Stuart filed a "Rule to Show Cause." In addition to the kidnapping, his ex hasn't paid child support in over two years and is more than $7K behind. (She has never paid support.) Both issues will be heard on that Friday.
The case involves issues of importance to all fathers. Do mothers have to obey custody and/or visitation orders? (Stu has had sole custody since April of 1996.) Do mothers have to obey child support orders? (His ex's arrearage and the fact that she lives in another state qualifies her to be punished under the new federal felony "Dead-Beat Parents Act.")
Will the courts be tough on her for her multiple felonies or will they let her continue in her lawless behavior? Will they apply the same standard to her as they did to Murray Steinberg? Murray was sentenced to 60 days in jail for allegedly being one hour late returning his daughter from visitation. If they do, Stu's ex would be sentenced to 63 years in jail. Will they make her pay her back child support or let her keep buying hundreds of acres of ranches instead?
The following article from the mainstream (Methodist) church's newsletter may help explain. [The same newsletter mentions how the Methodists provided The United Methodist Building in Washington for N.O.W. to stage their protest against the Promise-Keepers and once again earlier for the socialist Children's Defense Fund's "Stand for Children Rally"!]
The First Lady's comments about Christmas being "the season where we celebrate the birth of a homeless child" are tame in comparison to the new teachings of the church! [I apologize in advance for typos, as this was scanned and I did not go through it with a fine tooth comb to correct any OCR errors.]
UMFILM SERIES UNDERMINES FAITH
From UM Action Briefing, Fall 1997
A Newsletter for United Methodists
1521 16th St., NW, Washington DC 20036
(202) 986-1140
United Methodist Communications (UMCom), our church's $12 million public relations agency, has produced a new video series featuring some of today's most radical theologians. The series is aimed at Sunday School audiences. UMCom receives its funding from the World Service apportionment paid by most congregations.
The nearly 15 hours of video includes interviews with about 50 spiritually minded individuals, few of whom could be called traditional Christians. Indeed, the qualification for appearing in this film series appears to have been a rejection of historic Christianity. Among the speakers are Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong, who has denied the virgin birth and physical resurrection of Christ, and Rosemary Radford Ruether, who led a worship service devoted to ancient Mediterranean goddesses two years ago at United Methodist Garrett Seminary near Chicago.
Also included are radical feminist theologians Rita Nakashirna Brock (formerly of United Methodist Hamline University in Minnesota), Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz (of United Methodist Drew Seminary in New Jersey) and Katherine Keller (also of Drew Seminary). Brock has written that Sophia, as the " erotic Heart of the Universe," is responsible for resurrecting Jesus. Isasi-Kdler believes that God is not eternal but is simply an "experience of life." Keller advocates a deity with breasts.
Other speakers were: Delores Williams of New York's Union Seminary, who has rejected the Atonement of Christ by declaring that, "We don't need folks hanging on crosses and blood dripping and weird stuff." Tex Sample of United Methodist St. Paul's Seminary in Kansas City is a leading proponent of ordination for practicing homosexuals within United Methodism.
Hyung Kyung Chung has advocated the worship of ancient Korean gods and goddesses. James Lawson is a United Methodist pastor who now defends unrestricted abortion on demand. Janet Wolf, also a minister, supports the pro-homosexuality Reconciling movement within United Methodism.
In the video series, speakers question the authority of the Scriptures, the deity and Lordship of Jesus Christ, divine omnipotence, the expectation of eternal life, the reality of human sin, and God's ability to answer specific prayer. God is portrayed as virtually unknowable. Truth is seen as adaptable to our own desires.
Author Will Campbell notes that God can be called either Father or Mother. Madeline L'Engle, a New York writer, says, "The cosmos is God's body." Valerie Russell of the City Mission Society in Boston asks that we "re-conceptualize" God in new ways such as: "Nature images. Black women. Clouds in the sky. Do not limit God's power and passion. God is everything." James Lawson surmises that God is an energy rather than a personality.
Prayer is described as more an act of self-actualization than communication with the Lord. Russell opines that, "Prayer is a time you meditate and get in touch with the seeds of power in you." John Vannorsdall, a Lutheran seminary president, does not "think it is appropriate to ask God to do things. "Don't expect God to do something," He explains that "God is hands off. The God who is active in my life is a God I do not want."
"I have trouble with a God who changes the law of nature on my behalf," complains Ignacio Castuera, a United Methodist pastor. "Is God in control? I hope not. God is one power among other powers. The past is far more powerful than God," observes theologian Walter Brueggeman: "I think on a good day God has power to do this stuff, but God has lots of off days."
The Bible's historical and textual reliability is dismissed. "No one believes the Bible literally," assumes Will Campbell. Says Bishop Spong, "I think it's [the Bible] been ruined for most religious people by the kind of superstition we have placed upon it."
What happens after death is largely unanswerable to most of the speakers. Former Catholic priest James Carroll says, "We're all on this escalator going up. Well I don't know what's at the top," Walter Wink, a United Methodist, tries to be more hopeful by declaring, "There's nothing lost. God gathers up everything somehow into Her breast." Hyung Kyung Chung, who believes in ancestor worship, opines that, "if they had a good life, they go to paradise and they visit us like vacation."
The video series fails to uphold Christian sexual morality. "I've suggested that marriage is not the only relationship in which sex can be called holy," observes Bishop Spong, one of the nation's leading religious defenders of homosexuality.
UMCom produced the film series through "EcuFilm," a consortium involving the United Methodists and other mainline denominations, plus the National Council of Churches. UMAction reviewed videos, transcripts and study guides provided by UMCom.
ACTION ITEM: Contact Ecufilm Director Furman York at United Methodist Communications, 810 Twelfth Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37203, fax 615/742-5125. Urge him to replace "Questions of Faith" with a video series that presents orthodox Christian beliefs.