From: Eddie Chumney
To:      heb_roots_chr@hebroots.org
Subject: News of Interest: October 25 - November 7, 1999


                            News of Interest
                 October 25 - November 7, 1999

PREPARATION FOR WAR

U.S.  ACCUSES NORTH KOREA OF A MASSIVE DEPLOYMENT OF ARTILLERY
AND ROCKET LAUNCHERS
Weekend News Today By Kelly Pagatpatan Source: Agence
France-Presse Oct 29,1999

North Korea has recently accelerated its massive deployment of
artillery and rocket launchers near the demilitarised zone
separating it from South Korea, says US General Thomas Schwartz.
"The most threatening ongoing force development is the massive
fielding of artillery and multiple rocket launcher systems in
underground facilities near the demilitarised zone," said General
Schwartz, according to his written answers to a Congress
committee released on Wednesday.

General Schwartz is the Clinton Administration's nominee to
become the new head of US forces in South Korea.  "Over the past
year, Pyongyang has accelerated ...  a comprehensive force
enhancement program that has already resulted in the deployment
of over 10,000 artillery systems and more than 2,300 multiple
rocket launcher systems inthe forward area," he wrote.  "These
long-range artillery systems give North Korea the ability to
provide devastating, indirect firepower in support of ground
force operations, and to strike targets south of Seoul."

BROTHER AGAINST BROTHER

REFORM MOVEMENT HELPS U.S.  GATHER INFO.  ON JEWISH "EXTREMISTS"
Judean Voice News and Commentary 28-Heshvan-5760 11/7/99

According to information contained in an article appearing in
today's Haaretz, titles "Apocalypse 2000, Jewish Style," Motti
Inbari of the Reform movement in Israel has been passing names
and information related to "Jewish extremists" in Israel over to
senior officials at the U.S.  embassy in Israel.  "I understood
that they intend to use the material I provided them in the
controversy with Israel over the discrimination that is being
shown here against Christian cults while the authorities
disregard the activity of Jewish cults," Inbari said.

Haaretz discloses, "But the most interesting of the Israeli
groups is the one that calls itself 'Operation Come Home'
(Mitzvah Habaita).  Its leader, Avraham Sheinman, 42, lives in
the West Bank settlement of Har Bracha, a center of the followers
of Rabbi Meir Kahane, one of the settlement's founders.  A small
office on the settlement conducts a ramified operation, including
a website and the publication of a 48-page pamphlet dedicated to
Kahane's memory.  the Har Bracha group is urging the immediate
immigration to Israel of every Jew in the world, as they face
serious danger in the Diaspora."

"It's not Y2K that's the problem but its consequences," Sheinman
explains.  "Today it is clear that the collapse of the systems
will generate an economic crisis and a serious blow to the
infrastructure.  In a situation of chaos, people will look for
someone to blame.  The natural victims are the Jews, who are
always the scapegoats.  With all the material we collected, we
went to a rabbi in the Old City of Jerusalem, and he proved to
us, using the method of skipping letters in the Bible, the
potential of the disasters that could occur in year Tashas (the
current Jewish year of 5760).  No Jew in the world is safe,
including the complacent Jews in America."

Haaretz concludes, "According to Inbari, the innovative feature
of the group's activity lies in return to calculations of the
apocalypse and of vengeful messianism.  One of the articles in
the pamphlet is 'The Rabbi's Warning To America" by Rabbi Kahane.

Judean Voice Commentary:

As for Inbari, let it be quoted, as observant Jews state three
times daily, "Ve Lamalshinim Ve Laminim Lo Tehi Tikva" - And for
the informers..there shall be no hope.  Inbari, evidently
incapable of confronting Sheinman intellectually, rushes to hand
his name over to the U.S.  State Dept.  Before the Reform
movement became "Zionist" , and when they were busy erasing any
trace of Zion from their "prayer" books, they used to call
Zionist movement and aspiration to return to Zion "dangerous
messianism." They now masquerade as Zionists and call Jews who
urge others to return home to Zion "extremist messianics." So
what has changed?


