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| January 02, 2008 | Welcome to this week's edition of Prophecy News Watch |
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1. Where is the United States in Prophecy? Questions and Answers About Americans’ Religion What percentage of Americans today identify with a Christian religion? About 82% of Americans in 2007 told Gallup interviewers that they identified with a Christian religion. That includes 51% who said they were Protestant, 5% who were "other Christian," 23% Roman Catholic, and 3% who named another Christian faith, including 2% Mormon. Because 11% said they had no religious identity at all, and another 2% didn't answer, these results suggest that well more than 9 out of 10 Americans who identify with a religion are Christian in one way or the other. Has this changed over time? Yes. The percentage of Americans who identify with a Christian religion is down some over the decades. This is not so much because Americans have shifted to other religions, but because a significantly higher percentage of Americans today say they don't have a religious identity. In the late 1940s, when Gallup began summarizing these data, a very small percentage explicitly told interviewers they did not identify with any religion. But of those who did have a religion, Gallup classified -- in 1948, for example -- 69% as Protestant and 22% as Roman Catholic, or about 91% Christian. It's one thing to identify with a religion, and another to be actively religious. What percentage of Americans are actually members of a church? Sixty-two percent of Americans in Gallup's latest poll, conducted in December, say they are members of a "church or synagogue," a question Gallup has been asking since 1937. One measure Gallup has tracked over time asks respondents to indicate how important religion is in their own lives -- very, fairly, or not very important. This year, 56% of Americans have said religion is very important. Only 17% say religion is not very important. The Poster That Awaits President Bush in Jerusalem In the upcoming days, billboards all over Jerusalem will be plastered with a new poster on the eve of U.S. President Bush’s visit to Israel. Pictured in the poster is a gigantic Bible, towering over the walls of the Old City. The caption says: “Bush, read your Bible. God gave Israel to the Jews.” Tzvi Fishman, of the Am K’Lavee organization, and an Arutz 7 blogger, says “The poster is designed to refocus Israel’s opposition to further withdrawals back to our Divine claim to the Land of Israel, as documented again and again in the Bible.” Am K’Lavee organizes the annual mass parade to the Kotel on Jerusalem Day, which is attended by tens of thousands. It is joining a broad spectrum of grassroots organizations that are planning protests during Bush’s three-day visit to Jerusalem. “The Biblical claim of the Jewish People to the Land of Israel was recognized by the British in the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which called for the establishment of a Jewish State in Palestine,” Fishman states. “The British believed in the Bible and what was written in it, and that was what guided Lord Balfour in winning the support of the British Parliament. "America also believes in the Bible,” Fishman says, “and therefore, it is totally unreasonable that America and its God-fearing President should act against the Bible, the pillar of Christian belief.” Through the poster, Fishman is embarking to remind President Bush that God’s plan for the world supersedes his plan. How to conduct its public relations campaign has long been a matter of debate among Jewish leaders in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza (Yesha). Am K'Lavee has chosen what they call "the irrefutable argument." Fishman explains: "I remember the day some twenty years ago when the leaders of the settlement movement decided that they weren’t going to speak any more about God’s gift of the Land of Israel to our forefather, Abraham. Instead they decided to base the importance of settling Judea and Samaria on practical military and Zionistic reasons. The trouble with this strategy is that when you bring a big general to warn the public about the dangers of surrendering portions of Yesha to the enemy, the political Left parades out their line-up of big generals who say the very opposite. That’s what happened with the 2005 Disengagement Plan. "People thought they could trust the famous military hero, Sharon, when he assured the nation that there was no security risk in evacuating the Jewish towns of Gush Katif. The military question can be argued this way and that, but our Biblical claim to the Land is irrefutable. Bush, America, Europe, and all the Christian world have to be reminded that in pressuring us to give up the Jewish towns of Yesha and divide Jerusalem, they are going against the Bible and God. Top economist says America could plunge into recession Losses arising from America’s housing recession could triple over the next few years and they represent the greatest threat to growth in the United States, one of the world’s leading economists has told The Times. Robert Shiller, Professor of Economics at Yale University, predicted that there was a very real possibility that the US would be plunged into a Japan-style slump, with house prices declining for years. Professor Shiller, co-founder of the respected S&P Case/Shiller house-price index, said: “American real estate values have already lost around $1 trillion [£503 billion]. That could easily increase threefold over the next few years. This is a much bigger issue than sub-prime. We are talking trillions of dollars’ worth of losses.” He said that US futures markets had priced in further declines in house prices in the short term, with contracts on the S&P Shiller index pointing to decreases of up to 14 per cent. “Over the next five years, the futures contracts are pointing to losses of around 35 per cent in some areas, such as Florida, California and Las Vegas. There is a good chance that this housing recession will go on for years,” he said. Professor Shiller, author of Irrational Exuberance, a phrase later used by Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman, said: “This is a classic bubble