Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Wal-Mart apologizes to Muslim woman

Tue Feb 19, 11:46 PM ET

RIVERDALE, Utah - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. apologized to a Muslim woman who said she was mocked because of her face veil.
"Please don't stick me up," a cashier told the shopper on Feb. 2, according to The Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Wal-Mart apologized Monday in a letter signed by Rolando Rodriquez, a vice president and regional general manager. It was released Tuesday by the council's Nevada chapter.
"I can assure you that the associate in question was disciplined in accordance with our employment policies as a result of the situation," Rodriguez said without disclosing details.
Rodriguez said employees at the Riverdale store would undergo "sensitivity training," specifically in the Islamic faith and Muslim culture.
At Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., spokesman Phillip Keene confirmed the letter and declined further comment.
"We applaud Wal-Mart for taking appropriate action to resolve this incident," said Yasser Moten, executive director of the council's Nevada chapter. The group doesn't have an office in Utah.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Persecuting Christians in America?

Column: Randy Bright
February 14th, 2008

This week, after our pastor and two others returned from a mission trip to India, my Sunday School classmates talked about how the church was persecuted in other countries. I later spoke to one of those who had made the trip to India. Though they were not aware of it while they were in India, they learned after returning that two Christian pastors had been arrested in India for converting people to Christ and had been burned alive.
Afterwards, I got on the Internet to see if I could find any news of the execution, and while I could find none regarding that particular event, I did find many more reports of how the church, Christians and pastors are frequently targeted for persecution by Muslims, Hindus and others.
That persecution includes beatings, shootings, murder, burning of Christian’s homes and burning of churches. One report from Nigeria said that during a period of several weeks (it was unclear what year this occurred), 1,500 Christians had been killed and 173 church buildings had been destroyed.
A very recent report on the Door of Hope International website stated that in India the year 2007 had been the “most violent ever for Christians since independence.” (India gained its independence from the British in 1947.)
According to the report, records indicate that between 1950 and 1998 there had been 50 attacks on Christians. From 2001 to 2005, there was a total of about 200 attacks, and in 2006 there were 128. In 2007, the number of attacks jumped to more than 1,000.
In 2007, there was an outbreak of violence in the state of Orissa that led to the murder of at least four Christians and the burning of 730 homes and 95 churches. In addition to the four known murders, a number of other Christians were missing and presumed dead.
The attacks were carried out by Hindu extremists, and despite the fact that there are laws to protect Christians, authorities ignored it.
Just as Muslims seek to impose Islamic law over secular law, Hindu extremists seek to do a similar thing with their ideology. According to the same Door of Home International website, in another event in 2002, Hindus killed around 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, as pro-Hindu government officials did nothing to stop them.
Persecution against Christians is going on in many other countries around the world: Somalia, Turkey, Indonesia, China, Egypt, Libya, Cuba, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Eritrea, just to name a few.
The question is, when will this kind of persecution come to America, and are American Christians ready to endure the type of persecution that others around the world have been enduring for many years?
I recall that for at least twenty years before the 9/11 attack, experts had been saying that there was no question if there would be a terrorist attack on U.S. soil, only a question ofwhen. And when it happened, we were surprised!
We need only look at Europe as a model to see that Islam is taking over without ever firing a shot or burning a church. They have been able to do so because the Europeans’ lost their faith and turned their backs on God. Eventually all of Europe will fall under Islamic rule, and it is then that the bloodbath will begin to eliminate anyone who isn’t a Muslim. A similar thing may happen in India and other Asian countries as Hindus impose their rule on the people of those questions.
We know from research that the United States is slowly losing interest in its traditional faith and Judeo-Christian values. With the mantra of tolerance (for any religion but Christianity) that we hear from “enlightened” secular people, perhaps it won’t be too much longer before the homes and churches of Christians in the United States are burned while an unsympathetic government looks on.
Ridiculous? Perhaps. But then 50 years ago we thought that the idea that abortion would be legal was ridiculous. But over 50 million unborn children have been murdered under the protection of the government. We never thought that prayer would be taken out of school, but 40 years later our schools have become a dangerous place for children, both culturally and physically. We never thought euthanasia would come, but in a few states it is either legal or will be soon. We thought terrorism would never come to America, but it did.
So why should we think that the idea that Christians would be persecuted in America is ridiculous? Something to think about while there is still time to do something about it.

©2008 Randy W. Bright
Randy W. Bright, AIA, NCARB, is an architect who specializes in church and church-related projects. You may contact him at 918-664-7957, rwbarch@aol.com or www.churcharchitect.net.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Your Cell Phone or Your Bible?

I wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our mobile phone?
*What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?
*What if we flipped through it several times a day?
*What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?
*What if we used it to receive messages from the text?
*What if we treated it like we couldn’t live without it?
*What if we gave it to kids as gifts?
*What if we used it when we traveled?
*What if we used it in case of emergency?
This is something to make you go “hmm…where is my Bible?” Oh, and one more thing. Unlike our mobile phone, we don’t have to worry about our Bible being disconnected. Makes you stop and think “where are my priorities? And… no dropped calls!

A Joke

If you' ve ever worked for a boss that reacts before thinking things throught, you will love this...!
A large company, feeling it was time for a shakeup, hired a new CEO. This new boos was determined to rid the company of all slackers. On a tour of the facilities, the CEO noticed a guy leaning on a wall. The room was full of workers and he wanted to let them know that he meant business. He walked up to the guy leaning against the wall and asked, "How much money do you make a week?'

A liitle suprised, the young fellow looked at him and replied, "I make $300 a week. Why?"

The CEO then handed the guy $1,200 in cash and screamed, "Here's four weeks' pay, now GET OUT and don't come back!"

Feeling pretty good about himself, the CEO looked around the room and asked, "Does any want to tell me what that goof- off did here?"

From across the room came a voice....


" Pizza delivery guy from Domino's"

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

What Doctors can do --

What Doctors can do --
Japanese doctor says, "Medicine in my country is so advanced that wecan take a kidney out of one man, put it in another, and have himout looking for work in six weeks.

"A German doctor says, "That is nothing. We can take a lungout of one person, put it in another, and have him outlooking for work in four weeks.

"A British doctor says, "In my country medicine is soadvanced that we can take half a heart out of one person,put it in another, and have both of them out looking forwork in two weeks.

"The American doctor, not to be outdone, interjected, "Youguys are way behind. We are about to take a woman with nobrains, put her in the White House, and then half thecountry will be out looking for work in one week