Two Earth-sized planets are discovered--but they're too hot to support life

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? Psalms 8:3-4

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Psalms 19:1

Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Revelation 4:11

Astronomers working with NASA's Kepler mission recently discovered a planet similar to Earth, but too big to support life. Now, they've discovered two planets in the same solar system that are the right size to support life, but are too hot. As reported by Natalie Stechyson of Postmedia News on December 20, 2011:

The quest to find alien life took a step forward Tuesday as the discovery of the first Earth-sized planets was made public.

The two planets, part of the newly discovered Kepler-20 solar system, are the smallest discovered to date. They were spotted as part of NASA's Kepler mission, which was designed to survey our region of the Milky Way to try to identify habitable planets.

"For the first time, we've found honest-to-God, Earth-sized planets. That's never been done before," said David Charbonneau, a professor of Astronomy at Harvard University who was involved in the research...

..."What we ultimately want to do is find planets that might have life on them. To find a planet that's habitable, you need a planet that's roughly the same size as the Earth," Charbonneau said.

But the planets also have to be the right temperature, and these are too hot. Two weeks ago, the Kepler team announced the discovery of another planet that was just the right temperature for life, but too big.

"We're looking for a Goldilocks-type planet," Charbonneau quipped, meaning a celestial body that orbits its star at a distance that is not too hot and not too cold for liquid water to be present.

The newest discovery shows that the Kepler team has the ability to find an "Earth twin" and needs to just push out to find planets further from their stars, Charbonneau said.

The two rocky planets - Kepler 20e and Kepler 20f - are part of a five-planet solar system located about 1,000 light years away. The other three planets are large and gaseous. Research on the project began in May 2009.

The Belt of the Virgin Mary shows that idolatry is thriving in Russia

Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the LORD your God. Leviticus 26:1

Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made: Isaiah 2:8

Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. I Corinthians 10:14

The Soviet Union dissolved 20 years ago, and the idolatry and superstition of eastern Orthodoxy came back to the surface after 70 years of Communist suppression. As reported by Maria Antonova of Agence France-Presse on November 24, 2011:

MOSCOW — Braving sub-zero temperatures and a line stretching several kilometres, almost half a million Russians lined up this week to venerate a relic of the Virgin Mary brought to Moscow from Greece.

The Moscow authorities said 400,000 people had waited outside Moscow’s vast Cathedral of Christ the Saviour since The Belt of the Virgin Mary relic arrived on Saturday. Around 82,000 were queuing on Thursday alone.

In an extraordinary display of the strength of Orthodox Christianity in post-Soviet Russia, the faithful have stood in a line stretching five kilometres.

The Belt of the Virgin Mary is believed to help women’s fertility and cure illnesses. It toured ten other Russian cities before arriving in the capital.

“There is something I need to ask. Nobody in this line is here just for fun,” said 40-year-old Ivan, who was waiting at the front of the line for his wife and child.

He said venerating the belt is especially meaningful since it rarely leaves mount Athos, a Greek peninsula with very strict visitation policy, where only men are allowed to go.

“I joined the line at midnight, so it’s been about 12 hours,” he said. The wait could be up to 26 hours, news agencies said.

“I am 74, and I have suffered a heart attack. I am handicapped in my arm and leg,” said another man, identifying himself as Vladimir, after exiting the imposing white cathedral and leaning on his wife’s supporting arm.

“Maybe it will help?” he said, tears welling up in his eyes.

The head of the Moscow city centre prefecture Pavel Bolshunov told Russian news agencies that as of Thursday morning over 407,000 people had visited the relic since the weekend and another 82,000 were currently waiting.

Faced with the lines, the Russian Orthodox Church extended the relic’s stay in Moscow by three days to Sunday.

An intercom announcement on the Moscow metro at the stop nearest to the Cathedral warned people arriving by the subway that the line stretched along the Moscow river for nearly five kilometres and its end was in a distant neighbourhood four metro stops away.

Struggling to contain the throngs of Orthodox believers, the city erected a maze of metal barriers, rerouted traffic on some of the streets, and brought in 1,500 police officers to ensure order.

The Cathedral asked on its website that people simply touch the small silver chest holding the relic with their hand, without kissing it in the Orthodox tradition, “so that as many people as possible could touch the relic.”

But by Thursday afternoon the cathedral staff moved the chest to sit atop of an arch which people simply walked through, allowing 80 people to worship it every minute, RIA Novosti reported...

...The Belt of the Virgin Mary is kept permanently in Vatopedi monastery on the Greek mount Athos and this is its first ever appearance in Russia.

Russia’s Orthodox Church had an incredible surge of influence and power in recent years as millions of Russians began to practice religion in the 1990s after decades of state-dictated atheism in the Soviet Union.

Cathedral of Christ the Saviour became a symbol of this change when its replica was built in 1997 in the same spot where the original was blown up by Soviet authorities in 1931.

Bodies of 44 young victims of pagan sacrifice discovered in Peru

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Romans 12:1 (NIV 1984)

While the true God desires His people to offer their bodies as living sacrifices, pagan "gods" often require their devotees to offer human bodies as dead sacrifices. It's unlikely that the perpetrators of the atrocities described below will be prosecuted; these sacrifices to Peruvian pagan "gods" took place in the 14th century. As reported by Agence France-Presse on November 21, 2011:

LIMA -- A Peruvian archeologist on Sunday announced the discovery of the remains of 44 infants and young children sacrificed to appease ancient deities in the 14th century at a site in the high Andes near the border with Bolivia.

The remains were found near a stone funeral tower -- known locally as chullpas -- in the Sillustani archeological site, located some 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) south-east of the capital Lima, near Lake Titicaca, which Peru shares with Bolivia.

"These are children and babies of both sexes, with ages going from newborns to the age of three," archeologist Eduardo Arisaca told local regional media. His remarks were picked up by the daily El Comercio.

The infants were buried in pairs inside funeral baskets or in ceramic urns near a 10 meter (32 feet) tall circular stone brick tower known as Chullpa Lagarto (Lizard Chullpa).

The children were buried with a volcanic stone on their chest, and are surrounded by offerings -- animals, food, dishes, and pitchers. Early research suggests they were sacrificed during a period of warfare.

"The faces of the children point towards the east," where the sun rises, said Arisaca. He estimated the children were buried between 600 and 700 years years ago.

The children also had artificially elongated skulls, common among some nobles of the time.

Up to now the remains of 200 people have been unearthed around the Chullpa Lagarto, Arisaca said.

In September Arisaca announced the discovery of the 700 years-old remains of a two-year-old boy at a separate funeral tower in Sillustani, buried in a ceramic urn along with a dog.

At another funeral tower nearby experts found the remains of 12 adults buried together along with food, ceramics, and animals. Archeologists found sheets of gold attached to the clothing as part of the attire.

The funeral towers are common sights in the high Andean region between Peru and Bolivia, are the burial sites of ancient nobles and community leaders. Most are round towers built of stone, but some are rectangular.

The original article appeared in Spanish in the Lima El Comercio on November 20, 2011.

The latest from the Netherlands: Euthanasia house calls

For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord.
But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death. Proverbs 8:35-36

There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Proverbs 14:12 (also Proverbs 16:25)

Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people. Proverbs 14:34

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,...
...And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Romans 1:22,28

Surely some future historian, surveying our times, will note sardonically that it took no more than three decades to transform a war crime into an act of compassion, thereby enabling the victors in the war against Nazism to mount their own humane holocaust, which in its range and in the number of its victims, may soon far surpass the Nazi one. It is significant that, whereas the Nazi holocaust has received lavish TV and film coverage, the humane one goes rolling along largely unnoticed by the media. Malcolm Muggeridge, Sanctity of Life, Chatelaine, December 1979, p. 138

The Netherlands, a country that resisted the Nazis 70 years ago is increasingly implementing their policies. As reported by Simon Caldwell in the London Daily Telegraph, December 6, 2011:

Mobile euthanasia teams being considered by Dutch government

Plans to introduce mobile medical teams that can euthanise people in their own homes are being considered by the Dutch government.

The teams of doctors and nurses would be sent out from a clinic following a referral from the patient's doctor.

The proposals were disclosed by Edith Schippers, the health minister.

In a written answer to questions from Christian Union MPs she said that mobile units "for patients who meet the criteria for euthanasia but whose doctors are unwilling to carry it out" was worthy of consideration.

"If the patient thinks it desirable, the doctor can refer him or her to a mobile team or clinic," the minister wrote.

In her written answer Ms Schippers suggested that "extra expertise" could be summoned in complicated cases involving mental health problems or an inability to consent to euthanasia because of dementia.

