon, an Anglican priest who runs a funeral and cremation service, said: "We have phoned the...

LINK U.S. courts disaster by plotting a war. Instead, a strategy of rights and respect is needed. By Bouthaina Shaaban DAMASCUS, Syria -- Every morning, people here read their newspapers to find out the latest image that Westerners have carved of them to fit the West's own objectives and agendas. For the last two years, Arabs in the Middle East have never stopped being surprised at what is made of them, their religion, their intentions and their national character. Now comes the possibility that the United States, with or without the United Nations, will go to war with Iraq. Because...

Whenever we get theological threads, everyone makes the same arguments. I thought I'd come at these issues from another angle. I'd like to see your comments on the following quotes: "Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for behold, the kingdom of God is wihtin you." -- Luke 17:21 "Heaven and Hell are states of consciousness." -- Dr.Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind, page 337. "Heaven is not a place or a time. Heaven is being perfect." -- Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull And from Jesus himself, though I don't have specific chapter and verse handy: "Be ye...

The Four Last Things have been reduced to two. Modern Christians don’t deny Death, although they don’t like to think about it, and if they believe in an afterlife, they look forward to a pleasant Heaven. However, the other certainty, Judgment, and the other possibility, Hell, have vanished from the minds of Christians. Surely God is non-judgmental, as non-judgmentalism is one of the few virtues that receive public tribute. And surely no one goes to hell, if it exists. The strong universalist strain in modern Christianity has many variations, ranging from the hope that all will be saved, held by...

THOSE NOW GONE ---- by Roger W Hancock Fallen Servicemen, for country fought; liberty, freedom, the primary reason. They gave themselves, that we be free. Fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers; our dearly departed, life for country given. Families broken, for liberty. Veterans who served, and lived to tell; the horrors, and risks, now sleep in peace. Served their country, for our security. Unknown Soldier, MIA, remembrance our way, to honor you as well, victims of a warriors hell. Served, now lost that, our lives be free. Sleep now Sleep tight rest now, duty done, price paid in life or death....

The worst may not be over in Zimbabwe. If every white farmer were hacked to death and his farm consigned to ruin, the worst might not be over. The worst is what faces not a few thousand whites but a few million blacks: the Matabele people. My evidence is anecdotal, sketchy and based on unsourced information, but a boyhood spent there lends me confidence to back my hunch. My fears are sharpened by those in Zimbabwe to whom I have been speaking this week. The majority Mashona tribe who occupy the richer, northern part of the country centred on Harare,...

A new mood of moral rectitude is targeting French self-indulgence, Harry de Quetteville reports from Paris France's reputation as the European capital of libertinism is at risk after a complete ban on pornography being shown on television was proposed last week. Proposed, not acted upon. How much do you want to bet this will be "stuck in committee" for a while? - IvanA crusading movement with leading members at the heart of the centre-Right government has called for centuries of self-indulgence - from the Moulin Rouge nightclub to more recent swingers' clubs - to be rolled back in favour of...

HOLLOW APOLOGIES: THE DIRTY BOMB OF UNACCOUNTABILITY By: Daniel Sargis A dollar used to be able to buy something and apologies used to have some substance. But in contemporary America, an apology is nothing more than another perverted dénouement in our societal soap opera of the unaccountable. For all practical purposes, the morals of American society have devolved into an infinite loop of malice with the following sequence: 1. Commission of immoral and/or illegal deeds 2. Apprehension (being discovered) 3. Attempt at a cover-up through denial, lies & disinformation (more lies) 4. Assumption of "Victim" status & begrudging guilt ("It...

LifeSite Daily News Wednesday October 2, 2002 LOW BIRTH RATE PUTS CANADA ON ROAD TO PERDITION TORONTO, October 2, 2002 (LSN.ca) - A prominent economics reporter with the Globe and Mail is one of the few Canadian opinion-makers to have said anything at all about the failure of Canadians to have children, historically a key sign of a doomed culture. "Canadian couples are not having enough kids even to replace themselves -- and have not for more than three decades now." "So long as we Canadians don't replace ourselves, we put ourselves on a path that's almost impossible to alter,"...

