Saint Xenia of Kalamata (the newly revealed martyr)

The miraculous icon of St. Xenia of Kalamata in Manhattan, New York

[Below is an account of St. Xenia, whose feast day is celebrated today, that I read by Fr. George Poulos in his book Orthodox Saints vol.2 when I was about sixteen years old. After reading about this newly revealed martyr of Christ, it had always been a desire of mine to visit the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation at 302 West 91st Street in Manhattan where St. Xenia first revealed herself after centuries of anonymity.

When I travelled to Greece in 1992 I had the opportunity to visit the birthplace of my mother in Kalamata with my sister. We travelled to a female monastery near the Cathedral of the Ypapanti (the Presentation of Christ) where the nuns are famous for their silk. To my surprise I noticed that there were icons of St. Xenia everywhere, reminding me of the place of her martyrdom. I never found out if there is actually a church or chapel dedicated to St. Xenia in Kalamata.

It was my desire this past Fall to finally visit the church in Manhattan when I was living there for a few months. Unfortunately when I did visit the church was closed and never visited again. God willing when I soon visit the church and have the opportunity to venerate the miraculous icon of St. Xenia, I will record my experience. -J.S.]

St Xenia of Kalamata
Memory celebrated May 3

One of the sweetest saints in all Orthodoxy remained for seventeen centuries in comparative oblivion unknown, unhonoured, and unsung -- until she chose, at the bidding of God, to reveal herself to a humble priest, in the bustling City of New York.

The name of this Greek girl, who had been sainted but ignored for altogether too many centuries, was Xenia; and the name of the devout Christian to whom she made herself known was the pious Father George Nasis, the highly respected priest of the Greek Archdiocese Annunciation Church in New York City.

Why Xenia remained screened from Greek Orthodoxy for so long a time is attributed to the will of God, the same will that selected a comparatively obscure twentieth-century priest as the herald of the unacknowledged saint. The amazing disclosure would have been more plausible had some archaeologist unearthed St. Xenia's earthly remains, but that was not the choice of the Lord whose acts often puzzle the will of man, but whose truth is borne out in one way or another. The comparative simplicity of the occurrence merely dramatises the way of heaven and the truth of Jesus Christ.

In yet another incredible incident, Father Nasis acquired laurels which he never wished for and which he thereafter chose to minimise rather than exploit. In one of his customary periods of meditation and prayer there appeared before him a very lovely girl who announced herself as Xenia, a martyred saint of the Church. Not only did she reveal herself for the first time in 1700 years, but she bade the good priest to paint her likeness, asking that in the icon her hands appear clasping a Cross.

At First Father Nasis kept the incident to himself, lest he be ridiculed; but finally he could contain himself no longer. He told his superiors about the appearance of St. Xenia with such conviction that scholars went in search of her in ancient manuscripts, even going back to the oldest of calendars in a vain effort to find the name Xenia mentioned. The credibility of the priest was on the wane when at long last St. Xenia was found in an ecclesiastical work entitled "O Megas Synaxaristes," comprising twelve volumes of the history of the saints of Orthodoxy by the scholar and monk, Victor Mattheou. In such a massive work Xenia was not easily found, but in the end Father Nasis was vindicated.

Mattheou's work describes Xenia as having long, golden-blonde hair, blue eyes (as witnessed by Father Nasis), and beautiful features. Moreover, when she was born in 291 AD, to parents named Nicholas and Despina, in the town of Kalamata, Greece, it was determined that she be raised in the faith of Jesus Christ. At maturity her depth of faith outshone her physical beauty, and she was looked upon with great admiration by the Christian community.

The roving eye of Magistrate Domitianos of Kalamata happened to fall on the lovely Xenia who stirred within him more than admiration. It was love at first sight and he soon offered a proposal of marriage. This proposal was rejected, however, because Domitianos had refused to accept Christ and clung to ancient idolatry with a tenacity which Xenia saw as folly and superstition. It was decided that a prison would change her mind. All else having failed, she was jailed on spurious charges with the stipulation that she could be released if she changed her mind.

When months of incarceration and abuse failed to move Xenia, she was put to death. Soon after, she was sainted because of the many miracles attributed to her, and was given a feast day on May 3rd. This date somehow failed to appear on the Greek Orthodox calendar, although it is a matter of record as indicated by the research of the monk Mattheou.

The icon of St. Xenia still adorns the Annunciation Church and has for forty years been the site of miracles, and miracles in this twentieth century have been hard to come by. Father Nasis, who never sought public acclaim and managed to remain his humble self throughout, was a priest of the Annunciation Church for more than thirty years, passing on in 1974. His many writings, and supplications in honour of St. Xenia give testimony to his faith. His discovery remains in his beloved church, and many a gaze will be fixed upon the sweet St. Xenia who was cloaked in anonymity for seventeen centuries, but whose memory will now be honoured for as long as there is Greek Orthodoxy.

from Orthodox Saints, v. 2, by Fr George Poulos, Holy Cross Orthodox Press

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Thousands of Mayans To Convert To Orthodoxy?

[Will Mayan temples soon transform into monastic citadels? Well, probably not since Mayan temples are historical landmarks. But according to a new report by Metropolitan Jonah that I was unaware of, it seems like thousands of Mayans are interested in converting to Orthodoxy. This is great news and deserves greater media attention. Below is the context in which the Metropolitan revealed this amazing news. -J.S.]

His Beatitude Metropolitan Jonah chaired the St. Innocent Conference at St. Tikhon University

On Saturday, May 2, the St. Innocent Conference, organized by the Orthodox Church in America, together with Saint Tikhon's Orthodox Humanitarian University, was held in the University building. This year the conference coincided with the arrival in Russia of the Leader of the Orthodox Church in America, His Beatitude Metropolitan Jonah.

At the opening of the conference +Jonah, Metropolitan of All America and Canada, outlined the principles of the missionary work of St. Innocent of Moscow, which are of great importance for the history of the Orthodox mission in America.

The Leader of the American Church said that a missionary must be a man of deep prayer, respect for people, and be selfless. "A missionary should be a pilgrim, a wayfarer, who brings the Good News of Jesus Christ to people and reveals the Gospel, the Kingdom of Heaven", noted Metropolitan Jonah. "He must be filled with genuine love for those to whom he is sent".

During the Q & A, Vladyka explained that the Orthodox faith is practiced by a large number of indigenous residents of Alaska, Eskimos and Aleuts. In Nicaragua and El Salvador there is a group of Mayan Indians, who also want to join the Orthodox Church. "I am not talking about individuals; I'm talking about hundreds, even thousands of people", stressed the Leader. "We need missionaries. The Mayan language is as easy for an American as it is for a Russian -- that is, it is very difficult".

"This will require your help", His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah appealed to the students, "you are getting a good theological education, and you will have the opportunity to do missionary work, not only in your community and in your country, but, perhaps, even beyond the ocean".

Later a presentation was made by +Zosima, Bishop of Yakutsk and Lensk. Vladyka explained how St. Innocent translated the Divine Services into the language of the Yakuts. This year marks 150 years since St. Innocent (Veniaminov) served the first Divine Liturgy in the Yakut language.

Upon completion of the conference, His Beatitude Metropolitan Jonah and Bishop Zosima led evening prayers in the temple of St. Nicholas in Kuznets.
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Press Service of St. Tikhon's Humanitarian University/Patriarchia.ru

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Egyptian Christians Riot After Swine Flu Cull

Egyptian Christians Riot After Swine Flu Cull

Philippe Naughton

May 1, 2009

Egyptian leaders ordered the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of pigs today to help protect against swine flu, prompting angry protests from the poor Christian farmers who feed their animals with a country's food scraps. The decision was also criticised as a "real mistake" by a senior UN food expert.

