US Military Burn Bibles/Bodybuilders Flee

Fake

Okay, the return of Vinyl Man who has received thousands of hits on this site.

Leuther, Germany (photo from trekearth.com)

Bibles burned by United States military

Portions

CNN

From CNN:

'UPDATED: 03:32 AM EDT 05.20.09

Military personnel threw away, and ultimately burned, confiscated Bibles that were printed in the two most common Afghan languages amid concern they would be used to try to convert Afghans, a Defense Department spokesman said Tuesday.

The unsolicited Bibles sent by a church in the United States were confiscated about a year ago at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan because military rules forbid troops of any religion from proselytizing while deployed there, Lt. Col. Mark Wright said.

Such religious outreach can endanger American troops and civilians in the devoutly Muslim nation, Wright said.

"The decision was made that it was a 'force protection' measure to throw them away, because, if they did get out, it could be perceived by Afghans that the U.S. government or the U.S. military was trying to convert Muslims," Wright told CNN on Tuesday.

Troops at posts in war zones are required to burn their trash, Wright said...'

'This decision came to light recently, after the Al Jazeera English network aired video of a group prayer service and chapel sermon that a reporter said suggested U.S. troops were being encouraged to spread Christianity.

The military denied that earlier this month, saying much in the video was taken out of context.

"This was irresponsible and dangerous journalism sensationalizing year-old footage of a religious service for U.S. soldiers on a U.S. base and inferring that troops are evangelizing to Afghans," Col. Gregory Julian said.

The military says a soldier at Bagram received the Bibles and didn't realize he wasn't allowed to hand them out. In the Al Jazeera video, which shows the Bibles at the prayer service, an unnamed soldier says members of his church raised money for them.

The chaplain later corrected the soldier and confiscated the Bibles, Wright said.

Military officers considered sending the Bibles back to the church, he said, but they worried the church would turn around and send them to another organization in Afghanistan -- giving the impression that they had been distributed by the U.S. government.

That could lead to violence against troops or U.S. civilians, Wright said...'

'Military personnel threw away, and ultimately burned, confiscated Bibles that were printed in the two most common Afghan languages amid concern they would be used to try to convert Afghans, a Defense Department spokesman said Tuesday.

Hmm, this is a good indicator for my young American friends out there that combining the careers of overseas US military member and aspiring hyper-charismatic radio/televangelist would not be a very good idea.

It is a terrible thing to burn Bibles. I certainly would have found a better answer for the problem even if it meant having Bibles shipped or driven out of Afghanistan.

Imagine if someone did mix the careers of being a member of the US military with being a hyper-charismatic televangelist in training, the prayer towels, holy water, and prayer letters from the mail that would have had to be trashed.

Perhaps burning some books with heretical teaching might not be all bad. But, please understand I would rather collect books with heretical teaching for research than burn them. I have a few in my library (fill in the blank) that could be easily be burned on theological grounds but my fireplace is a gas fire and it would make too much of a mess in the living room and as stated I like collecting books for research purposes.

Also, if one fell over at the hands of a hyper-charismatic soldier, would it be because the person on the ground was healed, stabbed, or shot?

Could the future televangelist in training heal one that he or she just stabbed or shot?

'Troops at posts in war zones are required to burn their trash, Wright said.'

I would never consider Bibles trash.

'Military officers considered sending the Bibles back to the church, he said, but they worried the church would turn around and send them to another organization in Afghanistan -- giving the impression that they had been distributed by the U.S. government.

That could lead to violence against troops or U.S. civilians, Wright said.'
---

Hmm, this sounds tricky. This may put quite a few restrictions on evangelism in that area.

Bodybuilders 'split' when they see drug testers

Portions

CBC

From CBC:

'Last Updated: Monday, May 18, 2009 4:00 PM ET

The Belgian bodybuilding championship has been cancelled after doping officials showed up and all the competitors fled.'

Oh no a 'roid' filled bodybuilding competition was cancelled...what a loss.

The Mr. Belgium Pageant was cancelled.

'The bodybuilders just grabbed their gear and ran off when a doping official came into the room, according to officials.

"I have never seen anything like it and hope never to see anything like it again," said doping official Hans Cooman.

Twenty bodybuilders were entered in the weekend competition...

