"They received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so." ~ Acts 17:11

Christian Internet News

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Click and ye shall be saved...

By: Chris McGillion

Copyright  © 2004. The Sydney Morning Herald

January 6, 2004

Does path to heaven commence on information superhighway?

More than 3rd of all online Americans use Web to access religious, spiritual data.

God works in mysterious ways, it is claimed, and one of them increasingly appears to be via the World Wide Web.

According to a major new survey on internet use in the United States, more than a third of all Americans who are connected to the web (in total 126 million people as of August 2003) have used it to access religious and spiritual information.

This compares with 40 per cent of American internet users who have searched the web for political information, and 66 per cent who have sought health and medical data.

But while the number of people using the web for these last two purposes increased 57 per cent and 59 per cent respectively between March 2000 and November 2002, what the researchers call "religion surfers" almost doubled in number over the same period, from 18 million to 35 million (or an increase of 94 per cent).

Moreover, there has been a significant increase in the daily use of the internet to access religious information. While the overall numbers remain low, they nevertheless did climb from 3 million in 2000 to 5 million in 2002, an increase of 66 per cent.

The survey was conducted by the Pew Research Centre of Washington DC and the report of its findings was released just before Christmas. It can be found, appropriately enough, on the centre's website (www.pewinternet.org).

It is tempting to dismiss this increased interest in religion as a one-off response to its abrupt intrusion into public affairs in the form of the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. But the September 11 bounce was accounted for in an earlier Pew Centre survey documented in a report entitled CyberFaith: How Americans Pursue Religion Online, which was released two years ago.

This survey found that religion surfers increased from 18 million to 28 million between March 2000 and September 2001. Post-September 11, more than 40 per cent of them had used the internet to send or receive prayer requests associated with that day's tragedies, 23 per cent had accessed information about Islam specifically, and 7 per cent had made online donations to relief charities.

What's important, however, is that not only had the number of religion surfers held since September 2001, but that it increased by 25 per cent during the next 15 months.

The 2002 survey also found that those people accessing web-based religious information were evenly distributed across educational and socio-economic groups (previous surveys had shown them to be concentrated on the lower rungs of each). Their age breakdown, however, had not changed: internet users in the 18- to 29-year-old bracket were the least interested in employing the web as a religious resource (24 per cent); those aged 30-49 years were the most interested (33 per cent).

The latest survey also showed that the more experience one had on the internet, the more likely one was to use it to search out religious material. Only 19 per cent of people who had been wired for a year or less used the internet as a source of information on religion. For those with six or more years of experience, the figure was closer to 40 per cent.

That suggests that the volume of religion-related traffic on the web will continue to grow. On the face of it, this should be a boon to the religious communities (the great majority of religion surfers tend to be the most active in their faith offline as well), but how well prepared are they to deal with the consequences?

Most churches have a well established web presence, for instance, but some have embraced the new technology much more readily than others.

It took until February 2002, for instance, for the Catholic Church's pontifical council for social communications to give its official blessing to the internet.

That month it released two long-awaited documents: Ethics and the Internet and The Church and the Internet. The president of the council, Archbishop John Foley, summarised the underlying message of both when he told the assembled press that the church recognised the internet as "an opportunity and a challenge, and not a threat".

While the opportunity has yet to be fully explored, the challenge is clear enough. The anarchic nature of the web makes it harder for religious authorities to control information, silence critics, or shield members of their faith from almost instant access to competing religious ideas and organisations.

Last, but not least, is the issue of autonomy. What people make of the religious information they access on the web untutored and unministered to, at least in the conventional sense, is anyone's guess. God may indeed work in mysterious ways.

Hummm...!  Do you think...?  :-)  Yep, God certainly does! CK

A shaky life for young without belief...

By: Chris McGillion

Copyright  © 2003. The Sydney Morning Herald

October 28, 2003

In 1967, the American sociologist Daniel Bell was commissioned by Life magazine to write a series of articles explaining the turbulence in US society, especially as it was then manifesting itself in the rebelliousness of youth. Bell's overall conclusion was that 1960s America had become the first society in history to rear its young in an environment that lacked fixed points of reference to guide them through life.

"For millennia," he wrote, "children were initiated into stable ways and ritualised routines, and maintained a basic familiarity with place and family. Today, not only is there a radical rupture with the past, but a child must necessarily be trained for an unknown future."

An important new study, the findings of which were released in the US last month, suggests that Bell was certainly half right: a society that fails to connect its young to solid personal and moral foundations is failing to provide them with much needed direction in life. But, according to the study, such a society is also acting in ways harmful to their essential biology.

Hardwired to Connect: The New Scientific Case for Authoritative Communities is the report of the Commission on Children at Risk - a group of 33 prominent research scientists, doctors and mental health and youth professionals jointly sponsored by Dartmouth Medical School, the Institute of American Values, and the YMCA.

The commission set out to establish why, amid increasing material wealth, American children and adolescents were registering rising rates of mental illness, emotional distress and anti-social behaviour.

For instance, 21 per cent of American children aged nine to 17 now have a diagnosable mental disorder or addiction; 8 per cent of high school students suffer from clinical depression and 20 per cent of students report having seriously considered suicide in the past year.

The study found convincing scientific evidence that the mechanisms by which we become and remain attached to others - and thus lead healthy lives - have a biological basis discernible in the structure of the brain. Children are "hardwired" to form close attachments to their mothers, fathers, and other relatives and, through all of these, to the broader community.

Part of this neural circuitry leads inexorably to a search for moral meaning, a propensity to seek answers to questions about ultimate meaning and purpose and an openness to the possibility of a transcendent reality.

According to the report, the ecology of childhood in the US has become "at best anaemic, in the sense of weak and inadequate to foster full human flourishing, and at worst toxic, inadvertently depressing health and engendering emotional distress and mental illness".

The reason is the steady decline of social institutions that foster connectedness and spiritual growth amid the rising tide of individualism and secular materialism.

One notable finding was the health benefits of what some scholars call "personal devotion", or a young person's sense of taking part in a "direct personal relationship with the Divine".

The report found, for example, that for adolescents, religiosity is significantly associated with a reduced likelihood of intentional and unintentional injury, that religious teenagers are less likely to become prone to substance abuse, less likely to become juvenile delinquents or adult criminals and more likely to have higher self-esteem and more positive attitudes about life.

