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Weekly News In Review

March 12 - 19, 2006

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The following articles were posted at www.understandthetimes.org this past week:

Midwest Tornadoes Kill at Least 10
Raging Texas wildfires blamed for seven deaths
A False Messiah in Miami
Vatican accused of helping radicals by backing Islamic hour in schools
U.S. military plans to make insect cyborgs
Implant ID chips called big advance, Big Brother
Ready or Not, Bird Flu Is Coming to America
Canadian Officials Warn of Global Warming
Could reported miracle bring beatification a step closer for John Paul II?
Pope and President Mubarak meet to discuss prospects for peace in Iraq, Iran
Rabbi's Visit to Mosque Hailed by Cardinal
Filmmaker wants TM in every school
Gay Rights Group Targets Christian Colleges
Tunnels Used by Ancient Jews Discovered
Darwin smacked in new U.S. poll: Whopping 69 percent of Americans want alternate theories in classroom
Water restrictions imposed on London as drought fears worsen
War-ravaged Somalia in conflict with severe drought
Deadly Bird Flu Expands in Africa, Europe
Pope's Address to Greek Orthodox Priests and Seminarians
Twisted double-helix nebula found in Milky Way
US Catholic Bishops: Take a Mulligan on St. Patrick's Day
Pope Urges Cooperation Among Christians, Jews, Muslims
Respectful Engagement With Islam Urged: U.S. Bishop Calls for More Protection of Religious Freedom
Satellites Will See More, Faster
Many Hispanics Are Finding Faith in Islam
'Best Life' redux: Osteen's megadeal is one more layer of religious crossover
DNA Tests Shake Book of Mormon's Foundations

This Weeks Commentary By Roger Oakland
Certain Men Crept In

Article: Signs of the Last Times

March 13, 2006 - Midwest Tornadoes Kill at Least 10
CHICAGO - More than 100 tornadoes ripped through parts of the Midwest over the weekend, churning a path of destruction and death through the region.

At least four people were killed in hard-hit Missouri and the region's death toll since late Saturday was about 10, according to the Associated Press. More than $6 million of damage was reported at the University of Kansas campus in Lawrence, which was forced to close. "This is the worst we've had in years," said Karen Eagleson, director for the emergency management team for Johnson County in Missouri.

..."I hope this isn't a precursor for what's to come," she said. "I hope we're done with it. But this is just the beginning of our season."

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Article: Signs of the Last Times

March 13, 2006 - Raging Texas wildfires blamed for seven deaths

MASSIVE wildfires raced across the Texas Panhandle and South Plains on Monday, burning more than half a million acres, leaving at least seven people dead and injuring at least seven more.

Four of the victims were killed in a chain-reaction crash on Interstate 40 east of Groom as smoke obscured the road. Three others died in fires near Borger, northeast of Amarillo.

"This is probably one of the biggest fire days in Texas history," said Warren Bielenberg, a spokesman for the Texas Forest Service.
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Article: Cults

February 21, 2006 - A False Messiah in Miami
Puerto Rican preacher José Luis De Jesús Miranda says a wondrous thing happened to him in 1976 when he was living in Massachusetts. He claims that two heavenly beings took him to a marble hall where an apparition merged with his body and began to speak inside of him. De Jesus believes that he and Jesus Christ became one and the same in that instant.

"Ever since that day, I can't learn from anybody-and I mean no one," De Jesús recently told Miami New Times, a weekly South Florida newspaper.

All his followers call him Daddy. Many of them wear T-shirts with De Jesús' face and a bold slogan, "GOD HAS COME." Their cars are adorned with license plates that say: "Creciendo en Gracia: The Government of the Kingdom of God." De Jesus began calling himself El Otro (The Other) in 1999, and then in 2004 he announced that he is Jesus Christ.