APOSTASY AND ECUMENISM

FROM BUDDHIST TO BA'HAI, RELIGIOUS LEADERS GATHER AT VATICAN
October 25, 1999 By Ellen Knickmeyer, Associated Press Vatican
City (AP)

Against the backdrop of Chechnya, Kosovo and East Timor,
representatives of 20 of the world's religions took up a Vatican
invitation Monday for interfaith dialogue on global problems,
including conflicts sparked by religious differences.

In a message sent for the four-day conference's opening session,
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I denounced exploitation of
religion for political goals.  He urged cooperation among
religions as a way to counter the extremism that often leads to
violence.  "Killing for religious reasons inspires in the most
sensible consciences the demand to shift the confrontations
between religions from the realm of brutal violence to that of
dialogue and spiritual persuasion,'' Bartholomew, spiritual
leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, said in a statement.

Pope John Paul II convened the first interfaith council in 1986
in Assisi, Italy.  Its follow-up brings together 200 followers of
faiths from Buddhism to Ba'Hai, Zoroastrian to American Indian,
Sikh to Protestantism.  John Paul is expected to address the
conference on its closing day Thursday.

The Tibetan spiritual leader in exile, the Dalai Lama, was in
Rome on Monday and also was to have some publicly undefined role
in the closing celebrations, said Cardinal Francis Arinze,
president of the Vatican's interfaith council.  Other dominant
religions, including Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism, are
represented, but not by their leading figures.

The meeting is hardly on common ground   aside from a pilgrimage
to Assisi, most of the conference's sessions are to take part in
Vatican City, seat of the Roman Catholic Church.  While the
church chose the universal theme of world peace for the 1986
conference, it picked "On the Threshold of the Third Millennium''
for the follow-up.  The date marks the 2,000th year of the
Christian era.

Arinze, a Nigerian-born cardinal, argued 2000 was a milestone in
world history as well, and a time for all humanity to reflect,
with a look back and forward.  The aim of the conference is
interfaith dialogue on all the world's problems.  But the problem
of interfaith conflict itself quickly came to the fore   with
bloodshed between traditionally Orthodox Russia and Muslim
Chechnya only the latest example of it.  The Kosovo conflict
pitted Orthodox Serbs against ethnic Albanian Muslims.  In East
Timor, it was Muslim Indonesia against predominantly Roman
Catholic East Timorese.

"To make war, you need only a few.  To make peace, the
cooperation of all is necessary,'' Arinze said.  "If you want
peace in the world, you must seek the collaboration of religious
leaders, whether you agree with their religion or not.'' At the
closing day, the delegates will break from their meetings for an
evening of prayer   but separately, by faith, rather than
together.  A common prayer would be "full of theological
difficulties,'' and beyond the scope or intent of the Vatican in
calling the council, Arinze said.  "Prayer depends on what you
believe,'' he said.  "If we do not believe in the same things, we
cannot have the same prayers.''

POPE DECRIES WORLD'S 'SCANDALOUS INEQUALITIES'
Reuters October 28, 1999 Vatican City

Pope John Paul II Thursday decried the "scandalous inequalities''
between the world's rich and poor and said the use of religion as
a pretext for war was a blatant contradiction.  In one of his
hardest-hitting speeches against the perceived ills of modern
society, the 79-year-old pope said the technological revolution
of the late 20th century had failed to bring with it spiritual
and moral advancement.

"As we survey the situation of humanity, is it too much to speak
of a crisis of civilization?'' he asked thousands of worshipers
in St.  Peter's Square in a speech to mark the end of a five-day
inter-religious assembly at the Vatican.  "We see great
technological advances, but these are not always accompanied by
great spiritual and moral progress,'' he said.  "We see, as well,
a growing gap between the rich and poor   at the level of
individuals and nations.'' "(We lack) the collective will to
overcome scandalous inequalities and to create new structures
which will allow all peoples to have a just share in the world's
resources,'' the pope added.

The pope, looking preoccupied and frail, sat hunched in his chair
throughout the ceremony but his voice was firm as he returned to
themes that have run through his speeches with increasing
regularity in recent years.

POPE, DALAI LAMA DENOUNCE EXTREMISM
October 28 By Ellen Knickmeyer Associated Press Writer Vatican
City (AP)

With Pope John Paul II presiding next to the Dalai Lama,
representatives of 20 of the world's faiths closed a
millennium-ending gathering Thursday with a forceful denunciation
of religious extremism.  Assembled in St.  Peter's Square, the
200 clergy and lay people appealed to world leaders to ``refuse
to allow religion to be used to incite hatred and violence.''

