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Another writer (July 20) cited the Times Union article on the subject (July 11) as saying "Catholicism provides the only true path to salvation." Well. First, this statement is not contained in the Vatican's document at all. Second, in the Vatican document, immediately following the line that other Christian communities suffer from defects, are the words, "(these communities) are deprived neither of significance nor importance in the mystery of salvation, in fact, the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as instruments of salvation."

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Egyptian convert to Christianity goes into hiding
BY MAGGIE MICHAEL The Associated Press

   CAIRO, Egypt — An Egyptian Muslim who converted to Christianity and then took the unprecedented step of seeking official recognition for the change said he has gone into hiding following death threats.
   Mohammed Hegazy, who sparked controversy when pictures of him posing with a poster of the Virgin Mary were published in newspapers, was shunned by his family and threatened by an Islamist cleric vowing to seek his execution as an apostate.
   “I know there are fatwas [religious edicts] to shed my blood, but I will not give up and I will not leave the country,” the 25-year-old Hegazy told The Associated Press from his hideout Thursday.
   Hegazy made a public splash when he took the unusual step of going to court to change his religion on his national ID card. His first lawyer filed the case, but then quit after the uproar; his second is still considering whether it’s worth pursuing.
   Hegazy said he received telephoned death threats before he went into hiding in an apartment with his wife, a Muslim who took the name Katarina when she converted to Christianity several years ago. She is four months pregnant.
   He said he wants to change the religion on his ID for two reasons: to set a precedent for other converts and to ensure his child can openly be raised Christian. He wants his child to get a Christian name, birth certificate and eventually marry in a church. That would be impossible if Hegazy’s official religion is Muslim, because a child is registered in the religion of the father.
   There is no Egyptian law against converting from Islam to Christianity, but in this case tradition takes precedent. Under a widespread interpretation of Islamic law, converting from Islam is apostasy and punishable by death — though killings are rare and the state has never ordered or carried out an execution on those grounds.
   Most Muslims who convert usually practice their new religion quietly or leave the country. Egypt is overwhelmingly Muslim. Only 10 percent of the 76 million population is Christian and converts are typically ostracized by their families.
   If the conversion becomes known, they may receive death threats from militants or harassment by police, who use laws against “insulting religion” or “disturbing public order” to target them.
   Christians who become Muslim can get their new religion entered on their IDs and face little trouble from officials, though they too are usually thrown out by their families.

U.S COPTS ASSOCIATIONS
Mohammed Hegazy, an Egyptian Muslim who converted to Christianity, talks in this recent undated picture in Cairo, Egypt.

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Christians who become Muslim can get their new religion entered on their IDs and face little trouble from officials, though they too are usually thrown out by their families.

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LUTHERANS URGED TO ACCEPT HOMOSEXUAL MINISTERS
Sunday, August 12, 2007

A national assembly of Evangelical Lutherans urged its bishops Saturday to refrain from defrocking gay and lesbian ministers who violate a celibacy rule, but rejected measures that would have permitted ordaining gays churchwide.

Still, advocates for full inclusion of gays were encouraged, calling the resolution a powerful statement in support of clergy with same-gender partners. The conservative group Lutheran CORE, however, said bishops will now feel more secure in ignoring denomination policy.

The 538-431 vote came on the final day of a weeklong meeting in Chicago — and after emotional debate over how the denomination should interpret what the Bible says about homosexuality.

Like other mainline Protestant groups, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has been struggling for decades to reconcile differences on the issue. An ELCA task force is near the end of an eight-year study on human sexuality, which is expected to culminate in the 2009 release of a social statement that will heavily influence church policy.

The assembly voted to refer proposals on ordaining gays and blessing same-sex couples to the task force so the panel can make policy recommendations part of its report.
The current clergy standards require ministers to "abstain from homosexual sexual relationships." Earlier this year, Bradley Schmeling, an ELCA pastor in Atlanta, was removed from the clergy roster after he told his bishop that he was in a relationship with a man. However, even before Saturday's vote, liberal-leaning bishops had refused to enforce the rule.

