Spanish Cardinal-elect: ‘not an insult’ to call homosexuality a psychological disorder

Cardinal-elect Fernando Sebastián Aguilar with Pope Francisby Hilary White, Rome Correspondent ROME, January 21, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) 

The secular media is abuzz with comments from Archbishop Fernando Sebastián Aguilar, recently named as a cardinal-elect by Pope Francis, that homosexuality is a mental disorder that can be treated.

Sebastián told the Spanish newspaper Diario Sur on Monday that: “Homosexuality is a defective manner of expressing sexuality, because [sex] has a structure and a purpose, which is procreation.”

“A homosexual who can’t achieve procreation is failing,” he said. “Our bodies have many defects. I have high blood pressure, a defect I have to try and correct in whatever way I can.”

“To say that homosexuality is a defect is not an insult,” he added. “It helps because in many cases of homosexuality it is possible to recover and become normal with the right treatment.”

Unsurprisingly, the comments have aroused the ire of both the homosexualist lobby and their supporters in politics and the mainstream secular media. The Spanish homosexualist lobby group Colegas accused Sebastián of “homophobia” saying that homosexuality is not a “curable illness”.

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This Pastor Made a Box for Unwanted Babies, and You’ll Praise God for What Happened

This Pastor Made a Box for Unwanted BabiesBy Eric Corpus – January 8, 2014

Every year, hundreds of unwanted babies are abandoned on the streets of Seoul, South Korea. To do something about the crisis, Pastor Lee Jong-rak at the Jusarang Orphanage created the Baby Box.

The Baby Box is a drop box on the side of the orphanage where someone can safely leave an unwanted infant. Lined with blankets, the box is heated to keep the baby warm. When an infant is placed in the box, an alarm alerts a staff member to bring the baby inside.

The culture in South Korea places heavy value on physical perfection, so many of the infants left in the Baby Box were born with disabilities, including deafness, blindness, cerebral palsy and Down syndrome.

Since 1998, the orphanage has taken in dozens of children, and raised and loved them. That’s dozens of miraculous stories of faith and love, dozens of tragedies averted.

“One of the mothers told me that she had poison to kill both herself and her baby,” Lee said. “So I told her, ‘Don’t do that. Come here with your baby.'”

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SCOTUS puts the chill on activist judge’s decision to overturn Utah’s marriage amendment

Unanimously, the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices agreed that one person shouldn't have the power to create same-sex marriage in a state that democratically outlawed it.by Tony Perkins  – Jan 08, 2014 18:08 EST

While the country shivered through frigid temperatures Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court put something else on ice: the same-sex “marriages” of Utah couples. After two weeks of chaos, America’s most powerful court put the brakes on one rogue judge’s decision to single-handedly overturn the state’s marriage amendment.

The December 20th ruling took several people by surprise — including Governor Gary Herbert (R), who called out District Court Judge Robert Shelby as an “activist” who jeopardized the state’s right “to define marriage through ordinary democratic channels.” For Utah, it was the second major marriage headline in less than a month — thrusting the state back into the spotlight it left when Judge Clark Waddoups stunned everyone by decriminalizing polygamy.

Unanimously, the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices agreed that one person shouldn’t have the power to create same-sex “marriage” in a state that democratically outlawed it.

Of course, marriage has always been a hot-button issue in Utah, dating back to the state’s earliest days. And that isn’t likely to change now, as Utah becomes the venue for the first challenge to a state marriage law since the Supreme Court struck down part of DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act) last June. When Governor Herbert gears up for an appeal to Judge Shelby’s overreach, he’ll have new state attorney general, Sean Reyes, to lead the charge. Picked to take over the post when his predecessor resigned, Reyes promised, “My intention … is to continue to defend the laws that have been passed by the people of Utah.”

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US Evangelicals Work to End Prostitution in Thailand

Mint, a former sex worker, now makes jewelry that helps support the work of NightLight International. (RNS photo by Bear Guerra)Charisma News – 1/7/2014 – Ruxandra Guidi/RNS

Mint, a former sex worker, now makes jewelry that helps support the work of NightLight International. (RNS photo by Bear Guerra)

A small delicate silver cross hangs around Mint’s neck, a charm she reaches for nervously from time to time as she speaks.

