Mideast dialogue in need of Pope Francis’ blessing



Jesuit clergy are known for their exceptional communication skills. These skills were tested this week during Pope Francis’ visit to Jordan, Israel and Palestine. The selection of Pope Francis to replace Benedict XVI as the new leader of the Catholic Church was greeted with immense expectations for a new reformist Pope, who is more down to earth approachable and in touch with the church followers’ daily lives. In his fifteen months in office, he has succeeded thus far in fulfilling the majority of these expectations. A visit to the Middle East will always be tricky for the head of the Catholic world, despite the region being as much the cradle for Christianity as for Judaism and Islam. However, the number of followers of the Catholic Church in the Middle East are far and few between.

Wednesday, 28 May 2014
 

 

Yossi Mekelberg

His three day visit to Jordan, Israel and with the Palestinian Authority came at a very delicate moment in an already fragile part of world. The peace process between the Israelis and Palestinians, in which religion is playing a significant part, is in tethers and religious extremism is ever-present across the region. A visit, especially at present, to the place which is host to holy places for all three monotheistic religions is highly symbolic. This required his holiness to use all of his diplomatic skills and charm. His message was one of peace and friendship, an important one in this volatile region. It has special importance for Christians as they are a minority in the region and are far from feeling secure. Despite a very courteous welcome in Israel by government and religious leaders, there were segments in Israeli society, especially among the ultraorthodox, that would rather not see such a visit taking place at all, for either religious or historical reasons.

Taking the decision to be the first pontiff to fly directly to the West Bank and calling it the “the State of Palestine” was a clear and direct message to Israel
Yossi Mekelberg

All papal international visits are driven by a high octane of symbolism, but none more than a visit to the Holy Land. Pope Francis managed to steer away from direct confrontation with his hosts, but did not avoid addressing major controversies. His gestures as much as his words expressed a strong will of the Catholic Church under his leadership to play an active role in bringing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to a peaceful solution. Taking the decision to be the first pontiff to fly directly to the West Bank and calling it the “the State of Palestine” was a clear and direct message to Israel about the Holy See’s stand on the long overdue two-state solution and the Israeli occupation. He was adamant that the latest failure in the U.S. peace initiative should not act as a deterrent from continuing the efforts to bring peace. On the contrary, Francis insisted that, “there is a need to intensify efforts and initiatives aimed at creating the conditions for a stable peace based on justice, on the recognition of rights for every individual, and on mutual security.” This position makes clear that he perceives the current situation as depriving many of justice and rights, and hence peace “must resolutely be pursued, even if each side has to make certain sacrifices.”

Boldest expression of his disapproval

Pope Francis’ boldest expression of his disapproval of the occupation was manifested in his decision to pray in front of the security wall just in front of graffiti saying “Free Palestine.”
This act, just before leaving the occupied Palestinian territories and starting his visit in Israel, was a powerful message against what the wall symbolizes. He was under no illusion that this gesture would displease his Israeli hosts, yet was still determined to carry it out. Israel usually tries on papal visits to avoid political confrontation with the Vatican and instead concentrates on improving their relationship with the Christian world and encouraging Christian religious tourism. For the Palestinian leadership, it is also an opportunity to promote this type of tourism. Nonetheless, considering the media attention paid to the Pope’s visit, it was also a great opportunity for President Abbas and other Palestinian officials to drive home their message of the intolerability of the absence of Palestinian self-determination and the damage caused by the constant expansion of Israeli settlements.
The relationship between the Holy See and the Jewish state has always been a delicate affair, considering the history of Jewish persecution at the hands of the Catholic Church, and especially its behavior during the Holocaust. Only 20 years ago, Israel and the Vatican established diplomatic relations, and since then it has been a long haul of a healing process. The visit is part of this step-by-step long road of reconciliation. Many Jewish people, especially from European origins, are still very suspicious of the Catholic Church and its true intentions. A group of extreme right-wing Jewish protesters expressed their feeling by causing disturbances at the King David’s Tomb complex in Jerusalem. They protested against Pope Francis’ visit to Israel in general, but also because they claim that Israel and the Vatican are edging closer towards an agreement that will transfer the control of the Cenacle in Jerusalem to the Holy See. It was denied by both the Vatican and Israel, but because the site is situated above David’s Tomb, it prompted protestations and provided an opportunity for those who were against this visit in the first place to make their feelings known. They were, however, a small minority compared with the majority in Israel that is either apathetic or passively skeptical towards a visit by foreign religious dignitaries, even if it is the pope himself.

