To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Animal Rights Group Invokes Biblical Commandment
From: bpr-list@philologos.org
Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2000 07:13:06 -0500

Animal Rights Group Invokes Biblical Commandment
Updated 1:10 PM ET March 23, 2000

BOSTON (Reuters) - The animal rights group that was forced
to pull it's "Got Beer?" ad campaign last week will turn to
one of the Ten Commandments next week as it urges people in
New England to eschew meat.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) plans
to post billboards featuring a Moses-like figure, his arms
outstretched, and the words "I said 'Thou shalt not kill'
Go vegetarian."

PETA spokesman Bruce Friedrich said the Norfolk, Virginia-
based group chose to put the billboards up in Rhode Island
and Massachusetts because the two states have the highest
proportion of Catholics in the country and "Easter is upon
us."

-- more --

http://news.excite.com/news/r/000323/13/odd-vegetarians

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Jews on verge of vanishing from Yemen after 3,000 years
From: bpr-list@philologos.org
Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2000 07:16:44 -0500

 
Friday, March 24 1:52 PM SGT

Jews on verge of vanishing from Yemen after 3,000 years
RAYDAH, Yemen, March 24 (AFP) -

The 3,000-year-old Hebrew presence on the southern tip of
Arabia is in real danger of extinction today, with just 300
Jews scattered across the north of Yemen.

"Jews who emigrated to Yemen after the Roman Emperor Titus
besieged Jerusalem (in 70 AD) numbered tens of thousands,"
said Yaish ben Yahia, a rabbi left who did not join the
exodus of recent decades.

"They were everywhere," said the rabbi of Raydah, a town
some 70 kilometres (40 miles) from Sanaa that has a total
of around 60 Jews in eight families.

"Today there are only 300 left, scattered north of Sanaa,"
he said, half as many as there were just three years ago.

The main exodus took place between June 1949 and June
1950, shortly after the creation of the state of Israel.
Some 43,000 Jews left in an air lift from the Red Sea city
of Aden that was dubbed "Flying Carpet".

"Between 1950 and 1989, almost 2,000 more Jews left the
country, followed by almost 700 more between 1992 and
1994," said Yaish, who saw off his sons, Chaim, Sulaiman
and Yahia, and two grand-daughters, Hamama and Dhabia.

Like many other Yemeni Jews, Yaish fears for the future of
his diminishing community and the dispersion of families.
He hopes Sulaiman, who is now 30 and studies at an
Ashkenazi seminary in New York, will one day return to
Raydah to take over.

The rabbi himself visited Israel two years ago.

"But I couldn't stand life over there. Here I feel I am in
my element," admitted the 73-year-old, as he prescribed
some herbal medicine to a Muslim patient.

-- more --

http://english.hk.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/afp/article.html
?s=hke/headlines/000324/world/afp/Jews_on_verge_of_vanishing_from_Yeme
n_after_3_000_years.html

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========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - WeNT: March 23, 2000
From: bpr-list@philologos.org
Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2000 07:40:47 -0500

Selected Items from Weekend News Today
http://upway.com/cgi-bin/went
03/23/00

Blair warned of European superstate

Weekend News Today
By Kelly Pagatpatan
Source: The London Times

Thu Mar 23,2000 -- Romano Prodi, President of the European
Commission, attended a meeting in Lisbon on the eve of the
EU summit. Lord Owen, the former Foreign Secretary, warned
Tony Blair that he risks being ambushed by other leaders
into signing up to a heavily regulated European superstate.
Lord Owen, the head of New Europe, an anti-single currency
but pro-Europe think tank, accuses Prodi of using the
summit to try to rival the United States as an economic
power by creating a similar power base of his own.

Mubarak says Israel and Syria are close to a deal

Weekend News Today
By Andra Brack
Source: Jordan Times

Thu Mar 23,2000 -- Israel and Syria have maintained
indirect contact throughout the two-month lull in their
negotiations and are close to a peace agreement, Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak told The Washington Post. The
issues left “will not be so complicated,” Mubarak said in
an interview with the daily published on Wednesday in which
he also predicted that a peace treaty between Israel and
Syria would likely lead to an agreement with Lebanon as
well.

