IRAQ PUBLISHES LETTER INSULTING THE POPE

(Excerpt from ABC - AP Oct. 8 by Bill Blakemore)

The letter insulted the pope, scorned the notion of his visit to Iraq, and may even have contained a vague threat to the pontiff's personal security.
.. Things had been going so well.
It all began more than two years ago when word circulated around the Vatican of the pope's desire to inaugurate celebrations for the year 2000 by following "in the steps of Abraham" - the patriarch revered in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Pope John Paul II wanted to welcome the year 2000 with a pilgrimage starting in Ur, the birthplace of Abraham, located in modern-day Iraq.
The Bible says Abraham was born and raised in "Ur of the Chaldees." Archeologists have traditionally identified that site as the ancient Ur whose excavated ruins lie in the southern deserts of Iraq.
Pope John Paul II's hope, we heard, was to start there, then visit other stops on Abraham's biblical route, possibly including Damascus, Syria, certainly including Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and ending up on Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments.
There, he would participate in an inter-religious prayer service, with Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders welcoming a new millennium of peace together.

But the complicated politics of the Middle East intervened.
At first, Vatican watchers heard the "Steps of Abraham" plans were having to be scaled back, but that there would still be a quick visit to Ur, and since that would mean flying into Baghdad, the pope would also visit the Christian community in the Iraqi capital.
It also seemed, much to U.S. diplomats' chagrin, that that the pope would have to shake Saddam's hand somewhere along the way, perhaps at the airport.
John Paul has visited roughly a dozen dictators in his 20 years as pope. All but one fell from power soon after. And even Fidel Castro is having to deal more directly with church officials in Cuba and the Vatican as a result of the pope's sojourn and the promises of more religious freedom it spawned.
John Paul has always made a deceptively simple deal with dictators. He will preach non-violence, which dictators like, and briefly appear with them, lending his stardust and apparent acknowledgement of a regime.
Also sweetening the bargain for Castro and Saddam is John Paul's outspoken criticism of U.S.-led economic embargoes. The pope argues that the sanctions hurt only the innocent.
Dictators also know John Paul will also call uncompromisingly for human rights, but they have always thought, mistakenly, that they could handle that.
Though the trip to Iraq had not been announced officially, word from the Vatican and Baghdad was for Dec. 3 and 4, with an added stop on the way back at Egypt's Mount Sinai.

A pre-emptive Insult?
But word also got out that U.S. diplomats were worrying that Saddam would "manipulate the photo-op" with the pope, and that a visit could also somehow compromise the embargo.
Iraqi dissidents and the World Jewish Congress were reportedly urging the pope not to go, or if he did, to not meet Saddam. There were even reports of negotiations to somehow have John Paul meet only Iraq's deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, who is a Christian, but this was followed immediately by news of a private American effort to get Aziz indicted as a war criminal.
Whatever its real cause, the letter Saddam published on his Web site (and since apparently removed) appeared to be what you could call a pre-emptive insult, and it was a doozy. It was as if he knew the visit was somehow jinxed, and wanted at least to appear the rejecter, not the rejected, and laid it on heavy so there would be no mistake.
The five-page letter tells John Paul that he had "failed to realize the character of the Arabs and Muslims," complains to him of his "miserable reference to the believers in Islam which portrays them as if they do not count," and complains also of his "acquitting the Jews of Christ's blood." (The Catholic Church no longer blames Jews for the death of Christ.)
The letter calls the embargo "the continuous destruction inflicted by American-Zionist aggression on Iraq" and, after recounting grievances with Christianity going back to the Crusades and the massacres of Arab Muslims in Spain, tells John Paul:
"If the West, and you with it, feel that you are required to be acquitted of the filth of the past, then ... Arab lands ... are not the place to wash your clothes which are stained with the blood of persecuted victims."
The letter, which ignores the pope's attempts at rapprochement with the Muslim world, even contains what some could see as a possible vague threat on the pope's personal security:
"You will not find Muslim believers lining up on the route of the pope's passage as you conclude partnership with the killers of Dair Yasseen and the killers of the children of Iraq [i.e., with Israelis and Americans]. The true believers ... are ready to sacrifice themselves for it now and in the future as they did in the past."
Why release this astonishing letter - in which "sacrifice" could be taken by some to mean a suicide that kills others as well - now?
Did Saddam study John Paul's impact on other dictators? Did the United States or Britain somehow spook him into fearing a John Paul visit? Did it all just get too complicated for him to feel he could control it?
For Saddam watchers, the basic question is whether it was calculated face-saving, extremely aggressive pre-trip positioning, simply unhinged ranting, or all three.
For pope watchers, the latest word from the Vatican is that John Paul still hopes fervently that he can somehow make his pilgrimage to Iraq.
But it seems increasingly likely that advance teams will not get to Iraq in time to prepare for a Dec. 3 arrival date, and that the pope's dreams of starting his millennium celebrations in the steps of Abraham may be postponed indefinitely.

