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

Childcare worker fired for refusing to call girl, 6, made “transgender” by same-sex parents, a boy

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Christian Examiner reports:

For four months the child came to school as a girl, and then suddenly as a boy – and now the manager of the daycare center the child attends has been fired for refusing to call a she a he, the Houston Chronicle has reported.

According to the paper, Madeline Kirksey has filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleging discrimination after she – a black female over 40 who is a Christian – was terminated Nov. 3 for refusing to change the way she addressed a “transgender boy.”

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Muslim Student Who Carried Out Knife Attack at University Carried Printout of ISIS Flag

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According to Christian News Network:

A Muslim student who carried out a knife attack last week at the Merced campus of the University of California carried a printout of the Islamic State flag and, according to reports, was also on the FBI watch list.

As previously reported, Faisal Mohammad, 18, a freshman at the university, entered one of the classroom and office buildings on campus on Nov. 4 at approximately 8 a.m. and began stabbing another student with a hunting knife. Byron Price, a construction worker who observed the altercation, stepped in to help, but was soon stabbed himself.

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Starbucks’ red cup brewhaha

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Starbucks logoThere’s a big brewhaha going on over the Starbucks holiday coffee cup. Seems some people are incensed that the cups are plain red, with no recognition of Christianity, when there could have been. This is surprising in light of the fact that Starbucks has never paid tribute to the reason for the season on its cups. Since 1997 the left-leaning company “has told a story of the holidays by featuring symbols of the season from vintage ornaments and hand-drawn reindeer to modern vector-illustrated characters.” The company logo is “a 16th century Norse woodcut of a twin-tailed mermaid, or Siren,” which is clearly pagan. One would think that professing Christians would find it offensive to see a pagan logo on one side of the cup and the baby Jesus on the other side.

So anyway, apparently the outside of the cup artists Starbucks’ employs ran out of ideas, threw caution to the wind, and went with an all red cup…and you know the rest of the story.

So to add some perspective to the brewhaha, listen to what Albert Mohler had to say in The Briefing:

Without doubt this does point to the larger secularization of the culture and that means that corporate interests and advertisers no longer feel like they have to give a tip of the hat to Christianity during the time of Christmas, as well as other holidays of the season. One explanation of this just might be religious diversity in the United States. I don’t actually think that’s the big story. I think the bigger story is the loss of cultural Christianity and the fact that major corporations no longer feel that they actually have to give any kind of tacit tip of the hat to Christmas or to Christians during the holiday season.

View article → To read the rest of Dr. Mohler’s comments, scroll down to Transcript.

GOP DEBATE — Rubio: “Family is the most important institution in society”

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Christian Examiner reports:

The fourth Republican presidential debate featured a smaller lineup as well as some of the most contentious exchanges yet on issues important to Republicans, including the family, the military and immigration.

Sens. Marco Rubio and Rand Paul may have engaged in the highlight of Tuesday’s debate after Rubio defended his own tax proposal, which includes an increase in the child tax credit.

“I am proud that I have a pro-family tax code because the pro-family tax plan I have will strengthen the most important institution in the country – the family,” Rubio said.

Paul, though, argued Rubio’s plan isn’t conservative.

“We have to decide what is conservative and what isn’t conservative,” Paul said. “Is it fiscally conservative to have a trillion dollar expenditure? We’re not talking about giving people back their tax money. [Rubio is] talking about giving people money they didn’t pay. It’s a welfare transfer payment.”

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Play Depicting Jesus as a Transgender “Woman” to be Performed in Belfast

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According to CNS News:

A play depicting Jesus Christ as a transgender “woman” is about to go up in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

“The Gospel According to Jesus Queen of Heaven” is slated to be performed on Nov. 15 at the Outburst Queer Arts Festival in Belfast. The play’s creator is Jo Clifford, a transgender person.

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Couple Offers to Adopt Babies of Abortion-Minded Mothers After Seeing Planned Parenthood Videos

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Christian News Network reports:

A Kentucky couple has issued an adoption offer to abortion-minded mothers after viewing one of the expose’ videos of the abortion giant Planned Parenthood.

