Near The Finish Line

Creating a New World Order: The U.N. Millennium Forum: Reinvention of Global Government - John Loeffler - Koinonia House

2011-11-26T12:18:00.000-05:00

Over the last decade, the United Nations has unabashedly been reinventing itself into a global government, striving to obtain the legal teeth and financial resources to implement its policies. Government reinvention is frequently an effort to avoid the consequences of failed policies in the past, or to justify a government's continued expansion by posing solutions to the problems it has created.
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Monitor Strategic Trends - Koinonia House

2011-11-26T11:21:00.000-05:00

The move toward a global government received a big boost this summer by the introduction of a proposal for an International Criminal Court. Over U.S. objections, the United Nations Diplomatic Conference voted 120 to 7 in favor of establishing an international criminal court to try individuals accused of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression.
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20 Signs That America Is Going Crazy

2011-11-23T19:30:00.000-05:00

Our society is rapidly coming apart at the seams and people are seriously starting to lose it. Way too many Americans seem to be losing all sense of what is right and what is wrong.
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The Insanity of "wrongful Life" Lawsuits - Disabled Children Suing Doctors For Not Aborting Them

2011-11-23T19:15:00.000-05:00

“Wrongful life” lawsuits, in which doctors are held liable for not discovering fetal abnormalities that might have prompted parents to abort their child, have become so common in Israel that the government has set up a committee to investigate the issue, New Scientist reports.
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New D.C. Episcopal Bishop Seeks to 'Build Up the Liberal Church' | Christianpost.com

2011-11-23T19:11:00.000-05:00

The Rev. Mariann Budde, the newly consecrated and seated bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, wants to make a stronger voice for progressive Christians.

“I want to build up the liberal church again so we can be a legitimate conversation partner in the public arena religiously,” said Budde to the Washington Post’s Michelle Boorstein.
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Genetic Engineering: Toward the Super Human | Bible Prophecy Blog

2011-11-23T19:02:00.001-05:00

"We're going to make synthetic human genomes and edit them, and we're going to end up with IVF technologies that can boot them. It will make cloning look organic, and the ways we have babies today quaint." - Singularity University bioinformatics and biotechnology co-chair Andrew Hessel
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Is Satan Real?: What Does the Bible Say About the Devil?

2010-07-12T19:57:00.000-04:00

According to the Barna Group, the majority of Christians do not believe that Satan or the devil actually exists.2 However, according to an AP-AOL news poll, up to 97% of evangelical Christians believe that angels exist.3 Contrary to the beliefs of many, Satan is not the opposite of God - an anti-god. According to the Bible, Satan is a created being, having been created by God as His most powerful angelic helper.
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Obama's Supreme Court nominee rejects God given rights

2010-07-12T19:54:00.000-04:00

In what has to be one of the most frightening examples of the intellectually bankrupt and morally debilitating effects that modern leftism has on the human mind, Solicitor General Elena Kagan pretended that the principles set forth in America's founding document – the Declaration of Independence – have no impact on the decisions, opinions and philosophies of a good justice.
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You Are of Your Father the Devil

2010-07-12T19:48:00.000-04:00

July 11, 2010 — by Mike Ratliff - Possessing the Treasure

Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8 ESV)

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Mass. Court’s Ruling Against DOMA 'Erroneous'

2010-07-12T19:42:00.000-04:00

A Massachusetts federal judge made an “erroneous decision” when he struck down the federal definition of marriage as between one man and one woman, said a conservative, pro-family group. Read More...

Fuller Theological Seminary Birthed Church Growth Movement

2010-07-12T19:36:00.000-04:00

No doubt there’s rough spiritual sea dead ahead; and while I don’t agree with everything he taught, Apprising Ministries has told you before that Dr. Walter Martin (1928-1989), author of the classic textbook The Kingdom of the Cults, was widely recognized as one of the foremost defenders of what he would so often call “the historic orthodox Christian faith.” Circa 1987 Dr. Martin made the following dead on target assessment: Anyone who does not know that today the church visible—world around—is in full-blown apostasy does not know what is going on. And further, I say that anyone who thinks the visible church is in better condition now seriously needs to have their spiritual head examined. Read More...

