Pressing On to Maturity: The Pivotal Epistle – Hebrews

by Chuck Missler

The Epistle to the Hebrews is one of the two greatest theological treatises of the New Testament.1 This letter is, in a real sense, the “Leviticus” of the New Testament, detailing how the Lord Jesus Christ is both the fulfillment and the successor to all that had gone on before.
The extreme dilemma of the Jewish Christians — especially while the Temple was still standing — was their extreme predicament.

They had been drawn from a divinely appointed religion, with divinely appointed priests officiating in a divinely appointed Temple, accomplishing a divinely ordered service, all of which had been ennobled throughout their entire history.
How could believing priests and Pharisees remain “zealous of the Law”? It was, after all, the Jewish world that had crucified Christ and was repudiating Him.
This letter was clearly aimed at the people who were now Christians but had come out of Judaism. It focuses on the background that they came from, and tries to demonstrate how Jesus was a fulfillment of those things; in fact, he superseded those things. Jesus is the very fulfillment of the Old Testament.

Authorship
Who wrote the book of Hebrews? Hebrews is an unsigned book and there are many theories, but the available evidence, we feel, seems to justify a Pauline ascription.

Apollos? Some suggest that Apollos wrote this epistle, although there is not much evidence

to support the theory. Furthermore, Apollos was from Alexandria, and yet even in Alexandria in the earliest times the book was associated with Paul. So, if Apollos was the author, somehow he didnt even convince his own hometown.

Barnabas? Others ascribe the book to Barnabas, but here again there is no evidence to support this theory. There are some spurious writings (that are not regarded as authentic) that were attributed to Barnabas, but their style is so different from the

epistle to the Hebrews that if one can conclude that the writings attributed to Barnabas were at all indicative of Barnabas style, he clearly didn’t write the Epistle to the Hebrews.

Paul? There are many stylistic reasons that point to its Pauline authorship.
Pauls Special Mark
If one recognizes that there were apparently forgeries of Thessalonian letters being circulated, then several passages become clearer.2 Thus at the end of that letter, Paul includes a sort of special mark, a token:

The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write.2 Thessalonians 3:17

Note how Paul is emphasizing that he has signed the letter with his own hand (most were probably drafted by an amanuensis or secretary). He would include a sign at the end so they would know that the letter was really from him.
So what is this signature or style item that is included in every letter?3

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.2 Thessalonians 3:18

And how does Hebrews end?

Grace be with you all. Amen.Hebrews 13:25

Why is this so impressive of Paul’s style? Because the word “Grace” does not even appear in the other epistles!4

The Trilogy on Habakkuk 2:4
The key verse in Habakkuk is:

The Just shall live by faith.Habakkuk 2:4

This verse became the primary banner that inflamed the Reformation. It would seem that Paul penned a deliberate trilogy on this very verse.
Who are “the Just”? The Book of Romans answers the question (Cf. Rom 1:17).
How then “Shall [they] Live”? Galatians shows how we are to live — called out of religious externalism (Cf. Gal 3:11).

“By faith…” What is the epistle on “faith”? This Epistle to the Hebrews (Cf. Heb 10:38)!
As a former systems engineer and technologist in the information sciences, I tend to favor evidences that reveal an architecture and integrity of design, and it is this unique characteristic of the entire Bible that has been the foundation of our ministry.
Thus, it is the apparent trilogy of Romans, Galatians and Hebrews, dealing specifically on Habakkuk 2:4, that causes us to lean strongly on the inference that Hebrews was authored by Paul.

(If it should turn out that it was by another, then this very design becomes an even more impressive “fingerprint” of the Holy Spirit!)

Other Stylistic Evidences
In Romans 8:35-39, Paul lists a number of things that can separate you from the love of Christ. He lists seven things, and then 10 more, for a total of 17.
In Hebrews 12:18-24 we find a similar list: Again there are seven things, and then 10 more, for a total of 17. And in Galatians 5:19-21 there is also a list of 17 things.
(Again, it is Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews that evidence a similarity of style.)
Paul also favored the Greek word, huios, “sons,” rather than a similar Greek word, teknon, which other writers use, which means “children.”
The “witness of the Holy Spirit,” discussed in Romans 8:16 and Hebrews 10:15 also hints at a common authorship.
In Hebrews 13:18, the writer says, “Pray for us.” There is only one epistle writer that makes that specific request: none other than Paul.

The Role of Timothy

In Chapter 13 of Hebrews, there is a reference that notes that the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews was accompanied by Timothy.5 We know from a number of epistles that Timothy accompanied Paul.6 We do not have any record of him accompanying anyone else. While that does not mean that Timothy exclusively accompanied Paul, we do not have any evidence of him accompanying any other writer.

Why Anonymous?
So if Paul did write the book, why would he keep it anonymous? From Acts 9:15 we know that Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles. While the Gentiles were his primary mission field, he also had an intense burden for his own brethren. Looking at Paul’s life, it is clear that Paul would sooner or later write an epistle to the Hebrews.

So why would he write one and keep it anonymous? Because every time he tried to address them there were riots. They were prejudiced against his ministry; he was distrusted by the Jews because he had converted to Christianity.
He never recovered the confidence of the Jewish side; they reputed his apostleship and also feared his attack against their ancient rituals and ceremonies.7


Nowhere in the book of Hebrews does Paul assert his apostleship, unlike his other epistles, but instead he builds his entire thesis uniquely from basic Jewish arguments from Old Testament passages. He exalts Christ, not his own apostleship.
There are reasons in the text that we could infer that the book was probably written after Paul’s first imprisonment, but before his second arrest.8 It was clearly written prior to the destruction of the Temple in 70 a.d. The impending destruction of the Temple may have been one of the reasons that God had Paul show them how they needed, as Christian believers, not only to accept Christ, but to come out of Judaism.9


Peters Testimony
Peter also seems to allude to this letter in 2 Peter 3:15-16:

And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother

Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you…2 Peter 3:15

Peter here ascribes a letter written by Paul to the Hebrews. But the other 13 Pauline epistles all went to Gentile churches. So if Hebrews was not written by Paul, then there is a missing letter written by Paul to the Hebrews.

As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.2 Peter 3:16

Here Peter is commenting on Pauls letter, saying that Paul had written some things that were hard to understand (indeed, the difficulties in Hebrews 6 and 10).

Pressing On to Maturity
The primary focus of this letter to believers is to press on to spiritual maturity.10
For anyone serious about their spiritual growth, both the Epistle to the Romans and the Epistle to the Hebrews are absolutely essential to thoroughly understand.
And is there any priority or commitment that is more important — or urgent — in your own life? Pray about it.

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1. The other most essential is, of course, the Book of Romans.
2. Thess 2:2.
3. Rom 16:24; 1 Cor 16:23-24; 2 Cor 13:14; Gal 6:18; Eph 6:24; Phil 4:23; Col 4:18; 1 Thess 5:28; 2 Thess 3:18; 1 Tim 6:21; 2 Tim 4:22; Titus 3:15; Philemon 25.
4. Except in 2 Peter 3:18, where it is used as an instruction or exhortation and not as a salutation or blessing as here.
5. Heb 13:23, 25.
6. 2 Cor 1:1; Col. 1:1 and 1 Thess 1:1.
7. Acts 21:27-28; 22:17-22.
8. Heb 13:23.
9. Cf. 1 Cor 9:20; Acts 9:15.
10. Heb 5:11-14; 10:32-39.

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The War on Christianity

’‘Worthless Christians’ Treated ‘Like Animals’

United States: A pro-ISIS group calling itself the United Cyber Caliphate defaced the website of the Christian Reformed Church in the city of Lamont, Michigan. A 15-year-old teenage girl discovered the website’s defacement—which consisted of a YouTube ISIS propaganda video and Arabic text—while searching for the church’s phone number. The video’s spokesman says, “We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses and enslave your women by the permission of Allah, the Exalted. This is His promise to us, He is glorified and He does not fail in His promise.”

Ethiopia: Rioting Muslims accusing Christians of converting Muslims rampaged throughout the East Shewa Zone.  They burned down 14 churches—belonging to Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant denominations—and left more than 2,000 Christians without worship venues.  One church cemetery was also vandalized.  A church leader said: “We have been worshipping outside and sitting on the bare ground bearing the hot sun.  We appeal to our brothers elsewhere to come and assist us. The attackers poured petrol and were chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ [Allah is greater] before setting the church building on fire.”  Ethiopia is roughly 60 percent Christian and 34 percent Muslim.

Uganda: Around midnight on April 12, an angry Muslim mob demolished a Christian church.  They were heard chanting: “We cannot live together with neighbors who are infidels. We have to fight for the cause of Allah.”  The church’s 450 members were left without shelter during the rainy season. Musical instruments, more than 500 plastic chairs and other property were also destroyed. Two days earlier, a group of Muslims shouting “Allah only is to be worshipped, and Muhammad is his prophet” slaughtered a church leader’s pigs, a key source of income.  He had previously received a text saying, “Let this be known to your church members that pigs are extremely unholy and an abomination before Allah, very outrageous and shameful.  They are haram [forbidden] and unlawful as our holy Quran does prohibit them.”  Muslims also sent a text message to a church member– “We are soon coming for the heads of your pigs” – before killing eight of his swine.

Iraq: The Islamic State blew up Mosul’s iconic Clock Church, famed for its soaring clock tower, with explosives. According to the Assyrian International News Agency, “Militants cordoned off areas surrounding the church and looted the building for profitable artifacts and antiquities before destroying the remaining parts with explosives…. The Clock Church … became a target of ISIS attacks last year, when its cross was removed.” Although Mosul was once home to about 45 churches, most have either been destroyed or converted into courts or jailhouses since the Islamic State took over in June 2014.

Indonesia: An Islamist group vandalized a new church in Bekasi and demanded that the local mayor cancel its permit. The Santa Clara Church had received its permit in July 2015 and opened this year on March 7. The Islamic Forum Community and other Muslim leaders accused church leaders of acquiring the permit through false means. The mayor of Bekasi denied the allegation and refused to annul the church’s permit. He said it had fulfilled all the legal requirements necessary for construction. “Despite this,” explained the Asian Human Rights Commission, “law enforcement agencies have failed to protect the Santa Clara Church congregants; in fact, it seems the agencies have no will or policy to enforce the law against vigilantes. As a result, the church congregation lives under pressure and intimidation.” The rights group further called upon the local police to “take a strong stance” against the Islamic Forum Community and “ensure that the government guarantees protection to the Santa Clara congregation to practice their religion.”

