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 Missing Elements of Modern Worship

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worship-musicPopular blogger, author and pastor Tim Challies wonders: “If a worship service includes no prayer and no Bible reading, can we even recognize it as Christian worship?”

The question you need to ask yourself is, does the church you attend follow the Bible’s instruction on the way church is to be conducted?  Is the service you attend man-centered, or does it truly glorify God? After visiting many churches over the years, Challies says that the answer to these questions is No!  So, what exactly is missing in modern worship? Well, for one thing some church services lack, of all things, prayer. There are other important elements that are missing as well.  Find out what they are.

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ExxonMobil Fights the Abusive Behavior of Democrat Attorney Generals’ Climate Inquisition

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Hans von Spakovsky of The Daily Signal reveals how our government is attempting to criminalize scientific dissent and punish anyone who dares question the validity of alleged climate change:

A frame-filling portrait of a male polar bear (Ursus maritimus) jumping in the pack ice. The young male, probably due to a mix of curiosity and hunger, got really close to our ship - less than 20 meters. Svalbard, Norway.

ExxonMobil is fighting back against New York’s Democrat attorney general who is demanding decades-worth of documents about the company’s position on global warming and climate change.

On Oct. 17, ExxonMobil asked a federal judge in Texas, Ed Kinkeade, to stop the abusive behavior of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman by tossing out the subpoena that Schneiderman served on Exxon as part of its investigation of the company for supposedly lying to the public about catastrophic, man-induced climate change.

This is part of the effort of state AGs like Schneiderman to criminalize scientific dissent and punish heretics who question the validity of this unproven theory.

Exxon had already filed a lawsuit in federal court to stop a similar investigation being waged by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, also a Democrat.  Exxon’s Oct. 17 motion asked the same federal court to allow it to amend its original complaint to add Schneiderman to its lawsuit.

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Nearly 13,000 Fully Developed Babies Aborted Each Year

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According to Breitbart:

Baby kickingThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says nearly 13,000 fully developed babies who could survive outside the womb are aborted annually. And – contrary to the false claims made by Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during Wednesday evening’s debate – few, if any, of those abortions occurred because of the “life and health of the mother” or “something terrible” being discovered about the pregnancy.

In late 2011, the CDC published a report that observed 1.3 percent of abortions were performed at 21 weeks gestation and later.

“With nearly one million abortions annually in the U.S., abortionists are killing close to 13,000 children every year who are often fully developed and can survive outside the womb,” Lila Rose, president of Live Action, notes. “While the abortion industry claims that late-term abortions are an insignificant number of abortions and they’re only done because of a disability the baby has or to protect the life of the mother, the evidence says just the opposite.”

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Clinton at Al Smith Dinner: “In Order to Achieve Salvation, We Need Both Faith and Good Works”

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Christian News Network reports:

Hillary ClintonDuring Thursday night’s Al Smith charity dinner in New York City, which featured speeches from both presidential candidates, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton told those gathered that she shares a belief with Roman Catholics that to “achieve salvation,” a person must have “both faith and good works.”

“I am not Catholic. I’m a Methodist. But one of the things we share is a belief that in order to achieve salvation, we need both faith and good works,” Clinton told those gathered.

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Media Have “Selective Memory” When It Comes to Democrats Accepting Election Results

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Breitbart reports:

reminderPat Caddell told Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Thursday, “Selective memory is exactly the point” when it comes to the mainstream media’s reaction to Republican nominee Donald Trump suggesting he would wait and see before accepting the election results on November 8. “All he said was, ‘I’ll wait and see what the results are,’ which is a reasonable position, I suppose,” said Caddell, also pointing out that Democrats challenged the results of the presidential elections in 2000 and 2004.

Hillary Clinton and Al Gore were still claiming Al Gore won the 2000 election as recently as last week in Florida on the stump together:

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The Society of Biblical Literature Is Now Banning Christian Organizations

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According to Erick Erickson of The Resurgent:

MarriageI keep saying that you will be made to care and yet again we have proof from inside purportedly academic religious organizations. In the name of diversity, the Society of Biblical Literature is banning InterVarsity Press from hosting a book stall its 2017 meeting. For those not familiar with InterVarsity Press, it is one of the premiere Christian academic publishers in the world, not just the United States.

What sin did InterVarsity Press commit to get itself banned from the Society of Biblical Literature? Nothing actually. It did nothing at all. Seriously.