Federal Reserve Threatens Congress Over HR 1207

2009-07-12T20:21:00.000-04:00

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars
July 12, 2009
On Thursday of last week, the Federal Reserve’s vice chairman, Donald Kohn, threatened to jack up interest rates if Congress continues to expose “some of the U.S. central bank’s most sensitive decisions to political scrutiny, Reuters reported.

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Kohn warns Congress on meddling in Fed's affairs - UPDATE 2

2009-07-12T20:18:00.000-04:00

By Alister Bull
WASHINGTON, July 9 (Reuters)
Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn said opening up some of the U.S. central bank's most sensitive decisions to political scrutiny could result in higher long-term interest rates and hurt the United States' credit rating.

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One force of nature vs. another: Bill Gates tries to stop hurricanes

2009-07-12T12:10:00.000-04:00

Why do these elitists think they can make better decisions than our Creator?
Romans 11:8

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Obama's Biggest Radical

2009-07-12T09:14:00.000-04:00

...Holdren is a globalist who has endorsed "surrender of sovereignty" to "a comprehensive Planetary Regime" that would control all the world's resources, direct global redistribution of wealth, oversee the "de-development" of the West, control a World Army and taxation regime, and enforce world population limits.

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Government control goes that extra mile

2009-07-11T17:49:00.000-04:00

Henry Lamb WorldNetDaily Exclusive Commentary © 2009
Posted: July 11, 2009
1:00 am Eastern

Sara was late for work. The alarm clock didn't alarm, the kids were unusually slow getting ready for school, and nothing went right. She finally got to her car – a brand new 2020 Chevy Adventure. She touched the finger-print secured start button. Nothing. It wouldn't start.

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House Democrats Will Seek Massive $540 Billion Tax Increase—Announcement Came Late Friday Afternoon

2009-07-11T16:28:00.000-04:00

Saturday, July 11, 2009
By Terence P. Jeffrey, Editor-in-Chief
(CNSNews.com) - Despite a still-lagging U.S. economy and rising unemployment rate, House Democrats announced late yesterday that they will seek a massive increase in federal income taxes to help pay for the national health-care reform proposal that President Obama is urging Congress to enact this summer.

House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D.-N.Y.)revealed late Friday afternoon that House Democrats will seek to increase income taxes by $540 billion.

The move, which had been discussed earlier in the week by House Democrats, broke in an Associated Press story that was published at 4:14 PM Eastern Daylight time on Friday afternoon (or 8:14 PM Greenwich Mean Time).
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“Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel of New York said the tax would raise $540 billion over 10 years” the initial AP story reported.

Releasing news late on a Friday afternoon is a traditional public relations tactic used by politicians seeking to limit the news coverage of an item they nonetheless need to release.

Subsequent AP stories and a report in the Washington Post cited Democratic sources as saying that the massive new tax increase would come in the form of a “surtax” on people filing taxes in the upper brackets of the income tax code.

The upper tax brackets are already set to increase after next year when the income-tax cuts signed into law by President Bush in 2001 expire. President Obama and the Obama Treasury Department have indicated they intend to let those tax cuts expire for the upper two income brackets—meaning any individual or small business earning more than $200,000.

The “surtax” the House Democrats are planning now would further increase the income tax rate for people and small businesses paying taxes in the top brackets.

“Rangel didn't describe details, but one official said the surtax would apply to individuals with adjusted gross incomes over $280,000 a year, and couples over $350,000,” the AP reported. “A senior House aide said the surtax would be 1 percent for the first group of high earners, those households making $350,000 or more. The levels for the other two groups, those above $500,000 and $1 million in annual income are still being determined, said the aide.”

On Saturday morning, the Washington Post published a report on its Web site about the planned tax increase, under the headline—“Democrats Agree on Tax Hike to Fund Health Care.”

“Beginning in 2011, the plan would target all income over $350,000 a year for families and $280,000 a year for individuals, Democratic sources said,” the Post reported. “The surtax would start at 1 percent, rise to around 1.5 percent for families earning more than $500,000, then step up again, to around 3 percent, for families earning more than $1 million, Democrats said.”