In the adopted resolution, the assembly "urges and encourages" bishops to either refrain from or "demonstrate restraint in disciplining" ministers who are in a "mutual, chaste and faithful committed same-gender relationship."

"This is huge," said Phil Soucy of Lutherans Concerned/North America, which lobbies on behalf of gays and lesbians. "More than half of the people in the Churchwide Assembly have said don't punish anyone for what is a simple violation of the policy, where the offense is simply that they have a partner."

At the Chicago gathering, dozens of gay and lesbian ministers and congregants defiantly proclaimed their sexuality. They distributed a prayer booklet that included first-person essays on the pain of being forced to choose between ministry and a lifelong partner. Theological liberals believe that the overarching message of Scripture is full acceptance for all people.

But Jaynan Clark Egland, president of the conservative WordAlone Network, said the resolution "leaves the ELCA with inconsistent patterns of discipline and standards."

Conservatives believe the Bible bars gay relationships. "To refrain from discipline in the home is bad parenting, but we're about to do so in Christ's Church," Egland said.

Lutheran CORE scheduled a September meeting to plan its next step. But the Rev. Mark Chavez of WordAlone says conservatives aren't planning a split from the denomination.

Membership in the 4.8 million-member ELCA, like other mainline churches, has declined over the last two decades; only 30 percent of Evangelical Lutherans attend worship weekly.

The 2.5 million-member Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, based in St. Louis, believes the Bible is literally true and does not ordain gays.

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So if you break the celibacy rule----gay or not,,,you have still broken the celibacy rule......

If the church required you to be celibate technically you are a nothing sexually.....so who really cares and who would know????

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Church in Dallas refuses to bow down to homosexual pressure

There is a battle taking place in Dallas. It is a battle trying to force a church to lower their Scriptural standards to meet homosexual demands.

When High Point Church refused to allow their building to be used in a memorial service celebrating homosexuality, the homosexuals became very upset and started a campaign of harassment and public ridicule aimed at High Point.

If those pushing the homosexual agenda get their "hate crimes" bill passed into law, this is only a sample of what churches, pastors and Christians can expect.

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Church won't hold funeral for gay man

Kin scramble to find new site after Arlington clerics renege on offer


12:34 PM CDT on Saturday, August 11, 2007
By JEFFREY WEISS / The Dallas Morning News
jweiss@dallasnews.com

An Arlington church volunteered to host a funeral Thursday, then reneged on the invitation when it became clear the dead man's homosexuality would be identified in the service.

The event placed High Point Church in the cross hairs of an issue many conservative Christian organizations are discussing: how to take a hard-line theological position on homosexuality while showing compassion toward gay people and their families.

But the dispute between High Point Church and the friends and family of Cecil Sinclair has left confusion and hard feelings on both sides.

Mr. Sinclair, 46, died Monday. He was a native of Fort Worth, a Navy veteran who served in Desert Storm helping rescuers find downed pilots, and a singer in the Turtle Creek Chorale, said his mother, Eva Bowers. He did not belong to a church.

His brother, Lee, is an employee and member of High Point, a nondenominational mega-congregation led by the Rev. Gary Simons. Mr. Simons is the brother-in-law of Joel Osteen, nationally known pastor of Houston's Lakewood Church.

When Cecil Sinclair became ill with a heart condition six years ago, church members started praying for him out of love for his brother, Mr. Simons said Thursday. And when Mr. Sinclair died of an infection, a side effect of surgery intended to keep him alive long enough for a heart transplant, a member of the church staff was immediately sent to minister to the family, he said.

Both the family and church officials agree that the church volunteered to host a memorial service, feed 100 guests and create a multimedia presentation of photos from Mr. Sinclair's life.

But the photos that the family selected alerted church officials that there might be a problem with the service, Mr. Simons said.


Not OK with photos

"Some of those photos had very strong homosexual images of kissing and hugging," he said. "My ministry associates were taken aback."

And then, he said, the family asked to have its own people officiate the service. "We had no control over the format of the memorial," Mr. Simons said.

Family and friends discovered the church had withdrawn its invitation Wednesday evening, when Lee Sinclair called to tell his mother, she said. Ms. Bowers said that her older son is developmentally disabled, with hearing and vision problems.

