Obama's 'all-time low' approval rating

Two new polls suggest the president is as unpopular as he's ever been. Is America's controversial Libya intervention to blame?

POSTED ON MARCH 30, 2011, AT 3:50 PM

A new poll reveals that little more than half of Americans think of the president as a "strong and decisive leader." Photo: Getty SEE ALL 43 PHOTOS

Best Opinion:  National Review, American Thinker, Commentary...

President Obama's approval rating has slumped to an "all-time low," according to a new Quinnipiac poll. A mere 42 percent of American voters approve of the job Obama is doing, while 48 percent disapprove. It gets worse: Half of all voters say he does "not deserve to be re-elected in 2012," with only 41 percent saying that he does. A new Gallup poll offers Obama more gloomy news: The number of Americans who rate him as a "strong and decisive leader" has fallen by 21 percentage points since he took office. Is the president's decision to intervene in Libya to blame for his poor showing?

Yes. Obama's supporters don't like war: Obama gained approval during the presidential campaign by pledging to withdraw troops from Iraq, says Jim Geraghty at the National Review. And voters have since credited him for "keeping America away from messes in the Middle East." Now, we're "putting troops in harm's way" once again — and voters are punishing Obama for it.
"Is Libya battering Obama's approval rating?"

No. It's the economy, stupid: Dissatisfaction over our Libyan intervention does not fully explain this loss of voter confidence, says Rick Moran atAmerican Thinker. It has more to do with "the economy and the future." House prices are "dropping like a stone," and so is consumer spending. Unless the economy improves, Obama's numbers will continue to do the same.
"Obama approval in near free fall"

It's Obama's meek attitude that's to blame: The "eye-opening" poll here is the Gallup one, says John Podhoretz at Commentary. Typically, when the U.S. goes to war, Americans give the president a bump in the polls — a "rally round the flag" boost, if you will — but not this time. Credit the apologetic, back-handed way in which Obama sold the mission to the American people. He is "practically shouting from the rafters that he doesn't want to be a strong leader."
"Why Obama's leadership poll numbers are so terrible."

Obama's Libya speech didn't help, either: Both the Quinnipiac and Gallup polls were conducted before Obama's speech on Monday, says Ed Morrissey at Hot Air. But a newer Rasmussen poll finds that it didn't make much difference to Obama's popularity. The American electorate is "skeptical of the mission, and skeptical of Obama's leadership." Democrats should be very worried.
"Rasmussen: Obama's speech on Libya didn't move the needle"

from: The Week

The True Story of Peeps!

The following text is quoted from the codices found in the caves of Flintus Stonus in the hills just above ancient Holy Wood Land, a district known to be inhabited by those peoples said to have been familiar with an ancient rite involving herbs and mushrooms with the Grateful Dead playing in the background. In 1967, the period of time known by archeologists as Summeris Totalis Acidus, a time known for it's explosion of newly found discoveries of texts related to times and places of antiquity that apparently could not be seen until then through the use of new highly sophisticated technological drug therapies. Dr. Robert "Stencil" Lewis was personally on sight when his house boy/student assistant found several writings on the inside of a refuse receptacle said to have been dated from the Early Hiesenhauer period. The writing, mere fragments, were at first deemed to be merely ancient to-do lists of local artisans and shopkeepers, and in fact, that's what they were. Examples follow:

- look up Quintus Pernius, ask him what's up

- check to make sure the wine has been delivered

- check again to make sure the wine has been delivered

- pop round to Jesus' place to pick up the table and chairs

- make last payment on table and chairs

- pay tax on wine sales

- pay bribe to not have to pay tax on wine sales

- don't forget to erase this last line about bribes

Later, further investigation revealed that the texts were actually part of a larger body of various works of merely routine lists and short reports of local happenings, apparently at the request of government officials in the area interested in the legal proceedings surrounding the local wine and beer distributorships.

The mention of a character named "Jesus" led to great interest among the scholars at the time, who all thought they were at the time or had been Jesus in a past life. 

As to the original place of discovery of the codices, the answer was given simply that it was part of a really bad trip, and that the “vibe could not be revisited due to seriously bad mojo.”

