PJ Media reports:
An ISIS-affiliated media group issued new statements today praising Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen as a “lion of the caliphate” and a “hero” for slaughtering 49 “infidels” — and calling on other lone jihadis to follow his example.
The Obama administration has confirmed that Mateen was consuming ISIS propaganda online before he opened fire at the Pulse nightclub early Sunday morning and called 911 to swear fidelity to ISIS.
According to one of the club’s regular customers, the terrorist “was a homosexual and he was trying to pick up men. He would walk up to them and then he would maybe put his arm round them or something … That’s what people do at gay bars. That’s what we do.” The Guardian has the story:
The gunman who killed 49 people in an attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando is said to have been a regular at the venue and had messaged several people on gay dating apps, according to reports.
An unnamed FBI official told the Associated Press on Tuesday that the bureau was investigating the claims.
At least four regular customers said they had seen killer Omar Mateen drinking at the nightclub on multiple occasions. “Sometimes he would go over in the corner and sit and drink by himself, and other times he would get so drunk he was loud and belligerent,” Ty Smith told the Orlando Sentinel.
Justin Holcomb of Townhall has the story:
The United Cyber Caliphate, an offshoot of the ISIS cyber warfare group, has released a list that includes names, addresses, and email addresses belonging to over 8,000 people, making it one of the longest target lists ISIS-affiliated groups have distributed.
Christian News Network has the story:
An illustrious chemist who has previously shed light on critical shortcomings in scientists’ understanding of evolution has written a detailed essay explaining “the massive gaps in our understanding” of how life first originated.
Dr. James Tour is a professor of chemistry, computer science, and materials science and nanoengineering at Rice University. He has written over 590 research publications and over 100 patents, and he is the recipient of numerous scientific awards.
Marsha West, General Editor CRN
When I heard that Jan Crouch died of a massive stroke, to be quite honest, I was not saddened by the news. Why? Well, for one thing Jan and her deceased husband Paul promoted the worst sort of heresy imaginable: Word of Faith. But you wouldn’t find that out by reading the Christian Post’s puff piece. Janice Crouch was a controversial figure to be sure. But inquiring minds learned nothing about that from CP. Certainly part of the reason for the controversy was the colossal pink-tinged “cotton candy” wigs, heavy make-up, and the lavish lifestyle she and husband Paul enjoyed. But there were many other reasons the Crouches were controversial. So let’s take a quick look at their history.
The couple were the founders and leaders of Trinity Broadcasting Network. TBN has been in business since 1973 and has an estimated net worth of half a billion dollars. A single Praise-A-Thon can bilk faithful viewers out of as much as $50 million tax exempt donations. The Crouches were known for their scandalous statements against anyone who dared challenge the cultic Faith teaching they were spreading on a global scale via their cable TV network. The following is excerpted from “Televangelist Paul Crouch Leaves a Dirty Legacy; Evangelical Christians Look the Other Way” by Terry Firma:
The New York Times published an exposé of the Crouches’ financial tricks last year. It tells you volumes about how the darling duo spent all that revenue from donations, TV rights, and investments.
The [couple’s] lavish perquisites, described by [estranged granddaughter and former financial officer Brittany] Koper and corroborated by interviews with two other former TBN employees, include additional, often-vacant homes in Texas and on the former Conway Twitty estate in Tennessee, corporate jets valued at $8 million and $49 million each and thousand-dollar dinners with fine wines, paid with tax-exempt funds.
More:
[F]ormer TBN employees also said that dozens of staff members, including Ms. Koper, chauffeurs, sound engineers and others had been ordained as ministers by TBN. This, she said, allowed the network to avoid paying Social Security taxes on their salaries and made it easier to justify providing family members with rent-free houses, sometimes called “parsonages.” (Source)
The above is just a tidbit of information that can be gleaned from a Google search. But nothing like this was mentioned in CP’s report, even though the controversy still rages. Also not mentioned in the puff piece is the fact that because of TBN, Faith teaching has become one of this era’s greatest threats to authentic Christianity.
James Carafano of The Daily Signal reports:
It’s not surprising that, after the first responders, the first response to the horrific attack that killed 50 or more people at gay nightclub Pulse in Orlando was a sometimes vicious debate.
The instant anger to President Barack Obama’s statement about the attack reflects a deep and growing distrust over how this administration responds to the threat of global terrorism.
According to Oregon Live:
An Oregon judge ruled Friday that a transgender person can legally change their sex to “non-binary” rather than male or female in what legal experts believe is a first in the United States.
Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Amy Holmes Hehn legally changed 52-year-old Jamie Shupe‘s sex from “female” to non-binary.
Recently Pope Francis met with Pastor Life Coach Joel Osteen as well as a group of televangelists that included Kenneth Copeland and James Robison. Now the Pope has reached out to New Apostolic Reformation leaders, including Bethel Church’s residing senior associate leader Kris Vallotton. Charisma News, a site we do not recommend, has the story:
Some of the most recognizable names in the charismatic movement had a private meeting with Pope Francis on Friday. Mike Bickle, Che Ahn, Kris Vallotton, Stacey Campbell and dozens of other Protestant leaders from North America and Europe gathered at the Vatican.
