Ethnic cleansing in Iraq has caused half of 1.4 million Christians who lived there to leave the country.

Quoting the Assyrian International News Agency, the report said that these Assyrian Christians compose less than 4 percent of Iraq’s population.

They speak Aramaic, a dialect close to what Jesus spoke 2000 years ago, and are descendants of the first converts to Christianity.

Indyposted said that post Sadaam Husssein, many traditional protections that were given to non Muslims are no longer enforced due to various Muslim factions in Iraq.

Ethnic cleansing has taken place through bomb attacks, assassinations, rapes and kidnappings, Indyposted reported.

The report adds that Iraqi Christians who have fled are oftentimes denied asylum in other countries.

Many are living underground in Sweden.   According to AINA, Iraqi Assyrians in Sweden are arrested, put in a plane, then flown back to Baghdad.

According to Indypost, instability for Iraq’s Christians has been an outgrowth of the war in Iraq.

The London Telegraphnoted that the US Commission on International Religious Freedom has branded Iraq’s religious persecution “of particular concern” and called on the Obama administration to intervene before the ancient religious communities are exterminated.

So far their appeal has not moved Hillary Clinton according to the London Telegraph, adding that “In these paranoid times, to defend Iraqi Christians from their Muslim fellow-citizens could be misinterpreted as an attack on Islam.”

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Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia—the world’s largest Christian university–announced recently that they have formed a committee to investigate the background of their seminary president Ergun Caner, the Washington Post reported.

Liberty University is investigating its seminary president, Ergun Caner over allegations that he's not the ex-Muslim he passed himself off to be.

The investigating committee will be headed by Liberty university administrator Ron Godwin.

Findings will be released by June 30.  Ergun Caner distinguished himself as a Muslim expert and is a popular speaker in the university lecture circuit.

Since he became president, he has tripled enrolment in the school that was owned by the late Jerry Falwell, Sr., according to Christianity Today (CT).

The CT said that among the claims that Caner made which have been brought to question are:

• That he grew up in Turkey (when he actually grew up in Ohio).
• That he was raised in a devout Sunni Muslim home (rather than a nominal one).
• That he had been involved in Islamic jihad.
• That he has debated dozens of Muslims about the Islamic faith.  (There is no video or audio evidence).

Caner’s reputation came to task when Mohammed Khan, a 22 year old London based Muslim, posted 17 of Caner’s speeches on YouTube.  Khan interjected portions of the speeches with his own commentary.  Among others, Khan said that several times when Caner claimed to be reciting the Shehada, (part of the Islamic creed), he was actually quoting a prayer from the Qur’an, which Khan said is very different.  Khan disputed Caner’s claim to be an Islamic expert.

This set off a rash of bloggers who commented on the issue.  Christianity Today quoted several bloggers including the following:
Debbie Kaufman, an Enid, Oklahoma Southern Baptist laywoman, who said, “This matters because we are to win people to Christ.”
Gene Clyatt, a Southern Baptist pastor in Superior, Montana, questioned Caner’s claim that he was trained as a jihadist until the age of 15.  In Ergun’s book, Unveiling Islam which he co-wrote with his brother Emir, he said that his parents married in Sweden and the family moved to Ohio when he was a young boy.

In the book the brothers said they recited daily prayers, visited the mosque weekly, and read the Qur’an and Hadith regularly.  They said they were raised to be devout, serious Muslims.

James R. White, director of the Phoenix-based Alpha & Omega Ministries, said “The president of a large theological seminary has created a myth concerning his background that is incredibly self-contradictory.”  White teaches Islam at golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary.

Sympathy

Some bloggers however expressed sympathy for Caner.

Hussein Wario, also a former Sunni Muslim who converted to Christianity, noted that while Caner had co-authored 17 books, it is only now that he is being criticized because of Khan’s videos.

Wario also said in his blog, Cracks in the Crescent, “I am a Reformed Christian and I am utterly ashamed of Dr. White. In my opinion, he is a disgrace to the Reformed faith—sola scriptura—because of his meddling in this matter and his disregard of the scripture. He is tacitly helping Muslims with their war against Muslim converts to Christianity.”

