Constitution Day - September 17

If you didn't see it in the news, September 17 is Constitution Day. You can read more about it below. There's also a Quiz to see how well you know the Constitution. If you do take it, let me know how you did.


Constitution Day: September 17, 2008On Sept. 17, 1787, the U.S. Constitution was signed by thirty-nine brave men who changed the course of history. Now Constitution Day is a time for us to continue their legacy and develop habits of citizenship in a new generation of Americans.
Free Pocket Size Constitution Book
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"What's Your Constitution IQ?"
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Test your knowledge with the Fascinating Facts Quiz! Learn about the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights - and much more. Share your Constitution I.Q. with friends and family then challenge them to try their hand at the Fascinating Facts Quiz!

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United Youth Corps

If you didn't already know about this, I wanted to let you know about the United Youth Corps, which can be called our church's version of the Peace Corps. If you are interested in seeing what they do, go ahead and click the site below and read it. If you are really interested, there is an application there! and if you do think this is something you would like to do, read the requirements; Even though it is called YOUTH corps, I couldn't find any age limits. On the other hand, if you would like to read a book about someone who went through the Peace Corps as a comparison, you can get this novel based on someone's experiences in it
http://www.amazon.com/review/product/031213214X/ref=cm_cr_dp_synop?%5Fencoding=UTF8&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending#R3CMAV9W9A1TN0
from the library while you think about they United Youth Corps itself.

United Youth Corps Visit the Web site: www.ucgyouthcorps.orgABOUT UNITED YOUTH CORPSDuring the past 30 years, young people in the Church of God have established an excellent track record of service in different regions and nations. The United Youth Corps seeks to continue this fine tradition.In today's increasingly selfish world, it is especially striking to see young people with the maturity and commitment to live this way of "give" rather than "get". Such examples make an important impact on those who observe them in action.At the same time, young adults have the energy and freedom from certain family responsibilities that can allow them to serve in ways that may not be possible later in life.Participating in service projects is an excellent way to form character, to learn the joys of giving and to prepare for further service opportunities. With this in mind, the United Church of God, an International Association, has begun United Youth Corps with various service opportunities.In 2008, United Youth Corps will be serving in these locations: Philippines, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Jordan and Israel. OUTCOMES & MISSION STATEMENTThe United International Youth Corps is designed to help motivated and desirous young adults connect with the work of the Church through service. This dimension of leadership will be awakened and directed toward the vision of the coming kingdom of God in which Christians will be helping rebuild the waste places of the earth and assisting God in serving humanity. Following is the Mission Statement and Outcomes of the United Church of God's effort to serve the leadership training and experiential needs of our young adults—the next generation of leaders within the Church: MISSION STATEMENTOur mission is to help our young adults envision and prepare for the coming Kingdom of God. This would be accomplished by helping them to identify with the international nature of the Body of Christ, and with their role in the work of the Church.EXPRESSED NEEDS AND DESIRED OUTCOMES:We believe based on observation and the direct input of this age group, that our young adults need: 1) To understand the Vision of and need for the Kingdom of God 2) To experience and live the vision of the Kingdom 3) To identify with and participate in the "Work of the Church". 4) To understand that BY such participation, they will have become a part of something bigger than themselves. We commit to providing through this and other educational opportunities for our Young Adults. Visit this Web site to see reports, photos and history of the United Youth Corps program: www.ucgyouthcorps.org

Obsession - The Movie about Islam

On the seventh anniversary of 9/11, well, now it's a little after that, but it still applies, I wanted to let you know about this movie which documents radical Islam and the motivation that some Muslims get from their reading of the Quran (Koran). Anyway, I hope you find this interesting and informative.

