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A liberal Kansas organization called the Mainstream Coalition is sending volunteers to monitor Sunday sermons by conservative preachers with the implied threat that they'll report the ministers to the IRS if they mix religion and politics. The volunteers – including many who are not Christians – represent an organization that was founded by retired Presbyterian minister Robert "Bob" Meneilly. *** The Mainstream Coalition was founded by Meneilly after he served as senior pastor of Village Presbyterian Church in Prairie Village, Kan., from 1949 to 1995. It is one of two like-minded groups that are attempting to muzzle conservative Christians. The...

The Presbyterian Church USA represents one of the dying branches of mainline Christianity in America today. Go into most PCUSA churches and you are more likely to hear the gospel of political correctness preached than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The denomination is one of several plunging headlong into apostasy. As a former Presbyterian, I know. Nevertheless, even with the denomination in such an advanced state of moral and spiritual decay, it was disappointing to witness its General Assembly vote overwhelmingly to side with Yasser Arafat and his terrorist hordes over the only freedom-loving country in the Middle East. That's...

(RNS) The Presbyterian Church (USA), under fire from Jewish groups for its funding of messianic Jewish congregations and a move to divest from Israel, is appealing to both faiths to respect whatever "fragility of trust" still exists between them. In a three-page statement issued late Tuesday, Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick defended recent church votes that one prominent Jewish group called "hostile and aggressive." "I encourage Presbyterians to maintain their relationships with people of other faiths, with sensitivity to the fragility of trust in the present climate of violence and terror," said Kirkpatrick, the church's highest elected official. Church headquarters in...

"The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. An evil soul producing holy witness is like a villain with a smiling cheek, a goodly apple rotten at the heart. O what a goodly outside falsehood hath!" -- William Shakespeare The Presbyterian Church USA is vying for the title of the leader of America's Irreligious Left. It has done so by sanctimoniously weighing in on a complex foreign-policy issue, announcing this month that tiny Israel is an evil, undemocratic state akin to a racist South Africa. Say what? The Presbyterian Church's leaders, upset with Israel, which dares to defend itself from...

I received the following email from a coworker, but unlike her, I can see through this little liberal scheme. Please take a moment to see what this Witherspoon Society is about and offer them feedback as they so requested. Thanks, Dr. Marten ********************************* Email: Hi everyone, I know the political e-mails are spreading and increasing like wildfire as November gets closer. However, I read this one and promptly put my hair up in a red pen. it is so easy, yet potentially powerful. Take a look! love, ###### www.witherspoonsociety.org/2004/wear_red.htm Just wear red. A suggestion for protest: My name is Nadia...

Presbyterian church defames Christianity Dennis Prager (archive) TownHall July 20, 2004 | Print | Send I have argued in this column that the greatest sin is committing evil in God's name. As bad as the evil committed by secularists, such as communists and Nazis, has ever been, the most grievous evil is that which is committed in the name of God. For not only do religious evils harm their victims, they also do lasting damage to God-based morality, which those of us who believe in God and religion consider the only viable antidote to evil. That is why Islamic terror...

I have argued in this column that the greatest sin is committing evil in God's name. As bad as the evil committed by secularists, such as communists and Nazis, has ever been, the most grievous evil is that which is committed in the name of God. For not only do religious evils harm their victims, they also do lasting damage to God-based morality, which those of us who believe in God and religion consider the only viable antidote to evil. That is why Islamic terror is so evil. Not only because it targets the most innocent of people for death...

Leaders of the Presbyterian Church in the US approved a divestment campaign against Israel in a series of annual resolutions that included a condemnation of Israel's security fence, a decision to continue funding churches aimed at converting Jews to Christianity and a disavowal of Christian Zionism as a legitimate theological stance. In a vote of 431 to 62, the 216th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA compared Israel's policies to those of South Africa and approved gathering data to support a selective divestment of holdings in multinational corporations doing business in Israel/ Palestine, a July 2 church release noted....

Jewish liberals received a shock last week. The liberal Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) declared war on Israel at is annual General Assembly meeting, approving a divestment campaign from Israel with 87 percent of the vote, casting the Holy Land as the new South Africa. The shock was doubly painful since liberal Jews believe that liberal churches are supposed to be their allies in all kinds of common fights.     Jewish liberals frequently warn that Christian conservatives are not allies of the Jews and do not share Jewish values. There is a genuine fear by liberal Jews that other Jews might walk off the liberal plantation, and create...

By an overwhelming vote of its general assembly, the Presbyterian Church USA, boasting 3 million members, is siding with Palestinian Arabs and against Israel, choosing to divest from the Jewish state as it did only with apartheid South Africa. With the decision, approved in a 431-62 vote at the 216th annual general assembly of the PCUSA, the denomination is believed to be the largest organization or institution to join the divestment campaign against Israel. It is the first Christian denomination to do so. In 2001, the combined value of the church's foundation and pension fund was estimated at $7 billion....