Reconciliation towards the Jewish people

Counter balancing his visit to the separation wall with a last minute unscheduled stop at the Memorial to the Victims of Terror at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl would indicate the pope is aware of the complexity of the conflict, responsive to Israeli sensitivities and ready to find a suitable act to avoid a rift. Pope Francis’ visit to Yad Vashem, Israel’s official memorial to the Holocaust, praying and honoring the victims and survivors, as did two of his predecessors, was another act of reconciliation towards the Jewish people. However, many would regard this more genuine if the pontiff will allow access to the Vatican’s archives from the Holocaust period, which would most probably reveal the extent of the Vatican’s knowledge about the Holocaust and when they received that information.
Beyond all the symbolism of Pope Francis’ visit to the Middle East, it also emerged that this particular religious leader has an ambition to play a part in the peace process. The visit, no doubt, contributed to strengthening relations with Palestinians and Israelis alike. Nevertheless, Francis’ invitation to host a prayer summit meeting at his apartment in the Vatican, for the Israeli and Palestinian presidents, signals that he might have an ambition to become involved as a peace broker where everyone else has thus far failed. The peace process between the Israelis and Palestinians seems desperate for some divine intervention, though even this might prove not to be enough for both sides to reach a peaceful end to their conflict.
_______________________
Yossi Mekelberg is an Associate Fellow at the Middle East and North Africa Program at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, where he is involved with projects and advisory work on conflict resolution, including Track II negotiations. He is also the Director of the International Relations and Social Sciences Program at Regent’s University in London, where he has taught since 1996. Previously, he was teaching at King’s College London and Tel Aviv University. Mekelberg’s fields of interest are international relations theory, international politics of the Middle East, human rights, and international relations and revolutions. He is a member of the London Committee of Human Rights Watch, serving on the Advocacy and Outreach committee. Mekelberg is a regular contributor to the international media on a wide range of international issues and you can find him on Twitter @YMekelberg.

Last Update: Wednesday, 28 May 2014 KSA 09:25 - GMT 06:25

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2014/05/28/The-Mideast-peace-process-is-in-need-of-divine-intervention.html

What language did Jesus speak? The pope and Israel’s prime minister disagree.

By Ishaan Tharoor

May 27 at 12:19 pm

Pope Francis carried out a headline-grabbing three-day tour of the Holy Land, visiting refugees, hugging clerics and honoring the victims of the Holocaust. But perhaps the most interesting moment of the trip came during an exchange with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a meeting in Jerusalem. The Israeli premier and the pope found occasion for a slight historical quibble.

"Jesus was here, in this land. He spoke Hebrew," Netanyahu told the pope, through an interpreter. "Aramaic," the pontiff immediately corrected. "He spoke Aramaic, but he knew Hebrew," offered Netanyahu.

Pope Francis and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attended a memorial ceremony at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem on Monday. (EPA/Abir Sultan)

Pope Francis carried out a headline-grabbing three-day tour of the Holy Land, visiting refugees, hugging clerics and honoring the victims of the Holocaust. But perhaps the most interesting moment of the trip came during an exchange with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a meeting in Jerusalem. The Israeli premier and the pope found occasion for a slight historical quibble.

"Jesus was here, in this land. He spoke Hebrew," Netanyahu told the pope, through an interpreter. "Aramaic," the pontiff immediately corrected. "He spoke Aramaic, but he knew Hebrew," offered Netanyahu. You can watch the full exchange below (it takes place around the one minute-mark). Netanyahu is addressing the Spanish-speaking, Argentine pope in Hebrew, which is translated by the interpreter into Italian.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/05/27/what-language-did-jesus-speak-the-pope-and-israels-prime-minister-disagree/

AMAIC Comment: We might actually have to side with Netanyahu on this matter, considering that we favour Pator Brenton Minge's view that Jesus Christ spoke Hebrew with a Galilean accent:

....

Pastor Minge draws upon various sources (Dead Sea Scrolls, Talmud, Josephus, Targums) to demonstrate his thesis that Hebrew, not Aramaic, was the language spoken in Palestine at the time of Jesus. Jesus, too, spoke Hebrew with a Galilean accent. Let us look at a couple of examples of this relevant to the Passion/ Resurrection season.

Minge, pp. 31-33:

“… Eloi, Eloi (“My God, My God”, Mark 15:34) is clearly related to the Hebrew word used at time for “my God” in the Psalms (cf. “my God”, Ps. 18:28; 139:19, “My God”, Mk. 15:34). Astonishingly – given that Eloi, Eloi has always been cited as proof of the Aramaic source of the words – we find that the Targum of Psalm 22:1(2) does not begin with “Eloi, Eloi” but “Eli, Eli”, as in the Hebrew.

In two ways “Eloi, Eloi” is different from the Aramaic – with “oi, oi” instead of “I, I” and the short “E, E” instead of the long “Ay, Ay” (as in “day”).

Clearly, we must look elsewhere than to Aramaic for its pronunciation. The obvious explanation lies in the distinctive Galilean accent which we have noted. That is, in Eloi, Eloi we have the Galilean Jesus quoting Psalm 22:1

(2) from the Hebrew Bible, carefully recorded with his distinctive pronunciation by Mark. With equal fidelity to what transpired, Matthew dispenses with the accent as such, but still records the same utterance straight from the Hebrew Bible. This alone can account for the seemingly contradictory facts that

(a) the bystanders misunderstood the form of address (“he is calling Elijah”); yet

(b) they rightly understood the rest of the cry as representing Jesus’ deep desolation (“Let us see if Elijah will come and rescue him”), though obviously yet blind to the fact that here, in the very week of the Passover, the Lamb of God was bearing the sins of the world.

