Just the facts.

Record 499 Syrian Refugees Admitted to US So Far in May Includes No Christians

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CNSNews reports:

The Obama administration has admitted 499 Syrian refugees so far this month, with no Christians among them.

Of the 499 admitted in May, 495 are Sunni Muslims and the remaining four are described simply as “Moslem” in State Department Refugee Processing Center data.

Since FY2016 began on October 1, a total of 2,235 Syrian refugees have been resettled in the United States. Of them, 10 (0.44 percent) are Christians: three Catholics, two Orthodox, one Greek Orthodox and four refugees identified simply as “Christian.”

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Methodists postpone debate of gay issues that could split denomination

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According to Emily McFarlan Miller of Religion News Service, neither side got what they wanted out of the General Conference:

Amid protest, song and fears of a denominational breakup, United Methodists at their quadrennial General Conference decided yet again not to decide anything regarding LGBT rights.

But in a groundbreaking move, the delegates from the U.S. and abroad voted 428-405 on Wednesday (May 18) to allow the church’s Council of Bishops to appoint a commission to discuss whether to accept same-sex marriage or ordain LGBT clergy.

The bishops said they want the commission to “develop a complete examination and possible revision of every paragraph in our Book of Discipline regarding human sexuality.”

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Target CEO Blames Climate Change, Not Bathroom Policy, for Hurting Sales

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According to Breitbart:

Target StoreAs retailer Target sees its stock plummeting and sales dropping in the midst of a boycott over its recently announced pro-transgender bathroom policy, the company’s CEO is insisting the weather is the cause of falling sales, not the company’s bathroom policy. In a recent Wall Street Journal interview, Target CEO Brian Cornell pegged the downturn in the company’s fortunes to the cold weather as opposed to anything the company itself is doing or not doing.

“It’s been a very wet and cold start to the year and it’s reflected in our sales,” Cornell told the paper. “We haven’t seen anything from a structural standpoint that gives us pause.”

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Africans Concerned American United Methodists “Preaching a Different Gospel”

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A Christian leader from Africa finds it baffling that cultural Christianity can take the place of the Bible. The United Methodist Reporter has the story:

Jerry Kulah has nothing but gratitude for American Methodists.

In 1833, they sent their first missionary to his country, Liberia, which was founded for freed American slaves. Melville B. Cox died four months after he arrived in Africa, but the missionary’s legacy lives on in the United Methodist Church’s fastest-growing region, and in his words to his own church back in North Carolina: “Let a thousand fall before Africa be given up.”

“However,” said Kulah, who is dean of the Gbarnga School of Theology in the capital, Monrovia, “the church has taken on strangely a new direction. People from the country that brought the Gospel to us are now preaching a different Gospel.”

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House Republicans Defeat Democratic “Gay Discrimination” Amendment, Uphold Religious Protections

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According to Christian News Network:

House Republicans engaged in a heated debate on Thursday in voting down a discrimination amendment to the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act while allowing a similar bill providing protections for religious entities to remain intact.

The Act, which is renewed afresh each year, outlines the allotted spending for the U.S. military for the coming year. Lawmakers commonly propose amendments to attach to the bill, most of which apply to defense issues or other related matters.

This year, among the amendments presented, Rep. Steve Russell, R-OK, submitted a proposal to apply the religious exemption in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to federal contractors.

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Obama Admin Demands Hospitals Accommodate Transgenders Or Lose Funding

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Christian News Network reports:

On  the same day that the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Education threatened to revoke funding for public schools that do not allow students to use the restroom and locker room that correlates with their “gender identity,” the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also released guidelines requiring federally-funded hospitals that may require hospital systems to perform sex change operations or similarly lose funding.

The rules pertain to language in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), otherwise known as Obamacare, and affects all hospitals that accept Medicare or Medicaid, as well as those directly funded by HHS.

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College coaches join the call for answers as Baylor allegations keep growing

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Baylor is a top Texas Christian university.  Fox News reports that a former Baylor student claims she was assaulted by a football player on two occasions:

My phone rang less than five minutes after I tweeted about Wednesday’s “Outside the Lines” report on more allegations of violence against Baylor football players. It was the first of nine calls and texts I received over the course of the day from college coaches talking about this latest investigation into Baylor’s handling of sexual violence cases involving its program.

“They’re gonna have to fire him, aren’t they?” a veteran college coach asked.

“Him” is head coach Art Briles, the man who took a perennial Big 12 doormat and made it into a powerhouse. Briles even got a fancy new stadium built. The 60-year-old is 32-7 the past three seasons at a place that hadn’t had a single winning season in the 13 years before he took over in 2008.