Algeria: “Churches in Algeria are facing intimidation and harassment, despite constitutional provisions guaranteeing freedom of worship in the country,” noted World Watch Monitor on April 29. That week, authorities claimed that a church in the Kabylie region was ordered to cease all religious activities on the grounds that it was violating a 2006 law that regulated non-Muslim worship. Authorities threatened to commence legal proceedings against the church if Christian worship continued there. Last February, authorities issued a notice to the church in the town of Aït Djima, also in Kabylie, citing the same law. Critics say the 2006 law, which is aimed at regulating all religious worship except Islamic worship, is used as a tool of persecution by the authorities. According to Rev. Haddad, pastor of a Protestant church in the city of Algiers: “It is an unjust law against Christians, who were denied their right to worship and the opportunity to share the Gospel freely…. the situation of Christians in Algeria will not improve until the outright law, which is no longer justified, is repealed.”

Turkey: Six churches were seized by the government in April. After ten months of conflict in the nation’s southeast, the government expropriated huge sections of property in the region’s largest city, Diyarbakir. “But to the dismay of the city’s handful of Christian congregations,” notes a World Watch Monitor report, “this includes all its Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches. Unlike the state-funded mosques, Turkey’s ancient church buildings – some of which pre-date Islam – have been managed, historically, by church foundations. The new decision has effectively made the Diyarbakir churches – one 1,700 years old, another built only in 2003 – state property of Turkey, an Islamic country of 75 million.” Few Christian houses of worship remain in Turkey’s southeast. Although it is the ancestral homeland of Syrians and Armenians, well over a million of these ethnic Christians were massacred and sent on death marches during the final years of the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the 20th century.

Palestinian Territories: In Gaza City, authorities demolished a recently discovered, 1,800-year-old Christian church and its treasured artifacts, despite attempts by Palestinian Christians to save them. Protests failed to win the attention of the international community, including United Nations agencies such as UNESCO, whose mission is to secure the world’s cultural and natural heritage. The ancient church was found in an area where Hamas is planning to build a shopping mall. “The dramatic discovery of the antiquities did not seem to leave an impression on the construction workers, who removed artifacts and continued with their work at the site… Bulldozers were used to destroy some of the church artifacts — a devastation that drew sharp criticism from Palestinian Christians, some of whom rushed to accuse both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA) of copying ISIS tactics in demolishing historic sites,” notes the report. “For Palestinian Christians, the destruction of the church… ruins is yet a further attempt by Palestinian Muslim leaders to efface both Christian history and signs of any Christian presence in the Palestinian territories.”

Muslim Slaughter of Christians

Nigeria: Muslim Fulani herdsmen slaughtered approximately 40 people in a Christian majority village and burned Christ Holy Church International to the ground. Ten homes were razed by arson, cars and motorcycles were destroyed, and animals randomly killed. From his hospital bed a survivor said, “I was coming out from the house when I heard the community bell ringing. I was going with a friend to know what the bell was all about, only to see about 40 Fulani herdsmen armed with sophisticated guns and machetes. They pursued us, killed my friend and shot at me several times but missed. They caught up with me and used machetes on me until I lost consciousness.”

Pakistan: After a Christian man warned local Muslim drug dealers to “stop recruiting young Christians to participate in the sale and consumption of drugs,” two men assaulted him while he was working in the field and “sliced open his throat.” According to local pastor Alfred Azam, “This is not the first incident of persecution of Christians in our village, local Muslims are always creating problems for our Christian community. Before and after our church services Muslim drug dealers swarm around our church trying to sell drugs to our vulnerable youth…” Azam explained that drug pushers regularly beat young Christians and force them to take drugs to try to get them addicted. “When our older men tell these criminals to leave our young people alone they get killed.” As usual, police officials “refused to register a report for the crime or take any action whatsoever.”

Separately, Muslims lynched a Christian, 18-year-old Qaisar Masih, on the accusation that he was romantically involved with a Muslim girl. He was “killed by the girl’s family in an attack led by her father, Mohammad Billa.” They had warned Qaisar not to have anything to do with her and threatened to kill him. According to Qaisar’s sister, he was hanged after being killed to make it look like suicide: “My brother was innocent, he tried not to contact Mehwish [the Muslim girl] but Mehwish said that she cannot live without him… We told her sisters to ask Mehwish to avoid my brother because her father is a criminal and he will kill my brother. But none of our efforts could save my brother.” Qaisar’s mother, Rani Sardar, said: “We all know who killed my son, he was the youngest, he was the apple of my eye and they killed him brutally and hanged him in front of our house. I only demand justice.”

Syria: ISIS militants slaughtered 21 Christian hostages, three of whom were women, in al-Qaryatain. This was discovered after the town was retaken by Russian-backed Syrian forces in April. Some were reportedly killed for violating the terms of their “dhimmi contract,” Islam’s discriminatory body of rules that govern Christian minorities and others. Another five missing Christians were believed to be dead, while many girls are believed to have been sold into sex slavery.

Assyrian Christian Church Attacked and Burned by Gunmen

An ancient Assyrian Orthodox church has been targeted by gunmen who detonated explosives inside of it on Monday (July 18). According to ChristianToday.com, the church is located northeast of the city of Qamishli in Syria. Gunmen reportedly stole donation boxes from the church before detonating explosions which set the church on fire, destroying many of the ancient artifacts inside.“Anonymous gunmen stormed the St. Charnel Church for Assyrian Orthodoxes in the Watwatiyah district of Qamishli in the midnight on Monday, and destroyed its contents,” said a spokesman for the Assyrian Monitor for Human Rights.Eyewitness of the attack Gabi Gawriya added, “We saw a huge fire and security forces arrived and extinguished the fire. But the church was completely destroyed, you can see only ashes here.”

Church of England Increasingly Divided over Same-Sex Marriage

A group of conservative Anglicans have a “lack of confidence” in the Church of England’s discussions on gay marriage.   A statement from 32 members of the Church’s governing synod was published on the conservative blog “Anglican Mainstream.” “Whatever their stated purposes, the outcome has not led to a greater confidence that the Church will be guided by the authoritative voice of the Scriptures, and its decisive shaping of traditional Anglican teaching, in any forthcoming discussions,” the statement said.

Canadian Bishops Call Out Apostasy in Their Ranks

A group of bishops from the Anglican Church of Canada has warned that a church vote in favor of same-sex marriage is a “departure from the faith.” The warning came in a joint statement signed by seven bishops in response to this month’s Canadian General Synod vote to allow same-sex marriages in churches.The Anglican Church of Canada began a move towards same-sex weddings in 2013, voted in favor of them this month and will hold a final vote at the next General Synod. The bishops state that same-sex marriage “would be a fundamental departure from the faith and teaching held by the majority of the Anglican Communion on the doctrine of marriage.”hey also say the decision threatens the Church of Canada’s status with other Anglicans globally. The bishops noted, “the General Synod has taken a further step in ordaining something contrary to God’s Word written and imperils our full communion within the Anglican Church of Canada and with Anglicans throughout the world.”

Kazakhstan: Christians Fined for Meeting Together to Worship

Three Christians in Kazakhstan have been fined for meeting together to worship, according to ChristianToday.com.

 Religious freedom in Kazakhstan has been increasingly coming under attack. In 2012, the government cut the number of officially-recognized faiths from nearly 50 to only 17. There are consequences for practising a faith which is not recognized by the government. In 2015, the government gave police the power to impose fines without going through due process and holding a trial on those who practice an unauthorized religion.

High School Principal No Longer to Speak at Prayer Event after Complaints from Atheist Group

The principal of a public high school in Texas has agreed not to speak at “See You at the Pole”school prayer events after being pressured by an atheist group.
Christian Today reports that Greg Wright, principal of Prosper High School, normally led prayers and delivered sermons at the annual “See You at the Pole” prayer event, but after the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) sent a letter to the school on behalf of a parent, Wright stepped down from leading the event.

Parent Janie Oyakawa contacted the FFRF about Wright’s involvement in the event, stating that she didn’t have a problem with Wright’s involvement with a religious event if he was at a Christian school, but that he did not have the freedom to be involved with religious events at a public school.
The FFRF’s letter to school superintendent Drew Watkins stated, “When a teacher or principal is on school property as part of the school day, even if it is before the official 8:24 a.m. start, they are there for their official duties, just as students are. School staffers cannot lead, encourage, or participate in student-led religious activity. And any religious event or religious club at a PISD school must be genuinely student-led.”
In addition to denouncing Wright’s activities, the FFRF’s letter complained about a cross and a plaque with a religious saying that the school’s assistant principal kept on her desk. 

U.S. CHRISTIANS TOLD: PREPARE FOR PERSECUTION

They’re marked for extermination in the Middle East. They’re banned from practicing their faith in many nations around the world. They’ve been subjected to violence, intimidation and hatred from the very beginnings of the faith until the present day. Christians are no strangers to persecution. But such treatment largely hasn’t erupted in the United States of America. Until now.

“American Christians need to prepare for persecution,” Carl Gallups told WND TV. The former law enforcement professional and pastor of Hickory Hammock Baptist Church argued Christians are increasing being “targeted” for both political harassment and outright violence.

School threatens to fire praying football coach

A school district in Washington State has decided to play hardball with a football coach who refused to stop his mid-field, post-game prayers. I received an exclusive copy of a three-page letter sent to Bremerton High School Coach Joe Kennedy from Superintendent Aaron Leavell. The nutshell? Coach Joe must stop praying or he will be punished. “Any further violations will be grounds for discipline, up to and including discharge from District employment,” Leavell wrote in an Oct. 23 letter. I can only imagine what might happen should the coach have to call a Hail Mary play. “I was really shocked, Coach Joe told me. “I went out of my way to accommodate them. All I wanted to do was pray — and now I can’t even pray at all.”


Federal Bureau of Prison Cuts All Pork Products from Menu at All 122 Penitentiaries

Bacon. Who doesn’t like BACON? Apparently, not a majority of federal prisoners, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which announced last week that it was eliminating pork products from its menus at all 122 federal penitentiaries across the country. That goes for ham, BBQ ribs and pork chops, too.
Edwin Ross, a spokesman for the bureau, explained the ban to The Washington Post:
“Why keep pushing food that people don’t want to eat? Pork has been the lowest-rated food by inmates for several years.”
Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), hailed the ban.
“In general we welcome the change because it’s facilitating the accommodation of Muslim inmates.”