THE FLINTUS STONUS TEXTS

...and there seemed to be a sufficient interest there about things related to the times at hand, and things that had occurred before. Todd, son of Gregor, the WIne-bibber, was asked whether he remembered such. He said that he had vague recollections of having kind of generally been around at basically the somewhat approximate time that Jesus may have been around as well. And so he continued, 

“Well, as I recall, I may have been a little bit hung over that day. The guys, I called them all "the guys", you know, because they were the guys that hung around with me and Jesus, you see. Anyway, I was up all night, me, Jesus and the guys, just shootin' the bull, when Jesus comes down from this mountain to apparently announce who would be his followers, right? Well, like I said, we were up all night, and I crashed right in some "lady's" place, if you know what I mean? So Jesus is all like, "All right, here is my list of guys!" So he calls all of them, you know, Peter, Thomas, Thad, John, etc. Right? All the way to number eleven. Then He says "Todd!" "Yo, Where's my main man Todd? Not here, huh? Oh well, Judas, I guess you'll do as a replacement. No offense, though, but Todd is still the man! So where am I at the time? Face down in Mary Magdelene's rose bushes, thorns and all, dead to the world. Like I said, I may have been a little hung over. 

So the next few years are kind of a blur on account of me needing to be ahead of everywhere Jesus and the guys were going. What, you think they didn't need Road management? I did just about all the meeting setups, except the miracles, I had nothing to do with them. There's some things only Jesus can do, get it?

So anyway, you guys wanted to know about my take on that last night, right? I was late. I was coming in as Judas was leaving, and there was a real heavy vibe in the room, if you know what I mean. And so Jesus gets up and says, 

"Verily, i say unto you that as a sign of newness of life, thou shalt remember me with eggs, colored variously, Made of chocolate and of various other sweet confections as you prefer, bunny rabbits either hollow or solid, although the solid are to be the more preferred. A miracle formula I will give unto you to allow you to make an egg that will not have the taste of egg, but will rather have the taste of chocolate that is white as snow! You shall call it the holy Cadbury. However, in order to show your children the futility and frustration of life, you shall hide these wonderful treats all about and force them to collect these and other senseless and useless trinkets in embarrassingly gay colored baskets. You shall force them to parade around in scratchy and uncomfortable clothes while adults take embarrassing pictures of them that they use to remind them of the pain of this day in future days, so as to prolong the agony and punishment of this most frustrating of days.”

 

Todd seemed to go into a daze, or was it a trance, or maybe a flashback, who knows? He seemed to be thinking of something terrible, shocking, and altogether frightful. They asked him what this was about, and he answered in a moan, "Peeps!" Peeps, peeps and more peeps! Ah, the horror of it all! The Peeps! I was there! I was there when the deal was made! He wept openly now, almost inconsolably. "For you see, there is a dark secret about Peeps. A deal was made for my very own soul that night. A deal made in sugar, corn starch, a little food coloring, and blood! Hear this, sons of men, Todd said:

     "For when upon your tongue a Peep you taste,

     A soul from purgatory to Hell makes haste!" 

(II Obtusias 8:11 & 12)

It was his own dark secret, his deal with the Devil himself. Peeps are the souls of the damned, incased in the sweet marsh of mallows. It was either that or spend eternity In Tulsa as a Mormon Scientologist. What would you do? 

(So ends the fragment of text known as the testimony of the pseudo-apostle, Todd.)

Don't Forget the End Of The World Countdown Clock!

Hey, it's End Of The World Day on the Triangle! Don't be afraid...
Back in the year 2009 some smarty pants put a countdown clock for the end of the world, which will apparently happen on December 21, 2012 according to the movie 2012. Click the link above to see how many times you can sleep in and be late for work! As for me, I won't fiddle while the world ends, I'll play the blues! Oh yeah!

It's The End Of The World As We Know It, And I Feel...Woozy

I am a fan of the Pajamas TV. They have a documentary written by Iranian Islamists that is kindly translated for us. If you ever wondered what the extreme side of Islam thinks about the world and their part in it, check it out. They definitely have an end time view that says that everything happening in the Middle East right now is the fulfillment of their prophecies and hopes and are looking for the coming of their Messiah. Thirty minutes of mind numbing apocalyptic that will shake you a little. Is it the end of the world?

Newt Gets Nuked On The News

I saw the interview last weekend with Newt Gingrich, with Chris Wallace. If you haven't seen it and you are still hoping the Newt will be your guy in 2012, well you better take a look at that thing. It was kinda like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Sad, really, because I like what Newt has to say mostly. But if he hasn't come up with any better answers to his past than he offered on that program, in a word, he's toast. Next! Maybe Rick Perry of Texas?