The report also argues that mainstream therapies for addressing childhood and adolescent mental illnesses are insufficient because they focus on individual risk assessment and treatment and ignore the broader environmental conditions contributing to the growing number of sufferers.

In conclusion, the researchers insist that more and better service delivery is not the key to improving the mental and emotional lives of children.

Nothing short of major social change, they say, will do the trick.

That change requires the nurturing once again of what the researchers call "authoritative communities" - groups of people who are committed to each other's welfare and who are able to model what it means to be a good person and to lead a good life (families, community and civic organisations, churches, and so forth).

In the 1960s it was sex and drugs and rock 'n roll that were regarded as the pathologies of wayward youth. By the 1980s, American children as a group were reporting more anxiety than had children who were institutionalised as psychiatric patients in the 1950s. Twenty years on, youth suicide and indiscriminate violence of the Columbine High School variety had become a major problem.

That trend suggests that American culture - and by degrees those, like ours, that are influenced by it - is in the process of consuming itself. It is a worrying enough thought to warrant the recommendations of Hardwired to Connect to be given serious attention by policy makers and everyone concerned about the future of our youth.

Google bans Christian ad...

By: Ron Strom

Copyright  © 2004, WorldNetDaily.com

August 17, 2004

Google has banned a Christian organization's advertisements promoting its stance against homosexuality, saying the group promotes "hate."

Stand to Reason, a nonprofit apologetics organization, says its "AdWord" advertisement on Google recently was pulled down. Specific AdWord ads are listed in the right-hand margin of search results on the popular site when key words an advertiser submits match with those put in by a Net user. A company promoting hats, for example, could have their site displayed when a user searches for information about hats.

Melinda Penner, director of operations for Stand to Reason, says the organization placed four ads on Google. Three of the ads remain on the system, but one leading Net surfers to a Q&A about same-sex marriage was taken down after running for two or three weeks.

"Google's objections had to do with other articles on our website pertaining to homosexuality," Penner told WND. "They claimed that their specialist had deemed us a hate site and that their policies didn't allow people to have ads that discriminated against certain groups, which include sexual orientation."

Penner said she asked Google what specifically it thought was "hate speech."

"The things they cited were all moral judgments from our religious perspective about homosexuality, that it's wrong," she explained.

"The irony is that in one of the articles they cited, we have an admonition that one of our moral perspective is that we treat homosexuals respectfully and kindly."

The Stand to Reason website has a special page with articles on homosexuality issues.

Penner says she has asked Google for its definition of "hate," saying Stand to Reason's positions are not hateful based on dictionary definitions.

When it comes to "discrimination," she says, it is actually Google that is discriminating by disallowing Stand to Reason's ads.

An e-mail Penner received from "Kristie" at Google used the "H" word, saying, "Google AdWords policy never permits ads or keywords promoting hate, violence, or crimes toward any organization, person or group protected by law," including those distinguished by their "sexual orientation/gender identity."

Penner countered via e-mail: "Your suspension of our advertisement illegitimately excludes one side of the [same-sex marriage] debate. If you deem the issue itself off limits, then consistency would require you to suspend all searches of the issue. Instead, your search criteria return links to sites strongly advocating same-sex marriage. …"

Kristie responded by reiterating the company's verdict that the Stand to Reason website includes "unacceptable content." In the same e-mail, she said, "Google believes strongly in freedom of expression. We therefore offer broad access to content across the Web without censoring results. Please note that the decisions we make concerning advertising in no way affect the search results we deliver."

Penner noted that Google, which is in the midst of an IPO, or Initial Public Offering of stock, takes pride in its company motto: "Don't be evil."

"If that's your company motto then there must be some things that you don't want to do," she told WND, "and if your definition of 'hate' is calling something 'evil,' then aren't you a hate group?"

According to Penner, no anti-homosexuality ads currently are coming up in the right-hand ads; they are all pro-homosexual.

"I'm sure there must be some homosexual advocacy groups behind this," she said.

Penner says she contacted a religious legal group and was told because Google is a private organization, there is really no legal action that can be taken.

The other three Stand to Reason ads that are still running on Google have to do with evolution, Christian apologetics and abortion.

Though the organization's pro-life ad is still running on Google, another advertiser's pro-life ad was removed.

In June, Google took down pro-life T-shirt ads a clothing company, Run2316, had run for a time in 2003 without a problem, the firm's operations administrator, Christopher Clay, says.

In an e-mail to Clay, Google said, "At this time, Google policy does not permit the advertisement of websites that contain 'religion and abortion or contraceptive content.' As noted in our advertising terms and conditions, we reserve the right to exercise editorial discretion when it comes to the advertising we accept on our site."

Clay believes Google's IPO has caused the company to clamp down on advertising it finds distasteful. Google might begin trading its stocks as early as tomorrow on Nasdaq, according to news reports.

A spokesman from Google was reluctant to go on the record with WND either about the specific instances mentioned or the company's "hate speech" policy.

He explained that the company does not allow advertising from organizations that speak negatively of a so-called "protected group."

The spokesman would not talk about the pro-life issue or the reason one group's pro-life ad might be acceptable and another group's ad would not.

Google's online guidelines for AdWord advertisers say nothing about homosexuality or protected classes of people. It does have, however, include a prohibition against advertising for casinos.

So is Google becoming more aggressive combating "hate speech" to coordinate with its IPO? Since the company is in a "quiet period" in conjunction with the public offering, the spokesman could not address the issue.

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Ron Strom is a news editor for WorldNetDaily.com.

A Christian business eye for the queer guy...

By: Joe Johnson

Copyright  © 2004, Business Reform

October 27, 2004

In an article published last week on the Gay Financial Network website, "The Next Frontier: Gay Shareholder Activism", Shelley Alpern lays out a vision for how the GLBT community can have more of an influence in corporate and business culture. Her conclusion? Putting their mouths where their stock certificates are.

There's been a disturbing trend over the past few years of corporate policies bending under the weight of the homosexual community's demands. Companies like IBM, McDonalds, Johnson and Johnson, and Daimler Chrysler (and the list goes on) have taken steps to taper their benefit packages and policy structures to meet the supposed needs of their gay employees. Alpern, in this article, clamors for more of the same.

What most Christians seem to have forgotten—and what this article makes horribly apparent—is how integral business is to shaping not only the market itself, but also public morality in general. When businesses begin adopting policies that set a certain moral precedent, governmental policies soon follow. For example, New York City last spring implemented a policy that all organizations that contract with the city must offer benefits to unwed and gay partners of employees—a policy that followed closely behind (and, significantly, not before) corporate giants like IBM that took the same steps within their ranks.