scenario. A few years ago house prices got very high, pushed up because of investor expectations. Americans have fuelled the myth that prices would never fall, that values could only go up. People believed the story. Now there is a very real chance of a big recession.” He pointed out that signs at the beginning of 2007 that had indicated that some states were beginning to experience a recovery in house prices had proved to be false: “States such as Massachusetts had seen some increases at the beginning of the year. Denver also looked like it had a different path. Now all states are falling.” Until two years ago, each of America’s 50 states had experienced a prolonged housing boom, with properties in some – such as Florida, California, Arizona and Nevada – doubling in price, fuelled by cheap credit and lax lending practices to borrowers who ordinarily would not have been able to secure a mortgage. Two years ago, the northeastern states of America became the first to slide into a recession after 17 successive interest-rate rises between June 2004 and August 2006 hit the property market. Last week, new numbers from the S&P/Case Shiller index showed that house prices had declined in October at their fastest rate for more than six years, with homes in Miami losing 12 per cent of their value. 2. Israel - God's Timepiece Israel needs to internalize that even its supportive friends on the international stage conceive of the country's future on the basis of the 1967 borders and with Jerusalem divided, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has declared to The Jerusalem Post. In an interview at the start of a year that he hopes will yield a permanent Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, the prime minister said many rival Israeli political parties remain "detached from the reality" that requires Israel to compromise "on parts of Eretz Yisrael" in order to maintain its Jewish, democratic nature. The reality in which Israel was seeking an accommodation, he elaborated, includes a situation in which even "the world that is friendly to Israel... that really supports Israel, when it speaks of the future, it speaks of Israel in terms of the '67 borders. It speaks of the division of Jerusalem." What was extraordinary about US President George W. Bush, in this context, Olmert said, was that Bush, since a landmark letter he wrote to then-prime minister Ariel Sharon in 2004, has made plain that he envisages Israel maintaining at least some territory in Judea and Samaria. Bush "has already said '67 plus," said Olmert, "and that's an amazing achievement for Israel." Asked whether next week's first Bush presidential visit was designed for Bush to become the godfather of the State of Palestine, Olmert said, "I don't think he would define a visit like this in those terms... He's coming as an expression of his friendship. Also, he's coming to give expression to his support for the diplomatic process." Bush was not pressuring Israel in any way, Olmert said. "He's not doing a single thing that I don't agree to," he said. "He doesn't support anything that I oppose." Rather, Olmert said, both he and the president hoped that the Annapolis timetable, for an accord in the course of 2008, could be met. Indeed, said the prime minister, there was currently an almost divinely ordained constellation of key personalities on the international stage favorably disposed to Israel, creating comfortable conditions for negotiations that might never be replicated. "It's a coincidence that is almost 'the hand of God,'" Olmert said, "that Bush is president of the United States, that Nicolas Sarkozy is the president of France, that Angela Merkel is the chancellor of Germany, that Gordon Brown is the prime minister of England and that the special envoy to the Middle East is Tony Blair." The imperative, he said, was to make every effort for progress while this array of supportive characters remained in place. "What possible combination," he asked, "could be more comfortable for the State of Israel?" The annual report of Israel’s domestic intelligence service, Shin Bet, paints a troubling picture of a Hamas-ruled government in Gaza expanding its efforts to build a war machine capable of taking on Israel in full-scale military combat, with active input from Iran and Syria. In the outgoing year, Hamas and its allies fired more than 1.300 Qassam missiles and 1,700 mortar shells from Gaza, subjecting Israeli communities in an expanding radius to a daily average of 8.2 projectiles. At the same time, the Shin Bet and IDF were strikingly successful in their preventive campaign. They thwarted 29 major attacks inside Israel originating in Gaza, and the number of Israelis killed by terrorists declined from 50 in 2005 and 24 in 2006 to 13 in 2007. Nonetheless, the Palestinians mounted a total of 2,946 Palestinian terrorist attacks, 9 less than 2006, including a single suicide bombing in Eilat and another three that were intercepted in time. No let-up is expected next year. In 2007, Hamas smuggled into Gaza more than 80 tons of explosives for use in the fabrication of missiles and bombs, including roadside devices laid down against an Israeli military incursion. Al Qaeda and its Palestinian affiliates recently stepped up their participation in attacks, more conspicuously since Fatah al Islam set up operations in Gaza after being thrown out of its northern haven in Lebanon four months ago. Israeli officials said that Osama bin Laden’s threat to “liberate every inch of Palestine” is being taken seriously. The Shin Bet reports that hundreds of Hamas operatives were smuggled through the Sinai tunnels out to Iran and Syria and back for special 2-6 month courses at facilities near Tehran and Damascus in commando combat and the manufacture and launching of missiles. Among them were officers and naval commandos. The Shin Bet report notes that Hamas’ smuggling projects spread out from Gaza to the West Bank, where a new terror machine is taking shape. Local terrorist elements are being taught to manufacture and use Qassam missiles and high-trajectory weapons, thereby bringing Israel’s central coastal cities, including Tel Aviv, within range. Scores of West Bank Hamas activitists were also sent to Iran and Syria to study missile