Mubarak said that after talking to the two men, he
believes they both wanted a peace agreement and had similar
ideas on its basic components. “It is not an easy process.
Barak has problems internally. Assad has his own problems
internally. There will be tension. I hope they can overcome
this.”

Mubarak said a peace treaty between Syrian and Israel
would likely lead to a swift agreement between Israel and
Lebanon that would leave the Jewish state at peace with its
immediate neighbours for the first time since its founding
in 1948.

The sounds of silence

Weekend News Today
By Andra Brack
Source: Arutz-7

Thu Mar 23,2000 -- The two Chief Rabbis received the pope
in their offices in Heichal Shlomo in Jerusalem this
morning, for a 15-minute meeting. The Rabbis asked him to
expressly apologize for the role played by the Church, and
its silence, during the Holocaust, while visiting the Yad
Vashem Holocaust Museum later in the day. The Pope left
from there to meet with President Weizman, and then visited
Yad Vashem - where he did not take the opportunity to
apologize expressly for the Church's silence during the
Holocaust.

Ironically, the Pope began his remarks at Yad Vashem with
a reference to "silence," but from another angle: "In this
place of memories, the mind and heart and soul feel an
extreme need for silence. Silence in which to try to make
some sense of the memories which come flooding back.
Silence because there are no words strong enough to deplore
the terrible tragedy of the Shoah." He said that the Church
is "deeply saddened by the hatred, acts of persecution and
displays of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews by
Christians at any time and in any place... Let us build a
new future in which there will be no more anti-Jewish
feeling among Christians or anti-Christian feeling among
Jews..."

Rabbi Lau told Arutz-7's Kobi Sela of one of the positive
outcomes of his meeting today with the Pope: "Because there
are many problems of homes and families torn apart between
Judaism and Christianity by missionaries and the like, we
asked that the apostolic nuncio Sambi, head of the
Jerusalem papal diplomatic mission, be authorized to be in
daily contact with us on these matters. The Pope in fact
gave him this authorization in our presence, and we hope to
be in regular contact with him to address these important
issues."

Cursing ceremony was faked

Weekend News Today
By Andra Brack
Source: Arutz-7

Thu Mar 23,2000 -- The mystical Pulsa D'Nura curse-casting
ceremony against the pope of several nights ago continues
to be investigated. Those who led it claim now that it was
a total "bluff." The program's researcher, Avishai Ben-
Chaim, was questioned by the police today on suspicion that
he coordinated and staged the entire event.

Iran and Russia to gain greater influence over Caspian
Basin oil

Weekend News Today
By Kelly Pagatpatan
Source: Stratfor Report

Thu Mar 23,2000 -- On March 14 Iran announced it had
obtained funding for the construction of a Caspian Sea
export pipeline. If constructed as envisioned, almost all
of the oil extracted from the region will run through
either Iran or Russia, granting them great influence over
the economies of the states of the Caspian region. The new
Iranian line signals a near total defeat for a decade of
U.S. oil diplomacy in the Caspian basin, a region with the
world´s third-largest oil reserves.

Jerusalem mayor to pope: Jerusalem 'is city of peace'

Weekend News Today
By Andra Brack
Source: Ha'aretz

Thu Mar 23,2000 -- Skirting the Pope By Akiva Eldar If
Avraham Einfeld, the Orthodox Jerusalemite who heads the
Melitz Institute for Zionist Studies were to meet the Pope,
he would repeat his favorite sentence to the esteemed
visitor: "Jerusalem is the only city in the world that is
worthy of being the capital of more than one
nation."However, John Paul II was welcomed to Jerusalem by
Mayor Ehud Olmert with the greeting: "Welcome to Jerusalem,
the capital of Israel." He also told the Pope that
Jerusalem is "the city of peace." Then he explained that
bread and salt were absent from the menu of the ceremony on
Mount Scopus, "because I am a man of politics, and not a
man of religion."