On the Road to Damascus

My husband and I went to the movie "Paul" last night. Paul is an alien who has been on Earth for 40 years or so, kept as a 'guest/prisoner' by the government. He escapes and is joined by two English men who are on a ComiCon tour of the US. They are joined by a fundamentalist Christian girl who drops all her beliefs because of Paul.

Apparently, you can't hold on to your Christian beliefs if you are told by an alien there is no God. So you partake in drugs, sex, cussing and drinking...because the alien said there is no God.

Stupid. The movie could have been really good. But unfortunately, it took the view that 'Christians' are dim-witted, weak-minded individuals who can only see the Earth as 4,000 years old, only believe in Creationism, and people are the only higher-level beings created by God. And oh, yeah, you cling to your Bible and your gun. (The Bible, oddly enough in the movie, saved a Christian man from a bullet.)

Hmmm...I'm a Christian. I believe in evolution (which I think makes God the greatest programmer of all times), and I think it's entirely possible there are aliens out there. I drink, cuss, and yes, I enjoy sex. Just not with a bunch of people. I'm kind of private that way. No drugs, though. Don't like handing control over that way, thankyouverymuch.

Yes, there are ignorant Christians out there who won't take a 'leap of faith' that science is real. But we're not all like that. And I am a big sci-fi fan who was very disappointed by the movie's view of Christianity. Hell, I'm not asking you to believe in my God, and neither to I condemn you for not believing.

Neither am I asking Hollywood to make nothing but Christian movies. I go to movies to escape...and it's hard to escape when I'm being told I'm stupid. I don't have blinders on...I just have faith. So I'll just take my Bible and my gunS (yes, plural) and go. It's a shame...my money spends just as good as an atheist's. I guess I'll just be taking mine elsewhere.

"When your days are numbered"

"The way to learn to number our days is to count the moments of His grace…"
from the wonderful blog a holy experience

Eternal life

Do you really believe God wants you to have eternal life? Do you want it to be the kind of life you are living now? If not, what would you like to have changed? What power do you have to help that change come about?

Syrian Troops Fire on Protesters as Thousands Rally

Witnesses say Syrian troops have opened fire on anti-government protesters in Daraa Friday as thousands take to the streets demanding reforms and mourning dozens of protesters who were killed during a violent, weeklong crackdown.
A resident, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, tells the Associated Press heavy gunfire can be heard in the city center and witnesses have reported several casualties.
He told AP that the shooting started after protesters set fire to a bronze statue of late President Hafez Assad, President Bashar's Assad's father.
One witness tells Reuters that at least 20 people were killed when Syrian forces fired on protesters in Sanamein.
Daraa, the main city of southern Syria's drought-parched agricultural heartland, has become a flashpoint for protests in a country whose leadership stands unafraid of using extreme violence to quash internal unrest. The coming days will be a crucial test of the surge of popular discontent that has unseated autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt and threatens to push several others from power.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03/25/tens-thousands-anti-government-protesters-rally-syria

Two Hospitalized at Crippled Japan Plant After Wading Into Nuclear Water

Two employees at the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant were hospitalized Friday after wading into water 10,000 times more radioactive than normal. A possible breach of one of the reactors is to blame.
The National Institute of Radiological Sciences tells Kyodo News that the two have likely suffered "internal exposure" in which radioactive substances have entered their bodies.
The possible breach in Unit 3 might be a crack or a hole in the stainless steel chamber of the reactor core or in the spent fuel pool that's lined with several feet of reinforced concrete. The temperature and pressure inside the core, which holds the fuel rods, remained stable and was far lower than would further melt the core.
A Japanese government official told residents within 19 miles of the crippled plant to evacuate Friday.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a news conference that the government asked leaders of affected municipalities to encourage people to leave the affected areas, according to Kyodo News.

A somber Prime Minister Naoto Kan sounded a pessimistic note at a briefing hours after nuclear safety officials announced what could be a major setback in the urgent mission to stop the plant from leaking radiation, two weeks after a devastating earthquake and tsunami disabled it.
"The situation today at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant is still very grave and serious. We must remain vigilant," Kan said. "We are not in a position where we can be optimistic. We must treat every development with the utmost care."
The uncertain situation halted work at the nuclear complex, where dozens had been trying feverishly to stop the overheated plant from leaking dangerous radiation. The plant has leaked some low levels of radiation, but a breach could mean a much larger release of contaminants.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03/25/dangerous-breach-suspected-japan-nuclear-plant

Homeless man builds his own car out of junk

This is Orismar de Souza, a homeless man in Brazil, who decided to build the car he couldn't buy using junk, spare parts and a hammer and chisel. Four years later, the "shrimpmobile" has him back on his feet.
Souza, 35, had to panhandle in the Brazilian city of São José de Piranha and go hungry for four months in order to raise the initial $270 he needed for sheet metal, which he cut into shape using a borrowed hammer and chisel. He scrounged a 125cc motorcycle engine, and gathered other junked parts from all over the region.

