By Mike Swift
Mercury News
Article Launched: 10/15/2008 11:36:45 PM PDT

With the battle over an initiative to ban gay marriage apparently tightening, $3.6 million in large contributions has poured into the No on Proposition 8 campaign in the past week — narrowing the huge fundraising advantage enjoyed by proponents of the measure.

The developments set up what is likely to be an intense contest in the final weeks of the campaign, with dueling television and radio commercials over whether California should approve a constitutional ban that would eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry.

After sounding the alarm last week about its $10 million fundraising deficit, Equality California, the lead organization for the No on 8 campaign, has raised more than $3 million within California since Oct. 6, including a $1 million contribution Tuesday from the California Teachers Association, a Mercury News review of Secretary of State’s Office campaign records shows. Meanwhile, out-of-state contributors, including actor T.R. Knight of “Grey’s Anatomy” and financial guru Suze Orman, have made six- and five-figure contributions to Equality California, the umbrella group opposing Proposition 8.

Since Oct. 6, large contributions to ProtectMarriage.com, the lead group supporting Proposition 8, have totaled just $405,969.

The No on 8 campaign has also received commitments for an additional $4 million in donations that have not been received, said Kate Kendell, a member of the campaign’s executive committee. “That has been extraordinary, and has certainly we think helped us close the gap on the $10 million they had out-raised us, but we are not the least bit sanguine about this.”While the No on 8 side has gotten big donations from Hollywood luminaries like Brad Pitt, Steven Spielberg and Knight, the Yes on 8 side has a media star, too, and not an expected one: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

Mining snippets of an enthusiastic Newsom speech where he proclaims, “this door’s wide open now” for gay marriage, “whether you like it or not,” the Yes on 8 campaign has turned him into a figurehead of TV and radio ads that are “picture perfect” for their audience, said David McCuan, a Sonoma State University political science professor who specializes in California ballot initiatives. The Newsom spots have been such a good foil for the Yes on 8 campaign that opponents may be forced to raise even more money to counter them, McCuan said.

Newsom was in the headlines again over the weekend, as conservative groups pointed out that a San Francisco first-grade class went on a field trip from school because their teacher was marrying another woman at City Hall — a ceremony officiated by the mayor. The class didn’t attend the actual ceremony, but waited outside on the steps of City Hall to congratulate their teacher.

Newsom “bought them more free media than the yes side would ever have the money to purchase,” McCuan said. “And conversely, he’s raised the dollars, the cost, for his supporters. He just raised the bar for the amount of money they would have to bring in, and I would argue he’s changed the game.”

The story about a grade-school class being excused from class for a same-sex wedding “proves we’re not lying” in saying that elementary school students will be taught about same-sex marriage in the public schools if voters reject Proposition 8, said Chip White, a spokesman for the Yes on 8 campaign. “This is real; this is happening.”

State school officials say those charges are misleading because local authorities have full control over what is taught about marriage.

In a typical initiative campaign, opponents have the easier case to make, political scientists say, because all they have to do is inject enough doubt into voters’ minds about the proposed change. So, typically, opponents don’t have to match the spending of supporters.

But because same-sex marriage so recently became the status quo in California, the yes side in Proposition 8 can take the traditional opponent position of injecting doubt about change, a strategy supporters of a ban are clearly pursuing.

“That is a fundamental shift,” McCuan said.

When the two key political organizations in the Proposition 8 campaign filed their fundraising reports with the state Oct. 6, ProtectMarriage.com, which wants to ban same-sex marriage, had raised $25.4 million through Sept. 30, compared with $15.8 million for Equality California (www.noonprop8.com). Data on campaign contributions since then only includes donations of $1,000 or more. But among those big donors, the No on 8 side enjoys a 9-to-1 edge in contributions since Oct. 6.

The national dynamics of the presidential race, with Republican nominee John McCain apparently trailing Democrat Barack Obama, could be providing a fundraising boost for the Yes on 8 side, said Larry Gerston, a political scientist at San Jose State University.

“For those folks on the evangelical side, who have no place to put their money because they have pretty much given up on the McCain campaign, which they didn’t like in the first place, this becomes a great place to put their resources,” Gerston said.

With the campaign now in its final three weeks, donations coming in now are critical for both sides.

“This is the time when the no side needs to be striking back,” McCuan said. “The spots the yes folks have been running have been so picture-perfect for the voters they are talking to that the no campaign needs to not just energize their voters, they need to cut through the clutter on the yes side.”