manufacture. Israel gets warned: Al-Qaida coming! Israel in recent months received warnings from foreign intelligence agencies that al-Qaida operatives were seeking to infiltrate the Jewish state to set up cells to carry out large-scale attacks, WND has learned. The warnings were followed up by the release this weekend of a new audiotape in which al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden made an unusually sharp threat of attacks against Israel. According to Israeli security officials, Israel several times received general warnings indicating al-Qaida was attempting to fly operatives into the Jewish state's international airport disguised as tourists carrying foreign passports. The latest warning was received a few months ago and indicated the passports may be from Britain, Australia and the United States. The security officials said al-Qaida has come to the conclusion Palestinian terror groups operating in the Gaza Strip and West Bank have had great difficulty infiltrating Israel due to the country's security barrier and antiterror measures and that Palestinians who do successfully infiltrate are not capable of carrying out large-scale attacks inside the country. The Israeli security officials said the latest warning, which was shared with Palestinian intelligence agencies, indicated al-Qaida has made a strategic decision to attempt to send foreign cells into the Jewish state instead of relying on Palestinian militants. The latest al-Qaida warning was received here just a few months before bin Laden's videotape was released this weekend vowing to "expand jihad to Palestine." "I would like to assure our people in Palestine that we will expand our jihad there," said bin Laden. "We intend to liberate Palestine, the whole of Palestine from the (Jordan) river to the sea," he continued, threatening "blood for blood, destruction for destruction." While bin Laden and other Al-Qaida figures many times vowed to attack Israel, the latest comments were a more direct language than bin Laden usually uses. "We will not recognize even one inch for Jews in the land of Palestine as other Muslim leaders have," bin Laden said. Israeli officials said they were taking bin Laden's latest threat seriously. After yesterday's meeting here of the government's security cabinet, Tzachi Hanegbi, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, told reporters, "The threat of al-Qaida is real. They've struck in Lebanon, Australia, Indonesia, Madrid, New York and London. They can easily target the Middle East and we need to be prepared for that." Central Bureau of Statistics: 2.1% of state's population is Christian There are 152,000 Christians living in Israel, about 2.1 percent of the population, the Central Bureau of Statistics announced Monday in honor of Christmas. Just over 80 percent of them are Arabs; most of the rest immigrated here together with a Jewish relative. Of the latter category, most came from the former Soviet Union. Most Israeli Christians, some 74 percent, live in the north of the country. Another 11 percent live in the Jerusalem area. The Christian population is overwhelmingly urban, with 98 percent living in cities in 2006. That compares to 91 percent of Jews and 93 percent of Muslims. The town with the largest Christian population is Nazareth (20,000), followed by Haifa (17,200), Jerusalem (15,000) and Shfaram (8,800). Even though this population is largely Arab, Christian demographics resemble Jewish ones rather than Muslim ones: Some 9 percent of Christians are 65 or older (compared to 3 percent for Muslims), while 33 percent are 19 or younger (identical to the Jewish rate, but far below the Muslims' 52 percent). Christian women gave birth to 2,500 children in 2006, 81 percent of them Arab. The Christian birthrate has steadily declined, from 4.6 children per woman in 1960 to 2.1 last year, and is now the lowest in Israel. By comparison, the rate was 4.0 for Muslims, 2.8 for Jews and 2.6 for Druze in 2006. 3. A Revived Roman Empire? Cyprus and Malta adopt the euro Two Mediterranean island states, Cyprus and Malta, have begun using the euro, joining 13 other countries. The countries' leaders made symbolic withdrawals of euros from cash machines just minutes into the New Year. Major bank branches opened for a few hours in Cyprus despite the New Year holiday. The Maltese celebrated the euro's arrival with fireworks. Cyprus and Malta have added just 1.2 million people to the number of Europeans using the single currency. 4. The Gog/Magog War Russia Sells S-300 Anti-Aircraft Missile Defense System to Iran Iran has announced that Russia will provide Iran with the sophisticated and powerful S-300 anti-aircraft missile defense system, vastly improving the Islamic Republic's ability to protect its nuclear development facilities. "The S-300 air defense system will be delivered to Iran on the basis of a contract signed with Russia in the past," said Iran's Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, according to Iranian state television. The missiles can intercept targets at an altitude of up to 27 kilometers (90,000 feet) and at ranges of up to 150 kilometers (95 miles) from the launch point. They are effective against cruise missiles and ballistic warheads as well, and are equivalent to the PAC-3 Patriot missiles which Israel is considering purchasing. Russian military officials contend that the S-300 is of a higher operational standard than the U.S.