WASHINGTON, DC – Defying some of his fellow conservative Christian critics, one of the most prominent religious leaders in the country told several thousand American Muslims on Saturday that “the two largest faiths on the planet” must work together to combat stereotypes and solve global problems.

Be Separate

“Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people•Strongs 2992: laos, lah-os´; apparently a primary word; a people (in general; thus differing from 1218, which denotes one’s own populace):—people.
•Strongs 1218: demos, day´-mos; from 1210; the public (as bound together socially):—people. for his name.”
—Acts 15:14

“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate•Strongs 873: aphorizo, af-or-id´-zo; from 575 and 3724; to set off by boundary, i.e. (figuratively) limit, exclude, appoint, etc.:—divide, separate, sever., saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,”
—2 Corinthians 6:17

Some problems are so big you have to team tackle them,” evangelical megachurch pastor Rick Warren addressed the annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

Warren said Muslims and Christians should be partners in working to end what he calls “the five global giants” of war, poverty, corruption, disease, and illiteracy.

Warren, founder of Saddleback Community Church in Orange County, California, is the author of The Purpose Driven Life, which has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. His willingness to show support for U.S. Muslims is a huge gain for the community, which has endured intense scrutiny since 9/11.

A Southern Baptist, Warren has a record of upsetting fellow Christian conservatives by calling old-guard evangelical activists too partisan and narrowly focused. Ahead of his speech Saturday, bloggers who follow Warren had already denounced his appearance at the convention as cozying up to extremists.

Warren acknowledged the controversy during his 20-minute speech.

“It’s easier to be an extremist of any kind because then you only have one group of people mad at you,” he said. “But if you actually try to build relationships — like invite an evangelical pastor to your gathering — you’ll get criticized for it. So will I.”

In his speech, Warren also urged Muslims and Christians to speak out against stereotyping of any group and to respect each other even while disagreeing. Addressing Muslims who “have been in America for many generations now,” he urged them to help “the newcomers learn what it means to be American.”

Based in Plainfield, Indiana, ISNA is an umbrella organization for Muslim groups across the country. The annual convention, now in its 46th year, regularly draws more than 30,000 people for lectures, prayer, and socializing.

Many in the crowd were drawn to the session by prominent Muslim scholars such as Sheik Hamza Yusuf of the Zaytuna Institute in Berkeley, California.

Ann Zahra, 42, said she had never heard of Warren before Saturday but agreed with much of his speech. “The basics are the same,” said Zahra, of McLean, Va. “No religion teaches cruelty or disrespect or hatred.”

The Indiana-based Islamic Society of North America will be holding its annual convention — the largest yearly gathering of Muslims on the continent — in Washington, D.C. over the Fourth of July weekend.

Be Separate

“Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people•Strongs 2992: laos, lah-os´; apparently a primary word; a people (in general; thus differing from 1218, which denotes one’s own populace):—people.
•Strongs 1218: demos, day´-mos; from 1210; the public (as bound together socially):—people. for his name.”
—Acts 15:14

“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate•Strongs 873: aphorizo, af-or-id´-zo; from 575 and 3724; to set off by boundary, i.e. (figuratively) limit, exclude, appoint, etc.:—divide, separate, sever., saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,”
—2 Corinthians 6:17

And while convention leaders are holding out hope that President Barack Obama might make the convention his latest stop in his outreach to the Muslim world, the convention has landed another pretty big fish as a featured speaker.
Purpose-Driven pastor Rick Warren has agreed to appear at the convention and be part of its main session discussing the convention’s theme — “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Joining Warren for the session is ISNA President Ingrid Mattson and noted Muslim scholar Hamza Yusuf.
Warren’s scheduled visit to the convention follows ISNA leader Sayyid Syeed’s appearance last December at Warren’s Saddleback Civil Forum on Public Health. Warren was unavailable this week to comment about the appearance.
His involvement with ISNA follows the Muslim organization’s attempt to build partnerships with people of other faiths, including the Union of Reform Judaism and the American Baptist Churches. You can read more about all this in my story scheduled for the Sunday edition of The Indianapolis Star.

‘It’s a chance for students to be part of a unique experience’

To view dictionary popup window put your cursor on the blue scripture words.

