We had a private tour of the Leland House in DC by Dr. Land.  He explains how the separation of church and state made it into the constitution of our country. 

http://peterandhelenevans.com/2010/01/church-state-in-america-since-when/

Be sure ot sign up for updates while there.

http://peterandhelenevans.com/manhattan-declaration/

"I was impressed by the spirit of this inter-confessional document.... Not being abusive, not being aggressive, but being firm."

Here is a chilling account of what it is like to live in a country where there is no freedom of religion:

http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/blog/2009/11/24/fr-symeon-danger-of-christian-persecution-in-america/

See more information about freedom of religion, including how the separation of Church and State became part of the United States of America. on www.peterandhelenevans.com

Why I signed the Manhattan Declaration by Metropolitan Jonah of the OCA, plus see our new website which has other signers.  This site will be growing over the months, go back frequently to see new signers and new items. 

http://peterandhelenevans.com/wp/manhattan-declaration/

Christian Patriots ? You see, it isn't that Americans have lost their Christian roots, it's that Christians have lost their American roots. They don't know that the American story, and the larger story of Western Civilization, is their story. No wonder they don't vote. They don't understand America was and is the great...http://townhall.com/columnists/FrankPastore/2007/01/28/why_so_few_christian_patriots

submitted by Peter and Helen Evans, join us on our website also at

www.peterandhelenevans.com

How links from other sites can improve a web site’s ranking in search listings is one of the least understood aspects of search engine optimization.

Please sign the Declaration

The Manhattan Declaration is the result of several months of dialogue among Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Christian leaders culminating in a gathering of approximately 100 leaders in New York City on September 28, 2009," Catholic News Agency [CNA] reports. "Attendees considered an early draft... but the document was entrusted to a drafting committee."
>
> "We are Christians who have joined together across historic lines of ecclesial differences to affirm our right-and, more importantly, to embrace our obligation-to speak and act in defense of these truths," the Declaration reads. "We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence.
>
> "We recognize the duty to comply with laws whether we happen to like them or not, unless the laws are gravely unjust or require those subject to them to do something unjust or otherwise immoral," the signatories explain.
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> But, CNA reports, they also made clear that "we will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriage or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family."
>
> The signatories explained that they speak now because in order "to defend principles of justice and the common good that are now under assault."
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> "We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar's, but we will under no circumstances render to Caesar what is God's."
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> The full text of the declaration may be read at http://www.manhattandeclaration.org/
>

Massad Ayoob is arguably one of the most lethal men around, in fact he even trains others in the use of deadly force. Many people cannot distinguish the difference between 'dangerous' and 'lethal.' When they hear that someone is an expert in handgun combat, urban rifle, knife/counter-knife, close-quarters battle and stressfire shotgun, they automatically think of someone to be feared. However, after reading the following we believe you'll recognize a good guy who balances lethal force and compassion. Only the bad guys need fear him.

Mr. Ayoob has had stories about him and interviews in various publications and news shows such as the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, New York Post, ABC's "Turning Point", National Enquirer, PBS "Frontline", ABC's "20/20" and the BBC News Magazine and we are privileged to interview him here.

We've all heard of people who consider themselves "spiritual but not religious." Some, for sure, are sincere about believing in a higher power to which they should submit their will, but others are more concerned about making up their own religion to suit their own preferences. We're addressing this issue because most discussion is around the "religious" versus "secular humanist" divide. It's pretty easy to distinguish between those who believe in God and those who don't. A special problem occurs with those who believe in a God of their own making.

We lived for a time in California and here are some of the ideas and their implications.

There is only one God: Christians believe this, too. However, the 'spiritual' believe there is only one God and he has many names, e.g., Jesus Christ, Yaweh, Allah, Buddha, Krishna, Gitchee-Manitou, Gaia, Seth, etc. Implication: Since every religion points, ultimately, to the same diety, one can pick and choose which rituals and moral orders to follow from day-to-day and change them as easily as one changes clothes. It's spiritual relativism.

God made the world out of himself: Selecting the very beginning of "in the beginning... " and ignoring what the first couple did in paradise, the 'spiritual' rationalize a blameless world. Implication: Since God is only good, the world is only good. There is no evil in God, therefore there is no evil in the world. Since terrorist masterminds like bin Ladin were made by God, they are not evil. The 'spiritual' rationale for the existence of terrorism is that America is reaping its own 'bad karma.' This plays into the hands of the hate-America-first crowd.

The world is a reflection of yourself: Since the world is only good, evil is only a distortion of good. Implication: Only those who are themselves "distorted" would perceive evil. Naturally, 'spiritual' people are aghast (and smugly superior) when President Bush spoke of the "Axis of Evil."

There is no hell: Since the world is only good, the afterlife must be even better. Implication: It is OK to put some people "out of their misery" because the mercy killers are merely "letting them go" to a "better place." What really matters is living with dignity and all suffering should be eliminated. Those who don't believe this have a 'distorted' view of the world.

see the rest of this article on http://peterandhelenevans.com/articles-bogus_spirituality.html

When was the last time that your image presentation in Virtuemart actually wowed a client? Okay, the default image handling isn't too bad. You get a thumbnail, which pops up into a lightbox. If you need multiple images, then you get a stack of thumbnails on the product details page - which also pop up into lightboxes.