His doctrines are bizarre. He tells his followers they can live any way they want to because sin doesn't exist and the devil is dead. He also teaches that Christian churches are led by "ministers of Satan," and he encourages members of his organization to stage protests
at church services and Christian events. Creciendo en Gracia members are encouraged to scream at people and carry placards with messages such as "THE DEVIL WAS DESTROYED."

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Article: Roman Catholic Church and the Last Days

March 14, 2006 - Vatican accused of helping radicals by backing Islamic hour in schools

The Vatican has disconcerted Italian politicians - and some of the Roman Catholic church's most senior prelates - by endorsing a proposal by radical Muslims for a weekly "Islamic hour" in schools with a strong Muslim presence.

"If in a school there are 100 Muslim children, I don't see why their religion shouldn't be taught," said Cardinal Renato Martino, a minister in the Vatican's government, the Roman Curia.

The speaker of the Italian senate, Marcello Pera, who has launched a movement for the defence of Europe's Christian values, said the suggestion was "the diametric opposite of any kind of attempt at integration". In a note posted on the internet, he said it "tended, on the contrary, to reinforce the idea of an autonomous Muslim community inside the Italian state".

Several commentators reacted by calling for an equal degree of freedom for Christians in Muslim countries. The archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, a candidate for the papacy last year, said religious freedom was "the greatest of all liberties". The call for an Islamic hour was among the first products of a new Islamic Council, a consultative body set up last year to improve relations with Italy's Muslim inhabitants who now account for almost 2% of the population.
 
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Article: Wars and Rumors of Wars

March 12, 2006 - U.S. military plans to make insect cyborgs
WASHINGTON, March 12 (UPI) -- Facing problems in its efforts to train insects or build robots that can mimic their flying abilities, the U.S. military now wants to develop "insect cyborgs" that can go where its soldiers cannot.

The Pentagon is seeking applications from researchers to help them develop technology that can be implanted into living insects to control their movement and transmit video or other sensory data back to their handlers.

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Article: One World Government

March 12, 2006 - Implant ID chips called big advance, Big Brother

Doctors implanted a radio ID tag under Sean Darks' skin that allows the executive to enter restricted areas of his Ohio security company.

Jack Schmidig, the police chief in Bergen County, N.J., has a similar chip that doctors can use to find his medical records in an emergency.

And in a somewhat renegade use of the technology, Washington state entrepreneur Amal Graafstra unlocks his home and car and logs on to his computer using a chip he bought online and had implanted near his thumb.

All three say putting radio-frequency identification chips under the skin can improve people's lives. An implant is like having a set of keys, or an ID card, that can't be lost, they say. Graafstra jokes that he could end up naked in the alley outside his house and still get inside using the electronic key embedded in his hand.
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Article: Signs of the Last Times

March 13, 2006 - Ready or Not, Bird Flu Is Coming to America
In a remarkable speech over the weekend, Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt recommended that Americans start storing canned tuna and powdered milk under their beds as the prospect of a deadly bird flu outbreak approaches the United States.

Ready or not, here it comes.

It is being spread much faster than first predicted from one wild flock of birds to another, an airborne delivery system that no government can stop.

"There's no way you can protect the United States by building a big cage around it and preventing wild birds from flying in and out," U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Michael Johanns said.

U.S. spy satellites are tracking the infected flocks, which started in Asia and are now heading north to Siberia and Alaska, where they will soon mingle with flocks from the North American flyways.

"What we're watching in real time is evolution," said Laurie Garrett, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. "And it's a biological process, and it is, by definition, unpredictable."

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Article: Signs of the Last Times

March 13, 2006 - Canadian Officials Warn of Global Warming

Canada is experiencing its warmest winter in recorded history and the federal agency Environment Canada said Monday it may be another sign of global warming.

Between December and February, the country was 3.9 degrees Celsius above normal _ the warmest winter season since temperatures were first recorded in 1948.

Climatogist Bob Whitewood said it smashed the previous record set in 1987 by 0.9 degrees Celsius, and was the kind of season that comes along once every 100 years.