Mint is her nickname, an Anglicized version of the long Thai name she was given and would rather not make public. As a former prostitute, the 24-year-old is concerned about bringing shame to her family, though she says everyone in her village in the northeastern province of Issan —a poor agricultural region along the border with Cambodia and Laos—would assume, or simply know, she had to be doing sex work to send money back home.

Everyone in Bangkok knows how it works. Many of the countless massage parlors, go-go bars and karaoke joints peppered throughout the city are frequently thinly veiled fronts for prostitution. Heavily made-up girls hang around in the periphery of joints catering to Western tourists. Most of the Asian customers, including Thai men, head to brothels and bars elsewhere, away from the sex tourism districts.

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U.S. State Department condemns Nigeria for banning same-sex ‘marriage,’ gay clubs

The Obama administration has made promoting homosexuality around the world a priorityby Kirsten Andersen – Wed Jan 15, 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 15, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and other top diplomatic brass are criticizing the African nation of Nigeria after President Goodluck Jonathan signed a new law banning same-sex “marriage.”

Both Secretary Kerry and his predecessor, Hillary Clinton, have said that promoting the gay “rights” agenda around the world is a “top priority” for U.S. foreign policymakers.

“The United States is deeply concerned by Nigeria’s enactment of the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act,” Secretary Kerry said in a statement Monday.   “It is inconsistent with Nigeria’s international legal obligations and undermines the democratic reforms and human rights protections enshrined in its 1999 Constitution.”

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Project Rescue Setting Sex-Trafficked Captives Free in India

Project Rescue co-founder David Grant at a safe house for children affected by slavery. (Project Rescue)1/6/2014 Gina Meeks

Though many think slavery is a thing of the past, more than 29.8 million people are held captive as slaves today, according to a comprehensive report from Australia-based Walk Free Foundation. The majority of victims are located outside the U.S., with nearly half—14 million—in India.

That’s why Project Rescue focuses on rescuing and restoring sex-trade victims in India. Since its founding in 1997, in the red light district of Mumbai, the ministry has helped more than 24,000 women and children affected by sexual slavery and now serves in 15 locations throughout India, Nepal, Moldova, Bangladesh, Tajikistan and Spain.

Lucy, the director of a girls’ home in North India who did not share her last name for security reasons, explains that mothers who work in brothels often give their children to Project Rescue to temporarily provide custody of the children and bring them to a safe house. There, the children are cared for around the clock and attend Christian schools.

“Every time we take a child out of the brothels, it is physically and spiritually bringing them out of darkness into light,” Lucy says. “It’s been amazing to see the transformational power of Jesus—to see a child who was abused, scared and angry, and watch them over the course of months blossom.”

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Abortion – the truth about grief and breast cancer. . .

Pro-LifeSalt Shakers: E-News

With Victoria and Tasmania now allowing abortion up to birth, and forcing doctors to refer a patient to a doctor who they know will perform and abortion, it is vital that we know the truth about abortion. It is also important that women are provided with all the information – when the Victorian law was passed, amendments aimed at providing that information to women were defeated. Here’s some news from the past month or so…This email has three parts:

First is a moving interview with Anne Lastman, who lives in Melbourne and runs a ministry called ‘Victims of Abortion’. Anne counsels women who are suffering pain and hurt following an abortion, and has written a book titled Redeeming Grief.

The interview was published in National Review Online.The other two parts relate to new evidence about the link between abortion and breast cancer. The latest research comes from China and India.Of particular note is a new book, written by Dr Angela Lanfranchi – she has compiled much of the information about the consequences of abortion to a new book titled Complications: Abortion’s impact on women . . .1. Abortion HurtsThe interview with Anne Lastman about the hurt of abortion…

Abortion Hurts – that’s the title of the interview with Anne Lastman… (more…)

Continue ReadingAbortion – the truth about grief and breast cancer. . .