Given that the cry was uttered “in a loud voice”, there is no possibility of it having been misunderstood on the grounds of its being inaudible. The only explanation, therefore, that adequately addresses both questions (how could they have misunderstood Jesus, yet perfectly understood the rest of the utterance from the Hebrew Bible?), lies in the fact that they (ie. the Jewish portion of the crowd) and he (ie. Jesus) were speaking the same Hebrew language. But he with a Galilean accent. …”.

Pp. 38-39:

“Rabbi and Rabboni – the latter, Mary [Magdalene’]s spontaneous greeting to the risen Jesus (John 20:16) – were also held to be Aramaic. Yet they appear in the Targums only as “rebbi”, “ribbi” and “ribboni”.
Rabbi, on the other hand, is a classical Hebrew word, while Rabboni is now acknowledged as a “Hebrew …title that took on the meaning ‘My Master’.” ….

What's wrong with looking at pornography?



Pornography

JASON EVERT

Q. What's wrong with looking at pornography? It's not like you are getting a girl pregnant or spreading STDs.A. The problem with using porn is that it emasculates men, degrades women, destroys marriages, and offends the Lord.

You may be thinking: "That's going a little overboard, don't you think? I mean, what's wrong with checking out a few web sites?" Take a look at the effects of pornography, and you will see why real men don't use it.

First off, when Jesus warned that anyone who looks lustfully at a woman commits sin with her in his heart (Matt. 5:28), he spelled it out in no uncertain terms that it's not enough to avoid pregnancy or STDs. He wants us to be pure.

What does pornography do to a man? For starters, it robs him of the capacity to be a man. The essence of manhood consists in readiness to deny oneself for the good of a beloved. This is why Paul reminds husbands in his Letter to the Ephesians that their love must be like that of Christ, who allowed himself to be crucified for the sake of his beloved, the Church (Eph. 5:21-33).

Pornography defeats this calling. Ask yourself: Wouldn't it infuriate you if a guy looked at your daughter or wife in the same way he looked at pornography? Instead of denying himself for the good of the woman, a man, through the use of porn, denies the woman her dignity in order to satisfy his lust. In essence, pornography is a rejection of our calling to love as God loves. It is no wonder that those who use it are never satisfied. Only love satisfies.

Pornography gradually cripples a man's ability to love. It is impossible to love a fantasy, but living in a world of fantasy allows a guy to escape from reality and evade the demands of authentic love. In a way, the fact that pornography allows men to indulge their lust without having to worry about pregnancy or STDs is part of the problem. It encourages him to live in a world in which sexuality offers only pleasure without meaning or consequences, in which "no one gets pregnant, no one catches a disease, no one shows signs of guilt, fear, remorse, embarrassment, or distrust. No one suffers from the sexual activities of others and the men, at least, are always carefree, unrestrained. . . . The priority of lovingly protecting one's partner is of little concern in pornography because no harm seems possible."¹
Simply put, pornography is the renunciation of love. As the writer Christopher West said, "[Pornography] seeks to foster precisely those distortions of our sexual desires that we must struggle against in order to discover true love."² For the person who indulges in porn, the purpose of sex becomes the satisfaction of the erotic "needs," not the communication of life and love. Pornography drives a man to value a woman only for what she gives him rather than for the person she is.

Some guys will slough this all off, saying, "Boys will be boys," or "I'm just appreciating the beauty of womanhood," or "I like the articles in the magazine." Sometimes they will realize how unconvincing these arguments are, and they'll become resentful, saying, "You want to repress sexuality and rob women of their freedom. It's unhealthy for you to have such little appreciation for women!" This resentment has found its way to the billboards and titles of the strip clubs, which advertise the establishment as a "gentleman's club" for "adult entertainment." Having the word "gentleman" or "adult" associated with a strip club is nothing less than fascinating. Why would a man feel the need to justify that his behavior is mature and gentlemanly? Can you call to mind any time where an adult needed to remind others that he was mature? Or can you think of any activity on earth where a gentleman needs to announce that he is one? Usually actions speak for themselves. Besides, a gentleman doesn't need to pay women to pretend that they like him.

For the person who indulges in porn, the purpose of sex becomes the satisfaction of the erotic "needs," not the communication of life and love. Pornography drives a man to value a woman only for what she gives him rather than for the person she is.

So even when a man's lack of self-control makes him resemble a boy and nothing in his behavior is reconcilable with the title "gentleman," he still feels a need to identify with authentic manhood. This is because no matter how much we fall, Christ has still stamped into our being the call to love like Jesus. If only we can untwist the lies and humbly come before the Lord in all of our woundedness, he will raise us up and make us into true men.

Now what does pornography do to women? Since it trains men to think of women as objects to be used instead of persons to be loved, guys speak of them as objects and treat them as objects. When men learn their "love" from videos and magazines, they accept the idea that a woman's "no" is actually a "yes" and that she enjoys being used. This can lead to a rapist mentality.