While Souza had decorated and traded metal cans as a child in exchange for food and clothes, he had no other experience in working with metal, and almost gave up when the steelwork became too difficult. "Nobody believed, everybody laughed at me," Souza told Globo.com. "I was very humbled by this, but I won and I built my car alone with my own hands. "

By December, Souza was able to replace the motorcycle engine's kickstarter with a car ignition, and add in a gearbox with reverse. The mostly Fiat shrimpmobile can reach 50 mph on the highway, and Souza has been able to use it to find a home and a job in the local sugarcane fields.

Souza says his next goal will be to save enough money to have a garage for his creation. We wouldn't bet against him.


from:Jalopnik via Gizmodo

Leave Our Bulbs Alone - Rich Lowry

Is no household object safe?

It is one of the magical moments in American history: On Sept. 4, 1882, Thomas Edison threw a ceremonial switch at the offices of J. P. Morgan in New York City, and there was light.

The nearby Pearl Street Station power plant provided the electricity for light bulbs to switch on throughout the immediate area. The New York Times had 52 of the bulbs and reported they provided light “soft, mellow, and graceful to the eye . . . without a particle of flicker to make the head ache.”

The light bulb represents one of the most ingenious and useful American-created commercial products — so ingenious, in fact, that it’s the metaphor for the arrival of a new idea. Now, the humble old incandescent bulb is in its senescence, about to be snuffed out entirely by an act of Congress.

In 2007, Congress passed and Pres. George W. Bush signed an energy bill forbidding the sale of the traditional, cheap incandescent bulbs on grounds that they aren’t energy-efficient enough. This has stoked grassroots opposition (FreeOurLight.org) and bulb-hording among people ready to give up the old bulbs only if someone pries them from their cold, dead fingers.

Republicans in the House and Senate are pushing to roll back the provision in the 2007 law. Are there more important matters of state to attend to? Surely. Is the light-bulb regulation rushing us down the road to serfdom? Probably not. But it is so annoying, it deserves the resistance of friends of freedom and of nice, clear artificial light.

Think of the national 55 mph speed limit, imposed in 1974, also in the name of energy efficiency. Congress repealed it in 1995. Think of the metric system, pushed in the Metric Conversion Act of 1975, again in the name of efficiency. It never quite caught on. Think of, for that matter, the three-pence-a-pound Townshend duty on tea. Was that the end of the world? No, but it was the principle of the damn thing.

The more energy-efficient bulbs are more expensive, but make up their cost in the lower use of electricity over time. The Department of Energy contends that mandating new bulbs will save up to $6 billion for consumers in 2015. Industry supports the mandate because it says it is stoking competition for the creation of all sorts of new energy-efficient bulbs — some of them incandescent.

All to the good, but if the new bulbs are so wondrous, customers can be trusted to adopt them on their own. Are we a nation of dolts too incompetent to balance the complex factors of price of bulb, energy efficiency, and quality of light on our own?

One of the alternatives to the old incandescent bulb is the compact fluorescent lamp, a twisted affair seemingly modeled on fusilli pasta. It contains mercury. If it breaks, you have to undertake cleanup measures worthy of a minor industrial accident. Its light is inferior to the old bulb. One congressional critic says it reminds him of “something out of a Soviet stairwell.”

It’s entirely possible the compact fluorescent lamp will catch on and become as universal and beloved as the Edison version. If so, it shouldn’t need an artificial push. At a hearing on the light-bulb regulation, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky castigated the deputy assistant secretary of energy in terms she may have never heard before. Noting that the Obama administration professes to be “pro-choice,” he argued, “there is hypocrisy that goes on in people that claim to believe in some choices but don’t want to let the consumer decide what they can buy and install in their own house.”

Just so. You can be forgiven for thinking no household object or minor convenience is safe. First, they made our toilets less efficient. Then, they came after our plastic grocery bags. Then, they mucked around with our dishwasher detergent. At the light bulb, brilliant for more than 100 years and counting, it’s time to make a stand.

