Dear friends & family in Christ, 1) You may click the following link to watch a 2 minute video from an Egyptian Doctor regarding the current crisis in the Middle…
May 12, 2014 – Erik Eckholm – The New York Times
Alan Sears, who has run the Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom since its founding 20 years ago, turned to a picture of Abraham Lincoln in his office here and noted the decades of blood and tears it took to abolish slavery.
“I think there is no question that one day, this country will again recognize that marriage is between a man and a woman,” said Mr. Sears, a former top official in the Reagan Justice Department.
The comparison may or may not prove apt, but these are heady days for Alliance Defending Freedom, which, with its $40 million annual budget, 40-plus staff lawyers and hundreds of affiliated lawyers, has emerged as the largest legal force of the religious right, arguing hundreds of pro bono cases across the country. It has helped shift the emphasis of religious freedom enshrined in the Constitution. For decades, courts leaned toward keeping religion out of public spaces. Today, thanks to cases won by the alliance and other legal teams focused on Christian causes, the momentum has tilted toward allowing religious practices with fewer restrictions.
The group last Monday celebrated a major victory in the Supreme Court, where a client, the Town of Greece, N.Y., won the right to open council meetings with mainly Christian prayers.
Dear friends & family in Christ, You may click the following link to read an excellent article about RUAP that recently appeared in the Loddon Times in Country Victoria. http://riseupaustraliaparty.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/RUAP-in-Loddon-Times-Newspaper.pdf…
May 06, 2014 – Christian Today – Michael Trimmer
With the International Christian College in Glasgow and St Michael’s College in Cardiff both recently announcing their closures, to what extent are UK Bible colleges in a state of peril?
Reverend Richard Tiplady, Principal of the ICC, says that from where he is sitting, the nation’s Bible colleges are facing a lean future.
“Of the ten largest bible colleges in the UK, only one is growing,” he says.
In the case of the ICC, the numbers were beyond the pale. Between 2000 and 2013 the annual intake of new undergraduate students dropped from 57 to 16.
What is causing this decline? Are Christians less interested in academic study around the Bible these days? Are people taking up alternatives, or not taking up anything at all? Or are there other explanations for the current malaise?
Dear friends & family in Christ, 1) Please pray for Pr Daniel who will be ministering God’s prophetic Word, praying for people and sharing about RUAP at Sale City Church…
Robert Spencer May 26, 2014
Shhhh! Do not speak of this! “talk about extreme, militant Islamists and the atrocities that they have perpetrated globally might undercut the positive achievements that we Catholics have attained in our inter-religious dialogue with devout Muslims.” — Robert McManus, Roman Catholic Bishop of Worcester, Massachusetts, February 8, 2013.
Those “positive achievements” don’t include doing a thing to stop this. “Sindh, four Christians arrested for ‘distributing religious materials,’” by Jibran Khan, Asia News, May 20, 2014:
Islamabad ( AsiaNews) – The four evangelical Christians arrested on May 18 on charges of distributing material of a religious nature in the vicinity of the station Mirpur Khas, Sindh province appeared today in court. Those arrested are: Younis Masih, his wife Nazia and two other women named Mary Rose and Kiran. A Muslim religious leader, belonging to the Islamist Sunnat wal Jammat movement, read the material and, realizing that it was Christian literature, immediately reported the four to the police.
Shortly after their being detained, a crowd surrounded the train station with the intention of punishing the four. In order to prevent further accidents and to maintain control of the situation , the police ordered their immediate arrest and escorted the group to the nearest barracks . Prosecutors have opened an investigation file , for violations of Article 298-506 A- II -295, which punishes those who dishonor and desecrate religion.
By Harriet Alexander – 25 May 2014
Apostasy is not just something that scandalises people in far off lands. Harriet Alexander hears the story of a British woman whose life was turned upside down when she left Islam – echoing the plight of Meriam Ibrahim, who awaits a death sentence in Sudan for the same “crime”.
If Amal Farah were not living in Britain, she believes she might well be dead.
For the 33-year-old financial manager had carried out an act so heinous, her family felt she deserved to die.
Her crime? She had renounced her Islamic faith – “and within my community, that’s a capital offence,” she said. “They believe you deserve to die.”
Mrs Farah, who was born in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, but now lives in Britain, has never told her story before.
May 22, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) Michelle Kaufman, New Zealand Correspondent
The desire of a New Zealand bishop to use the new documentary about homosexuality and the Catholic Church, “The Third Way”, as a teaching tool in his diocese has come under fire by gay advocates.
Bishop Patrick Dunn of Auckland said the film is “thought-provoking for all of us” and suggested that interested people should “view it and make their own decision about it.”
In a statement, he wrote, “Jesus holds up for us the ideal of a faithful, loving relationship between a man and a woman in marriage. Sexual activity, be it heterosexual or homosexual, that is not within this marriage relationship falls far short of this ideal.”
