Rosslyn Chapel and 2012

Rosslyn Chapel was intended to be one of more than 37 collegiate churches that were built in Scotland between the reigns of King James I and James IV (1406-1513). The chapel is actually the choir of what was intended to be a much larger cross-shaped church. 

The chapel was founded by Sir William Sinclair of the St. Clair family, a Scottish noble family from Orkney descended from Norman knights and, according to legend, linked to the Knights Templar. The foundation stone of Rosslyn Chapel was laid on St. Matthew's Day, September 21, 1446. 

After Sir William died in 1484, the larger building he had planned was never completed. Rosslyn Chapel's founder is buried in the chapel's foundation. Today, Rosslyn Chapel still functions as a place of worship for the Scottish Episcopal Church.

Quick Facts

Site Information
Names:	Rosslyn Chapel; Roslin Chapel; Collegiate Church of St Matthew
Location:	Lothian, Scotland
Faith:	Christianity
Denomination:	Original/Primary: Catholic Current/Secondary: Scottish Episcopal
Dedication:	St. Matthew
Category:	Churches
Architecture:	Gothic
Date:	1446
Patron(s):	Sir William Sinclair
Features:	Gothic Sculpture
Status:	Active
Visitor Information
Address:	Roslin, Midlothian, Scotland EH25 9PU
Coordinates:	55.855445° N, 3.159851° W(view on Google Maps)
Lodging:	View hotels near this location
Phone:	+44 (0)131 440 2159
Website:	www.rosslynchapel.org.uk
E-mail:	mail@rosslynchapel.com
Public transport:	Buses leave from Princes Street in Edinburgh. It is a short walk from the bus stop to the chapel.
Opening hours:	Mon-Sat: 9:30am-6pm; Sun: 12-4:45pm Last admission 30 minutes before closing
Cost:	adults £7.50; concessions £6

Note: This information was accurate when published and we do our best to keep it updated, but details such as opening hours can change without notice. To avoid disappointment, please check with the site directly before making a special trip.

Adorned with mysterious figures, the chapel has long been the subject speculation regarding its possible connection to Freemasonry, the Knights Templar, and the Holy Grail. Some carvings even seem to depict American plants such as maize and aloe vera, carved fifty years before Columbus's voyages, while others have thus far defied interpretation.

The mysteries of Rosslyn Chapel were brought to the attention of a much wider audience by Dan Brown's bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code. On Brown's official website, under "Bizarre True Facts from The Da Vinci Code," is the following statement:

There exists a chapel in Great Britain that contains a ceiling from which hundreds of stone blocks protrude, jutting down to form a bizarre multi-faceted surface. Each block is carved with a symbol, seemingly at random, creating a cipher of unfathomable proportion. Modern cryptographers have never been able to break this code, and a generous reward is offered to anyone who can decipher the baffling message.

In recent years, geological ultrasounds have revealed the startling presence of an enormous subterranean vault hidden beneath the chapel. This vault appears to have no entrance and no exit. To this day, the curators of the chapel have permitted no excavation. 

After The Da Vinci Code was published in 2003, the number of visitors to Rosslyn Chapel rose by 56%. In 2004, almost 70,000 visited the building, making it one of Scotland's most popular tourist attractions.

As long as the Holy Grail has not been recovered from the sealed crypt underneath the chapel, a real ‘treasure’ was revealed on ground radar scans, the rumours about the secrets that the chapel is supposed to hide will only increase. The Rosslyn Chapel Trust preserves the myth by not allowing the crypt to be opened. Ground radar scans made without the consent of the Rosslyn Chapel Trust have so far revealed a secret tunnel between the chapel and Rosslyn Castle. Also, Researchers, using the latest scanning, MRI, and Ultrasonic technologies, plan to view under the ground to attempt to locate the "secret vaults" present inside.

The question however is if the Holy Grail that is supposed to be buried underneath Rosslyn Chapel is the chalice of the Last Supper, the Ark of the Covenant, or as some think Baphomet the head of John the Baptist? It is far more likely that the secret of Rosslyn Chapel concerns esoteric knowledge that was acquired by the Knights Templar during their crusades to Jerusalem and used in the design of churches, cathedrals and temples, possibly even this chapel.

According to scholars there is no clear documented connection between the Knights Templar and the founder of this chapel, the 3rd Earl of Orkney, Baron of Roslin, William Sinclair, however there are sufficient clues to suggest that such a connection must have existed. Officially the Sinclair’s were even present at the trial of the Knights Templar in Edinburgh in 1309 after pope Clement V had officially forbidden the Templar Order. This fact alone would contradict any supposed connections between the Sinclair family and the Knights Templar. In addition the first stone for the chapel was laid roughly 150 years after the abolishment of the Knights Templar.

It is a fact however that the chapel became a symbol of Scottish Freemasonry and that it has been a real pilgrimage for freemasons for centuries. In 1736 the 21st Baron of Rosslyn, co-incidentally also named William Sinclair, became the first Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland. The foundation of this Lodge is supposed to be the start of Scottish freemasonry, however as we will demonstrate the architecture of the chapel itself contradicts this claim and the relation between the chapel and freemasonry must be much older.

The chapel has multiple aspects that reveal its descent from freemasonry and its connection to the Knights Templar. The single Latin inscription that can be found in the church is already reason enough to suspect such connections. The inscription carved in stone reads: ‘FORTE EST VINUM, FORTIOR EST REX, FORTIORES SUNT MULIERES: SUPER OMNIA VINCIT VERITAS’ (Wine is strong, a king is stronger, female are stronger still, but truth conquers everything). This Latin phrase connects Rosslyn Chapel to Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, the temple where the Knights Templar supposedly discovered a big secret during their crusades. Zerrubbabel got permission from king Darius after winning a contest to rebuild the destroyed Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem and to lead the Jews from exile in Babylon back to Israel. Zerrubbabel won the winning price of Darius’s contest question ‘who or what was the strongest’. Zerrubbabel’s answered that the truth would conquer everything. As a reward he was allowed to rebuild the temple of Jerusalem. The winning answer to king Darius’s question is carved in stone in Rosslyn Chapel.

Also the depiction of two knights on a single horse that is displayed in Rosslyn Chapel is an image that can also be found in the official coat of arms of the Knights Templar.

Gravestone of William Sinclair with an eight pointed cross

A convincing clue that William Sinclair can be associated with the Knights Templar can be found on his grave in the chapel. The inscription on his grave reads: ‘William de St. Clair, Knight Templar’. Historians however point out that this statement is incorrect and that it is completely uncertain who of the many William Sinclair’s has been buried here.

What is far more interesting than this straight forward clue suggesting that William Sinclair was a Knight Templar, is the presence of an eight pointed cross on his grave stone. The official coat of arms of the Sinclair’s is a four pointed cross in a stitch pattern and it’s a well known fact that the Knights Templar used four and eight pointed crosses in their coat of arms (see the head of this article) as well.

Sinclair coat of arms

We will demonstrate that these four and eight pointed crosses have a deep esoteric and astronomical significance that must be well known to the freemasons.

 

When the grave stone of William Sinclair is studied in detail we notice that besides the eight pointed cross there is also a four pointed cross depicted. The name of the founder of Rosslyn Chapel is spelled in Lombardic letters ‘Willhm de Sinncler’. It’s remarkable that the last two letters ER are set apart and are reversed in spelling. It reads RE. RE in the author’s opinion is a reference to Amen-Re or Amen-Ra, the Egyptian solar deity. It makes sense since Rosslyn Chapel is not just some ordinary chapel, it is a solar temple. Rosslyn Chapel was inaugurated in 1450 as the ‘Collegiate Church of St. Matthew’ on the fall equinox (21st September). The chapel is perfectly aligned to the cardinal directions similar to the ancient solar temples. Another conspicuous feature is that the depiction on the grave stone resembles a key. Could this depiction be the key to the secrets of Rosslyn Chapel?

Depiction on the grave stone of William Sinclair, founder of the chapel.