InterVarsity Press is an organization associated with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (“IVCF”). Time magazine ran a report on IVCF stating that it was firing employees who did not hold orthodox Christian views on, you guessed it, marriage.

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Calcium Supplements: Not Worth the Risk

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According to LifeZette, taking calcium supplements to prevent bone loss might be dangerous:

calcium-supplementsYour calcium supplement isn’t doing you any favors. After 10 years of medical research that employed more than 2,700 people, researchers at Johns Hopkins University have determined that calcium supplements actually increase the risk of heart attack.

Researchers began feeling skeptical about the health benefits of the supplements after they realized the calcium wasn’t making it to the bones — and it wasn’t passing through the body, either. Instead, the supplements deposited calcium into the soft tissue of the body, such as the muscles and blood vessels.

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Clinton Calls Trump’s Comments About Ripping Babies From the Womb “Scare Rhetoric”

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CNSNews reports:

baby-in-womb-5Donald Trump during the third presidential debate on Wednesday night said partial-birth abortion was “terrible” and “not acceptable,” but Hillary Clinton called his description of babies being ripped from the womb in the ninth month of gestation “scare rhetoric.”

The right to abortion, partial-birth abortion, funding Planned Parenthood and the makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court featured prominently in the early stages of the debate in Las Vegas.

Clinton reiterated that her priorities when naming judges to the bench included the court not reversing Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in 1973.

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Is Mindfulness Christian?

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Many people have been led to believe that Mindfulness is a totally harmless prayer technique for “slowing down to a state of lucidity in order to enter into God’s presence.” Is it true that Mindfulness is harmless?  Should Christians practice what is clearly a Buddhist prayer technique?  Dr. Peter Jones of truthXchange answers these questions:

buddhism-and-christianityIn his article, “Is ‘Mindfulness’ Christian?,” (in Book Reviews, Life & Ministry16 October 7, 2016), Ian Paul, an Anglican minister, enthusiastically reviews the booklet written by fellow Anglican cleric, Tim Stead, Mindfulness and Prayer, in the grove spirituality series. Stead devotes his booklet and much of his ministry to normalizing for Christians the Buddhist technique of spirituality, namely Mindfulness. To his own question about the Christian nature of Mindfulness, Ian Paul enthusiastically answers, “yes.”

Rev. Paul assures us that the values of Mindfulness are found in the Bible. The deep thinking found in Mindfulness is exactly what the prodigal son does. He ‘comes to his senses.’ “Paying attention is simply a skill which needs practicing.” He assures us that we must not fear Mindfulness for it is now found in the mainstream clinical and psychological contexts–though to think such fields are neutral is surely a mistake. Finally we should, says Paul, “note how similar some of the techniques of Mindfulness are to those suggested by the great mystics who have explored contemplative forms of prayer. My own inspirations have been Teresa of Avila and the Eastern Orthodox Jesus Prayer tradition.” [Unfortunately it can be shown that those medieval mystics and their spiritual techniques were dangerously heretical, adopting a similar Buddistic form of contemplative spirituality, namely nondual neo-Platonism—so more is going on, but that is another, long story. …  Rev. Paul assures us that Mindfulness is a totally harmless technique for slowing down to a state of lucidity in order to enter into God’s presence in prayer.

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Check out our Research Paper on Contemplative Prayer 

Journalists shower Hillary Clinton with campaign cash

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The Center For Public Integrity reveals the number: 96% of campaign contributions went to the Clinton campaign. Wow.  What a shock.  Here’s the story:

moneyNew Yorker television critic Emily Nussbaum, a newly minted Pulitzer Prize winner, spent the Republican National Convention pen-pricking presidential nominee Donald Trump as a misogynist shyster running an “ugly and xenophobic campaign.”

What Nussbaum didn’t disclose in her dispatches: she contributed $250 to Democrat Hillary Clinton in April.

On the nation’s left coast, Les Waldron, an Emmy Award-winning assignment editor at television station KFMB, the CBS affiliate in San Diego, swung right in July, shooting $28 to Trump.

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Warming Alarmists Redefine What A Hurricane Is So We’ll Have More Of Them

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According to Investor’s Business Daily:

hurricaineWhether they admit it out loud or not, many global warming alarmists want more destructive weather events to validate their assumptions. But what happens when they can’t get their “dirty weather,” as Al Gore calls it? Then they’ll just have to define down what a disaster is.

