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Genetically modified foods have long concerned consumers from many backgrounds, primarily because people fear eating vegetables or grains that have had the genes of other organisms spliced into them. Besides the potential health issues, opponents have worried that GM plants will cross-pollinate with non-GM plants, contaminating local traditional and organic crops. Yet, GM crops are routinely grown across America, and few people even know when they are, in fact, eating food made from GM plants. In America, a judge has recently ruled that the environmental impact of GM sugar beets must be studied in more detail. The debate also continues in New South Wales, Australia, where volunteer GM canola plants have been found growing along the roads.

GM seed giant Monsanto has promoted its lines of seeds across America and the world, offering plant varieties that have been specially designed to resist weed killer. Rather than using natural breeding methods to develop these specialized plants, Monsanto researchers have spliced the plants' genes and inserted foreign genetic information in order to get new plants with desirable qualities - like the ability to survive an onslaught of herbicides. Monsanto offers a wide variety of plants that are resistant to glyphosate herbicide, enabling commercial farmers to spray Roundup across their fields to kill weeds without worrying about destroying their crops. American farmers have found the Monsanto seeds handy, but traditional and organic farmers are fearful that the lab-created plants will infect their own crops.

Oregon, United States:
On September 21, US District Judge Jeffrey S. White in San Francisco ordered the US Department of Agriculture to more thoroughly investigate the environmental impact of Monsanto's genetically modified sugar beets. Plaintiffs argued that the GM seeds might cross-pollinate with non-GM plants in other fields and contaminate them. Plaintiffs also argued that raising herbicide-resistant plants encourages farmers to add more weed killer to their fields, and therefore could promote the development of “super weeds” that would plague all farmers.

New South Wales, Australia:
The controversy has spread across the globe. In Australia, traditional farmers in New South Wales are worried that the genetically altered canola plants in the area will spread into non-GM crops. GM crops make up only about 2-3 percent of the canola production in Australia, yet volunteer GM plants have already started to sprout up along highways.

One farmer named Gai Marshall says she used 20 test kits to test the three-foot tall canola plants growing along a 20 km stretch of the Riverina Highway, and 19 of the plants she tested were genetically modified.   These volunteer GM plants greatly concern farmers who want to keep their fields GM-free.

Maharashtra, India:
In India, use of Monsanto’s seeds has led to crop failures and suicides. Indian farmers turned to the herbicide-resistant seeds to raise cotton, hoping to grow huge cash crops. The GM seeds, though, require significantly more water and pesticides than native crops, and farmers have either had to pay large amounts of money to keep their fields watered or else allow their crops to dry up. Crushed by debt and crop failure, thousands of Indian farmers have committed suicide.

Africa:
African farmers have been largely unwilling to turn to GM plants. Researchers have urged farmers to continue using the native seed varieties, because traditional seeds are already drought and pest-resistant (which is why they’ve been used in those lands for generations). Genetic diversity among seeds is also important, and farmers are being urged to continue to save and trade seeds among themselves.

Israel:
An Israeli crop-protection company Makhteshim-Agan is hoping to compete against GM seed giant Monsanto by producing seeds that are drought and pest resistant, but without adding new genetic material to seeds as Monsanto has done. Instead, Makhteshim-Agan is investing $37 million in the San Diego ag-tech startup Cibus Global, which has developed a Rapid Trait Development System. Cibus can breed plants to have certain desired characteristics in just a few years rather than centuries.

Despite all this fussing with seed genes, plenty of farmers across the world have been seeking out the old "mutts" of the seed populations. Heirloom seeds from the crops of yesteryear may not produce the biggest tomatoes or the reddest apples, but many consumers consider their produce the best tasting and healthiest. People with organic or backyard gardens have turned to heirloom seeds to grow the same varieties of carrots and onions and potatoes that their great grandparents grew a century ago, and because there are no intellectual rights connected with heirloom seeds (as there are with GM seeds), people with heirloom crops are free to save the new seeds from the crops to plant at the next season. 

"I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty." -1 Timothy 2:1-2

Before it was recently removed by Facebook's administrators, at least 730 people had the opportunity to vote in an online poll asking, "Should Obama be killed?" The results indicating how many people voted "yes", "maybe", "if he cuts my health care", or "no" are no longer available because the question has been disabled, but the very fact that somebody would post a question of that tenor about the President of the United States is alarming.

Of course, it's highly likely that a young Facebook user tossed up the question – a person with no appreciation for the seriousness of protecting the life of the President of the United States. When Secret Service shows up at this Facebooker's door - with no chuckling involved - the gravity of making an implied threat on a president's life should get pretty clear.