Obama’s Former Pastor Says Something About Jesus That’s Sure to Make the President Cringe

Jeremiah Wright, President Obama’s controversial former pastor, enraged Christians over the weekend after he declared at the Million Man March in Washington D.C., that “Jesus was a Palestinian.” During the event on Saturday, entitled “Justice or Else!” Wright compared the Black Lives Matter movement to Palestinians being outraged in 1948 when Europeans established the Jewish State of Israel:

“The same issue is being fought today and has been fought since 1948, and historians are carried back to the 19th century… when the original people, the Palestinians — and please remember, Jesus was a Palestinian — the Palestinian people had the Europeans come and take their country.”

The claim that Jesus was a Palestinian originated with the modern-day Palestinians themselves. According to the Jerusalem Post, Palestine’s president, most recently Mahmoud Abbas, celebrates “Jesus the Palestinian” every year at Christmas time.

Wilmore asked to remove cross from water tower by Freedom From Religion Foundation

The City of Wilmore has been asked by the Freedom From Religion Foundation to remove the cross mounted on top of a water tower at Asbury University. In a letter emailed to Mayor Harold Rainwater on Sept. 29, FFRF staff attorney Rebecca Markert warns that “it is unlawful

for Wilmore to display a patently religious symbol such as a Christian cross on public property.” “The Wilmore cross, displayed on the city water tower, unabashedly creates the perception of government endorsement of Christianity. It conveys the message to the nearly 30 percent of the U.S. population who are not Christians that they are not ‘favored members of the political community,’” Markert wrote, citing a Supreme Court Case from 1989, which found that displaying a nativity scene on government property violated the ……….

Former Abortion Doctor Describes Process of Ripping Apart Babies’ Bodies to Congress

A professional gynecologist who during the 1980s performed hundreds of first and second trimester abortions has submitted congressional testimony describing the graphic nature of the procedure. Dr. Anthony Levatino of New Mexico gave testimony Thursday afternoon to the House Judiciary Committee as part of an investigation into Planned Parenthood Federation of America. In graphic detail, Levatino described the process of a Suction D&E procedure, which involves using a sopher clamp to rip limbs off an aborted baby. “Once you have grasped something inside, squeeze on the clamp to set the jaws and pull hard — really hard. You feel something let go and out pops a fully formed leg about six inches long,” 

SECRET CORRESPONDENCE INTERCEPTED: HOW TO ENSURE CHILDREN DISREGARD THE VALUE OF EVERY LIFE

Dehumanize! You are living in the 21st Century where science does not support our mission to destroy life. In the good ole’ days, the 20th century, we were able to easily dupe humans into believing that the life inside of them was just a “blob of tissue” or “fetus.” They believed our lies when we stated that the fetus did not resemble a human baby. 
The 21st century brings tough times for those of us trying to snuff out the lives of babies. The invention of the 4D ultrasound proves that these fetuses indeed look like babies. These 4D ultrasounds display the fetuses with characteristics that humans find adorable like ‘clapping of hands,’ ‘smiling,’ and even ‘sucking of thumbs.’ (Image: Online for Life)

Lawsuit: Baby Jesus doesn’t belong in Christmas play

You would think the anti-Christmas crowd would wait until there’s frost on the pumpkin patch before pillaging and plundering our long-cherished yuletide traditions. But the Freedom From Religion Foundation has been chomping at the bit to bully those who celebrate the birth of Jesus. In recent days they’ve filed a federal lawsuit demanding an Indiana school district yank a Living Nativity from a Christmas production and they successfully forced an Oregon school district to ban choirs from performing at a Catholic shrine.

Gay Rights Group Posts Billboard in Kim Davis’ Kentucky Town

A non-profit organization that advocates for LGBTQ rights has a big message for Rowan County(Ky.) clerk Kim Davis — a message that is the size of a billboard, to be exact. Planting Peace erected a billboard in Davis’ hometown of Morehead, Ky., that reads: “Dear Kim Davis, The fact that you can’t sell your daughter for three goats and a cow means we’ve already redefined marriage.” Aaron Jackson, president of Planting Peace, said the intent of the billboard is to “expose how the anti-LGBT movement is selective in what rules to follow and how they choose to define ‘traditional’ institutions or values.”

Hillary Clinton Wants to Change Religion to Accept Abortion

Hillary Clinton said in a recent speech that religion should change to accept abortion. Speaking at the Women in the World Summit, Clinton lamented that too few women are able to access safe abortion facilities. “Far too many women are still denied critical access to reproductive health care and safe childbirth,” Clinton said. “All the laws we’ve passed don’t count for much if they’re not enforced.” She continued that American culture, including religion needs to change for abortion reform to take place. “Rights have to exist in practice — not just on paper,” she said. “Laws have to be backed up with resources and political will. And deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed.”

Group wants ‘God Bless the Military’ sign removed

 By Joseph DeCaro (Worthy News) – A group that seeks to separate Christianity from the military is now demanding the removal of a sign at a Marine base in Hawaii, according to the Christian News. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation complained to the base commander about a sign that displays: “God bless the military, their families, and the civilians who work with them.” MRFF claimed the sign violated the Constitution’s Establishment Clause, i.e., “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” MRFF demanded the sign either be moved to the chapel, or removed altogether. “This sign … sends the clear message that your installation gives preference to those who hold religious beliefs over those who do not, and those who prefer a monotheistic, intervening God over other deities or theologies.”

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CBS…….. Face the Nation and the anti-Christian attack on Family Research Council Tony Perkins.

‘We will not obey’: Christian leaders threaten civil disobedience if Supreme Court legalizes gay marriage

“We will not obey.”

That’s the blunt warning a group of prominent religious leaders is sending to the Supreme Court of the United States as they consider same-sex marriage. “We respectfully warn the Supreme Court not to cross that line,” read a document titled, Pledge in Solidarity to Defend Marriage. “We stand united together in defense of marriage. Make no mistake about our resolve.”  “While there are many things we can endure, redefining marriage is so fundamental to the natural order and the common good that this is the line we must draw and one we cannot and will not cross,” the pledge states.

Hillary Clinton declares war on Christ

Last Thursday (23 April), Hillary Clinton addressed the Women of the World Summit of 2015. The Daily Callercovered that event. They recorded all twenty-three-plus minutes of her remarks. The video embed below has the words you need to read. (The embed has the cue: 8 minutes and 26 seconds into the speech.) Mark Horne at Political Outcast has a transcript:

Far too many women are denied access to reproductive health care and safe childbirth, and laws don’t count for much if they’re not enforced. Rights have to exist in practice — not just on paper. Laws have to be backed up with resources and political will. And deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed. As I have said and as I believe, the advancement of the full participation of women and girls in every aspect of their societies is the great unfinished business of the 21st century and not just for women but for everyone — and not just in far away countries but right here in the United States.

Bakers must pay $135,000 for refusing to make cake for gay wedding

The owners of an Oregon bakery learned Friday that there is a severe price to pay for following their Christian faith. A judge for the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) recommended a lesbian couple should receive $135,000 in damages for their emotional suffering after Sweet Cakes by Melissa refused to make them a wedding cake.  As a result – Aaron and Melissa Klein could lose everything they own — including their home.

Obama Denies the Christian Genocide of Today and of 100 Years Ago

As the world continues to look on in dismay at the barbaric atrocities committed against Christian minorities by the Islamic State—the self-proclaimed new “caliphate”— April 24 marks the genocide of Armenian and other Christian minorities by Turkey’s Islamic Ottoman Empire, the last caliphate. Most American historians who have examined the question agree that what the Armenians experienced was a deliberate, calculated genocide:

More than one million Armenians perished as the result of execution, starvation, disease, the harsh environment, and physical abuse. A people who lived in eastern Turkey for nearly 3,000 years [that is, 2,500 years before the Islamic Turks invaded and occupied Anatolia, now known as “Turkey”] lost its homeland and was profoundly decimated in the first large-scale genocide of the twentieth century. At the beginning of 1915 there were some two million Armenians within Turkey; today there are fewer than 60,000.

.ISIS Video Shows Shooting, Beheading of 30 Ethiopian Christians A video purportedly made by Islamic State and posted on social media sites on Sunday appeared to show militants shooting and beheading about 30 Ethiopian Christians in Libya, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Navy Chaplain Told to Stop Praying in Jesus’ Name

Modder came under criticism last December when an openly gay officer at the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command in South Carolina reported that he had been offended by Modder’s stance on homosexuality. The officer said Modder showed discrimination and a failure to show tolerance and respect. According to the investigation by Liberty Institute, Modder had been asked to deliver an invocation at a ceremony, but as he walked to the lectern, Capt. John Fahs told him to cut out the “Jesus” references.

Presbyterian Minister Doesn’t Believe in God but Defends His Christianity

“I believe one of the newer religious paths could be a ‘belief-less’ Christianity. In this ‘sect,’ one is not required to believe things. One learns and draws upon practices and products of our cultural tradition to create meaning in the present,” Shuck wrote on The Friendly Atheist’s blog. “Belief-less Christianity” is thriving right now, even as other forms of the faith are falling away rapidly. Many liberal or progressive Christians have already let go or de-emphasized belief in heaven, that the Bible is literally true, that Jesus is supernatural, and that Christianity is the only way. Yet they still practice what they call Christianity.

Syrian, Iraqi Christians plead for international assistance
Syrian and Iraqi Christians pleaded for more international assistance Tuesday from new homes in Lebanon where they recently arrived after fleeing attack by militants from the Islamic State group.

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Bombshell report alleges Argentina, Iran, and Venezuela were once all bound together by sex, drugs, and nuclear secrets
Three former Venezuelan government officials who defected from Hugo Chavez’s regime spoke to the Brazilian magazine Veja about an alleged alliance between Argentina, Venezuela, and Iran, which included a deal in which Argentina would get Interpol to remove from its database the names of Iranians suspected of bombing a Jewish center in Buenos Aires in 1994.

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ISIS’ dark agenda: Terror group’s tweets show more destruction of sacred Christian sites
Chilling new images released Monday show ISIS thugs advancing the Islamist army’s dark agenda of eradicating Christianity from Iraq by smashing crosses, toppling statues and destroying sacred relics that have been in place for thousands of years.

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Iranian Dissidents Criticize Obama’s Nuclear Diplomacy
A group of Iranian dissidents and political prisoners have lashed out at the Obama administration, lambasting its ongoing diplomacy with Iran, according to two open letters sent to the White House in recent days.

