Pope Francis Creates Panel to Process ‘Backlog’ of Appeals From Priests Accused of Sexual Abuse

By Michael Gryboski , Christian Post Reporter – November 12, 2014

The Vatican announced Tuesday that Pope Francis will set up a panel to help process the “backlog” of appeals from priests who’ve been accused of committing sexual abuse against minors. The new judicial body, or college, will be overseen by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

“Hearing the appeals is a very important job, especially those on abuse of minors, and the backlog of cases is at risk of absorbing all the time of the congregation,” Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi told The Tablet, a Catholic news weekly.

“[The accused] shall have his case examined by the whole body of members of the congregation, the ordinary session, which may also examine other specific cases upon papal request, and/or examine cases referred to it by the newly created college,” he added.

The new college will mostly focus on appeals from defrocked priests, according to Reuters, which reports that “Under the changes, the new commission would handle appeals while an existing office in the doctrinal department would continue to handle initial cases. The Vatican said earlier this year that between 2004 and 2013, it had defrocked about 850 priests who had been accused of sexual abuse of minors.”

(more…)

Continue ReadingPope Francis Creates Panel to Process ‘Backlog’ of Appeals From Priests Accused of Sexual Abuse

National Cathedral Hosts Islamic Prayers; Lone Protester Interrupts Service

By Stephanie Samuel , Christian Post Reporter – November 14, 2014

UPDATE: 3:31 p.m. The Muslim prayer service held at the Washington National Cathedral was briefly disrupted by a protester, according to a local NBC report.

“Jesus Christ died on that cross over there!” a woman said loudly, immediately after announcements at the beginning of the service were made. “He is the reason why we are to worship only him. Jesus Christ is our lord and savior!”

According to the NBC report, she continued, “We have built, and allowed you here in mosques across this country. Why can’t you worship in your mosque, and leave our churches alone?”

The protester was then escorted out of the cathedral, News4’s Kristin Wright reported. She was removed without incident, but she continued her protest once she was taken to an adjoining space. 

The Episcopal church set in Washington, D.C. altered its visitor tour schedule in order to host traditional Islamic Friday prayers called Jumu’ah. The service was led by South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool, and held in the Cathedral’s north transept, an area considered “almost mosque-like” because of its arches and limited iconography.

(more…)

Continue ReadingNational Cathedral Hosts Islamic Prayers; Lone Protester Interrupts Service

Lifeway Study: Almost a Quarter of American Families Have Turned to Church Food Pantries for Help

By Stephanie Samuel , Christian Post Reporter – November 26, 2014

A September Lifeway Research survey reveals that nearly a quarter of Americans have received food from a church-run food pantry. Minorities and churchgoers commonly benefit from church pantries, according to the survey.

The Nashville-based Christian research firm polled 1,158 respondents about church food pantries and found that 22 percent said they have relied on a church program to feed their families. Of those who have received food from a church pantry, 26 percent were churchgoers. Over a third identified as evangelical.

More than one in three church pantry users (37 percent) were African Americans, 25 percent were Hispanic while 19 percent of the pantry users were Caucasian.

Scott McConnell, vice president of LifeWay Research, said of the survey’s results, “There is an abundance of food in the U.S., but plenty of people still go hungry.”

Some 50 million Americans struggle to put food on the table, according to national food bank network Feeding America.

(more…)

Continue ReadingLifeway Study: Almost a Quarter of American Families Have Turned to Church Food Pantries for Help

The Church’s Responsibility to Address Male Violence Against Women

September 09, 2014

Male violence against women is a real problem in our culture, one the church must address. Our responsibility here is not simply at the level of social justice but at the level of ecclesical justice as well.

We must teach from our pulpits, our Sunday school classes, and our Vacation Bible Schools that women are to be cherished, honored, and protected by men. This means we teach men to reject American playboy consumerism in light of a Judgment Seat at which they will give account for their care for their families. It means we explicitly tell the women in our congregations, “A man who hits you has surrendered his headship, and that is the business both of the civil state in enacting public justice and of this church in enacting church discipline.”

Church discipline against wife-beaters must be clear and consistent. We must stand with women against predatory men in all areas of abandonment, divorce, and neglect. We must train up men, through godly mentoring as well as through biblical instruction, who will know that the model of a husband is a man who crucifies his selfish materialism, his libidinal fantasies, and his wrathful temper tantrums in order to care lovingly for a wife. We must also remind these young men that every idle word, and every hateful act, will be laid out in judgment before the eyes of the One to whom we must give an answer.

