About the author- litigation lawyer in telecoms, taxation, criminal, labor, appellate, family law and corporate; a radio broadcaster, speaker, author a husband, a father, advocate for consumers, for justice www.angkapatiran.org and a sinner who wants to
be a saint. hilman1108@yahoo.com
To All Kapatiran Members:(ALLIANCE FOR THE COMMON GOOD)
>
>
> As it appears, Kapatiran will be very busy this June 2005 with the
following activities set only as of this date:
>
> May 31 (Tues) — Kapatiran presentation @ Valle Verde (c/o Manolo)
> We must deccide who will do the presentation
>
> June 3 (Frid) — UN’s Ambassador for Peace Awards at Westin
Phil. Plaza, 1-6pm
> (c/o Bishop John). This is open to all our
members but Bishop John asked me
> to be present
>
> June 4 (Sat) — 9am. Nandy & I will make a presentation before
the St. Thomas Moore
> Group at Club Filipino (c/o Benny). This is
the political arm of the Couples For
> ChRIST.
>
> June 11 (Sat) — 8am to 12nn @ Robinson’s Galleria. Round Table
discussion with top
> evangelical leaders, including Bro. Eddie.
Nandy & I were sent invitations.
>
> June 12 (Sun) — 2 to 5pm in Manila. Gerry Gamez is inviting us to
make a presentation before
> various groups in Manila who will be
attending the Independence Day
> celebration.
>
> June 15 (Wed) — Kapatiran Presentation @ Bel-Air Homeowners
Association Board
> This is c/o Manolo.
>
> June 18 (Sat) — 8am to 2pm. Kapatiran Orientation for various
Groups (Youth, Wome’s and
> Civil Society) After the Orientation, Book
launching of Gen. Mariano’s
> second book.
>
>
> Very Important: We are also planning to hold a National Congress For
Inter-Faith Organizations
> (to be represented by leaders of all churches
and lay groups) where we shall
> present Kapatiran as a political option. This
should be around late July or
> August this year. As it sounds, this will be
a big challenge, perhaps the
> biggest so far this year. But considering
that there is an urgent need for the
> nation to know that there is a good
alternative (before they support a coup or
> anything of that kind), we must do this.
>
> Please take note of the above activities. Lend a hand in the
preparation. We all need each other’s support.
>
> Always,
>
> Alex Lacson
ONE MEANS OF PRESERVING PEACE IS TO RECEIVE ALL THINGS AS COMING FROM GOD
In e-mail the other day was this: “One great means of preserving a constant peace and tranquility of heart is to receive all things as coming from the hands of God, whatever they may be, and in whatever way they may come.” It was attributed to St. Dorotheus.
And it does bring peace. Too often, when things go wrong, we spend all sorts of time incriminating others or ourselves, looking for the evil that spurred a negative event.
Instead, we should receive trials as Jesus did. He never lost His peace when things went “wrong.”
It’s important to be aware of evil. Don’t get us wrong. In fact, one of the great deficiencies in the modern Church is just that: an all but complete dismissal of the devil at a time when he is especially active, and when in many ways we need to circle the wagons. We know from the very ministry of Jesus that evil spirits can cause all sorts of physical, spiritual, and mental sufferings. Scripture tells us that we wrestle in this life not just with flesh, but at a level that is transcendental.
Maladies of all kinds can be caused by the evil one.
And it’s important to examine ourselves. Frequently, things do go wrong because of our own shortcomings.
But often evil becomes too much of our focus when what we need to do is recognize those things that go “wrong” as the trials of life.
God sends or allows many “tests” for our own development. When you think back, illnesses, accidents, or other misfortunes leveled the playing fields, didn’t they? You learned from them, if you were paying attention. Matters clarified. You saw what was really important. You had time to evaluate the course of your life at a deeper level during times of sickness.
Or maybe you just needed to rest. We’re in such a go-go society that the flu or a cold, because they force us to rest, can be blessings!
The Lord “tests” us to develop our humility, our patience, and especially our love. Sometimes, He allows “bad” things to keep us humble, just as He let Paul suffer a “thorn” in his side (2 Corinthians 12:7).
Life is a test full of thorns and trials and once we realize that, we transcend it. We rise above the annoyance, and even the pain. And when that occurs, we find peace.
That peace should come in realizing that no matter what you do, your life on earth will never be perfect, because the world itself is a fallen place. The more we struggle to have things go in a way that we think is “perfect,” the more stress we bring. While we’re to do our best, and exercise diligence in everything we do, we’re not to expect perfection on earth. That’s for Heaven, and we only frustrate ourselves and create anxiety when we try to make earth a paradise. Perfection is for those who enjoy anxiety!
