Monday, January 24, 2011

Not exactly sure what this means, but protection of Christian Communities is needed!


After some rather obvious anti-Christian moves and under heavy criticism, the European Union and Catherine Ashton have given at least some lip service to the issue of persecution of Christian communities.  Exactly what either the sincerity or the motives are, I am not prepared to say at present, but that protection is needed is obvious.  Another question occurring to me:  will any "protections" be added to the arsenal of the Alliance of Civilizations that could result in further repressions down the road of religious fundamentalism/orthodoxy?

Quoting in part from the EUActiv article, we read:


EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Catherine Ashton promised action to protect religious minorities and in particular Christian communities, seeking to assuage critics of her alleged lack of engagement in this matter.
"Long-established Christian communities in the Middle East face difficulties, which have led to significant displacement in some countries and dwindling numbers in the region as a whole. The EU will not turn a blind eye to their plight," she said, addressing a plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
Ashton pledged increased attention from EU delegations across the world regarding cases of intolerance, even before they trigger actual violence.
However, she did not divulge details of possible changes to EU foreign policy instruments in order to better guarantee protection for Christians. Like S&D MEPs, she was keen to underline that intolerance and hatred concern all religious minorities, not just Christian communities.
As a concession to requests from many centre-right MEPs, she promised to analyse clauses in trade deals to encourage more stringent implementation of human rights. "I will look into GSP (Generalised System of Preferences) regulation," she said, but that dossier mainly falls under the remit of EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht.
Ashton also promised further discussions on the protection of religious minorities in the next EU Foreign Affairs Council and at the United Nations. "We are considering another initiative to rally strong cross-regional support on this theme in the forthcoming session of the UN Human Rights Council in March," she said.
Her engagement is expected to temporarily mitigate the criticism of Christian MEPs who are at odds with certain recent initiatives from the European Commission that are seen as anti-Christian.
During the debate with Ashton in the Parliament, many MEPs from the EPP and the ECR (European Conservatives and Reformists) groups reiterated their condemnation of the failure to mention any Christian festivities in the EU diary for 2010/2011.
The diary, of which over three million copies have been produced, has been widely distributed among EU teachers and citizens. But it does not include Christmas or Easter in its calendar, while it mentions European festivities and the celebrations of other religions.

I'm not quite certain what all of this means, but if it abates Christian bloodshed, it is needed.  It certainly appears at first blush to be far more than her EU predecessor Javier Solana did to protect the Christians of Kosovo that came under heavy persecution with many of their ancient churches and monasteries destroyed under his watch.  Link <1>

Here is what he then had to say about that sorry chapter in Balkan history:


BRUSSELS (AFP) - EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana hit back at criticism from Serbs after violent riots erupted in Kosovo, saying the international community was not to blame for the flare-up.
Solana, speaking a day after he was jeered by displaced Serbs during a visit to the UN-run province, said: "I would not say that it is a failure of strategy of the European Union (news - web sites).
"I think it is a failure of the behavior of the people of Kosovo. We are not responsible for the behavior of the people of Kosovo," he told reporters.
"We have expended capital on Kosovo more than any other place in the world. The blame should not be put on the international community. I think the blame has to be placed on the people who have not been able to organize themselves."
During a visit to Kosovo Wednesday, Solana faced abuse by displaced Serbs demanding to know why the international community did not intervene until well after the three-day rampage by the ethnic Albanian majority began.
On Thursday, he accused local political leaders of exploiting the Albanian mobs to their own advantage.
"(The violence) was not completely spontaneous. There were already a lot of people organized to take advantage of that moment of spontaneity," he said, speaking shortly before the start of an EU summit.
"That is something which is very serious because those people who were already organized probably belong to a political party with heavy responsibilities. The leaders of that party have to come out and say very clearly and very strongly that this is not possible," he said.
The violence, which erupted on March 17, killed 28 people and left a trail of destruction through Serb areas of Kosovo. Thirty Serb churches and monasteries were torched, seven villages were razed and 3,600 people were made homeless.


Read the full story about the EU's apparent new found stance against persecuting Christians by clicking here.

Stay tuned!