(more…)

Continue ReadingThe Church’s Responsibility to Address Male Violence Against Women

Prayer Service outside the Lindt Chocolate Melbourne

Dear friends & family,

Wflowers outside Lindte are so pleased to say that the Prayer Service outside the Lindt Chocolate outlet last Sunday afternoon was very successful.
It was very moving and touched many lives including the café staff, people passing by and even some of the police officers.
Around 100 people gathered to show their love and compassion to the families of the two victims of the hostage crisis. We also prayed for those who had been held hostage, and the thousands who watched it on TV and were traumatized.
Complete strangers stood side by side with us and sang “Amazing Grace”, and with tears they joined in to unite as one.

There was a clear message to those who do not love peace, nor the freedoms we enjoy.
That they will not be able to take it away from us.
The Bible states in 1 John 4 : 18 “Perfect love drives out all fear”. I feel this is so true, the feeling of love demonstrated by the people gathered was far greater than the hatred shown by the Islamic hostage-taker who was killed by the police.
Ps Daniel stated, “It is so good to take church to the streets and meet people at their point of need. the feedback was very encouraging”.
One of the police officers came up to us at the end of the service and said:

“Thank you so very much for doing this service. I was listening to you guys, it was very touching. You need to do more vigils like this, we hope we were able to assist you. Please contact us any time you need and keep up the good work.” (more…)

Continue ReadingPrayer Service outside the Lindt Chocolate Melbourne

Majority of Americans Recognize Christ in Christmas

Charisma News – Melanie Korb

While some “grinches” try to secularize Christmas and remove any mention of Christ from Christmas, the majority of Americans still celebrate the “reason for the season.”

According to Rassmusen Reports, 78 percent of Americans believe that Jesus is the Son of God who came to earth to die for our sins; 79 percent of Americans say religious holidays should be celebrated in public schools, and 70 percent prefer “Merry Christmas” to “Happy Holidays” on store signs.

The majority of Americans believe that Christmas should be celebrated in public schools. Public schools are not religion-free zones. Classroom discussion of the religious aspects of the holidays is permissible. A holiday display in a classroom may include a nativity scene or other religious imagery, so long as the context also includes secular symbols.

A choral performance may include religious songs. Indeed, the majority of the songs may be religious, so long as the performance also includes secular holiday songs. If the students select their own songs, there is no requirement that the songs include secular numbers. (more…)

Continue ReadingMajority of Americans Recognize Christ in Christmas

Iran: forget the negotiations, Khamenei just wants to annihilate Israel

November 15, 2014, – The Times of Israel

If you invite someone you want to befriend over for dinner and, as soon as he enters your house, he kicks your cat, spits on the floor and punches your son in the face, you suddenly realize that you have made a mistake.

On the contrary, when Ayatollah Khamenei, following a letter that the US President Obama sent him as a sign of understanding and alliance, tweeted urbi et orbi his genocidal project to annihilate Israel, no reactions have been heard from the hesitant ambassadors of the P5+1 countries, which stayed in Oman in the last few days for a new round of talks on Iran’s nuclear energy program.

Even Obama did not say a word about it. But how is it possible to talk with someone who cares to explain in a 9-point list why the “Zionist regime” must be destroyed? Khamenei explains it thoroughly: “Why should the Zionist regime be eliminated? During its 66 years of life so far, the fake Zionist regime has tried to realize its goals by means of infanticide, homicide, violence and iron fist… the only means of bringing Israeli crimes to an end is the elimination of this regime”.

Then Khamenei, who affects to prefer the Jews walking away with not too much bloodshed, suggests to organize a referendum for all the Arabs and Christians (who, for the occasion, became his friends… but no Jews, please) and make them vote for the total elimination of Israel. He says he is certain that the international public opinion will gladly accept his plan, but reassures the terrorists: until that day, they are invited to keep on in their armed struggle. Khamenei tells his ferocious and obscene truth, while instructing his delegates to buy time on the nuclear issue. After all, Iran has always acted this way.