Dutch advocacy groups want to expand the eligibility criteria for euthanasia as well as open facilities specifically for euthanasia along the pattern of the Dignitas centre in Switzerland.

Hundreds of Britons have either made the journey to Switzerland to end their lives or registered with the clinic.

Phyllis Bowman, a pro-life campaigner in Britain, said that the proposals amounted to a "campaign to speed up euthanasia and to make it cheaper by doing it at home instead of in institutions".

The Netherlands legalised euthanasia in 2001 in cases where patients are suffering unbearable pain due to illness with no hope of recovery.

Euthanasia is usually carried out by administering a strong sedative to put the patient in a coma, followed by a drug to stop breathing and cause death.

To qualify patients must convince two doctors they are making an informed choice in the face of unbearable suffering.

Dutch medics have been accused of practising euthanasia on demand.

A total of 21 people diagnosed as having early-stage dementia died at the hands of their doctors last year, according to the 2010 annual report on euthanasia.

The figures from last year also showed another year-on-year rise in cases with about 2,700 people choosing death by injection compared to 2,636 the year before.

A Dutch government spokesman said: "The greatest care has been taken to regulate care for patients who are suffering unbearably with no prospect of improvement."

"Euthanasia may only be carried out at the explicit request of the patient."

As for that last statement, I offer two words in response: "Yeah--right." According to Mr. Caldwell's report in the Daily Telegraph on June 20, 2010, not only has the use of euthanasia increased since it was legalized by the Dutch government in 2002, but the health minister responsible for the legislation is now regretting that euthanasia has had the effect of destroying palliative care:

Euthanasia cases in Holland have increased by 13 per cent in the last year, new figures have shown.

Last year a total of 2,636 Dutch people were killed by euthanasia, with 80 per cent of cases involving people dying at home after their doctors administered a lethal dose of drugs.

This compares to 2,331 reported deaths by euthanasia in 2008, which saw a 10 per cent rise on 2007.

In 2003, the year after Holland became the first country in the world to legalise the practice since the fall of Nazi Germany, there were 1,815 reported cases.

Euthanasia is usually carried out by administering a strong sedative to put the patient in a coma, followed by a drug to stop breathing and cause death. To qualify patients must be in unbearable pain and their doctor convinced they are making an informed choice. The opinion of a second doctor is also required.

Dutch medics have been accused of applying a liberal interpretation of the law and practising euthanasia on demand, sometimes killing people who cannot properly consent.

Jan Suyver, chairman of the government's euthanasia monitoring commission, said the rising number of cases came as the "taboo" once attached to euthanasia began to fade.

"It could also be that doctors are more likely to report it," he said.

Anti-euthanasia groups say, however, that the sharp increase is probably be linked to the collapse of the palliative care system in the Netherlands following the legalisation of euthanasia eight years ago.

Phyllis Bowman, the executive officer of Right to Life, said: "I am sure that the increase in numbers of people opting for euthanasia is largely a result of inadequate pain control."

The rise in cases in 2008 has prompted the Dutch health ministry to launch an inquiry into the working of the 2002 law and it is due to open its investigations by the end of the month.

Dr Els Borst, the former Health Minister and Deputy Prime Minister who guided the law through the Dutch parliament, said in December that she regretted that euthanasia was effectively destroying palliative care.

Dr. Borst's regret is understandable, although a decline in palliative care is a natural and foreseeable consequence of the increased use of euthanasia. Why bother with weeks or months of palliative care when you can short-circuit the process with one injection?

Thousands of children may have been sexually abused by Roman Catholic priests in the Netherlands since 1945

As reported by Bruno Waterfield in the London Daily Telegraph, December 16, 2011:

Dutch Catholic sex abuse scandal exposed as inquiry says up to 20,000 were victims
Up to 20,000 children were sexually abused by 800 Roman Catholic priests or lay workers in the Netherlands since 1945, an independent inquiry has estimated.

The investigation by Wim Deetman, a former Dutch minister, received 1,800 reports of sexual abuse by clergy or volunteers within Dutch Catholic dioceses, congregations and religious orders. At least 105 abusers are still alive.andy rain

Children involved in Church organisations were twice as likely as non-Catholics to be exposed to abuse and the "mild, severe or very severe sexual behaviour" was covered up by senior clergy.

"The problem of sexual abuse was known in the orders and dioceses of the Dutch Catholic Church," the inquiry concluded. "No adequate action was taken, nor was sufficient attention devoted to victims."

Based on a survey of more than 34,000 people, the 1,100-page Deetman report estimated that one in five children in Catholic school institutions between 1945 and 1985 suffered abuse, twice the average level in the general Dutch population.

Allegations of abuse by the Salesian Fathers at the Don Rua boarding school Heerenberg in the 1960s triggered the wider investigation in March 2010 of paedophile assaults within the Church, a process mirrored in Belgium, Ireland, Germany, Australia, Canada and the US.

The Deetman commission began work last year and as evidence of widespread abuse emerge the Dutch Roman Catholic Church last month set up a compensation system based on the severity of abuse suffered. The total bill for the church could be higher than £4 million.

Over 2,000 people have now registered abuse with the Church and Dutch authorities and a number of cases will be taken to court.

40 years ago: Canada's Parliament debates a national identity card

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Revelation 13:16-17

I didn't know that the subject of a national identity card in Canada went back 40 years, until I discovered the following op-ed piece by Arthur Blakely in the Montreal Gazette, October 15, 1971, p. 7. For those who don't know, or are too young to remember, the Quebec crisis referred to in the column involved terrorists who were members of the Front de Liberation du Quebec (FLQ), who favoured independence from Canada for the province of Quebec. On October 5, 1970, James Cross, British Trade Commissioner to Canada, was kidnapped from his Montreal home by FLQ terrorists. Five days later, the FLQ struck again, kidnapping Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte. Mr. Laporte's dead body was found stuffed into the trunk of a car a week later. The Canadian government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act, which resulted in troops in the streets of Montreal and the arrests of hundreds of people known to favour Quebec independence. Mr. Cross was freed unharmed on December 3, 1970.

Question of ID cards stalls on trial run in Commons

Ottawa--A proposal that all Canadians be required to carry identification cards has had a trial run in the House of Commons.

It didn't encourage optimism that the project once favored by Quebec's Justice Minister Jerome Choquette would have the slightest chance of securing parliamentary approval, even in a free vote.

For the record, the sponsor of the motion is Fernand-E. Leblanc, Liberal member for Laurier.

Choquette behind it
Some have suspected Choquette of being the real sponsor.

But Leblanc points out that he placed the motion on the Commons order paper in October of last year, before the Quebec minister of justice had expressed himself as being in favor of the idea.

He introduced it, of course, as a personal reaction to the tragic events then unfolding in the Front de Liberation du Quebec crisis.

Under parliamentary rules, so little time is set aside for the debating of the legislative projects of the individual members of Parliament, that it was not until last week that the Leblanc motion was debated for the first time, and then only for an hour.

In his introductory speech, Leblanc drew attention to the fact that the strong public interest in, and support for, the identity card idea didn't begin with the Quebec crisis.

In 1962, the Montreal municipal election featured a referendum on the mandatory ID card, and some 75 per cent of the Montreal voters endorsed the idea. So too, Leblanc noted, had several Quebec governments, Mayor Drapeau, and a 1967 conference of Quebec judges.

The motion calling on the federal government to "consider the advisability of requiring Canadian citizens and immigrants to carry an identification card" didn't come to a vote.

It is now unlikely, in fact, that it will reach a vote during what remains of this session of Parliament.

But even during the single hour of discussion, it was evident that the proposal has few supporters in the Commons.

Problems arose
Leblanc, naturally enough, supported his own motion.

Some measure of his difficulties became apparent when his fellow-liberal, E.B. Osler (Winnipeg South Centre) rose to second his motion.

"I am glad to second this motion," he said.

"I think it is a motion that should be brought forward, discussed, examined from every angle with very long tongs, then dropped into a furnace and burned."

Seconders of this kind are a luxury which few sponsors of a motion feel that they can afford.

Gordon Aiken (PC--Parry Sound-Muskoka) and Stanley Knowles (NDP--Winnipeg North Centre), speaking for their respective parties, were more thoughtful in their opposition to the Leblanc motion, but opposed nonetheless.

There was only one other participant in the brief debate, Albert Bechard (L--Bonaventure-Iles de la Madeleine), who took a friendlier view of the proposition.

A little better
If Bechard wasn't, perhaps, quite as enthusiastic an advocate of the compulsory ID card as its sponsor, he was certainly much more receptive to the idea than its hostile seconder.

Bechard summed up his views this way:

"...I find certain advantages in the use of an identification card issued by a governmental agency. I do not think it should be mandatory and I would object to a measure making it mandatory for Canadian citizens to carry one or to produce it on request.