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Global war will result in ‘banner of Islam’ over White House, top Iranian official vows
A top special operations aide to Iran’s leader says his troops are in a global war that will one day bring “the banner of Islam over the White House.”
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ISIL said to be establishing a presence in Afghanistan
The top UN envoy in Afghanistan says recent reports indicate the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) extremist group has moved into Afghanistan.

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Obama Administration Uses U.S. Embassies to Promote LGBT Agenda .
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Worthy News)– The White House is spending millions and using U.S. embassies to promote the LGBT agenda worldwide. The U.S. Department of State has spent $12 million in over 50 countries supporting gay rights advocates, the Associated Press reported. With gay pride parades taking place throughout many cities across the globe this weekend, the U.S. will be more visible than ever with diplomats taking part in the festivities, with some embassies hoisting the rainbow flag under the U.S. Flag. Earlier this month, U.S. Ambassador to Israel “proudly” supported the celebration of gay pride in Tel Aviv by hoisting the gay pride flag in an historic first. Read More: click on link above.

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Supreme Court Could Issue Eviction Notices to NYC Churches 

Churches in New York City could be forced to stop meeting in public school buildings depending on a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court. New York City’s policy is that the city’s public schools are open during non-school hours for use by community groups for the “welfare of the community.” Churches are allowed to meet in schools for Bible studies or other programs but cannot conduct worship services. In 2002, the Bronx Household of Faith won a long court battle that allowed them to move their worship services to an abandoned school. That decision has allowed other churches to meet in schools, such as Tim Keller’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church, which has had startup churches meet in school buildings.

 It is estimated that 60 to 75 churches meet in city school buildings. But then in 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit reversed the decision that had allowed churches and groups to use school buildings for meetings. The court said the city could enforce its own policy. Bronx Household of Faith, has appealed to the Supreme Court.  Read More: Click link above

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Megachurch Changes Position on Homosexuality

City Church is San Francisco’s largest evangelical megachurch.  The pastor and elders have announced that their congregation will now allow non-celibate homosexuals to become members.  According to their pastor, this is the best way for them to minister to all those God is bringing through their doors. For more on this, read Nick Pitts’s Questions and truth: San Francisco’s City Church. It seems that evangelicals are forced to two options today.  One is to affirm historical biblical orthodoxy, which forbids homosexual practice.  Many, whether gay or straight, see this position as antagonistic to the LGBT community.  The other is torevise historic theological doctrines regarding sexual morality.Read More: Click link above.

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Presbyterian Church May Soon Allow Gay Marriage through Constitutional Change

The Presbyterian Church could be nearing a change in its constitution that would bless gay marriage. The church’s General Assembly voted to accept gay marriage last June; the motion now must be passed by 172 presbyteries to change the church’s stance on gay marriage.
Christian Today reports that the vote has been completed by 40 percent of the church’s governing region so far. 51 presbyteries voted in favor of gay marriage acceptance while 23 voted against the constitution change. If passed, the Presbyterian Church’s constitution would claim that marriage is a “unique commitment between two people.” It currently reads that marriage is a “unique commitment between and man and a woman.”  Some Presbyterian pastors have already been granted permission to preside over same-sex marriages in states where the practice is legal.  The Presbyterian Church voted to ordain homosexuals four years ago in a close vote. 

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Army of Assyrian Christians Aims to Fight Islamic State

Assyrian Christians in the Nineveh Plain, with the help of a group of Americans, are building a fighting machine to stand toe-to-toe with the Islamic State group to preserve their homeland, their history and their heritage. The Nineveh Plain Protection Unit, or NPU, is a battalion of 350 to 500 men trained by Sons of Liberty International, an American-led nonprofit group aimed at “stepping in where governments in the international community have failed.” SOLI founder Matthew VanDyke of New York, a filmmaker who became a freedom fighter in the Libyan civil war and spent six months as a prisoner of war under the Moammar Gadhafi regime, said it was the brutal execution of his friends James Foley and Steven Sotloff at the hands of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, that made him focus on his role in stopping the group’s spread. The people of Nineveh Plain say they must fight to protect their brethren from extinction. But they also say that they should be funded and treated like any other tribal army, many of which are receiving funds and supplies to fight terrorism in the area. Since they’re not, that makes SOLI’s work even more valuable to the group.

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Historian Destroys Obama’s Idiotic Claim That ‘Islam Has Been Woven Into the Fabric of Our Country Since Its Founding’

Last week Obama made the wholly idiotic and a historical claim that “Islam has been woven into the fabric of our country since its founding.” This is a laughable, idiotic contention made by a president desperate to give Islam a pass for all the evil it is causing in the world today. But it is also false and Glenn Beck recently had an historian on who tore apart Obama’s nonsensical claim.

“In all the reading I’ve done, thousands of books, there’s nothing there,” Barton said on Friday. “I mean, we know that Muslims were the folks who captured the slaves sent to America, largely out of Africa. … The Muslims did the slave hunting and the slave trading, et cetera. The first Muslims came to America as a result of the Muslims capturing them and sending them to the Dutch traders.”

Barton said that beyond their heavy involvement in the slave trade, America was at war with the Barbary pirates shortly after the founding of the country, but those were “the two biggest contributions.”

“This is the fabric,” Beck said with heavy sarcasm. “I mean, it’s practically the whole blanket.”

There are NO Muslim contributions to the founding of the United States.
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Franklin Graham Speaks Out against Transgender Restrooms

A Charlotte City Council is considering a city ordinance that would allow biological males to use women’s public restrooms. Under the new city law, if passed, restrooms in both public and private businesses in the city would have to adhere to the transgendered ordinance.

 “I cannot see why City Council would even consider this,” Franklin Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association wrote on his Facebook page. “It is not only ridiculous, it’s unsafe.”Common sense tells us that this would open the door, literally, to all sorts of serious concerns including giving sexual predators access to children. It violates every sense of privacy and decency for people of both sexes, adults and children.”

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Edge of Extinction: Iraq’s Christians Need Help Now

You’ve probably heard by now that President Obama has asked Congress to authorize military force against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. The decision to go to war should never be done lightly. In fact, we should drop to our knees right now and pray for our elected officials, as well as our armed forces, as they prepare to take action. The measures President Obama is proposing go beyond the air-strikes he’s already ordered. This time, boots on the ground are a possibility. And that’s understandably a tough sell for war-weary Americans. But Islamic extremists seem determined to force our hand as they butcher and burn their way across the Middle-East, leaving entire communities in ashes. And the brutal executions of four American citizens—not to mention other foreigners beheaded or burned alive on video—put ISIS’ evil on full display for the world. Someone must confront these barbarians—especially in light of what they’ve done and are doing to Iraq’s Christians.

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3 Reasons You Must Not See ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’

Fifty Shades of Grey tells the story of Ana, a college student, and Christian, a successful entrepreneur. The two engage in a sexual relationship that becomes increasingly abusive. Tonight, the film version of the novel premieres in theaters, timed for the Valentine’s Day weekend. Please, do not see this movie. And do all you can to encourage others not to see it. Why is it so dangerous? Consider three facts.

One: the movie is pornographic in the extreme. It is a “terrible” movie, according to The New York Times, with bad writing and awkward dialogue (Us Weekly lists “50 Problems With the Raunchy Flick”). But far worse, it is a porn movie disguised as a romance. According to The Atlantic, the film shows at least 20 full minutes of sex.
Two: the plague of pornography is an epidemic in our culture, and this movie will make things far worse. GQ, a magazine not known for biblical morality, recently cited reasons readers should quit watching pornography immediately. Among them:

• Porn damages the brain. Scientists at Cambridge University recently determined that people addicted to pornography show similar brain activity to alcoholics or drug addicts.

• Porn motivates people to seek new sexual partners. This is an example of the Coolidge Effect, or novelty-seeking behavior.

• Porn use escalates. In one study, 64 percent of porn viewers reported that their tastes in porn had become more extreme or deviant.

• Pornography saps energy. In the same study, 67 percent reported an increase in energy levels and productivity when they stopped viewing porn.

Three: the movie glamorizes and normalizes sexual abuse. One study concluded that nearly every interaction between Ana and Christian was emotionally abusive, including stalking, intimidation, and isolation. It also noted pervasive sexual violence, and that Ana exhibits classic signs of an abused woman. A second study showed a correlation between those who read the novel and developing an eating disorder, having abusive romantic partners, engaging in binge drinking, and having five or more sexual partners before the age of 24.

Fifty Shades of Grey will spread the plague of porn to even more people. Don’t be among them.

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Rob Bell, Oprah Winfrey and Other ‘Celebrities’ Don’t Speak for the True Church on Marriage Issues     Yesterday I ran across an article in The Christian Post where the infamous “hell-can’t-be-real-because-love-wins” Rob Bell assured the even more infamous “I left Christianity because “I couldn’t believe in a God that’s jealous of me” Oprah Winfrey that the American Church is moments away from embracing gay marriage. The article has gone mega viral, provoking protest and upset among thousands of Christians. And understandably so. I mean, if Christ’s Church is about to bow down to the culture and honor monogamous same-sex relationships as worthy of marital title, that’s surely reason for outcry and shock.But I just want to assure you guys of something, because I surprisingly haven’t seen anyone else say it yet: Christ’s Church is not on the verge of embracing gay marriage, and it never will be.Now, there may be a multitude of religious institutions that call themselves churches that are on the verge of embracing gay marriage. Actually, there already are a multitude of institutions that call themselves churches and embrace gay marriage. I know plenty of people – some within my own family – that attend these religious institutions. Their leaders are passionate about vocally expressing the need for same-sex marriage to be not only tolerated, but also celebrated in Christian circles. They gently coerce others toward error with sweet, deceiving words:

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Atheist group threatens suit over ‘angels’ on memorial to beloved teacher  A West Virginia middle school took down the crosses from a memorial to a beloved teacher, but is standing firm on the angels etched into the stone, despite an atheist group’s threat to sue on constitutional grounds. Joann Christy’s 26-year career educating children at Ravenswood Middle School came to a tragic end in 2004, when she died in a car accident. But her loved ones and the community she had served sought to remember her with an engraved, stone memorial near the school’s entrance.

“There’s so many kids that came through this school that were affected by her death, that were affected by her teachings, and now we’re just trying to keep her memory alive here,” Tracy Sadecky, a family friend, told the station. But more than a decade later, the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation wants the memorial gone, claiming its presence on public grounds violates the First Amendment. The foundation criticized the display as a promotion of religion that infringes on students rights. WSAZ.com reported that the foundation wrote a letter to the school requesting an investigation into the memorial and the “multiple Latin crosses” near the school’s entrance.

