Author Archives: Marsha West

About Marsha West

Marsha West is the owner and managing editor of Christian Research Network, Apprising Ministries (the late Ken Silva’s blog) and On Solid Rock Resources. She is also co-founder of Berean Research. For two decades Marsha was the owner and managing editor of Email Brigade website as well as the EMB News Report, a bi-weekly email report for conservative people of faith. For many years Marsha was a regular contributor to several blogs including CRN, RenewAmerica, News With Views and Web Commantary as well as popular websites she no longer endorses: American Family Association, Worldview Weekend, Stand Up For The Truth, The Christian Post and Christian Headlines. Although Marsha still blogs, her primary focus is CRN. Marsha also writes Research Papers (White Papers) on various topics that are published on CRN, Berean Research and On Solid Rock Resources. Visit Marsha’s other sites: On Solid Rock Resources https://www.onsolidrockresources.com/ Apprising Ministries http://apprising.org Marsha’s RenewAmerica Column http://renewamerica.com/columns/mwest Marsha’s Facebook Page http://facebook.com/marsha.west.77

The Importance of Daily Bible Reading for Spiritual Growth

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙ ,

Dave Jenkins of Servants of Grace urges fellow Christians to spend time with the Lord each day. He writes:

Whenever I write or speak about the need for Christians to daily read their Bible, I almost always get some form of pushback. At the heart of most of the pushback, I hear is something along the lines of how I’m making Bible reading a duty rather than a delight. I’ll grant that sometimes I don’t always communicate in the most nuanced way on this topic. With that said I’m often left wondering after these types of conversations, “Why do we need to qualify and nuance daily Bible reading?” After all, daily Bible reading has had a long tradition in the history of the church; especially in the Reformed tradition since the Protestant Reformation.

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Faith Leader Joins Fight Against Teen Vogue’s Disgraceful Articles

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙ , ,

“Operation Pull Teen Vogue” is underway reports Leah Jessen of LifeZette:

Christian parents have been expressing their outrage that a magazine aimed at today’s tweens and teenagers is giving young people explicit directions about controversial sexual acts — information that is wholly inappropriate for children in general.

“How disgusting,” evangelical leader Franklin Graham said of the material in a Facebook post. “As parents and grandparents, regardless of one’s faith, we shouldn’t stand by and let this kind of trash be pawned off on our children.”

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Christianity, Inc.

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙ , , , ,

We’ll start with a quote from Erick Erickson’s piece:

The most faithful pastors in this country are not the cowards trying to figure out how to lead their churches to accept gay marriage, but the ones who are willing to stand against the world, and even the President, in favor of Christian orthodoxy.Too many Christian pastors in America, both on the left and right, have become fixated on running businesses and growing profits instead of saving souls. They will all one day be held to account.

Read Erickson’s column over at The Resurgent:

Eugene Peterson is not a name familiar to most Americans, but within evangelical circles, Peterson is well-known. He wrote a translation of the Bible called “The Message,” which is a preferred text for churches trying to lure in new members who might be put off by the “thou shalls” and “thou shall nots” of the King James Version and the more accurate scriptural translations like the English Standard Version.

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DNC Vice Chair Refuses to Denounce Party Embrace of Extreme Leftist

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙ , ,

According to Megan Barth of LifeZette a high level Democrat party representative has refused to renounce Women’s March organizer Linda Sarsour who praised a cop killer and called for ‘jihad’ on President Trump. She writes:

As one who believes in the spirit of debate, I had the opportunity to interview Michael Blake, vice chair of the DNC, as I filled in for Kevin Wall on KBET, AM790, out of Las Vegas, Nevada.

The premise of our discussion was the DNC reaction and response to President Trump’s Commission on Election Integrity and the overall integrity of our election system. Blake cited a “leading” partisan study to proclaim there isn’t enough voter fraud evidence to justify an investigation. Yet there was enough evidence, which I had assembled from candidates and whistleblowers, to warrant a FBI investigation, still ongoing in Nevada, related to voter fraud.

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Trump Announces Reinstatement of Ban on Transgenders Serving in U.S. Military

Posted by ∙ ∙ In News ∙ , ,

Christian News reports:

President Trump announced on Wednesday that the U.S. government has decided to reinstate the country’s ban on open transgenders serving in the military, advising that the issue is a distraction and would place a burden on the finances of the Armed Forces.

“After consultation with my generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military,” he tweeted this morning. “Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgenders in the military would entail. Thank you.”