Days of Lot

“We lie down in our shame, and our confusion•Strongs 3639: klimmah, kel-im-maw´; from 3637; disgrace:—confusion, dishonour, reproach, shame. covereth us: for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.
—Jeremiah 3:25

Be Separate

“Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people•Strongs 2992: laos, lah-os´; apparently a primary word; a people (in general; thus differing from 1218, which denotes one’s own populace):—people.
•Strongs 1218: demos, day´-mos; from 1210; the public (as bound together socially):—people. for his name.”
—Acts 15:14

“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate•Strongs 873: aphorizo, af-or-id´-zo; from 575 and 3724; to set off by boundary, i.e. (figuratively) limit, exclude, appoint, etc.:—divide, separate, sever., saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,”
—2 Corinthians 6:17

The church-affiliated Texas Christian University has announced plans to allocate apartment housing on its Fort Worth campus for homosexual students and their supporters.

According to a report in the city’s Star-Telegram newspaper, the school plans to open a section of the Tom Brown-Pete Wright apartments for “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender students and allies.”

The school also will have two living groups that are designated “Christian-based” and others for fine arts and other themes, the report said.

“It’s a chance for students to be part of a unique experience,” David Cooper, associate chief of residential life, told the newspaper.

Shelly Newkirk, a TCU sophomore who applied to create the homosexual residence lifestyle, told the newspaper her vision is that homosexuals and straight students will interact and hang out.

Cooper said the university opened its “living-learning communities” to student ideas.

Others coming up include the “Leadership and Strengths Community” for those who want to lead, environmentalists who are collecting in the “Green House” and the Health and Wellness Community.

“I think it’s wonderful that TCU is offering this,” Nancy Tubbs of the LGBT Resource Center at the University of California-Riverside told the paper.

The report said a fraternity for homosexuals opened at the University of North Texas in 1998 but lasted only a few years before closing.

On the paper’s forum page, the reaction ranged widely.

“So let me get this straight. TCU now supports segregation?” wrote one contributor.

“Some of you will no doubt be SHOCKED to learn that ‘Christian’ does not necessarily mean ‘anti-gay.’ TCU is affiliated with the Christain (sic) Church (Disciples of Christ), a denomination that does not have anti-gay policies. … I’m just glad that some are trying to turn ‘Christian’ back into a term for love rather than the curse word that so many of you have caused it to be,” said another.

Yet another was terse: “sick.”

Be Separate

“Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.”
—Acts 15:14

“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,”
—2Corinthians 6:17

Speaking at a colloquium held last month at Colegio Mexico in Mexico City, UNFPA representative Arie Hoekman denounced the idea that high rates of divorce and out-of-wedlock births represent a social crisis, claiming that they represent instead the triumph of “human rights” against “patriarchy.”

“In the eyes of conservative forces, these changes mean that the family is in crisis,” he said. “In crisis? More than a crisis, we are in the presence of a weakening of the patriarchal structure, as a result of the disappearance of the economic base that sustains it and because of the rise of new values centered in the recognition of fundamental human rights.”

“Day after day, Mexico experiences a process of this diversity and there are those who understand it as a crisis, because they only recognize one type of family,” one of the speakers on the panel also told the audience.

The comments followed close on the heels of the World Meeting of Families, which was held in Mexico City in January, and which strongly reaffirmed the importance of the traditional family and its indispensible role in transmitting values to the next generation. It was opened by Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who observed that high rates of divorce and out-of-wedlock births were contributing to the rise of violence and crime in Mexico.

Leonardo Casco, a member of the Pontifical Council for the Family and a citizen of Honduras, told LifeSiteNews that he wasn’t surprised that the UNFPA was denying the crisis in the family.

“They definitely have to deny that there is a crisis in the family, because they have created the crisis,” he said.

Calling the UNFPA “bureaucrats at the service of death,” Casco observed that “after 45 years of birth control, the pill, disrespect for marriage for the family, for children, etc, this is the result. Because of that we have violence, war, lack of respect of women, children.”

Through their promotion and distribution of contraceptives the UNFPA has become “a birth control agency at the service of the most powerful countries” said Casco. “They have destroyed the family, values, this is undeniable, it’s what everyone says … but they always have to deny it.”