WSAZ pointed out that the atheist group did not have an issue with the school’s mascot: a red devil.

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Bibles Banned Because Some ‘Uncomfortable’ With Word of God Students in Aberystwyth are pushing for thousands of Gideon Bibles to be removed from university accommodation. A poll conducted by the students’ union claims that more than half of students felt that having the Bibles in university accommodation as a matter of course was “uncomfortable” or “unacceptable.” The call to ban Bibles mirrors action by the University of Huddersfield in 2013—it said it wanted its properties to be “ethically neutral.” Student John David Morgan raised the matter at a student council meeting that 50 people attended in January. He claimed that the “inclusion of Bibles in university bedrooms is inappropriate in a multicultural university such as Aberystwyth.” The student went on to say: “It could be offensive for some, and the university should provide a safe space for students to explore and develop their beliefs in a neutral environment.”

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Most Women Wouldn’t Have Abortions if They Just Saw This Instead “There was a time before ultrasound that we didn’t realize that movement happened before 16 – 17 weeks. But now with ultrasound you can see that little seven week baby moving, just slight movement, and it’s the first movement of life. But by the time that baby is nine weeks, 10 weeks old, it’s utilizing the whole uterine cavity and you’ll see the babies waving in the womb, and flipping and sucking their thumbs, and what happens then, when I can introduce that ultrasound to the woman, even when she’s considering abortion, we have found that over 80 to 90% will choose to carry that baby to term, just from seeing the baby on the ultrasound.”

Shari Richard, Ultrasound technician on “Time for hope” Christian television show, Dr. Freda Crews, Host, taped September 2010

Richard does not offer any studies to back up the 80 – 90% statistic. Available studies vary on how effective ultrasounds are in dissuading women from aborting. However there are many, many anecdotal stories of women who have seen an ultrasound of their baby and changed their minds about the abortion they were planning.

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Death Panels: New 29-Point Checklist Determines if Elderly Person May Die in 30 Days  “Obamacare’s shoddy implementation doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of its great evil,”reported Breitbart late last year, referring to the healthcare rationing that is insidiously hidden within the pages of the evasive law. Perhaps the most alarming criterion of healthcare rationing found in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the plan’s death panel language. Democrats vehemently denied that death panels would play a role in the ACA, but the law itself states that doctors will be paid to have discussions with patients about living wills, advance directives, and end-of-life options. Killing patients whose perceived utility is declining is not exclusively an American phenomenon. The idea has shaped the healthcare system in the UK for decades, where the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) has been a fixture of end-of-life care. Unfortunately, however, the LCP has morphed into a utilitarian means of freeing hospital beds and lowering healthcare costs – the unavoidable slippery slope that is presented any time the value of human beings is measured in monetary terms (as socialized healthcare plans do).  The LCP has beenengulfed in controversy in recent years and has signaled a possible end to the program.  After repeated cases of shocking abuse, LCP will be phased out through the elimination of pallative care options for patients in the final days or hours of life.

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Another Church Caving to Gay Pastors in the Pulpit  The United Methodist Church could have openly gay pastors and pastors officiating at same-sex marriages if a proposal affirmed by denomination leadership prevails.  If you haven’t noticed, there’s been a mass exodus of Bible-believing congregations from the Presbyterian Church USA since the denomination voted to allow its ministers to perform gay weddings in states where it’s legal last summer. Apparently, the Methodists aren’t getting the hint. The United Methodist Church could have openly gay pastors and pastors could officiate at same-sex marriages if a proposal affirmed by denomination leadership prevails, according to a report from Methodist headquarters. Instead of embracing the truth espoused by the Trinity, the denomination’s “Connection Table”—a United Methodist body of clergy and lay people that acts as a church counsel for the denomination—is working to draft legislation that could serve as a “Third Way” in the church’s debate about homosexuality. The group has already voted to remove language that makes it a “chargeable offense” under church law for pastors to be “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” or to officiate at same-sex weddings, according to the report.

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Revenge: Egypt Launches Airstrikes Against ISIS in Libya After Execution of Christians Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi vowed revenge for the execution of 21 of its Coptic Christian citizens at the hands of ISIS, and it didn’t take long for the military to follow through.  The airstrikes against ISIS’s weapons caches, training grounds, and camps in Libya, meant to “avenge the bloodshed and to seek retribution from the killers,” were announced on state radio Monday. “Let those far and near know that Egyptians have a shield to protect and safeguard the security of the country and a sword that amputates terrorism and extremism,” the statement continued.

Cincinnati Archbishop warns Christians against ‘destructive message’ of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cincinnati issued a warning to Christians about the movie Fifty Shades of Grey, ahead of its release over the weekend weekend.  “The story line is presented as a romance; however, the underlying theme is that bondage, dominance, and sadomasochism are normal and pleasurable,” Archbishop Dennis Marion Schnurr posted on the Archdiocese of Cincinnati’s Facebook page.  The movie tells the story of a sexual relationship between a wealthy businessman and a college student and includes scenes that depict whipping and bondage. “This movie is in direct contrast to the Christian message of God’s design for self-giving and self-sacrificing love, marriage and sexual intimacy,” he continued. “The movie is a direct assault on Christian marriage and on the moral and spiritual strength of God’s people.

Christian Genocide Rises While World Just Watches

WASHINGTON D.C. (Worthy News)– Following the release of its latest World Watch List — ranking the top 50 countries in which Christians face the most persecution for their faith — Open Doors has accused world leaders of callous indifference, according to The Christian Post. Open Doors CEO David Curry said ISIS is conducting a genocide against Christians in Iraq while the West just stands by and watches it unfold. “It’s not that Christians are collateral damage; it’s that they’re being targeted, and wherever they are being targeted, there are future problems,” said Curry. Although the U.S. and its allies are launching airstrikes against ISIS, Curry hasn’t seen any attempts to improve the plight of refugees on the ground. “I am very disappointed by the response of the U.S. government and State Department in the protection and advocacy for persecuted Christians,” he said. Yet even while Iraq is having a genocide, North Korea still occupies the top slot of the WWL.

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Obama Administration Uses U.S. Embassies to Promote LGBT Agenda

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Worthy News)– The White House is spending millions and using U.S. embassies to promote the LGBT agenda worldwide. The U.S. Department of State has spent $12 million in over 50 countries supporting gay rights advocates, the Associated Press reported. With gay pride parades taking place throughout many cities across the globe this weekend, the U.S. will be more visible than ever with diplomats taking part in the festivities, with some embassies hoisting the rainbow flag under the U.S. Flag.

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Christian bakers face government wrath for refusing to make cake for gays 

Aaron and Melissa Klein refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple, and now they must pay for their crime. An Oregon administrative law judge ruled on Jan. 29 that the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa did, in fact, discriminate in 2013 when they declined to provide a wedding cake for a lesbian couple because it would have violated their Christian beliefs against same-sex marriage. The judge’s ruling paves the way for a March 10 hearing at which the Christian business owners could be ordered to pay $200,000 in fines and damages.

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American Christians know little of worldwide persecution Many American Christians are unaware of the persecution of Christians taking place around the world. According to Open Doors USA, at least 100 million Christians worldwide are being persecuted for their faith. In America, 125 million Christians claim to attend church on a weekly basis. However, Emily Fuentes with Open Doors USA says it’s amazing how many Christians in the U.S. aren’t aware of the global persecution of Christians.  “They don’t know how extreme the persecution is either,” she continues. “So we have lots of different fact sheets and resources that churches and small groups can use to educate those around them.”

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Protestants in Mexico Persecuted for Refusing to Renounce their Faith  MEXICO CITY (Worthy News)– Last month in Mexico’s Chiapas state, the village of Buenavista Bahuitz reneged on an agreement to allow 47 expelled evangelicals to return to their homes, according to Morning Star News. After being expelled for their faith by Catholics in 2012, village leaders refused to allow the Protestants back until they converted to Catholicism. The expulsion of evangelical families is just one of 30 current cases of faith-based persecution in Mexico; these persecutions include denying children the right to attend public school, banning Protestant public worship, forbidding home prayer gatherings and damaging churches not belonging Catholics. Violations of religious freedom have been ongoing concerns in Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Hidalgo and Puebla states where local authorities often misuse Mexico’s “Law of Uses and Customs”. Originally intended to prevent government interference of indigenous customs, some Catholics have used the law to compel evangelicals to participate in Roman rituals, thereby violating the religious rights guaranteed in Mexico’s own constitution.

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India’s 15M Christian ‘Untouchables’ … deny faith or no gov’t benefits As if life wasn’t hard enough being a Dalit in India — the lowest rung in the nation’s caste system — the government just made it tougher by forcing believers to convert back to Hinduism if they want to receive government benefits. Often referred to as the “Untouchables,” Dalits in India are the most severely oppressed group of Indians, living in extreme poverty. Life is even more unbearable for those in this class who profess to be Christians, as now they are not only the target of religious discrimination and persecution, but government oppression, as well, since state officials declared that only Hindu Dalits can receive government program benefits. Today, there are an estimated 15 million Dalit

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Hundreds of Churches Observe ‘Evolution Sunday’ as Others Celebrate ‘Creation Sunday’ Some 500 churches in the U.S. will celebrate “Evolution Sunday” this coming week to recognize Charles Darwin’s birthday. In response, other churches will celebrate “Creation Sunday” instead. Congregations who have pledged to celebrate “Evolution Sunday” have the most participants in California, Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio. Tony Breeden is the founder and organizer for Creation Sunday. “If I can’t trust the plain meaning of the Bible in Genesis because of the all-natural presuppositions of science, why should I trust it when it speaks of a Virgin birth, water turning into wine, the resurrection of Christ, or any other supernatural claim in the Bible?” Breeden told Christian News Network. “It’s a slippery slope and it undermines the foundational basis of the Gospel itself.”

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John Kerry Uses Scripture to Support Protecting Muslims from Global Warming  Secretary of State John Kerry recently used scripture to defend protecting Muslims from global warming. At a ceremony to appoint Texas attorney Shaarik Zafar as a special representative to Muslim communities, Kerry said that Muslim countries are vulnerable to climate change.