"Any use of religion to support violence is an abuse of
religion,'' John Paul said in his final message to the four-day
council, speaking to a crowd of red- and orange-robed Asian
monks, Catholic priests in black cassocks, Muslim women in head
scarfs and Africans and American Indians in the traditional
clothing of their own countries.  Beyond the message of tolerance
it produced, the council was remarkable for the scenes it brought
to a bastion of Christianity:

An American Indian pivoting in the center of the square at
sunset, blessing the four corners of the earth from the heart of
Rome.  Muslims spreading out newspapers in the marble colonnade
to kneel toward Mecca and pray.  "If you want to know what this
accomplished, I'll tell you this,'' said Rabbi Ron Kronish.
``This morning at coffee, a colleague from a neighboring country
- I won't say which one, but I'm from Israel - told me, `This is
the first time in my life I ever met a Jew.'''

John Paul summoned representatives of the world's religions to
the Vatican for one last try during this millennium at
cooperation to solve common problems of the world's people.  The
council is opposed by traditionalists in many religions, made
uneasy at seeing their faith put on an equal footing with others.
The first Vatican interfaith council, at Assisi in 1986, was a
factor in the only formal Catholic schism of this century, when
hard-liners in the church in France broke away from the Vatican.
This second meeting, 13 years later, stressed the differences
between religions - but denounced exploiting them for violent
ends.

Twenty-six Buddhists from West and East alike were among the
believers taking part in the council, but, notably, the list
included none from mainland China.  Tibet's spiritual leader in
exile, the Dalai Lama, joined the last hours of the ceremony,
sitting next to John Paul on the steps of St.  Peter's in the
candlelit closing ceremony.

ROMAN CATHOLIC, LUTHERAN CHURCHES PUT END TO 500-YEAR DEBATE
Copyright   1999 Nando Media Copyright   1999 Associated Press By
Katharine A.  Schmidt Augsburg, Germany October 31, 1999

Putting aside five centuries of differences in theology, Roman
Catholic and Lutheran church leaders Sunday signed a declaration
to end a dispute over salvation that sparked the Protestant
Reformation and led to the Thirty Years War.  The 700 guests at
Augsburg's Lutheran Church of St.  Anna's and more than 2,000
observers in a tent nearby watched, applauded and hugged each
other as officials from the two bodies stated that both churches
believe the salvation of individual Christians is "justified" by
God's love alone, not by human efforts.  From the Vatican, Pope
John Paul II welcomed the signing as a "milestone along a
difficult path full of joy, union, and communion among
Christians." During the Augsburg service, Bishop Christian
Krause, president of the Lutheran World Federation, also spoke of
the agreement's importance.  "For the first time in centuries we
are walking on common ground together," Krause said.

CHINA TO NORMALIZE TIES WITH VATICAN
By Year-End Hong Kong, Oct 25, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse)

China is expected to normalize ties with the Vatican by the end
of the year, following marathon negotiations, a report said
Monday.  An announcement of formal diplomatic relations between
China and Vatican followed nearly a year of secret talks, The Sun
newspaper said citing unidentified sources.  Both sides had
"gradually reached consensus" on thorny issues relating to the
Vatican breaking ties with Taiwan, which Beijing deems a renegade
province, and the appointment of a Catholic archibishop in the
mainland, the Chinese-language daily said.  The report said the
Vatican has already submitted its decision to resume ties to
Beijing, and was waiting for a reply.

The sources said officials at various levels in the Chinese
Communist Party and government had been asked to "unify their
thinking" to prepare for the resumption of ties with the Vatican
ending a break of more than 40 years.  On the appointment of the
Pope's envoy in China, agreement had been reached to adopt the
"Vietnamese model" in which Beijing will name the archibishop
with Rome's confirmation, the sources said.

Following the normalization of ties, all so-called "underground
church" members in China will have to register with the
government.  The sources said the move would not affect the
structure and operation of the Catholic dominions in Hong Kong,
which returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, and Macau, which
reverts to Chinese rule in December.