The Pope's visit has provided Olmert with a rare platform
for his games of peace politics. He fought tooth and nail
for this ceremony. Not every day does he have an
opportunity like this to tell the world who the landlord is
in the "united city."

Olmert persuaded the organizers that it was unthinkable
that the head of the Christians could skip over the Jewish
mayor. It could sabotage the peace between the two peoples
who are living under his rule. Were it not for the darkness
that fell on Jerusalem as his helicopter descended, the
Pope could have seen close up how the eastern side of the
city of peace looks: a Jewish housing project across the
street from an Arab building.

Beilin tells UN that Israel's occupation has gone sour

Weekend News Today
By Andra Brack
Source: Ha'aretz

Thu Mar 23,2000 -- Justice Minister Yossi Beilin yesterday
made a frank admission to a major United Nations panel that
Israel's occupation of Arab territory had gone sour. "We
tried to convince ourselves that our occupation was a
benevolent one," Yossi Beilin told the 53-nation UN Human
Rights Commission. "But we know from history that
occupation is occupation is occupation. Even if you are
trying to be so nice," he added, "eventually they will hate
you." Beilin departed from his prepared text to make the
comment. Although he has expressed such views at home, it
was unusual for an Israeli minister to voice them in front
of the rights commission, which frequently criticizes the
Jewish state for its policies toward Arabs.

Clinton-Assad summit may mean 'more than renewal of talks'

Weekend News Today
By Andra Brack
Source: Ha'aretz

Thu Mar 23,2000 -- Next Sunday's summit meeting in Geneva
between Clinton and Syrian President Hafez Assad will be a
"step that will go beyond the renewal of the talks" between
Israel and Syria, according to officials in Damascus. The
officials said that the "intensive secret contacts that
preceded the announcement of the summit apparently dealt
with details that go beyond the resumption of the
negotiations, particularly regarding the question of the
borders, which Clinton is talking about resolving - if it
has not already been resolved."

Al-Baath daily, mouthpiece of the Baath ruling party, said
Assad, through "his talks with President Clinton ... will
be giving Israel a new chance for peace. It could be the
last chance.

Speech by pope in the PA autonomous territories

Weekend News Today
By Andra Brack
Source: IsraelWire

Thu Mar 23,2000 -- Excerpts from the pope's speech at
Bethlehem:

"Here Christ was born of the Virgin Mary": these words,
inscribed over the place where, according to tradition,
Jesus was born, are the reason for the Great Jubilee of the
Year 2000. They are the reason for my coming to Bethlehem
today. They are the source of the joy, the hope, the
goodwill, which, for two millennia, have filled countless
human hearts at the very sound of the name "Bethlehem".

The message of Bethlehem is the Good News of
reconciliation among men, of peace at every level of
relations between individuals and nations. Bethlehem is a
universal crossroads where all peoples can meet to build
together a world worthy of our human dignity and destiny.

Peace for the Palestinian people! Peace for all the
peoples of the region! No one can ignore how much the
Palestinian people have had to suffer in recent decades.
Your torment is before the eyes of the world. And it has
gone on too long... and I have repeatedly proclaimed that
there would be no end to the sad conflict in the Holy Land
without stable guarantees for the rights of all the peoples
involved, on the basis of international law and the
relevant United Nations resolutions and declarations.

Only with a just and lasting peace – not imposed but
secured through negotiation - will legitimate Palestinian
aspirations be fulfilled. Only then will the Holy Land see
the possibility of a bright new future, no longer
dissipated by rivalry and conflict, but firmly based on
understanding and cooperation for the good of all. The
outcome depends greatly on the courageous readiness of
those responsible for the destiny of this part of the world
to move to new attitudes of compromise and compliance with
the demands of justice.