Economist says Christianity is Helping India’s ‘Untouchable’ Women Rise from Poverty

By CLG on DYoung professional women walk along the street in Bangalore, India. - CNA/Hilary Senourecember 30, 2013

A Georgetown University researcher’s pilot study found positive improvements for India’s Dalit women after converting to Christianity.

A researcher at Georgetown University in Washington has found that impoverished women in India are more likely to improve their economic circumstances after converting to Christianity.

“Conversion actually helps launch women on a virtuous circle. A woman feels better; she’s part of an active faith community; she works more; she earns more money: The extra money she earns and saves encourages her to earn more and save more and plan and invest in the future,” said Rebecca Samuel Shah, research fellow at Georgetown’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs.

Shah presented her initial findings of a pilot study looking at “patterns and directions where conversion had an impact” on Dalit women in Bangalore, India, at a conference on “Christianity and Freedom,” held in Rome Dec. 13-14.

Shah and her team studied 300 women who lived in a Dalit slum community over the course of three years. When they began their research, they did not know that 23% of the women being interviewed were actually converts to Christianity.

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Media Release – Aussies unite to pray in Melbourne on Australia Day weekend / Grand Opening of Catch the Fire Ministries in City of Casey

Praying on Australia DayFor immediate release

Aussies unite to pray in Melbourne on Australia Day weekend / Grand Opening of Catch the Fire Ministries in City of Casey

On Saturday January 25 from 10am – 1pm on Australia Day weekend, hundreds of patriotic Aussie’s from different churches, denominations, ethnicities, and states will gather in Melbourne to pray for Australia and to also celebrate the Grand Opening of Catch the Fire Ministries in the City of Casey.

“This National Prayer Day for Australia is a major opportunity for reconciliation and unity as different ethnicities, churches, and denominations, including Anglicans, Catholics, Presbyterians, Protestants, Pentecostals, Charismatics, Evangelicals, Salvation Army and others, come together to corporately pray for our nation’s Government, Armed Forces, Emergency Services, and protection over our country from bush fire & terrorism.

With special guest speaker Pastor Daniel Pandji from Indonesia (the largest Islamic country in the world with 250 million people). He will share with Aussie Christians on ‘How to take a stand as a Christian.’

Pastor Daniel Nalliah said today in Melbourne, “It is a day when everyone who calls Australia home, no matter which land they came from, can be proud to be a part of this great nation. I encourage all patriotic Australians to fly an Australian flag from their rooftops, windows, on their cars or in their front gardens, as a symbol of appreciation of all that Australia means to us.”

“The Australian flag, with its Union Jack, the Commonwealth Star and the five stars of the Southern Cross, is the flag under which our brave forefathers fought and died to keep this nation the free, independent, democracy that we all enjoy today.”

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Continue ReadingMedia Release – Aussies unite to pray in Melbourne on Australia Day weekend / Grand Opening of Catch the Fire Ministries in City of Casey

Youtube link to another amazing miraculous healing from near death of a 17 year old girl / Upcoming CTFM schedule in Hallam

Dear friends & family in Christ,

1) You may click the following link to watch another miraculous healing from near death of a 17 year old girl last May 2013 when Pr Daniel prayed for her and family at the Monash Hospital ICU in Melbourne.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QfmEtmsyPc

All glory to our Lord Jesus Christ, our miracle working God, who brought back hope when there was no hope!

We thank everyone who was praying for this girl and will continue to pray for her total recovery.

2) Our weekly 9.30am & 6.30pm worship services are this Sunday 12th January at CTFM at our new premises at 30 Star Crescent in Hallam, Melbourne.

Pr Daniel will be praying for people at both services.

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Continue ReadingYoutube link to another amazing miraculous healing from near death of a 17 year old girl / Upcoming CTFM schedule in Hallam

UK: Schoolchildren told they would be punished for racism if they didn’t attend religious workshop on Islam

Raymond IbrahiUK - Schoolchildren told they would be punished for racism if they didn't attend religious workshop on Islamm – www.jihadwatch.org

“Headteacher Lynn Small wrote to parents and said if kids did not attend a ‘racial discrimination note’ would be made on the pupil’s records and would remain there for their school careers.” In other words, their futures would be destroyed. That’s how important it is to the dhimmi British to make sure that everyone has a positive view of Islam and forget about jihad terror and Islamic supremacism.

