Urging people with information about misconduct to come forward, he added: “The church asks that people not be silent, but bring it objectively to light, since the greater scandal in this matter is that of cloaking the truth.”
(Alex Williams – Premiere) The Catholic Church shall “never again” cover up sexual abuse perpetrated by its clergy, Pope Francis promised during a Christmas address to Vatican officials on Friday.
On Instagram, Christian comedian John Crist told critics to “just shut up” about CCM artist Lauren Daigle, who got slammed for avoiding answering a question about her views on homosexuality. Crist also commented on megachurch pastor John Gray who reportedly gave his wife a $200,000 Lamborghini for her birthday. To Gray’s critics he said “shut your mouth.” JD Hall of Pulpit & Pen responded thusly:
John,
You’re funny. I’ve laughed at your videos and shared them around multiple times. I’ve never looked to you as a church leader of any kind because as far as I know, your primary contribution to Christianity is to make people laugh. Continue reading
Dr. Michelle Cretella, executive director of the American College of Pediatricians, told The Christian Post that the study “confirms what no one disputes: Namely, that youth who identify as LGBQT have higher rates of mental illness leading to a greater risk of life-threatening behaviors.”
(Leah MarieAnn Klett – Christian Post) LGBT youth are at a higher risk of suicide and life-threatening behavior than their heterosexual peers, a new study has found, with transgender teens being the most at risk. Continue reading
“If we rely solely upon inner peace, feelings, dreams, visions, or impressions, then we are not being led by the Holy Spirit. We are merely being led by ourselves, or worse.”
(Eric Davis – The Cripplegate) We face a lot of decisions in life. Many of these can be tricky, having no particular Bible verse directly associated. Nevertheless, we are commanded to glorify God in everything we do (1 Cor. 10:31). And Christians want to honor God in all they do. But it’s not always easy to discern how to do so. Continue reading
Rush Limbaugh: “If the measure passes ‘Trump gets nothing and the Democrats get everything, including control of the House in a few short weeks. This is textbook. It’s a textbook example of what the drive-by media calls compromise.'”
(Beth Baumann – Townhall) Conservative pundits are upset with President Donald Trump and the White House caving on border wall funding. Trump previously threatened a government shutdown if he wasn’t given $5 billion to build the wall, although Congress had allocated $1.6 billion. Continue reading
Military historian, columnist and author Victor Davis Hanson joined Fox News host Tucker Carlson after Michael Flynn’s court hearing on Tuesday. During the discussion, Hanson called the outrageous stories coming from Trump haters a “soft coup.” Here’s what he said:
“This Mueller investigation that we have is not in isolation. We had, remember, from the day Trump was elected we were told the election machines were flawed, we were going to sue. And then there was a group, remember we were told about the Electoral College, and we were told we had to overturn the electors. And then we went to the 25th Amendment that Trump was unbalanced. And that didn’t work. And then we went to the emoluments clause, he profited even though his businesses had lost a billion dollars. And then we’ve gone to Mueller. And so there’s a slow motion if you will, I don’t want to be too psychodramatic like MSNBC gets. But there is sort of a slow motion coup to overturn the elections.”
The National Sentinal has the story and the must watch video: Continue reading
Bishop Robert Barron
Barron very clearly said that Shapiro could be saved by Christ “indirectly received” by following their conscience or by following the laws of Moses.
(JD Hall – Pulpit & Pen) The religion of Jesus is entirely different from the religion of the Roman Catholic Church. They hold to a different gospel. They are two different religions. Practitioners of those religions have two different eternal fates.
Dr. John MacArthur gave a good effort at presenting the Gospel authentically and accurately to Ben Shapiro, an Orthodox Jew, on Shapiro’s program several weeks ago. David Limbaugh, another evangelical, gave a perspective on Christianity that was not much different than MacArthur’s just a week later. Continue reading
“My challenge to AU (as I gave to Bill Nye “the Science Guy”): name one technological achievement that requires belief in naturalistic evolution. There’s none!”
(Ken Ham – Answers In Genesis) A blog appeared recently on the website for Americans United for Separation of Church and State titled, “Creationists Remain Hard at Work Trying to Block Sound Science Education.” It laments the tide of public opinion against evolution in the US and the way this influences how teachers present evolutionary ideas in the classroom. But I think headline should read instead, “AU Works Hard to Stop Every Student from Being Taught the Truth Regarding Evolution.” Continue reading
What’s going on here is not so much Christianity as it is partisan politicking under cover of religious teaching. It’s the furtherance of a George Soros style of progressivism, but cloaked in Christianity — and backed by George Soros bucks — and made all the worse by the initial denials of the George Soros ties.
(Cheryl K. Chumley – The Washington Times) A new video from the American Association of Evangelicals reveals how George Soros, through his many funding ventures, has been busily infiltrating the Christian base in America to divide, and ultimately conquer, the religious minded within the Republican Party. Continue reading
The new year ushers in resolutions and a time to start fresh. But the beginning of a new year means the close of another, offering us the chance to look back and reflect on the good, the bad … and the downright absurd.
(Chelsen Vicari – Juicy Ecumenism) In 2018, we here at the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) published hundreds of articles on everything from the most encouraging news stories affecting Christianity to some of the most concerning. That’s our job, our mission.
Curious, I dug back through the IRD archives to find out what stories specific to the Evangelical Action program resonated most with our readers. Here are our top 10 most-read Evangelical news stories of the year: Continue reading
Autistic 11 year-old “drag queen” Desmond Napoles – Instagram screenshot via dangerous.com
“Desmond Napoles, who goes by the drag stage name “Desmond Is Amazing,” is barely 11 years old, yet homosexual and mainstream media have thrust him into the spotlight as the face of the growing prepubescent gay/transgender movement.”
(Doug Mainwaring – LifeSiteNews) – Perhaps sensing the horrific optics of the event, LGBT news sites have assiduously avoided reporting that their favorite 11-year-old drag kid “Desmond Is Amazing” danced on stage in a New York gay bar while adult male patrons tossed money his way as if he were a male stripper.
The pre-adolescent boy, dressed in drag to imitate singer Gwen Stefani, pranced around the stage at Brooklyn’s 3 Dollar Bill, an LGBT bar described as “queer owned & operated,” and “Brooklyn’s Premiere Queer Bar & Performance Venue.” Continue reading
“In spite of constant repetition, the cultural divide is not between hate-filled traditionalists and love-inspired progressives. It is an irreconcilable conflict of two opposing worldviews that affects our understanding of the deep meaning of life. It is the conflict between what the Apostle Paul calls in Romans 1:25 the Truth (worship of the Creator, Twoism) and the Lie (rejection of the Creator and worship of nature, Oneism).”
(Peter Jones – truthXchange) We constantly hear that the American culture is irredeemably split politically and ideologically, perhaps even close to civil war. Rarely is the cause of the split ever identified. Certain language is simply dismissed as hate speech, which means that some issues cannot even be discussed in respectful ways. The British periodical, The Spectator, gets close to an explanation of the current “yellow vest” rebellion in France against elitist progressivism: Continue reading
“We believe that it’s important for all genders to be able to learn and talk about menstruation together… Our approach recognises the fact that some people who have periods are trans or non-binary.”
(Henena Horton – The Telegraph) School children will be taught that “all genders” can have periods in new sex education lessons, in a victory for transgender rights campaigners.
The advice to teachers was approved by Brighton & Hove City Council as they try to tackle stigma around menstruation. Continue reading
ACLJ view the mindfulness-based stress reduction techniques used in some schools as a danger to children. The organization condemned audio recordings it claims say, “ We’re all connected through nature. And we’re all connected through the universe.”
(Katherine Hignett – Newsweek) Conservative Christian watchdog group The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) has launched a petition to stop “forced Buddhist meditation” in schools. Continue reading
“Now the problem becomes clear: The structure of this definition provides the grounds of removing moral evaluation from any morally deviant action (sin) whatsoever.”
(Joseph E. Torres – truthXchange) In 1973, Karl Menninger wrote Whatever Became of Sin? He was responding to a cultural move away from any concept of moral transgression. The sociologists and psychologists of the day redefined what Western Christianity had always considered as sinful fruit of dark and hardened hearts. Instead, they argued that those effects, whether individual or corporate, were due to physical hardwiring, societal conditioning, or poor childrearing. Continue reading
“How does lying in wait for unknown months or years (when Gleeson could have “resurfaced” the old tweets at any time) and publishing a smear in the middle of the night before giving Murray a chance to respond comport with the newspaper’s promises that…”
(Michelle Malkin – Daily Wire) This week, I did something that USA Today’s executive leadership apparently hadn’t done lately: I read the newspaper’s “principles of ethical conduct for newsrooms.” Continue reading
“[T]he ELCA is doing the work of Satan by encouraging sin and not helping people turn from these destructive lifestyles and desires.”
(Dan Skogen – Exposing the ELCA) Do you think God approves of a man, dressed in drag, “singing” a provocative song in a chapel, on the chancel, next to the altar? Well, that is exactly what happened recently at an ELCA seminary chapel, a school charged with raising up pastors who will be shepherds to ELCA members. The school is Luther Seminary, a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) located in St. Paul, MN.
Luther Seminary is the largest pastor-producing seminary in the ELCA. Continue reading
“Obamacare was struck down by a Texas federal judge in a ruling that casts uncertainty on insurance coverage for millions of U.S. residents.”
(Matt Vespa – Townhall) We have breaking news coming from Texas. A federal judge has struck down the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). A group of Republican state attorneys general argued in their lawsuit that the repeal of the tax penalty gutted the argument for ACA legality. Bloomberg has more, with the publication adding that the DOJ tried to argue that the individual mandate, including provisions to keep the premium rates the same among healthy individuals and those with pre-existing conditions, should be struck down, but keep the rest of the law intact. That included Medicaid expansion, the employer mandates, the exchanges, and premium subsides for hospitals. Continue reading
In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. Hebrews 2:10
The earthly life of Jesus is referred to in one phrase, perfect through what he suffered.
Was he not perfect when he came? When Jesus was a babe in Bethlehem’s manger, was he not perfect even then? When he was tempted in the desert and Satan tried to turn him from the cross, was he not already perfect? When he was feeding the five thousand, in compassionate ministry to the hungry multitudes, was he not perfect? Why then does it say he was perfected by suffering?
“Often when somebody has an abortion, it’s the same celebration, it’s the same joy, it’s the same relief that is present when I’m helping a woman have a baby,” said Dr. Yashica Robinson, who maintains a private OB-GYN practice in Huntsville, Alabama.
(Micaiah Bilger – LifeNews) A project where women brag about aborting their unborn babies is gaining momentum once again with publicity surrounding its new book, “Shout Your Abortion.”
The pro-abortion campaign of the same name took off three years ago with Seattle woman Amelia Bonow. Since then, it has been promoted by celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Amy Brenneman and Martha Plimpton, women’s magazines, and national news outlets. Continue reading
“This upsurge of occult beliefs and religions in this country, though often political and consumeristic, is still a sign that forces of darkness are at work. For one thing, all false faiths lead people—including people within the church—away from Christ, and that has eternal consequences.”
(John Stonestreet – BreakPoint) Occult spirituality is on the rise, even among Christians. Is it just pop culture or is it the Prince of Darkness? My guess: it’s both. Continue reading
“The number of children identifying as transgender is on the rise. Referrals to the NHS’s Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service have increased by an astonishing 2,500 per cent in the past nine years. Psychotherapist Bob Withers is concerned that large numbers of children are being transitioned unnecessarily, and that discussion of this phenomenon is being closed down by trans activists….”
(Bill Muehlenberg – Culture Watch) Hot on the heels of the homosexual assault on everything is the non-stop trans war on everything. The trans militants have declared war on children, on family, on society, on sexuality, on biology, and on reality. Have I left anything out? Just as countless individuals have suffered from the radical homosexual agenda, so too with the trans tyrants. Continue reading
James MacDonald – photo credit Wikimedia Commons
Former elders, pastors, and staffers from Chicago’s Harvest Bible Chapel accuse the church of financial mismanagement and a culture of deception and intimidation
(Julie Roys – World Magazine) Five years ago, Harvest Bible Chapel, a Chicago-area megachurch with multiple campuses and an average weekly attendance exceeding 12,000, sent shock waves through the Christian community when it publicly excommunicated two former elders and indirectly censured a third.
The edict was news beyond Chicago because James MacDonald is Harvest’s pastor: His Walk in the Word radio and TV ministry reaches millions weekly. Harvest also is home to Vertical Worship, Vertical Church Films, Vertical Church Network, and Harvest Christian Academy in Elgin, Ill., and Camp Harvest in Newaygo, Mich. Continue reading
“The organization has also agreed in recent years to allow gay men and lesbians to serve in leadership roles, which in part prompted the Mormon Church to announce in 2017 that it was withdrawing from the organization’s programs for older boys.”
(James Barrett – Daily Wire) Boy Scouts of America may be taking a similar approach as USA Gymnastics to mounting legal fees related to sex abuse lawsuits. According to the Wall Street Journal, the over a century-old nonprofit is considering filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy. Continue reading
“No matter how you pray, the point is, pray. It’s a mechanism that is commanded, after all, but it is also a grace that we have been given as a gift. Practice focusing on what you are saying to the Lord and not drifting off, because He is standing right there with you (and me) after all.”
(Elizabeth Prata – The End Time) I saw a meme on Facebook that made me laugh. I can’t find it again, but it went something like, ‘I have prayer ADHD, I start, drift into thinking other things, then come back saying ‘Where was I, Lord?’ Continue reading