The Arab world's most populous nation has been been badly hit by the H5N1 bird flu virus in recent years and the move to cull up to 400,000 pigs - seen by Muslims as unclean animals - was designed to calm fears of an impending pandemic.

But it left Egypt's large Coptic Christian minority up in arms, especially the slum-dwelling "Zebaleen" rubbish collectors who rely on the hogs for their livelihood. Scores of them blocked the streets and stoned the vehicles of Health Ministry workers as they arrived to carry out the government's order at pig farms on the outskirts of Cario this afternoon.

“Our pigs are healthy. They are our capital and they have no diseases,” said Adel Ishak, who feeds his pigs from the rubbish he collects in Manshiet Nasser, northeast of Cairo.

"We remind Hosni Mubarak that we are all Egyptians. Where does he want us to go?” added 46-year-old Gergis Faris, another pig farmer. “We are uneducated people, just living day by day and trying to make a living, and now if our pigs are taken from us without compensation, how are we supposed to live?”

The decison to cull the pigs was announced by Hatem al-Gabali, the Health Minister, after a meeting with President Mubarak. “It has been ordered to immediately begin the slaughter of all herds of pigs in Egypt,” he told reporters.

Mr al-Gabali said slaughterhouses were to begin the culling process immediately at the fastest rate possible. Further precautionary measures such as the launch of an awareness campaign and increasing production of protective masks would also be taken, he said.

Magdy Rady, a Cabinet spokesman, put the number of pigs that could be culled at between 300,000 and 400,000. “If you see the conditions of the swine farms in Egypt, they are not healthy at all. They are hazards in themselves, even without the swine flu. That’s why people are really getting afraid,” he told the Reuters news agency, even before the decision was taken.

Officials said that the farmers would be offered compensation of 1,000 Egyptian pounds (£120) per pig but there seemed to be little confidence that the money would ever materialise.

Mr Ishak said that his community receives 6,000 tonnes of organic rubbish every day, but if the pigs die there will be nowhere to put the waste. “What is the use of compensation? It will feed us only for several months, what then?" he asked.

Egypt has not had any confirmed cases of swine flu yet but government experts fear a pandemic flu strain could spread quickly through the country because most of its roughly 80 million people live in the densely packed Nile Valley, many in crowded slums in and around Cairo.

The World Health Organisation has repeatedly said, however, that the newly mutated H1N1 virus is not found in pigs - although the animals can be the vessels for the "genetic reassortment" that produces new strains - and that pork meat is safe to eat.

Joseph Domenech, chief veterinary office with the UN Food and Agriculture Officer in Rome, said the Egyptian order was "a real mistake".

"There is no reason to do that. It’s not a swine influenza, it’s a human influenza,” he said.

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Jack the Ripper and the Historical Jesus

George Grosz as Jack the Ripper, Self-Portrait with Eva Peters in the Artist's Studio, 1918

["Jack the Ripper was a forgery invented by journalists to link a series of unrelated murders and sell newspapers, according to a new book." So begins a review by the Daily Mail regarding the new book published by Dr. Andrew Cook titled Jack the Ripper: Case Closed.

The reason I found this interesting, besides my fascination with the Jack the Ripper murders, was the content of the book which sounds eerily similar to studies of another historical figure whom some pseudo-historians claim also didn't exist and was a forgery by his inventors. Of course, I'm speaking of Jesus.

I really do not have a strong opinion on whether Jack the Ripper was a historical figure or a forgery by a desperate newspaper company fallen on hard times. I havn't even read the book, as interesting as it seems. What I do know is that others before Cook have closed the case on Jack the Ripper thinking their findings presented undisputable proof, but they didn't. And neither does this one.

Instead I think the author confuses the media hype surrounding the murders, with the actual investigation of the murders themselves. No doubt there were many forgeries to sell newspapers, but this does not discount a single murderer. We know also that the name "Jack the Ripper" was invented by journalists to make the story more interesting and this became standard practice later on ( the Boston Strangler, the Green River Killer, the Axeman of New Orleans, the Beltway Sniper, and the Hillside Strangler, besides the derivative Yorkshire Ripper almost a hundred years later and the unnamed perpetrator of the "Thames Nude Murders" of the 1960s, whom the press dubbed Jack the Stripper).

But when one examines the investigation itself and the most compelling investigations and autopsies, there leaves little doubt that all five murders were done by the same hand. According to police surgeon Dr. Thomas Bond in 1888, who based his assessment on his own examination of the most extensively mutilated victim, Mary Kelly, and the post mortem notes from the four previous murders:

"All five murders no doubt were committed by the same hand. In the first four the throats appear to have been cut from left to right. In the last case, owing to the extensive mutilation it is impossible to say in what direction the fatal cut was made, but arterial blood was found on the wall in splashes close to where the woman's head must have been lying. All the circumstances surrounding the murders lead me to form the opinion that the women must have been lying down when murdered and in every case the throat was first cut."(1)

Dr. Cook's assessments are nothing new and not very compelling. One cannot seriously consider that five or six killers were at work in the same area around the same time using the same methods. In one particular instance two killers would have had to killed in the same area on the same night. Furthermore, why did all of them stop their killing spree after the murder of Mary Kelly? The only thing I would agree with Dr. Cook is that the other six Whitechapel murders were not done by Jack the Ripper.

So just as we have to put up with books published every two years or so that claim Jesus never existed, though the evidence overwhelmingly supports the fact that He did, so also we have to put up with books claiming they closed the case on Jack the Ripper, even though the overwhelming evidence supports the fact that they have not. -J.S.]

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1. Stewart P. Evans & Keith Skinner, The Ultimate Jack The Ripper Sourcebook, p. 399–402.

Jack the Ripper 'was invented to win newspaper war'

May 1, 2009

Daily Mail UK

Jack the Ripper was a forgery invented by journalists to link a series of unrelated murders and sell newspapers, according to a new book.

The unsolved murders of five prostitutes in London's East End in 1888 have spawned innumerable theories over the identity of the 'real' Jack the Ripper - with candidates including artist Walter Sickert, Alice In Wonderland author Lewis Carroll and even Queen Victoria's grandson the Duke of Clarence.

But now historian Dr Andrew Cook claims to have blown all these theories out of the water by dismissing the notion of a brutal, murderous spree by one 'serial killer' altogether.

In his book Jack The Ripper: Case Closed, he argues that the famous letter bragging about the killings - signed 'Jack the Ripper' in the first-ever use of that name - was actually forged by journalists desperate to sell their newspaper.

Dr Cook says streetwalkers Mary Nichols, Catherine Eddowes, Mary Kelly, Elizabeth Stride and Annie Chapman were killed by different men, as were the six other Whitechapel victims often added to the Ripper's toll.

He takes his evidence from police and medical experts at the time who expressed doubts about the single killer theory even as it began to take hold on the public imagination.

The senior Whitechapel policeman at the time of the killings admitted in his retirement speech that he did not believe Mary Kelly was killed by 'Jack the Ripper', Dr Cook points out.

The assistant police surgeon who examined all five victims, Percy Clark, told the East London Observer in 1910: 'I think perhaps one man was responsible for three of them. I would not like to say he did the others.'

However, comments like this were a drop in an ocean as the myth of the lone rogue killer took hold of the Victorian imagination.

Dr Cook shows that the newly-launched Star newspaper was the first to claim that one man was behind three of the 1888 killings.