Consider, for example, a study done in the Oklahoma City area. When 150 sexually-oriented businesses were closed, the rate of rape decreased 27 percent in five years, while the rate in the rest of the country increased 19 percent. In Phoenix, Arizona, neighborhoods with porn outlets had 500 percent more sex offenses than neighborhoods without them.³

Ted Bundy raped and killed dozens of women. He was sentenced to die in the electric chair and requested that his last interview be with Dr. James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family. In that meeting, Bundy talked openly about pornography and told Dr. Dobson that his struggles all began there. He explained that all of his fellow inmates had an obsession with pornography before going to prison. Porn magazines, web sites, and videos lay at the root of innumerable rapes and murders. No one can tell the husbands, siblings, children, and fathers of those violated and deceased women that pornography is harmless. If you want to see for yourself what Bundy said, click here.

What does pornography do to marriages? To be blunt, pornography is the perfect way to shoot your future marriage in the head. Imagine that a young man has a habit of using pornography, and he does not reveal this to his fiancee. He hopes that once he is married, the desires for illicit sexual arousal will subside. But what becomes of his lust once he marries her? It does not disappear, it is foisted upon his wife. The pornography has trained him to react to the sexual value of a woman, and nothing else. He has trained himself to believe that women should be physically flawless and constantly sexually accessible. Even if he rejects this intellectually, the fact remains that his attractions and responses have been conditioned and shaped by warped, pornography-inspired fantasies.

Provided his wife is a life-size Barbie doll with a squad of make-up artists and hairdressers that follow her around the house, things might run smoothly for a time. But when reality confronts fantasy, the man will be left disillusioned and the woman's self image will suffer. His disordered desires and fantasies can never be fulfilled by any real-life woman. They focus solely upon self-centered gratification rather than mutual self-giving and joy in pleasing one's spouse. One woman explained that if a man's real-life partner is not always as available sexually and willing to do whatever he wishes as the women he has fantasized about, he may accuse her of being a prude. If she looks normal, and unlike the models he has come to adore, he may accuse her of being fat. If she has needs, unlike the passive images in the magazines, then she may seem too demanding for him.⁴

This is why part of the problem with pornography is not simply that it shows too much, but that it shows too little. It reduces a woman to nothing more than her body.

In other words, he'll be quick to blame his disorder on her; his fantasies will have robbed him of the ability to be truly intimate with his wife. One reason he is unable to have healthy intimacy with his wife is because intimacy is not an escape from reality, but the capacity to see the beauty of the other. The presence of lust in the heart of the man blocks his ability to view the woman as a person. He has reduced her to an object and ignored her value as person. When this happens, he forfeits love. True intimacy is impossible.
This is why part of the problem with pornography is not simply that it shows too much, but that it shows too little. It reduces a woman to nothing more than her body. Thus, a man will assume that the greater the body, the greater the value of the woman. With this mindset, men not only expect their future wives to look no less perfect than Miss September, they also do not appreciate a woman's most beautiful and precious qualities, since a centerfold display fails to highlight these. This drives men to look elsewhere in an impossible quest to satisfy their disordered appetites. After all, pornography fosters the false mentality that casual, uncommitted sex is the most fulfilling and enjoyable. Who does not want to be fulfilled?
One all-too-common response to the marital dissatisfaction often caused by pornography habits is to actually bring pornography into the bedroom. This is a vain effort on the part of the man to have the illicit excitement that he has formed an attachment to. The poor wife may allow this, but the joy of loving has escaped the man, who no longer sees the value of the person and the need to give himself for her. Married couples who use pornography find that their marital problems only worsen. If a husband needs to pretend that his wife is someone else in order for him to be excited, then he will become less and less drawn to her. Instead of making love to her, he is destroying love between them.

Because the effects of pornography are so severe, Christian men have an obligation to rid their own lives of it. According to Pope John Paul II, "[God] has assigned as a duty to every man the dignity of every woman."⁵ When we act in a way that is contrary to the dignity of women, we act contrary to our own dignity and vocation as men.

Even if pornography had no adverse affects on people, we must never forget that sin is not simply a social matter. We owe it to our neighbor to love him, but we also owe it to God to honor the Lord in all our actions and thoughts. To lust after his daughters is a grave sin, even if no one becomes pregnant as a result of another's imagination. "So shun youthful passions and aim at righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call upon the Lord from a pure heart" (2 Tim. 2:22).

____________________________________________

1. Wetzel, Sexual Wisdom, 72.
2. West, Good News About Sex and Marriage, 84.
3. U.S. Department of Justice. Child Pornography, Obscenity, and Organized Crime. Washington, D.C., February 1988.
4. Laurie Hall, "When Fantasy Meets Reality" (www.pureintimacy.org).
5. Pope John Paul II, general audience, 24 November 1982. As quoted by Theology of the Body, 346.