At the east end of the chapel there are three very important pillars perfectly aligned to the East. These pillars are the Master Pillar, the Journeyman Pillar and the Apprentice Pillar. The authors Robert Lomas and Christopher Knight have shown that Rosslyn Chapel is a copy of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. They argue that the Master Pillar and the Apprentice Pillar correspond with the two pillars Boaz and Jachin that stood in front of Solomon’s Temple.

In ‘The Stone Puzzle of Rosslyn Chapel’ Philip Coppens describes the initiation rituals of the freemasons; The pillars in Rosslyn Chapel correspond with the three degrees in freemasonry. In the initiation rituals of the freemasons these pillars correspond with the solstices and equinoxes. The novice initiated into the ‘Entered Apprentice’ degree in freemasonry is placed in the Lodge near the pillar in the north east corner (Jachin). This pillar corresponds with the summer solstice. A freemason who is initiated into the ‘Fellow craft Mason’ degree is placed in the south east corner (Boaz) corresponding with the winter solstice. A freemason who is finally initiated into the Master Mason degree is placed in front of the middle pillar corresponding with the equinox. During the ritual the candidate dies but he’s eventually resurrected from his death. At the moment of his resurrection a light of a five pointed star is lit. This five pointed star is the brightest morning star according to Coppens.

I believe that this ritual concerns the ‘resurrection’ and ‘rebirth’ of the Sun. The sun dies each year on the cross of the zodiac during the winter solstice to be fully reborn on the spring equinox in the annual cycle. During the spring equinox the sun is fully raised from the death as it revives nature that starts to blossom again.

Not only does the sun die to be reborn in the annual cycle, it also dies and is reborn in the larger astronomical cycle called the precession of the equinoxes. This cycle takes 26.000 years to complete and is caused by the wobbling of the Earth axis causing the spring equinox to shift. We are presently living in the Age of Pisces but as a result of precession we will enter the Age of Aquarius in the near future.

The most important thing of the extraordinary time that we live in, is that the sun will be reborn in the precession cycle around the year 2012, to be more specific in between the years 1978-2017. Around this time the sun will reside on the Milky Way at the winter and summer solstices. It coincides with the ending of the Maya calendar on December 21st 2012. The ending of the Maya calendar happens on the winter solstice when the sun aligns with the Milky Way. This event is regarded as the moment that the sun is reborn in the great cycle, the precession cycle.

In my opinion this extraordinary astrological event is symbolized by the initiation rituals in freemasonry. The pillar that is so important in freemasonry is a symbol of the Milky Way. When the Pillar of the Apprentice is studied we notice that at the base of the pillar eight snakes are sculptured. This pillar is associated with the World Tree that we find in many cultures around the world.

In the Nordic mythology the World Tree is called Yggdrassil and it had eight snakes curling around its roots.

The World Tree or Axis Mundi represented the cosmological centre in ancient times; it connects the Earth with the four cardinal directions as well as the heavens with the underworld. In the Maya culture the World Tree represents the Milky Way or Wakah Chan according to Mayanist Linda Schele. To be more precisely the Wakah Chan is the crossing of the Milky Way and the ecliptic, the virtual track of the sun around the Earth. This cross point is exactly the place where the sun resides on the Milky Way on the winter solstice of 2012.

The initiation rituals of freemasonry where the candidates are placed near the pillars of the Lodge are associations with the solstices and equinoxes, they symbolise the astronomical alignment of the sun (candidate freemason) with the Milky Way (pillar). The pillar represents the World Tree or the crossing of the ecliptic and the Milky Way. The alignment of the sun with the Milky Way on an equinox or solstice is called a Great Celestial Conjunction (Smelyakov/Wicherink 2006). There are exactly four such conjunctions in a precession cycle of 26.000 years. Around 2012 this conjunction takes place again after 6480 years.

The initiation ritual of the Master Mason whereby the candidate is placed near the equinox (Journeyman Pillar) with the five pointed star that rises as the morning star, is I believe a astronomical reference to the start date of the construction of Rosslyn Chapel. The construction of Rosslyn Chapel started at ‘St. Matthew’s Day’ on the fall equinox of 1446. The ‘brightest five pointed star’ is no doubt a reference to Venus. Venus traces a pentagram (a five pointed star) along the zodiac in her conjunctions with the Earth and is the brightest morning star in the sky. At dawn on the day of the start of the construction of Rosslyn Chapel, Venus rose as a morning star. In addition there was a conjuncture of Venus and Regulus, the brightest star of Leo. 

Regulus is one of the four royal stars Aldebaran, Regulus, Antares and Formalhaut. These four stars belong to the constellations Taurus (Aldebaran), Leo (Regulus), Scorpio (Antares) and Southern Fishes (Formalhaut). Southern Fishes is the equivalent of Aquarius since it opposes Aquarius on the ecliptic. It is these four signs Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius that form the ‘Galactic Cross’  in ancient times. We will further discuss the importance of the ‘Galactic Cross’ in the context of this article below.

Fall equinox 1446, date of the start of the construction of Rosslyn Chapel,
Venus rises as the morning star in conjuncture with Regulus

Rosslyn Chapel creates an atmosphere of a garden or forest due to the abundant sculptures of leaves, flowers and plants. The association of the three pillars with the World Tree is therefore very appropriate. A noticeable presence in the Chapel is the so called Green Man. From his mouth branches and leaves are growing. There are over a 100 of these sculptures in the chapel in Roslin.

The Green Man

The Green Man symbolizes regeneration in nature and the blossoming of life during spring. It therefore also symbolizes resurrection and rebirth and as such can be associated with the rebirth of the sun. It’s a remarkable fact that the Green Man in Rosslyn Chapel forms another eight pointed cross.

Because the Green Man was also found in 11th century Templar churches in Jerusalem we find another clue that the architecture of Rosslyn Chapel may have been strongly influenced by the Knights Templar.

The highest degree in English freemasonry is called the Royal Arch. It is a higher degree than the Master Mason degree. Freemasons of the Royal Arch are initiated into the deepest secrets of freemasonry. These secrets are conveyed by the so called Tracing Board. The Tracing Board of the Royal Arch shows the two pillars of Solomon’s Temple Boaz and Jachin with on top op these pillars the Royal Arch.

The two pillars in front of Solomon’s Temple are most likely copies of the ancient Egyptian temples dedicated to the Aten (solar disk). One or more pylons (entrance gates) were situated at the entrance of the temple. These pylons in the temples of the Aten consisted of sets of pillars symbolizing the two mountains of the horizon, the Akhet in between which the sun rose.

Notice that in the Tracing Board underneath the arch of the Royal Arch there’s not only an eight pointed cross, but a four pointed cross as well.

    


Tracing Board of the ‘Royal Arch’ of English freemasonry,
To the left we see a four pointed cross underneath the arch, to the right an eighth pointed cross.

What can be so important about an arch in between two pillars such that it represents the highest degree in freemasonry? Let’s have a look at the pillars of Rosslyn Chapel, the pillars of the Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason.

Four and eight pointed arches                         

Drawing of the three pillars and their arches.

What is prominent is that the east side of the pillars the arches consist of eight pointed crosses, while on the west side we notice the four pointed crosses with the stitch pattern. These last four pointed crosses resemble the coat of arms of the Sinclair’s!

   

What can be the meaning of these four and eight pointed crosses (Green Man, gravestone of William Sinclair) that we find in abundance in Rosslyn Chapel and why were they also used by the Knights Templar? Why do the freemasons attach so much importance to these arches and why is their highest degree in freemasonry called the Royal Arch? Why do we find the four and eight pointed crosses in the arches of the three most important pillars at Rosslyn Chapel?

The explanation can be found in the astrological alignment of two astronomical crosses. The zodiac has two different crosses. When both crosses are superimposed, an eight pointed cross is formed. When both these crosses overlap to form a single four pointed cross this event is called a Great Celestial Conjunction.

The first cross is the cross formed by the equinox and solstice axis. The four signs of the zodiac that belong to the equinoxes and solstices are Aries (March 21st, spring), Cancer (June 21st, summer), Libra (September 21st, fall) and Capricorn (December 21st, winter) in the tropical zodiac.

