INVENTOR OF WOMAN’S PANTSUIT DIES (Friday Church News Notes, June 13, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Yves Saint Laurent, who invented the woman’s pantsuit, died on June 1 at age 71. He lived a morally debauched life, which is typical for the fashion industry. He was a homosexual, spent time in psychiatric institutions, and was addicted to drugs. His long-time homosexual partner, Pierre Berge, said that Saint Laurent “played a part” in the liberation of women. In fact, he helped to enslave them to fashion and tempt them into rejecting their God-given femininity. He invented the pantsuit in 1966, as part of the rebellious rock & roll culture. British journalist Linda Grant observes that the pantsuit “put women on an equal sartorial footing with men and “is what fashion gave to feminism” (“Feminism Was Built on the Trouser Suit,” The Guardian, June 3, 2008). Pastor David Kidd warns: “Of all the cultural wolves that prey upon Christian principles, none has been more merciless toward virtuous, modest womanhood than modern fashion. … From short shirts to tight tops, high-rise hem lines to low-rise jeans, each new craze dares women to cast aside their inhibitions and reveal themselves in a new and bolder way. Tragically, many Christian women have sacrificed the precious virtues of modesty, decency, and discretion to the ruthless determination of the cultural wolf whose appetite for them is never satisfied” (David Kidd, The Fall and Rise of Christian Standards, pp. 87, 88).

INDIAN BUSINESS SCHOOL NAMES MONKEY GOD CHAIRMAN (Friday Church News Notes, June 13, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Sardar Bhagat Singh College of Technology and Management in Lucknow, India, has named the Hindu god Hanuman the chairman. He even has his own office, complete with a desk and laptop computer, and all visitors must enter the office barefoot as a sign of honor. Hanuman is the Hindu monkey god. Vivek Kangdi, the school’s vice chairman, said: “When we were looking for a chairman for our institution, we scanned many big names in the field of technology and management. Ultimately, we settled for Lord Hanuman, as none was bigger than him” (“Indian School Names,” AP, June 7, 2008). The Sardar Bhagat Singh College, which opened last year, awards degrees in engineering and management. Surely, these Hindus knew that their action would cause some to ridicule, but they were willing to bear the reproach. Bible-believing Christians should be as courageous for the Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator and Saviour of the world, as these Hindus are for Hanuman. “Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach” (Hebrews 13:13).

NEW AGE INVADING HEALTH CARE (Friday Church News Notes, June 13, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The New Age is invading the field of health care. A study done by David Eisenberg of Beth Israel Hospital in 1990 found that Americans were spending $14 billion a year on alternative health care, including practices such as meditation, touch therapy (including reiki), positive confession, guided imagery, polarity therapy, aromatherapy, sound therapy, gemstone healing, magnetic therapy, spiritual healing, biofeedback, reflexology, iridology, urotherapy, homeopathy, emotional freedom techniques (EFT), hypnosis, and acupuncture. That figure has grown dramatically since then. According to a report in the U.S. News & World Report for January 21, 2008, alternative medicine has gone “mainstream.” In 1992 only 2% of U.S. medical schools offered courses in alternative medicines, but by 2004 that figure had risen to 67% (“More Medical Schools Teaching Spirituality in Medicine,” Lighthouse Trails newsletter, March 4, 2008). Dr. Christina Puchalski, founder of the Institute for Spirituality and Health at the George Washington School of Medicine, was the recipient of the John Templeton Spirituality and Medicine Award in 1996. The famous Mayo Clinic has a section at its web site on “complementary and alternative medicine” dealing with touch therapy, yoga, tai chi, acupuncture, cupping, biofeedback, and hypnosis. A friend who read a pre-publication edition of our book The New Age Tower of Babel observed, “Going into a health food store is like going into a New Age chapel.” God’s people need to be careful. It is certainly not wrong to want to live in a healthy manner and some “natural” remedies are effective and legitimate, but when a practice enters into the realm of the occult, it is forbidden by God’s Word. One example is the idea that there is a metaphysical life force energy that permeates everything and that flows through and/or around the body and affects the health. This is foundational to the Eastern approach, which aims to manipulate the flow or balance of life energy to restore and maintain health. Hindus call it prana; Chinese call it chi (pronounced chee); Japanese call it ki. Terms with similar meaning are kia, huna, mana, ordic, and orgone. It is purely occultic, with no biblical or biological basis, and lies at the heart of yoga, eastern massage, reiki, feng shui, tai chi, qi gong, acupuncture, acupressure, polarity therapy, magnetic therapy, biofeedback, reflexology, iridology, ayurveda, and homeopathy. Another example is the idea of humors. It is based on the ancient Greek cosmology that there are four elements--fire, air, water, and earth--and these have four corresponding humors in the body: choler (yellow bile), blood, phlegm, and melancholy (black bile). An imbalance of the humors supposedly results in sickness, and humor practitioners prescribe remedies to control and balance the humors, but it is pure hocus pocus! The book The New Age Tower of Babel deals extensively with this subject.

