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

Obama Admin Demands Schools Nationwide Allow Boys in Girls’ Restrooms or Lose Funding

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According to Christian News Network:

Transgender bathroom signThe U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Education released on Friday guidelines for schools nationwide that outline that the Obama administration requires schools to allow students to use the restroom and locker room corresponding with their “gender identity” under threat of losing their federal funding.

“There is no room in our schools for discrimination of any kind, including discrimination against transgender students on the basis of their sex,” said Attorney General Loretta Lynch in a statement announcing the release of the guidelines. “This guidance gives administrators, teachers, and parents the tools they need to protect transgender students from peer harassment and to identify and address unjust school policies.”

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Trump Tax Returns “Ticking Time Bomb”

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Greg Richter of NewsMax has the story:

Donald Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns before November’s general election is a “ticking time bomb” that threatens to destroy not only Trump’s chances of being elected president, but could bring down other Republicans on the ticket, John Fund writes at National Review.

For months, Trump has said he would be willing to release his returns“at the appropriate time” but that he could not do so until an IRS audit was completed.

Tax experts, and the IRS itself, have said that being under audit does not prevent a person from releasing personal tax returns.

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Imagine Discovering That Your Teaching Assistant Really Is a Robot

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According to Melissa Korn of the Wall Street Journal, students at GIT believed that “Jill Watson” was a human teaching assistant and interacted with her throughout the entire semester.  Korn writes:

One day in January, Eric Wilson dashed off a message to the teaching assistants for an online course at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

“I really feel like I missed the mark in giving the correct amount of feedback,” he wrote, pleading to revise an assignment.

Thirteen minutes later, the TA responded. “Unfortunately, there is not a way to edit submitted feedback,” wrote Jill Watson, one of nine assistants for the 300-plus students.

Last week, Mr. Wilson found out he had been seeking guidance from a computer.

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College Applications Just Got Way More Gender-Inclusive

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Far-left blog, Huffington Post, reports:

Two applications used by hundreds of colleges and universities will soon allow students more options for identifying their gender.

The Common Application, used by more than 600 schools, and the Universal College Application, used by more than 40, said this week that the next version of their applications will allow transgender and gender non-conforming applicants better choices to self-identify.

Starting in the 2016-2017 academic year, the Common Application will offer an optional free response text field to give students a place to further describe their gender identity, and will update the “sex” field to read “sex assigned at birth,” its leadership said.

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Secularists Spread Misinformation About the Ark Encounter to stop people from going

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In a piece over at Answers in Genesis entitled “Secularists Want to Hurt Kentucky,” Ken Ham addresses irrational secularist’s all-out effort to prevent folks from enjoying the Ark Encounter, completely ignoring AIG’s First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion.  Ham points out that secularists “simply don’t want Christians to have the full freedom to present their beliefs in the culture.  He writes:

Noah's ArkSecularists in our area called Tri-State Freethinkers (whose president, Jim Helton, is an avowed atheist and serves as regional director of the American Atheists) are bemoaning their failing billboard campaign to oppose the Ark Encounter.

After the proposed billboard campaign hit the press, the company that the secularists were going to use for the billboards apparently backed out. They then decided to use a mobile billboard company, which has also backed out. This is what this secularist group claims in its press release:

After initially agreeing to drive the billboard around the park on multiple weekends during the summer, he [the driver] recently backed out due to fear of his own personal safety.

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Northern Ireland Attorney General Backs Bakers Fined for Declining “Support Gay Marriage” Cake

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Christian News Network reports:

The attorney general of Northern Ireland testified in court on Tuesday in favor of a Christian identified bakery that was fined last year for alleged discrimination for declining to print the phrase “support gay marriage” on a cake.

“I say very clearly, if it was a case where Mr. Lee had been refused some of Ashers excellent chocolate eclairs because he was gay or perceived to be gay I would be standing on the other side of the court,” John Larkin, QC told the Court of Appeals in Belfast on the second day of appeal proceedings over the matter.

“But it’s not about that,” he said. “It’s about expression and whether it’s lawful under Northern Ireland constitutional law for Ashers to be forced … to articulate or express or say a political message which is at variance with their political views, and in particular, their religious views.”