Regarding Hoekman’s comments about “human rights,” Casco responded that UNFPA bureaucrats “have invented a series of new ‘human rights’,” that did not exist when the concept was defined in 1948, “with which they wish to justify all of their actions.”

The UNFPA recently celebrated the restoration of US support after seven years, during which they were denied funding by the Bush administration. UNFPA has cooperated with and even helped to subsidize China’s One Child Policy, which persecutes and performs forced abortions on women who have more than one child.

In addition to its support for forced abortions, the UNFPA has helped to administer forced sterilizations in South America and is involved in the distribution and promotion of contraceptives and sterilization worldwide, with a focus on poorer countries.

eHarmony is going to have to decide who they serve.
ITD Editor

“And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded. But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. ”
—Luke 17:26-30

Be Separate

“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,”
—2Corinthians 6:17

“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
—Matthew 6:24

Internet dating service eHarmony has officially agreed to begin matching homosexual couples, beginning next year.

The popular California-based service has been known for focusing on long-term relationships, especially marriage, which has been said to align with founder Clark Warren’s early work with Focus on the Family’s evangelical Christian base and perspective.

Warren, a psychologist with a divinity degree, has had three of his 10 books on love and dating published by Focus on the Family. It was an appearance on James Dobson’s radio program, in 2001, that triggered a response of 90,000 new referrals to the website, starting a climb of registered participants on the site from 4,000 to today’s 20 million clients.

As WND reported, the company originally said it was ” based on the Christian principles of Focus on the Family author Dr. Neil Clark Warren.” It stood firm on its decision to reject homosexuals from its profiling and matching services. Its entire compatibility system is based on research of married heterosexual couples.

In 2005, Warren told USA Today the company’s goal is marriage and that same-sex marriage is illegal in most states.

“We don’t really want to participate in something that’s illegal,” he said.

But now the company has been compelled to changed its nationwide policy as part of a New Jersey lawsuit settlement.

On March 14, 2005, Eric McKinley filed a lawsuit against eHarmony, claiming the company discriminated against him when it refused to accept his advertisement for a “gay” partner.

McKinley’s complaint triggered a state investigation into the dating service.

Last week, eHarmony agreed to begin providing an eHarmony-affiliated “Compatible Partners” service to gays and lesbians, with listings labeled “male seeking male” and “female seeking female” by March 31, 2009.

For complying, the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights has dismissed the complaint against eHarmony, and Warren is considered “absolved of liability.” Also, the dating site has been ordered to pay the division $50,000 for investigation-related administrative costs and give McKinley $5,000. It has agreed to provide a free one-year membership to its “gay” service to McKinley, plus free six-month memberships to “the first 10,000 users registering for same-sex matching within one year of the initiation on the same-sex matching service,” according to the settlement.

A new release by New Jersey’s Office of the Attorney General reveals that eHarmony has also agreed to the following terms:

eHarmony, Inc. will post photos of same-sex couples in the “Diversity” section of its website as successful relationships are created using the company’s same-sex matching service. In addition, eHarmony, Inc. will include photos of same-sex couples, as well as individual same-sex users, in advertising materials used to promote its same-sex matching services
eHarmony, Inc. will revise anti-discrimination statements placed on company websites, in company handbooks and other company publications to make plain that it does not discriminate on the basis of “sexual orientation”
The company has committed to advertising and public relations/ marketing dedicated to its same-sex matching service and will retain a media consultant experienced in promoting the “fair, accurate and inclusive” representation of gay and lesbian people in the media to determine the most effective way of reaching the gay and lesbian communities.

In addition to McKinley’s complaint, a California lesbian also filed a lawsuit against the company in May 2007.

Linda Carlson submitted her complaint to Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging discrimination based on sexual orientation. Lawyers have attempted to turn it into a class-action lawsuit on behalf of homosexuals who wanted to use eHarmony’s services.

Carlson’s lawyer told Reuters the complaint was “about changing the landscape and making a statement out there that gay people, just like heterosexuals, have the right and desire to meet other people with whom they can fall in love.”