In the Tracing Board of the Royal Arch, three of these zodiac signs are depicted on the arch. On the left pillar Aries is depicted, in the centre at the so called keystone Cancer is depicted and finally on the right pillar Libra is depicted. This explains why the pillars in freemasonry correspond with the equinoxes and solstices.

Under the Royal Arch of the Tracing Board, we notice a shield with a four pointed cross. In the four quadrants of this shield, the zodiac signs Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius can be found. These four so called fixed signs form a fixed cross in the zodiac. The importance of these signs is that they can be associated with the crossing of the ecliptic and the Milky Way.

The axis connecting 5° Gemini with 5° Sagittarius corresponds with the galactic equator and forms the axis of the galactic cross. 5° Gemini and 5° Sagittarius are the places where the ecliptic and the Milky Way intersect in the zodiac.

In ancient times the galactic cross was denoted by the zodiac signs Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius instead of Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces which would have been more logical since the latter signs are the signs of the galactic cross. The reason is that only the former and not the latter signs are visible shortly before sunrise during a Great Celestial Conjunction on the equinoxes and solstices.

Left top zodiac crosses around the year zero, to the left bottom around the year 2012 (in between 1978-2017)

The importance of our present time is that the two crosses of the zodiac (galactic cross and equinox-solstice axis cross) that formed an eight pointed cross in the last 6480 years, now in the timeframe around 2012 merge to form a single four pointed cross again. This happens in between the years 1978-2017. After 2017 the two crosses separate again for the next 6480 years to form an eight pointed cross again.

The merger of the two crosses in the zodiac corresponds with the alignment of the sun with the Milky Way at the winter solstice in the period 1978-2017 also called the Galactic Alignment (John Major Jenkins). This moment signals the start of a new cycle in the precession cycle and this event I believe is expressed in the freemasonry initiation rituals when the candidate freemason (Sun) is placed in front of the pillar (Milky Way). 

This knowledge of the merger of the two crosses must be the deepest secret of freemasonry and it is preserved by the Royal Arch. Jeff Nisbet in ‘Forbidden Religion’ explains that one of the Templars who was arrested on October 13, 1307 explained during his interrogation that in the initiation rituals of the Order the candidate was shown the Christian Cross and was told ‘Put not thy faith in this, for it is not old enough’. 

Babylonian Cherubim

And indeed it seems that the knowledge of this cross predates Christianity and can be traced back to Solomon’s Temple. In front of Solomon’s Temple two pillars were standing called Boaz and Jachin. In the holiest of holiest in the inner sanctuary of the temple the Ark of the Covenant was stored and it was guarded by two Cherubims.

A Cherubim is a hybrid of a human and animals. We recognise the four zodiac signs that can be associated with the galactic cross in the animals of the Cherubim. The Cherubim has the head of a human (Aquarius), the body of a bull (Taurus), the back and tail of a lion (Leo) and the wings of an eagle (Scorpio or Aquilla). The zodiac sign of Scorpio is often replaced by the sign of the eagle (Aquilla).

In ancient Assyria the Cherubim was called a Karibu and it guarded the Tree of Life or the World Tree. Here we find a direct link with the Milky Way or better the crossing of the ecliptic and the Milky Way again, the galactic cross. In ancient Egypt we find the Cherubim in the form of Sphinxes that guarded the temples.

Finally the writers Tim Wallace Murphy and Marilyn Hopkins argue in their book ‘Rosslyn’ that Rosslyn Chapel is the destination of a pilgrimage route from Santiago de Compostella leading along French cathedrals including the cathedral of Toulouse, Orléans, Chartres, Notre Dame de Paris and Amiens. As we have been demonstrating in our research also the Chartres cathedral that has been built with the aid of the Knights Templar contains the same esoteric knowledge about the Great Celestial Conjunction around 2012. Compostella means campus stellea (field of stars) and as such can be associated with the Milky Way. I therefore believe that the pilgrimage symbolizes a journey along the Milky Way with the solar temple Rosslyn Chapel as its destination.

It seems that the Knights Templar discovered this rare event in the precession cycle that was of great importance to the ancients and is also known to the indigenous American Indians. According to the Maya this astronomical event taking place on the 21st of December 2012 signals the end of one era and the start of another, it heralds a new World Age.

I believe that the four and eight pointed crosses form the true ‘Da Vinci Code’ of Rosslyn Chapel; it reveals secret knowledge about the Great Celestial Conjunction that must have been known to the Knights Templar and the secret brotherhoods that originated from them like the English freemasons.

Human Rights Campaign about DADT (‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’) law

Today(July 6th, 2011) a panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit re-instituted an injunction barring the military from enforcing the ban on openly lesbian, gay and bisexual service members.  The court concluded that, with “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal being implemented and certification of the new policy forthcoming, the government would not be burdened by ceasing enforcement at this time.  The order was issued in the appeal of Log Cabin Republicans v. Panetta (formerly Gates), a case challenging the constitutionality of the DADT law.  In September 2010, a federal district judge ruled that the law is unconstitutional and the Obama administration appealed that decision.  While the Ninth Circuit must still rule on the constitutionality of the law, until it does so, the military will now be enjoined from enforcing DADT.  Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, released the following statement:

“Today’s decision is a harbinger that ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is on its way out.  With troops trained on the new policy and senior military leaders having said the process is working without significant disruption, DADT is on its last legs.  The time for certification is now in order to clearly and plainly wipe this damaging law off the books once and for all.”

Two Christian Girls Disappear From State Care Home in Egypt

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Parents and lawyers of Christian teens Nancy Fathy and her cousin Christine Fathy, who allegedly converted to Islam, were shocked to learn the two girls have been taken by security officers from the care home where they were entrusted by the attorney general and held in a undisclosed place without knowledge or consent of the attorney general.

Lawyer Amgad Mourad said he went to the orphanage in Hadayel el_Koba on July 3 with the girls' parents, but were surprised to learn that Nancy and Christine were taken by security from the orphanage on June 29. "We contacted south Cairo prosecution general, who was surprised and defensive, as we had a meeting yesterday with the General Council for Childhood and Motherhood and we were assured of the presence of Nancy and Christine in the orphanage."

Today, lawyers with the parents went to south Cairo general prosecutor and were told by him the teens are in a safe place with public security, as they were afraid the parents may go to the orphanage and create problems there, according to Mourad. "Still we were not told where they are staying."

According to attorney Dr Naguib Gabriel, President of the Egyptian Union Organization of Human Rights, who is also one of the lawyers representing the parents of the Christian girls, the girls were moved to another place because of the threats of violence issued by the unlawful Muslim group calling itself "Alliance for the Support of New Female Muslims."

"It may be the Muslims knew the whereabouts of the two girls, and they were moved to the safer place," said Gabriel. He said he contacted Mrs. Lamia Mohsen, head of the Childhood and Motherhood Council and she also had no knowledge that Christine and Nancy were moved from their care home.

Both 14-year-old Nancy Magdy Fathy, and her 16-year old cousin Christine Ezzat Fathy, disappeared while on their way to church on Sunday June 12. Their parents accused two Muslim brothers from a neighboring village of abducting them. Two weeks later, the girls appeared in Cairo and surrendered themselves at a Cairo police station. The Christian minors said they converted to Islam of their own free will, and refused to return to their families, and even applied for protection from them. The prosecution decided to put them in a state care home and provide protection for them, until the completion of the investigation. Al Azhar denied that the two Coptic teenagers had converted to Islam, because they are still minors and have not yet reached 18 years of age, as is required by law.

Investigation of their case was transferred to child prosecution at the south Cairo court as they are still minors. The prosecutor ordered reconciliation sessions between Nancy and Christine and their parents in the presence of a social worker from the Childhood and Motherhood Council. Three sessions were held, only one of which was attended by the parents.

Gabriel stressed that "none of the girls said she converted to Islam. During the meeting with their parents the younger threw herself in the arms of her father, sobbing while the older girl said she was afraid to return home, the matter is not conversion to Islam at all, they are just afraid of family retribution"

He said the lawyers went with the parents yesterday to south Cairo prosecution for child care and met with the committee of the Childhood Council, which is comprised of two social workers and two psychiatrists. "The committee wrote conflicting reports. It reported the girls are psychologically disturbed and cannot control their behavior and then it said one of the girls talked of her preparedness to convert to Islam." He said they objected to the formation of the committee and demanded Christian representation in it. "Even the two social workers wore the Hijab," he explained. They also demanded that the care home would be a neutral one or at least its administration would include a Christian.