---

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Jason Evert. "Pornography." excerpted from If You Really Loved Me (San Diego: Catholic Answers, 2007).
Reprinted with permission of Catholic Answers.
THE AUTHOR
Jason Evert earned a master's degree in Theology, and undergraduate degrees in Counseling and Theology, with a minor in Philosophy at Franciscan University of Steubenville. He is the author of Pure Of Heart: Breaking Free From Porn, If You Really Loved Me, Pure Manhood, Raising Pure Teens - 10 Strategies to Protect ( or Restore) Your Teenager's Innocence, How to Find Your Soulmate Without Losing Your Soul, Pure Love and many other books and tapes, which challenges young people to embrace the virtue of chastity. Jason speaks at seminars, participates in debates, and responds to thousands of questions about Catholicism from people around the world.

Copyright © 2008 Catholic Answers


http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/sexuality/se0172.htm

Pope Francis to hold first meeting with sex abuse victims, says abuse is 'like a satanic Mass'

 

Photo:Pope Francis said sex abuse is "an ugly crime" ahead of a meeting with victims. (Reuters: Jack Guez)

 

Posted Tue 27 May 2014, 2:44pm AEST

 

Map: Holy See (Vatican City State)

 

Pope Francis says he will have his first meeting with a group of sex abuse victims at the Vatican early next month, and that he would show zero tolerance for anyone in the Catholic Church who abused children.

Francis said he would meet with eight victims and Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley of Boston, who is head of a commission set up to study ways of dealing with the crisis.
"Sexual abuse is such an ugly crime ... because a priest who does this betrays the body of the Lord. It is like a satanic Mass," the Pope said in some of the toughest language he has used on a crisis that has rocked the Church for more than a decade.
Acknowledging three bishops were under investigation for abuse, the pontiff said: "We must go ahead with zero tolerance."
It was not clear, however, if the Pope also meant zero tolerance for bishops who are not accused of being abusers themselves but are accused of having turned a blind eye to abuse by priests in their dioceses or who may have covered up abuse scandals.
Speaking to reporters on the plane taking him back from a visit to the Middle East, the 77-year-old pontiff fielded questions on a range of topics including Vatican finances, priestly celibacy, his concern for the environment, and whether he would one day retire like his predecessor Benedict XVI instead of serving for life.

Sexual abuse is such an ugly crime ... because a priest who does this betrays the body of the Lord. It is like a satanic Mass.

Pope Francis

The concept of a "pope emeritus" could someday become normal in the Church, he said.
During his Middle East trip Francis invited Israeli president Shimon Peres and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to the Vatican next month.
He said the meeting would not be a mediation but a prayer meeting that he hoped could encourage the stalled peace process.
The Pope also said he believed Roman Catholic priests should be celibate but that the rule was not an unchangeable dogma and "the door is always open" to change.
It was something he had said before his election, but it was the first time he made the remark as pope.

Pope urged to hold bishops who shielded clergy to account

Francis said the sex abuse victims, several from Europe, would attend his morning Mass and then he would meet with them.
It will be the first time for Francis to meet sexual abuse victims since becoming pope in March 2013.
Cardinal O'Malley said last month in Rome that the commission he heads would recommend that negligent clerics be held accountable regardless of their rank in the Church.
In many cases of abuse, most of which took place decades ago but surfaced in the past 15 years or so, bishops seeking to protect the Church's reputation moved priests from parish to parish instead of defrocking them or handing them over to police.
Victims' groups have pressed the Vatican to hold bishops who either shielded abusers or were negligent in protecting children to account along with abusers themselves.
In February, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child accused the Vatican of systematically turning a blind eye to decades of abuse and attempting to cover up sex crimes.
The Vatican called the report unfair and ideologically slanted.

More on this story:

• Pope in Bethlehem urges end to Middle East conflict
• Pope launches Middle East visit with Syria peace appeal
• UN Committee against Torture questions Vatican
• Bishops should be held accountable over sex abuse: advisory board
• Pope Francis asks for forgiveness for child sex abuse by priests

....

Taken from: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-27/pope-francis-to-hold-first-meeting-with-sexual-abuse-victims/5480418

 

The search for Sodom and Gomorrah: Scientists drill beneath Dead Sea seeking priceless data





By Batsheva Sobelman

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Rock samples underwater for eons are likely to be better preserved, researchers say. Expectations are high that the lowest place on Earth can answer questions --- on climate change and other key matters
JewishWorldReview.com |

EAD SEA — (MCT) If you thought you couldn't get any lower than the Dead Sea, think again. You can go under it.Scientists here are drilling 1,640 feet beneath the bottom of the Dead Sea, to a depth of more than 2,600 feet below sea level.Rock samples that have been underwater for eons are likely to be better preserved, they say, than samples taken from under an exposed surface, which can be damaged by aridity and erosion.As a result, the Dead Sea bore hole is expected to contain priceless information about the planet's past and to offer insight on its future. Expectations are high that the lowest place on Earth can answer questions on climate change, earthquake risk and untapped natural resources.

Since the region was mentioned in biblical contexts that include Sodom and Gomorrah, the ruins of which some scholars believe are submerged under the Dead Sea, the $2.5-million project might also crack an ancient mystery or two.

It's a massive undertaking. A unique rig was constructed and then towed more than 4 miles into the salty sea, where drilling will go on for 40 days and nights, perhaps appropriate for the region.