"I recognize that such a system raises problems and can lead to abuses, but I think the problems can be solved and the abuses eliminated."

Bechard's willingness to accept a non-mandatory system of ID cards attracted attention because he had been, for a long period, parliamentary secretary to Justice Minister John Turner.

But as far as can be ascertained, he was speaking on this occasion as an ordinary member of Parliament.

He didn't specify that he had been given the authority to speak for the government. And without that authority, his statements carry no more weight than those of any other Liberal MP.

In any event, he took a more uncritical view of the ID card than have such federal Liberal spokesmen as Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and Justice Minister Turner in the past.

While the federal government has never rejected the idea out of hand, it has questioned the desirability of the compulsory ID card, noting the political perils of any such big-brother-is-watching innovation.

Trudeau has also questioned the capacity of any government except the federal government to introduce such a system. Compulsory ID cards would be national, or nothing.

Bad timing
In all probability, a government-sponsored bill creating compulsory ID cards would have passed easily enough, had it been introduced and pushed through while the Quebec crisis was at its height.

But even the one-hour debate last week suggested that this motion sponsored by a Liberal backbencher and coming up for debate a year after the crisis, faces certain defeat even in the unlikely possibility that it reaches a vote this fall.

The text of the full debate on Mr. Leblanc's motion can be found in House of Commons Debates, October 8, 1971, pp. 8672-8678. His motion was placed on the order paper on October 27, 1970, just over a week after Pierre Laporte had been murdered.

40 years later, there is no federal law in Canada requiring a national identity card, but the social insurance number, introduced in 1964 only for the ostensible purpose of facilitating payment of unemployment insurance and pension benefits, is required on an amazingly large number of forms that Canadians fill out. Because of concerns about identity theft--a term that wasn't part of the popular vocabulary until the last 10-15 years--photo identification is required for many credit card transactions, although that usually takes the form of a driver's license issued by a provincial government. Until at least 2000, if my name was on the voter's list, I could vote in federal or provincial elections just by showing up at the poll and giving my name. Now I have to provide proof of my identity: one piece of photo ID, or two pieces of ID without a photo, both of which have my name, and at least one of which contains my address.

I agree with Mr. Blakely when he says that Mr. Leblanc's bill would probably have passed if it had been introduced a year earlier, in the midst of the FLQ crisis--just as, in 2001, the PATRIOT Act was passed by the United States Congress and signed into law in the wake of the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Perhaps it was in the providence of God that a bill calling for a national identity card didn't come up for debate in Canada until the immediate crisis had passed, and the need for such a measure seemed a lot less urgent. If Mr. Leblanc's bill were to be introduced in 2011 or 2012, it would probably pass both houses of Parliament--and I suspect that it would be introduced and be most enthusiastically supported by the "Conservative" government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Time will tell if we ever see such a law in Canada.

Planet similar to Earth discovered outside solar system--but it's too big to support life

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? Psalms 8:3-4

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Psalms 19:1

Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Revelation 4:11

As reported by Seth Borenstein of Associated Press on December 5, 2011:

WASHINGTON - A newly discovered planet is eerily similar to Earth and is sitting outside Earth's solar system in what seems to be the ideal place for life, except for one hitch. It is a bit too big.

The planet is smack in the middle of what astronomers call the Goldilocks zone, that hard to find place that is not too hot, not too cold, where water, which is essential for life, does not freeze or boil. And it has a shopping mall-like surface temperature of near 72 degrees, scientists say.

The planet's confirmation was announced Monday by NASA along with other discoveries by its Kepler telescope, which was launched on a planet-hunting mission in 2009.

That is the first planet confirmed in the habitable zone for Kepler, which already had found Earth-like rocky planets elsewhere. Twice before astronomers have announced a planet found in that zone, but neither has been as promising...

...The new planet, named Kepler-22b, has key aspects it shares with Earth. It circles a star that could be the twin of Earth's sun and at just about the same distance. The planet's year of 290 days is even close to Earth's. It probably has water and rock.

The only trouble is the planet's a bit big for life to exist on the surface. The planet is about 2.4 times the size of Earth. It could be more like the gas-and-liquid Neptune with only a rocky core and mostly ocean.

"It's so exciting to imagine the possibilities," said Natalie Batalha, the Kepler deputy science chief.

Floating on that "world completely covered in water" could be like being on an Earth ocean and "it's not beyond the realm of possibility that life could exist in such an ocean," Batalha said in a phone interview.

Kepler cannot find life itself, just where the conditions might be right for it to thrive. And when astronomers look for life elsewhere, they are talking about everything ranging from microbes to advanced intelligence that can be looking back at us.

So far the Kepler telescope has spotted 2,326 candidate planets outside Earth's solar system with 139 of them potentially habitable ones. Even though the confirmed Kepler-22b is a bit big, it is smaller than most of the other candidates. It is closest to Earth in size, temperature and star than either of the two previously announced planets in the zone.

The confirmation of one of two, though, has been disputed. The latest discovery has been confirmed several ways, including by two other telescopes.

This year, a European team of astronomers said they had confirmed another planet in the habitable zone, but that one was hot and barely on the inside edge of the habitable zone.

For Marcy, who is on the Kepler team, the newest planet is a smidgen too large. But, "that smidgen makes all the difference," he said.

Because its size implies that it is closer to Neptune in composition than Earth, "I would bet my telescope that there is no hard, rocky surface to walk on," Marcy said.

Chief Kepler scientist William Borucki said he thinks the planet is somewhere between Earth and gas-and-liquid Neptune, but that it has a lot of rocky material. It is in a size range that scientists do not really know anything about. Measurements next summer may help astronomers have a better idea of its makeup, he said.

The planet is 600 light years away. Each light year is 5.9 trillion miles. It would take a space shuttle about 22 million years to get there.

Kepler spots a planet when it passes in front of its star. NASA requires three of those sightings before it begins to confirm it as a planet. Borucki said the third sighting for 22b happened a year ago, just before the telescope shut down for a while. It took several months to finish the confirmation.

Your church steeple may actually be a cell phone tower in disguise

It seems appropriate to me that cell phone towers may be disguised as church steeples, since they're being placed at community service and entertainment centres disguised as churches. As reported by Kevin Maimann in the Edmonton Examiner, November 16, 2011:

Some west-end residents are fuming over Telus's latest cellphone tower proposal on the property of Gospel Centre Pentecostal Church at 9445 153 St.

Tamisan Bencz, who lives near the proposed tower, is concerned about property values, and about radio waves being emitted near family homes and Sherwood elementary school.

The Sherwood West Jasper Place area is already teeming with cellphone towers, including a Rogers tower four blocks away.

"Pretty soon we're going to have towers every few feet. And what I don't understand, is some places I drive I don't see a tower anywhere. And yet, they're surrounding us," Bencz says, speaking from her cellphone at home.

"There are towers everywhere. And there is no issue with reception whatsoever."

Bencz has been frustrated by attempts to discuss her concerns with Telus after the company sent a letter to area residents and held an open house last month.

Residents are also upset with the church after it signed a contract with Telus to accept payment for the use of its property – something Bencz did not find out about until the Oct. 27 open house.

"When you're a neighbour, you're supposed to be a part of the community. Well, they kind of made a decision that affects everybody else, on their own," Bencz says. "The church didn't do their due diligence."

Church Pastor Murray Coughlan declined an interview but e-mailed a statement saying the church is "in communication with our neighbours and Telus."

Residents of the south-side Greenfield community are fighting a similar battle over a Telus tower proposed on Greenfield Baptist Church land at 3712 114 St.

CELL-STEEPLES

The director of community engagement for Telus says church properties are increasingly common locations for cellphone towers because the towers can be disguised as steeples.

"The typical design is either a lattice-type tower, or a monopole, which is a large pole. And those aren't nearly as attractive as the ones that we're able to disguise as church steeples," says Jim Johannsson. "Churches actually make really good locations, because they are well situated and it does allow us to visually blend the antenna into the community"...

..."A lot of people assume that because we have signed an agreement with the church, that it's a done deal and the tower will go ahead. And that's not true at all," he says. "There are so many steps that have to be followed."

May 15, 2012 update: This item from Saskatoon, as reported by Fan-Yee Suen of CKOM radio, April 10, 2012:

A 30-meter cross may soon adorn the top of a proposed cell tower in a church parking lot in the Preston Avenue South and Adelaide Street East area.

The project was pitched by Rogers Communications about a year ago after the company expressed an interest to lease 100-square-feet of land, a board member of the Preston Avenue Community Church said.

“That was one of their ideas because apparently they’ve done it in other places,” Mervin Hartman said of the cross which will loom approximately 80-feet above the air.