Antone Johnson, vice president of legal affairs at eHarmony, said the new settlement could compel California complainants to drop their lawsuit.

“We believe that this case is now essentially moot, and we’re confident that we will prove that in court,” Johnson said. “Now that we’re entering the same-sex matching market, we fail to see what the Carlson plaintiffs could achieve through further litigation.”

Former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson, outside counsel to the company, said, “Even though we believed that the complaint resulted from an unfair characterization of our business, we ultimately decided it was best to settle this case with the Attorney General since litigation outcomes can be unpredictable. eHarmony looks forward to moving beyond this legal dispute, which has been a burden for the company, and continuing to advance its business model of serving individuals by helping them find successful, long-term relationships.”

An attorney for eHarmony told WND legal battles required a great deal of effort and resources from the dating organization.

“The company spent three years defending against this proceeding,” he said. “It was a burden in terms of the high costs of litigation and the time and resources management devoted to it.”

Participants applaud speakers in the Faith in Action Interfaith Gathering at the Wells Fargo Theater in the Colorado convention Center in Denver on Sunday Aug. 24, 2008. (AP Photo/Bill Ross)

The Word Of God States

“For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”
—John 3:17

“He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”
—1 John 5:12

Be Separate

“Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together.”
—Deuteronomy 22:11

“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,”
—2Corinthians 6:17

DENVER – At the first official event Sunday of the Democratic National Convention, a choir belted out a gospel song and was followed by a rabbi reciting a Torah reading about forgiveness and the future.

Helen Prejean, the Catholic nun who wrote “Dead Man Walking,” assailed the death penalty and the use of torture.

Young Muslim women in headscarves sat near older African-American women in their finest Sunday hats.

Four years ago, such a scene would have been unthinkable at a Democratic National Convention. In 2004, there was one interfaith lunch at the Democratic gala in Boston.

But that same year, “values voters” helped re-elect President Bush, giving Democrats of faith the opening they needed to make party leaders listen to them.

The result was on display at Sunday’s interfaith service, staged in a theater inside the Colorado Convention Center, and will be evident throughout the convention agenda and on the sidelines.

There will be four “faith caucus” meetings, blessings to open and close each night, and panels and parties run by Democratic-leaning religious advocacy groups that didn’t even exist in 2004 — not to mention protests from religious groups and leaders opposed to the Democratic platform.

Other challenges may come from within. At Sunday’s service, Bishop Charles Blake, head of the predominantly black Church of God in Christ and a self-described pro-life Democrat, said Barack Obama should be pressed to “elaborate upon his stated intention to reduce the number of abortions by providing alternative programs.”

One hallmark of Democratic faith efforts at the convention is diversity, which might soften objections from party activists wary of the Christian right or any mixing of religion and politics. Behind the scenes, efforts to attract the religious vote will concentrate largely on Christian “values voters.”

“If we create or become a mirror image of the religious right, we have failed,” said Burns Strider, who ran religious outreach for Hillary Clinton’s campaign and now does faith-based political consulting. “But if we have increased the number of chairs around the table, … then we’ve succeeded.”

One reason religion is playing such a prominent role at this week’s convention is that Obama has made faith outreach prominent in his campaign.

“People of faith are being engaged in the convention in a new and robust way ,and it’s because of Senator Obama’s acknowledgment that people of faith and values have an important place in American public life,” said Joshua DuBois, the Obama campaign’s religious affairs director.

The campaign is giving a platform to people who otherwise would not have been invited to or attended a Democratic convention. One example is Joel Hunter, a moderate evangelical megachurch pastor from Orlando, Fla., who will offer the benediction Thursday, the night Obama accepts the nomination.

“Now there’s a genuine interest in speaking with groups and religious groups who were previously considered enemies,” said Rachel Laser, who works on culture issues for the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way.

Laser helped broker compromise language in the Democrats’ abortion platform that acknowledges the need to help women who want to keep their pregnancies. Hunter and liberal evangelical leader Jim Wallis were involved, as were new groups such as Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good.

Despite all the effort, there is little evidence religious votes are shifting. A Pew poll released last week showed the political preferences of religious voters, including highly sought Catholics and white evangelicals, have scarcely budged since 2004.