Kevin and Nicole Cook watched the fourth investigative video this past July, which featured staff from Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains sifting through the body parts of an aborted child. “[A]nother boy!” one technician exclaimed.

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Republicans’ media bias claims boosted by scarcity of right-leaning journalists

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Washington Times reports:

A mere 7 percent of journalists identify as Republicans, and when they do give money to political campaigns they usually donate to Democrats, lending evidence to Republican presidential candidates’ claims that they are facing a hostile audience when they deal with the press.

As Republican candidates prepare for their fourth debate of the primary season Tuesday in Milwaukee, the people doing the questioning are increasingly in the spotlight, with their motives being questioned by the campaigns, voters and even by their fellow journalists.

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Pentagon “gay” rape debacle: Report alleging male-on-male sexual trauma retracted

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Washington Times reports:

The American Psychological Association has taken the extraordinary step of retracting an in-house journal article that asserted the rate of rape and other sexual trauma among military men was as much as 15 times higher than the Pentagon’s own survey.

In a press released posted Sunday night, the APA said outside scholars had examined the study, “Preliminary Data Suggest Rates of Male Sexual Trauma May be Higher than Previously Reported,” and determined that the method for randomly selecting and surveying male combat veterans was flawed.

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Heretical New Age books being promoted as Christian (and Christians are buying them)

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The End Times has provided a list of best-selling books that are supposedly “Christian” but are actually New Age/New Thought books that preach “Another Jesus”, “Another Spirit,” and “Another Gospel.” One of the books is “Jesus Calling” which is very popular among professing Christians. Jesus Calling was “the seventh-best selling book in America last year was a 10-year-old Christian devotional written by a woman who claims to have written down the words of God.”

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Wisconsin Church Event: “Raising a Jedi: Spiritual Formation and the Force”

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Berean Research reports:

YodaThe church advertisement quotes John 1:5, with the tagline, “Faith & The Force: A Light Shines in the Darkness.”

But is this “Force” in the Star Wars films in any way like biblical Christianity? Or is The Force (although imaginary), based on a New Age, Pantheistic, Eastern-based idea prevalent in Buddhism? Could The Force be a clever counterfeit, like an angel of light?

A Wisconsin church is hoping to use the idea of The Force along with fun costumes to draw atheists into its sanctuary theater by hosting an event designed to explore Spiritual Formation, The “Force” and how to raise a Jedi.

Glaringly missing from the entire event lineup is any mention of Jesus Christ, repentance, salvation, grace, the cross, the Bible, or anything remotely resembling scriptural faith.

One of the breakout sessions is a self-guided walk the Labyrinth to “quiet your mind and access the Force.” “All Jedis must learn to look inside,” says the church, First United Presbyterian Church in De Pere, Wis., about 15 minutes from my house.

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“It Forces Us to Rethink All These Models”: Discovery Shatters Secular Scientists’ Expectations

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According to Christian News Network:

The unexpected discovery of oxygen around a distant comet has shocked secular astronomers and challenges the current evolutionary models for the universe’s origins.

In 2004, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the “Rosetta” spacecraft to rendezvous with a comet. “Rosetta” arrived at Comet 67P last year and has since been orbiting the comet and relaying observations back to Earth.

On October 28, ESA announced that “Rosetta” had detected traces of oxygen (O2) emanating from Comet 67P. In an ESA news release, astronomers described the discovery as “quite a surprise.”

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“It’s Your Body … Do What You Want:” Woman Has Drain Cleaner Dropleted in Her Eyes to Become Blind

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Christian News Network reports:

A North Carolina woman recently appeared on the television shows “The Doctors” and “Dr. Phil” to explain that she had a psychologist droplet drain cleaner in her eyes out of her desire to be blind. “It’s your body,” Amber “Jewel” Shuping said. “You should be able to do what you want to do with it.” Shuping outlined that as a child she was considered legally blind without eyeglasses, and began thinking that she should have been born blind.