“We felt it was a good idea because the cross is important to us and indicates Christ’s death and resurrection,” Hartman said.

If the project is approved by the city, funds from the lease contract – an undisclosed sum Hartman said was “inappropriate” to share at this time – will be used for charity.

He said the deal to lease the land was not contingent upon the cross being erected however the religious symbol did make it a “little bit more appetizing” for the church.

Over the past decade, health concerns surrounding cell phone towers have sprouted up as the number of Canadians who rely on wireless telecommunication continues to increase.

However, according to the Health Canada website, the consensus in the scientific community is that the radiofrequency energy emitted from cell towers is “too low to cause adverse health effects in humans.”

“When building or upgrading infrastructure we meet or exceed Health Canada standards, Industry Canada regulations, and the processes and protocol of the local municipality,” an e-mail from a Rogers Communications spokesperson read.

“Sites are chosen based on numerous factors including the proximity to the area requiring service. The surrounding community and local municipality are often notified and consulted with prior to a site being finalized.”

On May 10, 2012, a public consultation meeting will be held to discuss the project.

Ward Councillor Charlie Clark could not be reached to comment on the project at the time of publication.

January 18, 2013 update: Gospel Centre Pentecostal isn't the only church in Edmonton to face opposition over a cellphone tower. As reported by Cailynn Klingbeil of the Edmonton Journal, January 13, 2013:

EDMONTON - About a dozen people who protested Sunday outside a south Edmonton church said they will return every week until their concerns about a cellphone tower proposed for the property are heard.

“We’re just getting started,” said protest organizer Marcey Kliparchuk, standing outside Dayspring Presbyterian Church, 11445 40th Ave.

The Greenfield resident’s main worry is that radiation given off by the 30-metre tower Rogers wants to build on the site could be a health risk, particularly for her two children, aged two and 10.

Rogers has said the company needs the tower to improve wireless service in the area and the application will comply with all the requirements of Industry Canada and Health Canada, which states on its website that there is no scientific reason to consider cellphone towers dangerous as long as exposure is within its guidelines.

“We’ll be here every Sunday until they change their mind,” said Kliparchuk. She said in addition to organizing the peaceful protests, she will continue knocking on doors in the neighbourhood and delivering flyers to residents informing them about the proposed tower and its risks.

“I don’t want this in my front yard,” said protester Cheryl Gerdes, holding a sign that read “Protect your children ... Stop cell towers where children live and play.”

The signs came from Citizens for Safe Technology, a national coalition concerned about exposure to unsafe levels of radiation from technology.

The protesters waved at parishioners entering the church’s parking lot before Sunday’s service.

Kliparchuk said she has tried to meet with leaders of Dayspring to discuss her concerns and alternatives to a cell tower for raising money, but they have refused.

Dayspring elder and spokesman John Carr said the church has done its research and science does not indicate there are health issues with cell towers.

“They’re entitled to their beliefs and they’re entitled to protest peacefully.”

He said it’s not the church’s job to consult with the community.

“We’ve consulted with the congregation,” he said, estimating more than half of their members live in the community.

Carr said any money made from the tower will go back into the community, through making the building more accessible to residents and such social services as a food bank.

While Dayspring signed a contract with Rogers in 2011, Carr said a timeline for the tower’s construction is not yet known.

Final approval must come from Industry Canada.

Beware of those who claim to care about "social justice" while supporting abortion

Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.
Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him,
Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?
This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein. John 12:3-6

Malcolm Muggeridge commented on the passage above with words to the effect of "The disciple who betrayed Jesus was the one most strongly committed to social justice." An example of this is Alberta Public Interest Research Group (APIRG), which says, on its About Us page:

Our Mandate

APIRG is a student-run, student-funded, non-profit organization dedicated to research, education, advocacy, and action in the public interest. APIRG exists to provide students with resources to be active citizens.

Basis of Unity

We believe the way to create positive social change is to provide individuals with the information and tools they need to become active citizens and to participate effectively in their communities.

Statement of Values

AP!RG considers an equitable environment to be a part of positive social change. We acknowledge that social change is achievable and see social awareness as a valuable facet of the public interest. We see anti-oppression as a process that acknowledges the existence of systemic oppression (including, but not limited to, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, and ableism). Through practices and policies, we seek to actively identify, challenge and address oppression wherever it exists, in all its various forms, and to actively encourage opportunities for social awareness and change. Further, we recognize and respect that systems of oppression interact in different ways and affect each person differently.

About APIRG

APIRG is a PIRG. PIRG stands for Public Interest Research Group. PIRGs are student organizations based on the premise that students are citizens, and as such, part of their education should include recognizing and engaging in societal problems. PIRGs exist to provide training, support, and opportunities for students to be active citizens in their communities. Through involvement with PIRGs, thousands of Canadian students have learned skills in consensus decision-making, group facilitation, events organizing, media relations, and community-based research. These skills help individuals to act effectively in the public interest.

On November 10, 2011, an event called the "It Used to Be Cool" Pro-Choice Dance Party was held on the campus of the University of Alberta, hosted by Voices for Choices, the U of A's pro-abortion group. Click on the above link to the event promo, and you'll read, "Thanks to the Alberta Public Interest Research Group for their continued support and funding assistance." If that link is no longer valid, you can see the ad for the event, as it appeared on posters displayed on campus, in The Gateway for November 9, 2011 (scroll down to page 3); you'll notice the APIRG logo prominently displayed at the bottom.

The reader will notice that nowhere in APIRG's Statement of Values are unborn human beings mentioned among those being oppressed, but I can't think of a more severe form of oppression than being torn to shreds in the womb of one's mother. Rather, I view those practicing abortion as the worst kind of oppressors. I also flatly reject the idea that abortion is "positive social change" or is in the "public interest."

For those who haven't yet noticed that the people who support the pro-abortion agenda also support the pro-homosexuality agenda, I offer the following from the Voices for Choice Constitution (the reader will note that the "values" of "choice" and "queer positivity" are associated with those of feminism):

Voices for Choices is a non-hierarchical, collective group of individuals who are working to establish and promote a pro-choice, sex and queer-positive, as well as woman-friendly presence on and around the University of Alberta campus and the City of Edmonton.

Our goals are to:

- Disseminate fact-based information on the options available to pregnant women, safer sex, sexuality, and sexual health.
- Form and expand a pro-choice community on campus and around the city of Edmonton while deepening its knowledge and feelings of solidarity.
- Reflect the values of harm reduction, sex and queer positivity, as well as feminism while also being open to peaceful, respectful, and constructive dialogue

A university fraternity that exhibits characteristics of a cult

Among the characteristics typically found in cults are sleep deprivation, isolation, paddling, and perverse initiation rituals for prospective members. Another item from the backlog--as reported by Alexandria Eldridge in The Gateway, October 21, 2010:

The Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity at the University of Alberta tells pledges to eat their own vomit, deprives them of sleep, and closes them in a plywood box as part of a four-day initiation process, according to video footage from January 2010 obtained by The Gateway.

According to the DKE International Risk Management Policy posted on their website, hazing by any chapter, student, or alumnus is prohibited. Having the permission of a person being hazed is not a defence.

DKE International defines hazing as:

"Any action taken or situation created, intentionally, whether on or off fraternity premises, to produce mental or physical discomfort, embarrassment, harassment, or ridicule. Such activities may include but are not limited to the following: use of alcohol; paddling in any form; creation of excessive fatigue; physical and psychological shocks [… and] morally degrading or humiliating games and activities."

A DKE (Deke) alumnus, who wished to remain anonymous to protect his identity, and who will be referred to as Joe, described his experience during initiation as traumatic.

"[Pledges are] not told what happens. There's very little care actually done for them. They're stolen from, they're taken advantage of, they're yelled at [...], they're not told when it will end," Joe said. "They're definitely hurt mentally and physically at the end of it."

According to Joe, the initiation weekend took place last year near the end of January. Pledges arrive at the Deke house on Thursday and do not leave until Sunday, except to go to class on Friday.

During check-in, when pledges arrive at the house, the initiated Deke brothers, who are active members or alumni, put the food and alcohol each pledge brings into the communal fridge.

One of the videos shows a pledge being yelled at by at least five of the active members or alumni during check-in because he brought two small cans of beans instead of one large can.

"Do you have a problem following instructions? Because if you do, your life is going to become extremely difficult […] Do you have a learning disability? Are you retarded?"

The video also shows the pledges being told to do wall sits, being pressured into taking a bite out of a raw onion, and being pressured into eating raw eggs, to which one brother says, "go salmonella."

Video footage also shows pledges attending an off-campus dinner, where they eat food that is intentionally disgusting and then smoke a cigar as quickly as possible after eating. Joe explained that for these reasons, some pledges vomit and then eat their vomit.

