Holy Insurers Batman. Insurance for a Virgin Birth.

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Highlands and Islands | Sisters lose second coming cover:

"Insurers have withdrawn the cover on their virginity taken out by three sisters in the event of the second coming of Christ.

Essex-based Britishinsurance.com confirmed it had provided the $1m policy, but said it was reviewed on Thursday following complaints."

The firm said the women from Inverness had renewed the policy since 2000.

The cover was meant to pay for the cost of bringing up Christ if one of them has a virgin birth.

Britishinsurance.com managing director Simon Burgess said it had not been the company's intention to offend anyone.

Mr Burgess said: "The people were concerned about having sufficient funds if they immaculately conceived. It was for caring and bringing up the Christ.

"We sometimes get weird requests and this is the weirdest we have had."

This almost seems like a hoax. What’s next Antichrist coverage?

Social Isolation Growing in U.S., Study Says

Social Isolation Growing in U.S., Study Says:

"Americans are far more socially isolated today than they were two decades ago, and a sharply growing number of people say they have no one in whom they can confide, according to a comprehensive new evaluation of the decline of social ties in the United States.

A quarter of Americans say they have no one with whom they can discuss personal troubles, more than double the number who were similarly isolated in 1985. Overall, the number of people Americans have in their closest circle of confidants has dropped from around three to about two.

The comprehensive new study paints a sobering picture of an increasingly fragmented America, where intimate social ties -- once seen as an integral part of daily life and associated with a host of psychological and civic benefits -- are shrinking or nonexistent. In bad times, far more people appear to suffer alone.

If close social relationships support people in the same way that beams hold up buildings, more and more Americans appear to be dependent on a single beam.

Compared with 1985, nearly 50 percent more people in 2004 reported that their spouse is the only person they can confide in. But if people face trouble in that relationship, or if a spouse falls sick, that means these people have no one to turn to for help, Smith-Lovin said.

'We know these close ties are what people depend on in bad times,' she said. 'We're not saying people are completely isolated. They may have 600 friends on Facebook.com [a popular networking Web site] and e-mail 25 people a day, but they are not discussing matters that are personally important.'"

I do not doubt this study at all. As a law enforcement chaplain I have to notify friends and family that their loved one has died. Commonly there is no one to notify because the person had no contact with family or friends. It sometimes takes us days to find someone related to deceased to notify them.

This is all the more reason that we fellowship with each other and reach out to our neighbors. Take a coworker to lunch or invite a neighbor over for BBQ.

WHO Says Bird Flu Virus Mutated

BREITBART.COM - WHO Says Bird Flu Virus Mutated:

"A World Health Organization investigation showed that the H5N1 virus mutated slightly in an Indonesian family cluster on Sumatra island, but bird flu experts insisted Friday it did not increase the possibility of a human pandemic.

The virus that infected eight members of a family last month _ killing seven of them _ appears to have slightly mutated in a 10-year-old boy, who is then suspected of passing the virus to his father, the WHO investigative report said.

It is the first evidence indicating that a person caught the virus from a human and then passed it on to another person, said Tim Uyeki, an epidemiologist from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He said the H5N1 virus died with the father and did not pass outside the family.

'It stopped. It was dead end at that point,' he said, stressing that viruses are always slightly changing and there was no reason to raise alarm.

Dr. William Schaffner, a bird flu expert at the Vanderbilt University, called the mutation 'noteworthy but not worrisome.' Generally it takes a series of mutations in a bird flu virus to raise the danger of a pandemic in humans, he said in a telephone interview."

More on the PCUSA

This from one of my favorite bloggers.

Should Biblically-Committed Christians Leave the PCUSA? (Section B)
Part 3 of series: The End of the Presbyterian Church USA?
Posted for Friday, June 23, 2006

In my last post I showed how deeply God cares about the unity of His church. This would suggest that leaving a denomination, or dividing that denomination into new groups, should only be done thoughtfully, carefully, and for very good reasons. All Christians, I believe, should be strongly committed to the unity of the church, and should actively seek to defend and contribute to that unity. But there are times when division, either through personal departure or through corporate realignment (e.g. schism) is better than maintaining institutional unity. As I said yesterday, this should happen only in extraordinary circumstances, and only when there are solid biblical reasons, and only after an extended season of prayerful, scriptural, and communal discernment.

Do these criteria fit the situation of the PCUSA today?

Presbyterians to Vote on Gay Clergy Bill

BREITBART.COM - Presbyterians to Vote on Gay Clergy Bill:

"The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), severely split over homosexuality, would maintain its ban on gay clergy but allow some leeway in enforcing it under a proposal headed to a national assembly vote on Tuesday.

A key committee, which divided 30-28, proposed keeping on the books a church law mandating that lay officeholders as well as all clergy restrict sexual activity to heterosexual marriage.

But another bill would give local congregations and regional 'presbyteries' leeway on whether to require that rule in all cases.

A committee minority plans to propose an alternate to that proposal. Ten conservative Presbyterian groups have warned jointly that approval of what they call 'local option' would 'promote schism by permitting the disregard of clear standards of Scripture.'

Facing seemingly endless acrimony on gays and other issues, a special task force spent four years pondering how the denomination could remain united. Its report to this assembly included the compromise plan to keep the sexual law intact but allow local flexibility in applying it.

Liberal caucuses protest that this will leave injustice in place. Conservatives call it an illicit means for the national assembly to rewrite church law.