It was especially balmy in Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, where temperatures were 6 to 8 degrees Celsius above normal.
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Article: Roman Catholic Church and the Last Days

March 14, 2006 - Could reported miracle bring beatification a step closer for John Paul II?
Rome, Mar. 14, 2006 (CNA) - The Vatican will begin an official inquiry this week into what could be the first miracle needed for the beatification of Pope John Paul II, reported NewsMax.com. Exactly two months after the Polish pontiff's death, a young French nun was healed from Parkinson's after her community of sisters had prayed for his intercession.

 

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Article: Ecumenical Movement - Misc.

March 14, 2006 - Pope and President Mubarak meet to discuss prospects for peace in Iraq, Iran

Vatican City, Mar. 14, 2006 (CNA) - On Monday evening, Pope Benedict XVI met with Mohammed Hosni Mubarak, president of the Arab Republic of Egypt, with whom he discussed prospects for lasting peace in the violence-wracked Middle East.

Holy See Press Office director Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a statement that "The cordial discussions, which lasted for around half an hour, began with an acknowledgement of the good relations between the Holy See and the Arab Republic of Egypt, and of the situation of inter-religious affairs in that country."

He added that "the meeting provided an opportunity to consider themes relative to the prospects for a stable peace in the Middle East," citing a "profound exchange of ideas" which transpired "regarding the situation in Iraq."

Likewise, he added that some attention was also given to "questions concerning the Islamic Republic of Iran."
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Article: Ecumenical Movement - Other Religions Uniting with Roman Catholics

March 14, 2006 - Rabbi's Visit to Mosque Hailed by Cardinal
ROME, MARCH 14, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The Holy See described a visit by the chief rabbi of Rome to the city's mosque as "a very important gesture to build peace together."

On Monday, Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni visited the mosque of the Italian capital.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said the symbolic act is important "given the very strong conflict that afflicts the world."
 
The cardinal said that "dialogue should not only take place between Christians and Jews but also between Jews and Muslims. It is very important to surmount this persistent conflict."

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Article: New Age

March 9, 2006 - Filmmaker wants TM in every school

WORLDNETDAILY - March 9, 2006 - A Hollywood filmmaker who practices a specific form of Transcendental Meditation is helping one leader of the movement in his quest to bring the activity to every school worldwide.

Promoted by filmmaker David Lynch, His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's global peace initiative also includes establishing "groups of peace-creating experts in every country," according to a press release from the director...

"The first goal is to get 10,000 students practicing Transcendental Meditation in the U.S. to create a wave of peace in America that will be a catalyst for peace in the world," Lynch told Hemispheres. "It will be a peace-meditating group like a factory that pumps peace around the world."
Lynch says he also wants to establish seven "Universities of Peace."
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Article: Perilous Times

March 3, 2006 - Gay Rights Group Targets Christian Colleges
For the next seven weeks, the group Soulforce will test the hospitality of Christian colleges. Some schools have decided withdraw the welcome mat for the national pro-gay activist group, while others are accommodating the protesters with housing and events.

Sixteen Christian colleges are preparing for the uninvited guests from what Soulforce is calling Equality Ride. The seven-week bus tour launching today will take 35 gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and straight 18- to 28-year-olds to colleges with behavior codes that Soulforce calls discriminatory.

The religious schools Soulforce is protesting specifically ban homosexual behavior along with other non-marital sexual activity.

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Article: Biblical Archaeology

March 14, 2006 - Tunnels Used by Ancient Jews Discovered

Underground chambers and tunnels used during a Jewish revolt against the Romans nearly 2,000 years ago have been uncovered in northern Israel, archaeologists said Monday.

The Jews laid in supplies and were preparing to hide from the Romans during their revolt in A.D. 66-70, the experts said. The pits, which are linked by short tunnels, would have served as a concealed subterranean home.

