DETROIT, MI – A federal judge has denied an evangelical group’s request for permission to hand out Christian literature on sidewalks at an Arab festival in Dearborn, Michigan.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds denied Anaheim, Calif.-based Arabic Christian Perspective’s request for a temporary restraining order. The group describes itself in its court filing as “a national ministry established for the purpose of proclaiming the Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ to Muslims …(that) travels around the country attending and distributing Christian literature at Muslim festivals and mosques.”

A lawyer for the group said it would seek a permanent injunction against the city of Dearborn. “It’s not over,” said Robert J. Muise of the Thomas More Law Center, an Ann Arbor-based Christian rights advocacy group.

Another lawyer on the case said the Dearborn officials action could be part of what he described as a broader Muslim legal attack on critics of Islam in our “Judeo-Christian nation.”

“Muslims are using the courts in this country to stop our free speech rights,” said William J. Becker Jr., a Los Angeles attorney who has represented a number of prominent critics of Islam.

The 14th annual Dearborn Arab International Festival is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of visitors Friday through Sunday to the city that has the Detroit area’s greatest concentration of Arab-Americans.

Festival organizer Fay Beydoun said the evangelical group was being offered a good spot in an area with a number of other religious, nonprofit and political groups. “You have to pass right in front of it to get anywhere,” said Beydoun, executive director of the American Arab Chamber of Commerce.

Southeastern Michigan has about 300,000 people with roots in the Arab world. It includes large numbers of both Muslims and Christians.

The group sued Dearborn after police told the Rev. George Saieg members would need to restrict literature distribution to a designated table-and-booth section of the festival site.

The city said safely accommodating the 150,000 daily festival-goers requires limits on where people can leaflet. It said other Christian and Muslim groups already have tables and booths for distributing material at the festival.

City officials say anyone is free to have conversations — but not leaflet — on sidewalks within the festival’s barricades.

“It appears to be a legitimate governmental interest for crowd control and safety,” Edmunds said in denying the request. “The festival area is more akin to a fair than a normal city street.”

Becker said the case is similar to one he handled in Los Angeles, in which Jews for Jesus member Cyril Gordon won about $250,000 after being arrested for trespassing in 2006 outside an Israel Independence Day event in a park. “This is a case where your right, my right and anybody’s right to walk down the street and express their views is being disrupted by a police action,” he said.

An official of the Council of American-Islamic Relations said Arabic Christian Perspective was asking for special treatment. “They should abide by the rules and purchase a booth like the other religious groups,” said Dawud Walid, executive director of the group’s Michigan chapter. “Christians can talk about Christianity and Muslims can promote Islam. This is the right we have as Americans.”

(Source: OneNewsNow)

This is article two of a series on the missions heart of the late J. Herbert Walker, Jr. , former director of World Missions for the Church of God.

The Lord has been good to me in that, at various times in my life, He has given me a word of knowledge. The first one came when I was a student at the Church of God Bible School in Sevierville, TN. I was sitting on the steps of the boys’ dormitory while two girls walked around the circle by the dorm. I had never seen these girls nor did I know who they were. Turning to Johnny Carter, sitting next to me, I said, “Johnny, do you see that blond-haired girl? I am going to marry her one day.”

Later I learned that her name was Lucille and that she was three-and-a-half years older than me. I was only fifteen when I had the experience. However, because of rapid promotion in school, I found that Lucille and I were in some classes together. As time passed, the age difference between us became less important. We became good friends, and I learned of her deep interest in missions.

In the summer of 1944, Lucille studied at the University of Mexico in Mexico City and lived in the home of our pastor, Brother Ruesga. The next school year two of Brother Ruesga’s daughters came to Bible school and roomed with her. The following summer Lucille returned to the University of Mexico for another summer of study. Her interest in missions deepened. We both were active in the Missions Club, even serving as officers. Sister Avis Swiger, our sponsor, exerted a good influence over us as she shared numerous letters from missionaries and encouraged us in our prayer life to be concerned for those in world missions.

J. Herbert Walker, Jr.

Taken from The Pentecostal Minister written in 1987.

For more articles like this visit the new World Missions Centennial web site, www.wmcentennial.org.

© 2009 Church of God World Missions

Both Jesus and the Apostle Paul modeled accessibility and had close bonds with their disciples. That’s the way we should do ministry.

Front row from left are award winners Lilly, Mayberry, and Riley, and back row from left are Lee University administrators, Assistant V.P. for Student Life Dr. Mike Hayes, V.P. for Student Life Dr. Walt Mauldin and President Dr. Paul Conn.

Two students and a faculty member at Lee University were recently named recipients of the Servant Leadership Awards, named in honor of former Lee University president and Church of God General Overseer Dr. Charles W. Conn.

Prison Fellowship founder Charles Colson predicts pastors will soon face prosecution under hate crimes laws if they preach that same-sex relationships are sinful.

It’s time to get back in the fight! When we survey biblical history, we see that it was always the victors who took the spoils of war. And those who were defeated either lost their lives or became slaves to their enemies, losing everything…

The late J. Herbert Walker, former Church of God World Missions leader, shares his personal journey and testimony about being called to the missions field.

What is military ministry from a Pentecostal perspective, and why should Pentecostal churches near military installations engage in active, international military ministry?

Recently appointed Israel Minister of Tourism, Stas Misezhnikov, plans to shift the direction of marketing efforts in Israel by promoting the country’s holy sites. In light of Pope Benedict XVI’s recent visit to Israel, Misezhnikov will target unique Catholic and Evangelical markets around the world.

“What Israel needs to do is focus on what it has that others don’t have, or in other words: the Holy Land,” said Misezhnikov. “Israel is holy to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and the focus of the tourism ministry today is to promote Israel as such.”

He said there are hundreds of millions of Evangelical Christians around the world who only need be encouraged to visit Israel. In north and South America, the Israel Ministry of Tourism is using its Visit Israel, You’ll Never Be the Same advertising campaign to reach Evangelical and Catholic markets, speaking to the spiritual transformation that takes place when one visits Israel.

“The Holy Land—and at its center, Jerusalem—is the best tourist attraction we have; no competition,” said Misezhnikov.

Misezhnikov was born in Moscow, in the former Soviet Union, in 1969 and immigrated to Israel in 1982. In 2006, he was elected to the Knesset, where he served as a member of the Knesset finance, economic affairs, and foreign workers committees, and was also acting chairman of the finance committee. In March 2009, he was appointed Minster of Tourism. He is married with three children.

(Source: Charisma online)