-built Patriot missiles currently used by Israel. The S-300 systems are also a major improvement over the 29 Tor-M1 air defense missile systems delivered to Iran from Russia earlier this year. The $700 million contract for that purchase was signed in December 2005. Former Israel Air Force Commander Eitan Ben-Eliyahu told Channel 10 TV that the missiles will make it significantly harder for Israel to attack Iran from the air, if it chooses to do so. Even aircraft that do not directly participate in the attack will be endangered by the missiles, he said, adding that AWACS planes, standby rescue planes and other planes with protective missions could be targeted by such long range missiles. Najjar did not specify how many S-300 systems would be shipped to Iran, nor did he say when this would happen. An unidentified Russian source confirmed that dozens of S-300 batteries would be transferred to Iran and that the contract had already been signed several years ago. PA to receive 50 armored vehicles from Russia next month The much-publicized supply of 50 armored vehicles from Russia to the Palestinian Authority will be carried out next month, the PA said Saturday. PA Interior Minister Abdel Razzak Yahya said that the vehicles would be used to maintain law and order in the West Bank. Israel finally sanctioned the supply of the vehicles after the PA agreed not to fit them with machine guns. Egypt-Iran relations moving forward' At the end of a rare visit to Egypt, a senior Iranian envoy said Tuesday the two regional Muslim heavyweights are making progress in normalizing diplomatic relations, cut nearly three decades ago over regional policy disagreements. "There is no major problem and everything is moving forward," Ali Larijani, from Iran's powerful National Security Council, said after talks here with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit. Larijani, who is also a close aide to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, described the talks as "positive and constructive." Teheran cut diplomatic ties after Cairo signed a peace agreement with Israel in 1979 and provided asylum for the deposed Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Iran's support for Iraqi Shi'ites, Lebanon's Hizbullah and the Palestinian terror organization Hamas has further deteriorated relations, resulting in very limited diplomatic contacts between the two countries. Egypt has always maintained that normal ties with Iran would come only after Iran stopped meddling in internal affairs of Arab countries. Larijani's visit comes amid a thaw between the two Muslim nations. It followed a visit last month to Teheran by Egypt's deputy foreign minister, Hussein Darar, and a preceding visit to Cairo in September by Darar's counterpart, Abbas Araghchi. In May, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad offered to restore ties with Egypt, a strong US ally. At the time, Ahmadinejad said his country was ready to open an embassy in Cairo as soon as Egypt agreed to do the same in Teheran. 5. Apostate Christianity Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori unrepentant on gay clergy The head of the Anglicans in the United States has accused other churches, including the Church of England, of double standards over sexuality. The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katherine Jefferts Schori, told the BBC her church is paying the price for its honesty over sexuality. The threat of schism in the Anglican Communion was prompted by the appointment of a gay bishop. The US church appointed an openly gay man Gene Robinson as a bishop in 2003. Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori defended her ministry. "He is certainly not alone in being a gay bishop, he's certainly not alone in being a gay partnered bishop," she said. "He is alone in being the only gay partnered bishop who's open about that status." She said other Anglican churches also have gay bishops in committed partnerships and should be open about it. "There's certainly a double standard," she told BBC Radio 4's PM programme . The US church also faces criticism over its stance on services of blessing for gay couples. The church has stated it will not officially authorise such services, but Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori admits they do take place. "Those services are happening in various places, including in the Church of England, where my understanding is that there are far more of them happening than there are in the Episcopal Church," she said. Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori refused to criticise US parishes that carry out services of blessing for gay couples, saying that it was a decision for each individual church. 2008 is a critical year for the unity of the Anglican Communion. In July, Anglican bishops from around the world are due to attend the Lambeth Conference, convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury once a decade. Some African churches are threatening to boycott the conference - particularly if US Bishop Robinson receives an invitation. But Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori says she thinks he might yet be invited. "We're still hoping that that might be the case," she said. Many believers bitter over 'prosperity' preachings The message flickered into Cindy Fleenor's living room each night: Be faithful in how you live and how you give, the television preachers said, and God will shower you with material riches. And so the 53-year-old accountant from the Tampa, Florida, area pledged $500 a year to Joyce Meyer, the evangelist whose frank talk about recovering from childhood sexual abuse was so inspirational. She wrote checks to flamboyant faith healer Benny Hinn and a local preacher-made-good, Paula White. Only the blessings didn't come. Fleenor ended up borrowing money from friends and payday loan companies just to buy groceries. At first she believed the explanation given on television: Her faith wasn't strong enough. "I wanted to believe God wanted to do something great with me like he was doing with them," she said. "I'm angry and bitter about it. Right now, I don't watch anyone on TV hardly." All three of the groups Fleenor supported are among six major Christian television ministries under scrutiny by a senator who is asking questions about the evangelists' lavish spending and possible abuses of their tax-exempt status. The probe by Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, has brought new scrutiny to the underlying belief that brings in millions of dollars and fills churches from Atlanta to Los Angeles -- the "Gospel of Prosperity," or the notion that God wants to bless the faithful with earthly riches. All six ministries under investigation preach the prosperity gospel to varying degrees. Proponents call it a biblically sound message of hope. Others say it is a distortion that makes evangelists rich and preys on the vulnerable. They say it has evolved from "it's all right to make money" to it's all right for the pastor to drive a Bentley, live in an oceanside home and travel by private jet. "More