Constance
<1> Solana hits back after stormy Kosovo trip
AFP via Yahoo ^ | Thu Mar 25, 9:54 AM ET | AFP staff  http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1105482/posts

33 comments:

Edward Spalton said...

Catherine Ashton should look a bit closer to home. The Serbian Orthodox Christian community of the Krajina region of Croatia was "cleansed" by Croatian forces (commanded by a Muslim) with EU and US armaments, air and intelligence support. Warren Christopher remarked that this "simplified the situation". So Croatia is now the most ethnically and religiously (Roman Catholic) "pure" state in Europe.
It is too late for many other Christian communities. From being the majority population, Orthodox Christians in supposedly secular Turkey are now reduced to a mere 4,000 . The Coptic Christians of Egypt and the Christian Arabs of Palestine and Israel are on their way to obliteration if present trends continue.

Some years ago, a friend of mine, a Congregationalist minister, raised these sort of concerns with a British Labour government minister at a public meeting.
For daring to raise the subject, he was branded " a racist". So maybe the Labour party (to which Catherine Ashton belongs) has moved a bit.

Anonymous said...

RE: Cloud seeding. It wouldn't put it past me this is what happened in Brazil. Northeastern Brazil's flooding in the fall was caused by massive amounts of rainfall similar to what described in Jordan that raised a River, wiped out while villages.

Anonymous said...

Craig,
Perfectly understandable. I haven't seen avaatar myself but would expect it there. The elements are pretty much in the stories the world puts out. Lost being prime example.

my thoughts also recently went to roots tracing back to Nimrod and babylon in terms of some of what is passing as "new age." Worth looking into.

Anonymous said...

Craig,

David Zdan is a Christian researcher and has written many topics about Alice Bailey's Theosophic writings.

http://www.thebyteshow.com/DavidZdan.html

H.E.

Craig said...

H.E.,

Thanks for the tip. I'll check him out.

Anonymous said...

Craig - this isn't Bailey. The late, George Trevelyan spinned NA jargon that might help you refine your searches.

Extract from, The Cosmic Christ in the New Age
A Wrekin Trust lecture, 1977
by Sir George Trevelyan

"This lifting of thinking to the Cosmic Christ helps to clear much confusion about the relation of Christianity to the other great religions. All the great religions, as we have said before, foretold the descent of the Exalted Lord of the Spiritual Sun. None could know precisely when and how the event would happen. Spiritual knowledge reveals that the descent of the I AM took place at the Baptism on Jordan, at the deepest point on the surface of the Earth."

Link to full article:
http://www.sirgeorgetrevelyan.org.uk/tht-cosmicchrist2.html

Scroll to bottom of article for an interesting footnote touching on environmental problems.

~K~

Constance Cumbey said...

I just listened to some of Zdan's work. He sounds like a very sincere, intelligent student of what is happening. He is wrong, however, about the Albigensians. They were definitely "gnostics," NOT "Bible Believing Christians." The "Bible Believing Christians" line on the Albigensians generally comes from (1) Seventh Day Adventist writings of Ellen G. White OR (2) Dave Hunt. Now, Dave Hunt is not free of gnostic influence himself. He claimed God called upon him to finish William Law's last book for him. That book POWER OF THE SPIRIT is introduced by NORMAN GRUBB. Grubb therein accurately said that Law came to know Christ through JACOB BOEHME. JACOB BOEHME was Madame Blavatsky's prime inspiration for THEOSOPHY which brings us right back to guess who? ALICE BAILEY!

CONSTANCE

Constance Cumbey said...

George Trevelyan, whose books I own, was an afficiando of both Blavatsky and Bailey. He also spent time at Findhorn and was Prince Charles' school headmaster. He was very much a leader in the English Rosicrucian / Theosophical / "Christ is now here" networks.

Constance

Craig said...

peacebringer,

Interestingly, I point out in the recent Bethel/Bob Jones piece that Jones may be making a veiled reference to the Tower of Babel with his use of the term "burnt stones" for 'believers' (instead of living stones).

H.E.,

I'll defer to Constance's expertise; however, in the little bit I've listened to he comes off as a KJV-only - a position of which I vehemently disagree. Each translation has its own set of problems - none is perfect.