Gabriel believes the psychological rehabilitation will never succeed as long as there is the presence of Sharia associations and Hijab-clad social workers. "We are not assured at all. It is not possible to leave them in the hands of a committee without any Christian presence, and it is not possible to leave them in care for 6 months or a year, until they reach 18 years old, when we will be told they have become Muslims."

He said he would be meeting Dr. Lamia, of the Childhood Council, to discuss the timeline foreseen for the intended return of the children to their parents and the schedule of the psychiatric rehabilitation. "The main danger for the girls is being kept away from their parents and not by lodging them in a care home."

He said they demanded that there should be guarantees not to deliver the children to Muslims, or Muslim Brotherhood members, or leave the control over the girls to them, stressing that such requests were approved. "However, we were greatly surprised that after the approval of our demands, the two girls suddenly disappeared from the care home."

Yesterday in Minya the Court of Appeals released until further evidence appears Gomaa Sayed Gomaa and his brother Arafat, the Muslim men accused of being behind the abduction of Christine and Nancy and taking them to Alexandria and Cairo. "This is a very serious matter, as investigations are still going on and the virginity exam has not yet been carried out on the minors, which is a part of the criminal investigations. Depending on the results, charges in this case would be raping of a minor or minors," Gabriel said.

Egyptian Court Dismisses Muslim Case Against Christian Woman

The Egyptian administrative court of the State Council dismissed today(06-29-2011) the lawsuit filed by Muslim lawyers, demanding the disclosure of the whereabouts of Camilia Shehata, the wife of a Coptic priest, who was alleged to have converted to Islam and held against her will by the Coptic Church. In reaching its decision, the court said the Muslim lawyers failed to provide proof to support their claim of the detention of Camilia by the church.

Camilia's attorney, Dr. Naguib Gabriel, said "The only thing the Muslim lawyers delivered as proof for their claims were snippets of newspapers from the Internet."

The case lasted over four months, during which Dr. Gabriel submitted as proof unequivocal documents that Camilia was never detained by the church and she never converted to Islam as alleged. Among the documents was a power of attorney from Camilia for him to represent her at court. "This was issued by the public notary, by a Muslim employee and in which she wrote "Christian" beside her religious affiliation, while she could have easily written Muslim instead." said Gabriel. "If she was really detained by the church, she could have asked for help from the employee when she went to the notary," he added. Also, a certificate from Al-Azhar stating that she never converted to Islam was presented as evidence.

The prosecution also heard the testimony of Bishop Armiya, secretary to Pope Shenouda III, who denied the church had detained her. It also took the testimony of Anba Agapios, Bishop of Deir Mawass, Minya Governorate, who also refuted the charge.

Previously, the court had responded to the Muslim lawyers' demands regarding Camilia's conversion to Islam, saying the issue was the beliefs of people, but whether there was a detainment or not. Also, the Muslim lawyers had demanded Camelia appear in person before the court, which was refused by the court.

"Today's court ruling closes the curtain on one of the most famous and difficult cases in Egypt." said attorney Dr. Gabriel. "Muslims will not be allowed to demonstrate regarding this matter anymore, which they used as a pretext to create sectarian strife between Muslims and Christians."

The story of Camelia Shehata, which became a public issue for the last 11 months, started on July 19, 2010, when after a dispute with her husband, Father Tedaos Samaan, priest at St. Georges Church in Deir Mawas, she left home and went to Cairo to stay with relatives, without telling anyone of her whereabouts. "This was my biggest mistake," said Camilia in an interview with Al-Hayat Christian TV Channel from her hide-out with her husband and 2-year-old son.

Her husband, believing she was abducted by Muslims, like many other cases, came with some 3000 Copts from his congregation to protest her disappearance at St. Mark's Coptic Cathedral in Cairo.

State Security found her a few days later and handed her over to her sister who lives in Cairo. She later reconciled with her husband and the family has lived in hiding ever since, as Muslim demonstrations started to take place, demanding the return of "their sister in Islam, Camelia."

Faked photos of Camilia in a Hijab appeared on the internet and over 20 demonstrations were staged by Muslim, accusing the church of abducting new converts (females) to Islam and holding them against their will in churches and monasteries, where they were tortured.

Camilia appeared in a video clip from her hideout, taken under utmost security by the independent daily El-Youm7, in which she denied ever converting to Islam (video). The Muslims said it was not Camilia but was her double who appeared, and carried on with their demonstration, the last of which was on April 30, when they encircled the Coptic Cathedral and the Pope's residence vowing that "Camilia must return". Camelia appeared for a second time on May 7, in a one-hour interview on Al-Hayat TV, in which she denied all Muslim claims of ever having met any of them or having been to Al Azhar with them. On both occasions she confirmed her Christian faith.

Pastor’s Father Beaten Unconscious in Attack in Rajasthan, India

Hindu extremists threaten to kill church leader in spite of pact to stop assaults.

Hindu extremists in Pratapgarh, Rajasthan have threatened to kill a pastor after beating his family and violating an agreement to stop attacking them, the pastor said.

Pastor Shantilal Ninama of Believers Church told Compass that the Hindu extremists beat his 65-year-old father until he fell unconscious in one of the attacks last month.

On the evening of June 8, after agreeing to do no further harm to Pastor Ninama and his family in exchange for him dropping police charges he’d filed over a previous attack, the enraged Hindu extremists stormed into his home and began beating and stoning his father, sister, wife and three children, he said. As he sought police help, his father fell unconscious and his wife and two of his children ran out into the darkness. Another daughter hid beneath a bed, and his sister escaped and hid in a valley.

“The next day, I asked one Hindu extremist, Bhim Shankar Sharma, to give me a copy of the agreement,” Pastor Ninama said. “But he got angry with me, and verbally abused me and my faith, saying that I am an unclean person because Christianity is an unclean and foreign religion, and that Christians are not worthy to stay in India. He caught me by my collar and slapped me on my face.”

The Rev. Prabhatkar Malladi, secretary of the Udaipur Diocese in Rajasthan, told Compass that the extremists were threatening to kill the pastor.

“The villagers are not allowing any Christian leaders to enter into the village to meet Pastor Ninama, but we are taking necessary steps to help the pastor, and one advocate is now taking up the case,” he said.

Pastor Ninama also told Compass that the extremists were plotting to kill him.

“Well-wishers are telling me to be careful and not to venture out alone, as the extremists are looking for a chance to find me alone, kill me, cut me to pieces and throw my body away,” he said.

He said local extremists initially attacked him and his family for his faith in Christ on June 4; Khatiya Pitakaniya assaulted him as he was repairing his motorcycle.

“I was repairing the tire of my motorcycle when one villager, Khatiya Pitakaniya, came and told me that he did not want to see my face in the early morning as it will bring bad luck to him because I am a Christian,” the pastor said. “Khatiya Pitakaniya grasped my neck when I told him to stop pestering me, but he would not stop and called his wife to bring a knife to kill me. His wife and elder brother ran to get it.”

Bopal Ninama, the pastor’s younger brother, came to rescue him. Pitakaniya later returned with his wife Devali, Pastor Ninama’s older brother Naryayan Nimana and his cousin Jeevan Ninama, and began stoning and cursing him, the pastor said. He fled and locked himself inside his house.

Later the same day, Pastor Ninama filed a complaint at Ghantali police station, and the assailants were furious when they learned about it.

On June 6, the village head and elders called for a public meeting regarding the incident.

“Such public meetings took place several times in the past to discuss on how they could eliminate me from the village because of my faith in Christ,” Pastor Ninama said.

The village head who summoned Pastor Ninama to the meeting told him to gather 10 people from five neighboring villages and offer the meat of five goats and five pots of alcohol as a Hindu ritual to reconvert him back to Hinduism, he said. They also told the pastor to burn his Bible and all gospel literature in front of them, he added. The extremists told him that if he agreed to their demands, they would give him all manner of support.