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Bad Doctrine in the Hands of an Angry Minister: A Review of Brian Zahnd’s ‘Sinners In the Hands of a Loving God’

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Reviews ∙ , ,

Pastor Gabriel Hughes has written a book report on Sinners In the Hands of a Loving God. He writes:

Brian Zahnd has a bone to pick. By the title of his upcoming book, slated to release on August 15, you might think his bone is with puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards. The title of the book is Sinners In the Hands of a Loving God, a play on words against Edwards’ famous sermon Sinners In the Hands of an Angry God, perhaps the most famous sermon ever preached on American soil. But Zahnd’s bone isn’t with Edwards. It’s with the Bible.

Zahnd hates the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement. He has made no secret of this. I believe that if he and I were sitting next to one another, he would go, “Yup, I hate it.” He agrees that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, but he has a rather vague way of explaining that. Zahnd says, “We violently sinned our sins into Jesus.” Okay, what does that mean? Where is that in the Bible?

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This Pop Singer and American Witches Want to Hex the President

Posted by ∙ ∙ In News ∙ , , ,

Last October a group called “Feminists Against Trump” organized a “witch-in” to “cast magical spells of love and feminism to destroy the Great Orange One and his alleged racism, xenophobia and sexism. Now there’s a new spell caster in town who plans to do a mass spell binding against the president. LifeZette has the story:

President Trump can count on many plagues in the six months he’s been in the office, such as the leaks, endless obstructionism, and a mainstream media determined to cast him from the White House. But pop artist Lana Del Rey would like to add to his troubles and has already begun to do so—by casting a spell on him.

“Yeah, I did it, why not?” Del Rey told NME.  “Look, I do a lot of [stuff].”

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California Imam Prays for Allah to ‘Annihilate’ Jews in Public Sermon

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Breitbart reports:

 

Imam Ammar Shahin of the Islamic Center of Davis in California delivered a sermon on Friday in which he quoted an antisemitic hadith and prayed for Allah to “annihilate” Jews “down to the very last one.”

The video of Shahin’s sermon was posted to the Islamic Center of Davis’s YouTube channel on Friday (Update: the video has since been removed), and translated and excerpted by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), though portions of the sermon were delivered in English.

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Hillsong, Bethel Music and The Great Seduction

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙ , ,

Satan and his minions are shrewd, deceptive, relentless and exceedingly powerful creatures!  So with this in mind, here’s a reminder from Emergent Watch:

Many have apparently forgotten that the Holy Spirit will not magnify Himself or some alleged experience, but will magnify Jesus! “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me…” – John 16:13-14

Many in the visible church seem to have forgotten that the Holy Spirit always points us to the Lord Jesus Christ, while Satan’s goal is to turn us away from Christ. One of the ways he accomplishes this goal is through “Christian” music, as you will see in the following piece:

 

For the first time, Hillsong United is uniting with Bethel (Redding’s) Music for a “Night of Worship” on July 21 @ the Redding Civic Auditorium. Note that by their participation, Hillsong is effectively declaring their affinity with Bethel Redding, it’s music, and by default, it’s doctrines.

That these two groups should join together is hardly surprising, as both have been at the forefront of the transformation of church music – from the worship of God, to effectively worshiping “worship” music – From music that exalts God, into music that exalts an experiential “encounter” with “the presence”, and which magnifies feelings and emotions.

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Female Pastors- False Teachers or Just Sinning?

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙ , ,

Bible study author, speaker and blogger Michelle Lesley responds to the following email:

Pastrix Paula White is one example of a woman who holds the position of pastor which goes against the clear teaching in Scripture that a woman is not to exercise authority over a man.  1 Tim 2:11-12

Is a woman who is in the position of pastor to be considered a false teacher or merely disobedient to The Word of God? Some churches in my area place pastors’ wives in the position of “co-pastor.” Would she have to be teaching some false doctrine to be considered a false teacher or does the fact that she is in the position in the first place make her a false teacher?

I love it when I hear from women – like the reader who sent in this question – who are thinking deeply and seriously about the things of God. It brings me so much joy to see God working in the hearts and minds of Christian women.

Before we start parsing these ideas out, let’s bottom line this thing. Scripture is both explicitly and implicitly clear that women are not to serve as pastors. Regardless of whether we call what she’s doing sin or false teaching, it is definitely unbiblical for a church to install a woman in the position of pastor, and for the woman to accept the position. So the bottom line is, it’s wrong and nobody should be attending such a church.

