Newsmax reports:
President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order on religious liberties designed to ease a ban on political activity by churches and other tax-exempt institutions.
Trump’s executive order also mandates regulatory relief to religious employers that object to contraception, such as Little Sisters of the Poor.
NBC News reports:
Drinking 32 ounces of energy drink is associated with potentially harmful changes in blood pressure and heart function that are beyond those seen with caffeine alone, according to a new study.
There are more than 500 energy drink products on the market, and their increased popularity is matched by a significant rise in energy drink-associated emergency department visits and deaths.
Manufacturers and fans of these products claim they are as safe as caffeine, but there is little evidence to support that claim.
Newsmax reports:
Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh drilled down on Vice President Mike Pence over budget bill concessions to Democrats on funding for a border wall, sanctuary cities, and Planned Parenthood.
When Pence called into Limbaugh’s daily show Tuesday to defend the $1 trillion budget deal, Limbaugh scolded the vice president, saying: “You guys were sent there to drain the swamp.”
“If I’m the Democrats, $21 billion, $15 billion for defense that was not originally authorized — that’s a small price to pay for continuing to fund refugee resettlement, continuing to fund Planned Parenthood, continuing to fund sanctuary cities, continuing to fund the [Environmental Protection Agency], and not build the wall,” Limbaugh said.
He railed President Donald Trump’s agenda is virtually ignored in the funding deal.
Christian News reports:
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a pastor’s appeal challenging California’s ban on “conversion therapy” and counseling youth to resist romantic desires toward the same sex.
The nine justices did not comment in rejecting the case, which has been battled in the court system for the past five years.
As previously reported, in 2012, as the ban was being contemplated in the legislature, Gov. Jerry Brown remarked that he hoped reparative therapy would be forever heaved into “the dustbin of quackery.” The bill’s author, Democratic Sen. Ted Lieu of Torrance, claimed that counseling and therapy aimed at helping youth turn from the homosexual lifestyle is the equivalent of “psychological child abuse.”
Breitbart reports:
A bill under consideration in California would place a third gender option on state documents — which, if it passes would make California the first state in the country to do so.
The effort, however, is not being pushed by the “transgender movement,” but rather by people who are biologically neither male nor female — or, alternatively, both.
According to a report by Sacramento’s local CBS affiliate (CBS13), it all started last year in New York: “Sara Kelly Keenan made international headlines last year when New York City issued her the first ever birth certificate with an ‘intersex’ classification in the gender field, instead of male or female.
Lighthouse Trails has this lead in followed by a letter from someone who is concerned about the direction AWANA has taken, i.e. getting youngsters involved in unbiblical Spiritual Formation:
Today, the church is “reaping the fruit” of nearly 40 years of Spiritual Formation influence (since Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline was released in 1978). Lighthouse Trails has warned its readers on a number of occasions about the direction AWANA children’s club is going with regard to contemplative spirituality (i.e., Spiritual Formation) (see links below). In the following letter to the editor, you can see that AWANA is now teaching children to “listen to God” (the goal in contemplative prayer).
We thought AWANA clubs was to teach children the Word of God through memorization. Since when did they take it upon themselves to teach children to listen to God voice? If you have children or grandchildren who participate in AWANA, we strongly urge you to examine all AWANA literature and teaching tools carefully as well as discuss your concerns with your children’s AWANA leaders and make sure they understand the dangers of contemplative spirituality.
The big emphasis in today’s church is, “Hear God’s Voice!” It’s all about feel-good and mystical experiences. What a tragedy the focus isn’t on “Know God’s Word.”
Jesus said, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:17).
Check out CRN’s Research Paper on Spiritual Formation
According to Daily News:
The first openly lesbian bishop in the United Methodist Church can stay on the job for now, but she is subject to a disciplinary review that could lead to her removal, the top church court ruled Friday.
Bishop Karen Oliveto’s civil marriage to another woman violates church law that bars clergy who are “self-avowed practicing homosexuals,” the Judicial Council said. However, a decision over whether she can remain in the position must come from a separate disciplinary process, the court ruled.
The Verge reports:
Inside what look like oversized ziplock bags strewn with tubes of blood and fluid, eight fetal lambs continued to develop — much like they would have inside their mothers. Over four weeks, their lungs and brains grew, they sprouted wool, opened their eyes, wriggled around, and learned to swallow, according to a new study that takes the first step toward an artificial womb. One day, this device could help to bring premature human babies to term outside the uterus — but right now, it has only been tested on sheep.
Christian News reports:
Photo: Kelsey Lucas/Visualsey/The Daily Signal
A new video released this week by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) captures a Planned Parenthood abortionist, known for her “I want a Lamborghini” jesting in a previous recording discussing payment for baby body parts, now telling a prospective buyer that “$50 is on the low end.”
The footage features Mary Gatter, the president of Planned Parenthood’s Medical Directors Council, speaking with David Daleiden, who posed as a representative from a biotech company. The two note that Planned Parenthood previously worked with the procurement company Novogenix.