The Post did note that this tax increase would come on top of tax increases that the Democrats were already planning by allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire.

“The top federal tax rate currently stands at 35 percent, but Democrats have vowed to raise it to 39.6 percent next year, when cuts enacted during the Bush administration expire,” reported the Post. “Combined with other federal tax adjustments, the surtax could leave most taxpayers with annual incomes more than $350,000 facing top federal rates of at least 45 percent, said Robert Carroll, a senior fellow at the nonprofit Tax Foundation.”

The New York Times also posted a piece on the proposed tax increase on its Web site.

“An aide to the House speaker, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, said she and other leaders were supportive of the idea, which they concluded would be their main way to pay for Mr. Obama’s top policy priority: expanding health insurance coverage to virtually all Americans and curtailing the steep rise in the cost of medical care while improving patient outcomes,” reported the Times.

The Times also observed that the planned tax hike was a sign of the sort of “mandate” Democrats believed they won in last November’s election.

“With the economy still hobbled and Republicans already sharpening their tax-and-spend attack line, the proposal is perhaps the clearest expression yet of the mandate that Democrats believe they won last November, when voters expanded Democratic majorities in Congress and sent Barack Obama to the White House,” said the Times.

In 2001, President Bush signed tax reform legislation that cut income tax rates across the board. People who were then paying a 15% federal income tax rate had their rate cut to 10%. The higher income tax rates of 39.6%, 36%, 31%, and 28% were cut to 35%, 33%, 28% and 25%.
President Obama’s Treasury Department has indicated that the administration will seek to increase the current 33% rate to 36% and the current 35% rate to 39.6%.

Under Obama’s tax-increase plan, individuals making $200,000 or more would be subject to the new 36% rate. The income “surtax” House Democrats now plan would come on top of Obama’s tax increases. Source

Babylon is on the Rise

2009-07-11T16:16:00.000-04:00

...plans are being made now in a joint US-Iraqi effort to restore some of the ruins of Babylon and implement a plan to draw tourists to the area.

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Episcopal Bishop calls individual salvation 'heresy,' 'idolatry'

2009-07-11T14:38:00.000-04:00

Associated Press Anaheim, CA - Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori says it's "heresy" to believe that an individual can be saved through a sinner's prayer of repentance.

In her opening address to the church's General Conference in California, Jefferts Schori called that "the great Western heresy: that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God."

The presiding bishop said that view is "caricatured in some quarters by insisting that salvation depends on reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus."

According to Schori, it is heresy to believe that an individual's prayer can achieve a saving relationship with God. "That individualist focus is a form of idolatry, for it puts me and my words in the place that only God can occupy."

More info from the Conference:
Bishops want marriage rituals for homosexuals

Meanwhile, six Episcopal bishops are pushing for greater recognition of same-sex marriages at a national gathering of church officials in California. Bishop Thomas Ely of Vermont says he and other bishops from states recognizing same-sex marriage will offer a resolution urging the church to adapt marriage rituals to include homosexual couples.

Ely says the resolution will be introduced at the church's General Convention, which started Wednesday in Anaheim. The convention is held every three years.

Besides Vermont, states that have legalized same-sex marriage are Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Iowa, and Connecticut.
Source

Pope Urges Forming New World Economic Order to Work for the ‘Common Good’

2009-07-11T14:29:00.001-04:00

By RACHEL DONADIO and LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: July 7, 2009
VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday called for a radical rethinking of the global economy, criticizing a growing divide between rich and poor and urging the establishment of a “true world political authority” to oversee the economy and work for the “common good.”

He criticized the current economic system, “where the pernicious effects of sin are evident,” and urged financiers in particular to “rediscover the genuinely ethical foundation of their activity.”

He also called for “greater social responsibility” on the part of business. “Once profit becomes the exclusive goal, if it is produced by improper means and without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty,” Benedict wrote in his new encyclical, which the Vatican released on Tuesday.