and more people are desperate and grasping at straws and want something that will alleviate their pain or financial crisis," said Michael Palmer, dean of the divinity school at Regent University, founded by Pat Robertson. "It's a growing problem." The teachings took on various names -- "Name It and Claim It," "Word of Faith," the prosperity gospel. Prosperity preachers say that it isn't all about money -- that God's blessings extend to health, relationships and being well-off enough to help others. Critics acknowledge the idea that God wants to bless his followers has a Biblical basis, but say prosperity preachers take verses out of context. The prosperity crowd also fails to acknowledge Biblical accounts that show God doesn't always reward faithful believers, Palmer said. The Book of Job is a case study in piety unrewarded, and a chapter in the Book of Hebrews includes a litany of believers who were tortured and martyred, Palmer said. Yet the prosperity gospel continues to draw crowds, particularly lower- and middle-income people who, critics say, have the greatest motivation and the most to lose. The prosperity message is spreading to black churches, attracting elderly people with disposable incomes, and reaching huge churches in Africa and other developing parts of the world. One of the teaching's attractions is that it doesn't dwell on traditional Christian themes of heaven and hell but on answering pressing concerns of the here and now, said Brian McLaren, a liberal evangelical author and pastor. But the prosperity gospel, McLaren said, not only preys on the hope of the vulnerable, it puts too much emphasis on individual success and happiness. "We've pretty much ignored what the Bible says about systemic injustice," he said. The checks and balances central to Christian denominations are largely lacking in prosperity churches. One of the pastors in the Grassley probe, Bishop Eddie Long of suburban Atlanta, has written that God told him to get rid of the "ungodly governmental structure" of a deacon board. Some ministers hold up their own wealth as evidence that the teaching works. Atlanta-area pastor Creflo Dollar, who is fighting Grassley's inquiry, owns a Rolls Royce and multimillion-dollar homes and travels in a church-owned Learjet. There is evidence of change. Joyce Meyer Ministries, for one, enacted financial reforms in recent years, including making audited financial statements public. Meyer, who has promised to cooperate fully with Grassley, issued a statement emphasizing that a prosperity gospel "that solely equates blessing with financial gain is out of balance and could damage a person's walk with God." 6. The Rise of Islam Global move towards regional blocks - Islamic Gulf states form common market The wealthy six Gulf states have taken a step closer together economically with the formation of a common market. The Gulf Co-operation Council states, whose wealth is largely based on oil, say the move will give them a stronger negotiating position internationally. It will also mean their citizens can move freely between the countries for employment and education. But analysts say it may also fuel inflation and other difficulties in the region's boom cities. One of the main results of the common market - much talked about and finally decided upon just last month - is expected to be migration. The nationals of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are now to be seen as equal, economically, whichever country they chose to live in. They will be able to work, buy houses and companies, trade shares, go to school and receive medical treatment in all six states. But there is concern that migration will put further pressure on the limited housing, infrastructure, education and health services in the countries with higher standards of living like the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Importantly, the common market will not affect the rights of millions of the Gulf's migrant workers - most from South and East Asia. They are often subject to very strict employment and residency rules and few are able to change jobs easily. Celebrated author Mark Steyn has been summoned to appear before two Canadian judicial panels on charges linked to his book “America Alone." The book, a No. 1 bestseller in Canada, argues that Western nations are succumbing to an Islamist imperialist threat. The fact that charges based on it are proceeding apace proves his point. Steyn, who won the 2006 Eric Breindel Journalism Award (co-sponsored by The Post and its parent, News Corp), writes for dozens of publications on several continents. After the Canadian general-interest magazine Maclean's reprinted a chapter from the book, five Muslim law-school students, acting through the auspices of the Canadian Islamic Congress, demanded that the magazine be punished for spreading “hatred and contempt" for Muslims. The plaintiffs allege that Maclean's advocated, among other things, the notion that Islamic culture is incompatible with Canada's liberalized, Western civilization. They insist such a notion is untrue and, in effect, want opinions like that banned from publication. Two separate panels, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal and the Canadian Human Rights Commission, have agreed to hear the case. These bodies are empowered to hear and rule on cases of purported “hate speech." Of course, a ban on opinions - even disagreeable ones - is the very antithesis of the Western tradition of free speech and freedom of the press. Indeed, this whole process of dragging Steyn and the magazine before two separate human-rights bodies for the “crime" of expressing an opinion is a good illustration of precisely what he was talking about. If Maclean's, Canada's top-selling magazine, is found “guilty," it could face financial or other penalties. And the affair could have a devastating impact on opinion journalism in Canada generally. As it happens, Canadian human-rights commissions have already come down hard on those whose writings they dislike, like critics of gay rights. Nor should Americans dismiss this campaign against Steyn and Maclean's as merely another Canadian eccentricity. Speech cops in America, too, are forever attempting similar efforts - most visibly, on college campuses. In fact, New York City itself has a human-rights panel that tries to stamp out anything deemed too politically incorrect. Since 9/11, Americans have been alert to the threat of terror from radical Islamists. But there's been all too little concern for a creeping accommodation of radical Islamist tenets, like curbs on critical opinions. That needs to change. 