“What kind of volume do you need?” Gatter asks.
“How far in gestation do you go to?” Daleiden inquires in return.
“We only go up to 16 weeks (4 months). And you know, we only do 20 cases a week, so it’s not a big volume,” Gatter replies.
Breitbart has the video:
On Thursday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” columnist Charles Krauthammer weighed in on the cancellation of Ann Coulter’s Berkeley speech by stating, “we’re reaching a situation where thugs are threatening violence. Basically, fascist gangs can shut down free speech.”
Krauthammer said, “[T]he danger here is, that we’re reaching a situation where thugs are threatening violence. Basically, fascist gangs can shut down free speech.”
Dr. Manny Alvarez warns that going without dairy is a really big deal. “According to the International Osteoporosis Foundation,” says Dr. Manny, “osteoporosis affects over 200 million women across the globe, and the foundation expects this number to increase over 200 percent during the next 30 years. LifeZette has the story:
Women are expert multi-taskers, so it should come as no surprise that some manage to squeeze the latest health craze into their daily routine. However, not having time to carefully research the pros and cons of these trends could be dangerous. Take, for example, the decision to live dairy-free.
Dairy-free diets have turned into a familiar fad in the United States. One survey by the National Osteoporosis Society found that one-fifth of young adults under age 25 have removed or trimmed their dairy intake. Over half of these young adults claim to have a dairy intolerance, but only 24 percent have actually confirmed it with a doctor.
Christian News reports:
Photo credit: Baptist News
Over 50 members of the U.S. House of Representatives have signed a letter urging President Trump to issue an executive order protecting the religious liberty rights of Americans nationwide.
“We write to express our encouragement and support for prompt executive action ensuring religious liberty protections for all Americans and look forward to working with you on complementary legislation,” the letter, signed by 51 Congressmen and women, reads.
As previously reported, in late January, the outlet The Nation claimed that it had obtained a copy of a draft executive order that allegedly protects faith-based entities “when providing social services, education, or healthcare; earning a living, seeking a job, or employing others; receiving government grants or contracts; or otherwise participating in the marketplace, the public square, or interfacing with federal, state or local governments.”
“Technocrats build because they can, not because it is wise to do so.” — Technocracy News
According to TechCrunch:
Today at F8, Facebook revealed it has a team of 60 engineers working on building a brain-computer interface that will let you type with just your mind without invasive implants. The team plans to use optical imaging to scan your brain a hundred times per second to detect you speaking silently in your head, and translate it into text.
Regina Dugan, the head of Facebook’s R&D division Building 8, explained to conference attendees that the goal is to eventually allow people to type at 100 words per minute, 5X faster than typing on a phone, with just your mind.
Fox News reports:
A school district in West Virginia has been thrust into the national spotlight after a lawsuit filed by two county residents accused the district of violating the Constitution over its weekly Bible study courses.
Supporters of the Mercer County public school class, which is offered during school time for 30 minutes at the elementary level and 45 minutes in middle school, maintain that it’s optional.
They also say that the content of the classes are worthy, intended to explore the history and literature of the Bible and not geared toward promoting religion.
According to LifeZette:
It is no secret that Americans have an obesity problem. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that more than one third of U.S. adults — or 36.5 percent of us — are classified as obese.
Now a new study has found that obesity is responsible for shortening the lifespan of humans more than smoking.
A team of researchers from Cleveland Clinic and New York University School of Medicine found that obesity led to “as much as 47 percent more life-years lost than tobacco,” noted Science Daily — “and tobacco caused similar life-years lost as high blood pressure.”
Christian News reports:
A California woman who identifies as a man has filed a lawsuit against a Catholic hospital and its parent company for prohibiting her surgeon from performing a sex change-related hysterectomy at the facility because of the organization’s religious convictions.
The 35-year-old woman, who goes by the name Evan Minton, had been scheduled to undergo a complete hysterectomy at Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Carmichael last August. She believed the procedure was necessary to comport with her preferred identity.
However, the day before her appointment, after she noted to a nurse that she identifies as “transgender,” the surgery was canceled.
“In general, it is our practice not to provide sterilization services at Dignity Health’s Catholic facilities,” said spokeswoman Melissa Jue in a statement at the time.
According to the University Herald:
The rapid growth of technology has transformed many aspects of day-to-day life, including social behavior. Liberty University launched the nation’s first Center for Digital Wellness to promote a healthy use and biblical view of technology.
Dr. Sylvia Hart Frejd, founder of the Center for Digital Wellness, housed in a Wi-Fi-proof room at Liberty University. It is part of her mission to help students balance tech time and face time, to train their eye on fellow humans instead of smart screens.
Dr. Frejd promotes 24-hour digital fasting and counseling for students and how to thrive in real life, not just in their digital lives. She said students would first need to overcome the fear of a real conversation.