Another bill that could prompt intense debate would encourage gender- neutral worship language for the divine Trinity _ for instance 'Mother, Child and Womb' _ alongside the traditional 'Father, Son and Holy Spirit.'

The delegates also will consider a proposal to soften the 2004 assembly's decision to selectively pull Presbyterian investments from corporations involved with Israel.

This month, the denomination reported a net loss of 48,474 members since last year, the 40th annual decline in a row. Its 11,000 congregations have 2.3 million active members and a total of 3.1 million on the baptismal rolls."

I hate to say it but this church is dying with little chance of recovery.

Christians on Football Film: Give Us a G!

Christians on Football Film: Give Us a G! - Los Angeles Times:

"WASHINGTON — A low-budget, inspirational football movie made by Baptist pastors in Georgia has triggered a flood of attacks by Christian groups that accuse Hollywood's main trade association of penalizing the film by giving it a PG rating.

In the last week alone, the Motion Picture Assn. of America, which oversees the rating board, has been swamped with more than 15,000 e-mails arguing that 'Facing the Giants' deserves a more family-friendly G rating. The complaints — the number of which may be 10 times the previous record for reaction to a ratings decision — say the movie is being unfairly targeted for its religious themes.

The filmmakers say they were told that those themes had prompted the PG rating. MPAA officials deny that was the reason.

Across the Internet and on talk radio, religious groups and conservative commentators have seized on the rating flap as evidence that Hollywood is anti-Christian. And the third-ranking House Republican has written to MPAA Chief Executive Dan Glickman demanding answers.

'This incident raises the disquieting possibility that MPAA considers exposure to Christian themes more dangerous for children than exposure to gratuitous sex and mindless violence,' said Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.)."

'Facing the Giants'

(Sherwood Pictures)

Wearing 'purity rings' is banned but Mulims allowed headscarves

Wearing 'purity rings' is banned at girls' school | the Daily Mail: London

"A school has banned Christian pupils from wearing rings that symbolise the teenagers' belief in chastity until marriage.

Youngsters have been ordered to remove the 'purity rings' because they contravene the school's uniform policy.

Millais School, an all-girls' comprehensive in West Sussex, has a strict 'no jewellery' rule, allowing only small stud earrings.

But the girls' families argue that that the rings - simple bands of silver given to youngsters who complete an evangelical church course preaching abstinence - hold genuine religious significance.

Parents also point out that the school allows Muslim and Sikh pupils to wear headscarves or kara bracelets as a means of religious expression."

Heather and Philip Playfoot have been in dispute with the school in Horsham over the issue for two years.

Their 15-year-old daughter Lydia began wearing her ring to the school in June 2004.

The Playfoots claim Lydia and up to a dozen pupils have been punished for breaking the rules.

Lydia recently stopped wearing the ring but feels 'betrayed' by the school.

She said: "My friends and I have had detentions and been taught in isolation for wearing the ring.

Restricting a religious symbol for Christians but allowing one for Muslims is discrimination. This is the spirit of antichrist the Bible talks about. It is not just the sinfulness of man it is the direct antagonism towards anything that has to do with Christ.

BREITBART.COM - Mixing Animal, Human Cells Gets Exotic

BREITBART.COM - Mixing Animal, Human Cells Gets Exotic:

"On the sun-splashed Caribbean island of St. Kitts, Yale University researchers are injecting millions of human brain cells into the heads of monkeys afflicted with Parkinson's disease.

In China, there are 29 goats running around on a farm with human cells coursing through their organs, a result of scientists dropping human blood cells into goat embryos.

The mixing of humans and animals in the name of medicine has been going on for decades. People are walking around with pig valves in their hearts and scientists have routinely injected human cells into lab mice to mimic diseases.

But the research is becoming increasingly exotic as scientists work with the brains of mice, monkeys and other mammals and begin fiddling with the hot-button issue of cloning. Harvard University researchers are attempting to clone human embryonic cells in rabbit eggs.

Such work has triggered protests from social conservatives and others who fear the blurring of species lines, invoking the image of the chimera of Greek mythology, a monstrous mix of lion, goat and serpent.

During his State of the Union speech in January, President Bush called for a ban on 'human cloning in all its forms' and 'human-animal hybrids,' labeling it one of the 'most egregious abuses of medical research.'

He didn't elaborate, but scientists working in the field believe that by 'hybrids,' the president meant creating living animals with human traits _ something they say they aren't doing.

Other critics are calling for stricter regulations of the research."

These regulations are being skirted by offshore testing labs. We really do not know just how far they are pushing the envelope.

Top court to decide second abortion law case�

Top court to decide second abortion law case�|�Reuters.com: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) -

The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday it would expand its review of a federal law banning some abortion procedures and would decide a California case on whether the law was too vague and imposed a burden on women.

The justices in February agreed to rule on a Nebraska case on whether the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 is unconstitutional because it lacks an exception to protect the health of a pregnant woman.

The California case involved additional issues on whether the law imposed an undue burden on a woman's right to seek an abortion and whether it is unconstitutionally vague. A U.S. appeals court declared the law unconstitutional and upheld an injunction barring its enforcement.

Both cases will be decided in the upcoming term that begins in October. The law represents the first nationwide ban on an abortion procedure since the Supreme Court's landmark 1973 ruling that women have a constitutional right to abortion."