#650 (9/24) "The Tale of Two Time Covers - America’s Prodigal Press"

URGENT PRAYER REQUESTS:

9/22/13 - "Suicide Bomber Attack On Pakistani Church Kills 78 People,"-  http://www.presidentialprayerteam.com/Prayerwatch?pw=2116 - At least 78 people are dead after a pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up at a historic church in northwestern Pakistan today.
     A wing of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing, which was the deadliest attack ever against the country’s Christian minority. The attack against the All Saints Church happened as worshippers were leaving services to get a free meal of rice, which was being served in front of the church. In addition to the deaths, 141 people were injured in the blasts, according to a top government administrator.
    In claiming responsibility for the attack, the Jundullah arm of the Taliban said they would continue to target non-Muslims until the U.S. stops drone attacks in Pakistan’s remote tribal region. The latest such strike came today, when missiles hit a pair of compounds in the North Waziristan tribal area, killing six suspected militants. (Sources: ABC, CNN) 

As the Lord leads, please pray:
+ for those injured and the families of those killed in today’s explosions
+ That the U.S. government will remain vigilant against terrorism strikes at home and abroad
+ That Muslim militants will come to know Christ as savior
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NEWS FLASH: "Syrian Rebels Execute Christian Villagers," - CBNNews.com, September 12, 2013; http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/September/Syrian-Rebels-Execute-Christian-Villagers/ -  Syrian rebel fighters apparently executed three Christians fleeing the fighting in Maaloula this week, Britain's Sky News reported. Hundreds of Christians held a funeral in Damascus for the men, who were cousins. Sky News reports the men were trying to escape the Christian town of Maaloula, which has been under attack by rebel troops. The men reportedly were killed by forces with the al Qaeda linked Jabha al-Nour. Mourners say two of the victims had their throats cut and another was shot. Most of the mourners are also refugees from Maaloula, one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. [PRAY for the Christians throughout Syria who face greater persecution should rebels, particularly Islamists along the line of the Muslim Brotherhood, end up in charge of the country.]

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST: "Syrian Christians Brace for Strike, Ask for Prayer," - by Gary Lane, August 31, http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/August/Syrian-Christians-Brace-for-Strike-Ask-for-Prayer/"As Syrians brace themselves for a possible U.S. military attack, many of the county's Christians are praying for divine intervention. They say military action against the Assad regime will only bring them greater hardship and suffering and they're asking Christians worldwide to pray that God intervenes to bring peace to their nation. They believe the collective prayers of Christians around the world could reverse an escalating conflict..."

[EGYPT - Continue to pray for the tense situation in Egypt and especially for the Christian believers who are being targeted with violence by Muslim Brotherhood members.]      

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST- Update on Kenneth Bae: "US Ready to Bargain with N. Korea for Bae's Release,"-  CBNNews.com,  Aug 14, 2013  http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/August/S-Ready-to-Bargain-with-N-Korea-for-Baes-Release/  - The United States is willing to engage North Korea to secure the release of imprisoned American Christian Kenneth Bae. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the United States is "willing to consider a number of different options" to bring him home.In a video recently released by a North Korean newspaper, Bae requested the United States send a high-ranking official to North Korea to seek his pardon. It is unclear if he spoke of his own volition in the video. Bae, 45, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for sharing his faith. He suffers health problems such as diabetes and is currently hospitalized.[PRAY for 1) God's healing of and presence with Pastor Bae, 2) His earliest release by the North Korean government, and 3) God's comfort for his family and friends.] 

UPDATE: 9/22 - "Wife: Saeed Has Led [over] 30 to Christ in Iran Prison" - CBNNews.com; http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/September/Wife-Saeed-Has-Led-30-to-Christ-in-Iran-Prison/
SEPT 19TH UPDATE: Pastor Saeed: 'Don't Make My Children Orphans' - CBNNews.com, September 19, 2013  http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/September/Pastor-Saeed-Dont-Make-My-Children-Orphans/   Saeed Abedini, the American pastor imprisoned in Iran for his Christian faith, is pleading directly with Iran's president to not let his children become orphans. Saeed appealed to the new leader for his freedom in a letter he wrote from his prison cell. President Hassan Rouhani claims to be more moderate than his predecessor. "Considering the fact that I came to Iran to serve the orphans, please do not let them make my children orphans and my wife without a guardian," he wrote, according to the American Center for Law and Justice.

The ACLJ has launched a letter writing campaign to Iran's president on Pastor Saeed's behalf. You can join the initiative by sending a pre-written letter, or you can write your own words to the Iranian president at the Be Heard Project: Saeed Abedini.(http://beheardproject.com/saeed#write

UPDATE: Iran Rejects Saeed's Appeal, Family 'Devastated' , CBNNews.com, August 27, 2013   http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/August/Iran-Rejects-Saeeds-Appeal-Family-Devastated/ "By keeping the 8-year prison sentence in place, Pastor Saeed, now potentially faces additional beatings and abuse inside Evin Prison -- treatment that has significantly weakened him during his first year in prison,"....{

“Abandoned” For Christ" - Graham Calls On White House To Support Abedini - By Dr. Tom Askew, Aug.8,  http://www.presidentialprayerteam.com/opinion

"Behind the scenes, more than 600,000 people around the world have signed a petition sponsored by ACLJ in support of pastor Abedini. A concerted movement this past May brought together Christians from many nations to set aside Pentecost to pray for Abedini. On June 13, demonstrations were held at Iranian embassies in at least six countries to protest Abedini’s treatment. And, on July 29, Arizona Republican Representative Trent Franks spoke on the floor of the House to urge other Congressmen to join him in “adopting” Pastor Abedini through the bipartisan Defending Freedoms Project."