Everything begins with business. Money has an amazing knack for changing minds. And it is high time that the Christian business community began using their investment dollars and stock options to stem the tide of dissident and immoral groups taking control of this country's moral canvas.

The first step, of course, is within your own business. Align your company's policies with Scripture and remain consistent. Hold to those principles and grow your wealth so that your dollars can support companies and organizations that are dedicated to God's ways.

The second step: Do business with other Christians and those partners that share your worldview. Form strategic alliances with businesses that seek to better society by putting God back into the marketplace.

Thirdly, either don't invest in companies that cater to immoral minorities, or invest heavily in these places and become very outspoken when it comes to the moral policies of those companies. Alpern's whole strategy revolves around that idea that shareholders should submit shareholder proposals to company boards in order to change the corporate moral climate. Christians should be doing the same thing—with more efficiency and at a higher volume.

Business matters. It's more than a question of dollars, cents, and a thriving economy. The morality of a country is directly related to what its business culture is promoting. It's time for Christians in business to take a page out of the gay community's book and begin to turn the tide back for the glory of God. 

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Editor's note: Joe Johnson is editor-in-chief of Business Reform Magazine, the leading Christian business magazine with over 100,000 readers. Each issue features practical advice on operating successfully in business while glorifying God.

The problem of wealth...

By: Marilyn Barnewall

Copyright  © 2004, Business Reform

October 26, 2004

If you do not like people who have money, chances are you do not have it. Jealousy and envy are nothing new to the human psyche.

There has been a trend in the United States since the 1960s. Affluent people feel guilty about having money.

Some people probably should feel guilty about having money. And, the power that goes with it. They did nothing to earn it. They were lucky eggs fertilized by affluent sperm -- or vice versa. This is jokingly referred to as "Gaining wealth the old fashioned way... through inheritance."

Stories about children who suffered because of the wealth of their parents -- poor little Gloria Vanderbilt, for example -- made most Americans cognizant that wealth does not equate to happiness.

Children of wealthy parents often have more difficulties to face in life than those of the non-wealthy. Because of money, they have more options. The more options you have in life, the more choices you must make. The more choices you must make, the greater your chance for error.

In today's drug culture, children of the wealthy who make bad choices end up in Amsterdam and Zurich and Sweden where socialist forms of government provide protected living areas in parks for drug addicts and clean needles to prevent the spread of AIDS.

These children of great opportunity and misdirected choices frequently receive from a wealthy parent the funds to maintain misbegotten lifestyles. It conveniently keeps offspring from the front doorstep of his or her family. This is certainly not a lifestyle to be envied or emulated.

When a person does not feel worthy of what he or she receives, the person does not feel deserving of the gift.

Years after winning large sums of money from state lotteries, winners who are asked about the positive impact of their windfalls do not have much to say that is good. They find money does not bring a life without problems, only a life with a different set of them.

People who are happy in spite of money realize it is more important to be self-fulfilled than self-gratified. To achieve fulfillment, people direct themselves to the outward; to achieve gratification, people look inward to personal wants and desires.

Earned wealth also seems to present problems, if one can believe the number of people who started successful businesses and ended up with a bundle of cash. They appear on talk show television to bemoan that "money has not brought me happiness."

To those souls who have no money and the benefits it buys -- like housing, clothing, and food -- such claims are not to be believed. "I'd rather have your problems than mine," says the person sleeping in the streets for lack of a job. Everyone, it seems, would rather have someone else's problems.

What is the problem with wealth? Why do so many people dislike those who have it while so aggressively pursuing it themselves? Can those who find affluence be happy until they realize the words "money" and "problem-free" are not synonymous?

Success, not money, is what brings happiness. Money is merely a byproduct of success. Most people think it happens the other way around -- that money brings success.

It is a rather natural mistake to see the apparent -- the social lifestyle that money brings -- as the objective. Rather we must work to see the subtle -- the building of character that occurs when challenges are faced and overcome __ as the thing that makes people both wealthy and happy.

We live in a country where wealth is a very important factor, yet we seem to understand little about the subject. Is wealth good for society? Or, is it bad?

There is no "good wealth" and "bad wealth". There are merely people who make fulfillment rather than money their objective. There are others who seek money for self-gratification. The former group appears to find more happiness than does the latter. At least it does if one looks at long-term, permanent rather than short-term, temporary successes who, overall, achieve long-term failure.

At the very least, fulfillment rather than gratification seekers appear to do less harm to society.

Whether people seeking self-gratification are Wall Street brokers who compromise their integrity to gain gratification by violating insider confidentiality, or a YUPPIE couple in suburbia who violate their responsibilities to children so they can buy a bigger car, or a politician who takes an illegal campaign contribution, the result is the same.

People who seek wealth for its own sake and who compromise their responsibilities to basic principles of integrity or family obligation or social responsibility in the process are doomed to be short-term successes and long-term failures.

Creating wealth, however, is a critical factor in maintaining a healthy American economy. As wealth is created, jobs are created. If someone doesn't start a successful company and realize resultant financial rewards in the process, jobs are not created. Thus, the American trend to worship the have-nots and trivialize the haves is a dangerous one.

There is nothing wrong with money. Sometimes the people who have it are as obnoxious as some people who don't have money. We are all human. Some of us are likeable, some of us are not.

The American people need to give the respect due those people who risk their personal assets to build a dream.

Especially since the success of that dream provides employment to so many people.

Don't get me wrong. I like poor people. I used to be one of them. But until they are willing to make compromises necessary to achieve success, no one can give it to them. Success is a process, not a position.

Needed compromises range from completing an education (rather than dropping out) to working long hours at jobs you sometimes don't like and certainly wouldn't seek as an entire career.

When you think about it, the system of "welfare" in the United States has really been to the "well fare" of no one.

When you think about it, very few poor and underprivileged people provide employment for others. When you think about it, the poor are not very well situated to lead anyone to a better life in America. Thus, perhaps they should not rank as high on the list of political favor as they do.

Ahh… but they do, as voters, have numbers.