“It got to the point where I felt that I shouldn’t be seeing at all,” she said. “I felt imprisoned by my sight.”

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Cash-Strapped Missionaries Get a New Calling: Home

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According to The Wall Street Journal:

Peter and Jennie Stillman felt a divine calling to preach the gospel abroad. So the Southern Baptist couple left Texas with their three young daughters 25 years ago and became missionaries in Southeast Asia.

Now, the Stillmans are responding to a new call: early retirement. They are among hundreds of Southern Baptist missionaries working abroad who are being summoned home in a move to slash costs, after years of spending to support missionary work around the world led to budget problems.

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U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Challenge to Obamacare Abortion Pill Mandate

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Christian News Network reports:

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge from several religious groups to what has been dubbed the “abortion pill mandate” in the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, marking the second time the court has deliberated opposition to the law.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty had filed an appeal on behalf of the Roman Catholic group Little Sisters of the Poor, Houston Baptist University, East Texas Baptist University, South Nazarene University, Geneva College, Priests for Life and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.

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46,471: Drug Overdoses Killed More Americans Than Car Crashes or Guns

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CNS News reports:

“Drug overdose deaths are the leading cause of injury death in the United States, ahead of motor vehicle deaths and firearms (deaths),” the Drug Enforcement Agency announced on Wednesday.

In 2013, the most recent year for which data is available, 46,471 people in the United States died from drug overdoses, and more than half of those deaths were caused by prescription painkillers and heroin.

That compares with the 35,369 who died in motor vehicle crashes and 33,636 who died from firearms, as tallied by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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“Prophetic Prayer” Claims God Has Given Donald Trump “Anointing for Mantle of Government”

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From Berean Research:

Here we go again. As you can see by the headline, one of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) “prophets” has uttered a prophecy for a presidential candidate. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain! Why? Because the majority of NAR prophets’ predictions never come to pass. For example, on September 28, 2009 the “prophets” declared that Texas governor Rick Perry would have a leadership role beyond Texas. Following is an excerpt from a piece entitled “Rick Perry’s Army of God”:

On this day, the Lord’s messengers arrived in the form of two Texas pastors, Tom Schlueter of Arlington and Bob Long of San Marcos, who called on Perry in the governor’s office inside the state Capitol. Schlueter and Long both oversee small congregations, but they are more than just pastors. They consider themselves modern-day apostles and prophets, blessed with the same gifts as Old Testament prophets or New Testament apostles.

The pastors told Perry of God’s grand plan for Texas. A chain of powerful prophecies had proclaimed that Texas was “The Prophet State,” anointed by God to lead the United States into revival and Godly government. And the governor would have a special role.

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Court exonerates mother in newborn’s death, rules child not a person

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Live Action News reports:

InfantJennifer Jorgensen, the Long Island, New York, woman who was convicted of manslaughter in the 2008 death of her six-day-old daughter, has won her appeal by arguing that her daughter was not yet a person.

Jorgensen was speeding, intoxicated, and not wearing a seatbelt when she crashed her car while she was eight months pregnant. Jorgensen’s blood alcohol level was .06 and the anti-anxiety medication Clonazepam was in her system.

Doctors had to deliver her baby, Ashley Jorgensen-Kaiser, via C-section in an attempt to save the child’s life. However, the premature infant died as a result of her injuries six days later.

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UWM offers “voice feminization therapy” to help students “live their gender identities”

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According to Campus Reform:

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is offering “voice feminization therapy” for male students claiming to be transgender women.

As part of the university’s “Transitioning at UWM” resource, the university encourages students to utilize “voice feminization therapy for male-to-female transgender clients” offered by the UWM Speech and Language Clinic, which claims to treat “voice disorders in adults and children.” Elsewhere on the UWM website, the university claims voice feminization therapy is a “non-medical option” that allows transgender students to “live their gender identities.”