Nobody from the church called her or Mr. Sinclair's partner, Paul Wagner, to discuss possible changes to the service, Ms. Bowers said.

"We could have reached a compromise," she said. "That was never attempted."

At least some theological questions could have been worked out, she said. For instance, the family was willing to allow the church to issue an "altar call" asking people to accept Jesus at the end of the service.

But it's not clear where the two sides could have found common ground on the central issue. High Point Church opposes homosexuality, and there was no way the church could host a service that appeared to endorse it, Mr. Simons said.

"Can you hold the event and condone the sin and compromise our principles?" he said. "We can't."

The issue was not so much that Mr. Sinclair was, from the church's perspective, an unrepentant sinner, he said. It's that it was clear from the photos that his friends and family wanted that part of his life to be a significant part of the service.

The pastor said that he could imagine a similar situation involving a different sin. Perhaps a mother who is a member of the church loses a son who is a thief or murderer, Mr. Simons said. The church would surely volunteer to hold a service, he said.

"But I don't think the mother would submit photos of her son murdering someone," he said. "That's a red light going off."


"Knew it, accepted it'

Mr. Sinclair's family and friends reject any such comparison between homosexuality and criminal behavior. Mr. Sinclair came out officially to his family shortly after his service in the Gulf War, his mother said.

"We all knew it," she said. "We knew it and accepted it."

After the church decided it would not host the funeral service, it offered to pay for another facility, Mr. Simons said. The family declined and found a local funeral home to hold the event Thursday night.Even so, the church sent over food and the video – minus the images church officials found to be offensive.

"Some of our people will be there at the memorial service," Mr. Simons said. "We tried to do the very best of our ability to express the love of Christ."

Figuring out how to walk that line is not easy, said the Rev. Bob Stith, the recently retired pastor of Carroll Baptist Church in Southlake who is now the national strategist for gender issues for the Southern Baptist Convention. His new job is to help churches negotiate conflicts like the one faced by High Point.

The best system is to work out procedures ahead of time, he said. For instance, he tells Baptist churches they should have clear guidelines that they can give to families at the start of funeral planning. But even that can't prevent every possible awkward situation, he said.

"I know because this is such new ground for a lot of churches and pastors, you get caught off-guard and you get reactive and not proactive," he said.


A familiar situation

If so, that kind of reaction is all too familiar to survivors of the AIDS onslaught of the 1980s, said Ed Young, a charter member of the Turtle Creek Chorale. Back then, having churches turn down funerals of gay men was not uncommon, he said.

"It may be surprising to younger gays, because most gays think that doesn't happen any more," he said. "But it's still there."

Was there a way to avoid this conflict?

"I don't know if there is any way to prevent something like that," Mr. Simons said. "Whenever there is a matter of principle involved, each side thinks that it is right."

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Statement by High Point Church in Dallas, Texas

Mr. Cecil Sinclair was not a member of High Point Church. Neither was anyone in his family except for the deceased’s brother, Lee Sinclair who is an employee of the church.

Lee recently requested the church to pray for his brother who was ill. The church prayed for Mr. Sinclair both enthusiastically and faithfully.

Lee called an employee of the church to inform him that his brother was in the hospital in critical condition. When the High Point Church employee arrived at the hospital, Mr. Sinclair had already passed. The church employee reached out to the family and tried to comfort them the best he could. The church did offer the family, free of charge, the use of its facility for the memorial service. It was not clear at this time that the family desired a memorial service that would openly celebrate the homosexual lifestyle of Mr. Sinclair.

The family requested that the church produce a video of Mr. Sinclair’s life for the memorial service. When the photos were presented to the church the day before the scheduled memorial service, there were some inappropriate images that alerted the church to the homosexuality of Mr. Sinclair. One photo showed a man with his hand touching another man’s genitalia. The phrase “like hugs and kisses” used by a staff member to describe to the pastor the blatant homosexual reference was mild at best.