Jaweat Ismael, chief of the city’s bureau of displaced people, said there was “no new wave of displacements” on Monday.

Over the past few days, thousands of Christians fled their homes in a city considered by US and Iraqi commanders to be the nation’s most dangerous and a last stronghold of Al-Qaeda.

Nearly 1,000 police moved into Mosul on Sunday after a dozen murders of Christians in Iraq’s third largest city over the last two weeks sowed panic in the minority community, triggering the exodus of nearly 1,000 families.

An AFP correspondent said Mosul was full of police manning checkpoints and patrolling churches and residential areas in the multi-faith city, while volunteer organisations, including the Red Crescent and church groups, were handing out food and water.

Since the US-led invasion of 2003 more than 200 Christians had been killed and a string of churches attacked, with the violence intensifying in recent weeks, particularly in the north of Iraq.

There were no reports of further violence on Monday although one Christian was killed and his nephew wounded late on Sunday when gunmen opened fire in the eastern neighbourhood of Hay al-Ekhaa.

Around 800,000 Christians lived in Iraq at the time of the US-led invasion, but the number has since shrunk by around a third as the faithful have fled the country, according to Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered an investigation into the attacks, pledging to take all steps necessary to protect the threatened community.

“She’s a really nice teacher. She’s the best,” 6-year-old Chava Novogrodsky-Godt told the San Francisco Chronicle, wearing a “No on 8″ button on her shirt. “I want her to have a good wedding.”

As WND reported, supporters of California’s Proposition 8 have claimed that combining legalized same-sex marriage with the state’s mandate that schools “teach respect for marriage and committed relationships” would result in kindergartners being taught the virtues of homosexual marriage. Opponents have called such arguments fabrications and scare tactics.

Yesterday’s field trip wasn’t quite kindergartners, but it was close.

“It shows that not only can it happen, but it has already happened,” said Chip White, press secretary for the Yes on 8 campaign.

“It’s just utterly unreasonable that a public school field trip would be to a same-sex wedding,” White told the Chronicle. “This is overt indoctrination of children who are too young to have an understanding of its purpose.”

The school’s interim director Liz Jaroflow, however, defended the field trip to a homosexual wedding as academically justifiable.

“It really is what we call a teachable moment,” she told the Chronicle. “I think I’m well within the parameters.”

Jaroflow also told the Chronicle that despite the potential objections of some the decision was not controversial for her, and that “it’s certainly an issue I would be willing to put my job on the line for.”

According to the Chronicle, the field trip was a surprise to the teacher, Erin Carder, and originally proposed by a parent.

“How many days in school are they going to remember?” asked parent Mark Lipsett. “This is a day they’ll definitely remember.”

Carder married Kerri McCoy on the office balcony of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who officiated the ceremony.

As the couple held hands on the balcony overlooking the City Hall’s rotunda, Carder proclaimed, “With this ring I thee wed!” shouting the last word for emphasis.

The couple told the Chronicle that they have participated in campaigning against Proposition 8 and planned to travel around the city after the ceremony in a motorized trolley car with banners reading “Just Married” and “Vote No on 8.”

Two families of children in the class chose not to give permission for the trip, their children remaining at the school with another first-grade class.

© 2008 WorldNetDaily

Times Topics: India

The New York Times

Borepanga has been rocked by weeks of religious violence.

They were ordered to get on their knees and bow before the portrait of a Hindu preacher. They were told to turn over their Bibles, hymnals and the two brightly colored calendar images of Christ that hung on their wall. Then, Mr. Digal, 45, a Christian since childhood, was forced to watch his Hindu neighbors set the items on fire.

“ ‘Embrace Hinduism, and your house will not be demolished,’ ” Mr. Digal recalled being told on that Wednesday afternoon in September. “ ‘Otherwise, you will be killed, or you will be thrown out of the village.’ ”

India, the world’s most populous democracy and officially a secular nation, is today haunted by a stark assault on one of its fundamental freedoms. Here in eastern Orissa State, riven by six weeks of religious clashes, Christian families like the Digals say they are being forced to abandon their faith in exchange for their safety.

The forced conversions come amid widening attacks on Christians here and in at least five other states across the country, as India prepares for national elections next spring.

