Friday, July 23, 2010

“Christian Living Resources, Bible Study Tools, Jesus Christ” plus 1 more

“Christian Living Resources, Bible Study Tools, Jesus Christ” plus 1 more

Christian Living Resources, Bible Study Tools, Jesus Christ

Posted: 23 Jul 2010 08:11 AM PDT

On July 11, Canyon Ridge Christian Church (Las Vegas) pastor Kevin Odor addressed his congregation regarding their support for controversial Ugandan pastor Martin Ssempa. The pastor revealed that his leadership team met with the Ssempas in March of this year to address Ssempa's support for Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill. Although Odor called Ssempa's actions "offensive," he told his church that the Anti-Homosexuality Bill and Rev. Ssempa had been misrepresented by the media.

As I noted on my personal blog and in today's Salon, Pastor Odor's descriptions of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill are inadequate and inaccurate. About the bill, Odor told his congregation

Now the problem comes last Fall that there was a member of Parliament who decided to propose a bill to take care of some things that he was concerned weren't being protected. And it was introduced as the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda. There had been a number of sodomy laws on the books already in Uganda but there were a couple of things that weren't protected. One in particular is aggravated pedophilia basically where there was a repeat offender who was violating young men over and over again and there wasn't a protection for that. And the second was now with HIV/AIDS if someone with HIV/AIDS, knowing that, violated someone and passing that on that was another concern.

And so…the new bill that was written had about 60% of the old bill in it and it added these new provisions to protect young people and this lawmaker's idea was to make the equal punishment because over there already on the books if a man violates a young woman, the man would be put to death. The death penalty was prescribed for that. Let's make that equal for young boys, let's make the death penalty for someone who violates young boys. And so that was his intent and that was what he put in the bill.

He also described an interview with National Public Radio's Barbara Bradley Hagerty where he defended the church's position. He said

…she didn't understand the equal thing of boys and girls being protected and so there was a misrepresentation that we were trying to clarify.

Pastor Odor wants his congregation to believe that current Ugandan law does not cover abuse of male minors. However, Uganda's Parliament in 2007 corrected this gender imbalance and made their law on defilement cover victims and offenders of both genders. Even Martin Ssempa has acknowledged that current Uganda law covers boys and girls equally. In contrast to what Pastor Odor told his congregation, male children who are abused by males have equal protection under the law in Uganda.

In addition, the Anti-Homosexuality Bill is about much more than replicating existing law. The Introduction to the bill makes the intent clear:

The object of this Bill is to establish a comprehensive consolidated legislation to protect the traditional family by prohibiting any form of sexual relations between persons of the same sex;

The Ugandan bill has been condemned by Saddleback pastor, Rick Warren, World Vision, Joyce Meyer, Philadelphia Biblical University and many other Christian leaders. These leaders are not condemning a bill that simply makes Uganda's law on defilement gender balanced. The international media has not sent teams of journalists to Uganda to cover a bill that cracks down on pedophiles. The Christian leaders and organizations are not part of a gay rights movement and themselves to varying degrees have been criticized by gay groups. Instead, they see the looming tragedy of the name of Christ being invoked by civil leaders to stigmatize and persecute a social minority.

When media look at videos like this (click through to YouTube) and see Martin Ssempa's marchers calling for death to gays and this one (click through to YouTube - the second speaker using the Bible) where the Atlanta-based College of Prayer leaders Julius Peter Oyet calls for death to gays, they do not report about a law against pedophilia because that is not what these Ugandan Christian leaders are calling for. One cannot claim the media is misrepresenting you when the media is reporting exactly what you say.

Click here for the the full text of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill with commentary.

Click here for Canyon Ridge's statement regarding Martin Ssempa.

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Latest analytical psychology boosts Rising Stars

Posted: 22 Jul 2010 08:14 PM PDT

The CAMS Rising Stars will benefit from ground-breaking brain analysis technology used by leading sports psychologist Dr Noel Blundell prior to this weekend's third round of the Victorian Formula Ford Championship.

Drivers Jack Le Brocq, Liam Sager, Garry Jacobson, and Matthew Brabham will once again take advantage of the opportunity provided by the CAMS Rising Stars program to work with Blundell in a full-day session today (Thursday).

Blundell has been directly involved in producing 15 World and Olympic champions, and has a 20 year background in motorsport psychology, having worked extensively with V8 Supercar champions Mark Skaife and Glenn Seton.

The pre-Sandown program will be broken into two parts -- a one-on-one evaluation of the progress that each driver has made since the start of the year, and the brainwave analysis testing.

"We've assessed them from a whole range of different perspectives, particularly from what we call their competitive IQ," he said.

"That looks at their decision making speed, their reaction times, their concentration consistency and their capacity to process information under pressure.

"When we took them onboard, we compared them to the absolute elite in fast-reaction time sports, and also with the absolute elite racing drivers.

"What we've done from there is taught them how to make faster, more accurate decisions, how to tap into their reaction times faster, and how to read the trend of races better.

"The other thing we do uses ground breaking brain technology. What we can do is put a headband on them, and put three electrodes on their forehead, and get a printout of what their brain wave pattern is.

"That then tells us what the quality and focus of their concentration is like, what their level of alertness is, how much mental energy they're burning up, and if they're carrying any muscle tension. These are all vital components in elite sport performance and elite driving performance.

"This technology is very, very new. There are very few people in the world who have got access to it, and it's only become available in the last three to five years."

In addition to full-day programs such as that run today (Thursday), Blundell has worked with the drivers at events in order to test them under near racing conditions, as well as setting them individually tailored 'homework' tasks to complete, and has been highly pleased with their attitude and results.

"They've responded to the program exceptionally," he said.

"They love it, it's fun, they like to find out what they can do, and they're becoming very committed to it. Being highly competitive, aspiring athletes, they're chasing me for information in order to get that extra edge on the track."

"From a results point of view, we know what the decision making speed of the very best in the world is like, in thousandths of a second, and the young men in this program are probably one of the best groups we've ever had."

Blundell says that, from a psychological perspective, motorsport cannot be treated the same way as other sports such as cricket or golf.

"There are two parts to it," he said of motorsport.

"It's having the machine that allows you to be competitive for a start, and then it's having the mental skills to get the absolute most out of the vehicles.

"In some sports it's basically just you, but here there's the interaction between the vehicle and the driver, and the driver having to have a great feel for the car, and to be able to give feedback to the engineers.

"It's a highly complicated sport, but they have to really simplify it by being able to trust their instincts and trust their feel."

The inherent danger of motorsport is an obvious differentiator from many sports.

"The potential danger and life threatening component can be a real issue," said Blundell.

"Just the whole notion of risk taking. These drivers are risk takers from our perspective, but they don't necessarily see it that way. They have to learn to trust their instincts, and they have to trust the machine they're in."

Jacobson and Brabham are currently first and second in the 2010 Victorian Formula Ford Championship, having taken a win each at the opening two rounds.

Le Brocq meanwhile will be making his Victorian series debut, joining a host of his Genuine Ford Parts Australian Formula Ford Championship rivals looking to gain extra track time before the national series visits the Melbourne circuit in November.

Sager will continue his full-season Victorian Formula Ford schedule at Sandown riding a wave of confidence after scoring points in the latest round of the national championship in Townsville.

The CAMS Rising Stars are proudly supported by the Confederation of Australian Motorsport, the Australian Sports Commission, Minda Motorsport, Penrite Oils, OAMPS Insurance Brokers, Boylan Traffic Solutions, Relux Slabs, Revolution Racegear, LCF Merchandise and Mark Webber.

-source: signatureseries.com.au

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