Unfortunately, there are those on the Left who truly believe that conservatives want Barack Obama dead. There are those who consider Obama-protestors to be a vast conspiracy of insane gun-toting bigots. There are those who believe that this Facebook poll-creator who suggested Obama should be killed is just one representing millions of homicidal right-wing nut jobs. The truth is that all conservatives in their right minds want Barack Obama to live and to live well throughout his entire presidency. The alternative is terrible to imagine. 

Conservatives, and especially conservative Christians, should be praying fervently for Barack Obama. Whether or not he is leading well right now, whether or not Americans agree with his policies, whether or not his decisions themselves are good for America, President Obama desperately needs prayer for protection and guidance.   His safety is in America's best interest, and his harm would tear America up from the inside out.

President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963. Probably the most controversial thing about him prior to his assassination was that he was a Roman Catholic. He made some good choices and some bad choices as a president, but for the most part he was liked as a handsome young man with a nice young family. In 1963, the United States was still bound together in a common fear of the Soviets. For the most part, Americans still lived in solid family structures and had a basic sense of right and wrong. People lived in communities where folks all knew their neighbors and people kept an eye on each other's children. Yet, even in that era, President Kennedy's assassination tore the country up, stirring controversy and speculation that continues to the present day.

Today's America is seriously polarized into conservative and liberal camps. The nuclear family is no longer a given, and many people may not even know the first names of their next-door neighbors. The Cold War is over, Gitmo is to be emptied, and Americans are currently minus a common enemy to keep us all united. If President Obama were to be assassinated, the resulting rage could easily create a very dangerous, violent firestorm. It wouldn't even matter which people actually committed the crime, or what their true motivations were, one half the country would still blame the other half.

America needs a President Obama who makes good choices for the United States and leads the country well. We certainly have a duty to express our views to our elected officials and hold them accountable for their actions. We have the duty to tell them how we want them to vote on certain issues. But, whether we agree with them politically or not, we have a vital duty to hold our representatives up in prayer. And whether or not we agree with his policies, we all need to continue to pray for our President, and pray for God's guidance and direction for him. Not only will his decisions affect us all, but he is - more simply - a human being for whom Christ died. After all, the ultimate battle is a spiritual one, and our greatest weapons are found on our knees.

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." - Eph 6:12

We don't like to think about death. It's not a pleasant subject, and we avoid even discussing it seriously or giving it any diligent study. Yet, our appointment with death is an absolute certainty - probably our only certainty. It may come sooner than we expect: a car crash, a stray bullet, an unforeseen stroke. We all know of personal examples where death has come suddenly, without warning, without any preparations. When it finally does come, what do we expect it to be like?

Shedding Our Misconceptions
One of the penalties of our casual - or reluctant - attitude about death and dying is that most people are steeped in myths and misconceptions. Almost every commonly held belief is erroneous, misleading, and contrary to what we do know about the subject.

There are numerous books that have been published about "near-death experiences," which at best are less than reliable sources, no matter how well intended. But there are several incidences that we can trust as reliable. Stephen, as he was being stoned, gave us a glimpse:

"But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God." - Acts 7:55,56

This notion that being greeted by the Lord Himself - at least in Stephen's case - is not fanciful. As serious Christians, we can take significant comfort from Stephen's experience. Paul also speaks of a "near-death" type of experience in which he was caught up to paradise (2 Cor. 12:4).  Since this happened 14 years before writing about it to the Corinthians, some scholars believe it may have coincided with his experience at Lystra where he was stoned and dragged out of the city and left for dead (Acts 14:19-20).  (Whether this was a "near-death" experience or an actual death-and-return, we'll have to wait until we can ask him.)

Messages From the Dark Side
What makes this subject so difficult to research is that most information is not only unreliable, it is the specific focus of deceit by the ultimate Deceiver himself. One of the first mistakes is to look for answers in the wrong places. Channeling, necromancy (attempted communication with the dead), and all forms of commerce with demonic activity are expressly prohibited in the Scripture (Lev. 19:31; 20:6, 27; Deut. 18:11-22; Isaiah 8:19-20). Even such ostensibly harmless things such as a Ouija board or role-playing parlor games can prove extremely dangerous and are not to be taken lightly.

Satan's deceptions are designed to eliminate any awareness of a coming judgment and accountability, and to promote the perceptions that all roads lead to the same place. [Remember, he is the "prince of this world," and the "prince of the power of the air." (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; Eph. 2:2)]

"For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light." - 2 Cor. 11:13, 14

So, what position do we take?  Jesus warned us:

"Enter ye in at the strait [narrow] gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." - Matthew 7:13-15

If the gate you're relying on is wide, with a large majority taking advantage of it, you've got the wrong gate!  Get into the Scriptures and learn what God Himself has to say about the issue.

To be continued next week...