MACLEAN’S MAGAZINE’S HATE CRIMES TRIAL IN CANADA (Friday Church News Notes, June 13, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Mark Steyn Human Rights Tribunal ‘Show Trial’ Opens in Vancouver,” LifeSiteNews, June 3, 2008: “The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal has had its first day of hearings in the case being brought against syndicated columnist and author Mark Steyn, and Maclean’s Magazine that published an excerpt from his book, ‘America Alone’. The lawyer for the complainants, Faisal Joseph, opened his statements yesterday saying that the article depicted Muslims as ‘a violent people’ who hold traditional Canadian values ‘in contempt’. ... The complainant, Mohamed Elmasry, has a reputation in Canada as an Islamic extremist after appearing on the Michael Coren Show in Toronto in 2004 and stating that anyone in Israel over the age of 18 was a justifiable target of Palestinian attacks. He later apologized for his remarks calling them his ‘biggest mistake’ in 30 years of public life. The opposition to the entire proceeding, however, is growing and the tribunal today and yesterday has attracted enormous media attention in Canada and the US for its attack on freedom of speech and a free press. ... Ezra Levant writes, ‘In a real court, Joseph and his bigoted client would be laughed out of court, and have to pay Maclean’s costs. But this isn’t a real court. This is a kangaroo court, with three leftist activists as panellists.’ The chairman of the Tribunal panel hearing the Steyn/Maclean’s case is Heather MacNaughton, the same commissioner who levied a $7500 fine, the largest in the history of the Human Rights Tribunal. That fine was against Vancouver Rape Relief when that organisation refused to allow a male-to-female ‘transsexual’ to train as a rape and abuse hotline counsellor. MacNaughton is notorious as the adjudicator of decisions against Christian plaintiffs, including a branch of the Knights of Columbus who ‘hurt the feelings’ of two lesbians when they refused to rent their facilities for the women’s ‘wedding’. She also fined Christian printer Scott Brockie and denied an appeal by Christian teacher Chris Kempling for their religious opposition to homosexuality. ... Late last week, Liberal MP Dr. Keith Martin introduced a motion to Parliament proposing to investigate the practises of the Canadian Human Rights Commission...”

PASTOR PERSECUTED BY “HATE CRIMES” LAWS IN CANADA (Friday Church News Notes, June 13, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Government to Pastor: Renounce Your Faith,” WorldNetDaily, June 9, 2008: “The Canadian government has ordered a Christian pastor to renounce his faith and never again express moral opposition to homosexuality, according to a new report. In a decision handed down just days ago in the penalty phase of the quasi-judicial proceedings run by the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal, evangelical pastor Stephen Boisson was banned from expressing his biblical perspective of homosexuality and ordered to pay [$7,000] for ‘damages for pain and suffering’ as well as apologize to the activist who complained of being hurt. ... Boisson had written a letter to the editor of his local Red Deer newspaper in 2002 denouncing the advance of homosexual activism as ‘wicked’ and stating: ‘Children as young as five and six years of age are being subjected to psychologically and physiologically damaging pro-homosexual literature and guidance in the public school system; all under the fraudulent guise of equal rights.’ The activist, local teacher Darren Lund, filed a complaint and the guilty verdict from Lori G. Andreachuk, a lawyer, was handed down some weeks ago. The latest decision involved the penalty phase of the trial. ... And as for the future, Andreachuk wrote: ‘Mr. Boissoin and The Concerned Christian Coalition Inc. shall cease publishing in newspapers, by e-mail, on the radio, in public speeches, or on the Internet, in future, disparaging remarks about gays and homosexuals. ... Further, all disparaging remarks versus homosexuals are directed to be removed from current Web sites and publications of Mr. Boissoin and The Concerned Christian Coalition Inc,’ the lawyer opined. ... Ezra Levant, an author and lawyer who himself was targeted by an HRC attack, said at his blog: ‘[The] government now believes that if it can’t convince a Christian pastor that he's wrong, it will just order him to condemn himself? Other than tribunals in Stalin’s Soviet Union and Mao’s China, where is this Orwellian order considered to be justice? ... In essence, the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal is ordering the minister to renounce his Christian faith, since his opposition to homosexuality is based upon the Judeo-Christian Bible.’”

PLASTIC BAGS AND POLAR BEARS (Friday Church News Notes, June 13, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The radical environmentalist agenda is not based on proven science. Take the frenzy to ban plastic shopping bags. “Scientists are attacking the global campaign to ban plastic shopping bags, saying the activists’ claim that the modern conveniences are responsible for the deaths of 100,000 animals and one million seabirds is based on a ‘typo’ in a 2002 report [by the Australian government] and there is no scientific evidence showing the bags pose a direct threat to marine mammals. [The report was derived from a Canadian study in Newfoundland that sited the death of marine mammals by discarded fishing nets and made no mention of plastic bags!] Researchers and marine biologists have told the London Times that plastic bags pose, at best, a minimal threat to most marine species, including seals, whales, dolphins and seabirds” (“Anti-plastic Crusaders Stuck Holding the Bag,” WorldNetDaily, March 9, 2008). It takes more energy to make and recycle paper shopping bags than plastic ones, but banning plastic bags makes the environmental activists felt better and that is what is really important. And what about the frenzy to save the polar bears? “The U.S. government just put polar bears on the threatened species list because climate change is shrinking the Arctic ice where they live. Never mind that polar bears are in fact thriving--their numbers have quadrupled in the last 50 years. Never mind that full implementation of the Kyoto protocols on greenhouse gases would save exactly one polar bear, according to Danish social scientist Bjorn Lomborg, author of the 2007 book Cool It! Yet about 300 to 500 polar bears could be saved every year, starting right now, Lomborg says, if there were a ban on hunting them in Canada. What’s cheaper, trillions to trim carbon emissions or paying off the Canadians to stop killing polar bears?” (“The Church of Green,” Los Angeles Times, May 20, 2008).