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Marilyn Barnewall, in 1978, was the first female to be named vice president in charge of a major loan and deposit portfolio at Denver's largest bank. She started the nation's first private bank, resigned to start her own firm and consulted for banks of all sizes in America and other countries. In June 1992, Forbes dubbed Barnewall "the dean of American private banking." Author of several banking texts, she has written extensively for the American Banker, Bank Marketing Magazine, and was U.S. consulting editor for Private Banker International (Lafferty Publications, London/Dublin). Article originally appeared in the Grand Junction Free Press. Marilyn can be reached at marilynmacg@yahoo.com.

Editor's note: Business Reform Magazine provides real biblical answers for real business issues.

Christian company snubbed by University of Wisconsin...

By: Business  Reform

Copyright  © 2004, Business Reform

October 28, 2004

Applegate Insulation, located in Wisconsin, was recently dropped from the University of Wisconsin's annual list of environmentally friendly companies.  The Green List, as it is called, honors and supports companies and organizations that have taken steps to reduce waste and pollution with the health of the environment in mind.  But the reason that the company has been dropped has nothing to do with the environment.  It instead has everything to do with the fact that they are a Christian company.

In a series of e-mails from the UW offices said, "We will not be able to list your company on our listing of green building products because of the explicit religious principles on which Applegate is based."

The company, which is owned by Terry Applegate, is very outspoken about the faith on which the company is based, and has on its website a series of psalms at the bottom of each page. The mission statement on the site also speaks to the Christian purpose of the company---a fact that UW can't stomach, apparently.

The site states: "Applegate Insulation's mission is to honor God, as the world's premier cellulose insulation manufacturer, partnering with professionals, promoting the growth of their business by providing premium-quality cellulose insulation, individualized per...

Student sues district over policy on religious statements...

By: William Kates, Associated Press Writer

Copyright  © 2004, The Associated Press

October 28, 2004

LIVERPOOL, N.Y. -- A fourth-grader claims a school district violated her constitutional rights to free speech and equal protection by refusing to allow her to distribute "personal statement" fliers to other students because they carried a religious message.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court against the Liverpool Central School District by Nicole Martin and her daughter, Michaela Bloodgood, a fourth-grader at Nate Perry Elementary School.

"This is nothing less than viewpoint discrimination," said Mat Staver, an attorney and executive director of Liberty Counsel, an Orlando, Fla.-based conservative legal group, which is representing Bloodgood.

"The idea that people would think the district was endorsing Michaela's statements is simply absurd. Schools do not endorse everything they allow students to distribute," Staver said.

Staver said religious speech is constitutionally protected even in the public schools. He said school officials had no right to single out Michaela's religious literature for disfavored treatment.

"She has every right to express her religious views in this way, and we intend to fight to protect her rights," Staver said.

Liverpool Superintendent Jan Matousek said she had not been informed of the lawsuit and therefore could not comment.

According to the 16-page lawsuit, beginning when her daughter was in third-grade, Martin three times tried to obtain permission from school district officials so that Michaela could pass out a homemade "personal statement" flier to other students, but was denied each time. The last time was in September.

The flier, about the size of a greeting card, starts out: "Hi! My name is Michaela and I would like to tell you about my life and how Jesus Christ gave me a new one." The flier then mentions five ways in which Jesus had come into her life.

Staver said Michaela never intended to distribute her flier during class time and that Martin's requests to school officials indicated that her daughter would hand them out only during "non-instructional time," such as on the bus before school, lunch, recess and after school. Or, as the lawsuit put it, a time when "students are free to talk to each other about any topic, including religion, draw pictures, pass notes, and do school work."

Additionally, the lawsuit noted that Michaela has received literature from other students at school, including literature concerning a YMCA basketball camp, Syracuse Children's Theater promotion of the show "Dragon Slayers" and the Camp Fire USA's summer camps.

According to the lawsuit, Liverpool officials reviewed the request but said Michaela could not distribute it because her flier was religious and that there was "a substantial probability" that other parents and students might misunderstand and presume that the district was "endorsing" the religious statements in the flier.

On the Web:  Liberty Counsel: www.lc.org

Spirited away: End is nigh for 'religion', says research...

Christianity said to be eclipsed in UK by 'spirituality' in 30 years

By: Carol Midgley

Copyright  © 2004, Times Newspapers Ltd.

November 4, 2004

IN THE beginning there was the Church. And people liked to dress up in their best clothes and go there on Sundays and they praised the Lord and it was good. But it came to pass that people grew tired of the Church and they stopped going, and began to be uplifted by new things such as yoga and t'ai chi instead. And, lo, a spiritual revolution was born.

It is unlikely that you, the average punter going to your aromatherapy or meditation group this evening, imagine that you are revolutionising the sacred landscape of Britain. But, little by little, you are.

Study after study appears to prove that people are increasingly losing faith in the Church and the Bible and turning instead to mysticism in guises ranging from astrology to reiki and holistic healing. The Government, significantly, said this week that older people should be offered t'ai chi classes on the NHS to promote their physical and mental wellbeing.

More and more people describe themselves as "spiritual", fewer as "religious" and, as they do so, they are turning away from the Christian Church, with its rules and "self last" philosophy, and looking inwards for the meaning of life.

Twice as many people believe in a "spirit force" within than they do an Almighty God without, while a recent survey hailed a revival of the Age of Aquarius after finding that two thirds of 18 to 24-year-olds had more belief in their horoscopes than in the Bible.

If you don't believe it, take a walk around Kendal, Cumbria, population 28,000. Since the millennium dawned, the ultra-traditional home of the mint-cake has been the subject of a spiritual experiment. Linda Woodhead and Professor Paul Heelas, both specialists in religion at Lancaster University, chose the town to measure the growth of the "holistic milieu" and the decline of Christian congregational worship.

The conclusion of their new book, The Spiritual Revolution, is dramatic: Christianity will be eclipsed by spirituality in this country within the next 20 to 30 years. Many people believe that this "New Romantics" movement will prove more significant than the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. This is gloomy stuff for the traditional churchgoer. Only 7.9 per cent of the population now attends church, down from 11 per cent 20 years ago. Although holistic practices are still comparatively small (less than 2 per cent of the population nationally participate) it is the phenomenal rate of growth not just among the young but also the middle-aged and much older that is threatening to overshadow traditional churchgoing.

Kendal mirrors the national statistics with eerie precision: 2,207 people in the town — 7.9 per cent of the population — attend church on Sunday while 600 — 1.6 per cent of the population of the town and environs — take part in some kind of holistic activity.