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UNC Students Fight Back Against Obama Administration Bathroom Lawsuit

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According to The Daily Signal:

A group of students at the University of North Carolina are fighting back against the Obama administration’s civil rights lawsuit against the state this week by filing a lawsuit of their own, alleging that the federal government is forcing them to choose between their educational pursuits and personal privacy.

“Our clients, the students, are between the proverbial rock and a hard place,” Jeremy Tedesco, an attorney for Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing the students in their case, told The Daily Signal. “They could lose their funding, they could have neutral restrooms and locker rooms—there’s really only two ways this could go and both of them violate their rights.”

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Calvary Chapel Golden Springs Invites A Wolf to Feed the Sheep

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Over at the Last Hiker we learn of the latest Calvary Chapel controversy.  Guitarist of Korn, Brian “Head” Welch, will be a guest speaker at SHINE Diamond Bar May 22 to promote his new book, “With My Eyes Wide Open.”  According to Last Hiker, Welch has extreme charismatic beliefs which will be included in his book.  What are some of his mystical beliefs?:

Brian Head WelchHe believes Jesus drops black angelic feathers on him while he worships, and puts gemstones in his hands at church. He believes that Jesus Himself, has walked into his house (video on his Facebook). He believes that it is better to roll around on the floor and be drunk in the spirit than actually sit and listen to a sermon. He has said that God loves us the way a man loves his wife’s naked body. He has a sensual, mystical, extreme charistmatic, drunk in the spirit type of spirituality. And he is being invited to a Calvary Chapel to sell his book??? Calvary distribution wouldn’t even sell the books that are written by the people that share his point of view–because it is UNBIBLICAL!!!! …

Evidence is provided to prove these claims.

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H/T John Lanagan

 

 

Shirley Dobson Passes Prayer Mantle to Anne Graham Lotz?

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Seems “mantles” are all the rage these days.  Recently Mormon Glenn Beck was presented “a new mantle for the future” from NAR lying “prophet” Chuck Pierce.  A few days ago Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of evangelist Billy Graham, received her own mantle. Berean Research tells us what the mantle thing is all about:

Anne Graham Lotz, Shirley Dobson

Anne Graham Lotz is now the next Chairman of the National Day Of Prayer, having received a ” Prayer Mantle of Leadership” from her predecessor, Shirley Dobson. An interesting choice of words, “Prayer Mantle.”  We Christians tend to use a lot of words that can leave those who don’t share our faith scratching their heads. But “mantle” is one of those words that tend to be used by a subset of Christians, and that word can and should cause more than a head scratch.

Are there biblical mantles?

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DOJ’s Lawsuit Against North Carolina Is Abuse of Power

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According to The Daily Signal:

North Carolina has sustained unrelenting and coordinated attacks from big business, the entertainment industry, the American Civil Liberties Union, and now the federal government over its commonsense bathroom policies.

Gov. Pat McCrory and the North Carolina Legislature have had enough of this bullying and filed separate lawsuits against the Department of Justice Monday in the reasonable expectation that a federal judge will order the ideologues at the Department of Justice to back off.

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London’s Iconic Red Buses To Declare “Glory To Allah”

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Breitbart has the report:

Britain’s largest Islamic charity says it wants to “break down barriers” and portray Islam positively by launching a new advertising campaign which will slap the phrase “glory to Allah” on the side of London buses.

The new campaign by Islamic Relief is, ostensibly, targeted at raising donations for their Ramadan aid to Syria, but is attracting attention for the “hundreds” of buses which will be decorated with the phrase “Subhan’ Allah”, or ‘Glory to Allah’.

Muslims reading the advert are told that to “gather the rewards of Ramadan”, they must donate to Islamic Relief, an organisation which had its accounts with banking giant HSBC closed after “concerns that cash for aid could end up with terrorist groups abroad”.

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Popular Charismatic Worship Artist, Kari Jobe, Teaching Dangerous Theology

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After reading Jeff Maples’ blogpost over at Pulpit & Pen you will wonder why Kari Jobe was invited to lead worship for Women of Faith, an event that draws thousands of women. When you read the lyrics to some of Jobe’s songs, you’ll realize that the words are blasphemous….and you’ll want to repent if you ever uttered those words  Three of Kari Jobe’s songs are featured on the hit CD, Women of Faith Presents Gateway Worship a Collection. So if you own the CD, consider tossing it in the trash.