The secular media have seized Bishop Dunn’s support as an opportunity to further the gay agenda in New Zealand. Headlines such as “Catholics tell gays to ditch sex,” “Anti-gay ‘documentary’ slammed,” and “Catholic documentary labelled ‘hate speech’, ‘propaganda,’” have sent a biased and inaccurate message to the public about the film, and Catholic teaching on sexuality.
Dear friends and family in Christ, 1) You may click the following link to read an article with RUAP National President Daniel Nalliah that recently appeared in The Australian Women’s…
By John Stonestreet, Christian Post Guest Columnist
May 22, 2014|7:26 am
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.
Robert Spencer May 21, 2014
Everyone involved in this story seems to take for granted that “jihad” has something to do with violence against Infidels. Yet in the U.S. we are constantly told that that is something that only greasy Islamophobes think. No doubt Ahmed Rehab is jetting to Auckland as we speak, so as to explain to the Muslims at the Avondale Islamic Centre that jihad really means dropping off the kids at school.
“‘Jihad’ threat to mosque security,” by Lincoln Tan, New Zealand Herald, May 20, 2014:
A mosque in Auckland has been shut down indefinitely following violent attacks and the declaration of jihad, or holy war, against private security staff hired to guard the premises.
Bill Frost, who leads the Global Security Intelligence team at the Avondale Islamic Centre, was assaulted twice on Sunday and said he feared for his life and the safety of his family after one worshipper threatened him with jihad.
5/20/2014 Greg Yoder/Mission Network News
Berlin, Germany, is considered one of the most godless places in the world. According to a report from The Guardian, 50 percent of the population can be identified as atheist. It’s ironic, because this city has become a magnet for Iranian Christians seeking asylum.
According to the report, Germany hasn’t seen an Iranian migrant population growth this large since the 1979 Iranian Revolution. The Guardian reports that the association of Iranian refugees in Berlin says the number of Iranians coming to Germany has doubled every year for the last five years—from less than 1,000 in 2008 to 4,348 in 2012.
Figures from the federal office for migration and refugees in Germany confirms this trend. With over 3,500 Iranians granted asylum last year, Iran was one of five countries from which Germany saw a rise in asylum applications.
Because Iran is an Islamic nation governed by Muslims, being a Christian there is difficult. Despite this, Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) spokesperson Todd Nettleton is amazed at what’s happening with the Iranian people.
The Daily Caller – Reza Kahlili – May 27, 2014
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, all but said on Sunday that negotiations over the country’s illicit nuclear program are over and that the Islamic Republic’s ideals include destroying America.
“Those [Iranians] who want to promote negotiation and surrender to the oppressors and blame the Islamic Republic as a warmonger in reality commit treason,” Khamenei told a meeting of members of parliament, according to the regime’s Fars News Agency.
Khamenei emphasized that without a combative mindset, the regime cannot reach its higher Islamic role against the “oppressors’ front.”
“The reason for continuation of this battle is not the warmongering of the Islamic Republic. Logic and reason command that for Iran, in order to pass through a region full of pirates, needs to arm itself and must have the capability to defend itself,” he said.
“Today’s world is full of thieves and plunderers of human honor, dignity and morality who are equipped with knowledge, wealth and power, and under the pretense of humanity easily commit crimes and betray human ideals and start wars in different parts of the world.”
Raymond Ibrahim – 27 May 2014
A recent New York Times article exemplifies why the Times simply cannot be trusted. Written by one David Kirkpatrick and titled, “Vow of Freedom of Religion Goes Unkept in Egypt,” the article disingenuously interprets general truths in an effort to validate its thesis.
Much of this is done by omitting relevant facts that provide needed context. For example, Kirkpatrick makes Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and the military—widely recognized as the heroes of the June 2013 revolution that toppled former President Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood—appear responsible for the poor state of religious freedom in Egypt, when in fact the military has no authority over the judicial system, which is independent.
Even so, there is much evidence that Egypt, while far from becoming a Western-style democracy, is on a better path—certainly than under the Muslim Brotherhood. But these are seldom mentioned in the NYT report. Most recently, for example, the military-backed government jailed a popular Islamic scholar for contempt against Christianity—something that never happened under Morsi, when clerics were regularly and openly condemning and mocking Christians.
The Christian Post – Michael Gryboski
The Rev. Franklin Graham told a large gathering of pastors on Thursday to address controversial issues from the pulpit, declaring that “God hates cowards.”
Graham, president and CEO of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, based his remarks on Revelation 21:8, wherein God lists eight groups of people who will be “in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Of groups like murderers, idolaters, unbelievers, and others, the first group of persons listed were the cowardly. It was this first group that Graham focused on for his speech, titled “Standing Strong on the Controversial Issues,” at the Thursday evening session for the 2014 Watchmen on the Wall National Briefing.
“The definition of a coward: a coward will not confront an issue that needs to be confronted due to fear. That is a coward,” said Graham.