News for June 1, 2005

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New alert over gender bending chemicals BBy Mark Prigg Science Correspondent, Evening Standard (May 27, 2005) - A new health alert over chemicals used in make-up, shampoo and soaps is issued today. Experts say products containing the chemicals - called phthalates - could cause women to give birth to boys with female characteristics. Their research found shrunken genitals and less masculine behavior in babies. Phthalates help to give cosmetics color and bond perfume molecules. They are also used in pliable plastics such as clingfilm, kidney dialysis tubes, blood bags and even children's toys. “This is a very big problem,” said study leader Professor Shanna Swan, of the University of Rochester. The research, to be published-next month in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, found 90 per cent of babies exposed to high levels of the chemicals in the womb exhibited “more female physical traits”. Professor Swan said: “We need to eradicate these chemicals. But it is rather like taking lead out of petrol - a slow process.” The study of 134 boys found a range of problems including shrunken genitalia and undescended testicles. They believe the effects could be permanent, although this needs to be confirmed over time.

Hurricane Forecast Revised Upward (May 31, 2005) - Continued warming of the ocean will spur high hurricane activity in the Atlantic basin this season and increase the probability of a storm moving inland, forecasters said Tuesday. At least one major hurricane is predicted to strike the USA this year. An updated forecast by William Gray and his team at Colorado State University, released a day before the official start of hurricane season, predicts 15 named storms, with eight of those becoming hurricanes. Four of the hurricanes are expected to be intense, with sustained winds of 111 mph or greater. more...

Be ready for the big one, NE Arkansas residents told (Jun 1, 2005) - A state emergency official says residents of northeast Arkansas need to work together to prepare for coping with a major earthquake. David Maxwell, deputy director of the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management, spoke Friday at Blytheville to a town hall meeting. About 50 people attended the meeting, which was called after two earthquakes of magnitude 4.0 or higher in the New Madrid seismic zone this year that were felt in the Blytheville area. more...

Baptists revive anti-public-school resolution (Jun 1, 2005) - Calls for pulling kids out, warning members of 'toxic spiritual nature.' The Southern Baptist Convention Resolutions Committee will consider for the second consecutive year a resolution calling for church members to pull their children out of public schools. Similar to one that failed last year, this resolution also asks churches “to lovingly warn all of their members concerning the toxic spiritual nature of the government school system.” Grady Arnold, a pastor in Texas who also directs GetTheKidsOut.org, is submitting the measure along with David Scarbrough, minister of education at a Souther Baptist church in Tennessee. more...

FEEDING SHEEP OR AMUSING GOATS? C. H. Spurgeon - An evil resides in the professed camp of the Lord so gross in its imprudence that the most shortsighted can hardly fail to notice it. During the past few years it has developed at an abnormal rate evil for evil. It has worked like leaven until the whole lump ferments. The devil has seldom done a cleverer thing than hinting to the Church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them. From speaking out as the Puritans did, the Church has gradually toned down her testimony, then winked at and excused the frivolities of the day. Then she tolerated them in her borders. Now she has adopted them under the plea of reaching the masses. My first contention is that providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the Scriptures as a function of the Church. If it is a Christian work why did not Christ speak of it? “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” That is clear enough. So it would have been if He has added, “and provide amusement for those who do not relish the gospel.” No such words, however, are to be found. It did not seem to occur to Him. Then again, “He gave some apostles, some prophets, some pastors and teachers, for the work of the ministry.” Where do entertainers come in? The Holy Spirit is silent concerning them. Were the prophets persecuted because they amused the people or because they refused? The concert has no martyr roll. more...

Holocaust Survivor Leaving US - Sees What’s Coming By Joey Picador Justice For None.com (May 27, 2005) - One of our neighbors is moving. I’ve been in this neighborhood for about six years now, but didn’t really know them very well at all - just waves and nods, mostly. So I heard the moving van pull up this morning. When I got home this evening I happened to spy my neighbor (he’s like 85 years old - I don’t know exactly, but he’s old, talks and moves very slowly) standing on the sidewalk next to the van. I walked over and shook his hand, and we started talking. I asked him where he was moving, and he said, “Back to Germany.” I had been stationed in Germany for two years while in the military, so I lit up, and commented about how beautiful the country was, and inquired if he was going back because he missed it. “No,” he answered me. “I’m going back because I’ve seen this before.” He then commenced to explain that when he was a kid, he watched with his family in fear as Hitler’s government committed atrocity after atrocity, and no one was willing to say anything. He said the news refused to question the government, and the ones who did were not in the newspaper business much longer. He said good neighbors, people he had known all his life, turned against his family and other Jews, grabbing on to the hate and superiority “as if they were starved for it” (his words).