"As far as I know, no chemical is added to the food, and there's always a percentage of the people that just eat it," Joe said. "But here are the instructions — get him to eat as much as possible, get him to puke; when he pukes, try to get him to clean up his plate. His plate should be empty, including his vomit."

Over the weekend, the brothers also hold extended exercise drills for the pledges called "circles." One alumnus, called the circle master, stands in the middle of a group of pledges, who are surrounded by active members and alumni. The pledges must do and say whatever the circle master tells them to, including sit-ups and push-ups, while being yelled at by their surrounding brothers.

Multiple times over the weekend, pledges also go into "the Hilton," a plywood box that Joe described as being a confined space. He said that the brothers alter the size by putting desks and chairs inside of it.

"I'm guessing you could possibly stuff 30 people in there, but if you've got a class of 15, you just close off half. You couldn't stand in it."

Joe said that often, someone will squirt ketchup or throw food into the Hilton, or urinate inside before the pledges enter. The pledges usually won't stay in the Hilton for any more than 15 minutes, and Joe said that anyone who is claustrophobic is not forced in.

According to a sample list obtained by The Gateway, pledges are also instructed to bring wooden paddles to the initiation weekend. According to Joe, brothers are never, under any circumstances, allowed to actually hit pledges with the paddles. However, Joe said pledges are never told that they will not be paddled and thinks the paddles add to the atmosphere of intimidation.

Many hours over the weekend are also spent in "meditations." Pledges are instructed to sit upright facing the wall, but are not allowed to sleep. The alumni play extremely loud, repetitive music. After a few hours, Joe said many people start to hallucinate.

According to Joe, during the final stage of initiation, all of the pledges individually appear before a tribunal of active members and alumni and are told they did not make it into the fraternity. Then they all come together in a ritual where a brother will ask anyone who did not make it into the fraternity to step forward. Everybody steps forward.

The video indicates that over the course of the weekend, the personal property of the pledges is often stolen. At one point on the video, one brother says to another, "we steal their shit." Joe added that other things are simply ruined because pledges' belongings are kept in the basement, where circles occur, so things are often trampled.

Joe added that the pledges get no substantial time to sleep. According to schedules obtained by The Gateway, the pledges are only allotted time to sleep for a half hour on Friday night and for five 15-minute intervals and one half-hour interval on Saturday night.

In addition to sleep deprivation, Joe said the pledges are also encouraged to drink large amounts of alcohol throughout the weekend, but this is not mandatory.

"I've always wondered if it's better to get drunk or not. Because the alcohol dehydrates you, but the alcohol definitely helps deal with the trauma. If you're hammered through the whole thing, you're going to have a lot less nightmares than if you're sober the whole time," Joe said.

After Friday night, pledges are not allowed to leave the initiations. On the video, a group of alumni discuss the basic rule that once someone starts on Friday, they can't leave until Sunday unless it's a special circumstance.

Joe explained that some of the pledges actually enjoy the challenge of initiations, and many of the brothers enjoy it as well, but he feels it's unfair that pledges do not know what to expect from initiations before they begin.

"I'd call it hazing, I call it abuse. I think the better word is abuse. You get abused, absolutely."

A second Deke alumnus, who also wished to remain anonymous, confirmed the information listed above.

Mike Siebert, President of the Interfraternity Council (IFC), the governing body of fraternities on the U of A campus, did not respond to specific allegations, but said that the IFC has a zero-tolerance policy towards hazing...

...DKE International did not respond to request for comment as of press time. A spokesperson for the DKE alumni association denied the allegations.

"We never would do anything to offend the honour of any of our own guys or any potential member either," the spokesperson said.

According to a sidebar The Gateway, the DKE initiation schedule was as follows (based on documents obtained by The Gateway):

Thursday
Check-in: Pledges bring food and alcohol to be put into the communal fridge
Dinner: Pledges are taken to an off-campus location for a dinner where they often vomit.
International Exam: Pledges take an exam about the history of DKE.

Friday
"Rude Awakening" and Run: Pledges are woken up after half an hour of sleep and taken on a run under the High Level Bridge
Classes or Cleaning: Pledges who have class can attend, accompanied by their big brothers, while those left behind clean the house.
Dinner: Pledges are taken to a restaurant for dinner, where they are encouraged, but not mandated, to drink heavily.
Beta's Charge: Pledges are told they are on probation with DKE and that initiations have begun. At this point, pledges cannot leave initiations.

Saturday
The Hilton: Pledges are introduced to "the Hilton," where they wait while the basement is set up for circles.
Circles: Pledges participate in an extended exercise drill where they are required to do physical activity.
Meditations: Pledges listen to repetitive music for hours and are not allowed to sleep.

Sunday
The Final Stage: Pledges are driven off-campus for the final stage of initiations.
Kickouts: Pledges individually appear before a tribunal and are told they did not make it into the fraternity.
Initiations end: One brother tells all the pledges that whoever didn't make it into the fraternity should step forward. Everybody steps forward, signalling the end of initiations.

There was considerable fallout from the story. On December 10, 2010, DKE International provisionally suspended the University of Alberta chapter for three years, and on January 27, 2011, U of A Dean of Students Frank Robinson announced that the U of A chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon was being suspended from affiliation with the university for five years.

That hasn't been the end of the story. On September 20, 2011, University of Alberta Protective Services confirmed that they had opened an investigation into a complaint that members of DKE had been seen recruiting on campus during student orientation, which would be a violation of the terms of the fraternity's suspension. According to a News in Brief item from The Gateway, November 9, 2011:

Four members of the Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE) fraternity have been charged for attempting to recruit students on campus, violating the five-year suspension imposed on the fraternity last January following allegations of hazing.

UAPS Director Bill Mowbray said the four students were charged under the code of student behaviour, which was handled by the Office of Judicial Affairs. A decision was then rendered by the office’s discipline officer.

The office was unable to comment on the nature of the discipline imposed, citing confidentiality for all cases.

The investigation took about two weeks to conduct, according to Mowbray. The case was forwarded to Mowbray for investigation by the Office of the Dean of Students, who received a video of DKE members engaging in recruitment activities during orientation.

The incident was recorded by several students aware of the DKE’s suspension, who subsequently complained to the Office of the Dean of Students.

Dean of Students Frank Robinson said he was unable to comment now that the investigation has closed. However, he said the office is looking to add an official definition of hazing in the U of A’s code of student behaviour, which it’s currently lacking.

Interfraternity Council (IFC) President Kevin Thomas said it’s important to note that the DKE members were violating more than just their suspension.

“It wasn’t just that they weren’t supposed to be doing what they were doing. It’s that they were doing something that no student group is allowed to do, which is soliciting on campus,” Thomas said.

Another casualty of "holistic healing" in Canada

If the following item seems somewhat familiar, it may be because it resembles this item from a few months ago.

As reported by The Canadian Press, November 11, 2011:

RICHMOND, B.C. - Five B.C. residents, including a woman nearly killed by arsenic poisoning and left a quadriplegic, are sharing more than $340,000 as a result of a settlement involving a self-proclaimed holistic healer.

Money from the settlement came from property seized from the defendant and sold under the B.C. government's civil forfeiture legislation.

The government says the defendant, Selena Tsui, was not charged in the case after the Crown concluded there was no substantial likelihood of conviction on any criminal charges.

The government says between 2000 and 2004, Tsui told at least a dozen people she was qualified to diagnose and treat diseases, including mental conditions, when in fact she had no formal training.

One of her clients, identified only as E.L., began taking a concoction she believed contained mushrooms and herbs, but had extreme arsenic levels, and she suffered respiratory and renal failure, cardiac arrest and paralysis.

She was taken to hospital, put on life support and given a five per cent chance of survival, but her life was eventually saved.

Could pilotless drones help to fulfil end-time prophecy?

And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?...
...And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world...
...And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. Revelation 13: 4, 7-8, 11-15

Nat Hentoff wrote on the subject of pilotless drones in his WorldNet Daily column of November 8, 2011. I find it interesting that Mr. Hentoff, who professes to be an atheist, speculates on the possibility of Americans following a robot president:

But there are experts who believe that there are indeed people who can create ethical, responsible robots. Enter Ronald C. Arkin, author of "Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots." Among his credentials: This study was financed by the U.S. Army Research Office. Don't you trust the judgment of that official government level of validation?

Arkin, assures the Washington Post and us that "lethal autonomy is inevitable," robots having graduated from science fiction into real-time existence; competing with human chess champions, for one widely publicized example. But on the warfare level we're discussing, Arkin, reports Finn, "believes it is possible to build ethical military drones and robots, capable of using deadly force while programmed to adhere to international humanitarian law and the rules of engagement. "He said software can be created that would lead machines to return fire with proportionality, minimize collateral damage, recognize surrender, and, in the case of uncertainty, maneuver to reassess or wait for a human assessment."