The clash of faiths has cut a wide swath of panic and destruction through these once quiet hamlets fed by paddy fields and jackfruit trees. Here in Kandhamal, the district that has seen the greatest violence, more than 30 people have been killed, 3,000 homes burned and over 130 churches destroyed, including the tin-roofed Baptist prayer hall where the Digals worshiped. Today it is a heap of rubble on an empty field, where cows blithely graze.

Across this ghastly terrain lie the singed remains of mud-and-thatch homes. Christian-owned businesses have been systematically attacked. Orange flags (orange is the sacred color of Hinduism) flutter triumphantly above the rooftops of houses and storefronts.

India is no stranger to religious violence between Christians, who make up about 2 percent of the population, and India’s Hindu-majority of 1.1 billion people. But this most recent spasm is the most intense in years.

It was set off, people here say, by the killing on Aug. 23 of a charismatic Hindu preacher known as Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, who for 40 years had rallied the area’s people to choose Hinduism over Christianity.

The police have blamed Maoist guerrillas for the swami’s killing. But Hindu radicals continue to hold Christians responsible.

In recent weeks, they have plastered these villages with gruesome posters of the swami’s hacked corpse. “Who killed him?” the posters ask. “What is the solution?”

Behind the clashes are long-simmering tensions between equally impoverished groups: the Panas and Kandhas. Both original inhabitants of the land, the two groups for ages worshiped the same gods. Over the past several decades, the Panas for the most part became Christian, as Roman Catholic and Baptist missionaries arrived here more than 60 years ago, followed more recently by Pentecostals, who have proselytized more aggressively.

Meanwhile, the Kandhas, in part through the teachings of Swami Laxmanananda, embraced Hinduism. The men tied the sacred Hindu white thread around their torsos; their wives daubed their foreheads with bright red vermilion. Temples sprouted.

Hate has been fed by economic tensions as well, as the government has categorized each group differently and given them different privileges.

The Kandhas accused the Panas of cheating to obtain coveted quotas for government jobs. The Christian Panas, in turn, say their neighbors have become resentful as they have educated themselves and prospered.

Their grievances have erupted in sporadic clashes over the past 15 years, but they have exploded with a fury since the killing of Swami Laxmanananda.

Two nights after his death, a Hindu mob in the village of Nuagaon dragged a Catholic priest and a nun from their residence, tore off much of their clothing and paraded them through the streets.

A clear go-ahead signal to millions of evangelicals across the country from Dr. James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family, to vote for the GOP ticket. It couldn’t have come at a better time given more polls showing a Democratic lead on the eve of the next presidential debate, tomorrow night in Nashville.

On his radio broadcast today to hundreds of stations Dobson said, “America’s future seems to hang in the balance.”

Reading from his October newsletter, Dobson said he would not endorse a candidate for president. He then proceeded to endorse a candidate for president.

Read story here///

The data, released Monday by UCLA’s Williams Institute, found that an estimated 11,000 same-sex couples were married in California from June 17, when the California Supreme Court began allowing the weddings, to Sept. 17.

Read more from the LA Times

The consultant, Susan L. Douglass, has also praised Pakistan’s madrassa schools as “proud symbols of learning,” even after the U.S. government blamed them for fueling the rise of the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Douglass, routinely described as a “scholar” or “historian,” has edited manuscripts of world history textbooks used by middle and high school students across the country. She’s also advised state education boards on curriculum standards dealing with world religion, and has helped train thousands of public school teachers on Islamic instruction.

In effect, she is responsible for teaching millions of American children about Islam, experts say, while operating in relative obscurity.

WorldNetDaily has learned that up until last year Douglass taught social studies at the Islamic Saudi Academy in Alexandria, Va., which teaches Wahhabism through textbooks that condemn Jews and Christians as infidels and enemies of Islam. Her husband, Usama Amer, still teaches at the grades 2-12 school, a spokeswoman there confirmed. Both are practicing Muslims.

Susan L. Douglass, CIE consultant

The Saudi government funds the school, which has a sister campus in Fairfax, Va.

“It is a school that is under the auspices of the Saudi Embassy,” said Ali al-Ahmed, executive director of the Washington-based Saudi Institute, a leading Saudi opposition group. “So the minister of education appoints the principal of the school, and the teachers are paid by the Saudi government.”

