The following is another installment of the Friday Church News Notes:

BONO WANTS TO DO GOOD -- WITH YOUR MONEY. Friday Church News Notes, December 27, 2002 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - Bono, front man for the popular rock group U2, is using his star status to promote international socialism. Earlier this month he spoke to a packed house at Wheaton College's Edman Memorial Chapel about his DATA organization (which stands for Debt, AIDS, Trade in Africa). Bono is calling upon America to forgive the massive debts of African nations in order to help the African people, but, of course, it would do nothing like that. The pitiful African people in general are not in that sad condition because of American greed but because of demon worship, false religion, immorality, and the oppression of their own self-serving leaders. If Bono wants to help the poor, he is free to do so; but money possessed by the American government comes from the taxation of American workers; and what scriptural mandate gives Bono the right to do good with other people's money? Bono claims to be a Christian, but it is a faith that is not based on the Bible. At Wheaton he said, "It's a remarkable thing, the idea that there's some sort of hierarchy to sin. It's something I can never figure out, the idea that sexual immorality is somehow much worse than, say, institutional greed. Somewhere in the back of the religious mind is this idea that we reap what we sow is missing the entire New Testament and the concept of grace completely" ("Backstage with Bono," Christianitytoday.com music interviews, Dec. 9, 2002). I don't know what New Testament Bono is referring to, but the one I have read for the last 29 years says, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Galatians 6:7); and that was stated in the very context of Paul's teaching about grace. God's grace through Christ is offered to all men, but its reception requires repentance and faith. Furthermore, the Apostles did not interpret Christ's message in Bono's fashion. Nowhere in their epistles did not fret about "institutional greed" or rebuke the Roman government for its institutional sins; but they said a LOT about personal sin and sexual immorality!

MARY WORSHIP IN CHICAGO. Friday Church News Notes, December 27, 2002 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - A massive statue is on tour in the Chicago area to promote worship of Mary. The 33-foot stainless steel sculpture, Our Lady of the New Millennium, was commissioned by Carl Demma, who sold his business to fund its construction. It was blessed by Pope John Paul II in January 1999. In his prayer to Mary on the eve of the new millennium, the Pope said, "The Holy Spirit loved you as His mystical spouse and He filled you with singular gifts. To you, Mother of the human family and of the nations, we confidently entrust the whole of humanity, with its hopes and fears. Do not let it lack the light of true wisdom. Guide its steps in the ways of peace. Sustain us, O Virgin Mary, on our journey of faith and obtain for us the grace of eternal salvation" That is blasphemy, for it addresses to Mary that which can only scripturally be addressed to the Lord Jesus Christ.

CATHOLIC PRIEST SCANDAL GROWS. Friday Church News Notes, December 27, 2002 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The scandal of widespread homosexuality and sexual abuse within the Catholic priesthood is growing. Boston's Cardinal Law resigned this month because of his involvement in a longstanding cover-up of these things. The conservative Catholic organization Roman Catholic Faithful has documented this wretched business in the Fall/Winter 2002 issue of their magazine, Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam. This issue is titled "The Bishops' Fall from Grace." They observe: " the overwhelming majority of sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church--about 90%--involve homosexual priests preying on teenage boys. The major media the U.S. culture at large want to deny or spin the homosexual factor out of the scandal. They and militant homosexuals have invested decades--and billions of dollars in media and cultural propaganda--to portray homosexuality as just another lifestyle, a sexual practice on the same moral level as heterosexuality." They document roughly 100 cases that have arisen since 1999, and this is just the tip of the iceberg, because there are "somewhere between 2,500 and 6,500 priests [involved in the moral abuse] and an estimated 100,000 victims." In fact, "the total numbers will likely never be known because about 75% of sexual abuse victims never come forward."

ANOTHER MURDEROUS ATTACK UPON CHRISTIANS IN PAKISTAN. Friday Church News Notes, December 27, 2002 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - In another vicious attack against Christians in Pakistan, three girls were killed and 14 people were wounded in a terrorist act on Christmas day. A hand grenade was thrown through an open door in a Protestant church in the town of Daska, about 40 miles northwest of Lahore. It is the latest in a long string of violent attacks upon Christians in this mostly Muslim nation. At least 41 have died in these attacks in the last year.

CONCERNED WOMEN FOR AMERICA COMPLAINS ABOUT DISNEY'S CANCELLATION OF CHRISTIAN SERVICES. Friday Church News Notes, December 27, 2002 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - Walt Disney World in Florida has announced the elimination of the on-site Sunday religious services that have been a tradition at the entertainment center for 28 years. Disney officials said they can no longer accommodate the 1,500 Catholic and Protestant families who want to attend the services. Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America complained that this reflects Disney's strict adherence to the business bottom line (CNSNews.com, Dec. 19). In fact, it is good that Disney is no longer conducting religious services. They have no business doing that, since they don't have a clue about biblical Christianity, and Bible-believing people need to be in God's house on Sunday instead of flocking to such places as Disney World. The Disney dynasty has become one of the greatest spiritual polluters of children's minds, but Concerned Women for America is an unscriptural ecumenical hodgepodge that does some good but focuses on the symptoms of America's ills instead of the root problems, which is apostasy and cowardice in the pulpits.

GWEN SHAMBLIN, REMNANT FELLOWSHIP REJECT TRINITY. Friday Church News Notes, December 27, 2002 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The following is from Calvary Contender, January 2003: "Remnant Fellowship, a controversial new religious movement, was founded about two years ago in Nashville by Weigh Down Workshop founder Gwen Shamblin. RF has grown to about 90 sites, though thousands canceled Weigh Down classes in 2000 after Shamblin publicly rejected the doctrine of the Trinity (12/9 C. Today). Critics see a 'graceless legalism' in RF, and 'total obedience' after conversion is needed to keep one free of sin and confident of salvation."

PERSECUTION IN THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES. Friday Church News Notes, December 27, 2002 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The following is from Religion Today, Dec. 26, 2002: "A Filipino pastor, charged with distributing Christian materials [in the United Arab Emirates], has been released after spending more than a month in prison. According to International Christian Concern (ICC), Fernando Alconga was arrested for giving 'The God Story' to an Egyptian Arab. He was then accused of distributing cassette tapes, tracts and New Testaments, after being approached by undercover agents who asked for them. Pastor Alconga was held without bail.His legal counsel from the Philippines Embassy was unable to attend a trial earlier this month because they were not informed of the hearing. Alconga was also refused a translator and forced to sign documents in Arabic, which he could not understand. He was released upon the deposit of two passports, his and that of a guarantor.Christians around the world are being asked to pray that charges against Pastor Alconga be dropped and the case closed."