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Religious and Secular Advocates Urge IRS to Clarify Rules on Political Endorsements from the Pulpit  Religious and secular advocacy groups jointly called Thursday (Jan. 29) for greater clarity by the Internal Revenue Service regarding nonprofits and political activity. In a rare combined front, leaders of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, Alliance Defending Freedom, Public Citizen and the Center for American Progress met at the National Press Club to discuss ways the tax agency could better help nonprofits know what they can and cannot do under the law. “Something needs to change,” said Dan Busby, president of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. “We agree that clear and brighter lines must be adopted.” In 2013, a commission appointed by the ECFA issued a 91-page report recommending that clergy should be able to say “whatever they believe is appropriate” from the pulpit without fear of IRS reprisal. Current IRS rules, dating to 1954, permit clergy to address issues but prohibit candidate endorsements. But those rules are routinely broken with little or no consequence.

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Georgia Deputy Says He Was Fired for Hosting Bible Study for Former Inmates  A sheriff’s deputy in Georgia says that he was fired for hosting a Bible study that sought to help former inmates change their lives.  Josh McCuen, who worked at the Hall County jail, said he started the Bible study for former inmates after God gave him “a love for the lost.” The Bible study was held off of jail premises, Christian News Network reports.  McCuen told reporters, “It was to help rehabilitate spiritually the guys who are pretty much coming out of jail.”  The deputy also began raising money to place Bibles in the jail cells, a ministry he called Revival 172. After hosting the Bible study for less than a month, McCuen was told to resign or be fired for violating the jail policy of “fraternizing,” with inmates. McCuen said that he did not violate any policies and believes that he was targeted for his Christian faith.

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Atheists strike out, again, over ‘under ‘God’  A judge in New Jersey has tossed out a lawsuit alleging the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance are unconstitutional under the New Jersey Constitution. The American Humanist Association sued the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District arguing that portraying belief in a god, as synonymous with patriotism, implies that nonbelievers are less patriotic. The American Legion sought the services of the Liberty Institute to have the suit dismissed.Liberty senior counsel Roger Byron says the organization is grateful the lawsuit was tossed. “It avoids wasting more time and resources on a meritless lawsuit,” he tells OneNewsNow. He says the atheists tried the same thing in Massachusetts and lost there as well, which makes one question why they failed to “get the message” that “meritless attacks” fail in state courts.

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Student reprimanded for saying “God Bless America” A Florida high school student was disciplined after a national atheist organization took offense when he concluded the morning announcements by saying “God Bless America.”

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Students opposed to LGBT agenda shamed in classroom  Teenagers at a California high school were publicly shamed for disagreeing with speakers allowed to push an LGBT agenda during an English class, according to several upset parents.

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Marquette University Suspends Professor Who Objected after Student was Forbidden from Opposing Gay Marriage   A Marquette University professor has been suspended from his teaching position after writing a blog that criticized another professor who prohibited a student from expressing views supporting traditional marriage.  Christian Today reports that John McAdams, a professor of 37 years, received a letter of suspension from Dean Richard Holtz that said he will be banned from campus and suspended with pay until the establishment concludes an investigation.

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Ben Carson Placed on ‘Extremist’ Watch List by Southern Poverty Law Center  A legal advocacy group has labelled potential presidential candidate Ben Carson an “extremist,” according to reports. The nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) assigned Carson the label for his support of biblical marriage, which the group calls “anti-LGBT.”

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What Obama Doesn’t Seem to Get about the Crusades  The Crusades may have happened 1000 years ago, but they’re headline news once again. President Obama’s statement above compared the Crusades with the recent actions of Islamic terrorists, drawing a collective gasp from Christians everywhere.

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 ISIS-to-Iraqi-Christians-Obey-Pay-or-Leave  BARTILLA, Iraq — Throughout its Iraq campaign, ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) has targeted Christians. Many fled to the relative safety of Kurdish Iraq, but most still fear the wrath of the world’s most brutal jihadist group.

Pastor Majeed, CBN News’ guide, drove with us toward Nineveh where most of the country’s besieged Christians have fled. It wasn’t long until we went as far as the Kurdish army, called the Peshmerga, would allow us to go. “So this is the end line. We cannot go any more,” Majeed explained. To travel beyond the town of Bartilla is to risk running into the ISIS. The jihadist group controls the mountains not far from the town. A few kilometers down the road, there’s an ISIS checkpoint. About 25,000 Christians have fled to Bartilla, but CBN News couldn’t find one who would talk on camera out of fear of retribution. The conditions in Bartilla are abysmal. There’s no water because ISIS turned it off.  And there’s no electricity because Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki’s government turned that off. People here are protected by the Peshmerga, who have set up a perimeter around the town and a few other towns in the area. These people know that ISIS could come in and kill most of the people here. They’re asking for prayer from Christians around the world. One Christian leader said they’re asking for prayer just as the Apostle Paul did, praying that God will protect the town and the region. Bartilla lies just a few miles from Nineveh or Mosul, the first major conquest for ISIS just a few days ago. The town was nearly deserted. While Christians refused to talk on camera, CBN News talked to one of the house church leaders. On our way back to the Kurdish capital, Erbil, Pastor Majeed told us when ISIS captured Nineveh, it gave Christian residents three choices: obey, pay or leave. “That they are not allowed to open their churches. And even if they open them they will burn the churches,” Majeed explained. “And also the Christians have been requested — been asked to pay the tax [dhimmi, the tax for non-Muslims under Islamic rule].” “If not, they can leave Nineveh,” he continued. “And if they don’t leave and don’t pay the tax, they should give their heads.”  He was talking about beheading

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Jesus-Republicans-and-NRA-banned-on-school-website One of the lessons that Andrew Lampart learned from being on his school’s debate team was to gather facts for both sides of an argument. So last month when his law class was instructed to prepare for a debate on gun control, Andrew went online using the school’s Internet service. “I knew it was important to get facts for both sides of the case,” said the 18-year-old at Nonnewaug High School in Woodbury, Connecticut. Andrew decided to set aside his debate preparation and started researching other conservative websites. He soon discovered that he had unfettered access to liberal websites, but conservative websites were blocked. When Andrew tried to log onto the National Rifle Association’s website, he realized there was a problem – a big problem. “Their website was blocked,” he told me. Andrew decided to try the Second Amendment Foundation’s website. That too, was blocked. His curiosity got the best of him – so Andrew tried logging on to several pro-gun control websites. Imagine his surprise when he discovered the pro-gun control websites were not blocked. “I became curious as to why one side was blocked and the other side was not,” he said. Andrew decided to set aside his debate preparation and started researching other conservative websites. He soon discovered that he had unfettered access to liberal websites, but conservative websites were blocked. For example, the Connecticut Republican Party website was blocked. The Connecticut Democratic Party website was not blocked. National Right to Life was blocked, but Planned Parenthood was not blocked. Connecticut Family, a pro-traditional marriage group, was blocked, but LGBT Nation was not blocked.

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workplace-employment-religious-discrimination-research As a Christian and social researcher, I have heard many stories over the years of religious discrimination in the workplace. Some are compelling and troubling, others are trivial and frivolous. And it seems like the workplace climate may be getting worse: the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) considered 3,721 religious discrimination complaints in 2013, up from 1,709 in 1997.  But the EEOC drops about four in ten of those complaints—a figure that’s remarkably stable across religions. One big reason is that discrimination can be surprisingly difficult to prove. If a member of a social group is treated badly, is it because of their social group? Was he laid off because his boss was tired of giving him Sundays off? Was she reassigned because customers were wary of being served by a Muslim in a headscarf? Were they discriminated against, or do bad things just happen? I started wondering: How bad is religious discrimination in America, really? Horror stories abound. But are they examples of a systemic problem, or a few bad actors? Do some groups have it worse than others? My colleague Michael Wallace and I conducted a large-scale field study to test for religious discrimination in one area of public life: the job application process. We found that not only is religious discrimination alive and well, it is so strong that simply adding one word to a résumé—a reference to a particular religion—reduced employer callbacks by almost 40 percent. What 9,600 Résumés Reveal:

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War on Christians Increasing For at least three reasons, the contemporary persecution of Christians demands attention: It is occurring on a massive scale, it is underreported, and in many parts of the world it is rapidly growing. The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life finds that Christians are suffering persecution in more places today than any other religious group; between 2006 and 2012, Pew says, they were targeted for harassment in 151 countries-three-quarters of the world’s states. Similar findings are reported by the Vatican, Newsweek, the Economist, and the 60-year-old Christian support group Open Doors. Most people in the West are unaware of these facts, though that may be changing. A few cases do get press coverage-the desperate plight of Meriam Ibrahim, for instance, who gave birth in a Sudanese prison just the other day. She was raised a Christian, but after officials learned that her long-absent father was a Muslim; she was sentenced to death for apostasy-for leaving Islam. And since in Sudan a Muslim woman may not be married to a Christian, her marriage to her American husband was declared void, and she was convicted of adultery and sentenced to 100 lashes to be administered before her execution. These punishments will be dropped if she renounces her Christian faith, which she steadfastly refuses to do.
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550-Egyptian-Christian-girls-kidnapped-and-forced-into-islam-since-2011 A new report from the Association of Victims of Abduction and Forced Disappearance (AVAFD) states that more than 550 Egyptian Christian women and girls have been kidnapped since 2011. The kidnapped women are then forced to adopt Islam and marry their captors.  The AVAFD reported that the women’s ages ranged from 14 to 40. Many of the women are raped; many are not even sought after by police. Authorities instead claim the women left their families by choice.  Police did not get involved with 14-year-old Nadia Makram’s case, though her family told police the name of her captor.  AVAFD founder, Ebram Louis said that kidnappings have increased in Egypt since Hosni Mubarak fell from power. “Before the revolution, five or six girls would disappear each month. Now the average is 15.”

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duck-dynasty-controversy-rocks-air-force-base A union representing federal employees at Eglin Air Force base in Florida is demanding that two senior management officials be removed from their posts because they put decals on their personal trucks supporting Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson. Alan Cooper, the executive vice president of the local chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees, said one of the officials also displayed the “I Support Phil” decals in his office last month and offered them to subordinates. “The BUE (bargaining union employee) was clearly offended and disgusted that a senior management official would display the decal on their pod,” read an email Cooper wrote. “We took offense,” Cooper told me in a telephone interview. “These two particular individuals have a great amount of influence over individuals who may be gay, who may be African-American – and we have a concern they should not be in a position to exert that influence when it comes to promotions.”In an email that was sent to union members, Cooper said the Duck Dynasty decal may be a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. “Phil Robertson has made disparaging remarks against a vast array of people, which created a firestorm in the media in the recent past,” Cooper wrote.