Even though most experts today agree that two of these - Emma Smith and Martha Tabram - were not carried out by the same man, the Star's prurient accounts of the on-going murders massively boosted its circulation.

The Star only unveiled the notorious letter from 'Jack the Ripper' in the midst of a drastic fall in sales after the exoneration of a bootmaker it had identified as a key suspect.

Handwriting expert Elaine Quigley, recruited by Dr Cook to examine the letter, has identified it as the work of Star journalist Frederick Best.

But the public was convinced, Dr Cook says - and the concept of a lone rogue killer on the loose in the East End backstreets may have helped the real culprits literally get away with murder.

Official police photograph of Mary Kelly's murder scene in 13 Miller's Court.

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The Flying Chihuahua and the Pet Psychic

[This past Friday Oprah briefly featured the story about Tinker Bell, the flying Chihuahua, and how the owners sought help from a pet psychic to find her (which they did).

I can't say I disbelieve in psychics as complete frauds. Of course, some if not most are indeed frauds. My opinion is that there is a demonic element to the power of the psychic that most psychics themselves claim is a gift from God. In a future blog posting I will relate my own experience where I was tempted with a sort of psychic ability that I could have exploited, but chose not to. And this is exactly what psychic powers are - a demonic temptation like any other temptation which can be tapped into if one so chooses. Interesting thing is that no psychics are Orthodox Christians, but they remain outside the Church and have a belief system more aligned with the occultic elemets of the New Age Movement.

Having said this, the claims of pet psychics are ridiculous. I have seen some impressive scientific investigations with regular psychics, but every investigation into pet psychics smack of fraud. Oprah apparently considers their powers "miraculous". We know she thinks this because all weekend she has been promoting the viewing of the video above to all her tweeters on Twitter. Which should not be surprising since Oprah herself is one of the leading promoters of New Age philosophy and its gurus. -J.S]

Saturday, May 2, 2009

'Oprah' Hears Tinker Bell, the Flying Chihuahua's Story

The Detroit News

The story of wind-tossed Tinker Bell, the flying Chihuahua, was retold on "Oprah" Friday, with host Oprah Winfrey interviewing Tinker Bell's owners and the pet psychic who helped find her.

"It was a miracle that we even got her back, Oprah," said Dorothy Utley, 72, of Rochester Hills, with her husband Lavern standing beside her holding Tinker Bell. "She was very tired, hungry and thirsty. She had mud and burrs all over her."

The Chihuahua was blown away last Saturday by a gust of wind at the Dixieland Flea Market in Waterford Township. She was found Monday in a wooded area three-quarters of a mile away.

Winfrey asked pet psychic Lorrie Woolums of Howell, "How did you know where Tinker Bell was?"

"This is what I do full-time," Woolums said, explaining that she got a vision of Tinker Bell's location. "I asked them if they checked the net area behind the Aldi's, and I asked them to check it again. I wanted to make sure that Dorothy and Vern knew that Tinker Bell was OK."

Lavern said the pet psychic "told us to look up instead of down. So I started working my way up. Finally I got toward the top of the woods, and I started calling her and she came running to me."

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Churches Respond To Swine Flu Fear: An Orthodox Response

[Some churches, like in New Zealand, are taking extreme precautions to prevent the spread of the recent Swine Flu bacteria. Their answer was to prohibit the common participation in Communion wafers, the Communion chalice and the shaking of hands.

In response to similar fears over the years, the Orthodox Church has always taken the stand that the Cup of Christ is not a cup that delivers death, but it is the Cup of Life.

On the more practical level, some Liturgists say it is to prevent diseases that hot water became a required ingredient in the Communion Cup and why a cloth was shaken over the Holy Bread and Wine during the reciting of the Creed.

However, for those a bit more skeptical, below is a short article from an M.D. to show the scientific evidence that there is an extremely low probability that harmful bacteria can be transmitted from one person to another when receiving Holy Communion. -J.S.]

CAN YOU GET ILL FROM TAKING THE COMMUNION CUP?

A Physician's opinion

...to the Healing of soul and body...

By Emanuel Kolyvas, M.D.,

The Sign [of the Theotokos], Montreal

Contrary to popular opinion, wine, and other beverages of antiquity produced through fermentation, were probably more important in providing disease-free drinking fluids than in their tendency to intoxicate. Ancient Greeks drank their water mixed with wine, and also used wine to cleanse wounds and soak dressings. More recently, military physicians of the last century observed that during epidemics of cholera, wine drinkers were relatively spared by the disease, and troops were advised to mix wine into the water.

Wine has been shown to be an effective antiseptic even when the alcohol is removed. In fact, 10% alcohol is a poor antiseptic, and alcohol only becomes optimally effective at concentrations of 7;0%. The antiseptic substances in wine are inactive in fresh grapes because these molecules are bound to complex sugars. During fermentation these antiseptic substances are split off from the sugars and in this way become active. These molecules are polyphenols, a class of substances used in hospitals to disinfect surfaces and instruments. The polyphenol of wine has been shown to be some thirty-three times more powerful than the phenol used by Lister when he pioneered antiseptic surgery.

Same year wines can be diluted up to ten times before beginning to show a decrease in their antiseptic effect. The better wines gradually improve with age over the first ten years and can be diluted twenty times without a decrease of the antiseptic effect. This effect then remains more or less constant over the next twenty years and becomes equivalent to a new wine after another twenty-five years. (Modern antiseptics and antibiotics for disinfecting wounds have surpassed wine effectiveness because the active ingredients in wine are rapidly bound and inactivated by proteins in body tissues.)

In preparing communion, the hot water that is added to the wine will increase greatly the antiseptic effect of the polyphenols. Disinfection occurs more rapidly and more effectively at 45 degrees centigrade than at room temperature (22-25 degrees). Another contribution to the antiseptic effect comes from the silver, copper, zinc that make up the chalice itself, ensuring that microbes are unable to survive on its surface.

Throughout the centuries, no disease has ever been transmitted by the taking of Holy Communion. Diseases, such as Hepatitis B, known to be transmitted by shared eating utensils, have never been acquired from the communion spoon. HIV is known not to be transmitted through shared eating utensils, and considering the antiseptic qualities of the Holy Communion received by the faithful, there is no likelihood of acquiring HIV infection through the Common Cup.

reprinted from: Canadian Orthodox Messenger, Spring 1995

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Ohio Scholar Reports Bias Against "Darwin Doubters"

Jerry Bergman, who holds nine degrees, tells an audience at WLMB-TV that voicing doubts about evolution can derail an academic career.

Ohio Scholar Reports Bias Against "Darwin Doubters"
17 cases are detailed in new book

May 2, 2009

David Yonke

Ohio Blade

Jerry Bergman is a mild-mannered, soft-spoken, and balding college professor, author, and member of Mensa - a group of people whose IQs are in the top 2 percent of the population.

He also is a man on a mission, going about his task with the same tenacity as a pit bull in attack mode.

For the last 30 years, Mr. Bergman, 62, has interviewed hundreds of people in academia and documented cases in which he contends that careers were derailed because of doubts about evolution.

The results of his interviews and research are compiled in his latest book, Slaughter of the Dissidents: The Shocking Truth about Killing the Careers of Darwin Doubters, published last fall by Leafcutter Press.

The students, professors, and scientists suffered not because they were advocating the teaching of biblical Creationism or Intelligent Design, he said, but for questioning or debating aspects of Charles Darwin's famous theory.

It's an issue Mr. Bergman takes personally.