The family desired an associate of an openly homosexual choir to officiate the service and for the choir to sing. They also desired an open microphone format to allow anyone in attendance to speak. High Point Church ministers would not be directing or have control over what was said or emphasized. It became clear to the church staff that the family was requesting an openly homosexual service at High Point Church – which is not our policy to allow.

The decision was made to retract the offer to host the memorial service based on the fact that the service requested would be an openly homosexual service celebrating the homosexual lifestyle. It is important to emphasize that this was not a funeral service with a body to be buried, but a memorial service. The family was informed of the decision.

The decision had nothing to do with the fact that Mr. Sinclair was a veteran. High Point does now, and has always, supported our men and women in the military. This decision was not based on hate, or discrimination, but upon principle and policy.

Allowing an openly homosexual service in our facility would condone homosexuality as a lifestyle. We could not allow the homosexual lifestyle to be celebrated, flaunted or glorified in our church facility. We could not put inappropriate images on our screens or subject our members and possibly even our children to an openly homosexual service. We cannot condone what the Word of God condemns.

The issue was not whether we would hold a memorial service for someone in a lifestyle of sin. We have assisted many families in this regard. The issue was whether we would allow an openly homosexual service that celebrated and emphasized homosexuality in our church. We love the homosexual, but cannot condone the homosexual lifestyle. We could not allow homosexuality to be glorified in this house of worship.

To assist the family in securing another location, an alternative venue was paid for - which the family declined. We produced for the family the memorial video they requested without the inappropriate photos. We also prepared and delivered food for the family and one hundred relatives and friends. Our love for the family was demonstrated over and again in our many acts of kindness and concern. Many of our faithful members spent hours cooking and preparing the meals and our staff worked diligently to meet the needs of the family.

Several of our staff members went to the memorial service in support of the family. The tone of the service did confirm our concerns. The church believes that the right decision was made and holds firm to its convictions concerning homosexuality.

It is our desire to always demonstrate the love of Christ to all people in both word and deed. We would hope that the Sinclair family and the homosexual community would see our love for them through the many acts of kindness and outreach that we have extended to them. We realize that they may not agree with our convictions, but hope that they would respect them.

We do love and pray for the Sinclair family and ask God’s strength and comfort to be with them during this difficult time.

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Dutch bishop stirs controversy again
   THE HAGUE, Netherlands — A Dutch Catholic bishop who once said the hungry were entitled to steal bread and advocated condom use to prevent AIDS has made headlines again, this time by saying God should be called Allah.
   “Allah is a very beautiful word for God. Shouldn’t we all say that from now on we will call God Allah?” Bishop Tiny Muskens said in an interview broadcast this week. “God doesn’t care what we call him.”
   Muskens, bishop of the southern Diocese of Breda, previously created a stir by suggesting the hungry could steal bread to feed themselves. He also supported the use of condoms as a way of reining in the spread of AIDS and suggested popes have term limits of 10-15 years and an age limit of 85.

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......suggested popes have term limits of 10-15 years and an age limit of 85.

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Book looks at church-state case
Schempp’s suit led to ban on school prayer
BY JAY LINDSAY The Associated Press