If you are still skeptical, Lora G. Weiss, chief scientist at Georgia Tech Research Institute, adds: "How a war-fighting unit may think – we are trying to make our systems behave like that."

Is it possible, then, that eventually we'll have such corrosive distrust of our incompetent government, as we have come to know it, that we will put our faith in a robotic president so precisely and totally connected to the Bill of Rights and the rest of the Constitution that we will have no reason to doubt it?

You think I'm kidding? I sure hope so. I am glad to introduce Johann Borenstein, in charge of the Mobile Robotics Lab at the University of Michigan.

He tells the Washington Post that human skills will remain critical in battle far into the future, emphasizing: "The foremost of all skills is common sense. Robots don't have common sense and won't have common sense in the next 50 years, or however long one might want to guess."

But how long will future generations want to guess? In any case, why now, President Barack Obama, is it wise to conduct our warfare against terrorists who may ultimately have pilotless technology to kill us? And beyond the next election, what will future presidents think of saving the lives of our human soldiers by depending on soulless robotic drones?

More evidence that yesterday's liberalism has become today's evangelicalism

In 1983, at the 11th World Congress of the International Council of Christian Churches at Cape May, New Jersey, Dr. Samuel H. Tow of Singapore delivered an important and prescient address titled "Today's Evangelicals, Tomorrow's Liberals." The title is equally true if reversed: Individuals and ideas regarded as liberal in 1983 are now considered "evangelical" (e.g., Jim Wallis).

From a column by Charles Lewis titled Tarring all evangelicals in the National Post, November 7, 2011:

Trinity Western University, an evangelical school, has been consistently ranked as one of the top academic schools in the country...

...In Ottawa, TWU runs the Laurentian Leadership Centre. It is meant for their brightest students who are contemplating careers in public life. I visited the centre about four years ago and spoke to many of the students. None seemed to be too fussed about gay marriage or even abortion. To them, the burning issues of the day were debt relief and global poverty. Politically, they were all over the map, including some Green party activists.

In the United States there are a number of top flight schools — Baylor, Samford, Eastern — that are all evangelical. Wheaton College in Illinois is as tough to get into as Harvard. I’ve spoken to many of their people and again they are far and a way some of the smartest people I have met. It too is an evangelical school.

When it comes to the American schools mentioned above, some might question just how "evangelical" they are, and might argue that they're examples of how evangelicalism has morphed into liberalism. Mr. Lewis's comment about the students at Trinity Western University offers further support to this argument; today's "evangelical" students at their "evangelical" schools have priorities and opinions that are indistinguishable from those of the non-Christian world around them. A "textbook" example is The King's University College in Edmonton, Alberta. Click on the link for Micah Centre, then on the link titled "God's Politics," and it takes you straight to the blog of Sojourners, run by Jim Wallis, who I've always regarded as a Communist masquerading as a Christian. Mr. Wallis's views haven't changed in 50 years, but evangelicalism has moved so far to the left that it's caught up to him. Such are the results of Christians "engaging" the culture ("engagement" is the early 21st century equivalent of "appeasement," which carried a positive connotation as late as the Munich peace summit in 1938, and became a dirty word only after Adolf Hitler continued his aggression).

The trouble with "New Evangelicalism" is that it started on the wrong foot. The old-style fundamentalists, such as those in the ICCC, insisted on separation from liberal denominations. The "New Evangelicals," however, condemned the fundamentalists as lacking in love, and said that one could be affiliated with, for instance, the National Association of Evangelicals, without separating from a liberal denomination. The results have been exactly as the fundamentalists predicted.

13 Crystal Skulls make their pilgrimage across the U.S.A.

And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. II Timothy 4:4

A recent New Age item:

According to astrologer Cal Garrison, in the New Age magazine The Spirit of Ma'at, October 2011:

I first heard about the Crystal Skull journey back on the twenty-third of July. At the time I wasn't quite sure how it would all come together because so many variables, both logistical and ethereal, had to be taken into consideration. Since that day many things have been arranged and rearranged. After several meetings, Hunbatz Men, Mayan Daykeeper and Elder Priest of the Mayan Itza Council, and Pedro Pablo Chuc Pech, President of the Mayan Council of Elders, have announced their plans to lead a group of Mayan Elders on a ceremonial pilgrimage that will carry the Thirteen Crystal Skulls from one coast of the United States to the other. The journey will begin in Manhattan on the 27th of October, 2011; it will culminate in Los Angeles on November 11th, 2011.

On 11:11:11, another group of thirteen Elders will arrive in LA from the Mayaland to come together in a Gateway Event that will be highlighted by the performance of the Mayan Crystal Skull Ceremony. The Elders, whose traditions have always been kept within their inner circle, have been instructed to perform all of their ceremonies in public from this point on; for this reason, the Ceremony of the Thirteen Crystal Skulls, a ceremony that was last performed 26,000 years ago, will be open to the general public.

Enroute from New York to Los Angeles the Elders will stop at specific power points to fulfill a prophecy which states that the time has come to reawaken the Spirit of the North American Continent so that it can reclaim itself as the sacred ground in whose soil would be sown the seeds for the enlightenment of all mankind. At each stop along the way ceremonial gatherings will be held to open the ground and raise the ancient energies that will fuel the Gateway Event in Los Angeles on 11:11:11. All of these gatherings will be open to anyone who feels called to participate.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the significance of the Thirteen Crystal Skulls, these ancient relics are said to contain information about the history of our planet and the future of mankind. Carved out of pure quartz crystal, and other crystals such as jade, the Skulls generate an energy field that activates human consciousness in a way that expands our perceptions of reality. Ultimately they are the manifestation of Spirit in a form that is now helping to shift the magnetic frequency of Mother Earth. When the Spirits of the Skulls are ceremonially awakened, ancient wisdom, wisdom that has been preserved in a crystalline matrix for eons, enters the unified field and fills the collective consciousness with all the knowledge of everything that has happened on the planet in the last 26,000 years, and perhaps beyond...

For those who remember the Harmonic (aka "Moronic") Convergence in 1987, it seems there's a 2011/2012 edition. Please note the presence of Cirque du (not "de") Soleil (and you thought it was just a circus):

...As it turns out, Unify Earth, the organization that is sponsored by the people who gave us 'Live Aid', ''We are the World', and other mega-events with a humanitarian purpose, has gotten behind Hunbatz Men, Pedro Pablo Chuc Pech, and the Mayan Council and they want to provide a vehicle for the Elders' message to be spread to every corner of the Earth. In collaboration with Cirque de Soleil, 'Google', NBC, Santana, Elevate Films, and others, all of the above have come together to sponsor a series of spectacular performances that will carry the seeds that are sown in the soon to be actualized Crystal Skull Ceremonies to hearts and minds all over the planet.

Throughout 2012, on the March 21st Spring Equinox, the June 21st Summer Solstice, and the September 21st, Autumn Equinox, Cirque de Soleil will present special performances with themes that embody the wisdom of the ancients, the secrets of the Great Shift of the Ages, and the connection between the mysteries of the heart and the awakening of human consciousness. At the heart of each performance will be the wish to open the mind and the heart of humanity to the Ascension process, and to the prospect of a beautiful future in a whole new world.

This series of blockbuster performances will culminate in a fourth mega-event that will broadcast live, from the Great Pyramid at Chichen Itza on the 2012 Winter Solstice. On that night Cirque de Soleil will take over the entire Chichen Itza Temple complex. The Chichen Itza Pyramid will be transformed into a stage, upon which the artists and performers of the Cirque de Soleil will work their incredible magic. Carlos Santana, the man who has been a clear channel for the Music of the Spheres for over fifty-years, will be the Master of Ceremonies for the main event. If that isn't enough, the Winter Solstice show will include an unprecedented, full regalia ceremony with the Mayan Elders. Yes, that's right folks; the Elders will be there too; they are coming down from the mountains to be part of this.

At 11:11 PM, on the night of the 2012 Winter Solstice spectacular, at the exact moment when our Sun and the Earth go into alignment with the center of the galaxy, the Elders, and the Cirque de Soleil performers will present a guided meditation that will unite over two-billion viewers in their hearts and open the space for all of humanity to embrace the unconditionally-loving light of the Divine Feminine. The time has come; the 'Quarantine' is about to be lifted. This event, and all of the ceremonies and performances leading up to it, are the manifestation of a dream, and of a rise in consciousness that will help us to remember who we really are and guide us out of the darkness into the Light.