Medford’s Baby Vincent has been the center of attention with his 12 fingers and 14 toes (May 25, 2005) - Born May 13, Vincent has five fingers and a thumb on his left hand, with the thumb and first finger joined by a web of flesh. There are six fingers, but no thumb, on his right hand. Both feet have seven toes, although two toes on the left foot are fully joined. more...

Israel blueprint to cement control over Jerusalem (June 2, 2005) - JERUSALEM - Development plans to cement Israel’s control over Jerusalem are to be submitted for government approval next Monday, the prime minister’s office said Wednesday. The blueprint will be put forward as Israel celebrates Jerusalem Day - this year the 38th anniversary since the city was “reunified” following the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. Each year, the cabinet attends an annual ceremony held on Ammunition Hill, the last bastion of the Jordanian defence in the eastern sector and which was captured by Israeli paratroopers in a fierce battle. The plan sets aside 134 million dollars for construction and job-creation projects to encourage young couples to move to the city, said a statement. more...

Scientists say NW overdue for giant earthquake by KATU Web Staff (May 26, 2005) - Scientists are urging city planners and emergency services to get ready for the Big One. They say an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 or greater is overdue for the Northwest, and that the area is not prepared for the aftermath of such a powerful temblor. The quake is expected to strike the Cascadia Subduction Zone, an active fault line under the Pacific Ocean that runs as close as 20 miles to the Northwest shorelines. Scientists say that when - not if - the earthquake takes place, the consequences could resemble the devastation that struck Indonesia in December of 2004 after an 8.9 magnitude quake hit off the coast in the Indian Ocean. more...

Islamic Court Acquits Iranian Christian -- “I don’t know who you are, but apparently the rest of the world does” Teresa Neumann Breaking Christian News (Jun 1, 2005) - Under international scrutiny, Iranian Christian pastor Hamid Pourmand, already sentenced by a military court for converting to Christianity 25 years ago while an officer, has been acquitted of separate charges brought by a sharia, or Islamic law court, according to a WorldNetDaily report. At a hearing Saturday, the judge in a local sharia court reportedly told Pourmand his case had become widely known, reported Compass Direct, a news service that monitors persecution of Christians. “I don't know who you are, but apparently the rest of the world does,” the judge said. “You must be an important person, because many people from the government have called me, saying to cancel your case.” more...

8-Year-Old Who Was Found Buried Alive Asks for Pastor “So she can thank God for saving her life” Susan Candiotti, Rich Phillips / Aimee Herd Breaking Christian News (May 31, 2005) - The eight-year-old Florida girl who had been missing but was found alive under concrete blocks inside a dumpster in a closed landfill last week reportedly asked for a pastor because she wanted to “thank God for saving her life.” The girl was resting in good, though swollen, condition at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach. She had been abducted, raped and left for dead in the landfill, but told police she knew she’d be found. When she heard searchers approach, she wiggled her fingers, the only thing beside her foot visible under slabs of concrete. That was when “hopelessness turned to hope” for the officers as Sgt. Mike Hall spotted the girl amid the rocks and began working on getting her out. “Everybody jumped in and started taking the rocks off her,” said Hall on Monday, calling it a “miracle.”  “She was in a lot better condition than we thought she’d be in. She was able to actually name her attacker while she was still in the dumpster,” he added.

New Report Proves Abortion Rates Down -- Challenges False Allegations Teresa Neumann Breaking Christian News (May 31, 2005) - The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) has published a new report which demonstrates that, contrary to several claims made in the last year, abortion rates in the U.S. have continued their decline under the Bush administration. The AGI was founded in honor of a former Planned Parenthood president and, therefore, has no personal interest in proving Bush’s pro-life policies to be successful. Pro-life critics have accused President Bush’s pro-life policies as having backfired, claiming that they have actually caused abortion rates to increase. As recently as just a few days ago, Howard Dean on NBC’s Meet the Press said, “You know that abortions have gone up 25 percent since George Bush was President?” John Kerry and Hillary Clinton, amongst others, have stated figures to the same effect. However, LifeSiteNews points out that the AGI’s analysis of the abortion data available for the 43 most reliable states proves that this statistic is “thoroughly, even maliciously false.” more...

Kentucky Judge Offers Sentence of “Worship Instead of Jail” Aimee Herd Breaking Christian News (May 31, 2005) - A district judge in Kentucky has been offering some of those who have come through his court a new option for sentencing . . . attending worship services. Judge Michael Caperton is a devout Christian and feels that he is serving on the bench to “help people and their families.” Some have accused him of violating the separation of church and state, but Caperton says, “I don't think there’s a church-state issue, because it’s not mandatory and I say worship services instead of church.” So far he has given the option nearly 50 times to repeat drug and alcohol offenders. Results have not yet come in on the effects of attending worship services instead of going to jail or rehab. more...