Controversial "Obsession" movie delivered nationwide
The problem with Muslim condemnation of this movie is that, all the scenes alluded to as being "inflammatory"-- such as children being encouraged to become suicide bombers -- do, in fact, occur, probably daily. More on this story."Controversial film on Islam delivered nationwide, byYonat Shimron for the News Observer, September 13:
Bundled in home-delivered editions of The News & Observer today is a paid insert featuring a controversial DVD on Islam that has stirred anger nationwide.
Anger among who?
The documentary, "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West," features scenes of Muslim children being encouraged to become suicide bombers, interspersed with those of Nazi rallies. The two-year-old film was produced by Raphael Shore, a Canadian who lives in Israel, and was directed by Wayne Kopping of South Africa. When no traditional distributors picked it up, the film was screened on college campuses. This month, it is being distributed in more than 70 newspapers across the nation, including two other McClatchy newspapers, The Charlotte Observer and The Miami Herald."There is no greater threat than radical Islam," said Gregory Ross, spokesman for the Clarion Fund, a New-York based nonprofit organization that is paying newspapers to distribute the DVD. "It needs to be pushed to the forefront of the political discussion."Ross said the DVD was timed to coincide with the seventh anniversary of the terrorist strikes of Sept. 11, 2001. He said it is "purely coincidental" that this September also is the holy month of Ramadan.[...]Muslims across the nation and in the Triangle said they are disappointed by the film."It adds fuel to the fire and devalues the work we do," said Khalilah Sabra, an organizer with the Raleigh chapter of the Muslim American Society, which lists "promoting understanding" as its mission.The film features footage of elementary schoolchildren reciting mantras such as "When I wander into the entrance of Jerusalem, I'll turn into a suicide warrior."Its aim is to liken radical Islam to Nazism and to promote the state of Israel, said Omid Safi, a professor of Islamic Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill, who has seen the film several times...In other words, even though the movie appears to differentiate between "radical" Islam, which even Muslims usually admit is "bad," and just Islam -- that's still not good enough.
Posted by Raymond at September 13, 2008 10:11 AM
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A Day Without...?

Click on the blue links below

Bring It On!
There's a new propaganda film called "A Day Without a Mexican," [Trailer] by Sergio Arau, based on the offensive idea that Americans are unable to function without Mexican help.Ruben Navarrette [email him], another professional token media Hispanic in the Roger Hernandez mold, claims in his syndicated column that:
“Mexican immigrants could bring America to a standstill by not picking up a hoe, washing a dish, swinging a hammer or doing any of the multitude of tasks for which foreigners are now responsible on an average day.
“So the filmmakers asked: What if there were suddenly a day without Mexicans?
“We get the answer after a mysterious fog sweeps across California, removing all Latinos and leaving behind economic distress, food shortages, work stoppages and civil unrest. The fog also leaves behind scores of helpless Anglos who have grown so accustomed to being catered to by their Latino maids, gardeners and nannies that they have forgotten how to take care of themselves." [A day without Mexicans is like — Oh, my God, May 26, 2004]This is nonsense, of course. The United States got along fairly well without a massive invasion of Mexican peasants for two hundred years. But, like the similar films [The Day After and The Day After Tomorrow] made as anti-American and as environmentalist propaganda, it will convince many of the its more gullible viewers to believe things that aren't true.The title obviously leads to the following game, which you can play at home, if you like. Complete this sentence:"A day without Mexicans is like a day without …."?Here are some of VDARE.com's answers: "A day without Mexicans is like a day without …."
Unemployment
Higher Taxes
Armed Robbery
Diplomatic Intrigue
Welfare Fraud
Sprawl
Street Gangs
You try it! It might give you some ideas

Hurricane Ike Relief

I wanted to let you know about this source if you wanted to contribute to Hurricane Ike relief. Of course, in the church, we do give tithes and offerings to our church http://www.gnmagazine.org/booklets/AT/, as well as have the Good Works program http://www.ucg.org/goodworks/and Lifenets http://www.lifenets.org/for us to give to. However, I did want to let you know about this opportunity if you are interested.

http://www.feedthechildren.org/site/PageServer?pagename=usw_hurricane_ike_salem&JServSessionIdr012=4rl3zqgsx1.app26a


As the enormity of Hurricane Ike’s destruction sinks in, many are starting to feel discouraged, fatigued, and frustrated. Ike’s victims are hurting and need our help.Electricity is out for millions, meaning:» Food is spoiling» Water treatment plants remain contaminated» Heat and humidity test patience» Gas pumps won’t work -- even if a person can find a station that has gas.The lives of children and families are likely to be affected for weeks by the lack of power, refrigeration, and basics that are now hard to get. We must come to their aid as Ike storms across middle America over the coming days. Total relief needs will be staggering.We need your help to provide emergency relief like safe drinking water, food, and personal hygiene kits for evacuees and storm victims.
Please donate now:» $35 will deliver 250 pounds of food and water» $70 will deliver 500 pounds of relief supplies» $105 will deliver 750 pounds of critical relief items
Send emergency aid to families »




Choose your own amount »