Report from Indianapolis Kevin Jones, November 2, 2002 "Isn't it amazing how the liberals took over the denominations?" "Yes but now God¹s people are going to take them back." Overheard in the hall at the Confessing the Faith conference in Indianapolis October 24-26, a gathering of conservative mainline Protestants. When I told someone about my trip to Indianapolis to report on the conservative Episcopalians, United Methodists, Presbyterians and United Church of Christ members gathered for the Confessing the Faith Conference, he asked, "Do they really think they are working for peace and justice?" The answer is, "no, not at all."...

Major US Christian Denomination Backs Divestment From Israel 00:22 Jul 16, '04 / 27 Tammuz 5764 Leaders of the largest Christian Presbyterian denomination have officially equated Israel with apartheid-era South Africa and voted to divest from Israel, according to a report in the New York Forward. The decision by the Presbyterian Church was approved 431 to 62 in a vote at the 216th annual General Assembly of the church, which has a membership of 3 million and a foundation and pension fund of $7 billion. According to the Forward, the Protestant group is the largest organization or institution to join...

Presbyterians Reject Gay-Ordination Plan Saturday July 3, 2004 3:46 AM By LARRY O'DELL Associated Press Writer RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) legislative assembly narrowly rejected a measure Friday to allow regional governing bodies to ordain gay clergy and lay officers. Under the 259-255 vote, the current interpretation of church law forbidding the ordination of gay clergy will remain binding on the church, including on the regional bodies, known as presbyteries. Immediately after the vote, about 300 Presbyterians who supported allowing the ordination of gay clergy gathered in a courtyard where many wept and embraced. ``Tonight is another...

Presbyterians Reject Gay Ordination Plan By LARRY O'DELL ASSOCIATED PRESS RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) legislative assembly narrowly rejected a measure Friday to allow regional governing bodies to ordain gay clergy and lay officers. Under the 259-255 vote, the current interpretation of church law forbidding the ordination of gay clergy will remain binding on the church, including on the regional bodies, known as presbyteries. Conservative Presbyterians had warned that a vote for gay ordination at the denomination's national meeting could cause the largest split in the church since the Civil War, when slavery split the church into...

RICHMOND, Va. – The 216th General Assembly has declared the "military action against Iraq" as "unwise, immoral and illegal," which, according to a commissioner, essentially brands U.S. soldiers as war criminals. "If we declare this war illegal, that means we declare our soldiers engaged in an illegal war, which essentially makes them war criminals. It makes them open to persecution as war criminals," he said. "It says something harmful to our soldiers in Iraq." The comments came after commissioners had approved the resolution from the assembly's Peacemaking Committee. A motion to reconsider the resolution was made in light of that...

TOMORROW FAITH & VALUES Reaching out:The Church of the Holy Comforter rallies to help a Liberian mother and her two daughters after their arrival in Richmond. Ordination of practicing homosexuals in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) could "very possibly" split the denomination, said the co-leader of a key task force at the church's 216th General Assembly meeting this week at the Greater Richmond Convention Center."We have a long history of significant disagreements. Presbyterians have been fighting since we first started in this country [in the 1600s], but we always get back together," said the Rev. Gary W. Demarest, a retired...

RICHMOND, Va. - Martha Juillerat served as pastor of her small Presbyterian church in rural Minnesota for 15 years until she came out as a lesbian and was forced to step down. She urged fellow Presbyterians who gathered Monday at the church's national legislative assembly to lift the ban on ordaining gays and lesbians as ministers, elders and deacons in the church. "Sometimes it is more than I can bear that this church has decided to discriminate against an entire class of people," Juillerat urged a committee considering a proposal to eliminate the ban. "I know that this church can...

RICHMOND, Va. - Martha Juillerat served as pastor of her small Presbyterian church in rural Minnesota for 15 years until she came out as a lesbian and was forced to step down. She urged fellow Presbyterians gathered at the church's national legislative assembly Monday to lift the ban on ordaining gays and lesbians as ministers, elders and deacons in the church. "Sometimes it is more than I can bear that this church has decided to discriminate against an entire class of people," Juillerat urged a committee considering a proposal to eliminate the ban. "I know that this church can...

RICHMOND, Va. -- A peace activist who supports the inclusion of gays in the ministry was elected to lead the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for the next two years. The selection of Rick Ufford-Chase as moderator came as the church prepared for a fresh round of debates at its annual convention on whether to repeal a ban on gay pastors. Ufford-Chase, 40, was installed as moderator Saturday, making him the first layperson to hold the unpaid position since 1999. "I am grateful to be elected moderator," said Ufford-Chase, an elder at Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, Ariz. "I've been dreaming about...

Deep rifts over homosexuality have worsened among Episcopalians and United Methodists over the past year, and now the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is getting ready to continue its divisive debate over gay clergy. The 2.4 million-member church's weeklong national legislative assembly begins Saturday in Richmond, Va., where liberals will take up new attacks against the church's strict law barring actively gay clergy and lay officers. Conservatives will defend that law and, frustrated because some ignore it, seek a clampdown and new church leadership. Gay activists and their allies have three proposals regarding the ban: