Tuesday, 22 July 2014

How Obama's LGBT Executive Order Endangers Religious Liberty, Todd Starnes, Charisma Magazine


President Barack Obama signs executive order






President Obama signed an executive order Monday barring federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity—ignoring the pleas of Christian and other faith leaders to include an exemption for religious organizations.

"Thanks to your passion and advocacy and the irrefutable rightness of your cause, our government—the government of the people, by the people and for the people—will become just a little bit fairer," the president told a gathering in the White House.

The executive order would prevent Christian and other religious organizations with federal contracts from requiring workers to adhere to the tenets of their religious beliefs. Christianity Today reports the order could impact religious non-profits such as World Vision, World Relief and Catholic Charities.  To read more please click here

President Obama, You Have Crossed a Dangerous, Unprecedented Line, Michael Brown, Charisma Magazine

President Barack Obama



Dear Mr. President, I write to you today as a concerned citizen of our great nation, standing as a witness against your historic actions on the morning of July 21, 2014, actions which I hope you will one day repudiate with deep remorse and regret.

I am referring, of course, to your signing an executive order Monday banning "discrimination" by federal contractors against LGBT people, allowing for no religious exemptions of any kind.

This was an outrageous act of discrimination against religion in the name of anti-discrimination—an act of bullying people of faith in the name of the prevention of bullying.

How can you, as a man who professes to be a person of faith and a follower of Jesus, throw religious Americans—in particular Christians—under the bus?

How can you attempt to force Christians, Jews, Muslims and others to violate fundamental aspects of their moral codes in order to appease a small but powerful special interest group, one that is not, in fact, suffering daily economic hardship by being fired from their jobs because of their sexual orientation or expression?

Have you forgotten entirely that our nation was founded on the concept of religious freedom?,  please read more here President Obama


T

Curb EU benefit tourism, Whitehall told

: Report finds growing concern among Britons about access to the welfare state by migrants.


Daily Mail Story

Unemployed people at a Jobcentre Plus: A report says the public wants curbs on migrants' access to benefits


 major overhaul is needed to curb  migrants’ access to British benefits, a Government review has concluded.

The report finds growing concern among Britons about access to the welfare state by the hundreds of thousands of arrivals from Europe taking advantage of EU free movement rules.    

If the system is not urgently reformed it could ‘significantly undermine’ public support for freedom of movement, it concludes.


Please read the full story here

Persecution of Mosul Christians 'Unprecedented in Modern Times'

Persecution of Mosul Christians 'Unprecedented in Modern Times



David Curry, president/CEO of Open Doors USA, has condemned the latest action of Islamic State militants who ordered all Christians in the Iraqi city of Mosul to leave the city over the weekend or face execution.
"The persecution and treatment of Christians in Mosul is unprecedented in modern times," he says. "This latest forced exodus of Christians further shows why Western governments and the people in the West need to cry out in support for religious freedom in the Middle East and elsewhere. If this does not move us concerning the near extinction of Christianity in the Middle East, it's likely nothing else can."
Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein, director of Interfaith Affairs at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, adds: "Too many of us thought that forced conversions and expulsions of entire religious communities were part of a distant, medieval past. There was little that we could do to stop this horrible episode.
"It is not too late to realize that many others—Christians today, but certainly Jews, Baha'i, Hindus, Muslims and others—are mortally endangered by a potent religious fanaticism that threatens tens of millions, and which still can be resisted."
According to Open Doors, the Islamic State gave Christians an ultimatum over the weekend: 1) Stay and convert to Islam; 2) Pay Islamic tax (which is too much for most families to pay); 3) Leave Mosul taking nothing but their clothes. Christians who stayed would be executed.
Most Christians have left Mosul now. At the checkpoints of ISIS, Christians had to leave everything behind (cars, gold, money, mobile phones). The only possessions they could keep were their clothes. They had to walk to safer places, mostly in northern Iraq, while traveling in blistering heat.Iraqi Christians

Monday, 21 July 2014

ISIS burns 1,800-year-old church in Mosul - Al Arabiya News





ISIS burns 1,800-year-old church in Mosul - Al Arabiya News







A video posted on YouTube July 9 shows a tomb being destroyed with a sledgehammer which government officials said was “almost certainly” the tomb of Biblical prophet Jonah.
Earlier, Mosul’s Christians fled the city en masse before a Saturday deadline issued by the al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) for them to either convert to Islam, pay tax, leave or be killed.
Al Arabiya correspondent in Iraq Majid Hamid said the deadline set by the jihadist group was 12 p.m. Iraqi time (10 a.m. GMT). Hamid reported that many Christians fled the city on Friday. It is not clear if any remained after the deadline.

Disabled Peer: Assisted suicide Bill ‘frightens’ me

Disabled Peer: Assisted suicide Bill ‘frightens’ me



disabled-peer-assisted-suicide-bill-frightens-me



A Peer who has spinal muscular atrophy has told the House of Lords that legalising assisted suicide “frightens” her because she could be tempted to ask for it in the future.

Baroness Campbell of Surbiton made the comments on Friday during a debate on Lord Falconer’s Bill, which would allow patients thought to have six months or less to live to obtain lethal drugs to kill themselves.
The Bill passed its Second Reading without a vote after 126 Peers spoke on the issue.

Rick Warren Uncertain if Homosexual Behavior is Sinful, Says ‘Gays’ Go to Heaven

Rick Warren Uncertain if Homosexual Behavior is Sinful, Says ‘Gays’ Go to Heaven







Controversy is stirring over recent comments made by Rick Warren, author of the best-selling book The Purpose-Driven Life and megachurch leader of Saddleback Church in California, who stated that homosexual behavior “might be” sinful, and that he believes homosexuals go to Heaven.
During an interview this week with the Huffington Post, Warren was asked by Marc Lamont Hill if having romantic feelings for a member of the same sex is a sin. Leading up to the question, Warren was explaining that he does not hate homosexuals, and that people should disagree politely on the subject of homosexuality.
“I have many, many gay friends, and have worked around the world with them in gay organizations to try to stop AIDS,” he said. “We’re doing ‘World AIDS Day’ this weekend at Saddleback Church. My wife and I have given millions of dollars to help people with HIV/AIDS and have worked with gay organizations on that.”
“What about the love part, though? I hear about the AIDS part,” asked Hill. “It’s not illegal to love somebody,” Warren replied.  
“But you think it’s a sin,” Hill asserted. “No, it’s not a sin to love somebody,” Warren said.

Today's post

Jesus Christ, The Same Yesterday, Today and Forever

I had the privilege to be raised in a Christian Home and had the input of my parents and grandparents into my life, they were ...