Catholics are up for grabs, but white evangelicals have become so solidly Republican, Obama has little chance of carving too deeply into the Republican lead, said Allen Hertzke, a University of Oklahoma political scientist.

“There still is a possibility that Obama will chip into the Republican advantage with this religious outreach,” Hertzke said. “Even if he gains just a few points, that could be decisive in a close election.”

Be Separate

“Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.”
—Acts 15:14

“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,”
—2Corinthians 6:17

Days of Lot

“And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.”
—Romans 1:27

“Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts? And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.”
—Malachi 3:14-15

The upcoming joint appearance by Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain at Rick Warren’s evangelical Saddleback Church is co-sponsored by a left-leaning group led by a Unitarian-Universalist minister who once headed her denomination’s homosexual advocacy office.

Meg Riley is the board president of Faith in Public Life, whose board members include other theological liberals, including a pro-abortion Muslim leader and a Jewish rabbi, reported OneNewsNow.

The group’s stated vision hints at its challenge to the influence of the so-called religious right, saying it “envisions a country in which diverse religious voices for justice and the common good consistently impact public policy; and those who use religion as a tool of division and exclusion do not dominate public discourse.”

The blog Watchers Lamp noted Faith in Public Life offers a list of faith-based groups on its website that promote the homosexual-rights agenda.

Warren told OneNewsNow, a Christian Internet site, he’s not troubled by the association with a group at odds with his church’s conservative evangelical theology.

“Really we just are … co-hosting [the event],” Warren said, noting Faith in Public Life came up with the idea.

“Actually, we’re in total control of the format, the program, the questions,” he said. “It’s at our church; and so it’s not their event, it’s our event.”

Warren will moderate the event with the presumed Republican and Democratic presidential nominees Aug.16 at Saddleback Church’s Civil Forum on Leadership and Compassion. He said the forum will be “a civil and thoughtful format absent the partisan ‘gotcha’ questions that typically produce heat instead of light.” Issues, he suggested, would include poverty, HIV/AIDS, climate and human rights.

Warren said that, at the candidates’ request, the two-hour forum will be held in a non-debate format and open to all media. Both candidates want the questions to be posed exclusively by Warren, instead of a panel or members of the audience. Obama and McCain will each have an hour to converse with Warren, beginning with Obama, as determined by a coin toss.

As WND reported, Obama’s appearance in 2006 at Saddleback’s Global Summit on AIDS and the Church stirred controversy when some evangelicals objected to a pro-choice Democrat being given the pulpit of a church that opposes abortion. At last year’s AIDS summit, in November, Sen. Hillary Clinton gave a warmly received speech while Obama and McCain were among several candidates who presented taped messages via satellite.

In addition to the Civil Forum event, Warren will convene an interfaith meeting at the church for some 30 Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders to discuss “cooperation in projects for the common good of all Americans.”

Warren, author of the mega-best-seller “The Purpose Driven Life,” told OneNewsNow he does not believe the biblical Gospel is compromised by working with non-Christians in efforts to promote the “common good.”

“Now, I don’t happen to agree with Muslims,” Warren said, ‘and I don’t happen to agree with Jewish people, and I don’t even agree with all of the things Catholics believe, but I … can work with them on doing something like stopping AIDS, because we all believe sex is for marriage only.”

In the candidates’ forum, Warren plans to focus on issues political reporters often ignore, such as how the candidates view the Constitution. One question might be, he told OneNewsNow, “Is it a quote ‘living document’ that can be changed, that can be reinterpreted with each generation as things change? Or is it a truth written in granite that is a standard by which we evaluate everything else, and you don’t change it unless we amend it?”

A Warren critic, evangelical pastor Bob DeWaay, author of the book “Redefining Christianity: Understanding the Purpose Driven Movement” and founder of the apologetics ministry Critical Issues Commentary, says he believes Warren is operating under the mistaken notion that uniting all religions to fight problems like AIDS and poverty will “warm people up” to Christianity.

But he admits many evangelicals have a strong affinity for Warren.

“He’s a very likeable guy on the surface, and I think pastors and Christians think, ‘Well, look at this, if he can get all these people on board and he can build a big church and he’s popular, and maybe if we get on board with that, some of that will rub off. Maybe we’ll learn how to have a bigger church and how to be popular,’” DeWaay said in an audio report on his website.