HT: Dracul Van Helsing

May 14, 2012 update: The latest on Cirque du Soleil, as reported by Pat Donnelly in the Montreal Gazette, April 13, 2012:

MONTREAL - Step right up folks! Be among the first to discover Amaluna, the matriarchal circus partially inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest wherein 75 per cent of the 52 performers are women and a spectacular Utopian vision of world harmony rules.

While describing her first Cirque du Soleil show at a recent media event in Montreal, New York theatre director and Harvard professor Diane Paulus said the most beautiful thing about working on it has been collaborating with performers from around the world (15 countries). “I’ve done a lot of theatre,” she said. “but I’ve never done a show with this many people from this many countries.”

She reflected that if members of her international cast can find a common harmony as they relate across language barriers in building the world of Amaluna, it will be “a little tribute to the power of theatre and art to promote that kind of communication...”

...
The third singer is Marie-Michèle Faber, as the Goddess Moon, who will be delivering her songs from high in the air on a hoop.

Amaluna, after all, is a hybrid word whose combined meaning adds up to Mother Moon.

Amaluna begins previews Thursday, April 19, 2012 under the Big Top at the Old Port. Official opening is April 25. It will move to Quebec City on July 25. Visit www.cirquedusoleil.com for more information.

25 years ago: Representatives of 12 religions join Pope John Paul II at World Day of Prayer for Peace

He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination. Proverbs 28:9

And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand. Daniel 8:25

On October 27, 1986, representatives of 12 religions participated in the World Day of Prayer for Peace at Assisi, Italy, under the leadership of Pope John Paul II. As reported by Roberto Suro in The New York Times, October 28, 1986:

Assisi, Italy, Oct. 27--Spiritual leaders from 12 different religions gathered here today to offer individual prayers alongside Pope John Paul II, who had asked them to join him in a "World Day of Prayer for Peace."

Their efforts were described as at least partly successful...

...The governments of 60 countries, including Israel and Iraq, had sent messages supporting the idea, according to the chief Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls, who termed the truce initiative "a substantial success."...

...The "religious families" represented at the shrine here were Amerindian religions; the Bahai faith, an offshoot of Babism that stresses universal brotherhood; Buddhists; Christians; Jainists, a Hindu religion resembling Buddhism; Jews; Hindus; Moslems; Shintoists, a religion of Japan that emphasizes the worship of nature and ancestors; Sikhs; traditional African religions, and Zoroastrians, a religion founded in Persia that includes a belief in the continuous struggle of good against evil.

Among those attending were the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader; the Most Rev. Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of the Anglican Communion; Metropolitan Filaret of Kiev, who represented the Russian Orthodox Church; and Muneyoshi Tokugawa, president of the Shinto Shrine Association of Tokyo.

The religious leaders, who represented every major form of worship, were told by the Pope, "For the first time in history we have come together from everywhere."

Although united in their desire for peace, the 155 religious leaders who joined John Paul here on a blustery autumn day were clearly still divided by religion.

Scattered among Romanesque churches, Baroque chapels and Medieval palaces, the participants formed 12 groups this morning so that each faith could pray separately.

After fasting and meditating through midday, the participants marched through the steep stone streets until they arrived outside the basilica of St. Francis.

There, in a piazza that usually serves as a parking lot for tour buses, representatives of each religion offered a separate prayer while the others watched.

The Pope, conspicuous in his all-white cassock, sat with all of the non-Christians in a brightly colored array of dress to his left while on his right were the Christians in variations of black and purple as well as some simple business suits. Elio Toaff, Rome's Chief Rabbi, was the head of the Jewish delegation and sat at the end of the Christian section.

Just as a chilly rain began to fall, the religious leaders went to the refectory of the Franciscan monastery alongside the Basilica. They ate together there this evening from a menu that offered several choices carefully calculated to respect the great variety of dietary practices.

'Being Together to Pray'

Senior Vatican officials said that never before had such an array of religious figures participated in a single event.

At no time did all of the participating pray together. Instead, the Pope coined the phrase "being together to pray," to describe how they were united here while worshipping separately.

Welcoming the religious leaders this morning, John Paul said, "The fact that we have come here does not imply any intention of seeking a religious consensus among ourselves or of negotiating our faith convictions."

Yet, when the day was ending, the Pope asked, "If there are many and important differences among us, is it not true to say that at the deeper level of humanity, there is a common ground whence to operate together in a solution of this dramatic challenge of our age: true peace or catastrophic war?"

Prayer and the search for peace, he said, formed that common ground because all religions respect "the inner imperative of the moral conscience" and because "peace goes much beyond human efforts, particularly in the present plight of the world."

The day produced some extraordinary cultural encounters. For example, the Buddhists, led by the Dalai Lama, quickly converted the altar of the Church of San Pietro by placing a small statue of the Buddha atop the tabernacle and setting prayer scrolls and incense burners around it...

Accompanying the article in The New York Times was a sidebar from Associated Press titled Some Prayers for Peace:

Assisi, Italy, Oct. 27 (AP)--Representatives of 12 major faiths took part here today in the "World Day of Prayer for Peace." Here are excerpts from some of their prayers, as supported by the Vatican.

Buddhist
May all beings everywhere, plagued with sufferings of body and mind, obtain an ocean of happiness and joy.

Hindu
May God protect us; may He nourish us. May we work together with energy. May our studies be fruitful. May we love each other and live in peace.

Jainist
Peace and universal brotherhood is the essence of the gospel preached by all the enlightened ones of the past and of the future.

Moslem
And the servants of the Most Gracious are those who walk on the earth in humility, and when the ignorant address them, they say, "Peace."

Shinto
Although the people living across the ocean surrounding us, I believe, are all our brothers, why are there constant troubles in this world? Why do winds and waves rise in the ocean surrounding us? I only earnestly wish that the wind will soon puff away all the clouds which are hanging over the tops of the mountains.

African Animist
Almighty God, the Great Thumb we cannot evade to tie any knot, the Roaring Thunder that splits mighty trees, the All-Seeing Lord up on high who sees even the footprints of an antelope on a rock mass here on earth: You are the one who does not hesitate to respond to our call. You are the cornerstone of peace.

American Indian
In smoking the pipe, I invite my family to smoke with me and you, my friends, to pray with me in thanksgiving for this day and for world peace. I will pray that we all may commit ourselves to pray and to work for peace within our families, our tribes, and our nations. I pray for all our brothers and sisters walking our mother earth.

Jewish
Our God in heaven, the Lord of Peace will have compassion and mercy upon us and upon all the peoples of the earth who implore his mercy and his compassion, asking for peace, seeking peace.

Christian
I say to you that hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for hose who abuse you. To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and from him who takes away your cloak do not withhold your coat as well. Give to everyone who begs from you; and of him who takes away your goods do not ask them again. And as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.

On October 28, 1986, Carl McIntire, president of the International Council of Christian Churches, released a Statement on the Pope's Assisi Gathering for Peace, which was published in the Christian Beacon, October 23 and 30, 1986. The statement, which exhibited great discernment, read, in part:

Mother Teresa of Calcutta was added, and these groups represented, as claimed by the Vatican, 3.5 billion followers world wide, or 70 percent of the world population. The Vatican also released excerpts from some of the prayers..."An African animist snake worshiper whom the Pope met last year on a visit to Togo," prayed "Almighty God, the Great Thumb." In his prayer the witch doctor cursed "all the wicked persons who frustrate this laudable effort made to achieve peace...let all the evil ancestors and spirits receive their drink and flee to their doom."...The Christian prayer, as reported, did not include the name of God. There was no reference to Jesus Christ, and it made reference to the golden rule: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you."

...The Pope was correct in announcing that never before in church history had such an event occurred. His efforts to justify this on what he calls the "inner imperative of the moral conscience," seen as he believes in all religion, totally contradicts the Biblical revelation of the depravity of man and his total separation from God through his fall.

The Pope uses the instrument of peace to override the reality of the iniquity of man and the curse under which man abides with certain death appointed to all. peace is here used to destroy the revelation of God and the singular place that God has given to Jesus Christ as the only Saviour, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit.

The Pope ceased to be a church leader or a Christian leader. He operated only on a broad humanistic platform with appeals that could never, never approach Heaven or the ears of the Almighty.

Here was as great an abomination as has been seen in 2000 years of Church history.

A 20th century Elijah was needed to stand outside or walk the streets of Assisi denouncing the idolatry of the prophets in Assisi. God never heard the prophets of Baal, and He has made it clear that only in the name of Jesus Christ may men approach Him. It was Christ who said, "All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them." Buddha was before Christ, Zoroaster was before Christ. Mohammed came after Him, but demoted Jesus to the level of one of the prophets.

