Iraq: Eighth Explosion Damages Baghdad Church

By Alex Elmadjian, Middle East Union, Adventist News Network (March 13, 2007). "Plans to extend the Baghdad have been delayed by frequent explosions. On the fourth anniversary of the second Gulf War, an interview with Pastor Basim Fargo, leader of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Iraq, reveals the hardships endured by the few remaining church members in the country. With the unabated escalation of sectarian violence in Iraq, there is news of yet more bomb damage to the Adventist church in Baghdad." [Read the interview with Pastor Basim Fargo].

Basketball, beliefs get day in court
Attorneys debate the scheduling of tournaments on a player's Sabbath before, and with, Oregon's top justices
By Brad Schmidt, The Oregonian (March 06, 2007).
"An Oregon Supreme Court justice on Monday questioned whether the Oregon School Activities Association has done all it can to accommodate the religious beliefs of Portland Adventist Academy basketball players. During oral arguments in a packed lecture hall at Lewis & Clark College, justices questioned lawyers representing the OSAA and students at the now-Class 3A school about what standards should be established to accommodate students' beliefs and why the OSAA hasn't enhanced its efforts to meet those needs during the state's annual basketball championships. 'What it looks like, frankly, in the record, is that you're not making any accommodations for this religious purpose but you're making accommodations . . . for all sorts of secular purposes,' Justice Thomas Balmer said to the OSAA's attorney. The court's ruling could take months, and the case will set new precedent in the state. The decision is anticipated beyond Oregon, where the issue has not been widely addressed. The focus during Monday's 65-minute hearing was on the wording of the state law prohibiting religious discrimination in education, ORS 659.850. Seventh-day Adventists observe the Sabbath from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, and students at the school haven't played in the tournaments, where top-tier games often are held on Saturdays, except in 1996 and 2002 (when the team forfeited a Saturday game). The OSAA has not rescheduled tournament games because it said doing so is not in the best interests of fans, teams and the association...." [More of the story].

La Sierra University Campus News (February 16, 2007)
"La Sierra University President Lawrence T. Geraty is the 2007 Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce Citizen of the Year. Since 1973-74 the Chamber has been naming a new Citizen of the Year and hanging their photo in a place of honor in the Chamber Board Room. Geraty will be presented with a medal for the Citizen of the Year Award March 22 at the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce Inaugural Celebration at the Convention Center. 'Larry Geraty represents the very best of our community,' says Nick Goldware who serves as the 'quasi' chair for the Citizens of the Year Committee for the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce that nominates a new recipient each year. He is also the Executive Vice President Hub International of California Insurance Services, Inc. “Larry is an involved partner who engages people, builds consensus and works to make the community better in so many ways. I can’t personally think of anyone more deserving of this than Larry Geraty.'" [More of the story].

La Sierra University hosts the 2007 Paul J. Landa Memorial Lecture (24 February 2007)
By Lee Greer, AToday Associate Executive Co-Editor.
Based on a forth-coming book, "Biblical Peacemaking: Jonah, Jesus, and Other Good Coyotes" was the presentation by Dr. Daniel Smith-Christopher, a Quaker professor at Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles). He argued that the Bible calls Christians to flagrantly violate man-made borders, to treat them with suspicion in the best case, and with downright contempt in the worst case. Borders can be not only national, but also social, cultural, and religious. Borders feed bigotry, racism, nationalism, fear and hatred of the other, ultimately war, and in acute cases, genocide. Many politicians and religious leaders grasping for power and profit frequently appeal to the border gods, but Christians are called to be atheists regarding the border gods, and to be border runners for Jesus. For an example, observe what has been happening when oil money, defense contractors, patriotic self-righteousness, and religion are all mixed together, you get an explosive mixture of crime, blood, and corruption. In his book, Subverting Hatred, Smith-Christopher writes, "In a profound sense, those of us for whom religious commitment is a meaningful center of our identity must take action.... We refuse to cede our faith traditions—our sacred writings and our prayers, our meditations and our acts of devotion—to the exclusive use, control, and interpretation by the warriors of history and their loyal apologists." Although advocacy and approval of violence can be cited in the Bible, there are also insistent witnesses for peace and border runners ('good coyotes'), like Ruth from Moab, the writer of the book of Jonah, the writer of Isaiah 2 (~Micah 4), and of course, Jesus of Nazareth. Practically, what can Christians who take Jesus seriously, do?

• Our empathy and action must extend beyond the borders artificially set for us; e.g., we must seek to alleviate the lot of the poor south of the US-Mexico border, and elsewhere, including on the other side of our hometowns.
• Be willing to listen constructively to anger, the anguished anger of the suffering and aggrieved. That is, "Listen to anger, and stay seated!" except to act constructively for justice and peace.
• Seek out those called "enemies" by the devotees for the border gods; e.g., American Christians should be seeking out, dialoguing with and listening to Iranians, Palestinians, and adherents of Islam.

We have it on good authority: "...Let them seek peace, and pursue it!" (Psalm 34:14; cit. I Pet. 3:11). Jesus: "Congratulations to the peacemakers! for they will be called sons of God." (Matthew 5:9).

Dr. William G. Dever, Professor Emeritus at Arizona State University
Renowned Archaeologist: Bible's "stories are exaggerated"
by Max Gordon Phillips, AToday (24 February 2007).