“I can leave everything – my family, my property – but I cannot forsake Jesus at any cost,” the pastor told the extremists.

The next day, he said, they kept his father from obtaining an electricity connection for installing a water pump.
 

"They told my father to leave Christianity and not to stay with me, or else leave the area,” Pastor Ninama said. “After prayerful consideration, my father decided to stay with me and be faithful to Christ till death.”

The extremists then told the pastor they would do no further harm to him if he withdrew the police complaint. The pastor agreed, and on June 8 the parties gathered to put the agreement in writing. They agreed that anyone who disturbed the pastor and his family would be fined 5,000 rupees (US$111) in exchange for Pastor Ninama dropping the charges, and both parties signed it, he said.

“We went home happily thinking that we will not face any trouble from the extremists in the future,” Pastor Ninama said.

That same evening saw the enraged villagers launching their assault on his family. When Pastor Ninama ran to the police station for help, initially officers said the area was not within their jurisdiction, but after he pleaded with them they went back to the village with him, he said. Sitting near the pastor’s house when he returned with police, the extremists dispersed when they saw the officers.

On June 9, Pastor Ninama went to the Piplekhut police station to report the incident, but officers refused to file a First Information Report (FIR), saying there were no eyewitnesses to the assault, he said. They later filed an FIR after seeing medical reports describing the injuries to his family, he said, but no arrests have been made.

Rajasthan state has been a hotbed of anti-Christian activity since the late 1990s. Pastor Hari Shankar Ninama, 65, was praying for an 8-year-old boy’s recovery from illness at a house in Ambarunda, Peepal Khoont, Pratapgarh district on Feb. 1 when at least 10 Hindu extremists arrived on motorbikes and attacked him.

The assailants beat him and, putting him on one of their motorbikes, took him outside the village, where they stripped off his clothes and struck him. Threatening to kill him if he continued to spread Christianity, they left him naked on the road and fled, he said.

Capture of Mladic and the Bosnian tragedy

The worst crime against humanity and of genocide since the end of the Second World War in the heart of Europe was committed in Bosnia at the end of the 20th century. Triggered by the recent arrest of Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, I am writing this essay lest people forget that episode. Having worked in the World Bank in the 1980s on the-then Yugoslavia, consisting of six republics, including Serbia and Bosnia, I was naturally saddened by the protracted civil war engulfing Yugoslavia in the years 1992-95, particularly in the republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The capture after 16 years of Mladic, regarded as the ‘Butcher of Bosnia’, was a great relief to some of us who have long been waiting for it. When a few days ago on television I saw a plane finally carrying him from Belgrade to the International War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague, I felt that the cause of justice will be served at long last.

The current pro-western Serb government, succumbing to the pressure of the European Union and the United States, decided to capture and hand him over to his prosecutors at The Hague. His superior—poet, psychiatrist and ex-president Radovan Karadiz of the Bosnian Serbs—is there since 2008 undergoing trial for war crimes. Mladic is accused of carrying on a ruthless war in violation of the rules of war and humanity and particularly of ordering the cold-blooded murder of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebinica, where they had taken refuge under UN protection and guarded by Dutch troops. Mladic was present there, and TV clips show him patting the boys, assuring them that everything would be alright and then at the next moment callously sending them to death by shooting in a nearby forest.

Bosnia had a Muslim majority (44 per cent) but the Serbs had a significantly large presence (31 per cent). In Bosnian areas adjoining the republic of Croatia, there was also a Croat population (17 per cent). In 1992, Bosnia seceded from the Yugoslav federation, which was dominated by the Serbs and became independent. This was strongly opposed by the Bosnian Serbs as well as by the government of Serbia. A long, brutal civil war followed between the Bosnian Muslims and the local Serbs who were mostly orthodox Christian. The latter, heavily aided by Serbia’s financial resources and armed forces under President Slobodan Milosevic, formed their own government and named it Republika Srpska.

Vast majority of the Bosnian Muslims were ethnically Serbs, who converted to Islam during the long 500 years of Turkish rule in Bosnia. The Serbs, however, treated them as Turks, though there were many inter-marriages between the Muslims and the Serbs. During numerous visits to the beautiful old city of Sarajevo and the picturesque interior areas and the single-span 16th-century Mostar Bridge (now a UNESCO World Heritage Site) built by the Turks over a 90-foot deep gorge in the Neretva River in southern Bosnia, I developed a special attachment for Bosnia and its people. Unfortunately, the bridge was destroyed during the war; it was later rebuilt with international assistance. Sarajevo is the city where the 1986 Winter Olympics were held. During the civil war, the Olympic Stadium was converted into a graveyard such was the number of deaths and the scarcity of places of burial. Staying at the Moscova Hotel, next to the old Turkish Bazaar with antique shops and restaurants serving fine food of kebas, chicken-ala-Kiev and many kinds of sweet Baklavas and a mosque and a Muslim graveyard, we were awakened early in the morning due to azaan on loudspeakers for the Fazr prayers. Mainly Muslim in character and architecture, Sarajevo had, however, a cosmopolitan culture and outlook. Sadly, its 300-year-old library and many other historical buildings and mosques were systematically destroyed by Serb artillery and bombardment.

The brutality of the long Bosnian civil war during 1992-95 and especially the 44-month siege of Sarajevo could be seen daily on TV all over the world. Seeing the Serbs perched on windows shooting the Muslims like chicken while they crossed a street named ‘sniper’s lane’ gave us nightmare. Ten thousand people died during that siege. Bosnian winter is very harsh and due to the energy supplies and roads being cut off, people had to burn their furniture and even books to somehow keep warm. The Serbs, in order to preserve the so-called purity of the Serbian race, unleashed atrocities in the name of ‘ethnic cleansing’. This resulted in the killing of 97,000 and displacement of two million innocent civilians. The terrible suffering of the Bosnian people shocked the Americans and the Europeans and people the world over. It should be mentioned that there were some allegations of crime by the Muslims on the Serbs, too. In the end, US and European pressures during the presidency of Bill Clinton compelled the Serbian president Milosevic to stop the civil war. This allowed the Bosnian Muslims and Croats to settle their affairs under UN supervision. By the way, Milosevic, who was the patron of Karadic and Mladic, was equally guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Milosevic was later handed over to the tribunal at The Hague by the Serbian government but died there in 2006 during his long trial.

Mob kills suspected witches in South Africa

A witch hunt is believed to be behind the killings of two people, one hacked to death and the other burned alive, in South Africa. Four people were injured in the attack in Slovo Park, Eastern Cape, after a mob descended on two homes where they believed witchcraft was being practised.

A woman, 67, was severely burned and died when the group set her flat alight in the first incident late Monday. Her grandson, 16, was stabbed but survived the attack while a 6-year-old girl escaped unhurt.

About 30 minutes later, the home of a 62-year-old woman was set alight. She was stabbed and sustained burns and was in a critical condition in hospital, Lieutenant-Col Mzukisi Fatyela reportedly said, adding that no arrests had yet been made.

Her 35-year-old son was hacked to death and another son and daughter, aged 25 and 30, were in hospital with stab wounds and burns.

One nation under God ?

Recently, there has been a good deal of controversy in the United States over a U.S. Court of Appeal’s ruling that it is unconstitutional for public school teachers to lead their students in the Pledge of Allegiance due to the phrase in the pledge, “one nation, under God.” This has long been controversial for both believers and unbelievers alike. In fact, most of the opposition to this phrase has traditionally come from Christians whose beliefs do not allow them to pledge allegiance to any nation, or for whom, “one nation, under God” conflicts with their doctrinal beliefs.

There is, of course, a good deal of validity to these views. As a Christian believer it is obvious that my first allegiance is to God my Father and my Lord Jesus Christ (I Cor. 8:6). My second allegiance is to God’s family throughout the world - over and above any national, racial, ethnic, denominational, or other worldly distinction (Mark 3:31-35). My primary citizenship is as a member of God’s royal household, holy nation and heavenly kingdom (Eph. 2:18-19; I Pet. 2:9-10; Phil. 3:20). And finally, my sole hope for true liberty and justice is the second coming of Christ and the final establishment of God’s kingdom - in a new heavens and new earth, where righteousness will dwell (Matt. 6:9-10; II Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1-7).

