12.19.2010 SNIPPETS

worldmag, 12.18.2010, p6 LACK OF DAYLIGHT..the shortest day of the year..the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere arrives on dec. 21.....(this is my favorite day of the year because, to me it represents the beginning of LIGHT CONQUERING DARKNESS and would be, symbolically, the best day to begin non-violent, non-cooperation with the u.s. government over the issue of abortion..the day i begin the process of entering jail and, if things go well, of giving my life up so as to be one person who joins with the millions here and the more than billion worldwide - helpless, voiceless, innocent human beings that have already been murdered in cold blood with no end in sight. my hope is in Jesus who says in psalm 103, i think, that He executes righteousness and judgment for all who are oppressed.)....... and brings with it a lunar eclipse viewable in most of north america...it will last 72 minutes..and if you miss the sunlight, consider the 4500 residents of barrow, alaska, where, because of its far north position on the arctic ocean, the sun set around thanksgiving and isn't scheduled to rise again until mid-january.

p.11...SAYED MOSSA..a hearing in his case, a jailed afghan convert to christianity, had already been postponed twice when he entered the courtroom in downtown kabul on nov. 27. 'i became very, very happy' when a man and woman entered the room also and one introduced himself to me as 'your defense lawyer'.'
..the prosecutor , din mohammad quraishi: 'they are accused of conversion to another religion, which is considered a crime under islamic law. if proved, they face the death penalty or life imprisonment..'
a goup of mossa's supporters was able to secure legal counsel thru ADVOCATES INTERNATIONAL - a faith based association with 25k attorneys in 130 countries. but the judge denied the attorney access to the evidence against mossa and informed him that mossa must be represented by an afghan..
the attorney told me he is torn about the prospect of a deal to secure mossa's release: 'we believe the charges should be withdrawn altogether..the right to choose who and what to believe is the most basic of rights, after the right to life'.
the attorney said he remained eager to assist in the case; 'how can i sit still when (nearby) a brother sits in prison despairing that he will receive a fair trial for doing something that in any society with God values would not even be considered a crime?'

p.32...U.S. MILITARY STRATEGY..mindy belz..3 years ago i attended a meeting outside washington with a NATO adviser recently returned from briefings with commanders of the war in iraq. the ? had been posed..if there should be a targeted massacre of christians in iraq (the word actually used was genocide), would the u.s. military respond? the answer from the commanders: no.
it was december 2007. ..petraeus had arrived in baghdad 10 months earlier bearing orders to carry out his new counterinsurgency strategy with a thrust of 20k additional troops throughout the city...
so it's always been curious to me that the successful strategy to stamp out sectarian gviolence somehow did not extend to protecting iraq's minorities, particularly a christian population that stretched back nearly a millennia and numbered up to 1.3 million under saddam hussein. by dec. 2007..under 700k.
curious, too, because the counterinsurgency doctrine of petraeus is decidedly everyman, and in some aspects biblical: live your values. clear-hold-build. small is beautiful. those were the bywords circulating the forward operating bases in baghdad, and they came straight from the COUNTERINSURGENCY FIELD MANUAL, PETRAEUS' magnum opus, at the time the first u.s. military manual to come out in 20 years - and to hit the new york times bestseller list.

leaving christians out of the counterinsurgency equation has itself proved decisive. and the result of u.s. military and civilian leaders' unwillingness to take a vocal and visible stand against targeted violence toward religious minorities continues to unfold...

consider recent attacks..
10.31.2010 assault on a church in baghdad that killed 58
11.9 bombing of christian homes in western baghdad
11.10 islamic hits to more than a dozen homes with mortar fire and bombs: 4 christians dead and dozens wounded
11.15 in mosul militants stormed 2 adjacent homes belonging to christians, killing 2 men, then bombed others
11.16 a christian father and his 6 year old daughter were killed by a car bomb.

we see a similar terror unfolding with the arrests of christians in afghanistan and pakistan.

..today the christian population in iraq is about half what it was in 2007. it may have been spared actual genocide, but to go in one decade from 1.5 million to under 400k is extermination by any other name.

p.58...JESUS CONTINUES TO SOW HIS GOOD SEED THROUGHOUT THE WORLD!

since china eased travel restrictions in 1978, the number of chinese immigrants has soared from 200k in 1980 to 1.4 million in 2006...chinese churches in the u.s. from 366 to +800. article features the church of grace to the fujianese in nyc. where many are coming to christ! (in the picture all the faces in the congregation strike one as so open and hungry..it makes one weep for joy!)
from one testimony: yu refused to deny his faith, so government officials called him in for questioning in 1958 and asked him why he did not join the 3 self church: 'i was in a bold mood, so i said, 'the bible tells me-and as a christian, i believe in the bible- that God places authorities over us, so i will obey the communist government. but the bible also says to obey the communist government. but the bible also says to obey god over man. if the government and god contradict, then i will follow god. 3 self church doesn't follow God.'
yu also has a message for american christians: 'before communism took over, there were a lot of enthusiastic pastors..when they came under fire, a lot of them joined the 3 self church and others just decided to give up on christianity..i see america's situation and it is like china's before communism. AMERICAN CHRISTIANS NEED TO EXAMINE THEMSELVES.'