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United 93: The flight and movie that changed the world

I wanted to send you this article about a recommended movie in this season to get from the video store or library. If you haven't seen it yet, it might be worth seeing and if you have, it might be worth re-watching. Also, from our church, now is a good time to review our publication The Middle East in Bible Prophecy. Anyway, I hope you find this interesting. http://www.gnmagazine.org/booklets/ME/


The flight that changed the world -- and the movie about it
by George Will

WASHINGTON -- In most movies made to convey dread, the tension flows from uncertainty about what will happen. In ``United 93,'' terror comes from knowing exactly what will happen. People who associate cinematic menace with maniacs wielding chain saws will find that there can be an almost unbearable menace in the quotidian -- in the small talk of passengers waiting in the boarding area with those who will murder them, in the routine shutting of the plane's door prior to push-back from the gate at Newark Airport on Sept. 11.But two uncertainties surrounded ``United 93'': Would it find an audience? Should it?It has found one, which is remarkable, given that in 2005 most moviegoers -- 57 percent -- were persons 12 to 29 years old. Twenty-nine percent were persons 12 to 24. These age cohorts do not seek shattering, saddening experiences to go with their popcorn. In its first weekend, ``United 93'' was the second most watched movie, with the top average gross per theater among major releases. It was on 1,795 screens, and 71 percent of viewers were 30 or older.To the long list of Britain's contributions to American cinema -- Charles Chaplin, Bob Hope, Cary Grant, Stan Laurel, Deborah Kerr, Vivien Leigh, Maureen O'Hara, Ronald Colman, David Niven, Boris Karloff, Alfred Hitchcock and others -- add Paul Greengrass, writer and director of ``United 93.'' He imported into Hollywood the commodity most foreign to it: good taste. This is especially shown in the ensemble of unknown character actors, and non-actors who play roles they know -- a real pilot plays the pilot, a former flight attendant plays the head flight attendant -- and several persons who play on screen the roles they played on 9/11.Greengrass' scrupulosity is evident in the movie's conscientious, minimal and minimally speculative departures from the facts about the flight that were painstakingly assembled for the ``The 9/11 Commission Report.'' This is emphatically not a ``docu-drama'' such as Oliver Stone's execrable ``JFK,'' which was ``history'' as a form of literary looting in which the filmmaker used just enough facts to lend a patina of specious authenticity to tendentious political ax-grinding.A New York Times Story on the ``politics of heroism" deals with the question of whether the movie is ``inclusive." Well, perhaps ``United 93" did violate some egalitarian nicety by suggesting that probably not all the passengers were equally heroic. Amazingly, no one has faulted the movie for ethnic profiling: All the hijackers are portrayed as young, fervently devout Islamic males. Report Greengrass to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.In a movie as spare and restrained as its title, the only excess is the suggestion, itself oblique, that the government responded even more confusedly that morning than was to be expected. Most government people, like the rest of us, were in the process of having their sense of the possible abruptly and radically enlarged.Going to see ``United 93'' is a civic duty because Samuel Johnson was right: People more often need to be reminded than informed. After an astonishing 7 years without a second terrorist attack, this nation perhaps has become dangerously immune to astonishment. The movie may quicken our appreciation of the measures and successes -- many of which must remain secret -- that have kept would-be killers at bay.The editors of National Review were wise to view ``United 93'' in the dazzling light still cast by a Memorial Day address, ``The Soldier's Faith,'' delivered in 1895 by a veteran of Ball's Bluff, Antietam and other Civil War battles. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. said why understanding that faith is important: ``In this snug, over-safe corner of the world ... we may realize that our comfortable routine is no eternal necessity of things, but merely a little space of calm in the midst of the tempestuous untamed streaming of the world, and in order that we may be ready for danger. ... Out of heroism grows faith in the worth of heroism.''The message of the movie is: We are all potential soldiers. And we all may be, at any moment, at the war's front, because in this war the front can be anywhere.The hinge on which the movie turns are 13 words that a passenger speaks, without histrionics, as he and others prepare to rush the cockpit, shortly before the plane plunges into a Pennsylvania field. The words are: ``No one is going to help us. We've got to do it ourselves.'' Those words not only summarize this nation's situation in today's war, but also express a citizen's general responsibilities in a free society.

VMA Music Awards: I thank God?

