APOSTASY

1. APOSTASY BACKSLIDING http://david.scacc.org jesussaves911@hotmail.com

2. Roman Catholicism

3. Sex Scandal • For decades, Cornwall has been at the centre of lingering stories about a purported underground network of pedophiles that existed since the late 1950s and allegedly involved prominent members of Toronto’s Roman Catholic clergy. • Police laid 114 charges against 15 men in the 1990s after a sweeping investigation known as Project Truth, including a doctor, a lawyer and three priests. In the end, only five cases ever made it to court, resulting in four acquittals and one man pleading guilty.

4. Bishop backs youth 'peace corps' for international conflict zones • A Catholic Bishop from Belfast is backing a "peace corps" of young people to travel into conflict zones overseas. The suggestion is part of an apparently growing trend amongst churches to explore peacemaking possibilities, which has seen groups such as Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) enter hotspots around the world such as Iraq. - Ekklesia 13-9-06 • Trying to usher in peace without preaching the Gospel and discipling repented believers.

6. Anglicanism • Divided into: • Anglo-Catholics • Liberals • Conservative Evangelicals • Charismatics

7. ARCHBISHOP: STOP TEACHING CREATIONISM • The Guardian Unlimited reports: The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has stepped into the controversy between religious fundamentalists and scientists by saying that he does not believe that creationism - the Bible-based account of the origins of the world - should be taught in schools. (March 21-2006)

8. New row looms over US gay bishops • A US Episcopal Church diocese has nominated a gay priest as a candidate for bishop, risking deepening a row with the global Anglican denomination. The liberal diocese of Newark, New Jersey, named Canon Michael Barlowe as one of four candidates for the post. • A BBC correspondent says the move is a snub to the wider Anglican Church. – BBC News - Thursday, 29 June 2006, 11:43 GMT 12:43 UK

9. South African archbishop disavows anti-gay Anglican split move • Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane of Cape Town has distanced himself from the communiqué issued last week after a meeting of "Global South" Anglican leaders met in Kigali, Rwanda – and in particular from proposals for an ‘alternative’ anti-gay American Episcopal Church. • Instead the African leader makes an impassioned appeal for patience and faithfulness in handling differences on sexuality, echoing calls from Dr Rowan Williams, spiritual head of the conflict-riven 77-million strong Anglican Communion - 27 Sept 2006

10. Biblical command taken as shortcut • The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has also warned those who want to shortcut painful disagreements by removing themselves from the oversight of the new Presiding Bishop of the US Episcopal Church (the Rt Rev Katherine Jefferts Schori) that there are no easy options in working through current difficulties. – 18 Sept 2006

11. ID mistaken to be Bible teaching • ... a kind of category mistake, as if the Bible were a theory like other theories ... if creationism is presented as a stark alternative theory alongside other theories I think there's just been a jarring of categories ... My worry is creationism can end up reducing the doctrine of creation rather than enhancing it,he said. • The debate over creationism or its slightly more sophisticated offshoot, so-called intelligent design(ID) which argues that creation is so complex that an intelligent - religious - force must have directed it, has provoked divisions in Britain but nothing like the vehemence or politicization of the debate in the US. There, under pressure from the religious right, some states are considering giving ID equal prominence to Darwinism, the generally scientifically accepted account of the evolution of species. Most scientists believe that ID is little more than an attempt to smuggle fundamentalist Christianity into science teaching. • States from Ohio to California are considering placing ID it on the curriculum, with President George Bush telling reporters last August that oth sides ought to be properly taught ... so people can understand what the debate is about.?The archbishop's remarks place him firmly on the side of science?

12. Christians and Humanists in joint call on DfES to rule out ‘creationist’ teaching • London, UK -Sep 29, 2006 The UK Christian think tank Ekklesia and the British Humanist Association have today written to Education Minister Alan Johnson asking him to ensure that their guidelines are explicit in requiring teachers to maintain a wholly scientific perspective on the matter of the origin of species by evolution.

13. Christians and Humanists in joint call on DfES to rule out ‘creationist’ teaching • London, UK -Sep 29, 2006 But Ekklesia and the British Humanist Association point out that there is ‘no scientific basis’ to creationism and ID, as the landmark judgment in the Dover School Board case in the USA last year made clear, on the advice of expert witnesses. Declared Ekklesia co-director Simon Barrow: ‘Reputable scientists and reputable theologians are clear that the anti-evolutionary ideas propagated by groups like this (Truth in Science – a new organisation, established by fundamentalist Christians) are in no way comparable to scientific theories of origins. The government and its inspectorate should have no truck with superstition in the modern science classroom.’

14. Ruling against the Word of God • Presbyterian Court Rules Pastors Can Conduct Gay Marriages – 8March 2006

15. Homosexual president • Uniting Church votes against national ban | Gay ministers will not be banned from the Uniting Church after the triennial assembly voted to keep existing laws allowing congregations to appoint homosexual leaders (The Australian) • Former Victorian moderator Alister Macrae, a leading advocate for gay and lesbian Christians, will be the next president of the Uniting Church of Australia (The Age, Melbourne, Australia) - July 2006

16. The easier path of less resistance would be to continue in the valley of non-decision. But even that is a decision to not make the decision to ascend the hill of the Lord.

17. Bishop says world can learn from Gandhi on 9/11 anniversary • While the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is being remembered this week, an Indian Archbishop has suggested that the world can learn from Mahatma Gandhi in the face of terror. • The comments by Oswald Gracias came as Indian Catholics celebrated the centenary of Gandhi's 11 September 1906 launch of non-violent resistance against British rule in India. - Ekklesia [office@ekklesia.co.uk] 13 Sept 2006

18. Controversial new Bible cuts out difficult gospel passages • A new Bible translation is causing controversy after it cut out difficult parts surrounding economic justice, possessions and money. • The new bible version, released by the Western Bible Foundation in the Netherlands, has created a storm by trying to make the Christian gospel more palatable. – 19 Oct 2006

19. Liberalism is itself a religion – a godless one. - Ann Coulter • Thanks to the liberals who dominate the courts, the government bureaucracies, the schools and the media, liberalism is now the established religion in America.

20. Though liberalism rejects the idea of God and reviles people of faith, argues the WND columnist Coulter, it bears all the attributes of a religion itself. In "Godless," she throws open the doors of the Church of Liberalism, showing us: • its sacraments (abortion) • its holy writ (Roe v. Wade) • its martyrs (from Soviet spy Alger Hiss to cop-killer Mumia Abu Jamal) • its clergy (public school teachers) • its churches (government schools, where prayer is prohibited but condoms are free) • its doctrine of infallibility (as manifest in the "absolute moral authority" of spokesmen from Cindy Sheehan to Max Cleland) • and its cosmology (in which mankind is an inconsequential accident) • Then, of course, there's the liberal creation myth: Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

21. Researchers of the problem continue to come up with increasingly grave statistics that explain how serious the condition is. Among Christian adults: • 64% believe moral truth depends on the situation; • 60% believe male/female co-habitation outside of marriage is acceptable; • 55% believe a good person can earn his or her salvation; • 44% believe Jesus Christ committed sins while on earth. [1] • And consider the condition in our colleges and universities: • 67% of college professors approve of homosexuality; • 84% of professors approve of abortion; • 65% embrace socialist and communist ideals; [2] • 88% of students from "Christian" homes deny their faith before they graduate from college; • 91% of students from evangelical churches do not believe in absolute moral truth. [3] • [1] George Barna at barna.org • [2] March 30, 2005 Washington Post mentions survey by Robert Lichter and Stanley Rothman • [3] George Barna at barna.org