Frankly, it's all a little ho-hum to say the least. Much of what we sell on our CorShops site is actually software, so we don't need the images so much. After all, we can demo the software and that helps sell the sizzle. But most of our development clients sell physical products, and they need to put these in the best possible light. And that light is usually not a 'lightbox,' which is why we created the FlyTabs Virtuemart Theme.

Virtuemart is a great shopping cart, but the core system has three big problems when it comes to handling images. First, the default option on a Category page is that clicking the product image thumbnail pops up a bigger image, instead of leading to the product details!

That just makes people mad. Online shoppers normally expect to get product details, not a bigger image. That is why our FlyTabs Virtuemart Theme has the option to link product images to product details.

A friend of mine asked me why I got a reconditioned Mac for my wife, instead of a new PC that was available from a box store for less money.

"Simple," I said, "I don't have time to play tech support."

As a company, CorFun was using Wink to do presentation and training movies. Wink is an open source application that did a decent job, and rendered its output as swf files that played nicely in a browser. However, as soon as we needed audio for training or demo videos, Wink just stopped cutting it.

Virtuemart is the best shopping cart solution around for Joomla CMS. Joomla, of course, just happens to be the best content management system around, so the combination of the two is a serious powerhouse. Joomla requires a template to operate. Virtuemart uses a theme, but since it runs inside Joomla, it works with the template also. That causes a lot of confusion for more novice users, so we would like to help clear that up. New online shop owners need to understand how they unique and look and feel of their sites will be generated.

The Great Commission wasn’t a suggestion. It was a commandment. We are to share the Orthodox Faith with the entire world. But how are we supposed to reach people? Stand on a soapbox on a street corner? Go door-to-door? Visit the sick, the needy, the elderly? Those are all good things that are worth doing. But did you ever think about using your Facebook account to spread Orthodoxy?

Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites are all the rage. People use them to find lost friends, connect with others with similar interests, and as an easy way to keep everyone updated with the latest news.

What is the Orthodox Church's stand on IVF and cloning? What should be done with so-called "leftover" embryos which are not implanted? What does a 2,000 year-old faith have to say to modern technology on the sanctity of human life?

Many have pondered that perennial question: "What is the purpose of the universe?" and not found a satisfactory answer. Yet, in a recent interview with Michael Novak, he gives us a profoundly simple and understandable answer. It also answers our question of, "What is America for?" Along the way we also touch on the question of what legacy we want to leave to future generations.... spotted owls, obscure mosses or a free republic?

Michael Novak is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, author of "On Two Wings" and over 20 other books.

What follows here is a selection from our interview.

Peter: That's the key to the whole dispute. They're basing their claims on the idea that "we're all just animals."

Brian: Of course we are animate beings, but we are not beasts - that's the key distinction. Generally, non-religious animal rights activists hold the position that we're just extremely intelligent, hairless monkeys. We evolved to that state through random mutation and natural selection with no recourse to divine guidance... we 'just happened' to turn out this way.

Of course, the Christian rejects that entirely because we are the only creatures made "in the image and likeness" of God. There was once a philosophical notion, very popular especially among secularists, that the only thing that separates animals from humans is that we are aware of our own mortality. I think that might have come out of the existentialist movement.

This past election we the people voted for change or a fresh start. What can they do different with this administration and economic condition. I have a few ideas that might help you get a little more out of your web site in the next year ahead of us.

Obama's stimulus plan won't help the economy, and might actually sound the death knell of the dollar. After all, the whole thing is predicated on the idea that you can borrow and spend your way to prosperity. That is just plain nuts, of course. You don't borrow your way to wealth - you produce your way to wealth. Americans are tapped out and swimming in debt, so producing for the domestic market is a tough slog right now. Good thing there is a big world out there, and a good way to sell what you produce is to target it.

What is Joomla? Joomla is an award-winning Content Management System (CMS) that is used world wide to generate everything from simple personal home pages to complex corporate web sites. Joomla has been developed and is maintained by a world-wide community of programmers. Their individual effort and collaboration includes the availability of thousands of ready-made additional features (known as extensions) which can be added to your website as your needs grow.

Content Management Systems are growing in popularity as a framework for running Websites. A Content Management System (CMS) automates many of the repetitive tasks associated with running a Website. Using a script framework and a database, a CMS lets organizations sponsoring Websites focus on publishing content to the Web. A CMS framework also comes bundled with all kinds of capabilities such as interactivity (discussion forums, comments, blogging), membership, syndication (RSS feeds), podcasting, and a whole lot more.

Let me tell you something Google and the other Search Engines don't want you to know.

Several studies have shown that web surfers' eyes jump over paid results and go directly to the natural results. One study on Google showed surfers preferring natural results 3 to1. So instead of shopping for Google Adwords, consider the natural method for getting more traffic.

Modern businesses and ministries run off software. We need it to do everything from sending emails, to preparing presentations, to finding new members/customers online.

In this blog, I would like to take a moment to recommend some great Open Source Applications which can really make your business life easier, and which won't stretch your budget.

I heard my wife screaming on the phone. I ran into the room, thinking something major was going wrong. Like a home invasion, or a fire or something.

Turns out, she was yelling at technical support because she couldn't get the Website our umbrella school uses to track grades and attendance to take her recent updates.

The old saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words" may be a cliche but in the case of technical training - it's absolutely true.

And your next one probably will too.

I know. You're not in technology. You build things, or you are in a services industry.

Technology projects? Who cares about those?

You should, because technology doesn't exist for its own sake. Technology is a tool, and businesses of all sizes have to leverage technology to get work done that can't be done any other way.