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Common Core dumbs down government schools. There is growing concern that the controversial Common Core Standards could lead to a dumbing down of college courses.Brittany Corona of The Heritage Foundation says experts who are looking at Common Core are concluding it is “subpar” and dumbing things down. She points to Dr. Sandra Stotsky (see video below), a respected education reformer known for her expertise on English Language Arts. Stotsky quit the Core’s language arts committee over the emphasis on informational texts and a diminished focus on traditional and classical literature. “We are a very naive people,” Stotsky told Breitbart News last January. “Everyone was willing to believe that the Common Core standards are ‘rigorous,’ ‘competitive,’ ‘internationally benchmarked,’ and ‘research-based.’ They are not.” The same Breitbart story also noted that David Coleman, an early leader of Common Core, plans to “ensure that the SAT, ACT, AP, and GED exams are all aligned with the Common Core standards.” Coleman was elected president of the College Board, which oversees college entrance standards, in 2012.Corona says Common Core is “not something for kids to be aspiring to. Everything’s being conformed to these mediocre standards.”

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Bowdoin college will no longer recognize evangelical group An evangelical group at Bowdoin College will no longer be recognized by the university, after 40 years of gathering for Bible study, prayer and worship. The Bowdoin Christian Fellowship has lost its privileges to be acknowledged by the college for the group’s refusal to adhere to the school’s anti-discrimination policy. According to the policy, any student, regardless of religious affiliation, should be permitted to run for election as leader of a group. But the Bowdoin Christian Fellowship believes that only students who adhere to Christian values should be allowed to lead reports the New York Times.   “It would compromise our ability to be who we are as Christians if we can’t hold our leaders to some sort of doctrinal standard,” said former Bowdoin Christian Fellowship leader Zackary Suhr. The group currently has 25 regular members. They plan to continue to meet informally in the fall, though the organization no longer will have access to certain buildings on campus; advisers have already had their keys revoked.  Students expressed their disappointment with the college’s decision. “It’s hard socially to find people on this campus who make faith a strong part of their identity — people who really understand me and who I can really be open with. This group has been a tremendous resource for me.” said former leader Reid Wilson.

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Shocker: Christian movie goers demand accuracy for biblical films. A survey has concluded that Christian moviegoers want to see films that are biblically accurate. The poll, conducted by Christian News Service and American Insights, found that “historical and biblical accuracy is important” to most Christians. “This poll was conducted for the purpose of guiding the film and television industry in its production of both historically-based films and movies that explore questions about God. The results clearly show that the public will not be toyed with in regard to accuracy in both biblical and historical accounts,” said president and CEO of Christian News Service Russ Jones.

Specific findings of the survey included the following:

• 79 percent of Christian respondents indicated the importance of biblical accuracy for Christian films
• 74 percent of Christian respondents said they are likely to see a Christian film
• 80 percent of Christian respondents said they were interested to the the coming “Exodus” film if it is biblically accurate
• If “Exodus” does not follow scripture, only 29 percent of Christian respondents were interested in viewing the film

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Atheist group Angry about Christian Adam and Eve theme park DES MOINES, Iowa –  A park planned in Sioux City is getting national attention. The Shepherd’s Garden, a Christian-themed park, was recently was awarded $140,000 from the state through a Vision Iowa grant. It’s meant to “assist projects that will provide recreational, cultural, entertainment and educational attractions.” The money would go towards building and planting green spaces in the park, but not for any religious symbols. But the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation is fighting the funding, saying using public money to promote Christian ideals violates the First Amendment of the Constitution. What’s more, according to the foundation, the grant would violate Iowa’s own constitution, which “prohibits funding of religious spaces.” “The whole park’s purpose is religious which means the government can’t be supporting it at all, any part of it,” said FFRF attorney Andrew Seidel. Seidel penned a letter to Cathy Reece, chairwoman of the Iowa Economic Development Authority, which manages Vision Iowa, calling for the funding to be rescinded. The Shepherd’s Garden fundraising brochure quotes Psalm 23 as a guide for the park and invites donors to “create a legacy to the ongoing role the Christian faith has had in shaping the life of this community.” The garden’s brochure goes on to say, “Shepherd’s Garden is more than a park, it has been conceived and designed to be a visible reminder that God’s presence is not confined to sacred institutions and buildings, but is very much a part of the public sphere.”

Missouri Principal Angers Atheists with God References A Missouri high school principal who garnered thunderous applause and a starring role in a viral video for a commencement speech in which he repeatedly invoked God in ways to dodge First Amendment objections has atheists seeing red. Lebanon High School Principal Kevin Lowery can be seen on a 3-minute YouTube clip reminding graduates that the nation’s motto of “In God We Trust” can be found on U.S. currency and in Francis Scott Key’s original version of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Lowery also wryly noted during the May 23 commencement that even though “God is reflected in the very fabric” of the nation, it would be inappropriate to mention The Almighty at a secular ceremony. “So while it would not be politically correct for us to have an official prayer this evening, I would like for us to have a moment of silence in honor of tonight’s graduates,” Lowery told students. “Thank you. And just in case you’re interested, during my moment of silence, I gave thanks to God for these great students, their parents, their teachers and for this community.”

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nearly-50-percent-of-Americans-Support-Creationism-says-new-poll-/ A Gallup poll released earlier this week suggests that nearly 50 percent of Americans continue to believe that God created human beings “in present form” in the past 10,000 years. According to Gallup’s report, 42 percent of Americans assert this perspective, a figure which has stayed relatively consistent since the question was first asked in 1982, when 44 percent of respondents agreed with it. (It peaked in 1994 and 1999 with 47 percent.) Thirty-one percent of Americans agreed with the statement that affirmed that God guided an evolutionary process from which humans evolved; only 19 percent of those surveyed said that the evolutionary process was devoid of the divine.

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Baker forced to bake wedding cake for Lesbian couple and undergo reeducation training A family owned bakery has been ordered to make wedding cakes for gay couples and guarantee that its staff be given comprehensive training on Colorado’s anti-discrimination laws after the state’s Civil Rights Commission determined the Christian baker violated the law by refusing to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. Jack Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, in Lakewood, Colorado was directed to change his store policies immediately and force his staff to attend the training sessions. For the next two years, Phillips will also be required to submit quarterly reports to the commission to confirm that he has not turned away customers based on their sexual orientation.

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Drive Through Prayer Lanes Spreading “People go to Dunkin’ Donuts for coffee, not because it’s the best coffee, but because it’s the most convenient.  In a similar way, this is a port of entry for somebody to begin to connect with God in an intentional kind of way.”  So explains the pastor of the latest church to open a drive-through lane for people seeking prayer. Churches from Florida to Kansas and Illinois to California are picking up the trend.  One purchased a nearby bank building, staffed it with volunteers, and opened for people to drive through.  The church uses the bank’s deposit tube for people who want to write down their prayer requestsrather than speak to a church member.  The strategy is working.  People have asked volunteers to pray for family members and other problems; one woman asked the church to pray for her daughter, who had moved to Israel and was entering the Israeli army.  When I first read about this phenomenon, I agreed with a critic who warned that it “reinforces this idea of prayer being more like a vending machine.  We drive up to the window, make our selection, put in our order, and get our request fulfilled.  That’s a self-serving distortion of the Christian experience.”  Upon reflection, I realized that the same can be said of any prayer request, whenever and however we make it.  Transactional religion has been with us since the first supplicant made the first sacrifice to his or her deity for the purpose of being blessed as a result.

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President Obama Proclaims Jun-LGBT Month Celebrates Extending Immigration Family Benefits to Gay Couples President Barack Obama on Friday proclaimed June as being the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender pride month, after celebrating that his administration is also extending family and immigration benefits to legally married gay couples and calling for more freedoms for gays in the workplace. “I, Barack Obama, president of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2014 as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender pride month,” declared Obama in remarks released by the White House Friday. “I call upon the people of the United States to eliminate prejudice everywhere it exists, and to celebrate the great diversity of the American people,” he added. Before making the declaration, Obama highlighted some key victories of the LGBT activist lobby made possible under his administration.

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Church pulls ‘hell’ sign after police probe A Baptist church agreed to take down a sign about hell after police investigated the message as a “hate incident,” reports the Daily Mail. A passerby in Norfolk, England, complained about the sign, which said non-Christians would “burn in hell,” and showed flames below the words, “If you think there is no God you better be right!”

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US Seeks to Promote Historic LGBT sites as National Monuments (Fresno Bee / Worthy News)– The National Park Service is launching an initiative to make places and people of significance to the history of lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual Americans part of the national narrative. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell is convening a panel of 18 scholars next month that will be charged with exploring the LGBT movement’s story in areas such as law, religion, media, civil rights and the arts. The committee will identify relevant sites and its work will be used to evaluate them for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, designation as National Historic Landmarks, or consideration as national monuments, Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis said.

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VA Hospital Hides Jesus Behind Curtain I may have figured out why the Department of Veterans Affairs had such difficulty finding time to treat patients. It’s because it was working overtime to give its chapels a religiously neutral makeover. But as VA officials in Iron Mountain, Mich., learned, one man’s renovation is another man’s desecration. Some folks in Iron Mountain became infuriated earlier this month when they discovered that statues of Jesus and Mary, along with a cross and altar, were hidden behind a curtain in the chapel of the VA hospital there. The chapel still has stained glass windows, though for how long is unclear. A VA hospital spokesman told me they are still trying to figure out what to do with the windows. The decision to hide the religious icons came after the National Chaplain Center conducted an on-site inspection and determined the hospital’s chapel was not in compliance with government regulations. Richard Riley, pastor of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, called the move “exceedingly disappointed.”

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Pro-life-group-excluded-from-peace-parade-for-being-pro-life Rochester, NY (LiveActionNews) —Every year in Rochester, NY, an organization called Metro Justice holds a Peace Parade on Memorial Day . The organization claims to fight for “economic, social, and racial justice,” but their efforts have been compromised in the past where the pre-born are involved. The pro-life organization Feminists for Nonviolent Choices (FFNVC) became a victim of Metro Justice’s dichotomous view of peace when they were excluded from the organization’s peace parade earlier this week.

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United Methodist Church may split over homosexuality A divide may be imminent for the United Methodist Church, as the denomination cannot reconcile differences over homosexuality.  Religion News Service reports 80 UMC pastors believe that the split cannot be avoided, even by agreeing to disagree on gay matters.  “We can no longer talk about schism as something that might happen in the future. Schism has already taken place in our connection,” Rev. Maxie Dunnam, former president of Asbury Theological Seminary said.