He says many of the academy’s textbooks he has reviewed contain passages promoting hatred of non-Muslims. For example, the eleventh-grade text says one sign of the Day of Judgment will be when Muslims fight and kill Jews, who will hide behind trees that say: “Oh Muslim, oh servant of God, here is a Jew hiding behind me. Come here and kill him.”

Al-Ahmed, a Shiite Muslim born in predominantly Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia, says the school’s religious curriculum was written by Sheik Saleh al-Fawzan, a senior member of the Saudi religious council, who he said has “encouraged war against unbelievers.” Al-Fawzan has authored textbooks used in Saudi schools.

A report released last year by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom found that the Saudi Ministry of Education publishes texts presenting Islam as “the only true religion” and denouncing all other religions as “invalid” and “misguided.”

“Christians and Jews repeatedly are labeled as infidels and enemies of Islam who should not be befriended or emulated, and are referred to in eighth-grade textbooks as ‘apes and pigs,’” the report said. In addition, it found that “some Saudi government-funded textbooks used in North American Islamic schools have been found to encourage incitement to violence again non-Muslims.”

Critics complain that Douglass, who taught at the Saudi academy for at least a decade, has convinced American textbook publishers and educators to gloss over the violent aspects of Islam to make the faith more appealing to non-Muslim children. The units on Islam reviewed by WND appear to give a glowing and largely uncritical view of the faith.

Asked about it, Douglass referred questions to the Council on Islamic Education, which did not respond. CIE’s website lists her in its staff directory as a “principal researcher and writer.”CIE is a Los Angeles-based Muslim activist group run by Shabbir Mansuri, who has been quoted in the local press saying he’s waging a “bloodless” revolution to fight what he calls anti-Muslim bias in public schools and promote Islam in a positive light in American classrooms. Mansuri, who consults with Saudi education ministers at his center, claimed in a 2002 op-ed piece that Islam has been on American soil “since before this nation was founded.”

Also, he spoke at a 2001 Islamic conference with several Muslim extremists, including an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, according to a speakers schedule for the event obtained by WND.

The three major U.S. publishers of world history texts – Houghton Mifflin, McGraw Hill and Prentice Hall – have all let Mansuri and Douglass review their books. In fact, Houghton Mifflin’s seventh-grade text, “Across the Centuries,” was republished according to CIE’s suggestions.

In the past, most K-12 texts devoted no more than a few pages to Islam. But thanks to CIE’s efforts since 1990 – including lobbying state education boards – grade-school text units on Islam have flourished. “Across the Centuries,” for one, spends more than 30 pages on Islam and includes colorful prose and graphics.

But it offers a sanitized version of Islam, critics say.

For instance, the text softens the meaning of “jihad” – a concept interpreted in Abdullah Yusuf Ali’s “The Meaning of the Holy Quran” to mean “waging war,” or “fighting in Allah’s cause” – with dying while fighting in the cause being the highest form of jihad.

Holy war is not part of the definition found in the “Across the Centuries” textbook, however.

“An Islamic term that is often misunderstood is jihad,” the text says on page 64. “The term means ‘to struggle,’ to do one’s best to resist temptation and overcome evil.”

One of CIE’s teachers guides lists quitting smoking as an example of jihad.

“It’s a sugar-coated definition,” said Edward White, associate counsel for the Thomas More Law Center, an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based public-interest law firm which has fought what it sees as Islamic indoctrination in U.S. public education.

Even scholar John L. Esposito, considered by critics to be one of Islam’s leading apologists, has written that “jihad means the struggle to spread and to defend Islam” – through “warfare” if necessary.

Houghton Mifflin’s high school world history textbook, “Patterns of Interaction,” used in Texas and other states, reportedly leaves jihad out altogether.

White argues Houghton Mifflin has published an unrealistic picture of Islam, and has been manipulated by CIE, which clearly has a pro-Muslim bias.

The Boston-based publisher denies it. A spokesman called the assertion “unfounded.”

However, its editorial director for school social studies told a Muslim website in 1999 that it’s also allowed CIE to critique its coverage of Christian history, and to add its view of what the Crusades were like for the Muslims.

The article, posted on Sound Vision.com, a marketer of Muslim educational products, quotes Houghton Mifflin editor Abigail Jungreis as saying, “We’ve had a really good relationship with them (CIE) over the years. Their reviewers are knowledgeable.”

Jungreis singles out Douglass for praise in the article.