More than two years in the making, “Caritas in Veritate,” or “Charity in Truth,” is Benedict’s third encyclical since he became pope in 2005. Filled with terms like “globalization,” “market economy,” “outsourcing,” “labor unions” and “alternative energy,” it is not surprising that the Italian media reported that the Vatican was having difficulty translating the 144-page document into Latin.

Reportedly delayed to take into consideration the financial crisis, it was released by the Vatican on the eve of the Group of 8 industrialized nations summit meeting, which opens in Italy on Wednesday, and before Benedict is expected to receive President Obama at the Vatican on Friday.

“It’s not an encyclical done for the crisis,” Cardinal Renato Martino, the president of the Vatican’s Council for Justice and Peace, said at a news conference on Tuesday. Still, he added, “if the encyclical had come out before the crisis, you would have said it was prophetic.”

In the encyclical, Benedict wrote that “financiers must rediscover the genuinely ethical foundation of their activity, so as not to abuse the sophisticated instruments which can serve to betray the interests of savers.”

In many ways, the document is a puzzling cross between an anti-globalization tract and a government white paper, another signal that the Vatican does not comfortably fit into traditional political categories of right and left.

“There are paragraphs that sound like Ayn Rand, next to paragraphs that sound like ‘The Grapes of Wrath.’ That’s quite intentional,” Vincent J. Miller, a theologian at the University of Dayton, a Catholic institution in Ohio, said by telephone.

“He’ll wax poetically about the virtuous capitalist, but then he’ll give you this very clear analysis of the ways in which global capital and the shareholder system cause managers to focus on short-term good at the expense of the community, of workers, of the environment.”

Indeed, sometimes Benedict sounds like an old-school European socialist, lamenting the decline of the social welfare state and praising the “importance” of labor unions to protect workers. Without stable work, he noted, people lose hope and tend not to get married and have children.

But he also wrote, “The so-called outsourcing of production can weaken the company’s sense of responsibility towards the stakeholders — namely the workers, the suppliers, the consumers, the natural environment and broader society — in favor of the shareholders.” And he argued that it was “erroneous to hold that the market economy has an inbuilt need for a quota of poverty and underdevelopment in order to function at its best.”

Benedict also called for a reform of the United Nations so there could be a unified “global political body” that allowed the less powerful of the earth to have a voice, and he called on rich nations to help less fortunate ones.

“In the search for solutions to the current economic crisis, development aid for poor countries must be considered a valid means of creating wealth for all,” he wrote.

John Sniegocki, a professor of Christian ethics at Xavier University in Cincinnati, said one of the most controversial elements of the encyclical, at least for some Americans, would be the call for international institutions to play a role in regulating the economy.

“One of the things he’s saying is that the global economy is escaping the power of individual states to regulate it,” Mr. Sniegocki said. He said the encyclical also contained elements “very critical” of how the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank “have required cuts in social spending in the third world.”

Michael Novak, a philosopher and theologian at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, a conservative research organization, said he thought that the encyclical was stronger on principles than policy suggestions. He said he was particularly uncomfortable with the idea of a strong international institution to regulate the global economy.

“I like limited government. I would much prefer to have many limited governments than one overriding authority,” Mr. Novak said by telephone.

Benedict, arguably the most environmentally conscious pope in history, wrote, “One of the greatest challenges facing the economy is to achieve the most efficient use — not abuse — of natural resources, based on a realization that the notion of ‘efficiency’ is not value-free.”

Rachel Donadio reported from Vatican City, and Laurie Goodstein from New York.
Source

UK Article Predicts Mysticism to Replace Christianity

2009-07-11T14:03:00.000-04:00

Christianity will be eclipsed by spirituality in 30 years, startling new research predicts. Our correspondent reports on the collapse of traditional religion and the rise of mysticism

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The PEACE behind the Dept. of Peace (HR 808) NO JESUS ALLOWED!!

2009-07-11T13:21:00.000-04:00

HIV-AIDS Rate in D.C. 'Higher Than West Africa'

2009-03-16T10:20:00.000-04:00

Monday, March 16, 2009 - Associated Press

WASHINGTON — At least 3 percent of residents in the nation's capital are living with HIV or AIDS and every mode of transmission is on the rise, according to a report to be released Monday by D.C. health officials.