During the 1990s, when the town's population grew by 11.4 per cent, participation in the "new spirituality" grew by 300 per cent. Woodhead and Heelas contend that "mini revolutions" have already taken place, and point out that in Kendal the holistic milieu now outnumbers every single major denomination apart from Anglican. (There are 531 Roman Catholics, 285 Methodists and 160 Jehovah's Witnesses.)

"If the holistic milieu continues to grow at the same linear rate that it has since 1970 and if the congregational domain continues to decline at the same rate that it has during the same period, then the spiritual revolution would take place during the third decade of the third millennium," they write with prophetic zeal.

If you were searching for a symbol of this revolution, you need look no further than the United Reformed Church in Dent. This building was once the nucleus of the Christian community of Dent, a quintessentially English village a few miles outside Kendal. But over the years apathy crept in and the congregation declined until it was down to one. To raise money, the church hired out its old schoolroom as a spiritual meditation centre. Local interest in meditation ballooned. When the church was forced to sell the building the meditation group bought it and refurbished it. Now it is flourishing where the old church failed. One of its trustees is a Church of England warden.

So what does meditation have that conventional worship does not? Neutrality, suggests Elizabeth Forder, who runs the centre. "We are not affiliated to any religion and there is no belief system imposed on anybody here," she says. "I was brought up a Christian, but it held no real meaning for me. I would class myself as a universalist, believing that all religions offer the same end. At its simplest, meditation is giving the body and mind a very deep level of rest, freeing us to be ourselves." She mentions an 87-year-old man who used to belong to the congregation and now meditates regularly.

If disaffected churchgoers are seeking neutrality, they are also in flight from judgment. "I don't want to be preached at any more", "I'm sick of being made to feel guilty" or "I don't need to be told how to live my life," people will say when asked why they stopped attending church. And when they speak of their spiritual malaise, they use the language of the therapist's couch. One Kendal woman in her forties summarised her spiritual shift thus: "A one-hour service on a Sunday? It's not really enough time to address your self-esteem issues, is it? I didn't find any help in the churches. I found it in a 12-step programme. That was the start of my personal journey."

Critics will say that this is merely the end product of a prosperous me-me-me society that has encouraged navel-gazing and pampering of the self via routes ranging from personal therapy to facial massage. This is too simplistic, insist Heelas and Woodhead. "It is standard to lash this kind of thing and cite it as evidence of the narcissistic self," says Woodhead. "But I would say it is inaccurate to say that people are doing this just for pleasure. Trying to become yourself but better through your relationships with others is a very noble activity."

Those who think they can find the god within are swiftly put right. "To try to find the solution in oneself is bound to fail because human nature is fallen," says Maiden. "Christianity isn't about us trying to make ourselves better people. It is about God trying to do something for us 2,000 years ago which redeemed people."

Perhaps he is right, but some of those losing their religion were brought up with just the kind of dogmatic beliefs that Maiden is describing. Take Julie Wise, 44 and a mother of two, who was raised on a Lancashire farm in the Church of England tradition. Three decades of religion failed to touch her, she says, and it was only in her thirties, when she went to an exhibition in Manchester and saw a man performing Infinite T'ai Chi, that she felt truly spiritually touched. "It was like divine intervention," she says. "It was one of the most beautiful, meaningful things I had ever seen." She is now an Infinite T'ai Chi practitioner and performs "soul readings", a way, she says, of seeing life patterns and energies that haven't been released in the past.

You might expect those visiting her to have been raised in broadly godless households, but this is not the case. "About 50 per cent of the people I see were brought up quite religiously, so the seed of spirituality was there but the Church wasn't fulfilling their spiritual need," she says. "People are so much better educated now. They are less inclined just to accept what they are told; they need to know it for themselves."

Not that she sees any conflict between her practices and Christianity. "The Christian mystics taught that you can know God only through your own experience. All great religions taught 'know thyself'. That is what this movement is about, experiencing it yourself rather than through a priest."

It's an intriguing comparison. Once, mystics were the minority, the outsiders: what most people wanted was to come together and share in something greater than themselves. Increasingly, the reverse seems to be true. Joyce Armstrong, a former resident of Dent and a regular at the meditation centre, was raised according to strict Christian traditions. In her forties she converted to Buddhism after discovering that the Church did not speak to her. Before Buddhism she had been attracted to Quakerism — which has a strong history in Kendal — partly because of its lack of a priesthood and its tradition of silent contemplation.

"I had always been interested in personal spirituality, but the Church seemed so set in everything," she says. "Until you have a hold of yourself, you can't know what it's all about."

But must the rise of new forms of spirituality necessarily mean the decline of Christianity? There are life-long Christians who think not. Among them is Victor de Waal, 75, the former Dean of Canterbury Cathedral. He meditates daily and regularly visits the centre at Dent. "I don't see it as an alternative; I see it as deepening one's faith," he says. "Because it's not committed to a particular tradition, it is open to all".

But isn't it self-indulgent to look inwards? "It is not about discovering your ego, but the divine within yourself," he says. "Most religious traditions make a distinction between the ego and the self. In the New Testament Paul talks about 'Christ in me'. It is about finding one's deepest humanity. People who have been on the fringes or have given up the Church enter into their own spiritual selves and discover it again."

This, certainly, has been the spiritual journey of Martin Rayner, a kitchenware businessman from Windermere, Cumbria. Martin stopped attending a Christian church when he was 20, disillusioned by the break-up of his parents' marriage. Years later his own marriage broke down. He met a new partner and began meditation. He also attends yoga and t'ai chi classes. Eventually, Rayner's "New Age" spirituality led him back to his faith, and to the Church, which he attends regularly. "My biggest criticism of Christianity at the moment is that it is very verbose," he says. "You don't get a chance to be your silent self."

It was meditation, not traditional worship, that allowed him to be quiet. "I did feel in a spiritual vacuum, but I am now a lot more grounded and focused on what really matters in life. The world is getting faster and faster and meditation helps to order things in your mind. The Church has a great tradition of meditation, but seems to have lost it."

Conservative believers — Roman Catholics and Protestants — are adamant that New Age spirituality is merely a new form of gnosticism which turns the proper order upside-down by putting human beings in the place of God.

But there is no doubt that spiritual language is starting to seep into everyday discourse. The Spiritual Revolution points to terms such as feng shui and yin and yang now being common parlance. By contrast, theistic language has lost its vitality in ordinary language. The word "goodbye", for instance, used to mean "God be with you". It marks the shift away from the Church and towards the social empowerment of individuals in modern times. In other words, it is simply part of a general "flight from deference".

