Friday, December 1, 2000 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The following is another installment of the Fundamental Baptist Information Service Friday News Notes:

BEATLES BACK AT NO. 1. Friday News Notes, December 1, 2000 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The Beatles broke up 30 years ago, but their music has continued to wield vast influence. Their new album, titled ã1,ä debuted in November at No. 1 on pop charts in the U.S.A. and 16 other countries and sold more than one-half million copies the first week. The album contains 27 of the Beatles No. 1 singles. A recent television special, which was titled The Beatles Revolution, attracted 8.7 million viewers to its first showing on ABC and is being rebroadcast by cable networks. The Beatles are the most popular and influential rock band of all time. The Beatles, in fact, are a synonym for rock & roll. Their music is played continuously on oldies radio stations, and their influence can be felt throughout the world. Even Contemporary Christian musicians are Beatles fans. For example, Phil Keaggy pays ãhomage to the Beatlesä on his 1993 Crimson and Blue album. Galactic Cowboys admits that their biggest influence is the Beatles. Caedmonâs Call often performs Beatles music. dc Talk opened its ãJesus Freakä concerts with the Beatlesâ song ãHelp.ä Jars of Clay names Jimmy Hendrix and the Beatles as their inspiration. The lead guitarist is said to be a ãBeatles fanatic.ä Our article ãThe Beatlesä documents the ungodly lifestyle and influence of the Beatles. This is available at the Way of Life web site -- http://www.wayoflife.org/  and in the Fundamental Baptist CD-ROM Library.

CONVICTED MURDERER RECORDS RAP ALBUM IN PRISON. Friday News Notes, December 1, 2000 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - Convicted murderer Anerae Brown, known by his rap name of X-Raided, recorded an album in prison. Titled ãVengeance Is Mine,ä the album is distributed by Black Market Records. Brownâs previous album, ãThe Unforgiven,ä has sold some 60,000 copies. Brown and two accomplices brutally shot Patricia Harris, a grandmother, to death in 1992. He is serving a 31-year prison sentence. Rap music, which is overwhelmingly dominated by the beat and therefore aggressive by its very nature, often focuses on violent themes; and many rap musicians have been involved in violent episodes.

RAP MUSIC AND VIOLENCE. Friday News Notes, December 1, 2000 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - Big L of the rap group Digginâ in Tha Crates was shot to death in front of his home in Harlem. The first album of rapper Eminem included a song about a man killing the mother of his child. On the opening track of his second album, Eminem threatens to rape and kill his estranged mother. Willie D of the Geto Boys served time in prison for robbing a gas station. Scarface of the Geto Boys is ãa suicide-prone manic-depressive who spent two of his teenage years in a mental ward.ä In January 1993, he was wounded by an off-duty policeman during a gang-related fight. Scarfaceâs friend was killed in that struggle. In May 1991, Bushwick Bill of Geto Boys talked his 17-year-old girlfriend into shooting him by threatening to kill their child if she didnât. She shot him in his eye, which he lost. In the song ãYou Canât Fade Meä from the AmeriKKKaâs Most Wanted album, rapper Ice Cube ãfantasizes aborting his girlfriendâs pregnancy with a coat hanger.ä This depraved album is considered a rap classic. Popular rapper Ice-T, who has had at least five gold albums, said: ãI have a morbid fascination with violent actions · so lyrics like ÎShoot You in Your Faceâ turn me on.ä One Ice-T song was titled ãCop Killer.ä The rap group KRS-One also has a vicious song that glorifies the murder of police. Freaky Tah of the rap group The Lost Boyz was shot to death in 1999 at age 27. Rapper Notorious B.I.G. was shot to death at age 24. Three years earlier, his album ãReady to Dieä contained a song titled ãSuicidal Thoughts,ä in which the rapper sang, ãWhen I die, ÷÷-, I wanna go to hell.ä In 1991, Dr. Dre of N.W.A. (Niggas With Attitude) was arrested for hitting and kicking television rap-show host Dee Barnes. The next year, Dr. Dre was charged with assault and battery for breaking the jaw of producer Damon Thomas. In 1994, Flav of Public Enemy was arrested for attempted murder in a shooting incident. In 1997, Flav told college students that ãyouâve got to kill some folksä in order to end racism.ä Scarfaceâs vicious 1997 album The Untouchable, which was No. 1 on the charts, had lyrics such as these: ãSunshine, Iâll blow your brains.ä Tupac Shakur (2Pac), a gangsta rap superstar, lived a lifestyle that was fitting to the violent, immoral music he produced. In 1992, a six-year-old boy was killed by a stray bullet fired during a fight between Shakur and two others. In 1993, he was arrested repeatedly, for swinging a baseball bat at a person, for assaulting a limo driver, for assaulting a woman in his hotel room, for attacking a television director with a lead pipe, and for shooting two off-duty police officers. In November 1994, he was shot four times (two bullets grazed his head), but he survived. In 1996 at age 25, Shakur was shot to death. A teenager who shot and killed a Texas state trooper in 1992 claimed that Shakurâs album 2Pacalypse Now incited him to violence. Gangsta rapper Snoop Doggy Doggâs was charged in 1993 with being an accomplice to the murder of a man he claims had been stalking him. In his song ãRide 4 Meä a gang member advises a fellow member to shoot a rival. See also "Rapper Confusion."