The promise of peace made at Bethlehem will become a
reality for the world only when the dignity and rights of
all human beings made in the image of God (cf. Gen 1:26)
are acknowledged and respected. Today and always the
Palestinian people are in my prayers to the One who holds
the destiny of the world in his hands. May the Most High
God enlighten, sustain and guide in the path of peace the
whole Palestinian people!

Devil in the numbers for Russian tax ID card plan

Weekend News Today
By Kelly Pagatpatan
Source: Reuters

Thu Mar 23,2000 -- The devil is in the numbers for
Russia's Christian Orthodox movement when it comes to
government proposals to give every citizen a tax
identification code. Conservative Orthodox representatives
said Thursday that the bar code on planned new ID cards,
aimed at simplifying tax collection and avoiding confusion
among people with the same names, contained the series 666.
"We all know that on these cards there is the number of the
antichrist, the number 666," said Leonid Simonovich, head
of the Union of Orthodox Banner Bearers.

"We propose that if the government really needs such
cards, then they should change the number from 666 to 888,
eight being associated with all that is positive." The tax
ministry has said it wants to issue people with an
individual taxpayer identification number. Proponents say
it could then serve as the equivalent of a social security
card, eventually replacing passports. There has even been
talk of using the card instead of cash in shops and markets
across the world's largest country.

Internet site for interfaith event

Weekend News Today
By Andra Brack
Source: IsraelWire

Thu Mar 23,2000 -- A special Internet site has been set up
for the interfaith meeting at Notre Dame, Jerusalem, with
the participation of Pope John Paul II, on Thursday (March
23). The site will provide background information that will
aid in understanding the Pope´s comments at the conference.
The site will be in English, Hebrew and French.
http://www.elijah.org.il

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========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Pope Preaches at Site of Sermon on the Mount
From: bpr-list@philologos.org
Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2000 11:39:36 -0500

------- Forwarded message follows -------

March 24 6:25 AM ET

Pope Preaches at Site of Sermon on the Mount

KORAZIM, Israel (Reuters) - Pope John Paul preached support for the
weak and persecuted Friday in a powerful address to the multitudes
from the hill where Jesus pronounced his Sermon on the Mount.

His voice booming out across the Mount of Beatitudes overlooking the
Sea of Galilee, the Pope echoed Jesus's sermon, urging 100,000
pilgrims from around the world to resist what he called "the voice of
evil" at the dawn of the 21st century.

"It is a voice which says: 'Blessed are the proud and violent, those
who prosper at any cost, who are unscrupulous, pitiless, devious, who
make war not peace, and persecute those who stand in their way'," the
Pope said in his homily at the open-air Mass.

"'Yes,' says this voice of evil, 'they are the ones who win'."

The Pope was leading the biggest event of his week-long Holy Land
pilgrimage, the crowning trip of a globe-trotting papacy fired since
its start in 1978 by the Roman Catholic Church leader's dream of
walking in the footsteps of Jesus.

The Sermon on the Mount is one of the best known New Testament texts,
extolling as blessed the poor, the meek, the peacemakers, the merciful
and the pure in heart.

Its verses are a central tenet of Christianity, building on the 10
Commandments that the Old Testament says God gave to Moses on Mount
Sinai, and a key to the parting of ways with Judaism that the Jesus
story represents.

Despite his frailty, the 79-year-old Pontiff spoke in his strongest
voice since he began his grueling pilgrimage on Monday, reaffirming
the words that Jesus spoke 2,000 years ago.

He urged the faithful to be true to their Christian heritage and,
rejecting modern temptations, choose good over evil.

"It is strange that Jesus exalts those whom the world generally
regards as weak. He says to them: 'Blessed are you who seem to be
losers, because you are the true winners: the kingdom of heaven is
yours,'" the Pope said.

"These words present a challenge which demands...a great change of
heart," he said.

The crowd, half of them young Catholics from around the world,
applauded from muddy enclosures before a huge red altar platform
erected on the Mount, with sweeping views over the lake where Jesus is
said to have walked on water.