But this is not about Women of Faith; it’s about contemporary “Christian” music and professing Christians who write and perform it, some of whom are at best biblically illiterate and at worst wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Read it and weep.

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“Big Brother” Shouldn’t Force Americans to Participate in Abortions

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According to The Daily Signal:

Baby in womb - ultrasound

Recently-introduced federal legislation would protect doctors, nurses, hospitals, and health care providers from being forced to provide abortion as part of their practice or insurance plans.

The Conscience Protection Act, House Resolution 4828, introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives at the end of March by Rep. John Fleming, R-La., currently has 49 co-sponsors.

“As a family practice physician for over 30 years, I know for a fact that doctors and nurses are dedicated medical professionals uniquely qualified to assess the health and wellness needs of their patients,” Fleming said in a formal statement. “There is no room in the clinic for government discrimination, for Big Brother to force a health care provider to participate, in any way, in an abortion.”

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Justice Dept. to N.C. universities: Break transgender bathroom law or lose millions in funding

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According to Washington Times:

The U.S. Department of Justice is now directly pitting the University of North Carolina system against its state government.

The University of North Carolina System said it has been given until Monday to comply with a Justice order to break a state law concerning bathroom access, or risk losing more than $1 billion in federal education funding.

In a letter sent to the higher education system’s president and board of directors, which mirrored one sent to North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, the Justice Department said compliance with the state law HB2 discriminates against transgender people and violates federal civil rights law.

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Inscriptions Found in Ancient Fortress Support Biblical Timeline, Challenge Skeptics

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Christian News Network reports:

A team of Israeli researchers has found evidence that literacy was widespread among ancient Israelites, thus challenging critics of the Bible who claim most people in Old Testament times were illiterate.

Critics of the Bible have long alleged that Israelites prior to the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. were largely illiterate. Therefore, they argue, many of the Old Testament books were written after the destruction of Jerusalem, which is much later than the Bible suggests.

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Kerry slams Trump’s wall, tells grads to prepare for “borderless world”

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Washington Examiner reports:

Secretary of State John Kerry took a shot at Donald Trump during his Friday commencement speech at Northeastern University, by saying no wall is big enough to keep dangerous terrorists out of the United States.

“Many of you were in elementary school when you learned the toughest lesson of all on 9/11,” he said. “There are no walls big enough to stop people from anywhere, tens of thousands of miles away, who are determined to take their own lives while they target others.”

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Planned Parenthood helping transgender patients with sex changes

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Planned Parenthood’s mission statement is based on helping individuals “manage his or her fertility.” But now the organization wants to add sex-changes to that goal. So it appears that, if Planned Parenthood has its way, the American tax-payer’s hard-earned money will be spent on the mutilation of transgender people’s bodies.  Fox News has the report:

Planned Parenthood has found a new niche that could prove nearly as controversial as providing abortions: helping transgendered people through the sex-change process.

In the wake of last summer’s undercover videos that appeared to show Planned Parenthood officials selling baby body parts for money – which is illegal – legislators in several states have looked for ways to deny funding to the women’s health giant.

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Hillsong exposing their Chrislamic, Roman Catholic agenda

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Terry Crist, senior Pastor of City of Grace as well as the Chair of the Governor’s Council of Faith and Community Partnerships in AZ, shares Hillsong’s agenda in a must watch video.  Following is an excerpt from the transcript:

Isaiah 52, verse 8 says, ‘when the Watchman sing together, then they shall see eye to eye’. So many times we tend focus on what divides us, instead of the man who unites us. Jesus is that God man, who calls us all to himself, and when we respond to that something transcendent happens, something that unites us at a place so much deeper than just mere agreement. And out of that unity comes a shared mission, out of that comes a shared transformation, and that’s really at the core of my heart, my heart longs for the day when we work together and we worship together and out of that we transform our city together, to the glory of God. (emphasis added)

How…ecumenical.  How…New Age.  How…unbiblical.  Note that Crist has spouted 4 Emergent Church buzzwords: transcendent, unity, mission and transformation, i.e. enlightenment.

So with this backdrop in mind, Churchwatch Central enlightens us on what’s going on with the infamous Hillsong Church.  As previously reported, Hillsong has been in the news for all sorts of reasons, including Brian Houston’s cover-up of his father’s pedophilia.   It is also concerning that Hillsong has been propagating a seeker-driven version of the Word of Faith prosperity gospel around the globe.  Now we learn from our friends over at Churchwatch Central that Hillsong has drifted into “Chrislam” and Roman Catholicism.