I wanted to send you this article so that you can know things that are going on in the culture around us. It is nice to see that they are at least acknowledging God exists, but this is also a good time to review the third and seventh commandments from our book The Ten Commandments here. http://www.gnmagazine.org/booklets/TC/thirdcommandment.asp


Youth Culture Window: The MTV Video Music Awards-The Night Belonged to Brittany, Li'l Wayne... and God?
by Jonathan McKee and David Smith
No celebrity fistfights. No lesbian lip locks. Slightly fewer racy jokes and censored vulgarity. Has MTV gone soft? Unfortunately no; the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards still had plenty for youth workers and parents to detest.This year provided some of the most ironic "I thank God" accolades yet, a host with no refrain from ridiculing the Jonas Bros about their purity rings, and an impressive retort from 2007 American Idol Winner Jordin Sparks. Who knows? Maybe the message communicated this night was "not as it would seem."Nothing Is As It Seems...That's what this year's host Russell Brand kept telling viewers at the 25th Anniversary of the Video Music Awards (VMAs) hosted live on MTV. Not only did the entertainment include an exciting lineup of stars that just kept getting hotter, but the "nothing is as it seems" theme kept audience members on the edge of their seats. Just when viewers thought that a concert was happening across town, a wall would fall and reveal the singer in-house. A celebrity might go missing temporarily, only to be found by a frantic race around the studio. Several times, artists would strut in from the "back lot" of Paramount's huge property. Remember, nothing is as it seems.Even when it comes to God.Our DisclaimerNow, I don't want to lead you astray with my title; yes, we at TheSource4YM.com would consider this to be a "tamer" VMA than we've seen in the past, but keep in mind that "tame" is relative when MTV is involved. (Here's our re-cap of the 2005, 2006, and 2007 VMAs so you can decide for yourself.)Nobody ever truly knows what to expect from MTV's live VMAs each year. But given that this was the 25th Anniversary of the awards show, and MTV has a reputation for being...well, MTV...some of us were holding our breath to see what was in store for America's youth.As far as celebrity behavior was concerned, most of them - I repeat - most of them, kept it fairly clean. However, while commenting on Katy Perry's song " I Kissed A Girl," host Russell Brand said, "I was so inspired by Katy Perry's song's message that teenage girls will do anything for the taste of cherry chap stick, that I'm currently going through nine chap sticks a day, and my bleep has never felt more moisturized."And when Christopher Mintz-Plasse (of "Superbad" fame) snuck on stage with Slipknot, the metal band's leader explained that Chris had been doing body shots backstage. Chris' reply? "Is that what I was doing? I don't even remember how the hell I got out here...I'm bleepin trashed!"Far more damaging than the verbalized personal moisturizing practices of the host, and the pre-show stunts of Chris "McLovin" Mintz-Plasse, were the comments about God. All of them!I'd Like To Thank God...That's how several of the artists started their acceptance speeches. When Britney Spears held her first of three Moonmen aloft for Best Female Video in "A Piece of Me," she gave credit to God for her "blessing." When the same video earned her a second award, this time for Best Pop Video, she repeated her gratitude to God. (View the video here to see if God had any part in its production. Be warned; it's typical Britney!)Next up was the Pussycat Dolls. That's right, the Pussycat Dolls. They won Best Dancing in a Video for "When I Grow Up," a song all about becoming rich and famous. How they beat the incredibly talented (and fairly clean) Chris Brown with their mediocre yet racy moves is beyond me, but after securing their Moonman, front woman Nicole echoed Britney's praise of God. So I guess God really does want us all to be rich and famous! (You can view that theologically-challenged video here.)And, in a moment that I can only call ridiculous, Lil Wayne held up his award and thanked God for allowing him to win the Best Hip Hop Video award for "Lollipop." Here are a few lines from his risqué hit:
Man, she ain't never had a love like mineAnd man I ain't never seen an ass like hersAnd that pu**y in my mouth had me loss for wordsTold her back it up like erp erpAnd I made that ass jump like jerk, jerkAnd that's when she lick me like a lollipop (oh yeah I like that)she lick me like a lollipop (I like that)she lick me like a lollipop (I like that)she lick me like a lollipop
I don't think I need to link the video. You can go ahead and thank God for that.Frankly, I wish some of these stars would stop thanking God. With celebs like Paris Hilton and Amy Winehouse, it's probably true that there's "no such thing as bad publicity." But I do think "bad publicity" exists when it comes to God...and I think this was it.But MTV wasn't done...
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