"In 1979, I was let go by Bowling Green State University openly due to my increasing disillusion with Darwinism," he said in a lecture Monday night at WLMB-TV, Channel 40, Toledo's Christian television station. The two-hour program was filmed before a studio audience of 60 and will be broadcast at a later date, according to Jamey Schmitz, WLMB's president and CEO.

Mr. Bergman has nine academic degrees, including a doctorate in education from Wayne State University, and currently teaches at Northwest State Community College in Archbold, Ohio, and the University of Toledo's Health Science campus.

In 35 years as an educator, Mr. Bergman has taught college-level courses in biology, microbiology, chemistry, biochemistry, genetics, pathology, anthropology, geology, and statistics, among other subjects, and has published more than 800 academic papers.

He also made a gradual transition from atheism to Christianity after studying the Bible and comparing its explanation for human existence to that offered by scientific rationale - including evolution and neo-Darwinism, he said.

When Mr. Bergman was denied tenure after seven years on staff at BGSU, he challenged the decision through the university's own system and then in civil court alleging religious discrimination.

His appeals were rejected and Mr. Bergman said filing suit was the biggest mistake of his life. University and court officials did not take his claims seriously and put shockingly little effort into reviewing or understanding his arguments, he said.

The lawsuit turned out to be "the kiss of death" in academic circles, Mr. Bergman said, not only shattering his promising career but also ruining his marriage, which soon ended in divorce.

Publicity over the lawsuit, however, led other academics to contact him with similar stories, he said. He has since compiled a list of 3,000 cases alleging discrimination due to religious beliefs, and personally has interviewed more than 300 people in such situations.

That topic was brought to the mainstream's attention last year when actor, comedian, and attorney Ben Stein released the documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.
But Mr. Bergman looks at the issue in more depth and detail than Mr. Stein.

While Slaughter of the Dissidents explores 17 cases of alleged religious discrimination, it is just the first book in a five-volume series Mr. Bergman has planned. The second book is almost done and the third volume is 80 percent completed. Each book, true to form for academia, has about 1,000 footnotes.

When he tells people that doubting Darwinism can lead to discrimination in universities, Mr. Bergman said he gets two responses, neither sympathetic to his cause: "First, it's not happening. Second, yes it's happening and it should be happening."

"It's unlikely today that an out-of-the-closet Darwin doubter will survive in academia," he said.

And there's much at stake because a PhD requires a huge investment in time and money, averaging nine years of school and $300,000 and $500,000 in costs, he said.

Rather than risk losing everything over one's personal beliefs, Mr. Bergman said he advises people to "stay in the closet until things change" and to seek change through legislation.

In a question-and-answer session after his talk, he said one way to help bring about change is to propose a state constitutional amendment that would allow educators to raise questions about evolution. He predicted it would be overwhelmingly approved because free speech and scholarly debate in academia are being stifled by just a handful of "Darwinian fundamentalists."

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Dinosaurs Probably Did Walk With Humans

Multiple hadrosaur red blood "cells" surrounded by white, fibrous matrix (Image: Mary H. Schweitzer)

It’s official: soft tissue, including blood vessel proteins and structures resembling cells, have been recovered from dinosaur bone. Mary Schweitzer’s amazing claim in 2005 was subsequently disputed as possible contamination from biofilms. Now, Schweitzer and her team took exceptional precautions to avoid contamination by excavating hadrosaur bone from sandstone said to be 80 million years old. A short description of her findings, and a picture of the tissue, was announced today by New Scientist. The paper followed shortly after in the May 1 issue of Science.(1) A press release from Schweitzer’s institution, North Carolina State University, says that the preservation of soft tissue in this duck-billed dinosaur fossil was even better than the material from the T. Rex bone analyzed in 2005.

Robert F. Service commented on the finding in the same issue of Science.(2) He was a little cautious, putting the word ‘protein” in quotes in his title, but then he said this:

"A controversial finding that protein fragments can be recovered from dinosaur fossils has been replicated for the first time. Two years ago, Mary Schweitzer, a paleontologist at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, and colleagues stunned the paleontology community when they reported discovering intact protein fragments in a fossil from a Tyrannosaurus Rex that died 68 million years ago. The claim has remained contentious, because proteins in tissue normally degrade quickly after an animal dies. On page 626, however, Schweitzer and colleagues report finding an even larger number of protein fragments from an 80-million-year-old fossil from a duck-billed dinosaur, or hadrosaur, known as Brachylophosaurus canadensis.

'This will either be nothing or the biggest revolution in paleontology ever,' says Tom Kaye, a paleontologist at the Burke Museum in Seattle, Washington, and a critic of the original T. Rex study."

Service went on to say that “Collagen, the principal protein in connective tissue, is rarely found in fossils more than a few hundred thousand years old.” Taking five as a few, that means this discovery would require believing it has lasted 160 times as long.

In response to criticisms of the 2005 paper, Schweitzer’s team took extra care in the extraction and analysis of the specimen. They used sterilized instruments to extract the bone samples and rushed them to the lab in sealed jars. Two independent groups analyzed the samples. “Both groups then independently performed biochemical and antibody-binding studies that showed evidence of collagen as well as laminin and elastin, two proteins found in blood vessels,” Service reported. In addition, two independent teams used better mass spectrometry methods, and both confirmed the presence of collagen. One of the specialists, John Asara of Harvard Medical School, said, “This proves the first study was not a one-hit wonder.”

What will critics say now? Service ended by quoting Martin McIntosh of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, a critic of the first study. McIntosh appeared uneasy with the implications. “I’m not saying it’s true,” he said, holding out hope for an alternate explanation. “But I cannot right now make a plausible argument that it’s not true.” He added, “The door is closing on plausible alternatives.”

The original paper primarily documented the details of the extraction and analysis. Chris Organ (Harvard) also performed a phylogenetic analysis, indicating enough primary material was available for comparison. Despite the press release’s confidence that the proteins showed a link to birds, the data presented in the paper was more ambiguous and required some tweaking to produce a tree.(3) That, however, is what Science seemed to emphasize, stating in the summary that “Analysis of well-preserved tissues from an 80-million-year-old hadrosaur supports the dinosaur-bird relationship.”

Here’s how the original paper ended its announcement of replicated results that show the material is endogenous (original with the bone). With appropriate scientific caution, they listed the evidence pointing to the confirmation of the hypothesis that the protein fragments once were part of a living dinosaur:

"The hypothesis that endogenous proteins can persist across geological time, as first reported for T. rex (MOR 1125), was met with appropriate skepticism. However, the inclusion of additional sequence data from extant reptiles and B. canadensis strengthens the hypothesis that the molecular signal is preserved at least to the Late Cretaceous.

"The submicron differences in texture (Fig. 1 and fig. S1), elemental differentiation, sub-'cellular' inclusions in osteocytes and vessels, identification of the posttranslational Pro-OH modification not produced by microbes, differential binding of antibodies by both in situ and immunoblot studies, collagen protein sequences, and phylogenetic analyses do not support a microbial origin for either these microstructures or peptide fragments. Coupled with evidence for cross-linking and unusual chemical modifications, the congruence of evidence strongly supports an endogenous origin for this material. The most parsimonious explanation, thus far unfalsified, is that original molecules persist in some Cretaceous dinosaur fossils. Still unknown is the chemistry behind such preservation."

The paper also includes photographs of structures that resemble cells. While they were cautious not to call them cells, they sure look like the real thing. They used various lines of evidence to rule out bacterial contamination.(4) This indicates the protein studied with mass spectrometry was not relegated to isolated fragments, but was retained in original cellular structures. Were these cells really 80 million years old?