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Out of the Shadows: Wicca Grows in Austin and Beyond

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According to Reporting Texas:

Witch - caulderonMary Caldwell has spiky pink hair, tattooed arms and works in customer service for a software company. She’s also the leader of a Wicca meet-up that gathers every other Monday at Monkey Nest Coffee on Burnet Road.

On a recent Monday evening, she led the group in a discussion of numerology – the belief that numbers have mystical meanings – as well as rituals and personal experiences with spirits. Recently, some members of the group had visited a local cemetery to commune with spirits.

“Some of the people in the group just see them, some just hear them and some of them just smell them,” said Caldwell, 44.  “It was great fun.”

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Transgender man gives birth after falling pregnant during transition

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Oh the absurdity of it all. Looks like “Daddy” will raise the child — and “he” is currently breastfeeding her.  According to Independent:

A transgender man in Iceland has given birth to a baby after falling pregnant during his transition.

Henrý Steinn, 19, had already started living as male when he found out he was pregnant.

He told Gay Iceland that the news came just weeks before he was about to start taking testosterone, and a few months after he began transitioning.

“I was well into the consultation and was living as a man but was about one or two months away from starting the hormone treatment when I found out I was pregnant,” he said.

“It would probably have been less likely for me to fall pregnant after that, but not impossible.”

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New administration rule would permit thousands of eagle deaths at wind farms

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Wind turbineBald eagles and golden eagles are federally protected.  Individuals who kill these birds pay a $100,00 AND the person could face up to 10 years in jail. Now we’re told that our Federal Government has decided to allow wind energy companies (that own the wind farms that operate high-speed turbines that have slaughtered thousands of eagles) to kill or injure 4,200 bald eagles per year without penalty — which is four times the current limit. According to The Associated Press piece, “Golden eagles could only be killed if companies take steps to minimize the losses, for instance, by retrofitting power poles to reduce the risk of electrocution.”  Moreover,”Under the new proposal, companies would pay a $36,000 fee for a long-term permit allowing them to kill or injure eagles.”  Would the Obama Administration offer the same sort of deal to, say, an oil company?

What the story neglects to mention is that wind farms require backup from power sources that use coal, oil, and natural gas.

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Abortion Clinics Are Closing at a Record Pace

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Bloomberg has good news to report:

Pre-born babyAbortion access in the U.S. has been vanishing at the fastest annual pace on record, propelled by Republican state lawmakers’ push to legislate the industry out of existence. Since 2011, at least 162 abortion providers have shut or stopped offering the procedure, while just 21 opened.

At no time since before 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion, has a woman’s ability to terminate a pregnancy  life been more dependent on her zip code or financial resources to travel. The drop-off in providers—more than one every two weeks—occurred in 35 states, in both small towns and big cities that are home to more than 30 million women of reproductive age. (strike through added)

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Targeting Target

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Rod Dreher of The America Conservative reveals the way in which Target has chosen to handle the controversy that erupted after customers found out that Target’s bathroom policy allows for men who identify as women to use the ladies room and changing room. Dreher includes a letter from a mom who’s 14 year-old daughter was in the NYC Parks Department locker room after swim practice when a middle-aged man sauntered out of the showers wrapped in a towel. Dreher writes:

Andy Park, a gay Florida man, walked into a Target store to test its new bathroom policies. He said he was dressed like a male (you can’t see him in the clip), and had two days of beard stubble. He asks the store’s manager if he can use the women’s room. The manager says sure, and if any women have a problem with that, the store will speak to them about it. Read a news story about it here — with dialogue from the clip — and Target’s response, standing by its policy.

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Social Media Campaign Urges Disney to Make Elsa a Lesbian Princess in “Frozen” Sequel

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According to CNSNews:

The sequel to Disney’s “Frozen” won’t be out for a few years, but some fans have already launched a social media campaign calling on Disney to make the main character, Elsa, a lesbian.

The campaign #GiveElsaAGirlfriend began when a teen named Alexis Isabel tweeted: “I hope Disney makes Elsa a lesbian princess imagine how iconic that would be.” Then she tweeted: “Dear @Disney, #GiveElsaAGirlfriend.”

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