   MEDFORD, Mass. — His protest began a half-century ago, when Ellery Schempp opened the Quran during his high school’s mandatory Bible reading time and silently scanned passages he was too nervous to actually read.
   That minor rebellion led to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that outlawed school-sponsored prayer.
   Schempp’s civil disobedience in 1956 is back in the public eye with a new book, “Ellery’s Protest,” by New York University law professor Stephen Solomon, which examines the effect of his case amid continuing controversy over the separation of church and state.
   Schempp, a genial 67-year-old, clearly relishes the renewed activism as he’s become a sought-after speaker for humanist groups and church and state separatists.
   For most of his life, Schempp gave little thought to the school prayer case, even as its impact rattled through the courts and culture. A physicist, Schempp had a busy career, married twice and saw both the North and South poles during extensive travel in which his legal legacy was an afterthought.
   But his views have remained as controversial as they were when he was a teenager.
   “I’m really dismayed that 50 years later, this is still a bit of an issue,” Schempp, an atheist, said in a recent interview at his home in Medford, just outside Boston. “There’s enough problems in the world. Does anyone seriously think that more prayer and more Bible reading is the answer to global problems, to political problems, to wars in Iraq?”
   Clearly, many people do believe in prayer. The courts remain busy with cases brought by those who claim the state is either suppressing or promoting a faith.
   In Delaware, for example, a Jewish family is suing a school district it claims is promoting Christianity with prayers at events such as school potlucks and graduation. Last year, a valedictorian from Nevada sued after school officials turned off the microphone while she spoke about Christ’s Crucifi xion during graduation.
   John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute, a legal group that often takes on religious cases and is representing the valedictorian, agrees that public schools should not be sponsoring prayer and Bible reading. But he said the Schempp ruling has been abused by interest groups who are trying to stamp religion out of public life.
   In the Schempp case, the court said prayer and Bible reading in his school were religious exercises and it was unconstitutional for a public school to require them.
   The justices wrote: “The breach of neutrality that is today a trickling stream may all too soon become a raging torrent and, in the words of Madison, ‘It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties.’ ”
   Whitehead compared the Schempp decision “to throwing a big brick in a small pond.”
   “The rippling effect is still happening,” he said.
   Schempp was trying to make a point, not legal history, when he brought the Muslim scriptures to Abington (Pa.) High School on Nov. 26, 1956.
   He was raised in the Unitarian church, with its lack of dogma, and objected to the school’s “morning devotional,” in which a Bible passage was read and the Lord’s Prayer recited, because he viewed the practice as promoting beliefs he and others didn’t hold.
   Schempp opened the Quran to show that there were other holy books. After he refused to stand for the Lord’s Prayer, his teacher called him aside and he was sent out of the classroom.
   That evening, Schempp wrote to the American Civil Liberties Union to ask for help, and the case began its trip to the Supreme Court. In the meantime, Schempp was headed to Tufts University and a busy academic life.
   In June 1963, Schempp heard the news of the Supreme Court decision on the car radio while honeymooning with his first wife in South Dakota. About 1,000 letters soon arrived at his parents’ house — some supportive, others filled with expletives and even smeared with excrement.
   But the fervor died down after about six months. Though the decision bore his name, Schempp said the anger over the ruling was generally directed at fervent atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair, whose similar case was joined with his in the Supreme Court decision.
   “Many years of my life went by in which I would rarely think of it,” he said.
   Schempp earned his doctorate in physics at Brown University. He worked as a professor and researched nuclear waste disposal and technology that would become part of the fiber optics revolution. He taught in Europe, then in 1980 returned to the United States, eventually working with early MRI technology. By the early 2000s, he was consulting and moving toward semiretirement in Medford. He now gives talks on his early defense of civil liberties about once a month.
   Schempp acknowledges that his case and those that followed have led to some excesses by those seeking to hold the church-state divide. But overall, he thinks its principles are vitally important to preserve, and he’s happy to use whatever fame he has to do that.
   “Keeping the Jerry Falwells and Pat Robertsons and that crowd at bay as best we can is important,” Schempp said. “It’s tremendous fun.”

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“Keeping the Jerry Falwells and Pat Robertsons and that crowd at bay as best we can is important,” Schempp said. “It’s tremendous fun.”

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New book explores Mother Teresa’s doubts, inner torment
BY ERIC GORSKI The Associated Press