The findings in the 2008 epidemiology report by the D.C. HIV/AIDS Administration point to a severe epidemic that's impacting every race and sex across the population and neighborhoods.

"Our rates are higher than West Africa," said Shannon Hader, the administration's director, who used to spearhead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's work in Zimbabwe. "They're on par with Uganda and some parts of Kenya."

The report, obtained by The Washington Post, updates a landmark 2007 study that discovered the epidemic had moved from affecting a mostly gay population to a general one, and that it disproportionately affected blacks.

The study found that the number of HIV and AIDS cases jumped 22 percent from the 12,428 reported in 2006. Almost 1 in 10 residents between 40 and 49 are living with the virus, and black men had the highest infection rate at almost 7 percent, the report said. It added that 3 percent of black women in D.C. have HIV.

The virus was most often transmitted by men having sex with men, followed by heterosexual transmission and injection drug use, the report said.

"This is very, very depressing news, especially considering HIV's profound impact on minority communities," said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Health's program on infectious diseases. "And remember: The city's numbers are just based on people who've gotten tested."

The epidemiology report warns that the true number of D.C. residents infected with HIV "is certainly higher."

Meanwhile, another study scheduled to be released Monday by city health officials looks at heterosexual sexual behavior, and attempts to dissect people's choices before they are tested for or become infected with HIV. It was conducted by the George Washington University School of Health and Health Services with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The study found that three in five D.C. residents who had connections in neighborhoods with high poverty and AIDS rates were aware of their HIV status and that three in 10 had used a condom the last time they had sex, among other findings.

Obama Aborting America's Conscience

2009-03-06T17:16:00.000-05:00

WASHINGTON, Mar. 6 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Obama administration published its official request to rescind the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regulation that clarifies that healthcare professionals have a right to conscience and should not be forced to participate in aborting a baby, or other medical services, that offend their moral convictions.

"President Obama is working to deprive the country of medical professionals who use their consciences when treating their patients," said Heartbeat International President Peggy Hartshorn, Ph.D. "Women, babies, and families deserve conscientious healthcare by doctors who believe in the sanctity of human life. It is wrong for the U.S. government to condemn doctors who follow the Hippocratic principle of 'do no harm'. This is un- American."

"The reversal of this regulation could cause conscientious doctors to stop practicing medicine leaving a significant void in the availability of healthcare providers. And the problem will be compounded if the government attempts to force Catholic hospitals to offer abortion." said Hartshorn. "Please email HHS to stop Obama's first attempt to purge healthcare of all people with religious or moral objections to taking human life."

The official publication in the Federal Register indicates: "The [HHS] Department is proposing to rescind in its entirety the final rule entitled 'Ensuring That Department of Health and Human Services Funds Do Not Support Coercive or Discriminatory Policies or Practices in Violation of Federal Law,' published in the Federal Register on December 19, 2008."

HHS accepts public comment for 30 days. Please send an email to proposedrescission@hhs.gov indicating that the December 19, 2008 regulation (73 FR 78072, 45 CFR Part 88) should not be rescinded.

Heartbeat International affiliates provide all the facts on abortion - from post-traumatic stress disorder to possible medical complications - that abortion clinics often leave out. Heartbeat affiliates provide emotional support and practical help needed to sustain a healthy pregnancy. They set the standard for true reproductive healthcare for women in America.

Heartbeat International
( www.HeartbeatInternational.org), founded in 1971, is an interdenominational Christian association of nearly 1,100 pregnancy resource centers, maternity homes, non-profit adoption agencies, and medical clinics in 48 states and 43 other countries saving approximately 2,00 babies each week. Heartbeat provides www.OptionLine.org (800-395-HELP) to connect women with the local pregnancy help center for the resources and hope they need to choose life for their unborn children.

Contact Virginia Cline, 614-885-7577, to arrange an interview with Heartbeat President Peggy Hartshorn, Ph.D.

Will the U.N. be successful in regulating America's Religious Free Speech?

2009-02-26T20:20:00.001-05:00