Belgium's bodybuilding federation did not dispute the facts, but said it could not explain why the competitors had suddenly rushed off...

During testing of bodybuilding events last year, doping authorities of northern Belgium's Flanders region found that three-quarters of the competitors tested positive.'
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This would be the result if you mixed dog shows with bodybuilding shows.

Will secular Europe soon cease to exist?

My post viva/verbal review PhD revisions are coming along nicely. I tackle the most difficult and complex revisions first and success provides me with confidence. I worked on the graphs with the help of a friend and now am working on Kant. Please see my thekingpin68 blog.

I am not claiming any expertise in population growth or the subject of population growth in Europe.

I am open to suggestions and differing opinions. I have British citizenship and a United Kingdom and European Union passport and therefore have personal interest as well.

Although I have come across Islam in my academic world religions research and blogging, I am not an expert on the religion and Islamic culture. Although I reason the information provided demonstrates the danger of radical Islamists running Western countries, I cannot guarantee that in every case a Muslim majority would greatly curb the rights of non-Muslims that wish to be non-religious, Christian or other in worldview and practice.

Please note, my personal interaction with Muslims has been positive. I have no personal agenda. I have met moral and kind Muslims. Most Muslims contribute to society.

Also, I in no way support a Christian or theistic theocracy within this present realm. I would like to see the Christian Church have moral influence on Western society and secular governments that do not adopt one particular state religion.

Why?

Because I do not want a state-church to exist that would seek to treat all that do not follow the state religion as heretical and treasonous.

Guess who would likely be on the outside looking in.

I do however believe that Christ and God will one day establish a Kingdom (Revelation 21-22).

Portions quoted from:

http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/1609

http://www.khouse.org/enews_article/2004/817/

'Islam is quickly becoming a significant part of the cultural and political landscape of Europe. There are between 9 and 15 million Muslims living throughout Europe today, and Islam has become the largest religious minority. Considering current population trends and the need for immigrant labor it is likely that the number of Muslims in Europe will continue to grow exponentially. Bernard Lewis, a former history professor at Princeton and the respected author of more than a dozen books on the Middle East, is quoted as saying that "Europe will be Islamic by the end of the century."

Europe's Muslim population is not evenly distributed. It is concentrated primarily in six countries. France has a Muslim population of approximately 5 million, the largest in all of Europe. Germany has about 2 million, followed by the United Kingdom with 1.5 million, the Netherlands with 500,000, Belgium with 300,000, and Austria with 200,000. The heavy concentration of Muslims in these countries is not surprising, because during the last three decades they have experienced massive labor migrations. Large Muslim populations also exist in Italy and Spain, as well as several Scandinavian countries such as Sweden, Denmark, and Norway...

The EU may not become the Islamic Republic of Europe any time soon, but the excessive influx of Muslim immigrants and refugees into the EU is a serious issue. Opening the doors of Europe to Turkey and the Muslim world also means opening the door to radical Islamic fundamentalists. Many of whom have already fled to Europe (our readers may recall that the terrorist cell authorities suspect planned the September 11 attacks was based in Hamburg, Germany). To ignore such warnings or to label such commentators as alarmists requires disregarding much of what history has taught us about the relationship between Islam and the western world.'

http://www.blufftontoday.com/node/10269

The German author Henryk M. Broder recently told the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant (12 October) that young Europeans who love freedom, better emigrate. Europe as we know it will no longer exist 20 years from now. Whilst sitting on a terrace in Berlin, Broder pointed to the other customers and the passers-by and said melancholically: “We are watching the world of yesterday.”Europe is turning Muslim...

As Tom Bethell wrote in this month’s American Spectator: “Just at the most basic level of demography the secular-humanist option is not working.” But there is more to it than the fact that non-religious people tend not to have as many children as religious people, because many of them prefer to “enjoy” freedom rather than renounce it for the sake of children. Secularists, it seems to me, are also less keen on fighting. Since they do not believe in an afterlife, this life is the only thing they have to lose. Hence they will rather accept submission than fight...'

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1705909/posts

'From the desk of Paul Belien on Wed, 2006-09-20 23:11 Dr Koenraad Elst, one of Belgium’s best orientalists and an occasional contributor to this website (if I had time I would translate more of his Dutch-language contributions into English), told me last week that he thinks “Islam is in decline, despite its impressive demographic and military surge” – which according to Dr Elst is merely a “last upheaval.”