Eleven years ago, Gore swore that “the science is extremely clear now.” Global warming was “magnifying” the “destructive power” of the “average hurricane,” he said. Man’s impact on the environment “makes the duration, as well as the intensity of the hurricane, stronger.”

The weather refused to cooperate with Gore and the U.S. went 11 years without a hurricane making landfall. But Hurricane Matthew renewed the alarmists’ faith in their own nonsense. Acting is if 11 days rather than 11 years had passed, Gore said last week that in Hurricane Matthew, “Mother Nature is giving us a very clear and powerful message.” From the same stage in Florida, Hillary Clinton said “Hurricane Matthew was likely more destructive because of climate change.” The Washington Post, ever dutiful to the man-made global warming narrative, asked climate scientist Michael Mann (whose hockey stick chart supposedly proves human-caused warming but fails the test for some) about her statement. Naturally, he told the Post she was “absolutely” right.

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Carl Lentz to Oprah Winfrey: You Don’t Have to be a Christian to Have a Relationship with God

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Wolf 5Once again Carl Lentz of Hillsong NYC plays fast and loose with the truth.  As Jeff Maples of Pulpit & Pen points out, Lentz is a false teacher that preaches a false Gospel. “His gospel appeals to the masses, and people like Oprah, because it’s inclusive, and does not place Jesus Christ as the premise of the Gospel. It places man and his “choices” at the center of this false Gospel.”  Recently Oprah interviewed this wolf and, as always, he shared what is clearly a man-centered gospel.

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. – 1 Timothy 2:5-6 (ESV)

In a recent interview on the Oprah Winfrey Network, Carl Lentz explains that he hopes that churches like his will “transform the way people experience their relationship with God.” Oprah then asks Carl Lentz, “do you believe that only Christians can be in a relationship with God.” His reply,

No, I believe that when Jesus said that “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” the way I read that, Jesus said that he is the road marker, he is the map, so I think that God loves people so much, that whether they accept or reject him, he’s still gracious, and he’s still moving, and he’s still giving you massive red blinking lights, for chances to take a right turn when maybe you’d take a left, but I believe God loves people, and that’s what this whole gospel is based on, it’s love….

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Barna Study: “More Than Four Out of Ten Evangelicals” Rejecting Both Trump and Clinton

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Christian News Network reports:

trump-and-clintonA recent Barna study shows that although many of those who identify as evangelical support the presidential candidacy of Republican nominee Donald Trump, more than four out of ten evangelicals currently reject both Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

The organization surveyed 1,023 adults, including 627 likely voters, to conduct its study. Those expressing support for Trump included evangelicals (55 percent for Trump as opposed to 2 percent for Clinton), those who claim to have a biblical worldview (57 percent to 30 percent), and those who believe in absolute moral truth (48 percent to 37 percent).

Those supporting Clinton included those who profess to be Christians but are not born again (48 percent for Clinton to 36 percent for Trump), those who identify with other faiths ( 37 percent to 30 percent), atheists and agnostics (61 percent to 18 percent), and Roman Catholics (45 percent to 35 percent).

But Barna found that while some have selected a side, others have stated that they don’t feel comfortable with voting for either candidate.

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Millennials desperately need to bone up on the history of communism

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MarketWatch reports that when it comes to understanding communism, most millennials are ignorant. And only 42% view capitalism favorably:

CommunismThe Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, citing survey results released on Monday, blames widespread ignorance for the relatively positive views millennials have toward socialism and communism.

Of the 2,300 Americans polled by YouGov, 80% of baby boomers and 91% of the elderly agree with the statement that “communism was and still is a problem” in the world today. Millennials? Only 55%.

Furthermore, almost half of Americans between the ages of 16 and 20 said they would vote for a socialist, while 21% would go so far as to back a communist.

 

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

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According to Churchwatch Central:

Michael BrownBill Johnson is the notorious NAR cult leader at Bethel in Redding, CA. He was recently featured by Dr. Michael Brown (promoter of demonic doctrines, and New Apostolic Reformation teachings and their Apostles, in Brownsville). Brown used his program to not only defend Bethel’s false teachings & practices, but to also promote Johnson’s latest book, “God is Good: He’s Better Than You Think“.

Dr. Brown also took the opportunity to specifically target the very well-known and highly respected Todd Friel (TF), the host of Wretched Radio, a conservative, evangelical Christian radio show,  and Phil Johnson (PJ), who is the executive director of Grace to You, an elder at Grace Community Church and pastor of the GraceLife Fellowship.