To represent the world, as the Pope did, with all these prayers, that this somehow, could affect the deity of deities in behalf of world peace, perpetrated a delusion and falsehood upon mankind.

The First Table of the Decalogue, which God gave to Moses, was trampled in Assisi. There God said, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." This Assisi prayer meeting for the gods falls under the condemnation of the living and true God, who said He was jealous. For God told Moses, "The Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain."

The countenancing of graven images is forbidden in the Second Commandment: "Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me." The judgments of God will fall upon Assisi.

Instead of benefiting peace, this will aggravate the judgment of Almighty God. The Bible-believing Christians of the world are now confronted with the ultimate in the great apostasy which has stricken Christendom. The New Testament Christians were forbidden to be a part of idolatrous worship, and this movement which gave birth to the church was built upon the reality that as believers they were separating from everything that was represented in Assisi today and that they, when they met, would be conscious of Jesus Christ in heir midst because they owned only Christ as Saviour and Lord.

The magnitude of this co-operation and support of the Christian churches represented in the World Council of Churches, the Anglican Church and the Roman Catholic, and the ease with which the pagans felt free to join them should shock and startle every person on the face of this earth who believes in the true and everlasting Gospel and the fact, as Peter emphasized, that "there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." The Pope gave no Christian witness to all these religious servants of darkness and the demons from the pit. The message from Assisi is that missionaries are not needed; the prayers of the Christians can all be offered together in their own way and God will grant answers. Israel was repeatedly told that God's ears were stopped to their cry because they made common cause with Baal and Ashtaroth and the gods of the Philistines. God's dealings with Israel, their 70 years of captivity in Babylon and the Fulfillment of Christ's prophecy for the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D., all came because of the same kind of iniquity that was manifested in Assisi on October 27, 1986.

The faithful of the Lord, washed in His precious blood, now face the Pope and his legions who rallied behind his leadership as he projected himself as the man of peace for the nations.

The desire for peace which is so universal will be given and made secure when the Prince of Peace comes, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the great High Priest, seated at the right hand of the Father and who has promised to protect His own who come to God in His name and for His glory. Assisi 1986 is not a turning point. it is a culmination of the ecumenical current encompassing the pagan religions. it must be rejected at whatever price is necessary, and the true believers who can get through to God must pray that God will restrain, that His mercy may abound and that evil will be exposed and resisted as it is defined by the commands of the Holy Scripture.

The cry of all Christians now as they look at Geneva, the headquarters of the World Council of Churches, will be, "Remember Assisi: remember Rome." One World, the monthly magazine of the WCC, October '86, featured on its cover, "WCC-Roman Catholic Relations, 'Real though imperfect' communion on the road to unity."

Included in the lists of all who came were those from Moscow, Metropolitan Filaret, who is an agent of the KGB, the Soviet Secret Police.

October 27, 2011 update: The Vatican obviously hasn't forgotten to celebrate the 25th anniversary of this abomination. As reported by Jean-Louis De La Vaissiere of Agence France-Presse on October 27, 2011:

Religious leaders joined with Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday to denounce violence perpetrated in the name of their faiths, amid growing religious fanaticism across the world.

"No more violence, no more war, no more terrorism! Never again! In the name of God, that every religion bring justice and peace, forgiveness and life and love to the world!" the pope said at a ceremony in the Saint Francis basilica in Assisi, Italy.

The colourful crowd of religious representatives had taken a special train from Vatican City to Assisi, where Buddhist monks mixed with turbaned Sikhs, black-frocked patriarchs and Catholic cardinals in their red skull-caps.

The small group which waited under a leaden sky in the northern Italian city to meet them off the train was a far shout from the welcome crowd which greeted John Paul II at inter-religious councils in 1986 and 2002...

...Over 50 Islamic representatives were in attendance, alongside Jewish rabbis, Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, a Zoroastrian, a Bahai and delegates of Taoism, Confucianism and traditional religions from Africa and America.

In the vast basilica, which includes the tiny chapel where the animal-loving Francis died in 1226, dignitaries watched a film which looked back over the past 25 years to celebrate the anniversary of the first Assisi meeting.

The pallid 84-year-old pope seemed much smaller and more fragile than his guests, sitting between Bartholomew I, the Archbishop of Constantinople, and Rabbi David Rosen, representing the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.

Addressing the delegates, the pontiff strongly denounced religious terrorism, describing it as "the antithesis of religion" which "contributes to its destruction."

He also expressed his shame for Christian acts of violence committed in the name of God in the past.

Kyai Haji Hasyim Muzadi, chairman of the International Conference of Islamic Scholars (ICIS), said that violence committed in the name of God included elements which "seem" religious but are "political, economical and cultural."

Professor Wande Abimbola, representing Africa's traditional faiths, called for them to be given the same respect as other religions and encouraged his fellow dignitaries not to underestimate the importance of nature.

"Until Mother Nature receives our attention, human beings will not be able to find the true peace and tranquillity we all search for," he said, before launching into a Yoruba hymn.

The gathering also received words of praise about interfaith dialogue from US President Barack Obama.

"Through interfaith dialogue, we can unite in common cause to lift the afflicted, make peace where there is strife, and find the way forward to create a better world for ourselves and our children," Obama said in a message.

The event however had been criticised by Catholic fundamentalists who are strongly against the idea of dialogue with other religions and accused the pontiff of "welcoming false religions."

In organising the "journey of reflection, dialogue and prayer for peace and justice", the Vatican had been careful to avoid any moments of common prayer.

The delegates were treated to a frugal lunch of rice, salad and fruit before withdrawing to spend a solitary hour and a half in individual monk cells, praying and reflecting on the day's themes.

Bartholomew I, who sat with the pope at lunch, expressed concerns over "the increased marginalisation of Christian communities in the Middle East."

"The only way to end the warmongering use of religion is to set ourselves up as mediators of the peace," he said.

That peace, according to Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, should be brokered as soon as possible in Jerusalem, a city that has fuelled other conflicts around the world, he said.

And as reported by Philip Pullella of Reuters on October 27, 1986:

Unlike in 1986, the gathering did not include common prayer among the delegates.

The difference reflected Benedict's more conservative view of Catholic relations with other religions. In fact, Benedict, who did not attend the 1986 meeting when he was a cardinal, later implicitly criticized it because it implied that all religions were somehow equal.

The 1986 meeting, which took place at a time of the Cold War and conflicts in Lebanon, Northern Ireland and Central America, was billed as a "meeting of prayer for peace."

Thursday's was called a "pilgrimage" for truth and peace and instead of praying in each other's presence, as they did in 1986, the delegates withdrew to various rooms around the Basilica of St Mary of the Angels in the lower part of Assisi for what the program called "silence, reflection and personal prayer."

Thursday's gathering included four people billed as "non-believers" -- agnostics the pope said had been invited to represent people in the world who have no faith but are "on the lookout for truth, searching for God."

He said such non-believers should not be confused with militant atheists, who, he said, live in the "false certainty" that there is no God.

The day was not without its moments of inter-religious challenges. A representative of African traditional religions appeared to chide the big churches for acting in a patronizing way.

"The time has come for the leaders of all the world's religions to have a new frame of mind in which indigenous religions are given the same respect and consideration as other religions," said Wande Abimbola of Nigeria.

30 years ago: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat is assassinated

On October 6, 1981, Anwar Sadat, 62, President of Egypt since 1970, was shot to death, along with 11 others, by a squad led by Lieutenant Khalid Islambouli during the annual parade celebrating the anniversary of the 1973 crossing of the Suez Canal by Egyptian forces (the 1973 crossing began the Yom Kippur War between Egypt and Israel, and Egypt's celebration of the anniversary of a war that it lost probably says something about that culture). Hosni Mubarak, one of 28 people wounded in the attack, replaced Mr. Sadat as President. The Egyptian economy was said to be in bad shape, and there was also lingering resentment within Egypt of the 1979 peace treaty with Israel resulting from the 1978 Camp David Accords, signed by Mr. Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

One person caught by surprise by the assassination of Mr. Sadat was Mary Stewart Relfe, who had identified Mr. Sadat as a good candidate for the Antichrist in her book When Your Money Fails, published earlier in 1981. As Maxwell Smart used to say, "Missed it by that much!"

When I heard about the assassination of Mr. Sadat, I was electrified by the news, wondering what it meant as far as Bible prophecy was concerned. With the passage of time, it seems as though the only prophetic significance--and this is just my unwarranted speculation--is that perhaps the prophetic timetable would have been upset if Mr. Sadat had remained in office longer. The lesson I took from this event is that an event that may seem prophetically significant at the time may not necessarily be so--or at least may be prophetically significant in ways known only to God. One thing is sure: we're now 30 years closer to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ than we were on October 6, 1981.