The Hebrew Bible's "stories are exaggerated, but based on facts," said world renowned archaeologist William G. Dever, PhD (Harvard, in Syro-Palestinian archaeology), Professor Emeritus, University of
Arizona, Tuscon.

How does he know? In a public lecture at Cossentine amphitheater at La Sierra University on February 20, 2007, Dr. Dever explained that modern scientific archaeology cannot fully support the Bible's
historicity. Here's why:

• Patriarchs: Archaeology has failed to locate the patriarchal promised land: Shechem "was unoccupied during the time" that Genesis 33:18 says Jacob arrived safe in the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan.
• Exodus: "No Egyptian record mentions an Israelite Exodus." Archaeologists "cannot trace the route of the Israelites across the wilderness." The Bible says the Israelites spent 38 years at the Kadesh Barnea oasis, but no one has found there so much as a "potsherd earlier than the Israelite monarchy."
• Conquest: There is "no direct archaeological proof of Israelite destructions." "Jericho was abandoned for several centuries" during Joshua's time. "Joshua's destruction site [i.e., layer] is not there." Ai (pronounced Aye) had been "abandoned for a thousand years" when "the earliest Israelites appeared" there. Of the "forty sites of destruction, only Hazor" has even a chance of qualifying as part of the Israelite conquest of Canaan, "and that one is doubtful." The "Joshua stories are propaganda." The book "oversimplifies." Judges is "earlier" and "closer to the facts.
• Idolatry: Most Israelites "were not monotheists." "The prophets condemned polytheism" and images indicating that polytheistic worship and graven idols did exist. There were graven images of Asherah, who was worshipped by many as Yahweh's wife. The inscription "Yahweh and [or by] his Asherah," on graven images representing both Yahweh and Asherah together, is not uncommon.

How does Dever affect me? My faith remains. Since it has never depended on "evidence for the 'probable' existence of God" anyway, it obviously cannot be shaken when some of that so-called "evidence" collapses under scientific scrutiny. As my Lord and Savior says (Matthew 24:35 NIV): "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away." Meaning: "Jesus' words are more certain than the existence of the universe" (NIV Study Bible text note). Consequently, I don't have to believe that God inspired the Hebrew Bible writers to exaggerate the facts any more than I have to believe God inspired Moses to command genocide against the Midianite people (Numbers 25 and 31). The Bible writers exaggerated the facts because they were imperfect human transmitters of God's unexaggerated revelation. Hence, while human integrity may be at risk in Scripture, divine integrity is not.

Close to Slavery: Guestworker Programs in the United States

A report by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
"In his 2007 State of the Union Address, President Bush called for legislation creating a 'legal and orderly path for foreign workers to enter our country to work on a temporary basis.' Doing so, the president said, would mean 'they won't have to try to sneak in.' Such a program has been central to Bush's past immigration reform proposals. Similarly, recent congressional proposals have included provisions that would bring potentially millions of new 'guest' workers to the United States. What Bush did not say was that the United States already has a guestworker program for unskilled laborers — one that is largely hidden from view because the workers are typically socially and geographically isolated. Before we expand this system in the name of immigration reform, we should carefully examine how it operates. Under the current system, called the H-2 program, employers brought about 121,000 guestworkers into the United States in 2005 — approximately 32,000 for agricultural work and another 89,000 for jobs in forestry, seafood processing, landscaping, construction and other non-agricultural industries. These workers, though, are not treated like 'guests.' Rather, they are systematically exploited and abused. Unlike U.S. citizens, guestworkers do not enjoy the most fundamental protection of a competitive labor market — the ability to change jobs if they are mistreated. Instead, they are bound to the employers who 'import' them. If guestworkers complain about abuses, they face deportation, blacklisting or other retaliation.... Bound to a single employer and without access to legal resources, guestworkers are:

• routinely cheated out of wages;
• forced to mortgage their futures to obtain low-wage, temporary jobs;
• held virtually captive by employers or labor brokers who seize their documents;
• forced to live in squalid conditions; and,
• denied medical benefits for on-the-job injuries."

Exciting articles in the current issue of Adventist Today: Subscribe today!
March-April 2007 (Vol. 15; Issue 2).

CONTENTS

• Editorial: "Sabbatical Bliss" | John McLarty.
• 04 | Letters | AT Readers
• 06 | Tommy Shelton Retires From 3ABN: Virginia Church Meets to Address Allegations of Sexual Misconduct | Edwin D. Schwisow
• 09 | When the Elephant Got Thirsty | James Stirling

• 10 | Emily | John Thomas McLarty
• 11 | Did You Really Create the World In Six Days? | Wayne Collins
• 12 | A Geologist’s Journey from Naïve Certainty to Informed Faith | Gary A. Nowlan
• 16 | Where You and I Have Never Been | Alden Thompson
• 14 | Loving Others: When Pride of Peculiarity Gets in the Way | Anita Strawn de Ojeda
• 16 | How I learned to Know God’s Word: Why Do We Think and Act the Way We Do When Conflict Arises? | Richard L. Noe
• 18 | On Being Certain | Alden Thompson
• 20 | Recent Publications in Adventist Creationism | Ervin Taylor
• 22 | A Little Girl Who Had a Little Curl: Coming to Terms with the Prophet Ellen | Max Gordon Phillips