(Denver Post Sept. 23, 1999) - Today's African summit in Denver must focus on why developing nations urgently need massive debt relief.
At stake are the lives and futures of about 1 billion people.
The planet's 42 poorest nations collectively owe almost $200 billion to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank (the globe's biggest private banks) and individual industrialized nations, including the United States.
The countries who need help most urgently aren't the more developed - and controversial - borrowers such as Russia or China, whose dealings with mobsters and spies have riled the U.S. Congress. Instead, the nations who should get debt relief include most of Africa, East Asia, and Latin America.
Many of these countries have thrown out dictatorships and replaced them with fledgling democracies. But international lenders' relentless pressure threatens this new freedom and inflicts real human pain.
For example, Tanzania confronts hideous epidemics of AIDS and malaria. But because the IMF and other lenders essentially control the African country's financial policy, Tanzania can't provide its people with even basic medical care.
One common scene: A Tanzanian mother arrives at a hospital with a child suffering from malaria. Since the government has no money, hospital staff tell her she must buy the medicine herself. But her impoverished family doesn't have any cash, so the child simply dies in the mother's arms.
Such daily tragedies have mushroomed into a global moral emergency. Today, Pope John Paul II is holding a summit on the subject, inviting notables such as Harvard economist Jeffrey Sachs.
Ironically, many lenders, including the U.S. Treasury Department, already have noted in their ledgers that the debts never will be repaid. The mere 10 percent that hasn't been "written down" could be covered by existing cash reserves.
So, completely forgiving the debts wouldn't impact the big lenders, or cost American taxpayers an extra dime.
A few tiny steps toward solving the problem have been suggested by the IMF and the U.S. Treasury Department and in modest measures pending in the U.S. Congress. But none goes nearly far enough.
The real goal should be to forgive the more than $100 billion that the poorest nations owe to the industrialized nations and the IMF. The next aim should be to radically reduce the amounts they owe to the World Bank and private lenders.
The current system is worse than crazy. It is literally killing people worldwide, from preventable diseases and starvation. Countries that can't feed, clothe, educate or provide medical care are being forced to fork over hundreds of millions of dollars each year - to lenders who know darn well that repayment is impossible.

(Denver Post, 9.9.99 By Cindy Brovsky) Members from Denver-area churches, community groups and local colleges formed a human chain Saturday in front of the U.S. Mint to call for the cancellation of foreign debts of the world's poorest countries.
Paper chains represented the estimated $212 billion in foreign debts worldwide.
"Break the chain of debt!'' chanted about 200 protesters outside the Mint in Downtown Denver.
"I don't want to see one more child in those countries born into that horrible debt,'' said Liz Stimmel of Boulder. "I think America can do better, and we need to get our message out any way we can."
Stimmel and about 70 others gathered earlier in the day at the Auraria Campus to learn more about how the interest on foreign debts hurts Third World countries.
The effort is being spearheaded by Jubilee 2000, whose members say unpayable debts have forced countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia to forgo adequate health care, education and food for their people.
The Denver event was just one of hundreds worldwide that will mark the 100 days until the year 2000. Last week, leaders met at the Vatican to draw attention to the need for debt relief.
Supporters of the effort want countries and banks to cancel the debts - without detrimental restrictions - and require countries to use the money for social needs.
Some proposed legislation has too many restrictions, which actually would make the countries less self-sufficient, they said."We can't just blindly support any legislation that cancels the debt," said Mara Vanderslice, coordinator of Jubilee 2000 Colorado Campaign. "Our goal is to make sure it is done in a way that benefits the environment and vastly improves the lives of people in these countries."
Colorado Mountain College students Karl Everidge and Chris Richardson traveled from their campus in Glenwood Springs to learn more about foreign debt. Both were moved after seeing a video about poor children in Third World countries looking for food in landfills or begging for money on the streets.
"Third World countries are being exploited and abused," Everidge said. "People gotta understand its not that complicated of an issue. The chain of debt can be broken.''
Speaker David Bramhall said many banks and countries began loaning money after World War II to poor nations. Some of those loans were stolen or abused by dictatorships, and high interest rates mean most will never be repaid, he said.
"Social service programs, which already are at a minimum, have been cut even more to pay off the debts," Bramhall said.
Andrea Goldsmith of Denver said the United States has a responsibility to help cancel the debts because it helped create the problems. "Countries and banks that made the loans were looking out for their own interests,'' she said. "It's hard to look at the pictures of those children suffering and know exactly what can be done. But canceling the debts is a step in the right direction."

Gay minister and followers attend Reverend Falwell's church. (AP - 10.25.99)
Falwell introduced Mel White and his 200 followers to his congregation and apologized for harsh words said over the years and discussed ways to reduce violence against homosexuals. He stressed that he will not change his belief that homosexuality is a sin, but said: "That has nothing to do with the love factor involved."

