TBC NewsWatch

Bono And Eugene Peterson Team Up On Psalms

ReligionNews.com, 5/5/16, “Singer Bono and Author Eugene Peterson Team Up to Make Film about the Psalms” [Excerpts]: In a new video conversation with Christian scholar and poet Eugene Peterson, U2 frontman Bono said he finds “a lot of dishonesty” in Christian art.

The video—posted [April 26] on YouTube—launched Fuller Studio, a new website for Fuller Theological Seminary dedicated to providing resources for churches and individuals interested in spiritual formation.

In it, Bono says: “I would love if this conversation would inspire people who are writing these beautiful voices and writing these beautiful gospel songs—write a song about their bad marriage, write a song about how they’re [expletive] off at the government, because that’s what God wants from you. That truth—‘the way, the truth’—and that truthfulness—know the truth, ‘the truth will set you free’—will blow things apart.”

(http://goo.gl/thfV6O)

[TBC: Bono has his own idea of truth that is not biblical. Jesus proclaimed to those who came to Him, “If ye continue in my word, ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”]

Yes To Church Towers, Yes To Minarets

FrontPageMag.com, 4/13/16, “Archbishop of Cologne: ‘Whoever Says “Yes” to Church Towers Must Also Say “Yes” to Minarets’” [Excerpts]: The Cardinal Archbishop of Cologne, Rainer Maria Woelki, is alarmed. Not by jihad terrorism in Paris and Brussels, or by the Muslim migrants who committed mass rapes and sexual assaults in his city last New Year’s Eve, but by the growing opposition to the Islamization of Europe.

There’s just one problem: the Qur’an is specifically hostile to Christianity in a way that Christianity is not toward Islam.

Muslims must wage war against and subjugate Christians: “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden...nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, [even if they are] the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued” (Qur’an 9:29).

What’s more, the statement that “Islam is in itself a political ideology that is not compatible with the constitution” is one that many Muslim leaders would proudly affirm. Woelki, and the Catholic hierarchy in general, are aiding and abetting the destruction of the free world.

(http://goo.gl/uoaSrz)

Atheist Group Bullying Public Schools

ChristianToday.com, 5/5/16, “Atheist group accused of bullying public schools by opposing students’ trip to Ken Ham’s Creation Museum” [Excerpts]: An atheist organisation has been accused of bullying U.S. public schools by warning them that their students’ trip to evangelist Ken Ham’s Answers in Genesis Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky would be unconstitutional.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) emailed letters to [three public schools] to point out that the trips would violate the U.S. Constitution.

“Public schools may not advance or promote religion. Bringing students on a field trip to a religious venue is a blatant promotion of religion,” said FFRF Legal Fellow Madeline Ziegler in her letter to Nicholas Subashi, legal counsel for the Brookville Local Schools.

“It is unconstitutional for a public school to take students on a field trip to a religious venue such as the Creation Museum, a Christian museum which promotes the religious doctrine of creationism and lists its mission as ‘to point today’s culture back to the authority of Scripture and proclaim the gospel message,’” the letters read, according to the Christian News Network....FFRF said if the district is interested in planning an educational trip, it should be to secular museums....However, Ham said it’s not illegal for public schools to visit the museum.

“If public schools were bringing students here and their teachers were saying, ‘THIS interpretation is the only truth that you should personally accept,’ then that would be a violation of the Establishment Clause of the Constitution,” he said. “Public school officials should neither personally endorse nor diminish the museum’s view, but rather present our beliefs objectively...”

(http://goo.gl/11EZnc)