So where does this leave the typical Christian church? The Rev Ron Metcalf, of the majestic Holy Trinity Church in Kendal, which achieves an average congregation of 200 on Sundays, does not criticise the new seeking of spirituality. "If it leads to something better, then I can't say that I'm going to condemn it," he says. "The spiritual quest is not in itself unhealthy; that search is important, though I myself don't see how it is fulfilling."

He pauses. "I think [people] will find that yoga won't get them very far."

Moral issues drove voters...

Christian advocates, media pundits agree on believers' impact

Copyright  © 2004, WorldNetDaily.com

November 3, 2004

In what one pastor is calling a "moral mandate" from the voters, millions of Americans made choices in the election yesterday based on traditional social issues.

Both Christian activists and media analysts agree that many voters put moral issues high on their priority lists, ushering President Bush into another four-year term, approving same-sex marriage bans and giving Republicans boosts both on Capitol Hill and throughout the nation.

Evangelical organizations today are pointing to election results and touting the power of their constituencies.

"Moral issues fueled yesterday's astonishing electoral triumph for George Bush and the Republican Party in the House and Senate," said Dr. D. James Kennedy, president of Coral Ridge Ministries, in a statement. "Despite the conventional political wisdom that moral concerns are a drag on a political ticket, it was values that energized voters, lifted turnout among evangelicals and Catholics, and led to substantial GOP pickups in the House and Senate. The voters have delivered a moral mandate."

In the wake of the GOP victories, Kennedy urged party leaders not to marginalize those voters that helped make electoral success possible.

"Now that values voters have delivered for George Bush, he must deliver for their values," said Kennedy. "The defense of innocent unborn human life, the protection of marriage, and the nomination and confirmation of federal judges who will interpret the Constitution, not make law from the bench, must be first priorities, come January."

Roberta Combs, president of the Christian Coalition of America, made similar comments, saying evangelicals were mobilized by the same-sex marriage issue.

"We are pleased that both the executive branch and the legislative branch will be controlled by pro-family conservatives and that every one of the 11 state constitutional amendments to ban homosexual 'marriages' passed overwhelmingly," Combs said. "There is no doubt that because four radical left-wing Massachusetts judges ruled that homosexual 'marriages' are constitutional last year, there was a conservative backlash which played a major role in the election outcome yesterday. Christian evangelicals made the major difference once again this year."

Combs says the Christian Coalition will work to pass legislation loosening speech restrictions on churches.

The Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, also credited evangelicals, saying his organization's first priority would be to "focus on the nomination of a pro-life Supreme Court Justice."

Some exit polling indicates fully one-third of voters in yesterday's election were evangelical Christians.

Rob Schenck of the National Clergy Council took aim at Democrats.

"This election demonstrates that Democratic Party leaders have moved far away from the moral consensus in America," he said in a statement. "If they are to reclaim political relevancy, they will need to reexamine their positions on all the major moral issues including the sanctity of human life, the sanctity of marriage and the public acknowledgment of God."

Commented Mathew Staver, president of Liberty Counsel: "Marriage, morals and the sanctity of human life were the real winners in this election. The people have spoken. The politicians must now listen or find other employment."

Building a family of faith...

The most significant part of a child's spiritual development

By: Greg Laurie, Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California

Copyright  © 2004, WorldNetDaily.com

November 16, 2004

In "Fiddler on the Roof," the hit 1964 musical now reappearing on Broadway, Tevya, a poor Jewish milkman struggling to make a living for his family in an  early 20th-century Russian village, makes a profound observation:

We have traditions for everything - how to sleep, how to eat, how to work, how to wear clothes. For instance, we always keep our heads covered and always  wear a little prayer shawl. This shows our constant devotion to God. You may  ask, "How did this tradition get started?" I'll tell you. I don't know. But it's  a tradition. And because of our tradition, every one of us knows who he is and  what God expects him to do.

But do they? As the story unfolds, Tevya's traditions are shaken one by one.  He comes to accept the inevitable changes in his life, yet he fails to fully  grasp the original intent behind those traditions: a deeper, more intimate  relationship with His Creator.

When you think about it, not much has changed. Ask the average person why  they do what they do, and they might respond like Tevya: "I don't know. But this  is what I've always known. It's how my parents taught me. It's just the right  thing to do."

So how can we make sure that a child's spiritual understanding goes beyond  mere "traditions" to become a defining part of his or her life?

Some believe that by simply taking their child to church every Sunday,  they've done their "spiritual" duty. Others feel the need to expose their  children to various religions, hoping they will "find their way" to happiness.  The parent is simply a bystander in the process.

It may come as a surprise, but as a pastor, I do not believe the most significant part of a child's spiritual development takes place inside the four walls of the church. It takes place inside the four walls of the home.

Parenting is not simply passing down a set of "rules" to live by. It is not some "casual" responsibility that places the burden of teaching morals or virtue on the schools or the church. It is a God-given responsibility ... and gift.

Cherish God's gift to you

To properly instill a sense of values and faith in our children, we must first understand their worth. Our children did not enter our lives by chance. The Bible tells us, "Children are a gift from the LORD – they are a reward from Him" (Psalm 127:3).

Think about that for a moment. If you are a parent, the Creator of the universe has divinely placed this child under your care. And He will supply you with the necessary wisdom and strength to nurture this precious gift.

I know that's hard to believe when your toddler decides to "decorate" your room with permanent markers, or if your child struggles with a special need. Yet, remember this: That child is not yours by accident or coincidence. He or she is a gift from God.

Walk the talk

Consequently, God places a high priority on a child's spiritual education. In the Bible, Moses emphasizes the vital role parents play in passing on their faith to their children:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. – Deuteronomy 6:5-7, NIV

Notice Moses first says that parents need to have a wholehearted, devoted relationship with God before they even begin teaching their children. We cannot lead a child any farther than we ourselves have come. As the famous pastor Andrew Murray once said, "The secret of home rule is self-rule: first being ourselves what we want our children to be."

I personally longed for the day my sons would believe the Gospel message of Jesus Christ for themselves, and embrace Him as Savior and Lord. I made sure that I explained to them who Christ was and how they could know Him. Yet, I also knew that they needed to see the Gospel "lived" – not just discussed.