According to Bickle, director of IHOP in Kansas City, the purpose of the meeting was to engage in an on-going dialogue about the pontiff’s views on Jesus and Christianity.
“The meeting lasted a couple of hours. They gave us the opportunity to ask questions. The meeting was very warm and personal,” Bickle told Charisma News. “I asked him about his views on the serious error and deception of universalism that claims that ‘all paths lead to God’ and other religions being saved without receiving the grace of God that only comes through Jesus. He assured me that he believes that Jesus is the only way of salvation.”
See our research paper on the Roman Catholic Church
Fox News has this breaking story:
A gunman who federal authorities say had possible ties to terrorism opened fire early Sunday morning in a packed Orlando nightclub, killing 50 people and wounding at least 53 more in a bloody scene that ended hours later when police stormed the building and killed the shooter.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer asked Gov. Rick Scott to declare a state of emergency following the attack.
The gunman was identified as Omar Mateen, Rep. Alan Grayson said during a Sunday morning press conference. Mateen was a U.S. citizen, Grayson said, though that was “not true of other family members of his.” Mateen, 29, lived in Fort Pierce, Fla. He was born in the U.S. to parents of Afghan origin and was a Muslim, Fox News confirmed.
Authorities were going through Mateen’s belongings on Sunday morning trying to identify a motive for the attack, Grayson said.
“More likely than not, that it was an ideologically motivated attack,” Grayson said, though he said it was unclear if Mateen was linked to any terror groups.
Lee Duigon, contributing editor with Chalcedon Foundation, shows the ways in which liberals are decimating every trace of biblical morality. He writes:
Again I say it: kill the culture, and the culture will kill you right back.
Throw off God’s laws, and man’s laws will suffer, too.
Few cities reject godliness like San Francisco, Gay by the Bay. Its leaders, its thinkers, speak of “San Francisco values” is if they actually believed in them. Those values would include the public festival of sexual lawlessness that they call a “pride parade,” defiantly taking pride in what ought to be a source of shame.
Would it surprise you to learn that property crime in San Francisco is up 60 percent since 2010? That it now has the highest per capita property crime among all of America’s top 50 cities? And the city tourist board is getting nervous about “street behavior” that sends the tourists fleeing to Des Moines. “Street behavior” is a euphemism covering many antisocial acts, from “overly aggressive panhandling”—is that another euphemism for mugging?—to shooting up with drugs right out on the sidewalk for everyone to see.
Surely criminals will get a hold of this card. Fox 25 has the report:
A new tool coming to the Oklahoma Department Of Public Safety will let troopers scan credit cards, debit cards, or gift cards and freeze them.
DPS says the new car readers will help in credit card fraud cases or identity theft, but also help with civil assets forfeiture.
According to The Daily Signal:
With the departments of Justice and Education’s new announcement on transgender access to showers, locker rooms, bathrooms, and other sex-specific facilities in schools, there is reason for concern.
The Obama administration has unlawfully rewritten law, meddling in state and local matters, and imposing bad policy on the entire nation.
Americans agree that while we should be sensitive to transgender individuals, others also have rights of privacy, safety, and their own beliefs that deserve respect and should not simply be pushed aside, especially when transgender persons can be accommodated in other ways
Christian News Network reports:
Religious publishers in the United States are busy these days, releasing such new books as a biography of pop music phenom Justin Bieber — entitled “Belieber!: Fame, Faith and The Heart of Justin Bieber.” Other tomes mix spirituality with memoir and self-help topics. New editions of the Bible have also been released recently, as well as e-books and audio book downloads by popular religious authors.
“Both in dollars and units sold, the industry is back in line with its historical growth of the last decade,” since the recession, said Byron Williamson, head of Worthy Publishing in Nashville, a center for religious publishing in the United States that some say is second only to New York City for book publishing.
Jeff Maples of Pulpit & Pen continues his report on Together 2016. He writes:
Pulpit & Pen recently confirmed and reported that the Pope of Rome will be joining Southern Baptist President, along with Hillsong United, Lecrae, and many other professing evangelical Christians in Washington D.C. for an ecumenical fornication-fest. The event, dubbed Together 2016, is estimated to host over 1 million attendees.
Recently, a tweet appeared from Together2016’s official Twitter account that stated the following:
See our research paper on Roman Catholicism
From this piece we learn that there are two-tiers of Christian hierarchy. According to Elizabeth Prata of The End Time, “At the top are the super-spiritual, super-intimate believers who are blessed with God’s favor in receiving this special revelation directly. The bottom tier are the unlucky/unfaithful/less-than believers who don’t ever receive such personal ministrations from Jesus.”
Find out if you’re blessed with God’s favor, like Beth Moore is, or if you’re super-unlucky.
Christian News Network reports:
The House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives has called for an investigation into the abortion giant Planned Parenthood and one of its baby body parts buyers as new evidence has surfaced that allegedly suggests the entities violated patient privacy laws.
Chairwoman Marsha Blackburn recently sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to request the investigation, as she included concerning evidence from email correspondence between Planned Parenthood representatives and buyers such as Stem Express.