Roy J. Oksnevad, director of Muslim Ministries at Wheaton College said that the American church tends to pressure ex-Muslims to talk very negatively about their former faith.

Repent

Tom Chantry, on the Christ Reformed Baptist Church blog, suggested repentance on the part of Caner and Liberty University.  Chantry said in his blog that while it is difficult to make restitution in cases of deceit, it can be done, and that Caner can apologize and seek forgiveness.

However Liberty University must do the same, Chantry said, noting that the institution had benefitted from the celebrity culture of Evangelical Christianity and if they had instead put their focus on the Word of God, this may have been prevented.

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Even as anti-gay crusader George Rekers admits he traveled to London and Madrid for 10 days with a gay escort named Jo-Vanni Roman, Rekers denied having sex with the 20-year-old.  Rekers also denied being gay.

The Miami New Times reported that Rekers found Roman on the gay escorting site RentBoy.com.

Roman was paid $75 a day, plus travel expenses.  Part of his job was to give Rekers daily sexual body massages.

However Rekers, a Baptist minister and proponent of gay-to-straight conversion therapy, said on his blog that he had recently had surgery and required someone to help him carry his luggage.

After interviewing several people Rekers claimed he hired Roman, and only learned of Roman’s profession halfway through their trip.

According to the Miami Herald, Roman said Rekers hired him through Rentboy.com, a gay-sex website.  Roman described Rekers as a “very kind family-values man.”

He told Miami New Times about the nude massages but said “Rekers never asked for full-on sex and expressed no interest in attaining orgasm.”  On Anderson Cooper’s AC360 television program Roman said that Rekers had asked him not to talk about the massages.

Rekers was a co-founder in 1983, along with James Dobson, of the Family Research Council (FRC).

He is also a board member of NARTH, a group that believes homosexual desires can be “cured” with therapy.  He authored the book, “Growing Up Straight: What Families Should Know About Homosexuality.”

FRC president Tony Perkins said in a statement that, “FRC has had no contact with Dr. Rekers or knowledge of his activities in over a decade.”

The statement added, “…while it’s extremely disappointing when any Christian leader engages in the very activities that they “preach” against, it’s not surprising. The Scriptures clearly teach the fallen nature of all people. We each have a choice to act upon that nature or accept the forgiveness offered by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.”

NARTH, on their website said, “We are always saddened when this type of controversy impacts the lives of individuals. ..At this difficult time for the families and individuals involved, we extend our sympathies. We also wish to reiterate our traditional position that these personal controversies do not change the scientific data…NARTH continues to support scientific research, and to value client autonomy, client self-determination and client diversity.

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Mandy Smith, the former child-lover and later wife of the Rolling Stone’s bassist Bill Wyman, said recently that the age of consent in Britain should be raised to 18.

Smith said at the currently legal age of consent, which is 16, girls are still emotionally vulnerable, and that even at age 18 some girls are still not ready for sex.  She adds, “You can never get that part of your life, your childhood, back.”

Bill Wyman and his Rhythm Kings Middelburg 27-01-2009/Credit: Jacco Barth

Parliament first established the age of consent in the UK at 13 years in 1875 in response to concerns that young girls were being exploited for prostitution.

The age of consent was amended to 16 years in 1885 under the Criminal Amendment Act because girls as young as 12 were still being sold in the sex trade.

Christian campaigner Josephine Butler, who fought to protect girls and prostitutes from exploitation, was primarily responsible for the changed law.

Two years ago Parliament passed a bill requiring Northern Ireland to lower its age of consent from 17 years to 16 years.  This caused a furor with Northern Ireland’s Legislative Assembly (NLA).

Some NLA warned this would only encourage sexual predators.  Belfast’s Rape Crisis Centre also objected to the change, saying the new law would make it more difficult for them to protect vulnerable girls.

Wild Child

In the 1980s Smith was deemed by media as London’s Wild Child.  She first dated Wyman when she was 13, and publicly admitted they had sex when she was 14 and Wyman was 48.