Forty scientists from six countries are taking part in the deep-drilling program, sponsored by the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the German-based International Continental Scientific Drilling Program, which conducts deep sea and lake drilling worldwide.

The samples are expected to provide a sort of tree-ring-style annual log that will enable experts to say, for example, that year X "was a very rainy year," says Zvi Ben-Avraham, head of the Minerva Dead Sea Research Center at Tel-Aviv University.

At a nearby laboratory, the rings are clearly visible through Plexiglas tubes containing the first samples. A pair of layers, brown and white, represent a normal year with a wet season and a dry one. Variations bear witness to drought, flood and trauma. "These are the pages of our history," says Amotz Agnon of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The Dead Sea — a lake, really — is what has remained of the series of ancient bodies of water in the Jordan Valley. It fills one of Earth's deepest holes, located in a depression on the border between two tectonic plates forming part of the long Syro-African fault line. The plates are still moving. Small tremors are not infrequent, but Ben-Avraham says the region is relatively calm. The last big quake occurred in 1927.

Experts say the Dead Sea should provide invaluable historical data because the region served as a corridor through which humankind migrated from Africa.

Filled tubes are kept in a freezer outside an unassuming lab in Kibbutz Ein Gedi, in the hills above the water. Early batches have been passed through a scanner that buzzes and beeps while sending data to a computer.

More tubes lie on the floor of the lab, soon to be put through the machine. In one, a 4-inch stretch of mud reflects a century-long wet period around 400 years ago, in what is known as the Little Ice Age. Deeper samples should corroborate other documented events such as the volcanic eruption of Santorini about 3,500 years ago.

Data contained in these "archives," as Moti Stein of the Geological Survey of Israel puts it, are of global importance. The data of past relations between two climate belts, the Mediterranean and the desert, will help prepare climate models in times of global warming and desertification, Stein says.

The Dead Sea itself is as unusual as the drilling project.

Fresh water flowing into the sea is trapped; with no outflow, the only way out is up. High evaporation rates in this hot, arid zone result in extreme hyper-salinity.

The buoyancy draws tourists who come for a float. Others are attracted by the purported cosmetic and healing properties of the minerals, fabled since antiquity, or simply for the striking landscape.

But the Dead Sea is in trouble. Receding about 3 feet a year, the water, pessimists warn, could soon vanish. Stein says the lake has naturally recovered from catastrophic aridity before.

But humans are playing a role. "We're not helping," says Michael Lazar, the marine geophysicist from the University of Haifa who manages the project.

Tectonic plates aren't the only things grating against each other. There's regional politics too. The Dead Sea fills an area shared by Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians. The site's nomination for the Seven Wonders of the World competition was almost undone by conflicting political claims.

Though no Jordanian or Palestinian scientists were to be seen during a recent media tour of the site, organizers said the multinational project includes both. A project official said Arab scientists were keeping a low profile because of political sensitivities.

"The Dead Sea doesn't belong to Israel, Jordan or the Palestinians," Lazar said. "They're in, and we're happy to have them."

....

Taken from: http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1210/dead_sea_drilling.php3

Pope Francis RFID Hoax: ‘Goes Public With Support Of RFID Micro Chip Implantation’ is Fake

 

 

By Jack Phillips, Epoch Times | May 21, 2014

 

 

An article saying Pope Francis support RFID chip implantation isn’t real.

The fake report, published on “satire” website National Report, appears to be poking fun at the fear that a widespread microchip implantation is “the mark of the beast,” as described in the Bible.

“In a controversial move by the Catholic church, Pope Francis has come out in vocal support of RFID Chip technologies and the extraordinary potential they hold for mankind. The outrage stems from a belief held by many Evangelicals, Fundamentalists and Catholics, that RFID implants are the Mark Of The Beast, spoken about in their Holy Book’s chapter regarding the end of the world,” the article reads.
 

 

Pope Francis holding a tall, lit, white candle, enters a darkened St. Peter's Basilica to begin the Easter vigil service, at the Vatican, Saturday, April 19, 2014. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

According to a disclaimer that has since been removed, National Report isn’t a real news source.

“National Report is a news and political satire web publication, which may or may not use real names, often in semi-real or mostly fictitious ways. All news articles contained within National Report are fiction, and presumably fake news. Any resemblance to the truth is purely coincidental,” it states, according to hoax-debunking website Waffles at Noon.

A quick search shows that Pope Francis has never made statements about RFID chips.

Advertisement:Replay Ad

No legitimate local or national media reports have anything about it either.

....

Taken from: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/687952-pope-francis-rfid-hoax-goes-public-with-support-of-rfid-micro-chip-implantation-is-fake/

More on the Christian sentenced to die for her faith

 

May 21, 2014 By Gene Veith ....

More details about the Sudanese woman we blogged about who was sentenced to hang because she would not renounce her faith is married to an American. Her father was a Muslim, so her conversion constitutes apostasy. Also, marrying a Christian constitutes adultery, for which she was sentenced to 100 lashes. Since she is pregnant, the flogging and the hanging will not take place for two years, until the child is born and weaned. The new development is the information that her husband is an American. As would be her child. She has another child, Martin, who is 18 months old and who is being imprisoned with her. Both children would also be Americans citizens.
 