Now, onward and upward with the parsing…

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New blood test can check for 13 types of cancers

Posted by ∙ ∙ In News ∙ , ,

Among the 13 types are breast, ovarian, lung, stomach, colorectal, pancreatic and liver. Japan News has the story:

A research team led by the Tokyo-based National Cancer Center Japan has developed a new test to diagnose 13 kinds of cancers from a single drop of blood, with a clinical study set to start from next month.

The center’s research and ethics screening committee gave the green light to the study in mid-July. The research team will apply to the central government to put the new test into practical use within three years, at the earliest.

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Trump Taps New Communications Director Who Advocated for ‘Gay Rights Movement,’ ‘Pro-Choice’ Cause

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Christian News reports:

President Donald Trump has appointed Anthony Scaramucci to be the new White House Communications Director—a man who has publicly stated his support for same-sex “marriage” and abortion rights.

“Republicans should support gay marriage,” he tweeted in 2012, again writing later that year in response to a follower, “I am not a partisan. For gay marriage, against the death penalty, and pro-choice. I am for social inclusion, fiscal responsibility.”

Just in November, Scaramucci wrote, “I support the gay rights movement and I am an active proponent of equality.”

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Pro-Life Leaders Meet with Pence to Urge Planned Parenthood Defunding

Posted by ∙ ∙ In News ∙ , , ,

According to Breitbart:

National pro-life activists were among the conservative leaders who met with Vice President Mike Pence on Friday to emphasize the importance of debating an Obamacare repeal bill and the elimination of Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer funding. The pro-life leaders have an ardent advocate in Pence, who became the first sitting vice president to address the annual March for Life in January:

Vice President Pence 

 ✔@VP

WATCH LIVE! I’m meeting w/ grassroots orgs calling on the Senate to act to rescue the American people from Obamacare https://www.whitehouse.gov/live/vice-president-pence-hosts-roudtable-discussion … pic.twitter.com/HvIjqwqkUe

Vice President Pence 

✔@VP

As @POTUS Trump said, inaction is not an option. Obamacare is collapsing all across the country. It’s time for Congress to act. pic.twitter.com/fnEkJcsBwo

The leaders gathered with Pence Friday as Republicans’ proposals to repeal Obamacare have failed thus far, largely because of a desire on the part of liberal GOP members to keep much of the onerous healthcare reform intact.

GOD TV, Bethel, Lifestyle Christianity & IAHM endorsing demonic ‘grave-sucking’

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙ , , ,

From Churchwatch Central:

The demonic realm should be avoided at all cost. Unfortunately, so-called ‘Christian’ institutions, ministries and churches are not afraid to partner or associate themselves with people who engage in unbiblical activity, particularly the practice of ‘grave-sucking’.

In this article, we highlight the practices of necromancy of Ben Fitzgerald and those who endorse him, (such as Bill Johnson of Bethel, Reinhard Bonnke and Daniel Kolenda of Christ for All Nations, International Association of Healing Ministries, Lifestyle Christianity, GOD TV and so on).

Last year, (NAR Apostle) Dr Michael Brown invited (NAR Apostle) Bill Johnson onto his Line of Fire program to promote his book:

When liars defend liars: Dr Michael Brown whitewashes the heresies of Bill Johnson.

Seventeen minutes into the ‘Line of Fire’ program linked below, this dialogue occurs between Michael Brown and Bill Johnson:

Brown: Do you endorse, preach, teach, encourage the practice of going to the graves of deceased men and women of God to try to suck the anointing out of the earth?

Johnson: No. Absolutely not.

Once again we find, under Bill Johnson’s leadership, this is simply NOT true.

Do you remember the Bethel leader speaking in this video?

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Has the Bible Changed What You Watch?

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙ , ,

Being a Berean means studying the Bible so that you’ll gain knowledge and be able to rightly handle the word of truth. (2 Tim 2:15)  Believers who study God’s Word in context know His heart. They understand who He is and His ways. They know what His will is for their lives. Moreover, they know what pleases Him — and what displeases Him. One of the ways we please God is by striving to become holy as He is holy. Not perfect, mind you. God does not expect perfection from His people. What He does expect is for us to guard our minds and hearts against unholy evil influences.