Instead we are to go through life with joy even when we’re “tried” and to invoke Christ in every circumstance. That means, as He told us, that there will be the daily Cross. And the thorns. Look at the thorns He wore! And look at how they were followed by resurrection.
WWW.SPIRITDAILY.COM
may 26, 2005
All of Europe will fall into anguish if we forget God, says Catholic leader
By Ruth Gledhill
The Church and its people are in crisis, according to the Archbishop of Westminster
EUROPE is filled with angst and the Roman Catholic Church is in crisis, the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, said last night.
In a lecture at Westminster Cathedral, the spiritual leader of more than four million Catholics in England and Wales said that the Church in Europe, in particular Britain, was in a time of crisis and of “dying and rising”.
He described the modern European as a person of angst, in spite of, or perhaps because of, the many liberties enjoyed in contemporary Western culture. He said that Europe would fall into anguish if it forgot God and lost touch with its Judaeo-Christian tradition.
He argued that the greatest temptation facing Europe was not evil but indifference, but he gave warning that the response to aggressive secularism could not be aggressive Christianity. One of the main tasks facing the Church was to recall Europe to its roots in God.
The Cardinal was speaking on the eve of the launch of his long-awaited “green paper” on the re-organisation of his own diocese of Westminster.
Westminster is one among 22 dioceses in England and Wales but, as the foremost, its plans radically to change the way it operates in order to cope with the rapidly declining numbers are being watched closely by church authorities throughout the West.
The paper, which will be introduced to parishioners at Masses this weekend, controversially proposes parish mergers and closures. Parishes will be told that they can no longer assume that they will have a resident priest and that they must prepare for this. Lay people will be urged to take a more active role in worship, administration and pastoral care. Numbers of Masses will be reduced and parishes will need to share staff, prayer ministries and even major liturgies, such as organising joint celebrations during Holy Week.
Unlike the developing world, in which the Catholic Church is experiencing explosive growth, numbers of priests in this country are in freefall as vocations continue to decline.
Some blame the celibacy requirement. In the Westminster consultation, a number of parishioners served by married priests who left the Church of England and went over to Rome after the ordination of women suggested that the success of this ministry meant that the celibacy requirement should be relaxed.
The Cardinal says that this is a question for Rome rather than for the local Church. Church authorities today continue to insist on the celibacy discipline and put the decline in vocations down to increasing secularisation and the reluctance of young people to make lifelong commitments to unfashionable spiritual values. From 843 priests working in the ministry in Westminster in 1990, the number has fallen to 623 today and is projected to be 471 by 2015.
Over the same period, the number of Catholics in the diocese has remained steady, replenished, in part, by immigration. Of 500,000 Catholics living in Westminster, 150,000 regularly attend Mass. This year saw a record number of adults, 780, seeking admission to the Church through its adult baptism and confirmation programme.
The surprise success of the television programme The Monastery shows that there is still a demand out there for what the Church offers, even if few men wish to be priests.
The Cardinal urges Catholics to pray for priestly vocations. He says: “There is no reason to lose confidence in the Lord of the harvest who desires to send labourers into His harvest.”
He also says that the paper is not simply a response to the crisis in vocations but is born also out of a desire to develop the gifts “of all the baptised”.
The paper gives warning that the shift in the image of a parish will need to be profound and parishioners and priests will need to take on a new mindset to develop strong lay leadership. “Over the next 10-15 years, the Church in Westminster will need to move away from the idea that the viability of a parish is contingent on its resident priest.”
do to www.spiritdaily.com
Page 1 || Page 2
You may be a battered spouse, male or female. Yes including male. there are battered men ( do let me know of your cases for documentation to help amend the existing law (RA 9262 to protect women and children against violence -attysison2020@yahoo.com)
Clinical Psychologist Raymond Flannery Jr writes about the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) saying that a victim of violence may predispose the victim to violent
outbursts later on.
When faced with a life-threatening situation, the body mobilizes itself for coping with the crisis. The neurotransmitters are released into the brain and into the brain’s limbic system so that the person is prepared to respond to the crisis.
The presence of these chemicals in the limbic system over time sensitizes the limbic system to become hyperreactive to minor life stress and sometimes to respond with aggressive outbursts towards others.
Relating this to domestic violence, PSTD may be the cause and effect of violence.