7. Increase in Knowledge/New Technologies Military Use of Unmanned Aircraft Soars The military's reliance on unmanned aircraft that can watch, hunt and sometimes kill insurgents has soared to more than 500,000 hours in the air, largely in Iraq, The Associated Press has learned. And new Defense Department figures obtained by The AP show that the Air Force more than doubled its monthly use of drones between January and October, forcing it to take pilots out of the air and shift them to remote flying duty to meet part of the demand. The dramatic increase in the development and use of drones across the armed services reflects what will be an even more aggressive effort over the next 25 years, according to the new report. The jump in Iraq coincided with the build up of U.S. forces this summer as the military swelled its ranks to quell the violence in Baghdad. But Pentagon officials said that even as troops begin to slowly come home this year, the use of Predators, Global Hawks, Shadows and Ravens will not likely slow. "I think right now the demand for the capability that the unmanned system provides is only increasing," said Army Col. Bob Quackenbush, deputy director for Army Aviation. "Even as the surge ends, I suspect the deployment of the unmanned systems will not go down, particularly for larger systems." For some Air Force pilots, that means climbing out of the cockpit and heading to places such as Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, where they can remotely fly the Predators, one of the larger and more sophisticated unmanned aircraft. About 120 Air Force pilots were recently transferred to staff the drones to keep pace with demands, the Air Force said. The increased military operations all across Iraq last summer triggered greater use of the drones and an escalating call for more of the systems - from the Pentagon's key hunter-killer, the Predator, to the surveillance Global Hawks and the smaller, cheaper Ravens. In one recent example of what they can do, a Predator caught sight of three militants firing mortars at U.S. forces in November in Balad, Iraq. The drone fired an air-to-ground missile, killing the three, according to video footage the Air Force released. The Army has a total of 361 unmanned aircraft in Iraq alone - including Shadows, Hunters and Ravens. And in the first 10 months of 2007, they flew more than 300,000 hours. RFID poised for the big time in 2008 Next year will witness the spread of RFID applications into familiar, everyday settings, while consumer electronics, wireless technologies and security requirements will continue to benefit from the integration of RFID. These are just some of the predictions from AIM Global, the worldwide industry trade association and self-proclaimed authority on automatic identification and mobility solutions. Practical RFID applications will find their way into familiar settings, including sporting events, the latest toys and food safety, according to the trade association. Next year's Beijing Olympics will see RFID applications being used to track marathon runners to ensure race time accuracy, watched by sports fans holding tickets authenticated by the same technology. This year's highly publicised recalls of contaminated foods and unsafe toys will push firms to use RFID to immediately track the origins of compromised items, halting the production of potentially harmful goods. 2008 will also witness the increasing integration of RFID into mobile devices and consumer electronics, providing consumers and business users with new and more convenient services. This technological marriage will result in multi-functional mobile devices that allow users to manage voice calls, email, text messages, multimedia, location-based information, personal finance accounts and many other aspects of everyday lives. According to AIM Global, the convergence of RFID and other wireless technologies is now inevitable. Individual privacy under threat in Europe and U.S., report says Individual privacy is under threat in the United States and across the European Union as governments introduce sweeping surveillance and information-gathering measures in the name of security and controlling borders, an international rights group has said in a report. Greece, Romania and Canada had the best privacy records of 47 countries surveyed by Privacy International, which is based in London. Malaysia, Russia and China were ranked worst. Both Britain and the United States fell into the lowest-performing group of "endemic surveillance societies." "The general trend is that privacy is being extinguished in country after country," said Simon Davies, director of Privacy International. "Even those countries where we expected ongoing strong privacy protection, like Germany and Canada, are sinking into the mire." In the United States, the administration of President George W. Bush has come under fire from civil liberties groups for its domestic wiretapping program, which allows monitoring, without a warrant, of international phone calls and e-mail messages involving people suspected of having terrorist links. Britain was criticized for its plans for national identity cards, a lack of government accountability and the world's largest network of surveillance cameras. Davies said the loss earlier this year of computer disks containing personal information and bank details on 25 million people in Britain highlighted the risks of centralizing information on huge government databases. It said concern about terrorism, immigration and border security was driving the spread of identity and fingerprinting systems, often without regard to individual privacy. The report said the trends had been fueled by the emergence "of a profitable surveillance industry dominated by global IT companies and the creation of numerous international treaties that frequently operate outside judicial or democratic processes." The survey considers a range of factors, including legal protection of privacy, enforcement, data sharing, the use of biometrics and the prevalence of closed circuit TV cameras. "People shouldn't feel despondent about the results," Davies said. "Our view is that privacy-friendly systems will emerge in coming years and that consumers will soon begin to see privacy as a political issue." 