All of these above truths should be “givens” for every generation of Christian believers. Christians, however, may differ as to what their relation and duties to any particular nation or government may entail. Nevertheless, the great majority of us living in the twenty first century are citizens of earthly nations, not only citizens of a heavenly new Jerusalem. And so, just as Paul was a citizen of the Roman Empire and used his citizenship rights in advancing the gospel, so I, as an American citizen, try to do the same in my life as a Christian. Therefore, it is interesting to see the views of the U.S. “Founding Fathers” in relationship to what they believed were mankind’s responsibilities in living “under God.”

The United States of America was founded and built on belief in God. In fact, the legal basis for its existence and laws derives from its belief in that God. The founding document of the United States of America, written principally by Thomas Jefferson but edited and signed by all of the members of the Second Continental Congress, is The Declaration of Independence. It was signed on July 4, 1776 and it sets forth the following “self-evident truths” as the legal foundation for the new American republic:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. To secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

How can a nation founded on the concept that the role of government is to secure the inalienable rights of men - given to them by a Creator - not teach in public schools that the world was created by that Creator? One would think that this “expression of the American mind” as Thomas Jefferson called it, would be the underlying philosophical basis for the laws of the United States of America. Of course, originally, this was the case. In fact, all of signers of The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the United States of America believed that the existence of a sovereign, loving and just God was the only basis for both personal morality and just government in this world.

The American Founding Fathers - men such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and John Adams - did not believe in a merely formal or ceremonial “deism” – that is, in a God who was thought to have created an orderly universe and then withdrew from it to let the world run on its own – like a great clock. Instead, almost to a man the American Founding Fathers believed in a creator God who also providentially governed the universe and cared for his people. As the last line of the Declaration of Independence states, “And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.”

Though men such as Franklin, Jefferson, and even Washington were at times accused of being deists, the historical record makes it clear that this was not the case. They each believed in God’s providential rule of the world. Though somewhat influenced by deistic thought of the Enlightenment, they were far more influenced by their own study of the Bible, and all openly professed some form of Christianity. In fact, all of these men became increasingly more interested in the things of God as they aged and as they had to deal with the huge pressures and burdens of public life. “Unorthodox” by some standards they may have been, but deists they certainly were not. Let’s look at some of their beliefs and then leave it to God to decide their true orthodoxy.

Most important of all was the great American hero and first President of the United States, George Washington. Washington set out his religious views, and their importance to the life of the infant American republic, in his famous Farewell Address to the Nation, at the end of his second term of office. In this address he stated, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

“It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?”

John Adams, the second President of the United States was a devout Christian and expressed his views as follows,

“One great advantage of the Christian religion is that it brings the great principle of the law of nature and nations, love your neighbor as yourself, and do to others as you would that others should do to you – to the knowledge, belief and veneration of the whole people. Children, servants, women as well as men are all professors in the science of public as well as private morality…The duties and rights of the citizens are thus taught from early infancy to every creature.” [Paul Johnson, A History of the American People, p. 208].

Thomas Jefferson, who was often called a deist, or even atheist, forcefully denied this and instead claimed, I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus [David Barton, Original Intent, p. 144].

Like most serious people Jefferson grew over time in his search for the truth. But his opposition was always forceful against religious hypocrisy, institutional religion’s position of political power and tyranny, and especially, against the legal establishment of a national or state religion as with the Anglican Church in England as well as in colonial Virginia. For a time he was influenced by deist thought but he was too independent of mind to be forced into an established system of belief whether that of deism or of established Christian denominations. In his excellent book Thomas Jefferson, A Life, William Randall sets forth Jefferson’s search for certainty in religious belief:

“The attacks on his religious views during the 1800 campaign had wounded him… As the Federalists kept up their attacks on him as irreligious and an enemy of Christianity, Jefferson studied the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, marking the passages that he thought represented the simple beliefs of Jesus Christ and ignoring those he considered later corruptions … He became convinced that early Christians most closely resembled the [biblical] Unitarians of the early nineteenth century and he found that his concept of God most closely resembled theirs.” [p. 555-556].

In a letter to John Adams after his Presidency was long over, Jefferson professed to believe in, “the pure and unsophisticated doctrines such as professed and acted on by the unlettered apostles, the Apostolic fathers and the Christians of the first century.” [Ibid, p. 556].

Most of the Founding Fathers mentioned in this article would have agreed with these sentiments to a great degree because the biblical Unitarianism of that time – unlike the Universal Unitarianism of today – was one of the most biblically based of all the Christian denominations of that day. The Theological Dictionary of 1823 described Unitarians as follows:

“In common with other Christians, they confess that He [Jesus] is the Christ, the Son of the Living God; and in one word, they believe all that the writers of the New Testament, particularly the four Evangelists, have stated concerning him.” [Original Intent, p. 314]
These men were not interested in the post-biblical Christian arguments over creeds and doctrinal issues. Instead, they
“reject all human creeds and articles of faith, and strictly adhere to the great Protestant principal, “the Bible – the Bible only;” [Ibid].
In short, many of the founding fathers who adhered to these beliefs simply desired to live upright lives according to the simple truths of first century biblical Christianity, as they understood it.

Benjamin Franklin, like Jefferson, seemed to become more and more concerned with the things of God as he grew older. Like Jefferson, he dabbled in Deism but came to regard it as morally corrupting and “not very useful” [H.W. Brands, The First American, p. 94]. Franklin followed the ethical precepts of Christ, first and foremost, and came to revere a God who was both the creator of the world and providentially at work in the world. His famous speech at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 best exemplifies his belief in a God who is active in the world. Addressing the President of the Convention, George Washington, Franklin asked for the assembly to have daily prayers asking for God’s aid. Then he stated, “I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth – that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, sir, in the Sacred Writings, that ‘except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it.’ I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better that the builders of Babel: we shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and byword down to future ages.” [Quoted from Original Intent, p. 111].

And this from the most famous of all Americans at that time, indeed; the foremost Enlightenment scholar of the world!

This speech was recorded by James Madison. Madison, who is often called the Father of the U.S. Constitution and who was the fourth President of the United States, was a great student of history and somewhat of a protégé of Jefferson and Franklin. Though ardently against any form of a legally established national or state religion he was also a student of the Bible and a strong proponent of the right of individuals and groups to freely exercise their religious beliefs. He expressed his basic belief in God as follows:
“Belief in a God All Powerful, wise and good is so essential to the moral order of the World and to the happiness of man, that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources. [Ralph Ketcham, James Madison, University of Virginia Press, p. 667]

Madison did not believe in a separation of God from state. Instead, he was instrumental in changing the old phrase “toleration of religion” - derived from England where the Church of England increasingly agreed to “tolerate” other Christian denominations - to the American concept of “the free exercise of religion” which gave all individuals and religious groups the equal right to practice their religious beliefs according to their own conscience rather than being forced to acknowledge a national “establishment of religion” such as the Church of England. This became an important right spelled out in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which was written primarily by Madison. It states;

‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…’

In his remarkable book, A History of the American People, the British Christian historian, Paul Johnson, does an excellent job of summarizing the original understanding of this “religion clause” of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“This guarantee has been widely, almost willfully, misunderstood in recent years, and interpreted as meaning that the federal government is forbidden by the Constitution to countenance or subsidize even indirectly the practice of religion. That would have astonished and angered the Founding Fathers. What the guarantee means is that Congress may not set up a state religion on the lines of the Church of England, ‘as by law established.’ It was an anti-establishment clause. The second half of the guarantee means that Congress may not interfere with the practice of any religion, and it could be argued that recent interpretations of the First Amendment run directly contrary to the plain and obvious meaning of this guarantee …

“In effect, the First Amendment forbade Congress to favor one church, or religious sect, over another…The next day it passed, by a two-to-one majority, a resolution calling for a day of national prayer and thanksgiving.