China and the Vatican severed ties in 1957 after the Roman
Catholic church excommunicated two bishops appointed by Beijing,
and seven years after Mao Zedong announced the foundation of
communist China.  Since then relations have deteriorated due to
the Vatican's recognition of Taiwan and religious persecution in
China, leading to a split in the mainland's Catholic community.

Catholics in China include some four million faithful of the
official "patriotic" church, which is not recognized by the
Vatican, and an estimated 10 million followers of an underground
"silent church," loyal to the pope.

CHURCHES DEAL WITH INCREASED SECULARISM IN EUROPE
Copyright   1999 Nando Media Christian Science Monitor By Peter
Ford October 25, 1999

Could it be, as Christians around the globe prepare to celebrate
the 2,000th anniversary of Jesus' birth, that in Europe, the
embers are dying? Europe's Roman Catholic bishops wrapped up a
three-week synod in Rome on Saturday proclaiming their hope of
warding off such a prospect.  But they pointed to "the serious
indifference to religion of so many Europeans ...  the secularism
which poisons a large section of Christians" as a dangerous sign.
"There is a great risk of de-Christianization and paganization of
the Continent" that "puts the cultural identity of Europe in
jeopardy," warned the synod's working paper.

Certainly the signs are not encouraging for the major Christian
churches in Europe, which have seen their congregations and their
priestly ranks shrink over the past half century.  Church
attendance is still high in traditional Catholic countries such
as Ireland and Italy, where nearly half the adult population goes
to church at least once a month.  But in countries like France,
Belgium, and Germany, less than 10 percent of young people attend
church regularly, and there is not a major city in northwestern
Europe where even half the newborns are baptized.  That prompted
the bishops to end their meeting with a call "to undertake with
great zeal and urgency the task of the new evangelization" -
missionary work on the Continent from which missionaries once
spread worldwide.

But in a multicultural Europe, where "it is less and less
possible to base pastoral programs on a presumed acceptance of a
generally shared Christianity," as the bishops acknowledged,
where Islam is on the rise, having outstripped Judaism as the
second-largest European religion, and where tolerance of other
people's views is a prime modern value, missionary work is not
easy.

CANADA'S UNITED CHURCH'S NEW PRAYERBOOK
The Daily News Sunday, October 31, 1999

The draft version of a new United Church book of service has
sparked protest from conservatives in Canada's largest Protestant
denomination, who complain it reflects radical feminist ideology
and a gay and lesbian agenda.  The draft - titled Celebrate God's
Presence - refers to Mother and Father God.  It changes Father,
Son and Holy Spirit into Creator, Liberator and Healer.  It also
suggests a good alternative to the term "husband and wife" is
"life partners." By including the word partner, critics complain
the new term is general enough to include same-sex relationships.

"There is no doubt at all that it permits any number of scenarios
to unfold," says Fred Graham, program officer for worship at the
United Church of Canada head offices in Toronto.  "If the book
goes to publication, it will be the first time in the United
Church of Canada that such broad language has been used." And
that broad language is unacceptable senior minister at North
Lonsdale United Church in North Vancouver.  In an article in the
newsletter of the conservative Community of Concern within the
United Church of Canada, Faris suggests that if published, the
new service book will include "prayers and services which are
nothing less than an attack on the father, the faith, and the
family." In the first 100 pages of prayer, he wrote, only one is
addressed to the Father.  Replacing Father with God and Mother
Goddess panders to a radical feminist agenda, say critics, and is
another step toward abandonment of scripture.

POPE RENEWS CALL FOR DEBT LENIENCY
Copyright   1999 Nando Media   1999 Associated Press Vatican City
November 3, 1999

Pope John Paul II on Wednesday urged richer nations to release
poorer ones from their debts to prevent them from being
"unbearably weighed down." The pope said the move would allow
poor countries to concentrate their resources on improving living
conditions, rather than on finding ways to secure new loans.
John Paul frequently speaks out on the issue, calling for at
least a substantial reduction of the debt burden facing Third
World countries in the new millennium.  "The problem is complex
and has no easy solution," the pontiff said.  "But it must be
faced by international lawmakers and resolved." The pontiff urged
nations to "follow the path of solidarity, or face a
catastrophe."