8. Christian Worldview/Issues Australia plans tough web rules - could unsuitable sites one day be religious in nature? Australia is planning tough new rules to protect children from online pornography and violence. he new Labor government wants internet service providers to filter content to ensure households and schools do not receive "inappropriate" material. Civil libertarians have condemned the plan as unnecessary, and say it will erode the freedom of the internet. But telecommunications minister Stephen Conroy said more needed to be done to protect children. The Australian government's aim is to ensure that children only have access to family-friendly websites. Service providers will be expected to stop the flow of pornography and other X-rated or violent content. The government is set to compile a list of unsuitable sites, although at this stage it is unclear what will be deemed unsuitable. Australians wanting unfettered access to the web will have to contact their supplier to opt out of the new regime. Critics of the proposals have insisted they have no place in a liberal democracy, and have accused Canberra of being oppressive. But Mr Conroy has been unmoved by their arguments. The minister stressed that if people equated freedom of speech with watching child pornography then he would always disagree with them. Concerns have also been raised that the government's filters could slow down access to the net, in a country where connection speeds are often below international standards. Gospel For Asia founder: U.S. Christians 'absolutely not prepared' for persecution The founder of Gospel for Asia says while persecution is increasing worldwide for Christians, he believes it will soon impact believers in America -- and K.P. Yohannan says they need to get ready for it. Persecution against Christians is increasing worldwide, especially in countries such as India, where attacks on churches and Christians by Hindu extremists have increased dramatically. In fact, when missionaries graduate from Gospel for Asia (GFA) Bible colleges, they are told to expect persecution -- and perhaps even death -- for spreading the gospel. According to GFA founder K.P. Yohannan, Christians in those countries expect such treatment and are prepared when the tough times come. But he believes Christians in America will soon be faced with persecution as well -- and he is fearful that many are not ready. "The great falling-away from faith could be worst here in America because people are absolutely not prepared to face suffering or persecution -- because we cannot imagine a gospel with the cross and the suffering in it," says Yohannan. "Yet the Bible teaches very strong about it. So as the Word of God says: He who has ears, let him hear." The ministry leader is convinced that prosperity has caused many Christians in America to focus on material possessions instead of surrendering all to Christ. The result, he says, is that American Christians have become "very naïve" in thinking that real persecution will never come their way. "These are warning signs," he exclaims. "God is telling us that we need to prepare our lives. And preachers going around saying that revival is coming, and everything is okay, and all these things? I think that people are being set up for huge disaster and denying their faith when they face problems." It is estimated that more than 16,000 Christians are martyred worldwide each year for their faith. Study Reveals Most Religious Nations in the World Nigeria, Brazil, India and Morocco are among the most religious nations in the world, according to a major study on faith released Tuesday. More than 96 percent of the population in these countries described themselves as religious in the survey conducted by the German think tank Bertelsmann Foundation. The study distinguished between religious and highly religious people. People that are classified as highly religious are those that worship and pray regularly and attach a high relevance of faith in their lives. “Highly religious people are those for whom religious ideas play a decisive role in their personality,” the study explained, according to Pakistan’s The News. “They often see experiences and behavior in a genuinely religious light.” Guatemala, Brazil and Indonesia have the greatest percentage of deeply religious people among the 21 countries polled, according to the survey. In Nigeria, a country roughly evenly split between Christians and Muslims, 92 percent of the population said they are highly religious. The United States also had a notably religious population with 89 percent of its people describing themselves as such. Moreover, the majority of Americans (62 percent) consider themselves to be highly religious. However, Europeans overall were significantly less religious than Americans and the rest of the world. The most religious nations in Europe were Italy and Poland – overwhelmingly Catholic countries – with about 87 percent of their citizens claiming to be religious. Moreover, 40 percent of the citizens in these two countries said they were highly religious – a statistic higher than that of Turkey which has a Muslim majority. Meanwhile, Germany, Austria and Switzerland had an average 70 percent religious population and about 20 percent highly religious population. Interestingly, in Germany, nominalism is high with one in six church members describing themselves as non-religious. One in three citizens with no religious affiliation consider themselves religious. The least religious country in Europe is Russia with 50 percent saying they are religious and only seven percent, highly religious. Besides Russia, the study found that Thailand and France were other nations with the smallest percentage of people who said religious belief was important in their lives. U.K. Agency Dispatches Non-Christians to Churches as 'Mystery Worshippers' U.K.