   Mother Teresa’s hidden faith struggle, laid bare in a new book that shows she felt alone and separated from God, is forcing a re-examination of one of the world’s best known religious figures.
   The depth of her doubts could be viewed by nonbelievers and skeptics as more evidence of the emptiness of religious belief. But Roman Catholic scholars and supporters of the woman who toiled in Calcutta’s slums and called herself “a pencil in God’s hand” argue that her struggles make her more accessible and her work all the more remarkable.
   “It shows that she wasn’t a plaster-of-Paris saint who never had a doubt about God or the ultimate meaning of life,” said the Rev. Richard McBrien, a University of Notre Dame theology professor and author of “Lives of the Saints.” “This can only enhance her reputation as a saintly person with people who aren’t easily impressed with pious stories. Those who think otherwise have a lot of learning to do about the complexities of life and about the nature of faith.”
   This revelation about Mother Teresa’s dark years of the soul is not new. Her ordeal, laid out to a series of confessors and confidants, became public knowledge in 2003 during the investigation into her cause for sainthood, a process fasttracked by Pope John Paul II.
   But “Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the ’Saint of Calcutta,’ ” to be released Sept. 4 by Doubleday, collects her thoughts in one place for the first time, inviting a closer review of her life 10 years after her death.
   The book was edited by the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, a priest who knew Mother Teresa for 20 years and is the postulator for her sainthood cause. It depicts Mother Teresa as a mystic who experienced visions of Jesus speaking to her early in her ministry, only to lose that connection and long for it like an unrequited love for most of her last four decades.
   “I have no Faith — I dare not utter the words & thoughts that crowd in my heart — & make me suffer untold agony,” she wrote in an undated letter.
   In 1956, she wrote: “Such deep longing for God and . repulsed empty no faith no love no zeal. Heaven means nothing pray for me please that I keep smiling at Him in spite of everything.”
   Mother Teresa acknowledged the apparent contradiction with per public persona, describing her ever-present smile as “a mask” or “a cloak that covers everything.”
   Some writings seem to suggest she doubted God’s existence. She wrote in 1959: “What do I labour for? If there be no God — there can be no soul — if there is no Soul then Jesus You also are not true.”
   In an interview, Kolodiejchuk argued that, read in context, Mother Teresa’s faith remained. Her unwavering belief that God was working through her shows that while Mother Teresa lamented missing that feeling of connection with God, she didn’t doubt his existence, he said.
   “There’s always a risk in publishing like this that some people will misinterpret it,” Kolodiejchuk said. “But the far greater good will be for those consoled and encouraged by Mother and her example.”
   Many other saints and revered religious figures have experienced doubt and struggle; Mother Teresa’s namesake, St. Therese of Lisieux, described a “night of nothingness.”
   What makes Mother Teresa’s journey so striking, Kolodiejchuk said, are the depths of her pain, the extraordinary length of it and its documentation in the letters she left behind.
   The Rev. James Martin of the Jesuit magazine America, author of “My Life With the Saints,” said the window into Mother Teresa’s inner life will help doubters and spiritual seekers.
   “Most of us tend to think of the saints as being in constant union with God, therefore everything they do is easier for them because of this union. This shows that not only do they have it as tough as we do, but sometimes they have it tougher,” he said.
   “Other saints did these wonderful things and works for God and on behalf of the church, but most of them had the benefit of a very rich and rewarding prayer life. Mother Teresa in a sense was going on an empty tank all day.”
   For several Americans who forged friendships with Mother Teresa, her inner torment came as a shock, then started to make sense.
   “She had an expression ’Give God permission to use you without consulting you,’” said Jeanette Petrie, who co-produced two fi lms about Mother Teresa and traveled extensively with her. “I think she must have truly lived that.”
   Jim Towey, Mother Teresa’s legal counsel from 1985 until her death and former head of the White House Office of Faith-Based & Community Initiatives, said he always presumed Mother Teresa’s hardships were physical and that her prayer life sustained her.
   Now, he sees suffering consistent with lives of other saints and that of Jesus, who according to Scripture cried out to God on the cross, “Why have you forsaken me?”
   “Skeptics are going to say what they want,” said Towey, president of St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., which is hosting a reunion of Mother Teresa’s closest friends, relatives and colleagues in October. “But the reality is, any person with faith has doubts.”
   Ultimately, Towey said he believes Mother Teresa’s struggles will demonstrate “faith isn’t about feeling, it’s about will.”
   Mother Teresa was beatified in 2003. Under Catholic tradition, an additional miracle attributable to her must be verified for her to be elevated to sainthood.
   “This is not any speed bump on her path to canonization,” said the Rev. James Langford, who cofounded the Missionaries of Charity Fathers with Mother Teresa in 1984.
   “Just the opposite. This is right in line.”

Akie Abe, center, wife of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, places a wreath on the tomb of Mother Teresa, the founder of the Missionaries of Charity, at its headquarters in Calcutta, India, on Thursday