Douglass has argued for more in-depth coverage of Islam in classrooms, while at the same time advising that Christian principles, including historic facts such as Christ’s crucifixion, are clearly qualified with attributions such as “Christians believe.”

Houghton Mifflin is not the only major publisher influenced by CIE. Prentice Hall also collaborates with the group. And its “Connections to Today,” which is the most widely used world history book in the country, instructs students that jihad is an “inner struggle to achieve spiritual peace,” according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Also, CIE has helped write supplemental teachers materials that engage children in entertaining Muslim role-playing activities in the class. Parents say they make the study of Christianity and other religions seem dull by comparison.

A CIE-edited teachers aid used in California schools became the subject of a federal First Amendment case last year, as WorldNetDaily reported. The Thomas More Law Center sued a San Francisco-area school district on behalf of parents of seventh-graders who were required to “become Muslims” for two weeks as part of their world history unit on Islam.

However, U.S. District Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton, a Clinton appointee, dismissed the lawsuit against the Byron Union School District, arguing the Muslim unit does not promote religion, and therefore does not violate the First Amendment’s clause against religious establishment.

White, the lawyer in the case, says he’s filed an appeal to overturn the ruling.

The controversial role-playing module, which CIE helped write, requires kids to recite Muslim prayers and verses of the Quran in class. Students also are required to give up things like watching TV or eating candy for a day to simulate Islamic fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

“From the beginning, you and your classmates will become Muslims,” the Student Guide portion of the Islam module instructs seventh-graders as an introduction to the material.

White notes that the module, titled “Islam: A simulation of Islamic history and culture,” also white-washes the meaning of jihad, calling it a “struggle against oppression.”

According to a copyright statement on page 91 of the module obtained by WorldNetDaily, its California-based publisher, Interaction Publishers Inc., agreed to allow CIE “to revise the original manuscript” after CIE protested “errors of fact and interpretation in Western historians’ presentation of Islam.”

“They had a hand in the revisions to this handbook,” White asserted.

The same page states that the publisher also incorporated suggestions by Yousef Salem, associate director of the Islamic Education and Information Center in San Jose, Calif. Salem, a former Saudi resident, has praised the Muslim terrorist group Hezbollah, and called Israelis “terrorists.”

The module mirrors parts of the middle-school religious curriculum at the Islamic Saudi Academy where Douglass taught, and where her husband still teaches.

For instance, the Islamic religion coursework for Grade 7 emphasizes, among other things, the “importance of reciting the Quran,” according to the academy’s website. Eighth-graders, moreover, study “fasting” and “pilgrimage.” (They also study Quranic verses that deal with “the Punishment of the Disbelievers.”)

The California Department of Education, which requires all seventh-grade world history courses to include a unit on Islam, approved the text and module. In 1998, the state overhauled its standards for its Islam unit to include more teaching about the Muslim prophet Muhammad and the Quran. Mansuri made numerous trips to Sacramento to lobby for the changes, and the department invited CIE to review its draft.

Many California parents say the state essentially is allowing Muslim activists to brainwash their kids into accepting Islam, while at the same time marginalizing Christianity.

In contrast to the seventh-grade Muslim unit, where children are first introduced to Islam, the earlier one on Christianity does not involve any role play. Students are not asked to recite Christian prayers or memorize Scripture.

Moreover, parents argue that neither the Islam chapter nor the role-playing module critically discuss the anti-Christian jihads of old, or new ones led by Islamic terrorists like Osama bin Laden. In fact, Byron teachers warned students against saying anything negative about Islam, U.S. court documents show.

And Islam is praised for tolerance and acceptance of other beliefs.

Yet the unit on Christianity is critical of that core American faith, particularly concerning the Crusades (which came on the heels of earlier Islamic invasions of non-Muslim territory).

One local parent, Jen Schroeder, told WND she worries California may be unwittingly producing more John Walker Lindhs. Lindh, who joined the Taliban, was a product of San Francisco public schools.

“John Walker Lindh is the fruit of California’s efforts. He was a young impressionable child, just as my son is,” she said. “How many more John Walkers before we stop promoting Islam in public schools?”

She and other critics charge CIE is not just interested in correcting factual or historical errors in textbooks. They say it has a hidden agenda: using public schools to promote Islam. And to do that, they say, it must first make it less threatening to nonbelievers, and more mainstream.

But in an October 2002 white paper, Douglass argued schools should respect the First Amendment and avoid indoctrinating students into religion.