-based Christian Research has commissioned a popular agency that specializes in “mystery shopping” services to begin a new ”mystery worshipper” initiative designed to find the reasons why people do not go to church or practice the Christian faith. The idea is modeled after the ”mystery shopper” style schemes where researchers evaluate the quality of service in hotels, shops and restaurants. The ”mystery worshipper” scheme is also very similar to one run by the Christian website Ship of Fools. In the Ship of Fools scheme, however, Christians are used to judge churches. In this new scheme by Christian Research, non-Christians are being employed, as the purpose of the exercise is to find the reasons why more people do not choose to be Christian and what could encourage people to go to church. Under the initiative, non-Christians will be paid £30 for every time they go to a church and evaluate it. The ”mystery worshippers” will judge churches on the sermon delivered, the welcome, atmosphere, warmth, comfort and appearance. Benita Hewitt, executive director of Christian Research, said churches needed to find out how they were viewed from the outside by non-churchgoers. ”We have had some of our mystery worshippers saying that they were amazed by what they found – by the atmosphere and the welcome before the service, and the fellowship,” she said, according to the Times Online. ”It was all so far from their expectations that they had before they came in – often based on childhood when they saw the church as a boring experience where you were made to feel guilty.” Stephen Goddard, co-editor of Ship of Fools, noted that two of the churches already rated in Telford had received marks of 100 percent. ”We did not send in soft, tame mystery worshippers, we sent in people possibly with an axe to grind against the church,” said Goddard, whose website is working with Christian Research to promote the new scheme. "What came out of it was their surprise at how much the Church has moved forward from their experience as children,” he said, according to Times Online. According to the 2001 census, over 70 percent of people in England call themselves Christian. However, a recent survey by Christian Research suggested that less than 10 percent of the population goes to church. 9. Other Events To Watch Bhutto assassination could have far-reaching implications for global security Members of the Bhutto family, just like members of the American Kennedy family and Indian Gandhi family, have a tendency to die in unusual circumstances. On Thursday it was Benazir Bhutto, who joined her father (who was executed) and her brothers (who were murdered) following an assassination coupled with a suicide bombing. However, Bhutto’s assassination, unlike the killing of the Kennedy brothers and the Gandhi mother and son, constitutes a much greater threat to the stability of her country and of the entire region. The assassination is akin to pouring more oil on the fire of instability in the country, which has been on the brink of civil war for about six months now. The collapse of the Pakistani regime could have far-reaching implications, and not only for Pakistanis. The great fear is that such collapse could help radical religious movements ascend to power. Pakistan is known as a country that exported dangerous nuclear know-how to anyone who wanted it. If Iran is indeed closer to a bomb today than ever before, this should be credited to the efforts of Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of the Pakistani bomb. Dr. Khan could not have acted without authorities knowing about it. The toppling of the Pakistani regime, or a new division of power, may constitute a direct threat to regional and world peace. The threat is not only one of nuclear assistance to radical elements, but rather, the loss of one of the most important elements standing by the West in its war against global Jihad. Chance of Asteroid Hit on Mars Increases The chance of a football field-sized asteroid plowing into Mars next month has been increased to 4 percent, scientists said Friday after analyzing archival data. Though still a long shot, some researchers are hoping for a cosmic smash. There is a 1 in 75 chance that an asteroid will slam into Mars on Jan. 30, NASA said. "I think it'll be cool," said Don Yeomans, who heads the Near-Earth Object Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Usually when an asteroid is headed toward Earth, I'm not rooting for an impact." The space rock, known as the nondescript 2007 WD5, was discovered in late November by the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona. Based on the latest information available, scientists said last week there was a 1-in-75 chance the asteroid could hit Mars on Jan. 30. The odds were increased to 1-in-25 this week after a Ph.D. student pored through the archives and plotted the asteroid's motions before its official discovery. The new information allowed scientists to improve their calculations of the asteroid's orbit and flight path. Even when the odds were set at 1-in-75 last week, scientists appeared to be shocked. "These odds are extremely unusual. We frequently work with really long odds when we track ... threatening asteroids," said Steve Chesley, an astronomer with the Near Earth Object Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Scientists will continue to monitor the asteroid to better predict the possibility of a Martian impact. Yeomans said he expects the odds to decrease with new observations gathered early next year. The likelihood of an asteroid hit usually "peaks before plummeting to zero with additional data," he said. The asteroid poses no threat to Earth and is closing in on the Red Planet at 27,900 mph. Should a collision occur, it would likely blast a half-mile-wide crater north of where the rover Opportunity has been exploring since 2004. The impact could release energy similar to the 1908 Tunguska object that exploded over remote central Siberia and wiped out 60 million trees. In 1994, fragments of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 smacked into Jupiter, creating a series of overlapping fireballs in space. Astronomers have yet to witness an asteroid impact with another planet.
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