Saeed’s response…and yours - Through his family living in Iran, Pastor Abedini has been made aware of these efforts on his behalf, and is grateful. “I heard that the persecution, my arrest and imprisonment has united churches from different denominations, from different cities and countries. That the churches have united together in prayer to put one request (my freedom) on one day (Pentecost) before God,” he wrote in a letter.

The story of Saeed Abedini, the jihad against Syrian Christians, the attacks on Coptic Christians in Egypt, and the ongoing desecration of churches in Nigeria and India should cause every American to reflect on the blessings of freedom still enjoyed in this nation.

PRAY: - For comfort and peace for Saeed’s wife and children here in the U.S.

- For a strong witness and testimony from Pastor Abedini in the prison where God has placed him

- For Christians around the world who are being persecuted for their faith in Christ

- BOLDly (Beside Our Leaders Daily) for leadership from the White House and State Department in defending the freedoms of Abedini and other Americans

Go to SaveSaeed.org to sign a petition over 600,000 others asking for his immediate release.

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"The Tale of Two Time Covers - America’s Prodigal Press," - by: John Stonestreet|; Breakpoint.org;: September 23, 2013; http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/breakpoint-commentaries-archive/entry/13/23389?spMailingID=7018727&spUserID=MTMyMjM2ODE5OQS2&spJobID=89710741&spReportId=ODk3MTA3NDES1

The September 16th issue of Time magazine has a picture of Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel on its cover teasing a story about paying college athletes. Well, at least that’s the cover if you read Time here in the United States. In the rest of the world, the cover featured a picture of Russian president Vladimir Putin and teased a story about his view of the world.

Now I like sports, and I think there’s a debate to be had over whether or not we should pay college athletes. But the juxtaposition between what Time thought would grab Americans’ attention and what the rest of the world would find interesting didn’t speak well about us as a people.Substituting college football for something literally a matter of life and death says that  American people really don’t have a high appetite for thinking about things in a very deep way. Aldous Huxley, the author of “Brave New World” once wrote about “man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.”  I'd only add that, unfortunately, this seems to be especially true of Americans.

This distractibility is, as Huxley’s novel depicted, the stuff of tyranny. Freedom—spiritual as well as political—requires at a bare minimum paying attention to the world around us. Awareness is our first line of defense, which explains how, culturally-speaking, things have gone from bad to worse seemingly overnight.

It’s worth noting that Huxley’s line came in the context of a larger discussion about the role of media in a democracy. As he wrote, “In regard to propaganda the early advocates of universal literacy and a free press envisaged only two possibilities: the propaganda might be true, or the propaganda might be false.” What they didn’t envision was the “development of a vast mass communications industry, concerned in the main neither with the true nor the false, but with the unreal, the more or less totally irrelevant.”

Fifty years after Huxley wrote these words, things are even worse. When you add the ignorance of and even hostility towards traditional religious faith of most mainstream media, the temptation is to withdraw into our own little media bubble. But as WORLD Magazine Editor-in-Chief Marvin Olasky would tell you, that would be a mistake. Olasky, whom I recently interviewed on “BreakPoint This Week,”  insists that Christians should absolutely read mainstream media. I agree. And I agree when he says we should read it not for information in the “who/what/where/why” sense, but to know and understand the worldviews that dominate our culture.

Staying away from culture, like the Amish-like community in M. Night Shyamalan’s film “The Village,” is neither possible nor desirable. What is necessary is proficiency at cultural hermeneutics. We need to go from being passive consumers of media to discerning analysts of it. We need to train ourselves to distinguish the true from the false, the important from the irrelevant, and the genuine from the counterfeit.

In that spirit, Olasky recommends that we read the New York Times and his own publication, WORLD magazine. I fully agree with that, too. This way you'll get both sides of the story, and laying these things side by side, you'll see how words are used, and discern what values are shaping the way the story is being told.
Of course this requires that we pay attention, which, to paraphrase Proverbs, is the beginning of cultural hermeneutics. Without that, our appetite for distraction will become an appetite for cultural, as well as personal, destruction.

I do hope you'll listen to my interview with Marvin Olasky and his colleague Warren Smith on “BreakPoint This Week.”  Simply come to our website, BreakPoint.org, and click on the “This Week” tab. The occasion of the interview was a 25th anniversary edit and re-release of Marvin's groundbreaking book "The Prodigal Press." If you want to know how deeply worldview runs in media and the difference it makes, this is the book to read. And be sure to check out BreakPoint on Facebook and follow us on Twitter at BreakPointPFM.

[bold and italics emphasis mine]

RESOURCES:
- Prodigal Press: Confronting the Anti-Christian Bias of the American News Media (Revised and Updated Edition), Marvin Olasky, Warren Cole Smith | P & R Publishing | September 2013
- Prodigal Press: John Stonestreet interview with Marvin Olasky and Warren Cole Smith
BreakPoint This Week | September 21,2013;  http://www.breakpoint.org/features-columns/discourse/entry/15/23395