“Teaching about religion should neither promote nor denigrate the ideals of any faith,” she wrote.

At the same time, however, she warned teachers against “presenting non-Western religions as static traditions whose unfamiliarity to students can make them seem irrational.”

And in the same article, “Teaching about Religion,” she defended Pakistan’s madrassas, which U.S. officials in the wake of the 9-11 attacks condemned as hatcheries for future bin Ladens.

According to Douglass, the Islamic schools, where young Muslim boys endlessly chant verses from the Quran, are “proud symbols of learning” which “have become confused in the public mind with symbols of ignorance.”

Douglass and other staffers at CIE have trained more than 8,000 public school teachers in America on Islam instruction, according to the SoundVision.com article. The center has sold hundreds of copies of its teachers guide to public schools. Besides holding teacher workshops, CIE staffers also lecture at schools and colleges about Islam.

‘Islam an American religion’

Douglass is associated with another Muslim activist group, one that is under federal investigation.

From 1988 to 1994, she wrote K-6 social studies books for the International Institute of Islamic Thought, or IIIT, a Saudi-tied charity. Federal authorities in 2002 raided IIIT’s Northern Virginia offices on suspicion of terrorist ties.

Shortly after the raids, Mansuri defended the group’s officials as “law-abiding Muslims” in a column distributed by the State Department’s Office of International Information Programs.

IIIT president Taha Jaber al-Alwani once signed a copy of a fatwa declaring that jihad is the only way to liberate Palestine, according to a federal affidavit for the search warrant. He’s also close to Sami al-Arian, recently arrested on terrorism-related charges.

In the same 2002 column, “Muslims Due Place at Table,” Mansuri asserted: “Islam is an American religion,” adding that “Islam has been on this soil since before the nation was founded, having come over with African slaves.”

In July 2001, Mansuri spoke at the Islamic Circle of North America’s convention in Cleveland with New York imam Siraj Wahhaj, who was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and with Sheik Abdur Rahman al-Sudais, the senior imam at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, who has been quoted vilifying Jews as the “scum of humanity” and “the grandsons of monkeys and pigs.”

The previous year Mansuri also appeared with Wahhaj at a fund-raising banquet hosted by the Saudi-backed Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR. Mansuri received an award for helping to eliminate Muslim stereotypes.

Some CAIR officials recently have been arrested on terrorism-related charges.

Nonetheless, the Washington-based Muslim-rights group has launched a coast-to-coast drive to stock public libraries with Islamic books as part of its campaign to educate Americans on the “peaceful” attributes of Islam.

One of the books on its recommended reading list: “Beyond a Thousand and One Nights” by Susan L. Douglass.

Overview:
Too often as Christians we try to do Christ’s work for him. This passage teaches that we are supposed to do Christ’s work with Him. Cults are formed by people who start following God then end up trying to be God instead. The results are just what Jesus predicted in this passage.

Jesus tells a parable about a vine and some branches to illustrate our need to stay attached to Him. When we bear fruit, Jesus prunes us so we can bear more fruit. It’s painful, but it’s the way we grow. Our maturity as Christian depends on our trust and connection to the Vine.

Through Jesus we can love with supernatural power. Through Jesus we can teach great truth. Through Jesus we can experience great joy. But the secret to these things is that they only happen through Jesus.

Jesus says, “Apart from me you can do noting,” (v. 5) and history has shown it to be true. People have died following leaders who cut themselves off from Jesus. Staying connected to Him is what gives us life.

Questions to Ask Yourself…
1) What does it mean to “prune” a tree? Have you ever done it (or seen it done)? If so, what is the process?

2) Do you think it’s possible to cut off a branch from a plant or tree and keep it alive? If so, how? If not, why not?

3) What is the greatest extent someone has gone to show you that he or she loved you? What is the greatest extent you have gone to show you loved someone else?

Observation Questions…
4) Read John 15:1-8. How does Jesus describe himself in this passage? How does he describe the Father? How does he describe his disciples?

5) What happens to branches that do not bear fruit? (v. 2) What happens to branches that do bear fruit? What does it take for a branch to bear fruit? (v. 4)

6) Read vv. 9-17. How does jesus say we remain in his love? (v. 10) What command does he give? (v. 12) What example does he give of this command? (v. 13)

7) Read vv. 18-20. How does Jesus describe the connection he has with the disciples? How does the world relate to both of them.

