This issue provides an update on the Damascus Film, looks at a case of judicial activism in determining a child's religion, examines the implications of China's one-child policy, offers some interesting sayings of Muhammad, and a writing tip for punctuating requests and commands.
OUR ISRAELI CONNECTION
Joel Rosenberg reports
Here's some exciting news for the Christmas season in the Middle East. The DAMASCUS film – a movie made by Arab Christians in Syria which tells the story of Saul seeing Jesus on the road to Damascus, and how he became Paul, the greatest apostle of all time – aired Sunday on national TV in Lebanon. Specifically, it aired on OTV, a network run by Lebanese militia leader Gen. Michel Aoun.
On Saturday, Palestinian Christians premiered the DAMASCUS film in Jerusalem for 300
Arabs to reach them with the gospel message in the week leading up to Christmas. In recent days, a premier for the film was also held in Amman, Jordan, and some 700 Arabs attended. Please pray the Lord would continue to use this film in mighty ways in reaching Muslims and nominal Christians with the truth of God's wonderful love and amazing grace.
IT’S NEWS TO ME
GrassTopsUSA reports
Do you think judges should have the power to decide what religion your children must belong to and which churches they may be prohibited from attending? We have long suspected that family courts are the most dictatorial and biased of all U.S. courts, routinely depriving divorced fathers of due process rights and authority over their own children, but this December a Chicago judge went beyond the pale.
update on the Damascus Film, looks at a case of judicial activism in determining a child's religion, examines the implications of China's one-child policy, offers some interesting sayings of Muhammadissued a restraining order to prohibit Joseph Reyes from taking his three-year-old daughter to any non-Jewish religious activities because the ex-wife argued that would contribute to “the emotional detriment of the child.” Mrs. Rebecca Reyes wants to raise her daughter in the Jewish religion, and the judge sided with the mother.
China's One Child Policy
Since China's compulsory one-child-per-family policy was instituted, Beijing claims to have prevented an estimated 400 million births, which has supposedly meant 18 million fewer tons of CO2 emissions released into the atmosphere every year. It's ironic that those who claim the mantle of “humanist” have come to view people as a pollutant.
The commissars have indeed managed to reduce the nation's birth rate from 5.8 per woman, at the outset of its one-child program, to 1.8 today. In the process, it's created an ominous imbalance of young men to young women.
All over the world, the ratio of girls to boys is roughly 105 males for every 100 females. Due to the cultural preference for male heirs and the prevalence of sex-selection, abortion, and female infanticide, in China the ratio is 124 to 100.
In China today, 25 million young men will never find wives. Unattached males (especially in their twenties) are one of the most lethal forces in society. They drive the nation's crime rate, which in turns drives the state to find an outlet for their aggressive tendencies, which means a larger army and, for a totalitarian state, military adventurism.
By 2050, China will have one of the oldest populations in the world – 31% of its people will be over 60. The nation will confront severe labor shortages as well as the 4-2-1 dilemma – one child caring for two parents and four grandparents. To make matters worse, the Muslim population in China is growing at an alarming rate.
According to the Hadith (Muhammad's Sayings):
Allah hurries to please Muhammad's sexual desires (Vol. 7:48).
Drinking camel's urine will make you healthy (Vol. 7: 590).
A fly in your drink is a cure (Vol. 4:537).
WRITING TIPS
Punctuating Requests and Commands
Punctuate interrogative sentences that are a command with a period.
Will you please close the door.
Punctuate interrogative sentences that are a request with a question mark.
Will you please close the door?
TEACHER: Maria, go to the map and find North America.
MARIA: Here it is.
TEACHER: Correct. Now class, who discovered America?
CLASS: Maria.