As if offended by the following dialogue, Michael Brown plays these two clips for Bill Johnson to comment on, (the first at the 4 min 30 sec mark, the second at the 5 min 26 sec mark) taken from his radio program, “The Line Of Fire”:

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O’Keefe Video Sting Exposes “Bird-Dogging” — Democrats’ Effort to Incite Violence at Trump Rallies

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This just in from Breitbart:

bird-dogDemocrats have used trained provocateurs to instigate violence at Republican events nationwide throughout the 2016 election cycle, including at several Donald Trump rallies, using a tactic called “bird-dogging,” according to a new video investigation released Monday by James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas.

The goal of “bird-dogging”: to create a sense of “anarchy” around Donald Trump that would undermine his political support. Often, the tactic uses the most vulnerable people — including the elderly and disabled — to maximize shock value.

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Johns Hopkins Distances From Psychiatrists’ Report That There’s No “Scientific Evidence” People Born Homosexual

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No surprise there.  Anti-science LGBT radicals warned that there would be “consequences” unless Johns Hopkins distanced itself from psychiatrists Dr. Lawrence Mayer and Dr. Paul McHugh who wrote the report. What did the LGBT mean by consequences? First off, they’re going to discredit and marginalize Drs. Mayer and McHugh for daring to write the report. Christian News Network reveals the “Gay Gestapo’s” plans for Johns Hopkins should they fail to throw the psychiatrists under the bus:

no-thinkingOfficials with Johns Hopkins Medicine have distanced themselves from a report written by two of its psychiatrists that states that there is no scientific evidence that people are born homosexual or in the wrong body.

“In recent months, some have questioned our position, both inside and outside the institution, not because of any change in our practice or policy, but because of the varied individual opinions expressed publicly by members of the Johns Hopkins Medicine community,” wrote Dr. Paul Rothman, dean of medical faculty, and Ronald Peterson, president of Johns Hopkins Health System, in an email letter sent on Oct. 7 to students and alumni.

“We have taken these concerns seriously. We want to reiterate our institutional support for LGBT individuals and update you on the work we are doing to further that commitment,” it stated.

As previously reported, in August, Johns Hopkins psychiatrists Dr. Lawrence Mayer and Dr. Paul McHugh penned a controversial report entitled Sexuality and Gender: Findings from the Biological, Psychological, and Social Sciences, which was published in The New Atlantis.

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What makes a false religion false?

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Christians believe that Christianity is the only true religion; thus all other religions are false.

What are the essential doctrines of the Christian faith found in the pages of Scripture? In other words, what must an individual believe to be saved?  There are 5 essentials. Can you rattle them off? In this piece over at The End Time, Elizabeth Prata covers the essential doctrines of Christianity as well as the secondary essentials.  She also reveals what makes a religion false.  Prata writes:

Truth - falseIf it’s not one false religion, it’s another. False religion has been with us since the Garden. It’s nothing new. When Jesus returns, He mused whether He will even find faith upon the earth. (Luke 18:8)

The question of the day is, what makes a religion false?

Humans have an innate sense of worship. We don’t worship who God wants us to worship. We don’t worship in the way He wants us to worship. We don’t worship for the right reasons.

Examples of these are of course, Adam and Eve, who were tempted into worshiping themselves (“you will be like God”.) Cain did not worship in the right way. (Genesis 4:3-5). But there is a right way to worship and a wrong way to worship. Neither did Nadab and Abihu. (Leviticus 10:1). Many in the days of the Incarnation did not worship Jesus for the right reasons. They preferred the glory of men to the glory of God. (John 12:43).

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See our Research Papers on  Roman Catholicism and Mormonism

Evidence of a Young Moon? Study Forces Scientists to Rethink Lunar Dating Techniques

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Christian News Network reports:

moonCould the moon be younger than most realize? A new study shows that craters on the moon form quicker than previously thought, which means many features on the lunar surface are not as old as astronomers had predicted.

Astronomers at Arizona State University and Cornell University recently set out to measure the formation rate of craters on the moon. To do so, they compiled thousands of high-resolution “before and after” images of the moon’s surface captured by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The amount of time that elapsed between the before and after pictures varied, ranging from 176 to 1,241 days.

