The following is another installment of the Friday Church News Notes designed especially for use in churches. It is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. For instructions on how to unsubscribe to this list or to change mailing addresses, please consult the information paragraph at the end.

PSYCHOLOGISTS LEARN THAT INFANTS LIE (Friday Church News Notes, July 20, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Psychologists have finally learned that children begin to lie in infancy and that by two years old they are sophisticated liars. A report in the London Telegraph, July 1, 2007, was entitled “Babies Not as Innocent as They Pretend.” It said: “Behavioural experts have found that infants begin to lie from as young as six months. Simple fibs help to train them for more complex deceptions in later life. Until now, psychologists had thought the developing brains were not capable of the difficult art of lying until four years old. Following studies of more than 50 children and interviews with parents, Dr. Vasudevi Reddy, of the University of Portsmouth’s psychology department, says she has identified seven categories of deception used between six months and three-years-old. Infants quickly learnt that using tactics such as fake crying and pretend laughing could win them attention. By eight months, more difficult deceptions became apparent, such as concealing forbidden activities or trying to distract parents’ attention.” Practically any Bible believing parent could have informed Dr. Reddy about this and saved her the trouble of this experiment! There is more sound information on children and child training in the little book of Proverbs than in all of the child psychology books that have ever been written. For example, it says, “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; But the rod of correction shall drive it far from him” (Prov. 22:15). Thus the Bible informs us that the child’s nature is corrupt because of man’s fall, and that only through correct discipline can the child be raised in the fear of God. “The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies” (Psalm 58:3). This also reminds us that there is no true wisdom apart from the fear of the Lord. “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10).

MUSLIMS CLOSING CHURCHES IN WEST JAVA (Friday Church News Notes, July 20, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from Strategy Page, June 4, 2007: “In West Java, Islamic terrorists have forcibly closed another Christian church. Typically, a mob of Islamic militants will invade a church, during services, and desecrate the place, drive the worshipers out, and attack any clergy, all the time shouting Islamic slogans. When the police investigate, none of the known Islamic militant groups will take credit for the attack. In the last three years, at least 30 Christian churches have been forced to close in West Java.”

CHURCH OF ENGLAND DOCUMENT SAYS CALLING GOD “HE” CAN LEAD TO WIFE ABUSE (Friday Church News Notes, July 20, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - New Church of England guidelines for bishops and priests on the subject of domestic abuse warn that calling God “He” or “Lord” encourages men to beat their wives. The goofy guidelines, issued by the Archbishops’ Council, urge pastors to make sure that sermons and hymns don’t contain “uncritical use of masculine imagery.” The document, which is fully endorsed by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, says: “Domestic abuse is fundamentally an abuse of power, and many conceptions of God derived from the Bible and the Christian tradition have portrayed divine power in unhealthy and potentially oppressive ways” (“Outcry,” Daily Mail, Oct. 3, 2006). To blame God the Father and the Bible for man’s sin is feminism and apostasy run wild. “The foolishness of man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the LORD” (Proverbs 19:3).

CATHOLIC DIOCESE SETTLES CLERGY ABUSE CLAIMS FOR $660 MILLION (Friday Church News Notes, July 20, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, California, has agreed to settle hundreds of claims of clergy sex abuse for a payout of $660. This brings the total payout for sex abuse by the Roman Catholic Church in America to over $2 billion. The Los Angeles Archdiocese will not have to sell its property, valued at $6 billion, as the settlement will be made in cash, part provided by the archdiocese and part by insurance companies. Earlier this year the San Diego diocese became the fourth one to file for bankruptcy protection against the sex abuse lawsuits. A conservative Catholic organization documented this wretched business in the fall/winter 2002 issue of the magazine Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, observing: “… the overwhelming majority of sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church--about 90%--involve homosexual priests preying on teenage boys. The major media and the U.S. culture at large want to deny or spin the homosexual factor out of the scandal.” We would also comment that the judicial system in America is nearly as corrupt as the child-abusing Catholic priests. If a religious “minister” of whatever brand is guilty of a heinous crime, he should be held liable and should pay for his crime, and if a fellow “clergyman” is found to have contributed to the crime by trying to cover it up, then he, too, should be made to pay. But an entire group of churches should not be bankrupted by greedy lawyers as the present system unjustly allows. The American judicial system is no longer about justice for those who have been wronged; it is about money, which it drains from every victim that falls into its uncaring clutches.

LUTHERAN CHURCH PRACTICES “GODDESS ROSARY” (Friday Church News Notes, July 20, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from The Berean Call, July 17 2007: “On Wednesdays at 7 p.m., Ebenezer [Lutheran Church of San Francisco, California] opens its sanctuary for the ‘Christian Goddess Rosary.’  The church says it offers ‘Goddess Rosary Beads’ and that ‘prayers and suggested meditations will be on hand as well as incense, candles and bells.’ The church’s web site says, ‘The Goddess rosary is grounded in traditions of the Christian Church and the proclamation of the gospel which is a vision of release from bondage for a new creation.’ Herchurch.org offers a ‘Hail Goddess’ prayer by feminist theologian Carol Christ, formerly of Harvard Divinity School but now director of the Ariadne Institute for Myth and Ritual in Greece. The prayer goes: ‘Hail Goddess full of grace. Blessed are you and blessed are all the fruits of your womb. For you are the MOTHER of us all. Hear us now and in all our needs. O blessed be, O blessed be. Amen.’ Dalyn Cook of Ebenezer’s Goddess Rosary wrote: ‘I felt that I had stepped into a Presence, like a mother’s warm embrace. The attendees were few in number, yet there was a sense of fullness in this welcoming space. I inhaled deeply the earthy scent of the incense, sending up delicate tendrils of smoke which curled around the altar in a nimbus visible against the warm rays of the evening sun filtering through the stained-glass windows...’”

FERTILITY GODDESS PROSTITUTION ALIVE IN INDIA (Friday Church News Notes, July 20, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Tens of thousands of girls in India are forced to prostitute themselves as slaves to the goddess Yellama, a practice that is thousands of years old. Though it was outlawed more than 50 years ago, the practice continues, and there are an estimated 25,000 of these goddess slaves in the state of Karnataka alone. The following is excerpted from “Slaves to the Goddess of Fertility,” BBC News, June 8, 2007: “When girls dedicated to Yellama reach puberty they are forced to sacrifice their virginity to an older man. What follows is a life of sexual slavery, they become sanctified prostitutes. The money devadasis earn goes straight to their parents who often act as pimps for their daughters. ... Once girls are dedicated the course of their lives is decided. They can never marry, never have a family life. ... Life here on the dry, harsh Deccan plateau has always been tough, especially for girls, who are often seen as a burden for poor families, expensive to marry off. Recent years have been marked by droughts and crop failures. The goddess of fertility is seen as a powerful force. Many believe that giving girls to Yellama will bring good fortune on a family. It also means they don’t have to save for a dowry, and the daughter becomes a bread-winner. ... Women already dedicated cannot be freed. The power of belief is still so strong here that she will always be a devadasi, enslaved.”