That said, we want to share a guest post we came across on Michelle Lesley’s blog, penned by Leslie of Growing 4 Life.  Leslie takes on Christians who profess Christ as their Lord and Savior, proclaim their undying love for Him, and say that they believe the Bible is the inerrant Word of God — and yet….these lovers of Jesus will sit through profanity laced, sexually explicit, exceedingly violent TV programs and movies.  Leslie has a word of warning for Christians such as these. She writes:

As a young married couple, my husband and I got in the habit of watching a particular TV show. Almost every week we tuned in to laugh at the antics of its characters for a half hour. We watched it without any conviction or qualms. At that time, it was simply a funny show.

Fast forward about fifteen years when this same show started to air again in re-runs. But now we were a little wiser. We were more grounded in Scripture. And we were more discerning. And so when we tuned in a few times for old times’ sake, we were most uncomfortable. We finally realized that the fornication and other sin that we were subjecting ourselves to for a few laughs was most definitely an offense to our Holy God. We turned it off and haven’t watched it since.

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Active And Passive

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙

Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me (John 15:4).

Notice that our Lord divides this passage into two sections. There is an activity that is to be done, and a passivity that is to be acknowledged. We are to remain in Him (that is active, something we do), and we are to let Him remain in us (that is passive, something we allow Him to do). Both these relationships are essential, not one as opposed to the other, but both together.

When our Lord says Remain in me, He is talking about the will, and the decisions we make. We must decide to do things that keep ourselves in contact with Him. The Holy Spirit has placed us into Christ. Now we must maintain that relationship by the decisions we make, such as exposing ourselves to His Word and having a prayer relationship with Him. We remain in Him when we bear one another’s burdens and confess our faults and share in fellowship with one another. All of this is designed to relate to Him: Remain in me. If we do that, we are fulfilling this active, necessary decision of the will to obey His Word.  View article →

Civilized life is coming a part at the seams

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙ , , ,

There is no question that society is smack dab in the middle of a tug of war between conservatives and liberals — the sacred vs. the secular. In this provocative piece over at truthXchange titled “Sacred Canopy” Peter Jones makes the case that sexual freedom is utterly destroying human freedom, and it all started back in the sixties with the sexual revolution…that ultimately led to the disintegration of biblical morality. Dr. Jones writes:

The ripping away of the “sacred canopy” is what has happened to Western culture during my lifetime. “Canopy” is an image used by the sociologist Peter Berger to describe a culture’s “state of predictable order,” an order assumed by all, that makes human culture work. Thus we all get along. [Berger, Peter L. The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion. Garden City: Doubleday, 1967]. This “ordered structure” is what we have called for a long time Western Civilization or Christendom. Today civilized life is coming apart at the seams.

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Millennials’ Scary Faith in Harry Potter

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According to LifeZette, one fan of the new “Harry Potter and the Sacred Test” podcast declared “I feel like I’m born again.”

Works of fiction can never replace sacred scripture, but a group of avid fans is apparently finding deep meaning in the spellbinding series.

It seems silly — yet a Harry Potter podcast is aimed at readers and listeners who view the popular book series as sacred text, a recent Washington Post story noted. Clearly, fantasy books about wizards, witches and magic should never serve as a replacement for faith in God or be compared to religion, but that hasn’t prevented it from happening.

The “Harry Potter and the Sacred Text” podcast for Potter fanatics has become a faith substitute for many millennials who fall into a religious “nones” category. As exhibit one, hundreds of people in Washington, D.C., this week attended a live taping of the podcast.

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Military General: Delay of ‘Transgender’ Enlistment ‘Largely Based’ on Disagreement Over Science of Solving Medical Issues

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Christian News reports:

A top military general says that one of the main reasons that the U.S. Department of Defense has decided to delay implementation of the Obama-era policy allowing “transgenders” to serve in the military is disagreement over the science of how the medical treatments for those struggling with gender dysphoria alleviate the problem.

Air Force Gen. Paul Selva was asked about the matter by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, on Tuesday during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

“I am concerned that the recent six-month delay the Department has approved before letting transgender people enlist in the services will have some unintended consequences,” Gillibrand stated. “What have you learned so far in your review of this issue, and how is the implementation going so far?”

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Investigation: Millions of Dollars in Assets Not Reported by IHOP Megachurch

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According to Barry Bowen of The Christian Sentinel:

Pastor Mike Bickle and International House of Prayer (IHOP) have inspired numerous charismatic Christians with their ambitious goal to worship God around-the-clock. One worship band follows the next, 24/7 at the Kansas City megachurch.

Bickle has a long history of engaging in controversial church movements. In the 1980s and ’90s Bickle played an important role in the Kansas City Prophets. This group of pastors popularized the idea that God was raising up a new generation of apostles that would bring in a huge, global spiritual harvest.