Capture teachable moments

Moses also says, "Impress them on your children." The original Hebrew translation implies piercing spiritual truths deeply into your child's heart and mind so that they become wise and discerning individuals.

One father, reflecting on his life after his children had grown, said, "If I had it to do all over again, I would share God more intimately with my family. Every ordinary thing that happened in every ordinary day I would use to direct them to God."

That's the idea. Teaching "religion" is not enough. Our children need to see that our faith is personal and active, not something we reserve for one day of the week. We honor and look for the hand of God in every aspect of our lives.

The writer of Proverbs says it well: "Those who fear the Lord are secure; He will be a place of refuge for their children" (Proverbs 14:26).

The most secure place a child can be in times of uncertainty is a home where the Lord is worshipped and loved. Do your children have a place of refuge?

Translations used: New International Version and the New Living Translation.

Greg Laurie is the senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California, one of the eight largest churches in America, as well as the third largest in California.

Air Force cracks down on Christian coercion'...

Academy tells cadets not to use Bible quotes, sharing faith may be intolerant

Copyright  © 2004, WorldNetDaily.com

November 21, 2004

In a move that echoes the recent decision of the U.S. Department of Defense to deny Boy Scouts use of military facilities, the U.S. Air Force Academy is warning Christian cadets to curb their faith.

Officials at the Colorado Springs military college have instituted a new training program, Respecting the Spiritual Values of People, to teach the cadets, 90% of whom are from Protestant or Catholic backgrounds, tolerance toward non-Christians. The program follows an August survey that found complaints of religious bias.

Lt. Gen. John Rosa, academy superintendent, gave the results of the survey to the school's Board of Visitors this past week. He said the survey showed pressure toward cadets based on their beliefs, and that half of the survey's respondents said they had heard religious slurs, comments or jokes while at the academy.

"Some students had a feeling that 'If I'm not a Christian, I feel like I'm having Christianity crammed down my throat,"' Rosa said.

Rosa cited Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" as an example of the problem being caused by Christians at the academy. When the film was playing locally, some cadets emailed members of their squadron suggesting they see it as a group.

"People felt they were being coerced," Rosa says.

Thirty percent of the survey's non-Christian respondents believe Christian cadets receive preferential treatment – a perception shared by only 10 percent of Christian respondents. More than half of the non-Christian participants indicated they had "not felt pressure to be involved in religion."

The Air Force Academy came under fire early last year when allegations of sexual assault against female cadets were aired. Over 65 cadets said they had reported incidents, but their allegations were ignored and, in some cases, resulted in retaliation.

General Rosa was installed as the new superintendent to make changes in the way female cadets were treated. The August survey found those reporting racial or sexually harassing jokes down from 90 percent to 56 percent.

Now, cadets who are overzealous about religion are being targeted for transformation.

Academy officials warned cadets this week against including Bible quotations at the bottom of their academy e-mail messages, reported the Associated Press. "None of this (Bible or personal signature notes) is appropriate, and it says this in Air Force instructions," said Lt. Col. Laurent Fox, referring to a school-wide memo sent in September clarifying policies for using a government e-mail account.

At the Nov. 2 kickoff for the Respecting the Spiritual Values of People program, cadets were advised by head chaplain Michael Whittington to not hold Bible studies in their dormitories, but he was overruled by Commandant Brig. Gen. Johnny Weida.

"Nobody really knows what the rules are," a source told the Colorado Springs Gazette. "Chaplain Whittington seems to understand this is a constitutional issue. No one else does. Discrimination against non-Christian cadets continues."

A spokesperson for Rep. Joel Hefley, who represents Colorado Springs, supported the Bible studies and told the Gazette, "The motto of the nation cadets are trained to defend is 'In God We Trust'. They are serving under a flag that we pledge allegiance to under God. Religion does have a place at the academy."

Longtime football coach Fisher DeBerry, who has said in 2000 he keeps a Bible in his office and prays with players, was told to take down a locker room banner that carried the "Competitor's Creed": "I am a Christian first and last. ... I am a member of Team Jesus Christ." He had hoisted the banner earlier in the week, he says, "as a motivation for his football players."

The Denver Post reports academy officials have also removed a long-running ad from the academy's base newspaper, signed by hundreds of staff members and their families, that read, "We believe that Jesus Christ is the only real hope for the World."

"We're getting rid of it because it could be construed as proselytizing and divisive," Col. Fox said.

Gen. Rosa notes that cadets are merely bringing the religious beliefs and values of their families to the academy and they may not understand how talking about religion with others can cross a line.

"It's not mean-spirited. It's all they know," Rosa said. "We must ensure a climate free of discrimination and marginalization."

Is it OK to hope anyone is in hell?

The death of Yasser Arafat raises key theological question...

By: Dennis Prager in WorldNetDaily.com

Copyright  © 2004, Creators Syndicate, Inc.

November 30, 2004

The death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat raises an interesting and significant question: Is it morally and theologically acceptable to hope anyone goes to hell?

That was my first reaction to the death of the godfather of modern terrorism. But I recognize that many people, including many who share my moral assessment of Arafat, might reject such a reaction, let alone publicly express it. But there is a good case to be made for hoping that Yasser Arafat now finds himself in hell.

In order to do so, three issues need to be addressed:

• First, is there a hell? Can rational people believe in such a thing?
• Second, if there is a hell, does Arafat merit going there? And can any of us mortals judge a person worthy of hell?
• Third, if there is a hell, is it acceptable to hope someone who we believe merits it goes there?

First, is there a hell?

Among those who pride themselves in being what is deemed sophisticated in our time, the notion of hell is either absurd, immoral or both. It is also identified with Christians, especially conservative Christians, and, therefore, the sophisticated feel particularly compelled to reject the concept.

Yet the belief that those who commit evil are punished after death is hardly restricted to Christianity. One of the Thirteen Principles of the Jewish Faith as laid down by the codifier of Jewish law, Maimonides (1135-1204), is that God rewards the good and punishes the bad.

One, therefore, need not be a conservative Christian to believe in some form of hell for the evil. All one need be is a rational believer in a just God. For if there is a just God, it is inconceivable that those who do evil and those who do good have identical fates. A just God must care about justice, and since there is little justice in this world, there has to be in the next. And belief in the next world is also not confined to Christianity. As the Encyclopedia Judaica, the greatest contemporary compilation of Jewish scholarship (edited largely by non-religious Jews) notes in the first sentence under the heading "Afterlife," "Judaism has always believed in an afterlife."