Michelle Johnson, the Media Content Manager at UWM, told Campus Reform that the school provides the voice feminization therapy “in compliance with nondiscrimination policies established by the university and the American Speech Language Hearing Association.”

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Presidential Candidate Ben Carson: Seventh-Day Adventists Should “Ordain” Women

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There are a number of problems within Seventh-day Adventistism. In fact, many consider it a cult for the reason that some Seventh-day Adventists believe Jesus is Michael the Archangel and that Saturday is the proper day of worship. Discover more of their teaching by visiting CARM.

Now to Christian News Network’s report.

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson told reporters on Friday that he believes Seventh-Day Adventists should ordain women, expressing disagreement with current prohibitions against female headship.

“I don’t see any reason why women can’t be ordained,” he said, opining that it was a “huge mistake” for Adventist leaders to vote against female ordination.

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U.S. officials believe ISIS planted bomb on Russian plane

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CNN has the full report:

The latest U.S. intelligence suggests that the crash of a Russian passenger jet in the Sinai over the weekend was most likely caused by a bomb on the plane planted by ISIS or an ISIS affiliate, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.

But the official stressed a formal conclusion has not been reached by the U.S. intelligence community.

“There is a definite feeling it was an explosive device planted in luggage or somewhere on the plane,” the official, who is familiar with the latest U.S. intelligence analysis of the crash, told CNN.

Other U.S. officials also told CNN that the analysis is pointing toward the cause being a bomb.

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Houston Equal Rights Ordinance fails by wide margin

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Chron reports:

Houston’s controversial equal rights ordinance failed by a wide margin Tuesday, with voters opting to repeal the law that offered broad non-discrimination protections, according to incomplete and unofficial returns.

The hotly contested election has spurred national attention, drawing comment from the White House and the state’s top officials. Largely conservative opponents of the law allege that it would allow men dressed as women, including sexual predators, to enter women’s restrooms. Supporters of the law, including Mayor Annise Parker, argue that it extends an important local recourse for a range of protected classes to respond to discrimination.

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Ohioans reject legalizing marijuana

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According to The Columbus Dispatch:

MarijuanaOhioans pushed a monopoly marijuana-legalization proposal out the door Tuesday by a nearly 2-to-1 vote.

But the question is, will pot make a comeback?

Although Issue 3 was handily defeated, the debate and conversations about the issue have convinced House Speaker Cliff Rosenberg, R-Clarksville, and other state lawmakers who were staunchly opposed to legalization to now say it may be time to move ahead with medical marijuana.

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Obama Administration Orders School District to Let Boy Use Girls’ Locker Room

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Christian News Network reports:

The Obama administration has ordered a school district in Illinois to allow a male student who identifies a female to use the girls’ locker room or face enforcement measures that could mean the loss of $6 million in federal funding.

As previously reported, an unidentified high school student within Township High School District 211 requested to use the girls’ locker room nearly two years ago since the student asserts that they identify as female.

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Americans becoming less religious, especially young adults

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Reuters reports:

Americans are becoming less religious, judging by such markers as church attendance, prayer and belief in God, and the trend is more pronounced among young adults, according to a poll released on Tuesday.

The share of U.S. adults who say they believe in God, while still high compared with other advanced industrial countries, slipped to 89 percent in 2014 from 92 percent in 2007, according to the Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape Study.

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German Protestant church’s scandalous idea rocks evangelical community

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Religion News Service has the story of a prominent German church that’s redefining the gospel and missions:

One of Germany’s largest Protestant regional churches has come under fire from other Christians for speaking out against efforts to convert Muslims just as tens of thousands of refugees from the Islamic world are streaming into the country.

In a new position paper, the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland says the passage in the Gospel of Matthew known as the Great Commission — “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” — does not mean Christians must try to convert others to their faith.

“A strategic mission to Islam or meeting Muslims to convert them threatens social peace and contradicts the spirit and mandate of Jesus Christ and is therefore to be firmly rejected,” the paper entitled “Pilgrim Fellowship and Witness in Dialogue with Muslims” argues.

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