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1. Schweitzer, Zheng, Organ, Avci, Sui, Freimark, Lebleu, Duncan, Vander Heiden, Neveu, Lane, Cottrell, Horner, Cantley, Kalluri and Asara, “Biomolecular Characterization and Protein Sequences of the Campanian Hadrosaur B. canadensis,” Science, 1 May 2009: Vol. 324. no. 5927, pp. 626-631, DOI: 10.1126/science.1165069c.

2. Robert F. Service, “Paleontology: ‘Protein’ in 80-Million-Year-Old Fossil Bolsters Controversial T. rex Claim,” Science, 1 May 2009: Vol. 324. no. 5927, p. 578, DOI: 10.1126/science.324_578.

3. Excerpt from (1): “Under a majority-rule criterion to building a consensus tree, Dinosauria (the group containing the two extinct dinosaurs and the two birds) collapsed into a three-way polytomy. Removing T. rex from the phylogeny resulted in a three-way polytomy as well. The amount of missing data in B. canadensis and T. rex sequences relative to extant samples resulted in relatively low resolution within Dinosauria, but even so, the phylogenetic relationship of recovered B. canadensis sequences supports the species’ placement within Archosauria, closer to birds than Alligator. However, on the basis of well-established morphological analyses, we predict that T. rex is more closely related to birds than it is to the ornithischian hadrosaur B. canadensis. Despite ambiguity within Dinosauria, obvious phylogenetic signal resides within recovered collagen sequences, supporting endogeneity (fig. S11).”

4. “Ovoid red ‘cells’ with long filipodia, similar in morphology to extant osteocytes, were embedded in or associated with white matrix (Fig. 1J and fig. S1) or vessels (Fig. 1H). In some cases, these were attached by their filipodia to adjacent cells (Fig. 1J, inset), forming an interconnecting network as in extant bone. The cells contain internal microstructures suggestive of nuclei. Red filipodia extend from cell bodies into the white fibrous matrix (Fig. 1J and fig. S1), reflecting original chemical differences at submicron levels between cells and matrix and inconsistent with recent microbial invasion (7). Under FESEM (10), B. canadensis osteocytes and filipodia (Fig. 1K) are similar in morphology, surface texture, and size to extant ostrich osteocytes isolated from bone digests (Fig. 1L) (1, 2, 13, 14).”

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Dinosaur Blood Extracted From Bone

Scientists insist fossil is 80 million years old

Posted: April 30, 2009

WorldNetDaily

Collagen, hemoglobin, elastin, laminin and cell-like structures resembling blood and bone cells have been found in a dinosaur bone scientists still claim is 80 million years old, according to a report in Science magazine today.

Paleontologist Mary Schweitzer of North Carolina State University first claimed to have isolated soft tissues and collagen from a Tyrannosaurus rex leg bone several years ago.

But because the leg was broken during excavation, the evidence was damaged and could never be independently confirmed.

Schweitzer then examined a more pristine leg of a plant-eating hadrosaur excavated from sandstone and found even better samples of soft tissue, according to the report.

"Our findings demonstrated that it did contain basement membrane matrix," said Lewis Cantley, chief of the division of signal transduction at Beth Israel Deaconess, and a co-author on the Science study. Basement membranes, which degrade and regenerate during development and wound repair, comprise a continuous extracellular matrix that links endothelial, epithelial, muscle, or neuronal cells and their adjacent stroma.

In situ mass spectrometery independently verified amino acids in dinosaur tissues, including the collagen signature amino acid, hydroxylated proline.

While scientists previously questioned the possibility that soft tissue could survive tens of millions of years of fossilization, few seem to be questioning their assumptions that dinosaurs actually went extinct 65 million years ago.

Young earth proponents see something entirely different in the findings. As one creationist noted: "There’s no way this blood could be 80 million years old. The evolutionists are just saying so because they cannot bear the thought of recent dinosaurs causing their millions of years scenario to come crashing down. Without the millions of years, Darwinism is dead, dead, dead."

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The Appeal of an African Woman In Favor of the Pope's Stand Against Condoms

(Picture: Pope Benedict with South African President Thabo Mbeki)

Back in March during his first ever trip to Africa, the Pope took a heroic stand which I applauded when he stated: "The traditional teaching of the church has proven to be the only failsafe way to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS." For this Pope Benedict received a backlash by the uninformed and the ignorant around the world, especially in the West.

Why would the Pope promote the distribution of condoms, which has been done for years even though HIV/AIDS continues to spread and increase, when he could more correctly tackle the source of the problem? Anyone with a first-hand knowledge of African culture knows that it is a hotseat of sexual immorality which is the root cause of the rampant spread of STD's. A message to encourage self-control would better suit the African people than the encouragement of "safe sex" (which is not that safe anyway). The easy way out for the Pope would have been to promote condom use, but he chose to be a christian and be faithful to his church's teachings. And who better to promote self-control than a man who dedicated his life to celibacy.

Among the many criticism's from around the world Pope Benedict received, one that the Vatican found especially disturbing came from the parliament of Belgium a few weeks ago. The stance of Belgium was truly appalling and did not express the sympathies of the African people themselves, who for the most part applauded the stance of the Pope and the pastoral care he encouraged for those suffering by the AIDS epidemic. In reply to the deplorable stance of Belgium, an African woman had the following to say:

Listen to the Pope on Condoms

A response to: Vatican Deplores Belgium's Criticism of Pontiff

I am a Kenyan woman, a teacher, wife and mother.

I fully support the Pope's message that condoms are not the solution to HIV/AIDS. With the promotion of condoms in my country, HIV/AIDS has only got worse.

Let us listen to Pope Benedict.

I wish I could shout, but I will not; but the truth of the matter is that in my life I have not seen anybody more interested in the welfare of Africa than the Catholic Church.

These other governments and organizations just talk for their own political correctness, hidden agendas and to defend all the myths they hold in their heads about Africa.

Even before Pope Benedict said it, we knew the answer to HIV/AIDS and we agree with him, with clear minds.

Eme Oduor

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The Final Destruction of Byzantium

Extremely shocking and very saddening! Such is the reaction of every Byzantinist today after the results were released yesterday by a group of volunteers, called the Archaeological Settlements of Turkey Project, or TAY Project. The Byzantine period buildings of the Marmara region themselves were reviewed over a period of 88 days in 2008 and covered 427 buildings. The results - 377 buildings are subject to destruction primarily due to unplanned urbanization among many other preventable reasons.

A visit to the website shows samples of visual documentation of the destruction. Among the more notable are the following:

-Balkaya Church 1 reveals that three cavern churches of Byzantine times are now used as goat shelters, and the crosses are destroyed to not "disturb" the goats.

-Beyazit Church D is the remains of an 11th century church in the basement of Istanbul University's Science Department with a boiler to heat the faculty department in the middle of the church.

-Remains at Acimusluk Street was part of a Byzantine palace in Istanbul and is now used to support an Inn above and is currently used to store soft drink crates.

-Kalenderhane Mosque was a 12th century chapel and one of Byzantium's most important artifacts. Today it is a storage facility for the cleaners.

-Karpos - Papylos / Menas Church was a 5th century church in Istanbul later turned monastery in the 10th century. Today it houses two shops - an iron workshop and a car wash shop.

-Konstantinos Lips Church / Fenari Isa Mosque was a 10th century church in Istanbul and is now heavily destroyed by PVC coverings, electrical and water pipes.

-Bogdan Palace is a really sad one. Part of a Byzantine church from the 13th century, today it is used as a tire repair shop (picture above).

