There are innumerable "quit smoking" programmes out there. Everything from hypnosis to nicotine patches, but the method used in the rebel held town of Raqqah in North Syria, beats them all. A few weeks ago the Rebel Islamic Council ISIS declared music and smoking to be Anti-Islamic. All cigarettes and ungodly records were collected and burned in the town square.
These gentle, peace-loving followers of Allah have also introduced crucifixion as a deterrent to any who would stray from the shining pathway of reform.
Pauline and I are taking a vacation to Cyprus in September. Being a lover of historical sites I had voiced the idea of going to Syria to see the Crusader castle just outside Damascus.
After reading today's news I don't think we'll bother.
Jubilate.
Ian
The U.S. Supreme Court got it right this week: at last.
They ruled that prayer in public places, in the opening of municipal meetings and in State Houses could be offered in the Name of Jesus without violating the Constitution.
Libertarians, secularists and that motley crew of anti-religionists who always show-up vote against Christianity, are crying 'foul'.
But as the Justices pointed out 'praying in the Name of Jesus has been habitual since the founding of America and they could find no good reason why it should not continue to be so.'
Take heart folks, this will undoubtedly lead to a fresh campaign to bring back prayer into our public schools. How refreshing that would be, to have children in school conversing with God instead of concocting bombs to blow the place up!
Jubilate.
Ian
The numbers are eerily similar. 270 souls were lost when flight M.H. 370 disappeared over the Indian ocean six weeks ago.
This week 276 children, all girls, were abducted from their school in Nigeria.
Within a day of the Malaysian flight being reported missing a massive aerial, sea and satellite search was begun that continues to this day: the approximate cost of this scouring of land and sea now approaching $500,000,000 .
Since the girls were abducted the response has been glacial. No other nations have been called to help and time is of the very essence.
Boko Haram, which roughly translated means, "we hate western education", is the Islamic group responsible for this unconscionable crime. They are a sect of fanatical, cold blooded killers whose religion swears hatred to all things western but allows them to auction these teenage girls into slavery and forced marriage.
If satellites, aerial reconnaissance and all other modern means can be used to detect the wreckage of an aircraft at sea, it is beyond comprehension that such means could not detect this bunch of renegades marauding in the bush with their helpless captives.
Or maybe it isn't so unbelievable. The victims in this case are black, poor, female and from an obscure part of the earth where life is considered cheap. But if Jesus said "Woe unto them who harm or abuse the smallest of my children" someone WILL PAY either in this world or the next.
Ian