When Smith reached 16, the age of consent, their relationship became public and their marriage when she was 18 was depicted as a fairy tale wedding.  Two years later they divorced.

Today Smith is 39, single, celibate, and living out a revived Catholic faith.  She mentors young girls and is involved in charitable work.  She laments a childhood that she “could never get back.”

Smith says, “Sometimes, I drive through the city on a Saturday night and see young girls wearing hardly any clothes on their way to a nightclub, while others are being sick on the pavement from binge-drinking. They take their values from some rubbish TV show or wannabe celebrities.”  Smith’s father was absent since she was three, and she met Wyman in a club at a time when her mother was perennially ill.

Today Wyman is remarried with young children. In occasional interviews he refers to his “love affair” with Smith when she was 14 as a “midlife crisis.”

Writer Victoria Coren of The Observer wrote, “It’s not OK for a 48-year-old man to sleep with a 14-year-old, whoever he is. It’s not “a love affair.”

Smith says teenage girls today are caught up in a highly sexualized culture and its expectations.

“The girls I talk to are under pressure to be a certain way,” said Smith. “They think they should be having sex, living a certain life.”

Smith rediscovered her faith in 2005 and says “God is the only man in my life now.  The great thing about the Church is that you can go back. It’s never too late,” she said.

Sources:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1266664/Mandy-Smith-I-DID-sleep-Bill-Wyman-I-14–man-life-God.html#ixzz0lemZCzQJ

http://christiantelegraph.com/issue9556.html

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/apr/10042004.html

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The controversial documentary on the life of Larry Norman, the “Father of Christian Rock,” will be screened on Tuesday, 6:30 pm at the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville.

After the screening of “Fallen Angel: the Outlaw Larry Norman,” director David Di Sabatino and Randy Stonehill, a longtime friend of Norman, will answer questions from the audience.

Controversial documentary on Larry Norman, ‘father of Christian rock’ to be shown after years of legal wrangling

“Fallen Angel: the Outlaw Larry Norman,” will be shown after a court judgment favoring Di Sabatino was made recently.  Norman’s family tried to block the film claiming violations of the copyright law and denying some allegations that were made in the film.

“Fallen Angel: the Outlaw Larry Norman” pays tribute to Norman’s musical genius, but also tackles his dark side, citing Norman’s relationship with Stonehill’s estranged wife, allegations of cheating his business partners out of royalties, and fathering a child out of wedlock with another woman.

Norman was a San Francisco hippie who wrote songs about Jesus, sex, drugs, war and the end times.  His music made him a hero of the 1970s Jesus freaks and his albums such as Upon This Rock, Only Visiting This Planet and So Long Ago the Garden became Christian rock classics.

From 1966 to 1968 Norman performed in concerts with The Doors, The Who, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix, among others.  His band People! scored a Billboard hit in 1968 with a cover of The Zombies’ song “I Love You.”  However, Norman left the band the day People!’s debut album was released.

His 1972 release, Only Visiting This Planet, is considered one of the best albums in Christian rock, and his music influenced that of U2, John Mellencamp, and the Pixies.

Time Magazine called Norman “the most significant artist in his field.” Over 300 cover versions of his songs have been recorded by artists such as Petula Clark, Sammy Davis, Jr., Frank Black, and Cliff Richard.  His songs have also been recorded by contemporary Christian artists like DC Talk, Rebecca St. James, and Audio Adrenaline.

Norman performed for The White House twice, and also performed in the Hollywood Bowl, the Sydney Opera House, the Palladium and London’s prestigious Royal Albert Hall, which he sold out six times. In the last 40 years Norman has released nearly 100 solo albums.

Of “Fallen Angel: The Outlaw Larry Norman,” Stonehill said he believed the documentary has a redemptive message and celebrates Norman’s brilliance as a musician.   Of his stormy friendship with Norman he adds, “You see us (in the film) on our best days as friends and collaborators, and on our worse days.  It’s a picture of God’s faithfulness.”

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