Interpretation Questions…
8) What do you think Jesus means when he says branches that don’t bear fruit will be cut off? (v. 2) What do you think he means when he says branches that do bear fruit will be pruned?

9) Who do you think are the branches in this passage? Are they just his disciples or all his followers? How do “branches” become disconnected from the vine (or Jesus)?

10) Look at v. 12. Why do you think Jesus only gives this one commandment? Do you think v. 13 refers more to him or to us? Why?

11) What do you think Jesus means in v. 16 when he says his disciples will bear “fruit that will last “? What would be an example of this fruit?

Application Questions…
12) If you were a branch on Jesus’ vine, what would you look like? Would you be fruitful and thriving or empty and brittle? Why?

13) Have you ever felt “pruned” by God so you could bear more fruit? If so, how?

14) Do you consider yourself to be God’s friend? If not, why not? If so, what are some of the ways you show your friendship to Him?

15) Have you ever experienced people not liking you (or alienating you) because you were a Christian? If so, when? If not, have you ever seen it happen to someone else?

This article goes hand in hand with the poll at the bottom of every page throughout this site. Do you really think that Christianity is in jeopardy? I truly believe it is, and the video above only proves that point.

Since when does the First Amendment of the United States Constitution only apply when people want it to? To refresh your memory on how it reads, I have included it in this post - “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Yes, I understand that the movie above was not in America, therefore this doesn’t apply, but there have been similar cases right here in the states.

For instance, five-year-old Antonio Peck was told to make a poster on how to “save the world.” So little Antonio drew a picture of Jesus and printed the words: “The only way to save our world.” When he showed his picture to the teacher, he was told that it was “unacceptable.” It was supposed to be about the environment. so he drew another poster of people taking out trash and put Jesus on the side, praying. when Antonio’s picture was displayed on the bulletin board, the teacher folded over that part.

You’ve heard of being sent to the back of the bus? Two Christians in the state of Washington would have liked to be treated that well. Michelle Shocks of Seattle was riding home on a bus one day when another passenger boarded saying, “Praise the Lord!” He was happy to be out of the pouring rain. Michelle asked the passenger where he went to church, and they started to privately discuss religion across the aisle. But then the driver ordered them to refrain from their discussion because it might “offend” the other passengers. Michelle moved to a seat next to the other passenger, and they continued their discussion in hushed tones so as not to offend anyone. the driver pulled to the side of the road and demanded that both passengers leave the bus. Michelle, who was twenty-five years old and five months pregnant, was forced to walk her last mile home - in the rain.

What kind of lesson is that teaching a five year old, that was probably on a better path than the teacher. If this is the kind of example that people with authority are setting, then what can we expect from our younger generations?

When things like this happen, Christians need to stand together in prayer and in public. No longer can we sit back and let the non-believers go to hell, but also stomp everything that we stand for, and everything that God means in our hearts - and be treated as the common criminal.

If we can’t stand up in situations like this, how can we really call ourselves Christians? Christian means to be Christ like. Do you think that Jesus Christ would ever backup or bow down from someone trashing His beliefs? It is apparent that he never did. He was beaten, had his beard pulled out, had his back basically turned to hamburger, and then was hung on a cross with three nails to die. While on the cross, all he did was ask His Father for forgiveness to the people that were treating him in this way. He knew that His reason for coming in the flesh was to die for our sins - and to point people in the right direction to continue His teachings.

Everyone, let’s wake up. Let’s band together and fight for what is right and stop the criminalization of Christianity.

Do they not realize what they are holding in their hands? It is the inerrant word of our Lord Jesus Christ. I know, He didn’t write it, but He told others what to write, encouraged their writings and made the Bible what it is - the answer to any problem, question or situation in the world.

Why would somebody want to destroy such a treasure?

Just last week, there was a military man in Iraq that was using the Koran as target practice, and the United States government and military officials scrambled around to put together some action against the man. But what do they do when the cornerstone of the Christian faith is burnt in front of them? Nothing. A better question - what are we, as Christians, doing about it? Yes, we are continuing to ship the Bibles right back to the people that burnt them, but why can’t we make it a standard not to deface the Holy Book?

I know that those Bibles aren’t mine - and they will never touch mine - but it makes me wonder what kind of shape the world is in right now.

I think people should hit their knees and let God handle everything all over the world, we wouldn’t be in a lot of situations that we are now.