HOPES TO INITIATE WORLD SABBATH FOR ALL RELIGIONS
New York (ENI).

Demanding an end to violence done in the name of God, calling for
greater respect between the world's religions and ethnic groups,
and praying for healing of past atrocities, a quietly-spoken
Episcopal (Anglican) priest in Detroit, Michigan has created the
World Sabbath, an inter-faith holy day to be launched on 22
January next year

PRESBYTERIANS MULL WHETHER ITS GAY PRIESTS MUST VOW CELIBACY
November 6, 1999 By Amy Westfeldt, Associated Press Newark, N.J.
(AP)

Graham Van Keuren first knew he wanted to be a minister when he
was 10 years old.  Soon after, he knew he was gay.  Van Keuren
says he was "called'' to both the ministry and his homosexuality
  and was meant to live out both callings to the fullest.  Now
his candidacy to become a Presbyterian minister has thrown a new
twist into a long-running debate about gays being leaders in the
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).  Church leaders heard arguments
Friday over a challenge to Van Keuren's status.  A decision is
expected next week.

Van Keuren said he began a relationship about a month ago with
another man.  "We are not sexually active, but it is a romantic
relationship,'' he said Friday.  He said he decided to be open
about his sexuality because he feels he was called to both the
church and to be in a relationship with a man.  "It's in the way
I feel God's presence when I am in a relationship,'' Van Keuren
said.  "I feel that's a reflection of God's love.''

PRESBYTERIANS PUT GAY 'MARRIAGE' POLICY ON TRIAL
November 4, 1999 NEWARK, New Jersey (CNN)

A dispute within the largest Presbyterian denomination in the
United States --- the same centuries-old clash between Christian
tradition and homosexuality that has divided other churches ---
heads to trial Thursday before a religious court.  At issue is
whether clergy should be barred by the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.), and possibly punished, for performing marriage-like
ceremonies that celebrate the union of gay partners.

Jeff Halvorsen and George Cisneros exchanged vows in January at
South Presbyterian Church in Dobbs Ferry, New York.  Their
commitment was blessed by the Rev.  Susan DeGeorge, one of
several Presbyterian clergy who have conducted several such
ceremonies.  But what Halvorsen and Cisneros celebrated as a
"holy union" may be in violation of Presbyterian church policy.

In 1995, the church's national organization rejected a proposed
amendment prohibiting its clergy from participating in same-sex
unions.  The church has 3.7 million members nationally.  The
church's Synod of the Northeast, which oversees the presbyteries
in New York, New Jersey and New England, must decide if DeGeorge
and other Presbyterian clergy can continue to perform commitment
ceremonies if they're not called marriages.

ANTI-SEMITISM

CONNECTICUT SYNAGOGUE TARGETED WITH MOLOTOV COCKTAILS
November 3, 1999 Norwalk, Conn.  (AP)

Two men attempting to firebomb a synagogue were thwarted when a
passersby began blowing his car horn, police said.  Police said a
witness saw two white men standing outside Congregation Beth El
at about 9:30 p.m.  Tuesday.  The witness told police the men
appeared ready to throw two incendiary devices at the temple,
where people were attending a social event.  Police said the two
men dropped their devices and fled the area in a blue car after
the witness distracted them by blowing his car horn.  No damage
occurred.  Police recovered the two Molotov cocktails.

Lt.  Angela Walsh said police do not know if the incident is
connected to an earlier incident of vandalism at the synagogue.
In August, two plastic containers of medical waste marked with
swastikas and references to a shooting at a Jewish center in Los
Angeles were found outside two synagogues   Congregation Beth E
and another synagogue in Stamford.

ATLANTA SYNAGOGUE ATTACKED - SPRAY PAINTED WITH SWASTIKAS
IsraelWire-11/4

Atlanta's oldest synagogue, the Or V'Shalom Synagogue was defaced
in an anti-Semitic attack in which swastikas and other hate
graffiti was painted on the building.  According to Rabbi Robert
Ichay, eight swastikas were painted on the house of worship, most
likely during the night between Monday and Tuesday.  One message
said, "blood suckers go home." The 40-year-old synagogue has
approximately 60 members.


