Weekly Prophecy Review

News from around the world...

• In Oklahoma, a Democratic Party candidate for Senate, Jacquelyn Ledgerwood, died six weeks before the election. Nevertheless, she still managed to pull 20% of the votes cast and forced a runoff election.

• Fidel Castro is the latest winner of the Muammar Gadaffy Prize for Civil Rights. Castro will collect $215,000 as part of the award. Past winners include Louis Farrakhan and the Palestinian children who took part in the intifada, the civil rioting in Israel.

• An Anglican priest, Fred Bonham, is leaving that denomination because it ordains women as priests. One of the women who will soon be ordained is Bonham's wife, Valerie. She is currently serving as a deacon in his parish. Bonham says he is going to join the Catholic Church.

• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a controversial "morning after" birth-control pill. The pills are said to delay or prevent ovulation, and must be taken within three days of unprotected sexual intercourse. According to Judie Brown, president of the American Life League, these pills can prevent a living fertilized egg from implanting on the uterine wall, thus accomplishing an abortion. Said Brown, "The FDA has sunk to new and unconscionable depths. This is abortion. It kills a life. It kills a child. How can anybody claim this is an 'ethical advance'?

• An abortion clinic in Massachusetts is being sued for "wrongful birth." Deborah Gaines was at the Preterm Clinic for an abortion when a gunman entered, killing two people. Ms. Gaines escaped unharmed, but because of the incident she was too traumatized to go to another clinic to have her abortion. So now she is suing the clinic to recover costs associated with raising her unwanted child.

• Since 1959 the Ohio state motto has been "With God all things are possible." A federal judge has ruled Ohio can keep the motto, as long as it doesn't cite the author of the words—Jesus.

• Albert Moehler, President of Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, said churches should discipline public sinners such as President Clinton. Moehler called on Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, Clinton's home church, to hold the President accountable for "his repeated pattern of sexual sin." He asked, "How can the church in which he holds membership ignore what even the secular world considers scandalous?"

• North Korea fired a new missile over Japan's air space. The U.S. retaliated by withdrawing $1 billion in aid for North Korea's nuclear reactor project.

• On the first anniversary of the death of Princess Diana, every network was flush with Diana specials. There was, however, little or no interest in remembering Mother Teresa who died on the same day.

News from Israel...

• School did not start for Israeli children last week. That's because the teachers were on strike. They were demanding more money for principals and higher payment for overnight trips. After two days an agreement seemed likely. However, a general nation-wide strike also looms, a strike which would affect local and national government offices, power companies, and institutions for health and higher education.

News that might actually have something to do with prophecy...

• Last week an apparent deal on Israeli redeployment fell through. A tentative 13% withdrawal was on the table when the Palestinians suddenly pulled out of the negotiations. U.S. Envoy Dennis Ross is said to be heading back to Israel this week in an effort to restart the stalled talks.

Till He returns...