— Rich Lowry is editor of National Review. He can be reached via e-mail, comments.lowry@nationalreview.com. © 2011 by King Features Syndicate.

Unreported Soros Event Aims to Remake Entire Global Economy

Soros, the guy who won't go away, even in his 80's is still trying to remake the world into his own image and likeness. Though I agree with him that things need to change, his hatred for the US and for capitalism itself makes him into what Glenn Beck calls "Spooky Dude".


Unreported Soros Event Aims to Remake Entire Global Economy

"Doing meds," versus treating people

New York Times: "Since psychiatrists no longer get adequate pay for doing talk therapy, they instead prescribe medication, usually after a brief consultation with each patient, then they send the patient away with a referral to a less costly therapist and a personal crisis unexplored and unresolved." Medicine in the United States is now dominated by large hospital groups and corporations. One blogger, a retired psychiatrist, responds.

Jesus found at Wal-Mart!

This writer found Jesus at Wal-Mart. It doesn't surprise me one bit.

Who was more conservative, George W. Bush, or Ronald Reagan?

Peter Wehner, who served in both administrations, gives us this analysis in Commentary Magazine.

Using derogatory words like "teabaggers"

Ann Althouse posted a video of her husband Meade cleaning up after protestors who used a Communist slogan to deface a Civil War Monument in Madison, Wisconsin. It features a discussion of the term "teabaggers," which led me to the urban dictionary to find out the meaning of the term, which is now being used synonymously with "teapartiers." Althouse and Meade engage two protesters, a lawyer and a teacher, in discussion of the use of derogatory words.

Report: 75 Percent of Religious Persecution is against Christians

Seventy five percent of religious persecution in the world is against Christians, claims a new report by a U.K. Catholic organization.
Examining 33 countries, the British branch of Aid to the Church in Need reported that most of the persecution was occurring in the Middle East, Africa and Asia in its 2011 "Persecuted and Forgotten? A Report on Christians oppressed for their faith."
Besides the usual suspects – China, Iran, North Korea, and Saudi Arabia – the report also reveals that countries such as Venezuela, Zimbabwe and even the Holy Land are guilty of religious persecution. The report also finds that Christians face increased persecution in 22 countries among those examined, with Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, and Pakistan being among the worst countries for believers to live in. The report also says that now 100 million Christians worldwide are facing persecution.
"The proportion of countries with a worsening track-record of anti-Christian violence and intimidation would be higher were it not for the fact that in many cases the situation could scarcely have been worse in the first place," the report stated.
Besides the persecution from Islamic extremists, the report also highlights that Christians are harassed by rising nationalism in countries such as Burma, India, and Sri Lanka. There is also the rising threat of Islamic extremism in North Africa and parts of Asia. Meanwhile, some communist and atheist countries are suppressing the religious rights of minorities.
"Extremists increasingly link local Christians in their countries to the West," explained John Pontifex, spokesman for Aid to the Church in Need. "As they are in most cases unable to attack Western countries direct, many extremists turn their fire on local Christians."
This week, Ann Widdecombe, a well-known British politician, was named as a special envoy on religious freedom for the charity Aid to the Church in Need.
Widdecombe, a Catholic, said on Thursday that she is "increasingly alarmed" by reports of violence and intimidation against Christians. She also highlighted the inconsistency of the British government's effort to protect the rights of religious minorities domestically and its tendency to turn a blind eye to persecution of Christians overseas.
"It is time to put our heads above the parapet and speak up in the name of Christians suffering for their faith," she said. "I am delighted to support the work of Aid to the Church in Need, which is doing excellent work to help persecuted Christians."
U.K. Cardinal Keith O'Brien of Edinburgh recently described persecution of Christians as "perhaps the biggest human rights scandal of our generation."




from: Christian Post 

Christian Group Responds to “Gay Cure” App Fracas

The hubbub over the app from Christian group Exodus International keeps growing. The petition against the app for “homosexual strugglers” has reached nearly 130,000 signatures.

Apple has still not responded and, at this writing, the free app is still in the iTunes store. The battle is also being waged in the reviews for the app – currently there are 371 five-star reviews and 836 one-star reviews.

Exodus International spoke to the Christian Post about how they hope Apple the reviews won’t shake the initial 4+ rating for their content – meaning it contains no objectionable material — and how the app has been misunderstood.