"When you get here, it's like arriving in Heaven," said Greg Singh, a
32-year-old volunteer worker from Brixton, south London.

In a rare occurrence on a papal trip, the Pope sat on a grey basalt
throne flanked by two clear bulletproof screens for the Mass, a sign
of the intense security Israel has laid on for the Pontiff.

Flags of dozens of nations from four continents and banners in the
Vatican colors of yellow and white flew among the crowd, which had
gathered overnight and passed the hours camping in wet weather,
strumming guitars, singing hymns and dancing.

"I feel I am close to Jesus here," said Manuel Pita, a young pilgrim
from Lisbon.

Worshippers included up to 5,000 local Christians from
Palestinian-ruled areas of the West Bank, Lebanon and northern Israel
who brought their concerns with them to wave at the Pope.

Politics Intrude Again

Palestinian flags flew among the crowd and members of the
Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army (SLA) militia raised a banner that
read: "Save us from the Syrian and Iranian persecution."

SLA fighters said they feared for their lives at the hands of
Iranian-backed Hizbollah guerrillas after July, when Israel has said
it will withdraw from an occupation zone it has held in south Lebanon
since 1985.

"We are being killed every day. The morale of the army is very low. We
don't know what to do anymore," said Tony Farah, 25, an SLA fighter
among about 500 Lebanese Christians who came to the Mass.

Another banner read: "Let my people go to Kafar Bire'm" -- an Arab
village in northern Israel that Israeli forces forcibly evacuated
after the creation of their state in 1948.

Politics have intruded on the Pope's spiritual journey at every turn
since he arrived in Israel Tuesday from Jordan.

But Israeli cabinet minister Haim Ramon played down the significance
of Palestinian flags flying at the Mass.

"You see here flags from all over the world. These are people who came
from the Palestinian Authority...This is their flag and we have to
respect that," he told Israeli television.

The Pope was scheduled to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak at a
guesthouse run by Roman Catholic nuns on the Mount of Beatitudes later
Friday before a private tour of three key Christian sites on the
shores of the Sea of Galilee.

They include the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves, built
over a small rock where tradition says Jesus performed the miracle of
the loaves and fishes.

via: <hblondel@tampabay.rr.com>

------- End of forwarded message -------

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Religion award goes to agnostic!
From: bpr-list@philologos.org
Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2000 15:20:51 -0500

Religion award goes to agnostic!

This year's Templeton Prize-winner is an agnostic who
believes that if there was a Creator, He was something of a
bumbler, reports the Gannett News Service (March 23)!

Dr. Freeman Dyson, who works at Princeton University's
Institute for Advanced Study in New Jersey, is the
recipient of this year's Templeton Prize for Progress in
Religion. Dr. Dyson, formerly of Great Britain and a
physicist by training, declares that since one cannot prove
God exists (proof exists only in mathematical equations,
Dyson insists), he must remain an agnostic (but not an
atheist). If God does exist, he says, then He must not be
all-powerful because if He were, He would be able to stop
famine, suffering, and disease. He also echoes the late
Carl Sagan's comment that if there was a God, He was a
"sloppy manufacturer."

-- more --

http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2/4255news3-24-2000.asp

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Messianic Putin urges Russia to embrace new era in Sunday's poll
From: bpr-list@philologos.org
Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2000 15:24:36 -0500

Friday, March 24 8:50 PM SGT

Messianic Putin urges Russia to embrace new era in Sunday's poll

Acting President Vladimir Putin offered a vision of a
resurgent, strong and wealthy Russia Friday as he urged
voters to embrace a new era in weekend presidential
elections.

Couched in almost messianic terms Putin held out the
weekend move to summer time as a potent omen for change, an
opportunity which should not be wasted by abstentionism
which could annul the result of Sunday's election.

-- more --

http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/afp/article.html?s=asi
a/headlines/000324/world/afp/Messianic_Putin_urges_Russia_to_embrace_n
ew_era_in_Sunday_s_poll.html

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