From Michael Avramovich, Sudanese Christian Sentenced to Death – Mere Comments.

Mariam Ibrahim Yahia, a pregnant woman of 27, was sentenced last week to death by hanging in Khartoum, Sudan, for converting to Christianity. Mrs. Ibrahim was also convicted of adultery for having married a Christian man. Her husband, Daniel Wani, is an American citizen. (Yes, you read that correctly.) The sentence for her “adultery” will be 100 lashes.
The Honorable Judge Abbas al Khalifa asked Mrs. Ibrahim whether she would return to Islam. She replied that “I am a Christian,” upon which Judge al Khalifa handed down his death sentence. In response to the verdict, the embassies of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands have issued a joint statement expressing “deep concern” about the case, and urged Sudan to respect the right to freedom of religion. Sudan, however, follows Islamic sharia law. . .
Reportedly, Mrs. Ibrahim’s father was Moslem, but abandoned the family during her childhood, and she was raised by her mother, an Orthodox Christian from Ethiopia. She was given several days to recant her Christian faith in order to escape the death sentence. However, when she declared that she is a Christian, she was sentenced to death. Mrs. Ibrahim and her husband were married in a church wedding in 2011, and have an 18-month-old son, Martin, who, of course, is eligible for American citizenship, and is now with her in jail.

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80 lashes for receiving CommunionRenounce Christianity or die

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Taken from: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2014/05/more-on-the-christian-sentenced-to-die-for-her-faith/

Pope Francis Heading to Holy Land With Rabbi and Imam as Interfaith Wing Men

 

Abraham Skorka and Sheik Omar Abboud Join Pontiff's Trip

By Ruth Gruber

Published May 19, 2014.

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(JTA) — With a rabbi and a Muslim sheik as his travel companions, Pope Francis is heading to the Middle East with what he hopes will be a powerful message of interfaith respect.

It will be the first time that leaders of other faiths are part of an official papal delegation. The aim is to send “an extremely strong and explicit signal” about interfaith dialogue and the “normality” of having friends of other religions, chief Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi told reporters.

Starting Saturday, the three-day pilgrimage will take the 77-year-old pontiff to Jordan, the West Bank and Israel. The packed agenda includes courtesy calls on government leaders; open-air Masses; meetings with Christian, Muslim and Jewish religious authorities; and visits to holy sites of the three religions.

The two men joining Francis are friends with whom the pope frequently collaborated when he was the archbishop of Buenos Aires: Rabbi Abraham Skorka, former rector of the Latin American Rabbinical Seminary in Buenos Aires, and Sheik Omar Abboud, a former secretary-general of the Islamic Center of Argentina.

“I don’t expect Francis to wave a magic wand and bring together Jews and Palestinians,” Skorka told the Italian Catholic newspaper Avvenire. “But his charisma and his great humility can give a powerful message of peace for the whole Middle East.”

Since being elected to the papacy in February 2013, Francis, the first non-European pope in more than 1,200 years, has become known — and widely hailed — for breaking protocol, shunning the grand trappings of papal power and reaching out to the faithful on a personal level.

On his upcoming trip, Francis has insisted that he will not travel in a bulletproof vehicle or special Popemobile. Rather, he’ll get around in “a normal car or open-topped jeep” in order to be closer to the people who come out to greet him, according to the Vatican spokesman.

Eric Greenberg, the director of communications, outreach and interfaith for the Multi-Faith Alliance for Syrian Refugees, said Francis’ ability to captivate world media means every step of his visit will be watched closely.

“There will be opportunities to deepen the important bilateral relationship between Catholics and Jews, and to boost the larger dialogue among Catholics, Jews and Muslims,” Greenberg said.

Francis will begin his trip in Jordan and proceed the next day by helicopter to Bethlehem for a 6 1/2-hour stay. He will meet there with Palestinian officials, celebrate an open-air Mass in Manger Square and visit with children from Palestinian refugee camps.

The official Vatican program says the pope will be visiting “the state of Palestine,” which has prompted rumors that the Vatican may announce recognition of an independent Palestinian state.

From Bethlehem, Francis will fly by helicopter to Ben Gurion Airport and then to Jerusalem. He will visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust center and the Western Wall, where like his predecessors Benedict XVI and John Paul II, he will leave a message in a crack between the stones.

The pope also will visit Christian sites and the Temple Mount, a site that is sacred to both Jews and Muslims and the locus of recent clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians protesting Jewish visitors.

In recent years, the Vatican has made the state of Christians in the Middle East a priority issue. Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal, the top Roman Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land, said this month that the recent spate of anti-Christian graffiti attacks by Israeli Jewish extremists “poisons the atmosphere of coexistence” surrounding the papal visit. He chided Israeli authorities for not cracking down.

Rabbi David Rosen, the American Jewish Committee’s international director for interreligious affairs, said the media attention resulting from the papal trip has prompted some action to be taken against the extremists.

