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The following articles are compiled by:

Leo Wong

Leo@WatchmenWatching.com

 

 

 

 

Senator John McCain hopes to mend fences with Dr. James Dobson

Source: CNN.com/Associated Press

 

January 17, 2007 --Sen. John McCain said Tuesday he hopes to patch things up with conservative Christian leader James Dobson, who recently said he wouldn't support the Republican's presidential bid under any circumstances.

 

In a radio interview with KCBI, a Dallas Christian station, Dobson argued that McCain didn't support traditional marriage values and said he has prayed "we won't get stuck with him." Dobson is founder of Focus on the Family, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

 

"I'm obviously disappointed and I'd like to continue and have a dialogue with Dr. Dobson and other members of the community," McCain said Tuesday during a stop in Columbia. (Watch Dobson vowed never to vote for McCain )

 

McCain has said gay marriage should not be legal but has angered some conservatives with his opposition to a constitutional amendment banning same-sex unions. The Arizona senator said the issue should be left to the states.

 

"I'm happy to say that I've established a dialogue with a number of other leaders," including the Rev. Jerry Falwell, "Purpose Driven Life" author Rick Warren and Dr. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention.

 

McCain has reached out to conservatives he once crossed. Last May, he spoke at Falwell's Liberty University in Virginia. In 2000, Falwell opposed McCain's campaign for the GOP nomination and supported George W. Bush. At the time, McCain labeled Falwell and others on the right and the left as "agents of intolerance."

 

Comments:  Mr. McCain cares nothing about the Christian right.  It’s the votes that he salivates over.  Politics and Christianity make strange bedfellows indeed.  Like I said before, not all Republicans are believers in Jesus Christ.  Yes, they may hold to conservative Christian values as found in the Bible, but they do so out of convenience.  It’s us versus them, i.e. Republicans versus Democrats.  The GOP and the Democrats are essentially two sides of the same coin.  In their half-hearted attempt to convey to the American voters that there are stark distinctions between the two party choices, ordinary Americans get hoodwinked into believing this subtle lie.  Behind closed doors, Republicans and Democrats go to the same parties, down the same amount of Bud Light, utter the same foul profane language, and whoop things up the same way.

 

Dr. Dobson took a stance against Mr. McCain’s political views that were opposed to Biblical principles.  For that, McCain blew his gasket.  Now that the 2008 presidential elections are not too far away, McCain comes groveling at Dr. Dobson’s feet to make amends.  Unlike kowtowing Jerry Falwell, Rick Warren and Dr. Richard Land, Dr. Dobson ought to forgive Mr. McCain, but refuse to endorse Mr. McCain.  “Politics and religion shouldn’t mix” ought to be his rational for non‑support.

 

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World Council of Churches (WCC) lays out ecumenical priorities 

Source: chirstiantoday.com

 

January 17, 2007 -- "It is together that we find our place in the world," the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary, Rev Dr Samuel Kobia has told WCC member churches and ecumenical partners in a message about priorities for the years ahead.

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"Our calling is to be a people who seek and serve Christ together, to be churches alive in the promise of God’s world-transforming love," the Rev Dr Samuel Kobia says.

 

The message, released in the season of Epiphany, is for the period until 2013 (reflecting plans made since the WCC's 9th assembly last year in Brazil).

 

The message says "ecumenical Christianity for the 21st century" stands on that common experience of Christ and on "a common understanding of a world shared with all of humankind".

 

“Churches in many places will have to find new ways of witness in the world. We will have to pray for unity and seek it, perhaps especially in working for justice and reconciliation, and in developing inter-religious partnerships for joint action on difficult issues," Kobia suggests.

 

Comments:   Ecumenism and the social gospel go hand in hand.  Bringing all faiths and religions together to work for the common goal of making planet Earth a better place to live, raise children and grandchildren, assist our fellow man and woman, eradicate diseases, poverty and injustice, get in tune with a common god, and touch the pulse of the universe.  Can you feel the love?  Can you dig it, bros and sisters?  It’s all good in theory, but will proud vain mankind every get his act together, put aside envies and jealousies, and come together as one?  Judging by all the wars and conflicts around the world, the dreamers will have to dream on.  The WWC will not be deterred.  Through political activism and support from credible Christians, the WCC forges on to reconstruct the Tower of Babel in the 21st century.  Universalism is the rallying cry.

 

The WCC is a worldwide organization that is liberal and humanistic at the same time.  It does not bend or yield to God’s precepts and principles.  Some say its master is the Devil himself.  Yes, it has religious people bulging at the seams, but they’re devoid of Jesus.  The Son of God is rejected as the only solution to mankind’s social ills.  The Trinity is denied. The Bible is either rejected outright or scriptures are conveniently spiritualized/allegorized to fit the various opinions of the religious authorities with the pompous title of reverend.  It’s fitting that the Vatican and the WCC are spearheading the ecumenical movement that will consummate into the One World Religion as Catholicism and Protestantism are yoked together for this common goal.

 

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Dubai skyscraper at 100 storeys and still climbing

Source: Winnipeg Free Press Online

 

 

January 17, 2007 -- The Burj Dubai skyscraper under construction here reached its 100th storey on Tuesday, nearly two-thirds of the way in its relentless climb to become the world's tallest building.

 

With 3,000 labourers adding a new floor nearly every three days, the US$1-billion spire is days away from surpassing a neighbouring skyscraper that is currently the tallest in the Middle East, Dubai-based developer Emaar Properties said.

 

"The tower is a symbol of the city's pride and a statement of our arrival on the global scene as one of the world-class cities," Emaar chairman Mohammed Ali Alabbar said.

 

When finished in two years, the silvery steel-and-glass building is expected to rise beyond 701 metres and more than 160 floors -- dozens of storeys taller than the world's current tallest building, the Taipei 101 tower in Taiwan, which measures 509 metres and 101 floors.

 

It will also top the world's tallest freestanding structure, Toronto's CN Tower, which stands 553 metres.

 

Emaar isn't releasing its plans for the final height of the Burj Dubai so it can add more stories if a competing developer mounts a challenge. Predictions on skyscraper websites say the cylindrical Burj, which was designed by American architect Adrian Smith, will eventually loom over the city from a height of 792.48 metres or more.   

 

Comments:  Isaiah 14:[12] How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! [13] For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: [14] I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.  Genesis 11:[4] And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.  Like their spiritual father Lucifer before them, men aspire to reach into Heaven and supplant God. Pride was responsible for Lucifer’s fall from God’s favor and it is the underlying motivator of man’s attempt to build a tower that’s taller than his neighbor’s tower.  Higher and higher is the aim.  Let us stand above the crowd so the world can marvel at our pompous ingenuity.  We all know what pride will lead to.  Proverbs 16:[18] Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

 

The prideful Arabs in Dubai are unwittingly building their own version of the Tower of Babel. Ancient Babylon (in the vicinity of modern Baghdad Iraq) was the seat of paganism.  Islam is also rooted in paganism as Allah is a pagan entity.  Is it any wonder then that we’re seeing déjà vu?  Islam will be brought down just like ancient Babylon.  The more things change, the more things remain the same.