“It is worth pausing a second to look at the details of this gesture, which may regarded as the House’s opinion of how the First Amendment should be understood. The resolution reads:
‘We acknowledge with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peacefully to establish a constitutional government for their safety and happiness.’

“President Washington was then asked to designate the day of prayer and thanksgiving, thus inaugurating a public holiday, Thanksgiving, which Americans still universally enjoy. He replied, ‘It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His mercy, to implore His protection and favor … That great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that ever will be, that we may then unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people.’ “ [pp. 209-210].

So let us finally ask: is it right for the United States of America to proclaim itself as “one nation, under God”? Yes, because it accurately reflects the original intent of the founding principles of The Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. This statement is not an “establishment of religion” since it does not set up a legal established national religion. Nor does it express any sectarian or denominational belief as opposed to others. However, all of the Founding Fathers believed that the United States should be “one nation, under God.” But better yet, perhaps we should go all the way with Washington and the U.S. Founding Fathers who believed not only in “one nation, under God,” but in the “self-evident” truths that:
1. “all men are created equal” and that
2. “it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God” and “to obey His will.”

Pope says mankind’s suffering finds answer in love of God

The suffering humanity with its situations of injustice, poverty and suffering has its true answer in the love of God, said Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday. Addressing a large crowd in St. Peter’s Square before praying with them his weekly midday ‘Angelus’, the Pope reflected on Sunday’s Gospel reading on Christ’s loving invitation, 'Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest….” The Pope said that Christ’s compassionate gaze on the suffering crowd seems to extend to our world today, with so many people oppressed by difficult conditions of life, but also deprived of valid points of reference to find a meaning and aim to their existence. "Many of the weak,” he said, “are found in the poorest countries, tested by poverty; and even in the richest countries there are so many dissatisfied men and women, in fact sick with depression.” He remembered the numerous dispersed and refugees, and all those who emigrate putting their own life at risk. The Holy Father said that Christ promises "rest" to all, but only on condition that they take his yoke which "is the law of love, the commandment he left to his disciples." “The true remedy for the wounds of humanity, whether they are material, such as hunger and injustice, or psychological and moral, caused by a false sense of well being,” the Pope said, “is a rule of life based on fraternal love, which has its source in the love of God.” The Pope said, "It is therefore necessary to abandon the path of arrogance and violence that is used to procure positions of greater power, so as to ensure success at any cost." He urged all to abandon an aggressive lifestyle towards the environment. "But above all in human, interpersonal and social relations, the rule of respect and of nonviolence, that is, the force of truth against any abuse is what can ensure a future worthy of man," the Holy Father added.

After praying the ‘Angelus’, the Pope offered an advice on how to spend the vacation. He told the faithful that as they get ready packing to leave a space in their suitcase for the Gospel. Speaking in French, he explained that vacation is “not about leaving for the sake of leaving and resting, but rather it's about living our relationships with our loved ones in a new way with God." Speaking in English, the Pope wishes that holiday makers truly find refreshment for body and spirit and an opportunity to rest in the Lord.

The Warrior Monks

To research the Knights Templar proved a daunting undertaking. The voluminous quantity of written material devoted to the subject was intimidating; and we could not at first be sure how much of this material was reliable. If the Cathars had engendered a welter of spurious and romantic legend, the mystification surrounding the Templars was even greater.

On one level they were familiar enough to us the fanatically fierce warrior-monks, knightmystics clad in white mantle with splayed red cross, who played so crucial a role in the Crusades. Here, in some sense, were the archetypal crusaders the storm-troopers of the Holy Land, who fought and died heroically for Christ in their thousands. Yet many writers, even today, regarded them as a much more mysterious institution, an essentially secret order, intent on obscure intrigues, clandestine machinations, shadowy conspiracies and designs. And there remained one perplexing and inexplicable fact. At the end of their two-century-long career, these white garbed champions of Christ were accused of denying and repudiating Christ, of trampling and spitting on the cross.

In Scott’s Ivanhoe the Templars are depicted as haughty and arrogant bullies, greedy and hypocritical despots shamelessly abusing their power, cunning manipulators orchestrating the affairs of men and kingdoms. In other nineteenth-century writers they are depicted as vile satanists, devil-worshippers, practitioners of all manner of obscene, abominable and/or heretical rites. More recent historians have been inclined to view them as hapless victims, sacrificial pawns in the high-level political manoeuvrings of Church and state. And there are yet other writers, especially in the tradition of Freemasonry, who regard the Templars as mystical adepts and initiates, custodians of an arcane wisdom that transcends Christianity itself.

Whatever the particular bias or orientation of such writers, no one disputes the heroic zeal of the Templars or their contribution to history. Nor is there any question that their order is one of the most glamorous and enigmatic institutions in the annals of Western culture. No account of the Crusades or, for that matter, of Europe during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries will neglect to mention the Templars. At their zenith they were the most powerful and influential organisation in the whole of Christendom, with the single possible exception of the papacy.

And yet certain haunting questions remain. Who and what were the Knights Templar? Were they merely what they appeared to be, or were they something else? Were they simple soldiers on to whom an aura of legend and mystification was subsequently grafted? If so, why? Alternatively was there a genuine mystery connected with them? Could there have been some foundation for the later embellishments of myth?

We first considered the accepted accounts of the Templars the accounts offered by respected and responsible historians. On virtually every point these accounts raised more questions than they answered. They not only collapsed under scrutiny, but suggested some sort of ‘cover-up’. We could not escape the suspicion that something had been deliberately concealed and a ‘cover story’ manufactured, which later historians had merely repeated.

Reference : THE HOLY BLOOD AND THE HOLY GRAIL

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Starvation returns to the Horn of Africa

Drought and war threaten millions with famine, as the refugee camps overflow

In the Horn of Africa, unseen as yet by the world's television cameras, a pitiful trek of the hungry is taking place. Tens of thousands of children are walking for weeks across a desiccated landscape to reach refugee camps that are now overflowing. They are being driven there by one of the worst droughts in the region for 60 years which, combined with the war in Somalia and soaring food prices, is threatening a famine that could affect between eight and 10 million people.

The malnourished children, some of whom become separated from their parents on the way, are now arriving at the camps in northern Kenya at a rate of 1,200 every day. At the largest, built for 90,000, there are now nearly 370,000. Many have covered hundreds of miles on feet that are bare and bleeding. Some reach their goal barely able to stand. Most are exhausted, and dehydrated. All are hungry. 

Aid agency after agency has told The Independent on Sunday in the past few days of the terrible plight of these families from Somalia and Ethiopia. Save the Children (SCF), like many charities so worried it has launched an emergency response to the crisis, said: "Some families have walked for over a month through sand and searing heat in search of food, water and shelter. Many discarded the few possessions they had along the way." The charity's Kenya programme director, Catherine Fitzgibbon, said: "Children have made long journeys in terrifying conditions, often losing their families along the way and arriving at the camps in desperate need of security, healthcare and a normal life." 

Neil Thorns, Cafod's director of advocacy, who led an emergency conference on food shortages in Nairobi last week, said: "There's no rain, no crops and the livestock are dying. There is nothing on the horizon that will make any of that better, and it's almost certain it will get much, much worse. People are migrating in their tens of thousands, but there is nowhere better for them to go. Governments need to wake up to the urgency of the situation and take the action that is needed immediately." 

Cafod said that one aid worker, Nelly Shonko, drove the 100-odd miles between Marsabit in northern Kenya and Moyale on the border with Ethiopia, "seeing hundreds of rural people moving the other way, carrying all their possessions in search of food for their livestock. She knew that the land they were walking towards was no better than where they'd come from." 

Journeys of more than 300 miles are typical: SCF spoke to one woman, called Fatuma, who had walked from her home in Somalia for a month and a half with her four children aged between three and 10 to reach a Kenyan camp. She said: "The weather was very harsh. It was so hot, and there was very little shelter. I left my husband in Somalia. I do not know if I will see him again. The war in Somalia is very bad for families. The drought as well is just too much. We cannot cope. We had 15 goats. But they died one by one because of the drought. We had a well in my village, but it dried up. Then the one in the next village dried up." 