Many discernment ministries have already written about the bad doctrines espoused by Bickle. Now it is time to examine his ministries’ finances. Are they transparent? Are there red flags (besides bad doctrine) that Christians should closely examine?

Where to begin? With an address. IHOP meets at 3535 E Red Bridge Road in Kansas City, MO.

A search for this address in the DuckDuckGo search engine reveals a Bizapedia webpagereporting, “There are 54 companies that have an address matching 3535 E Red Bridge Road Kansas City, MO 64137.”

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The ‘New Breed’ Among Us (Part 1): Todd Bentley

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙ , ,

From Churchwatch Central:

Most people are unaware that New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) leaders genuinely believe that little ‘gods’ actually walk the earth. We already have given examples of Bill Johnson and Kris Vallotton trying to teach people to tap into their divine natures and encouraging them to walk as ‘little Gods’ or glorified ‘Christs’.

This is because Apostles in the NAR follow a commission (as explained by Rick Joyner) known as the ‘Apostolic Commission’. This secret commission is given to Apostles in order to raise up a ‘New Breed’ of Christians. If you want to know why the ‘glory’ or ‘supernatural school’ started appearing in churches around the world, this is because leaders of these ‘churches’ are trying to raise up a spiritually supremacist race to lead the end-time Joel’s army church.

However, the NAR use a a range of words and phrases to talk about these types of ‘New Breed’ Christians. This theology goes by many names such as Manifest Sons of God, Kings kids, Sons of Thunder/Zebedee, Manchild/Joseph Company, etc.

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Seeing the Unseen: The Nature of Spiritual Warfare

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙ , , ,

Did the Lord Jesus teach his followers to “bind” the powers of darkness?  Should the emphasis on spiritual warfare be on prayer-infused power encounters? What exactly does the Bible teach on the nature of spiritual warfare? Well, according to Christian apologist Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason (STR), the Bible has a lot to say about how we are to defend ourselves against other worldly forces in the unseen realm. We must be armed to the teeth!

What does a Christian’s armor look like? “The very first step in arming ourselves for battle against the devil is to gird our loins with truth (Eph. 6:14).” In this piece from STR’s Solid Ground magazine, Koukl tells us what the Bible teaches about the armor of God. Some who read this will be surprised by his teaching for the reason that the way in which charismatics go about dealing with the demonic is highly unbiblical, only they don’t know it. To make matters worse, attempting to “bind Satan” is a ridiculous and foolish practice.  Taking on powerful, lying, deceptive demons is dangerous!

So with this background in mind, we urge you to open up your Bible and follow along as Greg Koukl explains what it means to “gird your loins with truth.” He writes:

Sometimes, if you know what to look for, you can “see” something that is invisible; you can see the unseen. It’s not a parlor trick, but a valuable spiritual skill. And it’s not that difficult if you know what clues to look for. I’d like to show you what those clues are.

First, though, a foundational matter. I am convinced that most Christians do not understand spiritual warfare. Either they are unaware of the unseen battle or, if they do recognize its importance, they do not focus on the central issue but instead are distracted by a secondary concern. In military terms, they have been taken in by a feint. Here is the feint.

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Research Team Slams Global Warming Data In New Report: ‘Not Reality… Totally Inconsistent With Credible Temperature Data’

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According to Zero Hedge:

As world leaders, namely in the European Union, attack President Trump for pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement which would have saddled Americans with billions upon billions of dollars in debt and economic losses, a new bombshell report that analyzed Global Average Surface Temperature (GAST) data produced by NASA, the NOAA and HADLEY proves the President was right on target with his refusal to be a part of the new initiative.

According to the report, which has been peer reviewed by administrators, scientists and researchers from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), and several of America’s leading universities, the data is completely bunk:

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Mexican folk religion involving human sacrifice gaining status among criminals

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Fox News reports:

A Mexican folk religion involving human sacrifice and devoted to “Holy Death” is growing in popularity among drug traffickers and violent criminals, prompting Texas officials and the Catholic Church to warn about honoring the so-called “Saint Death.”

Authorities are speaking out about the religion devoted to La Santa Muerte, which translates to “Holy Death” and “Saint Death,” that has gained popularity steadily since the late 1980s among Mexican-American Catholics.

“She’s not a saint. There is nothing good that can come out of praying to her,” Sante Fe Archbiship John Wester said in February. “We have a lot of saints who represent the teaching of Jesus Christ. This is an aberration.”

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