“We are helping those who have unwanted same-sex attractions. Those who are gay or identify themselves that way, in no way, shape or form are we trying to speak to their position or trying to impose anything upon them,” Jeff Buchanan, Exodus International’s Senior Director of Church Equipping & Student Ministries, told The Christian Post.

“Exodus believes the opposite of homosexuality is not heterosexuality. It is holiness. We promote the belief that one can live a life that is congruent with their faith. That is our mission – period. ”

Buchanan notes that the app contains the same info found on the group’s website in smartphone format.

It is hard to imagine that Apple reviewed the content and believed that no one might take issue with statements like the following on “help for leaving homosexuality:”

The bottom line – you don’t have to be gay! You can lead a life of fulfillment and holiness as God intended, a life far better than what you have experienced so far

The testimonies of people in the Real Stories section who have reportedly been helped by the counseling offered by Exodus are also lightning rods:

“My attraction to men goes back almost as far as I can remember. I suppose I was about twelve years old when I started acting out my homosexual attractions. But, growing up in the 1940s and 50s, there was not a visible gay subculture, a homosexual lifestyle, to which I could aspire.”

Still, as the  group behind the petition Truth Wins Out plans to stage a protest at Cupertino headquarters and the story is covered from Forbes to Fox News, Exodus hopes the app will stay.

“We hope this will be an opportunity for Apple to promote a policy of diversity and tolerance within iTunes and within their platform,” commented Buchanan.

“What we do not want to do is presuppose what Apple is going to do. We definitely want to hope that they will allow us to be fairly represented and anything beyond that we will take on a day by day basis.”

As the days pass and the controversy mounts, Apple is still mum.

from Cult of Mac  Via Christian Post

Convert from Islam Escapes Egypt with Daughter

When the plane carrying Maher El-Gohary and his daughter, Dina Mo’otahssem, took off from Cairo International Airport last month, they both wept with joy. After spending two and a half years in hiding for leaving Islam to become Christians, they were elated by their newfound freedom.

They also felt secure that once they arrived in Syria, they would quickly obtain visas to the United States and start a new life. That hope soon proved unfounded.

 After spending more than a week and a half unable to obtain a visa to the United States or to any country in Europe, they realized they may have traded in the reality of being prisoners in their own country for being refugees in another. And as El-Gohary watches the weeks pass and his resources dwindle, he says the stress is almost unbearable.

“I feel like we’ve stepped out of a prison cell and into a fire,” he says. “We are in very, very bad conditions … My daughter and I divide the bottles of water to live, because there is no income.”

 Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary, 58, gained notoriety in Egypt after he sued the government in August 2008 to gain the right to change the religion listed on his state-issued ID card from Islam to Christianity. In Egypt, ID cards play a critical role in a person’s life, being used for everything from opening a bank account and renting an apartment to receiving medical care.

 The listed religious affiliation, whether a card-holder subscribes to it or not, also determines whether the person is subject to Islamic civil law. The listed religious designation determines what state-mandated religion classes minors are required to take in school. El-Gohary said he filed the suit so his daughter, then 15, could opt out of the religious classes and would not be subject to the persecution he suffered when he became a Christian in his 20s.

 It is a crime punishable by imprisonment to have no ID card in Egypt.

 The suit sparked outrage throughout Egypt. Both El-Gohary and his daughter were publicly branded apostates in a country where 84 percent of Muslims think those who leave Islam should be executed, according to a study released by the Pew Research Center in December. The same month the suit was filed in 2008, El-Gohary and his daughter were forced into hiding.

 For two and a half years, El-Gohary shifted back and forth among several apartments in Cairo and Alexandria, usually once every month. Even in hiding, the two were harassed regularly by Egypt’s dreaded State Security Intelligence service (SSI) and assaulted repeatedly by others, including someone pouring acid on Dina, El-Gohary said.

 While in hiding, El-Gohary tried repeatedly to leave Egypt, but officials at the Ministry of the Interior blocked him at every attempt. On at least one occasion, they seized his passport. In December 2010, after a long legal battle, El-Gohary got a court decision ordering the Ministry of the Interior to allow him to travel, but he said it still took several weeks for the government to comply with the order; the Jan. 25-Feb. 11 revolution didn’t hurt, El-Gohary says.