-Antiochos Palace and Euphemia Church was a 5th century palace and church dedicated to St. Euphemia whose relics today are stored in the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Due to heavy construction this place will soon be totally destroyed, along with its wall painting consisting of 14 scenes depicting the biography and the tortures experienced by Saint Euphemia from the 13th century, if preservation is not done soon.

-Aya Sotiri Church has nothing remaining. Instead a flimsy concrete house sits on top of it and illegal excavations go on underneath the house by the residents.

-Ayakapi Chapel dates to the 11th century, and in the apse where the priest used to celebrate the Divine Liturgy today is used as a timber shop.

-Building at Merdivenköy was once a Byzantine monastery. Today it is a parking lot of an apartment complex built in 2005.

-Theodoros / Tahtali Church is now a garbage dump.

-Triada Chapel from the 14th century is just a mess.

-Pendik Monastery was very imporatant in Byzantine times. Today it rests under apartment buildings.

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The Final Collapse of Byzantium

Sunday, May 03, 2009 12:09

hurriyetdailynews.com

ISTANBUL - More than half of the Byzantine buildings in the Marmara region have been damaged, according to a report released yesterday by a volunteer group, the Archaeological Settlements of Turkey Project, or TAY.

There are 336 buildings in the area dating from Byzantium that have been severely damaged, TAY coordinator Oğuz Satıcı said in a press conference on the group’s report, "Archeological Destruction in Turkey, 2008, Marmara Region Byzantine Period." The region contains more than 450 buildings that were created by the Byzantines. In

Istanbul, Satıcı added, more than 160 buildings from the Byzantine period have been exposed to damage. The TAY team has found 36 buildings or remnants in the area that were not detected before.

TAY is composed of academics who voluntarily document and assess the damage done to archeological sites in Turkey. Around 20 volunteers worked for five years to document the data for the new report.

The majority of the damage is done due to urban construction at the hands of the state, Satıcı said. The building of new settlements accounts for 33 percent of the damage while the construction of highways, roads and bridges creates 20 percent. Natural causes make up 19 percent, while secondary usage, such as using an old monastery as a sheep pen or a depot, causes 12 percent of the destruction.

An authority gap in the protection of Byzantine-period buildings causes irreversible damage, said Engin Akyürek, a member of the TAY team and an academic from

Istanbul University.

The TAY report shows how historic buildings or their remnants have become almost invisible as they have been used for other purposes or become seriously damaged. Boğdan Palace is one example. The entrance of the palace, which is part of a 13th-century Byzantine church located on Draman Street in the Faith district, is being used as a tire repair shop.

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Saint Matrona the Blind of Moscow

Icon of St. Matrona of Moscow, with scenes from her life

Called "the eighth pillar of Russia" by St. John of Kronstadt, St. Matrona of Moscow (1885-1952), whose feast is celebrated today (New Calendar), is an extraordinary Saint of our times whose life should be known by all Orthodox as she is known throughout all of Russia.

Her life can be read here and here.

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Swine Flu Being Used To Persecute Christians In Egypt

An Egyptian Health worker sprays chemicals to disinfect a local pig farm in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, April 27, 2009.

[Ever since Muslims invaded and took over Egypt, the issue of what to do with swine has always been a hot topic since Muslims are forbidden to eat pork. According to tradition, St. Mark the Evangelist brought Christianity to Egypt in the first century and his relics were kept in the Coptic Patriarchal Cathedral of Saint Mark, until it was stolen in the year 828 by two Venetian merchants to be housed in St. Mark's Basilika in Venice. They did this by putting the body of St. Mark in a pork barrel all the way to Venice (the head was kept in Alexandria). If one were to travel today to St. Mark's in Venice, a mosaic on the façade of the church shows the sailors covering the body with layers of pork, knowing Muslims would not touch pork and so their theft would go undetected.

Over the past few years especially Christians in Egypt have been undergoing persecution from their Muslim overlords. With the swine flu on the rise Muslims have figured out a way not only to rid their country of what they consider an unclean animal, but have managed a way to cause suffering to a great number of Christians who raise the swine and rely on them as their only source of income in the slums they live.

Interesting thing is that there has not been one reported incident of swine flu in Egypt. Furthermore, it has not even been confirmed this supposed "new strain" of swine flu has its origins in swine at all. Some reports claim the Muslim government is doing this because a few years ago dozens of people died from the bird flu and now they are taking precautions. However, reports indicate that people in Egypt still die from the bird flu yet their has been no campaign to slaughter any chickens or other eatable fowl. This is not science, but fascism. Muslims in the Middle East desire to get rid of two things more than anything else - unclean swine and Christians. Now they have an excuse.

If the Egyptian government really cared for its citizens, they would do something to benefit the christians who are forced to live in the slums and raise their swine by eating their garbage. Unfortunately Pope Shenouda of the Coptic Church is agreeing with the governments policy, since two years ago he himself came out amidst criticism from his fellow christians and tried to pursuade christians not to eat pork beause it is a source of many diseases. My personal opinion is that he is just trying to keep the peace. -J.S.]

Swine Flu Being Used To Persecute Christians

Government of Islamic Egypt orders slaughter of all pigs

Posted: April 30, 2009

By Aaron Klein

Worldnetdaily.com

JERUSALEM – An Egypt government policy to slaughter the country's pigs as a stated precaution against swine flu is also aimed at targeting and weakening Egypt's long-persecuted Christian community, charged local Christian leaders.

Members of the Egyptian Christian Coptic community, speaking in interviews with WND today, said Egyptian authorities set up check points in their communities and were harassing local Christians.

Almost the entire pig farming community in Egypt is run by Coptic Christians,who constitute between 8 and 15 percent of Egypt's population, depending on which statistical information is used.

Egypt yesterday started seizing and slaughtering herds of pigs in a bid to rid the country of its swine, explaining it was a safety precaution against swine flu. The move was heavily criticized by the United Nations, which put out a statement that the mass cull of up to 400,000 pigs was "a real mistake" since the new flu strain has not been found in pigs.

International health organizations explained the H1N1 flu virus is spread by people, not pigs.

Muslims view pigs as unclean. In the Middle East, various superstitions have been perpetuated in the Arab media the past few days about how pigs spread the disease.

According to Coptic leaders in Egypt, officials from the country's health and agriculture ministries who are known to be sympathizers of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood made the decision to slaughter Egypt's pigs. The Christians spoke to WND on condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation.

A Muslim journalist for one of the country's state-run newspapers confirmed to WND that some top health and agriculture ministry officials publicly leading theswine killing charge are known Islamists. But he said it was not clear whether they were connected to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is in the opposition in Egypt.

"They are trying to take away our income," charged one Coptic leader. "Thousands of Christians lost their income."

Local Christians told WND the Egyptian government set up checkpoints in major Coptic communities, such as Delta and Behma. The checkpoints, the Christians said, was to ensure locals don't try to hide pigs by transferring them out of the farms.

The local Christians claimed Egyptian security forces were humiliating them at the checkpoints.

"They are forcing us to strip, like we might have pigs under our clothes. I think they are covering for a campaign of harming and humiliating Christians,"said a local Christian.

Coptic Christians have been targeted by Islamist violence several times the past few years. In 2007, in one example, Muslims in Egypt attacked local Christians and set fire to their shops and homes after the Christian community was accused of attempting to build a church. The Egyptian government heavily restricts the construction or enlargement of churches, requiring permits for any Christian building.

Christians are effectively restricted from senior Egyptian government, military or educational positions, and any worship services require the permission of the government.