 
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Article: Creation/ Evolution - Debate

March 7, 2006 - Darwin smacked in new U.S. poll - Whopping 69 percent of Americans want alternate theories in classroom
A new poll shows 69 percent of Americans believe public school teachers should present both the evidence for and against Darwinian evolution.

The Zogby International survey indicated only 21 percent think biology teachers should teach only Darwin's theory of evolution and the scientific evidence that supports it.

A majority of Americans from every sub-group were at least twice as likely to prefer this approach to science education, the Zogby study showed.

 

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Article: Signs of the Last Times

March 13, 2006 - Water restrictions imposed on London as drought fears worsen

Britain's biggest water company said it was slapping water restrictions on the London area for the first time in 15 years amid some of the worst shortages in a century.

Some eight million people living in and around the British capital will be banned from using hosepipes, sprinklers and washing their cars from April 3 following a prolonged spell of below-average rainfall in the south east.

Jeremy Pelczer, chief executive of Thames Water, said: "We are reluctant to restrict the amount of water our customers use but the situation is serious.
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Article: Signs of the Last Times

March 13, 2006 - War-ravaged Somalia in conflict with severe drought
Already torn by perennial factional conflicts since plunging into political turmoil more than a decade ago, a severe drought currently ravaging parts of southern Somalia is threatening the lives of millions of war-bruised people.

Two seasons of failed rains have hit the mainly pastoralist communities here hard, and officials estimate that about 60 percent of cattle have died, while some people have been forced to drink their urine as the drought intensifies.

 

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Article: Signs of the Last Times

March 13, 2006 - Deadly Bird Flu Expands in Africa, Europe

Myanmar reported its first case of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, and there was a high risk poultry in Afghanistan were also infected, officials said Monday, a day after the virus gained new ground in Europe and Africa.

Lab tests confirmed the outbreak in northern Myanmar after 112 chickens died, said Laurence Gleeson, a senior official at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, citing a report from the Myanmar government.
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Article: Ecumenical Movement - Other Religions Uniting with Roman Catholics

March 15, 2006 - Pope's Address to Greek Orthodox Priests and Seminarians - "Love Cannot Fail to Be a Short Cut to Full Communion"

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 15, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Here is a text of the address Benedict XVI gave Feb. 27 to a group of priests and seminarians from the Theological College of the Apostoliki Diakonia of the Greek Orthodox Church.

...As I welcome you with joy and gratitude on the occasion of the initiative of this visit to Rome, I would like to recall an exhortation that St. Ignatius, the great bishop of Antioch, addressed to the Ephesians: "Take pains to meet more often to give thanks to God and to celebrate his praise. For if you meet frequently, the forces of evil will be overcome and his work of death will be destroyed by the harmony of your faith."

...In the past 40 years, however, many comforting signs full of hope have allowed us to glimpse a new dawn, that of the day on which we will fully understand that being rooted and founded in the love of Christ actually means finding a practical way to overcome our divisions through personal and community conversion, the practice of listening to each other and common prayer for our unity.

...The exchange of visits, scholarship and cooperation in the editorial field have proven to be an effective means of furthering dialogue and deepening charity, which is the perfection of life and -- as St. Ignatius also said -- together with the principle, faith, will be able to prevail over the discord of this world.

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Article: Creation / Evolution - Misc.

March 15, 2006 - Twisted double-helix nebula found in Milky Way

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cosmic nebulae usually look like blobs in space, but astronomers using the Spitzer Space Telescope reported on Wednesday they have found a nebula twisted like the double helix of DNA.

"Nobody has ever seen anything like that before in the cosmic realm," said Mark Morris of the University of California, Los Angeles. Most nebulae are "formless, amorphous conglomerations of dust and gas," Morris said in a statement, adding that this one "indicates a high degree of order."