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“Nation Now Has Proof” of Hillary Scandals, But Leftist Media “Devote Its Front Pages to the Trump Story”

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Breitbart reports:

corruption-2The Wall Street Journal’s Potomac Watch columnist Kimberley Strassel details the “devastating case against a Clinton presidency” that can be made by reviewing the WikiLeaks documents combined with what is already known in the public record. Strassel notes that although “the nation now has proof of pretty much everything [Hillary Clinton] has been accused of,” the media “has almost uniformly ignored the flurry of bombshells, preferring to devote its front pages” to the story that Donald Trump “made lewd remarks a decade ago and now stands accused of groping women.”

Only subscribers to WSJ have access to Kimberly Strassel’s entire article (here). Dave Andrusko has a piece entitled “Just Some of the Reasons Pro-Abortion Hillary Clinton Must Never Become President” that includes excerpts from Strassel’s article.  Andrusko writes:

Before I began this admittedly very long post, I looked at the online front page of today’s Washington Post. I stopped counting at the links to 15 attacks on Donald Trump, plus the ebook “Trump Revealed” in which a bevy of Post reporters went after Trump, plus a separate link to the “Financials, depositions and interview transcripts: The documents behind ‘Trump Revealed.’”

Whatever happens November 8, reporters/editorial writers of the Media Elite will indulge in ceaseless rounds of navel-gazing. If pro-abortion Hillary Clinton wins, they will congratulate themselves for having done their civic duty. If Trump wins, they will (a) bemoan that they didn’t have 20 attacks each day and (b) attempt to delegitimize his presidency from the hour he carried the day.

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Bad Fruit, Diseased Trees, and the Authority of God’s Word

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diseased-tree-and-graveyardAuthor, speaker and blogger Michelle Lesley often has to deal with disgruntled people who contact her to defend a high-profile false teacher she has warned us about.  Yes, some who profess a belief in Christ actually stand up for wolves in the hen house and will even refuse to listen to the evidence.  Why? Because they’re not Bereans.  Moreover, a certain false teacher has become an idol.  Chew on that, brethren. Some wolves are idols.  So when a messenger like Michelle Lesley comes along and knocks down an idol, some professing Christians will shoot at the messenger.

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Churches Seek Exemption From Massachusetts Law Allowing Men in Women’s Restrooms

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According to Christian News Network:

Bathroom - ladiesFour churches in Massachusetts have filed a legal challenge against a new state law requiring the allowance of men who identify as women to use womens’ restrooms and vice versa, contending that they should be exempt from the mandate under the First Amendment.

Horizon Christian Fellowship in Fitchburg, Abundant Life Church in Swansea, House of Destiny Ministries in Southbridge and Faith Christian Fellowship in Haverhill are all a part of the suit, filed on Tuesday against the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination and Attorney General Maura Healey.

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Sid Roth’s new Middle East Television Network to reach millions

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Berean Research reports:

This is not good news. If you know anything about the theology of Sid Roth (“It’s Supernatural”) or his guests, then you understand that the announcement that Sid will reach an additional 150 Million viewers in the Middle East is concerning.

How many of them will be duped into the New Apostolic Reformation’s signs and wonders, spiritual warfare and demonic indwellings as told by false teachers that frequently promote their latest book or DVD programs on Sid’s show?

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The Ridiculous Crusade for Gender-Neutral Toys

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In his piece over at Acculturated, Jonathan V. Last says he believes that one of the incongruities in our culture is that “polite society currently insists that you are ‘born this way’ if you are homosexual or misgendered. But when it comes to boys who like to play with swords and build fighter jets? For some reason, this is viewed as a societal construct that should be eradicated so that they’ll want to play with dolls.”

Most parents will tell you that boys do not play with dolls.  Give a boy a doll and he’ll want to blow it up.  Give a girl a GI Joe and he’ll become her Barbie doll’s boyfriend. Boys and girls are different.

So now to Last’s article:

clown-toyChristina Hoff Sommers—who literally wrote the book on the war on boys—notes that there’s a movement afoot to de-gender toys. Target has pulled the “boys” and “girls” labeling from their toy aisles. The White House recently hosted a “summit” on the perils of gender-specific toys. Time proclaims that “the next generation of kids will play with gender neutral toys.”

This is crazy on two counts. First, the kind of people who obsess about gender-neutral toys don’t, as a demographic fact, have many children. In America these days, childbearing tends to be the counter-cultural province of people who aren’t social justice warriors.

Second, even if you give kids gender neutral toys, they’ll gender the heck out of them on their own. Trust me, I know.

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