The Coptic Church, a major Christian community in Egypt, reportedly dates back to the origins of Christianity. Christians were the majority in Egypt until several centuries after the Arab conquest of the 7th century.

Meanwhile, Egyptian Agriculture Minister Amin Abaza said authorities already confiscated more than 1,000 pigs and that he was seeking military help for the slaughter.

The Egyptian media reported the slaughter of the country's estimated 400,000 pigs could take up to a month to complete.

CNN report on the slaughter of pigs in Egypt


This video may not be suitable for minors. It shows the actual slaughter of pigs.

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Moldavian Miracle

[This unusual phenomenon is very similar to one that I observed in the Monastery of the Prophet Elias in Patras, Greece. There Elder Gervasios Paraskevopoulos planted three trees and when they were going to cut them down years later crucifixes also appeared within all three with a Byzantine-style to them. Miraculous healings have also been attributed to those Crosses. This one is particularly unusual for being red and having what looks like a candle on top of the Cross formation. It's hard to label something like this a miracle, especially when we should avoid seeing the supernatural in things that may be natural (like an image of Jesus on a piece of toast or of the Virgin Mary on a foggy window or a Cross in the clouds) lest we be ridiculed and give forth a false testimony without discernment. But there is power in the Cross and great blessing, so at the very least I would consider this a blessed tree and, like the Crosses of Elder Gervasios in Patras, are worthy of veneration. -J.S.]

Moldavian Villageners Saw Images of Cross and Burning Candle in a Tree Cut

Chisinau, April 28, Interfax – Resident of Moldavian village Kodryany cut down an old ash-tree and in the cut he saw a drawing very similar to images of a cross and a burning candle.

“It’s usually very easy to cut down a tree, and here I was facing a difficulty. And spilling wasn’t white as usual, but bright red. It was very difficult to cut it, but when I did, I looked at the cut and oh good heaven: there was a scarlet cross and a burning candle below it! I was shocked!” Pavel Boyko was quoted as saying by the Moldavian edition of the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily.

Members of the Boyko family are believers and frequent churchgoers and like their ancestors, they chant in a church choir.

According to Pavel’s daughter Anzhela, when they called for Fr. Sergy, rector of St. Nicholas church located nearby, the priest stared at the drawing for a long time and then said, “It is the Epiphany.”

Fr. Sergy made a picture and then send it to his ruling bishop.

“I don’t know what to think about this phenomenon. I’ve seen this before, in Ukraine, in the Vinnitsa Region. I reported everything to the Dean, and they told me that I should keep this cut in the church. Perhaps, it’s a sign from God. We hope that it’s a good sign,” the priest says.

Meanwhile pilgrims started coming to the Boyko house. People are arriving from neighboring villages to see the alleged miracle.

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Orthodox Christian Rock Band To Tour With Rammstein

[Bands featuring Orthodox priests and monks seem to be getting a bit popular these days. A few years ago a group from the monastery of Fr. Nektarios Moulatsiotis in Greece, called Free Monks or more commonly Paparokades (rocking priests) reached huge success, and more recently a band known as Exorcist is becoming quite popular in Russia lead by Hieromonk Vladimir Gusev. Even though I do have problems with monks and priests being performers in concerts, I must say their music is pretty good, in a weird way (in my opinion). They claim to do it for a greater good by giving Orthodoxy greater exposure to the youth, but the role of a monk and priest is very exclusive in Orthodox tradition and the performance aspect of these bands and their immense popularity can also be a cause of scandal and invite many temptations. I'm particularly impressed by the music of Exorcist however, as I am a big fan of Industrial Dance Heavy Metal. One of the most popular bands of the genre is the controversial band Rammstein. I first heard of Rammstein back in the late 1990's when the movie Lost Highway was released and I bought the soundtrack, and their music (sung mainly in German) was very impressive and I have been a fan since. Now they are touring together with Exorcist. Should be interesting. But as far as this new Orthodox rock music is concerned, I would say that it is better for the world to conform to the Church rather than the Church to the world. It seems Gusev is a bit controversial as well, having been brought to trial back in 1997 for his extreme antisemitism. Gusev said that "Judaism does not have any positive conception in the Christian sense" and he identified Hasidic and Ashkenazic Jews as members of totalitarian sects that "kill children, gather their blood, and use it to make matzah" - the infamous "blood libel" charge. He further warned, "The Jews should not celebrate Hannukah because it can insult the religious feelings of the Christians." -J.S.]

Listen to a sample song and see a track listing of their album here.

Gallery of photos can be seen here.

Videos of the lead singer, Hieromonk Vladimir Gusev, doing exorcisms are here.

MySpace page here.

Rammstein Producers Welcome Russian Rock Band Playing Heavy Rock With Orthodox Texts

Moscow, April 27, 2009 - Interfax – Producers of the Rammstein band invited musicians playing Orthodox prayers in the style of heavy metal to their festival.

“Our texts are directed against destruction and backed up by Orthodox prayers interlaced with industrial heavy rock. It affected Rammstein producers, Americans, and they invited us to participate in their festival. There was nothing like this before,” said famous actor Nikita Jigurda to Interfax-Religion as he has become a soloist of the Exorcist rock band.

According to Jigurda, the project in heavy metal style is made “to attract young generation and draw them back from the Satan rock where heavy rhythms are accompanied with destructive texts.”

“We want to cooperate with the entire Orthodox Church because only together we can get through to the youngsters looking for strength, but unfortunately find it in Satanic groups. We created an alternative to pull young souls back and with Cross in hands show them the way to Christ, to love, to the revival of Russia dreamt by the Orthodox Church, best musicians and people of Russia,” Jigurda said.

The actor and musician noted there were teenagers “who first heard Orthodox prayers at a heavy rock concert and were amazed.”

“We created a project to exorcise demons. We have heavy esthetics, we say we are youth- oriented not to let them march directly to hell and the devil,” the soloist believes.

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Intelligent Design Is Not Creationism

Creating an Insult to Intelligence

By Melanie Phillips

Wednesday, 29th April 2009

The Spectator

Listening to the Today programme this morning, I was irritated once again by yet another misrepresentation of Intelligent Design as a form of Creationism. In an item on the growing popularity of Intelligent Design, John Humphrys interviewed Professor Ken Miller of Brown University in the US who spoke on the subject last evening at the Faraday Institute, Cambridge. Humphrys suggested that Intelligent Design might be considered a kind of middle ground between Darwinism and Creationism. Miller agreed but went further, saying that Intelligent Design was: "nothing more than an attempt to repackage good old-fashioned Creationism and make it more palatable."

But this is totally untrue. Miller referred to a landmark US court case in 2005, Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, which did indeed uphold the argument that Intelligent Design was a form of Creationism in its ruling that teaching Intelligent Design violated the constitutional ban against teaching religion in public schools. But the court was simply wrong, doubtless because it had heard muddled testimony from the likes of Prof Miller.

Whatever the ramifications of the specific school textbooks under scrutiny in the Kitzmiller/Dover case, the fact is that Intelligent Design not only does not come out of Creationism but stands against it. This is because Creationism comes out of religion while Intelligent Design comes out of science. Creationism, whose proponents are Bible literalists, is a specific doctrine which holds that the earth was literally created in six days. Intelligent Design, whose proponents are mainly scientists, holds that the complexity of science suggests that there must have been a governing intelligence behind the origin of matter, which could not have developed spontaneously from nothing.