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california-bill-modernizes-birth-certificates-for-gay-parents A California bill that allows gay parents to identify as “parent” instead of “mother” or “father” on birth certificates was passed by the state assembly. The bill also allows multiple people to be listed as parents on birth certificates, with no limit given. The bill seeks to adhere to the shifting definition of family in society. “The definition of a family needs to be more flexible, and same-sex parents should not be discriminated against when filling out a birth certificate,” said Democrat Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez.

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stand-with-civility-but-stand Civility counts for a great deal in a society in which representative self-government means substantial and sometimes grave differences of opinion.  No country divided by opposing opinions can survive if its citizens take up arms against one another due to political disagreements.  A certain war waged on our soil from 1861-1865 proves it. My friends and colleagues in the conservative movement are right to call for civility in public discourse.  Talking beats violence, no question.  I once heard the late Israeli diplomat Abba Eban say that he would even negotiate with then-Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi should the latter ever “experience an isolated spasm of lucidity.”  Good counsel, that. Yet some of our philosophical and political opponents don’t want civil conversation in which views are presented and arguments made with respect and clarity.  They want either our acquiescence or our suppression. “Civility” can be a cloak used to mask an agenda of dominance.  Agree with me, or give-in to my viewpoint, and you’re a nice, civil person.  Disagree, and you’re either stupid or evil – and, either way, uncivil. “Those who talk most about civility,” wrote Richard John Neuhaus in his landmark work, The Naked Public Square, “usually define it in terms of their accustomed way of doing things.  ‘Their way of doing things means they continue to be in control.  We mean to take over – nicely, if possible, but if that’s not possible, well, civility is not the highest of the virtues.’” In the past few days, we have witnessed two dramatic events demonstrating that many on the Left don’t really want civility in discourse or tolerance of difference.  They want conquest.  They want to shut-up their opponents through whatever means necessary short of actual, physical attacks, and are more than glad to take advantage of an incoherent judiciary to obtain what they desire.

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More Lies from the Religion of Peace Islamic deceit strikes again. Delegates from the Council on American-Islamic Relations visit a chapter of the Franciscan Sisters. And tell a pack of lies CAIR and ISNA (Islamic Society of North America) were unindicted co-conspirators of the Holy Land Foundation, a front organization for Hamas, a designated, chartered terrorist group. They are no different from the Muslims who are killing Christians and Jews throughout the world; the same as Boko Haram that kidnapped, converted and killed the female students in Nigeria; the same as those who burned to death male students just weeks before; and the same as those who recently destroyed entire villages in Nigeria, burned down 200 homes and butchered 16 while intoning Allahu Akbar. They differ only in their attire.

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God alive and well in the Military ‘God’s still working in the military,’ Navy chaplain says FORT WORTH (BP) — After 40 days and 40 nights in the Kuwaiti desert, the First Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment crossed the line of departure into harm’s way in Iraq on March 20, 2003 — the start of what would become known as Operation Iraqi Freedom. “We had the first man killed in action in the whole war in our unit and fought what many believe is the most decisive battle in the fall of Baghdad,” said Carey Cash, a Navy chaplain assigned to the regiment. Yet in the midst of physical war, a spiritual battle for the lives of these Marines was already underway as God brought revival to the unit. In the battalion of 1,000 men, Cash said, “about one out of four had a profound spiritual awakening.”

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Eradication-of-christianity-in-northern-cameroon “There are no Christians anymore in Gorea. The light of the gospel of Jesus Christ is quenched in that village,” Pastor Leon Badoka*tearfully shared with an Open Doors worker. “It is a (spiritual) war that Christians should have won, but now some of the Christians have betrayed us and joined our persecutors. The church in Gorea will probably be transformed into a mosque. This is the result of a determined process to eradicate Christianity in the area. The same is happening in other villages across the north.” Over the past year, Muslims have waged a fierce intimidation campaign against Christians in Gorea, sending anonymous written threats to kill them and burn down their churches. In April 2013, local teens carried out the threats, setting the church ablaze and scattering the Christians Though some of the Christians returned a few weeks later, it seems that the pressure has now simply become too much. Many of them, including two church officials, have followed the example of a church elder who rejected Christ by embracing Islam last year.

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Church-of-Scotland-to-debate-ordination-of-gay-people EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND (Worthy News)– Last year, the Church of Scotland’s

General Assembly decided that it couldn’t condone same-sex marriages or civil partnerships, yet its commissioners approved a proposal that allowed individual congregations to hire gay ministers while the assembly continues to debate their ordination. “The General Assembly reaffirmed biblical teaching that same-sex civil partnerships are wrong, but then allowed ministers who are gay in,” David Robertson — a Free Church minister in Dundee — told Christian Today. “It confused people and made a laughing stock of the Church here.” As a result, many congregations have opted to leave the Church of Scotland and join churches that ban homosexual clergy. Robertson said this trend will likely continue.

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Aclj offers to defend school districts that face aclu challenges for displaying God bless America Washington, DC) The American Center for Law and Justice, an international public interest law firm, said today it is offering legal services to defend a California school district that has been told by the ACLU to remove a sign that includes the message God Bless America.  At the same time, the ACLJ announced today it is offering to defend any school district or student organization in America that desires to display God Bless America in schools. At a time when America desires to exhibit patriotism, the ACLU sees fit to undermine the constitution by attempting to exert a heavy hand of censorship, said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the ACLJ. The ACLU is out of step with the law and is reacting in a manner that is totally absurd and irresponsible. The message God Bless America is constitutionally protected speech and the ACLUs legal analysis is both skewed and very troubling. Suspect 22-Y-O Elliot Rodger Pledged ‘Retribution’ for Rejection by Females

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7 Dead in Calif Shooting Rampage Seven people are now dead including the suspected gunman Elliot Rodger, 22, after he went on a bloody 10-minute shooting rampage in the Southern California college town of Isla Vista, which also left seven others injured. According to The New York Times, the gunman is the son of a Hollywood director identified by CNN as Peter Rodger who directed the 2012 film “Hunger Games.” He was discovered dead with a bullet in his head after his black BMW crashed. It is unclear if the bullet was self-inflicted or the result of a shootout with police in Isla Vista near the University of California, Santa Barbara. Alan Shifman, a lawyer for the gunman’s parents, said his clients expressed concern to police about a month ago over their son’s YouTube videos “regarding suicide and the killing of people.” Police, according to the parents, interviewed their son and concluded he was not a threat. They found him a “perfectly polite, kind and wonderful human.”

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CNN Video

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Shooter Video

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Pastor Cruz: There is an attack on Christianity in America (CNSNews.com) – Rev. Rafael Cruz, director of Purifying Fire Ministries and father of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), said the Christian church in America is under attack “more and more every day,” and noted that many pastors are afraid of losing their tax-exempt status if they speak out on political issues.

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Franklin Graham “Christians are under attack from Islam (CNSNews.com) – Rev. Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham and head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, said “Christians are under attack by Islam” and that “radical” Islam has nothing to do with it because “it’s just what it is.” Speaking at the  Watchmen on the Wall National Pastor’s Briefing in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, Rev. Graham said,  “The church around the world is under attack. Christians are under attack by Islam.  They keep using this word ‘radical.’ It’s not radical, it’s just what it is.”

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The irony of tolerance that doesn’t tolerate Christians When it comes to same-sex “marriage,” our culture just like our president, has definitely evolved. After all, it was only in 2008 that a strong majority in California—yes, California—passed Proposition 8 which defined marriage as between one man and one woman. But when our president changed his mind a few months before the 2012 election, the cultural floodgates opened, particularly in the American workplace. Later that summer, Chick-fil-A faced angry boycotts when CEO Dan Cathy’s views and donations in favor of traditional marriage became public knowledge. The workplace pressure has only continued. Christian bakers and photographers who do not want to participate in what they consider to be a sin have been fined and faced being shut down. Attempts to protect their religious liberty, such as Arizona’s State Bill 1062, have been crushed through threats of economic boycotts and media shaming. More high-profile voices have also faced this smash-mouth, brass-knuckle treatment. Just weeks ago Brendan Eich, the accomplished founder and CEO of search-engine company Mozilla, was forced to resign when he was “outed” for donating all of $1,000 to Proposition 8 eight years ago. We’ve all heard what A&E tried to do to Duck Dynasty when Phil Robertson indelicately expressed his disapproval of the “gay lifestyle.” And more recently, the Home and Garden TV network canned the Benham brothers, David and Jason, for their supposed “anti-gay” and “anti-choice” beliefs. Apparently one cannot even host a home-improvement show if one does not also parrot the new sexual orthodoxy. And then there’s the case of Miami Dolphins football player Don Jones. When the Dolphins selected gay athlete and cause celebre Michael Sam in the seventh round of the NFL draft, the celebratory kiss with his boyfriend was shown repeatedly on television. Jones reacted by tweeting “OMG” and “Horrible.” The Dolphins immediately suspended him and ordered him to undergo sensitivity training. Sensitivity training? Re-education? What is this, Communist China?

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court upheld prayer at meetings After last week’s 5-4 decision upholding Christian prayer at government meetings, courts are taking on cases that challenge crosses displayed in public places. The crosses in question include the Memorial Peace Cross in Prince George’s County, Maryland, a memorial for those who died in World War I, and the Mount Soledad cross in San Diego, which Congress calls a national war memorial.

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Professors sue Bryan college over biblical creation-account DAYTON, Tenn. – Two professors are suing Bryan College because their teaching contracts were not renewed when they refused to agree with the school’s literal interpretation of the Genesis creation. As previously reported, Bryan College in Tennessee continues to grapple with an evolution/creation debate which has divided many students and faculty members. The controversy began earlier this year when the conservative Christian school clarified its statement of belief to affirm the literal historicity of Adam and Eve.

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How many teens are leaving the church? According to Lifeway’s multi-year study, in fact, the number of teens who leave the church comes to about 70%. This mainly clusters around teens from 16–19. But, in what may come as a surprise, two-thirds do ultimately return after a “hiatus.” The researchers also found that most of the teens didn’t set out to reject the church or the theology of their parents; they simply drifted away. They no longer found church to be important.

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Link to Answers in Genesis Ministries

Link to CNS News

E-Sword bible software

The Word.Net bible software

lumina.bible.org/bible/ bible study website

biblestudytools.com Bible study resource

Theopedia.com/ Encyclopedia of theologyApologetics Press.org

Creation.com/ YEC Creationist science and theology site

Worthynews.com/ Christian news service

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