The second question is easily answered. Much of humanity has been adversely affected by modern-day terror. The lives of millions – virtually all Palestinians and Israelis, for example – have been terribly affected by Arafat. And there are hundreds of thousands of people whose lives have been destroyed or shattered by him. At the same time, other than a few sycophants enriched by some of the billions of dollars he embezzled from the Palestinians, no one has had a better life because Yasser Arafat lived.

Throughout modern history, even terrorists had moral boundaries. Terrorists historically attempted to avoid murdering innocent men, women and children. Arafat, however, made the murder and maiming of completely innocent men, women and children the very purpose of terror and one of his life's major legacies.

Yasser Arafat single-handedly made nihilistic acts of cruelty routine, even respectable. Many people were horrified at the Palestinian slaughter of the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. But humanity gradually became inured to Arafat-style slaughter. Palestinian and Muslim disciples targeted schoolchildren for death in the Israeli city of Ma'alot and later in the Russian city of Beslan; tortured and murdered American diplomats in Sudan; and Arafat created a society whose only exports were new forms of religious hatred and new expressions of barbarity. Thanks to him, the Palestinian name is identified among people of goodwill with barbarity just as the German name came to be associated with barbarity as a result of Hitler.

If, then, there is a just God, and Arafat was the particularly venal human being described here, the answer to the third question is obvious.

Just as any decent human being would want good people to be rewarded in whatever existence there is after this life, they would want the cruelest of people to be punished.

So, of course, I hope Yasser Arafat is in hell. It means that a just God rules the universe. If you think that is hard-hearted, consider the alternative, that one of the most corrupt and cruel human beings of the past half-century is resting in peace. Whoever isn't bothered by that is the one with the hard heart.

**************************************

Dennis Prager, one of America's most respected and popular nationally syndicated radio talk-show hosts, is the author of several books and a frequent guest on TV shows such as "Larry King Live," "The O'Reilly Factor" and "Hannity & Colmes."

A Neuroscientific Look at Speaking in Tongues

The death of Yasser Arafat raises key theological question...

By: Benedict Carey in The New York Times

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

November 07, 2006

The passionate, sometimes rhythmic, language-like patter that pours forth from religious people who "speak in tongues" reflects a state of mental possession, many of them say. Now they have some neuroscience to back them up.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania took brain images of five women while they spoke in tongues and found that their frontal lobes — the thinking, willful part of the brain through which people control what they do — were relatively quiet, as were the language centers. The regions involved in maintaining self-consciousness were active. The women were not in blind trances, and it was unclear which region was driving the behavior.

The images, appearing in the current issue of the journal Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, pinpoint the most active areas of the brain. The images are the first of their kind taken during this spoken religious practice, which has roots in the Old and New Testaments and in charismatic churches established in the United States around the turn of the 19th century. The women in the study were healthy, active churchgoers.

"The amazing thing was how the images supported people's interpretation of what was happening," said Dr. Andrew B. Newberg, leader of the study team, which included Donna Morgan, Nancy Wintering and Mark Waldman. "The way they describe it, and what they believe, is that God is talking through them," he said.

Dr. Newberg is also a co-author of "Why We Believe What We Believe."

In the study, the researchers used imaging techniques to track changes in blood flow in each woman's brain in two conditions, once as she sang a gospel song and again while speaking in tongues. By comparing the patterns created by these two emotional, devotional activities, the researchers could pinpoint blood-flow peaks and valleys unique to speaking in tongues.

Ms. Morgan, a co-author of the study, was also a research subject. She is a born-again Christian who says she considers the ability to speak in tongues a gift. "You're aware of your surroundings," she said. "You're not really out of control. But you have no control over what's happening. You're just flowing. You're in a realm of peace and comfort, and it's a fantastic feeling."

Contrary to what may be a common perception, studies suggest that people who speak in tongues rarely suffer from mental problems. A recent study of nearly 1,000 evangelical Christians in England found that those who engaged in the practice were more emotionally stable than those who did not. Researchers have identified at least two forms of the practice, one ecstatic and frenzied, the other subdued and nearly silent.

The new findings contrasted sharply with images taken of other spiritually inspired mental states like meditation, which is often a highly focused mental exercise, activating the frontal lobes.

The scans also showed a dip in the activity of a region called the left caudate. "The findings from the frontal lobes are very clear, and make sense, but the caudate is usually active when you have positive affect, pleasure, positive emotions," said Dr. James A. Coan, a psychologist at the University of Virginia. "So it's not so clear what that finding says" about speaking in tongues.

The caudate area is also involved in motor and emotional control, Dr. Newberg said, so it may be that practitioners, while mindful of their circumstances, nonetheless cede some control over their bodies and emotions.

 The Measurement of Regional Cerebral Blood Flow During Glossolalia: A Preliminary SPECT Study(Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging)

Man Builds Noah's Ark

(to exact scale given in the Bible)

Working Replica of Noah's Ark Opened

In SCHAGEN, Netherlands. The massive central door in the side of Noah's Ark was opened for the first crowd of curious townsfolk to behold the wonder. Of course, it's only a replica of the biblical Ark , built by Dutch Creationist Johan Huibers as a testament to his faith in the literal truth of the Bible. The ark is 150 cubits long, 30 cubits high and 20 cubits wide. That's two-thirds the length of a football field and as high as a three-story house.

Life-size models of giraffes, elephants, lions, crocodiles, zebras, bison and other animals greet visitors as they arrive in the main hold. A contractor by trade, Huibers built the ark of cedar and pine. Biblical Scholars debate exactly what the wood used by Noah would have been. Huibers did the work mostly with his own hands, using modern tools and with occasional help from his son Roy.

Construction began in May 2005. On the uncovered top deck - not quite ready in time for the opening - will come a petting zoo, with baby lambs and chickens, and goats, and one camel. Visitors on the first day were stunned. 'It's past comprehension', said Mary Louise Starosciak, who happened to be bicycling by with her husband while on vacation when they saw the ark looming over the local landscape. I knew the story of Noah, but I had no idea the boat would have been so big. There is enough space near the keel for a 50-seat film theater where kids can watch a video that tells the story of Noah and his ark.

Huibers, a Christian man, said he hopes the project will renew interest in Christianity in the Netherlands, where church going has fallen dramatically in the past 50 years.

Now that I am old and gray...give me the time to tell this new generation (and their children too) about all your mighty miracles. (Psalm 71:18)