(more…)

Continue ReadingIran: forget the negotiations, Khamenei just wants to annihilate Israel

Muslims Sexually Enslaving Children: A Global Phenomenon

September 4, 2014 by Raymond Ibrahim

As shocking as the Muslim-run sex ring in Rotherham, England may seem to some—1,400 British children as young as 11 plied with drugs before being passed around and sexually abused in cabs and kabob shops—the fact is that this phenomenon is immensely widespread. In the United Kingdom alone, it’s the fifth sex abuse ring led by Muslims to be uncovered.

Some years back in Australia, a group of “Lebanese Muslim youths” were responsible for a “series of brutal gang rapes” of “Anglo-Celtic teenage girls.” A few years later in the same country, four Muslim Pakistani brothers raped at least 18 Australian women, some as young as 13. Even in the United States, a gang of Somalis—Somalia being a Muslim nation where non-Muslims, primarily Christians, are ruthlessly persecuted—was responsible for abducting, buying, selling, raping and torturing young American girls as young as 12.

The question begs itself: If Muslim minorities have no fear of exploiting “infidel” women and children in non-Muslim countries—that is, where Muslims themselves are potentially vulnerable minorities—how are Muslims throughout the Islamic world, where they are dominant, treating their vulnerable, non-Muslim minorities?

The answer is a centuries-long, continents-wide account of nonstop sexual predation. Boko Haram’s abduction and enslavement of nearly 300, mostly Christian, schoolgirls last April in Nigeria is but the tip of the iceberg.

(more…)

Continue ReadingMuslims Sexually Enslaving Children: A Global Phenomenon

Denial of Islamic fundamentalism puts us in danger

Mad-Man MonisAndrew Bolt – Herald Sun December 16, 2014 9:00PM

Iranian born Man Haron Monis outside the Dowling Centre Local Court in Sydney. Picture: Cameron Richardson

MAN Haron Monis couldn’t have done more to make the deaf hear that the terror he unleashed in Sydney was in the name of Islam.

As he walked into the Lindt coffee shop with his shotgun on Monday he wore a headband bearing the war cry: “We are ready to sacrifice for you, O Muhammad.”

The Iranian-born cleric had already fought for Islam by sending jeering letters to the families of Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan. (more…)

Continue ReadingDenial of Islamic fundamentalism puts us in danger

8 Reasons to Expect Massive Muslim Awakening

 9/18/2014 Peter Youngren

Muslim militants are committing unspeakable and barbaric atrocities. If America and its allies ever needed “boots on the ground,” that time may be now. This evil must be stopped for a host of reasons, including for the sake of Christians whose lives are threatened in Syria, Iraq and across much of the Islamic world.

Unfortunately, in this climate of fear, some are ready to write off the world’s 1.7 billion Muslims as beyond the hope of salvation, unfit for redemption and predestined to be eternal enemies of God and His gospel. To do so would be a grave error.

Scripture gives many reasons to expect a gospel awakening across the Islamic world.

1. God promised Abraham that the Arab world would know “the way of the Lord.” Abraham had at least eight sons, first Ishmael with Hagar, then Isaac with Sarah and finally six more sons with Ketura (Gen. 25:1). While Christ would come through Isaac, God promised that all of Abraham’s “children” would know the “way of the Lord,” for “I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him” (Gen.18:19). Ishmael and the sons of Ketura are forefathers to the Arab world, and God’s promise is clear that they will know the way of the Lord. That divine promise can only be fulfilled if they know Him, who said “I am the way.”

2. God promised blessing to Ishmael. “As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly….I will make him a great nation (Gen. 17:20). God promised His blessing on Ishmael. Is there any blessing apart from the knowledge of Jesus Christ? Later when Hagar and Ishmael were dying of thirst, God opened Hagar’s eyes, and “she saw a well of water.” If God cared enough to show them a spring of water to quench their physical thirst, is it not reasonable to expect God will also show Ishmael and his descendants the “living water”?

(more…)

Continue Reading8 Reasons to Expect Massive Muslim Awakening

The danger of saying ISIS is not Islam

September 16, 2014 – Liz Lightstone

So I’ve been thinking about this a lot and posted this morning on twitter about David Cameron’s comment (“they are monsters, not Muslims”). I’m very concerned by growing reprise that “Islamic State” (IS) is not Islam, that they are not Muslims. I can understand where it’s coming from but its a very dangerous form of political correctness. Clearly not all Muslims support IS, nor are all terrorists Muslim. But there is no doubt that IS say they are acting on behalf of Islam, they are Muslims and they want to establish an Islamic Caliphate.