While I'm on this subject: I happen to tune in one night on C-span. 2,000 homosexuals who adore her honored Janet Reno, head of the Justice Department, at that particular moment in Washington, DC. The introduction of your honor was followed by a kiss on Janet's cheek by the speaker. She looked like a young woman who had just fallen in love and glowingly announced that her audiences were gays and lesbians and that many of them are her employees in the White House.

Even though the following is not a church issue, many churches have Scout programs, to teach their young. SCOUTS DECLARE "DON'T TELL" GAY POLICY (AP 8.12.99) A controversy over a gay Eagle Scout in Rhode Island has prompted a local chapter of the Boy Scouts of America to acknowledge publicly that a Scout can be a homosexual - as long as he doesn't advertise it. The Scout's statement - similar to the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy was issued by the Narragansett Council, which said it was approved by and written in consultation with national Scouting organization.

(Santa Barbara News-Press, 4.24.99) Underscoring the difficulty scientist face in finding genes that underlie complex human behaviors, a team of researchers report that they had been unable to confirm a widely publicized study linking male homosexuality to a small region of one chromosome. In a 1993 study of 40 homosexual brothers, Dr. Dean Hamer, a geneticist at the National Cancer Institute, reported that in 33 of the pairs .. an area on the bottom half of the X-chromosome was identical, indicating that one or more genes in that region could be connected to the brothers' sexual orientation. But Canadian researchers, who studied 52 pairs of homosexual brothers, concluded that their results do not support an X-linked gene underlying male homosexuality.

(First Things, August/ September 1999) The American Psychiatric Association has voted to reject any therapies that propose to heal homosexuals of their sexual dysfunction. In 1973 the APA removed homosexuality from its list of disorders, and has subsequently removed pedophilia, sadism, and masochism.
Their problem is, in fact, not a problem. "Get used to it. Your sickness is in thinking you are sick." Deviancy is defined away, and anyone who challenges the new definition is defined as deviant. Don't get used to it.

(The Tampa Tribune, 7.14.99) (WP) The Vatican ordered an American priest and nun to end their 30-year ministry to gays and lesbians after an investigation concluded they failed to comply with the Catholic Church's teaching on the "intrinsic evil of homosexual acts." The ministry wanted to find a way to reconcile church doctrine with the realities of gay life. The decision effectively ends the careers of two of the most prominent gay-rights advocates within the Catholic Church. The notification is considered to be an extreme punishment, in part because of its public nature. The ruling send a message to the growing number of gay outreach and AIDS ministries in Catholic churches across the country to be careful: In showing compassion for homosexuals, they must remember to mention the church's disapproval of homosexual acts. A GROWING NUMBER OF CATHOLICS CALL FOR FULL ACCEPTANCE OF HOMOSEXUALS BY THE CHURCH. [Comment: we see a Vatican III on the horizon]

A mother placed a message on our prayer board and wanted us to pray for her son who had left his church to join his wife who was into witchcraft. She wanted her son to get a divorce. She said she hated her daughter-in-law.
Acts 6:4 ".. we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the minsitry of the Word" and we prayed for this family.

"Most gracious Heavenly Father, our Savior Jesus Christ, we come boldly before you in humble prayer in regard to Martia Wilson and her family. You wrote letters to us to help us understand and give us light about our condition here on earth. We seek to serve you, because you gave your life as a ransom for many and pray you will help us to serve others in humility. Forgive us if we show selfish attitudes or seek our own interests. Father we pray for understanding of these dire circumstances in Martia's family. Father we need people to witness the truth to Brett Vann who is in charge of his family.
Please surround Brett and his wife with born again believers who will witness to them that there is only one way to heaven. There is no organization that has the promise of resurrection into heavenly eternal life. The KJV states that we are saved by grace through faith in you, the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph.2:8). You, Jesus state: "I am the door: by me if any man enter in he shall be saved.." In Acts 2:21 you told us through the Holy Spirit: "..Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.." that is the name of you, Jesus Christ. "For there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4:12) Again you teach us that your name, the name of Jesus must accompany our salvation.
In Acts 11:13b, 14, you teach us: ".. Call for Simon, whose surname is Peter, Who shall tell the "words" whereby thou and "all thy house" shall be saved." Here Your WORD plainly states we can be saved by "words". You told us that we can't have faith without hearing the WORDS and that we must believe them.
Acts 2:38 You tell us: "Then Peter said unto them, REPENT, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ (your name) for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Repentance and remission of sin and the indwelling Holy Ghost go along with Your blood, the blood of Jesus Christ. Claiming the blood without repentance is in vain.

You also warned us in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 that we are in the last days and perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away."
You also warned us in Matthew 10:35-40 that we would have the problems that we are bringing before you and you told us what we must do in that case.
"For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes [shall be] they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. 40 He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me."

You even confirmed this in another Scripture: The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. (Luke 12:53)