Spiritual Treason

The United Methodist Church is being criticized for its alliance with a pro-abortion coalition, OneNewsNow.com reports. The pro-abortion group The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, which is supported by the UMC among other mainline denominations, spoke out against the recent Supreme Court ruling upholding the ban on partial-birth abortion. Mark Tooley with the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) says "the officers and the bureaucrats and the theologians of many of these mainline denominations heed the demands of feminist theology and the very aura of the sexual revolution."

• JJ Commentary: The erosion of God’s absolute truth within mainline denominations is aiding and abetting the enemy and amounts to spiritual treason. Jesus said we are either for Him or against Him. It would appear that mainline denominations are at risk of incurring His wrath

God Didn't Create Death

BERLIN — Benedict XVI, in his first extended reflections on evolution published as pope, says that Darwin's theory cannot be finally proven and that science has unnecessarily narrowed humanity's view of creation. In a new book, Creation and Evolution, published Wednesday in German, the pope praised progress gained by science, but cautioned that evolution raises philosophical questions science alone cannot answer. He stopped short of endorsing intelligent design, but said scientific and philosophical reason must work together in a way that does not exclude faith.

Benedict added that the immense time span that evolution covers made it impossible to conduct experiments in a controlled environment to finally verify or disprove the theory. "We cannot haul 10,000 generations into the laboratory," he said. Evolution has come under fire in recent years by proponents — mostly conservative Protestants — of "intelligent design," who believe that living organisms are so complex they must have been created by a higher force rather than evolving from more primitive forms.

• JJ Commentary: The whole debate about evolution, creationism and intelligent design misses one very key point. Who or what created death? Arguments for intelligent design imply that God created death as part of the natural world, but the Bible says that death came as the result of mankind’s sinfulness. God never meant for pain, suffering and death to be part of this world.

Illegals Cost Big Bucks

Someone has finally fixed an approximate taxpayer cost of having between 12 million and 15 million illegal aliens residing in the U.S. A new study by the Heritage Foundation's Robert Rector found a household headed by an individual without a high school education, including about two-thirds of illegal aliens, costs U.S. taxpayers more than $32,000 in federal, state and local benefits. That same family contributes an average of $9,000 a year in taxes, resulting in a net tax burden of $22,449 each year. Over the course of the household's lifetime that tax burden translates to $1.1 million. If the lower figure of 12 million illegal aliens is used for estimation purposes, the total tax burden translates to $2.2 trillion.

About half of the 17.7 million households studied are illegal aliens. About two-thirds of illegal alien households are headed by someone without a high school degree. Only 10 percent of native-born Americans fit into that category.

• JJ Commentary: The argument that many of the illegal aliens perform productive jobs that Americans don’t want to do pales in comparison to the costs of having them do so. In addition, it is estimated that only 4% of them actually do so

Youth Attack the Homeless

A 2006 report by the National Coalition for the Homeless found 142 attacks last year against homeless people, 20 of which resulted in death — a 65% increase from 2005, when 86 were violently assaulted, including 13 homicides. By comparison, 60 such attacks were reported in 1999, the year the coalition — the only entity to gather such data — began to study the problem. And these numbers are likely low because they only reflect the most egregious attacks reported in newspapers or by agencies that serve the homeless and some victims themselves, according to Michael Stoops, acting executive director of the Washington-based coalition.

An overwhelming majority of the attackers — 88% — were 25 or younger; 95% were male. No less than 68% of those accused and convicted in attacks were between the ages of 13 and 19.

• JJ Commentary: Our culture of death (e.g. abortion, euthanasia) and violence (e.g. movies, video games) has produced a generation of youth who have no regard for life.

Big Brother

The state of Washington announced a pilot project to introduce a driver's license "enhanced" with a radio frequency identification, or RFID, chip that would encode personal information and possibly serve as a passport-alternative if approved by the Department of Homeland Security. Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire signed a bill March 23 allowing Washington residents to apply for the $40 voluntary driver's license beginning in January.

Gregoire spokeswoman Kristin Jacobsen told WND in an e-mail the enhanced license is intended to be an alternative way of complying with the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative mandated by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, the Real ID Act, the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America all call for ID technology to be built into drivers' licenses, passports and other types of border-crossing identification.

• JJ Commentary: Another incremental step toward Big Brother and the New World (Dis)Order.

Pelosi Treason

JERUSALEM – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit today to Syria – in which she called for dialogue with Damascus – was "brave" and "very appreciated" and could bring about "important changes" to America's foreign policy, including talks with "Middle East resistance groups," according to members of terror organizations here whose top leaders live in Syria. One terror leader, Khaled Al-Batch, a militant and spokesman for Islamic Jihad, expressed hope Pelosi would continue winning elections, explaining the House speaker's Damascus visit demonstrated she understands the Middle East. Pelosi's visit was opposed by President Bush, who called Syria a "state sponsor of terror."

"Nancy Pelosi understands the area (Middle East) well, more than Bush and Dr. (Condoleeza) Rice," said Al-Batch, speaking to WND from Gaza. "If the Democrats want to make negotiations with Syria, Hamas, and Hezbollah, this means the Democratic Party understands well what happens in this area and I think Pelosi will succeed. ... I hope she wins the next elections." Islamic Jihad has carried out scores of shootings and rocket attacks, and, together with the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group, has taken responsibility for every suicide bombing in Israel the past two years.

• JJ Commentary: Nancy Pelosi should be charged with treason for consorting with the enemy. Islamic terrorists only support those who provide them with what they want – world domination.