The discovery of the twisted nebula, which stretches across 80 light-years at the center of the Milky Way, the galaxy that includes Earth, was reported in the current edition of the journal Nature.

"We see two intertwining strands wrapped around each other as in a DNA molecule," said Morris, lead author of the Nature article.

DNA, which forms the basic material in chromosomes, has a molecule that looks like a twisted ladder, known as a double helix.
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Article: Roman Catholic Church and the Last Days

March 16, 2006 - US Catholic Bishops: Take a Mulligan on St. Patrick's Day
Many U.S. Catholics will be allowed to partake in the St. Patrick's Day tradition of corned beef and cabbage Friday, in spite of the church's restrictions on eating meat on Fridays during the Lenten season.

But this year, St. Patrick's Day falls on a Friday, prompting almost half of the bishops in the United States to grant dispensations to allow their parishioners to eat corned beef. The dispensations allow members of the congregation to break the law of abstinence if they perform another act of penance.

Many dioceses suggest other forms of penance to make up for eating meat on Friday. Phoenix Bishop Thomas Olmsted, in granting dispensation, suggested that those who partake in corned beef on Friday try "fasting from a television show [or] visiting someone who is sick or in prison."

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Article: Ecumenical Movement - Other Religions Uniting with Roman Catholics

1March 16, 2006 - Pope Urges Cooperation Among Christians, Jews, Muslims - Meets Members of American Jewish Committee

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 16, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI appealed for cooperation among believers of the three main monotheist religions, when he met with members of the American Jewish Committee.
 
"Judaism, Christianity and Islam believe in the one God, Creator of heaven and earth," the Pope told his guests at an audience in the Vatican today.

"It follows, therefore, that all three monotheistic religions are called to cooperate with one another for the common good of humanity, serving the cause of justice and peace in the world," he added in his address delivered in English.

"This is especially important today when particular attention must be given to teaching respect for God, for religions and their symbols, and for holy sites and places of worship," the Holy Father said.

"Religious leaders have a responsibility to work for reconciliation through genuine dialogue and acts of human solidarity," he added...

...This celebration, the Pontiff said, "has increased our shared desire to know each other better and to develop a dialogue characterized by mutual respect and love."

...Benedict XVI concluded by hoping that the visit of the Jewish representatives to Rome "may confirm you in your endeavors to build bridges of understanding across all barriers."

...Among the American Jewish Committee's aims, according to its Web site, is "to strengthen the basic principles of pluralism around the world, as the best defense against anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry."
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Article: Ecumenical Movement - Misc.

March 16, 2006 - Respectful Engagement With Islam Urged - U.S. Bishop Calls for More Protection of Religious Freedom
WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 16, 2006 (Zenit.org).-

..."Constructive and respectful dialogue with Islam is imperative in today's world," said Bishop Thomas Wenski, chairman of the episcopate's Committee on International Policy.

"Rather than deploring a clash of cultures, we need to foster cultures of dialogue and respect as keys to justice and peace," said the Orlando, Florida, prelate.

...Some of the most significant challenges for religious freedom and forging constructive roles for religion in world affairs are developing relationships between Christians and Muslims, Bishop Wenski stated.

..."The violence in Afghanistan and Iraq, the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and several conflicts in Africa come close to being perceived, in overly simplistic terms, as just conflicts of East versus West, of all of Islam versus all of Christianity," he said.

..."But it is essential to recognize that these problems can be made worse by ignoring them or exacerbated by policies that reinforce the sense that Islam itself is under siege," the prelate said.

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Article: One World Government

March, 17, 2006 - Satellites Will See More, Faster

Critics of overhead imagery services like Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth generally fall into two categories: government agencies who say the services show too much, and users who lament they can't see more.

As the next generation of commercial imaging satellites moves closer to launch, the first camp may be out of luck.