However, I still plan on emailing him to see if he knows of a specific quote I can use. So, again, thanks for the tip.

Anonymous said...

I know this is off-topic and I apologize, but I ask that we remember all of those poor people that have been affected by the terror attack at Moscow Airport.

Why do the people of that country continue to suffer so? I weep for Russia, and its tragedy.


R.

Anonymous said...

I meant to say that we remember all of those affected by the Moscow Airport terror attack in our prayers.

R.

Craig said...

K.,

Thanks for the reference. While it's not exactly what I'm looking, it may prove useful in conjunction with (an)other(s) quote/s. The paragraph preceding this quote when joined with the one you spotted may work in a different context for me.

Thanks again.

Constance Cumbey said...

Absolutely our prayers are with those Moscow victims of the malicious bombing episode.

Constance

Anonymous said...

Craig,
caught the reference. My friend has some basic commentary in 3 parts on a site r/t nimrod but still rather basic. Here is the first: http://tinyurl.com/48b5fx5
second part: http://tinyurl.com/493v5vt
3rd part: http://tinyurl.com/4qjjr2f

I think ultimately it all comes down to the essential core of the temptation at Eden, being like gods. The thought crossed my mind that for Johnson and others, the being like god is more being like Jesus but rather then being transformed into his image via sanctification it is more about works and doing "greater works." Thus the craving for the "works of power." At least hope that stimulates thinking a bit.

Anonymous said...

Just had a related thought in terms of elevating to equal with god

The new age (law of attraction) and WoF positive confession basically advocate creating reality with our words. It is in essence an elevation to godlike status. God is the one who create at His word. So viewing us as being in "control" and being able to change or create reality by focus on a word is an attempt at claiming god status.

Craig said...

peacebringer,

Oh yes, no doubt Johnson is pushing a works-based theology -- just like Bickle's IHOP, although there's is more monastic. Johnson reduces Jesus to man while elevating self as god. Classic New Age. His followers will VEHEMENTLY deny this with "look at his statement of beliefs" or "look at this quote over here" however, Johnson is inconsistent with his statements which means we can't know what he means exactly. Given that, I will take his own words and show the New Age parallels as I find them.

I'll check out the Nimrod info.

Craig said...

peacebringer,

Oh yes, no doubt Johnson is pushing a works-based theology -- just like Bickle's IHOP, although there's is more monastic. Johnson reduces Jesus to man while elevating self as god. Classic New Age. His followers will VEHEMENTLY deny this with "look at his statement of beliefs" or "look at this quote over here" however, Johnson is inconsistent with his statements which means we can't know what he means exactly. Given that, I will take his own words and show the New Age parallels as I find them.

I'll check out the Nimrod info.

Craig said...

Tim,

Yes, WoF make no bones their belief that God Himself used the "force of faith" in the creation account and that we too can use this same force.

Anonymous said...

Recently it has been on my heart to compare grace and lawlessness. The roots of lawlessness are at the garden. "you shall be like God" and led to the twisting of all creation. I have a lot of thoughts that will eventually take shape of an article. Craig and I appreciate the work you are doing with Johnson. I knew it would be a large undertaking to fully examine his words and didn't feel fully called to it myself. Glad God had gifted people like yourself to do some of that hard work. And of course constance, JD and others here on things I am not called to dig into as well.

JD said...

Tim,

Thanks, and for what it's worth, I am glad to see you are getting back into a rhythm. I know things have been rough lately and want you to know that you and your family have been on my mind and in my prayers. I have also been grateful for those relationships and unique perspectives I have come into contact with in this forum.

Anonymous said...

JD, appreciated. I was going to update some but will drop you an email later.

Dorothy said...

I'm getting a little too old to keep doing research for others. So, here's a project for some younger person who is interested in New Age.

While looking at the Bailey books I was reminded how often they link Buddhism with New Age thinking.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/01/20/close_encounters_of_the_buddhist_kind?wpisrc=xs_wp_0003

http://tinyurl.com/4w8vyy3

I was rather surprised how large the Dhammakaya movement is based on the pictures at the above link.