Paige Cunningham, executive director of The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity, warns that “Although the prospect is remote, scientists could potentially design people on computers who would be born without biological parents.” World Magazine has the story:
On June 2, the journal Science published a paper written by 25 researchers announcing their intention to begin a 10-year project aimed at synthetically creating an entire human genome—the complete set of genes present in a cell.
Although the researchers are clear the goal of the Human Genome Project-Write (HGP-Write) is to synthesize a human genome in a lab dish—not to create a baby—many bioethicists and other experts are raising skeptical eyebrows.
Molly Roberts of the liberal Washington Post has the story:
A female presidential candidate has clinched a major-party nomination for the first time in U.S. history. No one seems to care — at least not many people in my millennial generation. Not even women, although they should.
Maybe my cohort is caught up in the moment of Donald Trump: Millennial liberals may think it’s more vital to ward off an age of authoritarianism than to usher in a new era for feminism. Certainly, we’ve been distracted by Bernie Sanders: For idealistic young voters, a rabble-rousing revolutionary feels more alluring than a political pragmatist, even one with two X chromosomes.
Christian News Network reports:
The toothpaste manufacturer Colgate-Palmolive has joined the push to promote “gay pride” in the month of June by releasing an advertisement featuring two homosexual men.
The commercial, which generated over 21,000 likes on social media, features two men who are moving into an apartment together. As they stand next to the moving truck looking at the outside of their apartment, one of the men lays his head on the other man’s chest, who strokes his hair.
The men then proceed to carry a sofa up the stairs, at which point they are met by a middle-aged man and a young boy. The two parties stare at each other for a brief moment, not knowing what to think, but the middle-aged man and boy accept the men and gesture to each other to help them carry the sofa.
Pope Francis is hoping to unite Christians in the “Next Great Awakening” at Together 2016. Jeff Maples and Brandon Hines of Pulpit & Pen have the story:
Where is the discernment?
It has been thoroughly covered that the Together 2016 is hosting many questionable people liked by evangelicals, including Hillsong UNITED, Christine Caine, Kari Jobe, Kirk Franklin, the rapper “who happens to be Christian,” Lecrae, SBC President, Ronnie Floyd, Josh McDowell, Tedashii, Trip Lee, Ann Voskamp, and Matthew West. Since then, we have also learned that Matt Maher won’t be the only Roman Catholic these people are partnering with. Pope Francis has added himself to the lineup stating that he will speak to the people via video. Founder of PULSE, Nick Hall, who helped organize the event, said,
We are humbled and honored by his involvement and eager to share his message with the crowd that gathers at Together 2016…That His Holiness would choose to speak into this historic day is a testament to the urgency and the need for followers of Jesus to unite in prayer for our nation and our world.
See our research paper on Roman Catholicism
This makes perfect sense, as robots are much more reliable than humans — plus robots don’t ask for raises nor do they call in sick. So what will humans be doing when robots take over? Economic Times has the story:
As we reach the middle of the 21st century, half the population of the world will lose their job to a machine. Yes, this is another ‘robots will take our jobs ‘ story.
The latest comes from Moshe Vardi, professor at Rice University , Houston, who delivered a talk to the American Association for the Advancement of Science , exploring the question: “If machines are capable of doing almost any work humans can do, what will humans do?”
According to Bud Ahlheim of Pulpit & Pen:
The Baptist Press just released the Annual Church Profile report for 2015. The article opens with the decidedly Scripture-oblivious words, “Southern Baptists may find cause for hope in the latest Annual Profile Report. The Southern Baptist Convention added more churches in 2015, due mostly to church planting efforts.”
Really?
Over at Borrowed Light, blogger Mike Leake tackles what’s going on with what he calls the “accepting myself” movement that’s becoming so prevalent among professing Christians. Leake laments:
I’m seeing more and more young people follow the path of Knapp and Pearson. It’s becoming quite the broad road. And this broad road isn’t labeled homosexuality. This broad road is labeled “accepting myself”. That is the foundational doctrine of this American heresy. And it is swallowing up more and more of those my age and younger. It’s a doctrine which runs away from the Refiner’s fire.
According to Breitbart:
The NBA launched a marketing campaign for 30 shirts bearing rainbow-colored team logos to benefit a controversial homosexual-advocacy group. “In celebration of LGBT Pride Month, we’re excited to announce a new collaboration between the NBA, GLSEN, and Teespring,” the three groups proclaimed. “Beginning on June 7, fans can purchase an exclusive line of Teespring NBA Pride T-shirts featuring the logos of all 30 NBA teams, with all proceeds benefiting GLSEN.”
According to CNSNews:
The U.S. Defense Department will host its fifth LGBT Pride Month ceremony on Wednesday in the Pentagon courtyard, a spokesman announced on Monday, but don’t expect an announcement on transgenders in the military.
“There continues to be progress on that front, even in the last few days,” Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told reporters on Monday.
“There have been a range of — I’m not going to get into private deliberations…but there have been — the secretary challenged people within the department to work out issues resolving — to try and resolve this issue.