PREPARATIONS FOR THE MILLENNIUM

NEW AGE LEADERS CALL FOR MILLENNIUM WAVE OF PRAYER
October 29, 1999 By Sarah Tippit Los Angeles, (Reuters)

Leaders of the "New Age" spiritual development movement are
calling for "wave" of prayer around the world on New Year's Eve
-- with prayers spoken, sung, chanted or even typed into the
electronic realm of Cyberspace.  Best-selling author James
Redfield, whose "Celestine Prophesy" series created numerous
spiritual support groups, says the aim of the mass prayer is to
do nothing less than "heal the world." Redfield, in a telephone
interview with Reuters on Friday, said he hopes the moment of
prayer that he and other spiritually concerned people are calling
for will turn into the biggest ecumenical prayer vigil ever.

Redfield said the worldwide call for a global moment of prayer
would begin Dec.  31 at 11:59 p.m.  in the South Pacific and roll
across the Earth as people welcome in the new millennium,
Redfield said.  "Every hour a new group in their time zone will
hold a moment of prayer.  There will be a wave of prayer that
encircles the globe," Redfield said.  "It's a way to connect
everybody with everyone else in their time zone."

Celebrities such as actor LeVar Burton and Marianne Williamson,
the founder of Detroit-based Church of Today will lead prayer
groups at various spots around the country which will be
broadcast live on the Internet via Redfield's Web site,
www.celestinevison.com.  Burton will be broadcasting live from
Walt Disney World in Orlando, Redfield said.  From next Monday,
the site will also contain information and chat rooms relating to
the vigil, Redfield said.  People will be asked to download
flyers from the site to pass to friends and family members who
want to participate in the worldwide prayer.


WHO BELIEVES THE WORLD WILL END?
Stan and Holly Deyo

We thought you'd find the below statistics enlightening.  Bear in
mind the first statement needs "adjusting" as Christians do not
believe the world ends with Armageddon - only the age ends.
Regardless, the overall flavor of this material is interesting...

http://www.sightings.com/politics5/worldend%5Fp.htm

40% of all Americans and 45% of Christians believe that the world
will end, as the Bible predicts, in a battle at Armageddon
between Jesus and the Antichrist, according to a new Newsweek
Poll on prophecy.  71% of Evangelical Protestants, but only 28%
of non-Evangelical Protestants and 18% of Catholics share that
view.

47% of believers in the Biblical prophecy of Armageddon think the
Antichrist is on earth now 45% believe Jesus will return to Earth
in their lifetime 15% of believers in the Armageddon prophecy --
or about 6% of all Americans -- think Jesus will return as early
as the year 2000.

In the poll, large majorities of believers in the second coming
of Christ believe that the following current events are a sign
that it will happen soon: Natural disasters (83%) Epidemics like
AIDS and Ebola (66%) Outbreaks of violence like shootings (62%)

95% of believers in a second coming believe that, under such
circumstances, it is important to get right with God.  65% think
it is important to convert non-Christians.  42% think that
converting people to the Christian faith hastens the return of
Jesus to Earth.  57% expect that people will be divided between
heaven and hell after the world ends.  68% expect that they will
be going to heaven.

For this Newsweek Poll, Princeton Research Associates interviewed
755 adults, 18 and older from October 21-22.  The margin of
sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.


SOCIETAL DECADENCE

BABIES TO HAVE TWO GAY FATHERS BY LAW
By Sally Pook London Telegraph 10/28/99

A BRITISH male homosexual couple were both granted the right
yesterday to be named as the legal parents of surrogate twin
babies.  The ruling by an American court is believed to have made
legal history as the first of its kind involving European
surrogacy.  The twin boy and girl, due to be born in December,
will now be among a small number of children worldwide with two
legally named fathers.  Two fathers have already been named in at
least nine American cases.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled that Barrie Drewitt, 30,
and Tony Barlow, 35, both businessmen of Chelmsford, Essex, can
become the official parents of Aspen and Saffron.  The couple,
who have been together for 11 years, spent =9C200,000 to arrange
the birth after taking advantage of relaxed surrogacy laws in
America.  Rosalind Bellamy, 32, a married mother of four - who
was recruited through an agency in California - was implanted
with the embryos from another woman's donated eggs fertilised in
the laboratory by both men's sperm.

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