But DeWaay often reminds people “Jesus told us that the world would hate us.”

“Okay, so something’s seriously wrong if we do achieve popularity with the world,” he said.

Be Separate

“Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.”
—Acts 15:14

“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,”
—2Corinthians 6:17

The three-day conference, hosted by Saudi Arabia, aims to highlight the attendees’ shared heritage as children of Abraham and lists many prominent leaders and figures of faith including evangelist Franklin Graham, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, and former Vice President Al Gore.

Also among the 200 prominent religious leaders will be major Jewish leaders including Rabbi David Rosen, the former chief rabbi of Ireland and head of the interfaith committee of the American Jewish Committee.

Although Israel and Saudi Arabia do not currently have formal diplomatic ties, Rosen said that he believes the conference will do much to promote peace and understanding.

“I think that will be a great achievement,” he told The Associated Press.

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah said he hopes that the conference, which will be held July 16-18, will help facilitate relations between the world’s three major religions while helping to improve the world’s perception of Islam.

Last month, Muslim scholars meeting in Saudi Arabia wrapped up a three-day conference by calling for efforts to ease tensions within Islam and boost dialogue with Christians and Jews.

In a statement reported by the official Saudi Press Agency, the scholars stressed the need for dialogue with other religions to give a “correct picture of Islam” and to reach “out to other sects of Islam, which will lead to uniting the nation.”

They also called for “solving the problems and disagreements that might take place among Muslims and other [non-Muslims] … and to achieve an understanding among civilizations and human cultures.”

Saudi King Abdullah, one of Sunni Islam’s most prominent figures, spoke at the start of the conference in the holy city of Mecca and urged Muslims to get on the same page ahead of opening dialogue with Christians and Jews.

More recently, Abdullah has been making efforts to present oil-rich Saudi Arabia as a force for moderation in the Middle East, despite the kingdom’s adherence to the strict Wahhabi interpretation of Sunni Islam and its religious restrictions at home.

Religious practice is so restricted in Saudi Arabia that even certain Muslim sects, such as Sufis and Shiites, face discrimination, while conversion by a Muslim to another religion is punishable by death.

Christian Post reporter Eric Young in Los Angeles contributed to this article.

Be Separate

“Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.”
—Acts 15:14

“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,”
—2Corinthians 6:17

In the past decade, the number of complaints about explicit, open public sex in the Provincetown and Truro portions of the national park has more than tripled, Seashore acting chief ranger Craig Thatcher said. The activity ranges from flashing to masturbation to men’s outdoor orgies, he said.

This summer, federal authorities are introducing a new tactic to discourage debauchery in the dunes: pairing up with local officials and business leaders to try to persuade culprits to behave better through public education.

“It’s a growing issue, both from the number of complaints and the number of areas doing this activity,” Seashore superintendent George Price said. “We certainly wanted to start a conversation with the people in Provincetown to see how we can tackle this together.”

Leap in citations
The Seashore’s 44,000 acres are divided into two districts, with the northern sector covering parts of Provincetown and Truro, including about 20 miles of coastline.

Public sexual activity is illegal in the Seashore under federal and state law, Thatcher said. He said in incidents of public sex rangers usually enforce a federal misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct, which prohibits obscene acts. The misdemeanor charge can result in a $150 citation, with a $25 court fee, for an outdoor violation. An indoor violation, as in a bathhouse, requires a court appearance before a federal magistrate.

Last year, Seashore rangers issued 132 citations for public sex acts, compared with about 70 annually from 2003 to 2006, and about 40 citations annually in prior years, Thatcher said. The Seashore does not specifically track and categorize complaints about public sex acts, he said.

There has been no increased law enforcement that could explain the soaring number of citations issued, Thatcher said. The Seashore will employ four permanent rangers and nine seasonal rangers this summer, he said.

An example of the complaints was a call reporting Wednesday that a 65- to 70-year-old man was flashing people at Herring Cove Beach, according to Seashore records.

In a Sept. 19, 2007, letter, a New Jersey family walking with children in the dunes encountered “several couples and then a large group of men having group sex in the nude, including oral and anal sex right out in the open.”