“Schoolchildren told they would be punished for RACISM if they did not attend a religious workshop on ISLAM,” from SWNS.com, November 22 (thanks to Blazing Cat Fur):

Parents today slammed a school after children as young as eight were told they would be punished for RACISM if they did not attend a religious workshop – on ISLAM.

Angry mums and dads were sent a letter by Littleton Green Community School, in Huntingdon, Staffs., warning their children would be considered racist if they did not go on the school trip.

The visit to Staffordshire University – for Year 4 and Year 6 pupils – had been arranged as part of the children’s “cultural education” on November 27.

Headteacher Lynn Small wrote to parents and said if kids did not attend a “racial discrimination note” would be made on the pupil’s records and would remain there for their school careers.

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New Year’s Eve report

Dear family & friCelebrating New Years Eve at CTFMends in Christ,

Following is the message that Pr Daniel shared at the New Year’s Eve Worship & Hopper Night which we’re sure will be a great blessing to you & your loved ones in 2014.New Years Eve Hopper Night

The Donkey Story – One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey.

He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone’s amazement he quieted down.

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Three American Teachers Slaughtered for Christian Faith in Muslim World

Ronald Thomas SmithDec 18, 2013 – Raymond Ibrahim – www.jihadwatch.org

Why was Ronald Thomas Smith II, an American teaching at Benghazi’s International School, shot to death last Thursday in Libya, even as he “was looking forward to his first Christmas in the United States with his wife and toddler son”?

Most Western media and analysts dismiss the killing as a random act of violence incited by a recent al-Qaeda video.

However, by connecting the dots and looking at precedence, it appears that Smith’s Christianity, specifically his talking about it among Muslims, was the motive behind the slaying.

First consider two facts gleaned from the AP report, “American killed in Benghazi remembered as ‘much loved teacher’”: 1) Smith once had plans to attend seminary, a place devoted to preparing Christians to share the Gospel—a crime according to Islamic law (recall the Coptic Christians tortured and killed on the accusation that they were proselytizing in Libya); 2) according to his home church in Texas, “Ronnie’s [Smith’s] greatest desire was for peace and prosperity in Libya and for the people of Libya to have the joy of knowing God through Christ” (emphasis added).

Then there is the fact that Smith was a “much loved teacher”—a phrase that immediately, if not eerily, brings to mind another very similar story of another “much beloved” American teacher who was killed in the Islamic world for talking about Christianity.

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200,000 march for marriage in Taiwan protesting proposed same-sex ‘marriage’ law

200,000 march for marriage in Taiwan protesting proposed same-sex ‘marriage’ law

LifeSiteNews.com Life, Family and Culture News by Peter Baklinski – Dec 03, 2013 

TAIPEI, Taiwan, December 2, 2013 ( LifeSiteNews.com) – About  200,000 people marched in front of Taiwan’s Presidential Office on Saturday, according to organizers or the march. The crowd was protesting a proposed law that would allow same-sex couples to ‘marry’ and adopt

“God created human beings as male and female. Only the union of a man and a woman can create the next generation, and the ability to create offspring is an important function of a family,” said 40-year-old Ann Huang, who joined the rally with her friends,  reported  Focus Taiwan.

The protesters, consisting mainly of families with their children, held signs that read “Made by Daddy and Mommy”, “Defend Marriage”, and “Oppose Amendment to Civil Code Article 972”, the current law which holds that marriage is between a man and woman.

The event was organized by The Coalition for the Happiness of Our Next Generation.

“We worry that this alternative family formation idea will confuse children’s concepts on education and sexual identity,”  said Yu Yen-hung, one of the founders of the organization, to  The China Post. “Therefore, we decided to stand up and fight against this bill that will affect the next generation.”

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Wishing you a blessed CHRISTMAS and a victorious New Year in 2014!

Dear family & friends in Christ in Australia & around the World, May I take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy and blessed Christmas, in addition to…

Continue ReadingWishing you a blessed CHRISTMAS and a victorious New Year in 2014!