If you detach their monstrous ideology from what we like to think of as Islam, then do you detach from the Muslim community responsibility for denouncing it? I have no problem if moderate Muslims — as some have done (albeit late in the day) — stand up and say that IS does not represent what they believe to be Islam. I similarly say that Naturei Karta, the “ultra-Orthodox” anti Zionist Jews — who by the way simply throw words, not stones, not swords and are nonviolent — do not represent Judaism in any form that I know.  But I want the moderates to stand up and say it.

More importantly, do you, by saying IS is not Islam, they’re not Muslims, detach from the Muslim community at large the responsibility for helping prevent radicalisation which we know full well goes on in certain mosques and on campuses? (It is astonishing how many campuses world wide have HUGE investment from Saudi and Qatar and huge investment in BDS, anti Israel, and radicalisation programmes.)

I am not blaming any particular Muslim community but just as I hung my head in shame when extremist Jews murdered that poor young man in Jerusalem after the death of the three Jewish teenagers, so the Muslim community worldwide must say, not that IS is an Israeli / CIA conspiracy (as Iran currently claiming) but that something is rotten within the Muslim world and it must be stopped.

(more…)

Continue ReadingThe danger of saying ISIS is not Islam

Should we still love all Muslims? – YES YES YES / Should we still cover up for Islam & the Koran? – NO NO NO – by Ps Daniel Nalliah

Dear friends & family in Christ,

One needs to first understand that “Muslims” are a group of people.  Islam is the Religion and the Koran is their text book, where they get their ideology from.

I am sure we all know that one can choose their friends and partner, but not your family or the religion you are born into.

The siege in Sydney had a very sad ending. All night I kept waking up, checking the news, and saying prayers for the hostages, their families and our security forces. I can just imagine the terror that the hostages went through for so long, and then to hear the news that two were killed, was so very sad.

I know that emotions will be running very high right now and that feelings towards Muslim people can be very negative. We must be careful however not to brand all Muslims with the same label. We need to love them and make them feel at home as many of them do not practice the Koran and have chosen to live a peaceful life.

Let me take Sri Lanka as an example. Due to racial riots, thousands lost their lives. Then because of terrorism many were killed. But since the terrorists were from the minority group, even though most people from the minority did not support the terrorists,  all those who belonged to that minority community became victims of revenge attacks, insults and were looked upon as if everyone from that community was a terrorist. I hope that does not happen to Muslims living in Australia.

(more…)

Continue ReadingShould we still love all Muslims? – YES YES YES / Should we still cover up for Islam & the Koran? – NO NO NO – by Ps Daniel Nalliah

Friends of Israel Warn about ISIS

Christian Friends of Israel – Sept 22 2014Territorial control of the ISIS as of 13 September 2014

Some people know that Brigitte Gabriel is a Lebanese Christian who immigrated to the United States a few years ago, following the invasion of Lebanon by the Muslim Jihad. In 1975 when she was ten years old, militant Muslims throughout the Middle East poured into Lebanon and declared war against Lebanese Christians.

Brigitte and her mother were injured in the shelling from Muslim artillery. They were allowed to cross into Israel and receive medical treatment at a hospital in Safed (she tells about it in her book, Because They Hate). The love and kindness that she and her mother received from the Israeli doctors and nurses turned her into a lifelong friend of Israel. She now runs what is known as Act for America, an organization aimed at helping Americans understand the threat they face from Islam and learning how to combat it.

In addition to her books, Ms. Gabrielle has recently written an article entitled “ISIS is a threat beyond Iraq, with Shariah as its worldwide aim.” In the article she says, “ISIS isn’t acting out of anger over borders or ‘politics’ as the West understands the term. ISIS has a specific goal in mind and that is the formation of an Islamic state ruled by Shariah.” She points out this is the common goal of all the major jihadist organizations across the world. It is shared by al Qaeda, Hamas, Lashkar e Taiba, Abu Sayyef, Boko Haram, Al Shabaab, and others. This shared goal transcends any disagreements over borders and pure politics.

For instance, she says, Israel [which she loves] could disappear tomorrow and the overriding goal of the formation of Islamic states ruled by Sharia would not change a bit. It is based on their thousand-year-old doctrine which is far more fundamental and overarching than mere political ideology. That in turn is based on the Islamic trilogy—the Quran, the Hadith, and the Sira.

(more…)

Continue ReadingFriends of Israel Warn about ISIS