The confusion arises partly out of ignorance, with people lazily confusing belief in a Creator with Creationism. But belief in a Creator is common to all people of monotheistic faith — with many scientists amongst them — the vast majority of whom would regard Creationism as totally ludicrous. In coming to the conclusion that a governing intelligence must have been responsible for the ultimate origin of matter, Intelligent Design proponents are essentially saying there must have been a creator. The difference between them and people of religious faith is that ID proponents do not necessarily believe in a personalised Creator, or God.

As a result, both Creationists and many others of religious faith disdain Intelligent Design, just as ID proponents think Creationism is totally off the wall. Yet the two continue to be conflated. And ignorance is only partly responsible for the confusion, since militant evangelical atheists deliberately conflate Intelligent Design with Creationism in order to smear and discredit ID and its adherents.

On Today, Humphrys perfectly reasonably pressed Miller further. If ID was merely a disguised form of Creationism, he asked, why were so many intelligent people prepared to accept ID but not Creationism? Miller replied: "Intelligent people can sometimes be wrong."

Indeed; and it is Prof Miller who is wrong. Creationism and Intelligent Design are two completely different ways of looking at the world; and you don’t have to subscribe to either to realise the untruth that is being propagated — and the wrong that is being done to people’s reputations — by the pretence that they are connected.

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Does Intelligent Design Make Scientifically Fruitful Predictions?

Absolutely. To cite just one example, the non-functionality of “junk DNA” was predicted by Susumu Ohno (1972), Richard Dawkins (1976), Crick and Orgel (1980), Pagel and Johnstone (1992), and Ken Miller (1994), based on evolutionary presuppositions. In contrast, on teleological grounds, Michael Denton (1986, 1998), Michael Behe (1996), John West (1998), William Dembski (1998), Richard Hirsch (2000), and Jonathan Wells (2004) predicted that “junk DNA” would be found to be functional.

The Intelligent Design predictions are being confirmed and the Darwinist predictions are being falsified. For instance, ENCODE’s June 2007 results show substantial functionality across the genome in such “junk DNA” regions, including pseudogenes.

Thus, it is a matter of simple fact that scientists working in the ID paradigm carry out and publish research, and they have made significant and successful ID-based predictions.

A more general and long term prediction of ID is that the complexity of living things will be shown to be much higher than currently thought. Darwin thought the cell was a relatively simple blob of gelatinous carbon. He was wrong. We now known the cell is a high-tech information processing system, with superbly functionally integrated machinery, error-correction-and-repair systems, and much more that surpasses the most sophisticated efforts of the best human mathematicians, mechanical, electrical, chemical, and software engineers. The prediction that living systems will turn out to be vastly more complicated than previously thought (and thus much less likely to have evolved through naturalistic means) will continue to be verified in the years to come.

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Orthodoxy or Death?

[Something I thought was pretty funny, even though this came from a website determined to negate the influence of Orthodoxy in Greece and reinstate the status of paganism as it was in ancient Greece. I guess I find humor in this because it is a bit stereotypical, but there is a lesson to be learned as well - Christians must take care to not invite scandal in any form, otherwise you may become the subject of a very funny joke (or picture). Oh, and furthermore, if you hold a sign that says "Orthodoxy or Death", don't hold something in your hand that actually shows you are choosing DEATH. -J.S.]

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Saints Jason and Sosipater the Apostles

Sts. Jason and Sosipater the Apostles - Commemorated on April 29th (or in some places, April 28th); the two icons above are from their church in Kerkyra and are from the 1600's.

These Saints and Apostles of the first century, celebrated today, I found to be interesting because of the archaeology that supports their history as enlighteners of the island of Kerkyra (known also as Corfu).

They arrived on the island of Kerkyra about 40 AD and we are told they are responsible for Christianizing the island, one of the first cities in all of Greece to be Christianized.

We are told they built a church dedicated to Saint Stephen the Protomartyr. If true this means that even the apostles built churches and dedicated them to martyrs and saints. Possible evidence for this lies in the fact that many streets and locations in the area are named after Saint Stephen (Agios Stephanos).

Furthermore, the church currently named after Saints Jason and Sosipater is the only church from the Roman Empire (built around 1000 AD) on the island and it is built on top of an older church built centuries earlier, probably from the first century according to archaeologists, that bear inscriptions with the names of the two Apostles. On top of that, the church claims to even contain the relics of the Saints inside the church [the heads of the Apostles are in Hosios Loukas Monastery near Thebes]. The current church was the katholikon of a monastery in Roman times. Katherine, wife of Thomas Palaiologos (brother of the last Roman Emperor, Constantine XI), sought refuge in this monastery when Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453.

The Life and Ministry of the Holy Apostles Jason and Sosipater and the Virgin-Martyr Kerkyra

by St. Nikolai Velimirovich

The first two were among the Seventy Apostles, and the last was the daughter of the king of the island of Corfu. The Apostle Paul mentions Jason and Sosipater (Rom. 16:21), and calls them his kinsmen.

Jason was born in Tarsus, as was the Apostle Paul himself, and Sosipater in Achaea. The first was nominated by the Apostles as Bishop of Tarsus and the second as Bishop of Iconium.

Travelling and preaching the Gospel, these two apostles came to the island of Corfu, where they succeeded in building a church dedicated to St Stephen the Protomartyr and in bringing some unbelievers to the Church.

The king of the island [Kerkylinus] threw them into prison, where there were seven robbers already imprisoned: Satorninus, Jakischolus, Faustian, Januarius, Marsalus, Euphrasius and Mamminus. The apostles brought all seven of them to the Christian faith, making wolves into lambs. The king commanded that these seven be put to death in boiling pitch, and they thus received the wreath of martyrdom.

When, after this, the king was in process of questioning the apostles, his daughter Kerkyra, looking through a window, saw the torture of these men of God and, discovering the reason for it, proclaimed herself a Christian and gave all her jewels away to the poor. The king was filled with wrath against his daughter and shut her up in a separate prison, then, failing to turn her from Christ, ordered that the prison be burned down. The prison burned to the ground, but the maiden remained alive. Seeing this wonder, many of the people were baptized. The furious king ordered that his daughter be bound to a tree and killed with arrows.

Those who had come to believe in Christ fled from the terrible king to a nearby island and hid themselves. The king set off in a boat to arrest them, but his boat overturned in the sea and thus the unrighteous perished, as Pharaoh aforetime.

The new king accepted the Christian faith and was baptized, receiving the name Sebastian. Jason and Sosipater freely preached the Gospel and strengthened the Church of God in Corfu to great old age [some say Sosipater was martyred before the death of Jason by being burned to death], and there finished their earthly course and went to the courts of the Lord.

Apolytikion in the Third Tone
O Holy Apostles, intercede to our merciful God, that He may grant our souls forgiveness of sins.

Kontakion in the Plagal of the Second Tone
Being illuminated with the teachings of Paul, ye became luminaries unto the whole world, O thrice-blessed ones; for ye ever shine upon the world with miracles, O Jason, thou fountain of healings, and Sosipater, thou glory of the Martyrs of Christ. O God-bearing Apostles, ye protectors of them that be in need, entreat God that our souls be saved.

The Roman church of Saints Jason and Sosipater. The building dates roughly to the year 1000, but two recessed inscriptions on the two sides of the central entry tell us that it would have been constructed on the site of an older monument. The previous church may have possibly been destroyed during the Slavic invasions a few decades earlier.

The church of Sts. Jason and Sosipater on Kerkyra (supposedly the sole church of Roman architecture on the island). Here are preserved relics of Sts. Jason and Sosipater (their skulls are in the Monastery of Hosios Loukas in mainland Greece), and I believe also the tomb of the martyred prison guard, St. Anthony, honored as one of the first martyrs of the island.

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