Saturday, August 14, 1999 New ideas about heaven and hell are being suggested By JUDY TARJANYI Toledo Blade A multitude of words about heaven and hell lies within the pages of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the writings of Christianity's church fathers. But when Pope John Paul II chose a few to elaborate on in two recent addresses, he made headlines, even though he was merely drawing on current church teaching in his descriptions of the afterlife. "The Pope drastically lowered the temperature of hell," crowed a report from the British newspaper, The Guardian. An July 29 article...

The giant aircraft carriers of the US Navy are run like modern cities, boasting 2,400 telephones, six-channel television, five dentists, four shops, two barbers’ shops, two lawyers and one post office. On any one day more than 17,000 meals are being prepared and served for the 5,600-strong crew. Boarding one is like entering a time warp back to the former Deep South. In the bowels of the carrier, where the crew are cooped up for six months at a time, manual workers sleep dozens to a room. Most are black or Puerto Rican, paid $7,000 to $10,000 a year to...

After weeks of pressure from its allies around the globe, America has signalled that it may be willing after all to seek United Nations backing for a war in Iraq. In a parallel attempt to head off domestic critics, President George W Bush is expected to ask Congress for an explicit motion of support before launching military action, despite recent declarations by his legal advisers that he has the right to act without formal congressional approval. Officials in Washington and at the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas, are engaged in a fierce discussion over whether to involve the UN one...

The SAS has reconnoitred the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe in preparation for a possible evacuation of British citizens, defence officials said yesterday. The purpose of their mission was to identify a number of coordination points inside Zimbabwe where the Britons, mainly white farmers, could be collected before a mass convoy into South Africa. The Ministry of Defence's Permanent Joint Headquarters at Northwood, Middlesex, has also drawn up plans for an RAF evacuation of other British citizens by plane from Harare airport. The contingency plans to move the estimated 20,000 British citizens inside Zimbabwe include the use of RAF...

A heartless New York landlord is suing relatives of a September 11 victim, claiming she is owed £18,000 in unpaid rent. Denise Lyman said tenant Danielle Kousoulis, killed when hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Centre, should have given three months notice before leaving her flat. Ms Kousoulis, 29, signed a £1,700-a-month lease for the city apartment 10 days before dying in the disaster. She worked on the 104th floor of the World Trade Centre's north tower as a vice president for trading firm Cantor Fitzgerald. Greedy Her family have been told by the the landlord she is an...

Hillary and Hell examining the effects of Hillary and Hell in conjunciton with the endothermic/exothermic debate Hillary Rodham Clinton can have several effects on the place known as Hell based upon her actions. Here is a cause and effect analysis of her actions and their effect on Hell 1. CAUSE: Hillary wins the Presidency of the United States of America. EFFECT: Regardless of wether Hell is endo/exo-thermic, the temparature in Hell would drop dramatically. In other words, Hell would suddenly freeze over. Specific areas of Hell would be affected by this freeze. The highway to hell would be covered in...

President Robert Mugabe named a new, hardline cabinet yesterday, retaining his most loyal lieutenants and purging the last voice of dissent, to leave Zimbabwe facing more repression and economic hardship. For the first time since independence from Britain in 1980 there are no white men in the cabinet after Timothy Stamps, the health minister, was dropped. Mr Stamps, who had been away from his desk since a heart attack last year, was replaced by his deputy, David Parirenyatwa. Mr Stamps had difficulties fulfilling his duties, but the move was none the less highly symbolic. In his first major reshuffle for...

One major difference between Protestants and Catholics is that Catholics pray for the dead. As Cardinal Ratzinger said so well, "My view is that if Purgatory did not exist, we should have to invent it." Why? "Because few things are as immediate, as human and as widespread - at all times and in all cultures - as prayer for one's own departed dear ones." Calvin, the Protestant reformer of Geneva, had a woman whipped because she was discovered praying at the grave of her son and hence was guilty, according to Calvin, of "superstition." "In theory, the Reformation refuses...