CALL THE HAVEN FOR WOMEN F YOU NEED HELP 632-8071592,8071586 THIS IS IN ALABANG MUNTINLUPA pHILIPPINES FUNDED BY THE CONGRESSIONAL SPOUSES FOUNDATION
Soldiers of Christ: Inside America’s Most Powerful Megachurch
By Jeff Sharlet
Harper’s Magazine
Thursday 26 May 2005
They are drawn as if by magnetic forces; they speak of Colorado Springs, home to the greatest concentration of fundamentalist Christian activist groups in American history, both as a last stand and as a kind of utopia in the making. They say it is new and unique and precious, embattled by enemies, and also that it is “traditional,” a blueprint for what everybody wants, and envied by enemies. The city itself is unspectacular, a grid of wide western avenues lined with squat, gray and beige box buildings, only a handful of them taller than a dozen stories. Local cynics point out that if you put Colorado Springs on a truck and carted it to Nebraska, it would make Omaha look lovely. But the architecture is not what draws Christians looking for clean living. The mountains help, but there are other mountain towns. What Colorado Springs offers, ultimately, is a story.
Lori Rose is from Minnesota and heard rumors about this holy city when she lived on an Air Force base near Washington, D.C. Her husband isn’t a Christian, refuses Jesus, looks at things he shouldn’t; but she has found a church to attend without him and joined a marriage study group there. Ron Poelstra came from Los Angeles. Now he volunteers at his church, selling his pastor’s books on “free-market theology” after services. His two teenage boys stand behind him, display models for the benefits of faith. L.A., Ron says, would have eaten them up: the gangs. Adam Taylor, now a pastor, grew up in Westchester County, an heir to the Bergdorf Goodman fortune, the son of artists and writers. In Colorado Springs he learned the Bible the hard way, each word a nail pounded into sin.
The story they found in Colorado is about newness: new houses, new roads, new stores. And about oldness, imagined: what is thought to be the traditional way of life, families as they were before the culture wars, after the World Wars, which is to say, during the brief, Cold War moment when America was a nation of single-breadwinner nuclear families.
Crime, of course, looms over this story. Not the actual facts of it - the burglary rate in and around Colorado Springs exceeds that in New York City and Los Angeles - but the idea of crime: a faith in the absence of it. And of politics, too: Colorado Springs’ evangelicals believe they live without it, in a carved-out space for civility and for like-minded dedication to common-sense principles. Even pollution plays a part: Christian conservatives there believe that they breathe cleaner air, live on ground untainted by the satanic fires of nineteenth-century industry - despite the smog that collects against the foothills of the Rockies and the cyanide, from a century of mining, that is leaching into the aquifers and mountain streams.
But those are facts, and Colorado Springs is a city of faith. A shining city at the foot of a hill. No one there believes it is perfect. And no one is so self-centered as to claim the perfection of Colorado Springs as his or her ambition. The shared vision is more modest, and more grandiose. It is a city of people who have fled the cities, people who have fought a spiritual war for the ground they are on, for an interior frontier on which they have built new temples to the Lord. From these temples they will retake their forsaken promised lands, remake them in the likeness of a dream. They call the dream “Christian,” but in its particulars it is “American.” Not literally but as in a story, one populated by cowboys and Indians, monsters and prayer warriors to slay them, and ladies to reward the warriors with chaste kisses. Colorado Springs is a city of moral fabulousness. It is a city of fables.
The city’s mightiest megachurch crests silver and blue atop a gentle slope of pale yellow prairie grass on the outskirts of town. Silver and blue, as it happens, are Air Force colors. New Life Church was built far north of town in part so it would be visible from the Air Force Academy. New Life wanted that kind of character in its congregation.
“Church” is insufficient to describe the complex. There is a permanent structure called the Tent, which regularly fills with hundreds or thousands of teens and twenty-somethings for New Life’s various youth gatherings. Next to the Tent stands the old sanctuary, a gray box capable of seating 1,500; this juts out into the new sanctuary, capacity 7,500, already too small. At the complex’s western edge is the World Prayer Center, which looks like a great iron wedge driven into the plains. The true architectural wonder of New Life, however, is the pyramid of authority into which it orders its 11,000 members. At the base are 1,300 cell groups, whose leaders answer to section leaders, who answer to zone, who answer to district, who answer to Pastor Ted Haggard, New Life’s founder.