I put in Dhammakaya bailey into a Google search, and all kinds of connections came up.

http://www.chezpaul.org.uk/buddhism/dhamkaya.htm which

http://geographic.org/geographic_names/usaname.php?uni=2055015&fid=usageo_1906is a mini index to dhamkaya. The above came up under the title
Dhammakaya Mediation Center: United States
SOURCE: National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Bethesda, MD, USA

As I said, I'm getting too old to do a lot of this research. Will somebody take in on?

Anonymous said...

Might this be something to be aware of?

Wrekin Trust/Forum set up by George Trevelyan and with a newly appointed Director, David Lorimer, mentions in it's July newsletter;

Conference on Universal Christ Consciousness

A collaborative conference on Universal Christ Consciousness is in the early stages of planning. This significant gathering will be held at the Findhorn Foundation, Scotland, over Easter 2012. The Wrekin Trust is one of several groupings supporting both the event and a preparatory two years of contributing to this theme through local groupings and a website that is being set up.

Link:
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs040/1101861384484/archive/1103521681654.html

or tiny:
http://tinyurl.com/6ysxs3e

---

I have no idea what this "significant gathering" might be, or if the date of Easter 2012 might be a typo? If it isn't then that's some serious forward planning!

~K~

Anonymous said...

Hhhmmm - I read it again - nope it's not a typo on the date!


FYI - George Trevelyan also encouraged the founding of and later became the President of the Francis Bacon Research Trust.

http://www.fbrt.org.uk/

http://www.sirgeorgetrevelyan.org.uk/mem-dawkins2.html

~K~

Anonymous said...

Dorothy

You could be off your rocker. Might want to have that checked out. If your rocker is anywhere near, you should get back on it if you can.

JD said...

Anon 9:22,

Personal insults only show others just the type of person you are, not the type of person you wish to portray someone else as. We get that you don't like Dorothy, we also get that you are incapable of holding your tongue. We also get that you would rather distract than contribute. Please quit insulting the rest of these folks who are trying to have adult conversations about subjects by bringing immature grade school taunting in here. You are baiting and everyone can see it.

Constance Cumbey said...

I second JD's motion/emotion! That remark to Dorothy about her very helpful post on George Trevelyan was uncalled for.

Constance

Anonymous said...

read over the "meditation" article at the linked until it really just began making my head get clouded. Really is the definte perspective of cosmic christ. The "meditation" experience sounded similar to Deepka Chopra experience. The focus on light and sensation of love...not realizing that it is the consumption of same...

Anonymous said...

Think JD and Susanna might have an interest in checking out this one:

http://www.pachamama.org/news/fundacion-pachamama/2011/01/05/currency-projects-begin-ecuador/

Constance

CONSTANCE CUMBEY TEMPORARILY HIJACKED said...

WARNING - WARNING

SOMEBODY HAS HIJACKED MY EMAIL ACCOUNT AND EVIDENTLY CHANGED MY PASSWORD TO GMAIL. I AM WORKING TO GET TO BOTTOM OF THEM. YOU MAY BE ASSURED I AM NOT IN LONDON. I HAVE TO USE THE ANONYMOUS FEATURE HERE BECAUSE I CAN'T ACCESS MY OWN ACCOUNT.

THANK YOU,
CONSTANCE E. CUMBEY

JD said...

Constance,

That would explain this email I got from you this morning with the tag line URGENT:

Apologies for having to reach out to you like this, but I made a quick trip to the UK and had my bag stolen from me with my passport and credit cards in it. The embassy has cooperated by issuing a temporary passport, I just have to pay for a ticket and settle
Hotel bills.
To be honest,i don't have money with me,I've made contact with my bank but the best they could do was to send me a new card in the mail which will take 2-4 working days to arrive here.i was thinking of asking you to lend me some quick funds that i can give back as soon as i am out of here,i really need to make a last minute flight that leaves in a few hours.

I can furnish you with info on how you will get me the money. You can reach me via hotel's desk phone, the number is, +447045749898.

Thanks,
Constance E. Cumbey

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I think they are trying to hack people on this board, and am no even more suspicious of the requests I have received to exchange emails on this blog...

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