He acknowledges, however, that this decline can take some time (at least in terms of the individual human life span) and that it is possible that Islam will succeed in becoming the majority religion in Europe before collapsing...

Perhaps, as Dr Elst fears, Islam in its stage of decline might, by the mid-21st century, succeed in conquering Europe and becoming the old continent’s dominant religion. In this knowledge one slogan of last Sunday’s Islamic hatemongerers in London may be more than just hate speech: “Islam will conquer Rome” may be prophetic. Here, however, we ourselves are to blame, because Islamists will not find it difficult to conquer Europe. Christianity in Western Europe has virtually ceased to exist. The spirit of secular relativism that originated from the French Enlightenment has persuaded Europe (including Europe’s churches) to commit a protracted, two centuries long suicide, the symptoms of which were visible in Communism, National-Socialism and moral relativism in general.

Man is a religious being and needs religious faith. If European Christianity had still been healthy today it would have proselytized, it would have reached out with missionary zeal to the millions of Muslims who migrated to Western Europe since the 1970s, it would have offered them Christ. Instead, it’s churches became bastions of religious relativism. Europe offered the newcomers only cultural decadence, from which decent people want to shield their children, and spiritual emptiness, which one can only despise.

The Europeans, who lost the missionary zeal to reach out to the immigrants, also lacked the zeal to pass on their own civilization to their offspring. Worse still, they lacked the zeal to have offspring. Since demographics is the mother of all politics, it is, barring a miracle, certain that Islam will become the old continent’s dominant religion.

Unless Europe rediscovers its will to survive – and it may already be too late (though as a Christian I do not exclude miracles) – soon furious Islamists may be holding sway over Europe in much the same way as the Taliban did over Afghanistan, removing all visible remnants of pre-Islamic culture. The Cathedrals of Europe may share the fate of the Buddhas of Bamiyan. Christian works of art may be destroyed. Surely, a faith that forbids the depiction of human figures will be offended by the Christian art of medieval Europe and the nudes of the Renaissance. Perhaps it is wise to seriously consider salvaging as many European cultural treasures as one already can, before it is too late, and bringing them to safety elsewhere.'

End of quotations.

My Aunt was nice enough to send me the You Tube clip and this was my reply (edited slightly.

That is very interesting. I have heard similar on Albert Mohler's website. It is scary but I reason Western society is heading for God;s judgment.

Problems

There are so few Christians and it is hard for many, such as myself to find a suitable partner. Therefore no families, sadly for many of us.

There are many that predict the evangelical church will collapse over the next few decades. A major possible reason is a lack of solid Biblical and theological training to separate it from secular thinking.

I consider myself only secondarily evangelical. I reason Reformed churches that have not sold out are more Biblical and theologically sound.

Evangelical churches often want to dummy things down and talk about how people can be happy, but this should not be done at the expense of teaching persons basic Biblical theology and how it differs from secular thought, and Islam, for example.

The radical liberal church basically is very similar to the world. Too many are not interested in letting the Bible in context (not always necessarily plain literal from an English reading, but it is sometimes) speak for itself. Too many want to make the Bible and God modern. He is not, he is the Alpha and Omega, eternal. He does not change.

Secular society supports too many abortions and abortion on demand. There is a break down of the concept of marriage and family as very important for many in society.

I think Islam is a false religion as it denies the deity of Christ, the Trinity and the atoning and resurrection of Christ. This is stated without anything personal against Muslims.

I hope and pray that through my blogs and future teaching I can help the gospel cause.


Lorrez Le Bocage Preau Saint Anne, France (photo from trekearth.com)


Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, France (photo from trekearth.com)


EdH Frviere, Lyon, France (photo from trekearth.com)

A man with his cat and kittens. I am not certain on whether or not some of them are adoptable. They are rather larger than the cat I used to have but perhaps that is due to steroids.

Thanks for reading, I state more on the lead topic in comments.



Chance of Canada getting another team outside of beating Bettman and the NHL owners in court.

Me at practice...I wish.

nwr mar y sol fest wav edit 3.mp3