Pastor Ted, who talks to President George W. Bush or his advisers every Monday, is a handsome forty-eight-year-old Indianan, most comfortable in denim. He likes to say that his only disagreement with the President is automotive; Bush drives a Ford pickup, whereas Pastor Ted loves his Chevy. In addition to New Life, Pastor Ted presides over the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), whose 45,000 churches and 30 million believers make up the nation’s most powerful religious lobbying group, and also over a smaller network of his own creation, the Association of Life-Giving Churches, 300 or so congregations modeled on New Life’s “free market” approach to the divine.
Pastor Ted will serve as NAE president for as long as the movement is pleased with him, and as long as Pastor Ted is its president the NAE will make its headquarters in Colorado Springs. Some believers call the city the Wheaton of the West, in honor of Wheaton, Illinois, once the headquarters of a more genteel Christian conservatism; others call Colorado Springs the “evangelical Vatican,” a phrase that says much both about the city and about the easeful orthodoxy with which the movement now views itself. Certainly the gathering there has no parallel in history, not in Lynchburg, Virginia, nor Tulsa, nor Pasadena, nor Orlando, nor any other city that has aspired to be the capital of evangelical America. Evangelical activist groups (”parachurch” ministries, in the parlance) in Colorado Springs number in the hundreds, though a precise count is hard to specify. Groups migrate there and multiply. They produce missionary guides, “family resources,” school curricula, financial advice, athletic training programs, Bibles for every occasion. The city is home to Young Life, to the Navigators, to Compassion International; to Every Home for Christ and Global Ethnic Missions (Youth Ablaze). Most prominent among the ministries is Dr. James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, whose radio programs (the most extensive in the world, religious or secular), magazines, videos, and books reach more than 200 million people worldwide.
The press tends to regard Dobson as the most powerful evangelical Christian in America, but Pastor Ted is at least his equal. Whereas Dobson plays the part of national scold, promising to destroy politicians who defy the Bible, Pastor Ted quietly guides those politicians through the ritual of acquiescence required to save face. He doesn’t strut, like Dobson; he gushes. When Bush invited him to the Oval Office to discuss policy with seven other chieftains of the Christian right in late 2003, Pastor Ted regaled his whole congregation with the story via email. “Well, on Monday I was in the World Prayer Center” - New Life’s high-tech, twenty-four-hour-a-day prayer chapel - “and my cell phone rang.” It was a presidential aide; “the President,” says Pastor Ted, wanted him on hand for the signing of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. Pastor Ted was on a plane the next morning and in the President’s office the following afternoon. “It was incredible,” wrote Pastor Ted. He left it to the press to note that Dobson wasn’t there.
No pastor in America holds more sway over the political direction of evangelicalism than does Pastor Ted, and no church more than New Life. It is by no means the largest megachurch, nor is Ted the best-known man of God: Saddleback Church, in southern California, counts 80,000 on its rolls, and its pastor, Rick Warren, has sold 20 million copies of his book The Purpose-Driven Life. But Warren’s success has come at the price of passion; his doctrine, though conservative, is bland and his politics too obscured by his self-help message to be potent. Although other churches boast more eminent memberships than Pastor Ted’s - near D.C., for example, McLean Bible Church and The Falls Church (an Episcopal church that is, like many “mainline” churches today, now evangelical in all but name) minister to the powerful - such churches are not, like New Life, crucibles for the ideas that inspire the movement, ideas that are forged in the middle of the country and make their way to Washington only over time. Evangelicalism is as much an intellectual as an emotional movement; and what Pastor Ted has built in Colorado Springs is not just a battalion of spiritual warriors but a factory for ideas to arm them.
New Life began with a prophecy. In November 1984 a missionary friend of Pastor Ted’s, respected for his gifts of discernment, made him pull over on a bend of Highway 83 as they were driving, somewhat aimlessly, in the open spaces north of the city. Pastor Ted - then twenty-eight, given to fasting and oddly pragmatic visions (he believes he foresaw Internet prayer networks before the Internet existed) - had been wondering why God had called him from near Baton Rouge, where he had been associate pastor of a megachurch, to this bleak city, then known as a “pastor’s graveyard.” The missionary got out of the car and squinted. He crouched down as if sniffing the ground. “This,” said the missionary, “this will be your church. Build here.”
So Pastor Ted did. First, he started a church in his basement. The pulpit was three five-gallon buckets stacked one atop the other, and the pews were lawn chairs. A man who lived in a trailer came round if he remembered it was Sunday and played guitar. Another man got the Spirit and filled a five-gallon garden sprayer with cooking oil and began anointing nearby intersections, then streets and buildings all over town. Pastor Ted told his flock to focus their prayers - go to truthout.org to finish reading this article