 After the national demonstrations that led to the removal of both President Hosni Mubarak and Minister of Interior Habib Al-Adly, El-Gohary and his daughter went to Cairo International Airport on Feb. 22 to leave the county. They came prepared with their newly issued passports, the court order and myriad documents to prove they had the right to leave the country. Even so, authorities took the two aside for interrogation at the airport.

 “My daughter and I went to the counter of the airport to the manager, then they took us to the SSI,” El-Gohary says. “We spent an hour talking to an officer trying to tell him, ‘We spent ages during Habib Al-Adly’s time, and even now after the revolution, we don’t have the right to leave?’”

 According to El-Gohary, the guard asked him if he really wanted to leave the country.

 Yes,” El-Gohary replied. “I have a court order against Al-Adly, and I have the right to leave and the freedom to travel outside the country.” As if to add insult to more than two years of injury, the SSI officers told El-Gohary that Egypt was “their country” and to “come back anytime you want to.”

 El-Gohary credits the revolution as the reason he was allowed to leave Egypt, saying it was a miracle “from God.”

 They chose to go to Syria because Egyptian citizens are not required to have visas to visit there. After contact with a U.S. organization that concentrates on religious freedom, El-Gohary expected it would be easy to get a visa to the United States, where his wife lives. But he said he has been unable to obtain an entry visa there or to any country where he will feel safe. He went to a U.N. office in Syria seeking assistance; he was given an appointment to come back on April 20.

 “I wasn’t expecting, after all this suffering and all these years, that…” El-Gohary says, cutting himself off. “The series of persecution is not finished.”



Read more: http://www.charismamag.com/index.php/news/30471-convert-from-islam-escapes-egypt-with-daughter#ixzz1HLeSGBMt

Missionaries Arrested After House Prayer Meeting

Two Gospel for Asia-supported missionaries were arrested after they conducted a house prayer meeting.

Daya Dass and Garima Rongpi have been serving in a South Asian village for three years. They have one small congregation there, and they spend time in the surrounding villages sharing the love of Jesus. They frequently conduct prayer meetings in villagers' homes.

On March 17, they were having one of these home meetings and had just started to pray when a group of anti-Christian extremists broke in and attacked Daya and Garima. The fanatics accused them of forcing people to convert to Christianity, and the police arrested them.

The state where these missionaries serve has a "freedom of religion" law, which was enacted to protect people from being forced to convert to Christianity by fraud, allurement or coercion. The law allows people to convert to Christianity if they seek permission from the government first.

Daya and Garima are still in jail and asking for your prayers.

Pray specifically that their charges would be dropped and they would be released soon. They also asked for prayer that Christians in the area would not become fearful but would remain strong in Jesus, and that the fanatical groups would truly understand the love of Jesus.



Read more: http://www.charismamag.com/index.php/news/30474-missionaries-arrested-after-house-prayer-meeting#ixzz1HLbPEgQr

I Arise: Ancient Paths To Prayer With Power - Christ With Me

Christ behind and before me,
Christ beneath and above me,
Christ with me and in me,
Christ around and about me,
Christ on my right and on my left,
Christ when I lie down at night,
Christ when I rise in the morning,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone that speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

This last section of the famous prayer attributed to Saint Patrick, the Apostle to Ireland, is certainly the most famous and oft quoted part. The obvious point to make here is how poetic and beautiful the text is. It is very memorable and therefore very useful for teaching those who could not read or did not have a copy of the Bible of their own. And so prayers, creeds and catechisms were how men and women learned and promulgated the Christian faith for more than a thousand years.

Just as the second section focused of Jesus in His Incarnation as Immanuel, "God with us", this last section focuses on Christ Jesus, the Risen Lord, reigning, ascended, Lord of Lords, King of Kings, seated at the right hand of the Father. This is the supremely reigning, all powerful, all knowing, ever present Christ, who is also a Friend that will never leave us nor forsake us, and will be with us to the end of the age. He is the Christ that secures all of the promises of the Father and the One who sends the Holy Spirit to us as a Comforter, Guide and Counselor. He is the One who rejoices over both our day of birth into His Kingdom and the day of our death, when we shall meet Him face to face to receive the rewards of everlasting life. This is the Christ that caused John the beloved friend of Jesus to fall to his face as a dead man in His very Presence. If ever there was a Cosmic Christ, this is the One, a flaming, consuming fire. There is no secret kept from Him, and not even one bit of space in the Universe that He is not aware of and that He does not rule over. This is the Christ that is able to demand and receive all glory, all honor, all praise, all worship. He is worthy. Worship Him.

And so let's pray...