TASMANIA OVERTHROWS LAW AGAINST CROSS DRESSING. Friday News Notes, December 1, 2000 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - Tasmania, an island state of Australia, recently overturned a law banning men from wearing female clothing. In 1997 Tasmania became the last Australian state or territory to legalize homosexual acts. ãThe woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy Godä (Deut. 22:5).

GLOBAL WARMING QUESTIONED BY PROFESSOR. Friday News Notes, December 1, 2000 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - Professor Fred Singer, a meteorologist at the University of Virginia, believes that the popular theory of global warming is wrong. Speaking at the recent United Nations conference on climate change, Singer expressed his conviction that according to tree rings, coral reef and ice core boreholes, the world has not warmed in the last 60 years. He stated that the climate did warm in the 20th century, but it took place before 1940. He does not think that the warming was caused by human activity. Though agreeing that there has been an increase in greenhouse gases, he believes this has been advantageous rather than harmful, resulting in ãimproved agricultural yields and more vigorous forest growth.äÊ He sees no cause of alarm. This position is in direct opposition to the view held by the United Nations that global warming has created a crisis that must be resolved by radical environmental policies and vastly increased power imparted by the nations to international bodies.Ê

MORE VIOLENCE AGAINST CHRISTIANS IN INDIA. Friday News Notes, December 1, 2000 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - Scattered violence against Christians continues in various parts of India. Recently an independent Baptist preacher was abducted from his home and brutally murdered. His dismembered body was discovered days later with a note warning that this was what other Christian leaders can expect. We need to remember our brethren in India in prayer.

ORTHODOX LEADER WARNS AGAINST PROSELYTIZING. Friday News Notes, December 1, 2000 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - Orthodox leader Patriarch Bartholomeos I of Constantinople, on a recent visit to the state of Kerala in southern India, spoke out against evangelicals who ãtarget members of Orthodox churches for conversion.ä He warned that ãevangelical groupsä are engaged in ãproselytising Orthodox congregationsä in Russia and other countries. The Bible commands us to preach the Gospel to every creature, and that includes people who are members of heretical ãChristianä denominations. Like Roman Catholicism, Russian Orthodoxy teaches that salvation is a combination of faith, baptism, sacraments, and works. That is a false gospel, which the Bible says is cursed (Galatians 1); and Bible believers must preach the gospel of the grace of Christ to every person, urging all people to be saved and baptized scripturally and to join Bible-believing churches. (In Russia, it is the Russian Orthodox leaders who are behind the move by the government to restrict non-Orthodox churches in that land.)