The bastion of liberalism, Harvard University, wants students to believe that a person’s gender is “fluid.” Fox News Insider has the story:
The office of BGLTQ Student Life at Harvard University has released a guide that says for some people, gender identity can “change from day to day.”
The school-sponsored flier, which was distributed to students on the elite Ivy League campus, said for some “gender is fluid and changing,” and it “can be affirmed and/or expressed in many ways.”
MassResistance reports:
Fresh from the recent victory stopping the LGBT movement’s “anti-therapy” bill in the Colorado Legislature, pro-family people are up against an equally frightening bill that has been filed and just passed its first hurdle toward becoming law. It’s the latest among similar laws that are being quietly passed across the country.
The LGBT lobby is quietly but forcefully pushing for laws to allow children as young as 10 years old to “decide” they need psychiatric therapy – without their parents’ knowledge or consent. LGBT-allied “therapists” could push vulnerable children to affirm and accept homosexual and transgender “identity” and behaviors as “normal.”
According to Breitbart:
A growing number of conservative commentators are calling on President Donald Trump to use the California National Guard to escort author Ann Coulter onto the University of California, Berkeley campus when she speaks next week.
Though California Governor Jerry Brown commands the California National Guard, President Trump has the power to federalize it — just as President Dwight D. Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard in 1957 to integrate public schools. (The same Arkansas troops who had once blocked black students then escorted the students to school.)
Evening Telegraph reports:
Members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) have demanded that toddlers receive “age-appropriate” content on LGBT+ matters.
Ministers have announced that all children from the age of four be taught about relationships, while sex education will become compulsory for all secondary pupils.
But teachers at the NUT conference in Cardiff want the new measures, which will be introduced into schools from September 2019, to go further and urged ministers to introduce a curriculum that was inclusive of LGBT+ issues.
Christian News reports:
Former President Jimmy Carter, a professing Christian who teaches Sunday School at a Baptist Church in Georgia, told liberal op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof that he can’t judge whether or not someone is a Christian despite their doubts about Christ’s virgin birth and resurrection.
In his April 15th piece in the New York Times entitled “President Carter, Am I a Christian?” Kristoff inquired of Carter whether he could be considered a Christian despite his skepticism over some of the biblical account of Christ’s life, including that Jesus physically rose from the grave.
“What about someone like me whose faith is in the Sermon on the Mount, who aspires to follow Jesus’ teachings, but is skeptical that he was born of a virgin, walked on water, multiplied loaves and fishes or had a physical resurrection? Am I a Christian, President Carter?” Kristof asked.
“I do not judge whether someone else is a Christian. Jesus said, ‘Judge not,’” Carter replied. “I try to apply the teachings of Jesus in my own life, often without success.”
Breitbart reports:
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary John Kelly has largely blamed Latin American drug cartels for the unprecedented 52,000-plus drug overdose deaths in America during 2015 alone, the latest year for which data is available.
During a discussion that George Washington University (GWU) hosted about the threats facing the United States, retired Gen. Kelly noted in his prepared remarks:
It’s the highest number of drug-related deaths our country has ever seen. It’s more deaths than the peak of the AIDS epidemic in 1995. In a single year, we’ve lost nearly as many Americans to drug overdose as we lost in battle in World War I. Almost as many as was lost in 12 years in Vietnam.
And that’s just overdose deaths. That number—as high as it is—says nothing about the long-term health damage to our citizens who survive, to say nothing about the human misery, the families ripped apart, and the extremes of crime and violence inherent in the illegal-drug enterprise.
According to Christian Post (a site we do not recommend), Jack Graham of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, will replace the “Bible Answer Man”:
The “Bible Answer Man” radio show program with Hank Hanegraaff has been booted from Bott Radio Network over concerns regarding biblical accuracy, following Hanegraaff’s conversion into the Eastern Orthodox Church.
“We want to make sure that our listeners know that the programming that we have on Bott Radio Network is thoroughly biblical,” said BRN President Richard P. Bott II, a member of Lenexa Baptist Church in Lenexa, Kansas, according to Baptist Press.
BRN had reportedly been broadcasting the “Bible Answer Man” since the 1980s, even before Hanegraaff joined the show in 1989.
“We live in strategic times,” Bott told BP.
Christian News reports:
Four Republican lawmakers in North Carolina recently presented a bill that would declare the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling on “gay marriage” to be “null and void,” but the House speaker has considered it dead and won’t bring it up for a hearing.
Reps. Larry Pittman of Concord, Michael Speciale of New Bern, Carl Ford of Rowan County and Mike Clampitt of Bryson City filed House Bill 780, also known as the “Uphold Historical Marriage Act,” on April 11th.
It notes that the U.S. Constitution does not give power to the federal government to create laws surrounding the institution of marriage, and that the issue is rather reserved to the states. The bill also outlines that the courts have no right to overrule the laws of God.