Francis will be the fourth reigning pope to visit Jerusalem. His trip marks the 50th anniversary of the first papal visit to the Holy Land, Pope Paul VI’s pilgrimage in January 1964. On the trip, Paul’s meeting in Jerusalem with Patriarch Athenagoras, the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians, was a major first step toward reconciling the 1,000-year rift between Western and Eastern Christianity.

The centerpiece of Francis’ stay will be his meeting with Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew and an ecumenical joint prayer service with leaders of other Christian churches in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.

Paul’s trip, the first by a reigning pope outside of Italy, came in a vastly different context than today in terms of Jewish-Catholic and Vatican-Israel relations. The visit came one year before the Second Vatican Council promulgated its Nostra Aetate declaration, which opened the way to interreligious dialogue between Catholics and Jews.

It also took place decades before the Vatican and Israel established diplomatic relations with a Fundamental Agreement signed at the end of 1993. During his stay in Jerusalem, Paul did not even pronounce the word “Israel.”

For the past 20 years, Israel and the Holy See have attempted to reach agreement on several outstanding bilateral issues, including establishing the juridical rights of the Catholic Church in Israel as well as regulating property and taxation issues.

Just ahead of the pope’s visit, Israeli officials quashed rumors that Israel planned to transfer the Cenacle — the site where Jesus’ Last Supper took place — to the Vatican. Francis is to celebrate Mass at the Cenacle, which is revered by Christians.

Jews venerate the site as King David’s Tomb, and on May 12, hundreds of haredi Orthodox protested there demanding that Israel retain control.

All of these factors and more mean that it is impossible to separate bilateral Israel-Vatican relations from Catholic-Jewish relations, the AJC’s Rosen says.

Papal visits to Israel, he said, demonstrate “the remarkable new Catholic and Christian positive affirmation of the roots of its identity and its commitment to the welfare of the Jewish people.”

Moreover, he said, “I greatly hope that there will still be an opportunity for an interfaith encounter with local representatives of the faiths communities in this land somewhere on the papal itinerary. I actually think that to bring along an Argentinian rabbi and imam is very nice, but if there is no interfaith meeting with the locals, it might be seen locally as rather disingenuous.”

Read more: http://forward.com/articles/198481/pope-francis-heading-to-holy-land-with-rabbi-and-i/#ixzz32IVTDuZN

Big Bang just a mirage?

Well at least that explains what happened to your lost keys. Picture: NatureSource: Supplied

   
WHAT if we told you the Big Bang was a myth?

That's right. Everything we know about the universe may be wrong.
Cosmologists have speculated that the universe was created after a star collapsed into a black hole - a theory that helps to explain why it seems to be expanding in all directions.
The Big Bang theory suggests that the universe was created from a single point in the universe but despite years of research, nobody yet knows what triggered the eruption.
It also fails to explain why the Universe has an "almost completely uniform temperature."

"There does not seem to have been enough time since the birth of the cosmos for it to have reached temperature equilibrium," researchers explain in the scientific journal, Nature.

Astrophysicists from the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada have released a paper discussing a previous theory out of Germany that posited that the universe is a three-dimensional "membrane" floating through a four-dimensional "bulk universe".
A bulk universe is a very complicated concept out of string theory that puts forward the idea that space is a plane of infinite dimensions through which other planes of infinite dimensions float.
The team claimed that if the "bulk universe" contained four dimensional stars, some of them could collapse and cause black holes in the same way that stars in our universe do - they turn in supernovae, ejecting their outerlayers while their inner layers collapse into the black hole.
Black holes in our universe are spherical in shape and possess some kind of "membrane" that keep them that way. These "membranes" are known as "event horizons". Anything that passes through this event horizon is done for, because the gravitational pull is so great it makes escape impossible. In our universe only a two dimensional object is capable of becoming an event horizon within a black hole, Nature explained. Whereas in a bulk universe, the event horizon of a four dimensional black hole would have to be three dimensional, known as a "hypersphere".
Confused yet? We don't blame you.
In a nutshell this means that a star floating through a multidimensional plane got sucked into a black hole, half of it got swallowed up and the other half that survived spawned the creation of the universe.
The fact that our universe is expanding in all directions could be a sign simply of cosmic expansion, rather than as the origin of the universe itself, the researchers suggest.
"Astronomers measured that expansion and extrapolated back that the Universe must have begun with a Big Bang - but that is just a mirage," said team member Niayesh Afshordi.
However, the theory has some holes. (Get it, holes?)
So far it doesn't entirely answer how the expansion of the universe occurred.
The European Space Agency recorded slight fluctuations in the temperature of the universe and found that the cosmos contained imprints of radiation that matched predictions made in the Big Bang theory. Obviously this creates a discrepancy in the astrophysicists' research.
The scientists say they're going back to the drawing board to adjust their model.
Stay tuned. Everything we may know about the universe may be wrong.

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Taken from: http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/has-the-big-bang-theory-been-busted/story-fn5fsgyc-1226721187118