Tag Archives: Congress

News

China church leaders blocked from attending Lausanne Congress

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Story here from Christian Today. (H/T Mary)

Excerpt:

China’s government is preventing Christian leaders in the country from attending a major international gathering of mission-minded leaders by stopping them as they reach the airport and confiscating their passports.

While it is unclear how many Chinese Christian leaders have been stopped so far, more than 230 were invited to go to the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelisation in Cape Town, South Africa.

On Sunday, five members of China’s “underground” church in Beijing were blocked from leaving the country from Beijing International Airport and at least one was detained.

Liu Guan, one of the five, told Hong Kong-based newspaper Ming Pao News that border inspectors refused to let them go through after seeing information about the Lausanne Congress on their passport visas. Shortly after, five or six government security officers arrived along with other authorities who seized their luggage and confiscated their passports.

Though Liu reported that the law enforcement officers were polite and that there were no conflicts between the two sides, he was not allowed to board the plane and was sent home about three hours later. Liu’s passport and those of his colleagues will not be returned to them until October 25 – the last day of the Lausanne Congress.

In another report, Texas-based ChinaAid Association said one house church Christian was blocked from flying out of Shanghai International Airport, though another was cleared and is en route to South Africa.

According to the Christian persecution watchdog group, which has been monitoring the situation closely, around 1,000 law enforcement officers have been assigned to restrain would-be Lausanne delegates from China and prevent them from boarding the planes.

According to ChinaAid sources, all of the 200 or so house church representatives who were invited to attend the Lausanne Congress – whether Uyghur Christians from Xinjiang or Han Christians from Beijing – have been contacted by authorities for questioning.

Religious liberty is not a guaranteed right in many parts of the world. The main Lausanne Congress web site is here.

News

Senior Democrat Charles Rangel charged with ethics violations

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From the Associated Press. (H/T ECM)

Excerpt:

A House investigative committee on Thursday charged New York Rep. Charles Rangel with multiple ethics violations, a blow to the former Ways and Means chairman and an election-year headache for Democrats.

[…]Rangel led the tax-writing Ways and Means panel until he stepped aside last March after the ethics committee criticized him in a separate case — finding that he should have known corporate money was paying for his trips to two Caribbean conferences.

What might they charge him for?

  • His use of official stationery to raise money for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at City College of New York.
  • Whether he had the Ways and Means Committee consider legislation that would benefit donors to the Rangel Center at the same time the congressman solicited donations or pledges.
  • Preserved a tax shelter for an oil drilling company, Nabors Industries, which has a chief executive who donated money to the center while Rangel’s committee considered the loophole legislation.
  • Used four rent-controlled apartment units in New York City, when the city’s rent stabilization program is supposed to apply to one’s primary residence. This raises the question of how all the units could be primary residences. One was a campaign office, raising the separate question of whether the rent break was an improper gift.
  • Whether Rangel, as required, publicly reported information on the financing and rental of his ownership interest in a unit within the Punta Cana Yacht Club in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Rangel also had to pay back taxes on the rental income.
  • Intentionally failed to report — when required — hundreds of thousands of dollars or more in assets. The amended disclosure reports added a credit union IRA, mutual fund accounts and stock.

The most ethical Congress in history!!! Well, maybe not.

News

Michele Bachmann files papers to create “Tea Party Caucus”

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Meet your future President, America

Story from radical left-wing extremists at CNN.

Excerpt:

The 2010 midterms will offer Tea Party activists their first chance to elect their preferred candidates to national office. But once those candidates get to Washington, there might already be a “Tea Party Caucus” waiting to greet them.

That’s because a Tea Party favorite, GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann, has filed paperwork to start such a caucus in the House.

In a letter dated July 15 and sent to Rep. Robert Brady, the Democratic chairman of the House Administration Committee, Bachmann asked to register the group for the 111th Congress.

Bachmann writes: “I would like to register the House Tea Party Caucus as a Congressional Member Organization for the 111th Congress. The House Tea Party Caucus will serve as an informal group of Members dedicated to promote Americans’ call for fiscal responsibility, adherence to the Constitution and limited government.”

Here’s some video from Fox News – she’s looking very comfortable in this interview.

By the way, you can contribute to her 2010 election campaign here. And you should. If there’s anybody that social conservatives, fiscal conservatives and foreign policy conservatives can support, it’s Michele. She is perfect across the board. I wish she were our President right now, but we have to wait till 2012 to see what will happen.

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