In an August 2007 letter, a whale-watch boat captain leaving Provincetown Harbor with passengers reported seeing 20 to 30 nude men “playing around” near Wood End Lighthouse.

Other complaints describe Seashore visitors encountering public sex acts at Head of the Meadow Beach in North Truro and near a Seashore building off North Pamet Road in Truro.

Request for discretion
The Seashore does not release the names of the people making complaints, to protect their privacy, Thatcher said.

Provincetown has a relatively large gay resident population and is a popular destination for gay tourists.

“It’s not acceptable, decent, moral behavior,” said Province-

town Police Chief Jeff Jaran, whose department assists Seashore rangers. “There is a time to be discreet, and there are places to go and do those types of things.”

Jaran said he supports a combination of “zero-tolerance” law enforcement and public education.

Last week, Seashore officials discussed the illegal activity with local officials and representatives of the town’s two business groups, the Provincetown Chamber of Commerce and the Provincetown Business Guild. To build on that meeting, Price is drafting a statement to address the issue that all the attendees will sign and distribute to business owners, tourists, newspapers and others, Price and business guild spokesman Don Knuuttila said.

“I think it’s really about developing a collaborative relationship where we can help each other,” Knuuttila said. “It’s about a unified front.”

Be Separate

“Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.”
—Acts 15:14

“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,”
—2Corinthians 6:17

Pestilences

“Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.”
—Revelation 9:21

A virus that causes cervical cancer is by far the most common sexually transmitted infection in teen girls aged 14 to 19, while the highest overall prevalence is among black girls—nearly half the blacks studied had at least one STD. That rate compared with 20 percent among both whites and Mexican-American teens, the study from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.

About half of the girls acknowledged ever having sex; among them, the rate was 40 percent. While some teens define sex as only intercourse, other types of intimate behavior including oral sex can spread some infections.

For many, the numbers likely seem “overwhelming because you’re talking about nearly half of the sexually experienced teens at any one time having evidence of an STD,” said Dr. Margaret Blythe, an adolescent medicine specialist at Indiana University School of Medicine and head of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ committee on adolescence.

But the study highlights what many doctors who treat teens see every day, Blythe said.

Dr. John Douglas, director of the CDC’s division of STD prevention, said the results are the first to examine the combined national prevalence of common sexually transmitted diseases among adolescent girls. He said the data, from 2003-04, likely reflect current rates of infection.

“High STD rates among young women, particularly African-American young women, are clear signs that we must continue developing ways to reach those most at risk,” Douglas said.

The CDC’s Dr. Kevin Fenton said given that STDs can cause infertility and cervical cancer in women, “screening, vaccination and other prevention strategies for sexually active women are among our highest public health priorities.”

The study by CDC researcher Dr. Sara Forhan is an analysis of nationally representative data on 838 girls who participated in a government health survey. Teens were tested for four infections: human papillomavirus, or HPV, which can cause cervical cancer and affected 18 percent of girls studied; chlamydia, which affected 4 percent; trichomoniasis, 2.5 percent; and herpes simplex virus, 2 percent.

Blythe said the results are similar to previous studies examining rates of those diseases individually.

The results were prepared for release Tuesday at a CDC conference in Chicago on preventing sexually transmitted diseases.

HPV can cause genital warts but often has no symptoms. A vaccine targeting several HPV strains recently became available, but Douglas said it likely has not yet had much impact on HPV prevalence rates in teen girls.

Chlamydia and trichomoniasis can be treated with antibiotics. The CDC recommends annual chlamydia screening for all sexually active women under age 25. It also recommends the three-dose HPV vaccine for girls aged 11-12 years, and catch-up shots for females aged 13 to 26.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has similar recommendations.

Douglas said screening tests are underused in part because many teens don’t think they’re at risk, but also, some doctors mistakenly think, ‘”Sexually transmitted diseases don’t happen to the kinds of patients I see.’”

Blythe said some doctors also are reluctant to discuss STDs with teen patients or offer screening because of confidentiality concerns, knowing parents would have to be told of the results.

The American Academy of Pediatrics supports confidential teen screening, she said.