Forthcoming features such as enhanced zoom capabilities, higher-resolution views and faster updates of stock imagery will reveal far more detail of Earth's surface than anything visible on a computer screen today. While satellite imagery won't be real-time, or capable of distinguishing individuals, it will be good enough to pinpoint ground-level details too blurry to identify using today's technology.

"We're just starting," said Matthew M. O'Connell, CEO of GeoEye (formerly Orbimage), which plans to launch a satellite in early 2007 that can show images of objects as small as 1.3 feet across. "At that resolution, we can literally count the manhole covers in Manhattan."
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Article: Islam

1March 11, 2006 - Many Hispanics Are Finding Faith in Islam - Some mosques have set up special Latino Muslim groups.
HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Last year, Gaby Gonzalez wore black nail polish and black eye shadow. She had a messy room, standoffs with mom and occasional drinks.

Today, the Honduran-born 20year-old is known as Sister Gaby.

She proudly wears her jade-green hijab, which forms a nearly perfect frame around her delicate features and large brown eyes. She prays several times a day and does not wear makeup, eat pork or even utter the phrase "happy hour" -- that is all haram, she said, or prohibited in Arabic.

"In my past, I focused on myself. I didn't think about other people, about my parents, just myself and my circle of friends," she said. "Now, every day I strive to be better, to do good, to help others. I stopped being selfish and arrogant."

Gonzalez, who majors in anthropology at Montclair State University, is one of thousands of Latinos who have converted to Islam. So many Latinos have thronged to Islam in recent years that many mosques, including some in North Jersey, have set up special Latino Muslim groups within their congregations. And many now offer simultaneous Spanish translations as part of their religious services.

 
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Article: Social Gospel

March 17, 2006 - 'Best Life' redux: Osteen's megadeal is one more layer of religious crossover

The pressure's on Joel Osteen. But as he tries to deliver on his potentially lucrative book deal with Simon & Schuster, he could get help from the Christian crossover into mainstream publishing.

Osteen, responding to questions in an e-mail, says he does not feel any pressure. His goal is the same as always: "Spreading the gospel to as many people as possible."

Simon & Schuster may think so. The New York publishing giant announced this week that it had signed Osteen for his next effort with its Free Press imprint. It has been reported the deal could be worth $10 million to $13 million.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that the deal would allow Osteen an advance of up to $2 million. In return, Osteen would get 50 percent of the publisher's profits on sales.
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Article: Cults

March 16, 2006 - DNA Tests Shake Book of Mormon's Foundations
From the time he was a child in Peru, the Mormon Church instilled in Jose Loayza the conviction that he and millions of other Native Americans were descended from a lost tribe of Israel that reached the New World more than 2,000 years ago.

"We were taught all the blessings of that Hebrew lineage belonged to us and that we were special people," said Loayza, now a Salt Lake City attorney. "It not only made me feel special, but it gave me a sense of transcendental identity, an identity with God."

A few years ago, Loayza said, his faith was shaken and his identity stripped away by DNA evidence showing that the ancestors of American natives came from Asia, not the Middle East.

"I've gone through stages," he said. "Absolutely denial. Utter amazement and surprise. Anger and bitterness."

For Mormons, the lack of discernible Hebrew blood in Native Americans is no minor collision between faith and science. It burrows into the historical foundations of the Book of Mormon, a 175-year-old transcription that the church regards as literal and without error.

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Commentary: Social Gospel

1March 19, 2006 - Certain Men Crept In

Jude was called by God to send a message to the church. It seems the simple gospel of Jesus Christ was being compromised. Apparently “certain men had crept in” and were the cause of great concern.

Jude’s wake up call to the church began by him making an emphatic statement. Note carefully what he said:

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, imagine if you were a member of a church that had received a letter from Jude. He was the half-brother of Jesus Christ. His message certainly must have carried some weight. His letter opened by saying that although he had intended to write and share about salvation that has been accomplished through the finished work of the cross, his mind was somehow changed. Instead, he felt it imperative to deal with a major problem that had developed.
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