Adan Kabelo, head of Oxfam's work in Somalia, said in a blog: "The situation here is truly shocking, and, as the local elders warned me, we are facing a terrible human catastrophe unless the world acts quickly."

This is a situation that has been brewing – and deteriorating – for a long time. Across much of Somalia and Ethiopia, the last two rains have failed – something which, says SCF's Andrew Wander, used to occur every 10 to 12 years, but now happens almost every other year. The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) says: "In June, the famine early-warning systems network said it had compared rainfall data for Kenya and Ethiopia and concluded that 2010-11 was the driest or second driest year since 1950-51 in 11 of 15 analysed pastoral zones. This does not, however, mean that this is yet the worst drought in the Horn of Africa. The 2007-09 drought, for instance, peaked in September 2009 with 22 million people in need of humanitarian assistance." 

Nevertheless, many of the people in the region are pastoralists, and in some places about 70 per cent of livestock have died. Even in a place like Dobley in Somalia, where there has been a little recent rain, the situation is desperate. Oxfam reports that animal carcasses litter the road to the borehole and "there are hundreds of people and about 15,000 emaciated cows, camels, sheep, and goats crowded around trying to get water to stay alive". Oxfam is frantically trying to keep this borehole flowing. If its engineers fail, the outlook is not good. The next water point is 80km away. 

Audrée Montpetit, senior humanitarian programme quality adviser at Care International, has recently visited the drought-affected region of Borena in Ethiopia. She said: "People are eating less, cutting trees to make charcoal and sell. Since there's no pasture, men are cutting trees to get leaves for their animals. Women, who are responsible for getting water, are having to travel six to 10 hours every day to get it. We've seen an increase in acute malnutrition but there's obviously a lot of water-borne disease too; that's been increasing. People accept that the worst is yet to come." 

And the famine looms at a time when food prices have been increasing sharply for some time – and still are. Since last May, the price of maize has more than doubled in parts of Ethiopia, and that of red sorghum has risen in Somalia by 240 per cent. Even in Kenya, white maize now costs 58 per cent more than it did a year ago. And then there is the conflict in Somalia, which drives people to the camps and which, in much of southern and central parts of the country, severely limits humanitarian access.

Aid workers are beginning to wonder for how much longer the camps can contain the need. Dadaab, in Kenya, originally built to accommodate 90,000, now has 367,855 refugees, making it the world's largest refugee camp. There were plans for an extension, but the Kenyan government scotched that, and thousands now squat hopefully outside the perimeter. 

And yet still people come. The numbers arriving at Dadaab's three camps are swelling at an alarming rate – 5,621 arrived in the last week of June compared with 1,866 in the first week of the month. According to the UN, more than half of the camps' refugees are children, and 153,525 of those are under the age of 11. There are also 12,328 people over the age of 60 in the camps, while 95 per cent of the total population are from Somalia, with the rest mainly from Ethiopia. 

The overcrowding produces problems beyond comfort, food rations and sanitation. On Thursday, two people were killed and dozens injured when a riot broke out. The UN refugee agency said the "serious disturbance" occurred when authorities tried to demolish illegal buildings at a food distribution point. 

Camps elsewhere are also reaching bursting point. Getinet Ameha, a WFP aid worker, visited two camps last week in Dolo Ado on the Somalia, Kenyan and Ethiopian border. Last week the government opened a third camp, Kobe, to deal with the 1,200 new arrivals each day. He said: "The majority of people in the camps are women and children, and it's very difficult because the camps were only built to hold 20,000 in each one and there's now almost 40,000 people living in each." Here, some 45 per cent of the new arrivals are malnourished – the threshold for declaring an emergency is 15 per cent. He added: "A lot of people are coming, 1,400 new people each day, but the WFP is providing food. There are problems with health. The people are having to live very close to each other. In one tent I witnessed a family of 12 together."

Aid agencies are doing all they can, but the "perfect storm" of drought, war and costly food is difficult to overcome when resources are so limited. SCF says it has less than half the money it needs for a proper response. And a statement from the WFP last week said bleakly: "The humanitarian response in Somalia and Ethiopia in particular is hampered by large funding shortfalls. New contributions are urgently needed or suffering will grow." 

It continued: "In Somalia, having started cutting ration sizes from February, WFP in May had only enough food left to feed 63 per cent of the almost one million people that WFP had planned to be feeding in May ... Because of a lack of funding, WFP in Ethiopia reduced food rations in certain areas of the country from March onwards." 

The international food security scale of one to five rates a few parts of Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya as category two, "Stressed". Many areas are at three and four, "Crisis" and "Emergency", but none, as yet, is a five, "Catastrophe/Famine". Unless there is a rapid change in the weather, the war or the food supply, that day may not be long postponed.

Pilgrimage of the Diocese of Altamura-Gravina-Acquaviva delle Fonti

(July 02, 2011) “Lights and shadows mark the current historical moment and we witness complex modes of human behaviour, where people fold in on themselves, manifest forms of narcissism, greed for possession and consumerism, feelings and sentiments devoid of responsibility” said Pope Benedict XVI addressing on Saturday, in Vatican’s Paul VI audience hall, pilgrims from the Catholic Diocese of Altamura-Gravina-Acquaviva delle Fonti, in the Southern Italian Region of Puglia. Among the many causes of the present uneasiness is the denial of the transcendental dimension of man, the Pope said. The Catholic community was called upon to a commitment of faith.

“The church,” the Pontiff underlined, “ is not a social or philanthropic association like so many others, but rather it is the people of God, a community of believers.” Particular attention had to be paid to Education to live a Christian life, in a journey of faith, fortified by the sacraments, through the various stages of life. In this process the family is in the frontline, and parents had to be witnesses to the faith. They were not alone in the confronting of problems the Pope told the parents. There were about 7000 pilgrims present at the audience. The Pope exhorted the priests to be witnesses to God’s mercy and to engage boldly in dialogue with culture and with those who are in search of God.

UN Right chief Navi Pillay said Far more spent on pets than human rights - UN rights chief

Europeans spend 250 times more on their pets than the world devotes to the international protection and promotion of human rights, United Nations rights chief Navi Pillay said on Thursday in Geneva. In a passionate plea for more cash to cope with a surge in demands on her office in the wake of the Arab Spring, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said its total annual funding - $202 million - amounted to the same "as Australians spend on Easter eggs". Pillay told a news conference the message of the protest movements across North Africa and the Middle East had echoed across the globe, sparking huge enthusiasm for rights issues. "I ask all states to devote much more to making human rights a reality, said Pillay. "Surely it makes sense to invest more heavily in human rights, to back those brave protesters and human rights defenders in the Middle East, North Africa elsewhere with much more than praise and fine words." Her office is the focus for all U.N. activity in the rights area, ranging from programmes training police in newly emerging states to running centres to help torture victims. It maintains outposts in some 55 countries to monitor their observance of U.N. pacts such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which they have subscribed. It is barred from many others that fear its close scrutiny.

Investigation says Shabhaz Bhatti killed by Al Qaeda

Pakistani investigators believe that the late Minister for Minorities, Shabhaz Bhatti, a Catholic, was murdered by Al Qaeda terrorists who are now in Dubai. “The investigations into the murder of my brother Shabhaz are finally on the right track: it is the work carried out by the Taliban and Islamic fanatics. Now we are waiting for the capture of the perpetrators of the crime, who are in Dubai,” Paul Bhatti, brother of the late minister, told Vatican’s Fides news agency. “The Minister of Interior, Rehman Malik, has announced an international arrest warrant,” Bhatti said in an interview in which he commented on the results of the inquiry on behalf of the Pakistani government regarding the culprits of the murder. The inquiry pointed out that the murder was planned by “Brigade 313″, the military organization of Al Qaeda, known as “ghost army”. The plan was said to have been carried out by elements of the extremist group ‘Tehrik-e-Islami’, along with a faction of the group ‘Ghazi Force in Islamabad’. Bhatti hoped for a rapid conclusion, with the capture of the perpetrators of the crime, adding it would prove the health of the state of law in Pakistan. He also said they would continue his late brother’s work and mission for the protection of religious minorities throughout the country.