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California is poised to become the center of cannabis culture

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Robin Abcarian of the Los Angeles Times has the story:

The other day, in a seaside cafe here, veteran cannabis journalist David Bienenstock gamely fielded my attempts to catch up on a subject I have failed to appreciate for far too long: the coming end of marijuana prohibition.

Earlier this month, the backers of a California initiative to legalize the recreational use of marijuana (including Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and tech kabillionaire Sean Parker) said they had gathered enough signatures to make the November ballot. In the same week, the federal government dropped its long-standing case against Oakland’s Harborside Health Center, the largest medical pot dispensary in the country.

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U.S. Senate Unanimously Confirms Nation’s First Openly Homosexual Army Secretary

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Christian News Network reports:

The U.S. Senate has confirmed the nomination of Eric Fanning to serve as Army secretary—a move that homosexual groups note make him the nation’s first openly homosexual secretary of the Army.

“I’m honored by today’s Senate confirmation and thrilled to return to lead the total Army team,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.

Fanning had previously served as special assistant to Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work. He also served as the undersecretary of the Air Force from 2013 to 2015, and for a time was the acting secretary of the Air Force.

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Obama Appoints Man Who Identifies as Woman to Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships Council

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Christian News Network reports:

Barack Obama has appointed a man who identifies as a woman to serve on his Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships.

The man, who goes by the name Barbara Satin, is a veteran of the United States Air Force and formerly served on the United Church of Christ’s executive council. He was behind the denomination’s decision to affirm transgendered persons in the ministry.

Satin was raised by his mother after his father died just over a year after Satin was born. He went on to marry a woman and the two had three children together.

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Abortion mandate cases returned to lower courts

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Baptist Press reports:

Supreme Court buildingThe U.S. Supreme Court unanimously voided multiple appeals court decisions against religious institutions that object to the Obama administration’s abortion/contraception mandate in an opinion released today (May 16).

The justices returned to the lower courts for reconsideration a disagreement between religious objectors and the federal government over the mandate, which requires employers to make contraceptives available to their workers, including ones with mechanisms that can potentially induce abortions. The high court remanded the cases to the appeals courts of the Third, Fifth, 10th and District of Columbia districts in light of their brief opinion and blocked the administration from fining the objecting institutions.

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Disagreements slow Pentagon’s plan to allow transgender service members

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The liberal Washington Post has the story:

Months before Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said the Pentagon would take steps toward allowing transgender people to serve openly in the military, Army Staff Sgt. Patricia King last year became what she believes is the first openly transgender member of the infantry. While official Pentagon policy still forbids openly transgender personnel, her commanders have been supportive, she said. King even purchased a female dress Army service uniform, anticipating that she would be able to wear it soon.

“I made a decision that owning that uniform was important to me, and I believe that our leadership is going to do the right thing,” she said.

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Tim Keller Staff Member Says Homosexuality Isn’t Sin, Part of “Church Plant” Behind Transgender Restroom Plan

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According to Christian News Network:

A staff member at New York’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church, led by popular megachurch pastor and author Tim Keller, and who handles sermon orders for Keller, identifies as a progressive who doesn’t believe homosexuality is sinful and is part of a so-called church plant whose leader recently made recommendations to do away with male/female-separated restrooms nationwide.

In addition to his leadership of Redeemer Presbyterian, which sees up to 5,000 in attendance each week, Keller is known for his best-selling books “The Reason for God” and “The Prodigal God” as well as “The Meaning of Marriage” and “Counterfeit Gods.”

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The Target boycott has reached a boiling point — and sales may suffer as a result

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Business Insider reports:

Target is facing a nationwide backlash for its support of transgender rights.

More than 1.2 million people have signed a pledge to boycott the retailer after it announced last month that it would welcome transgender customers to use any bathroom or fitting room that matches their gender identity.

Critics have been holding protests and demonstrations at stores across the country, and they are showing no signs of dying down.

Many are demanding access to bathrooms of the opposite sex to support claims that “perverts” can now prey on children and women as a result of the policy.

The boycotters’ goal is to force Target to reverse its policy, or at least make the retailer suffer for it by spending their money elsewhere.

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Breitbart News, #15 Facebook Publisher, to Zuckerberg: Forget the Meeting — We Want Transparency and the Truth

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Breitbart reports:

Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg announced he is planning a “pat conservatives on the head” session with “leading conservatives” to discuss Facebook’s conservative media suppression scandal.

Representatives at Facebook have already reached out to Breitbart News.

We have zero interest in a Facebook photo-op.

Moreover, if, as Facebook claims, there has been no effort to suppress conservative media, why the need for a meeting?

Despite Facebook’s rampant suppression of conservative media in its Trending News section, Breitbart News has out-hustled Facebook’s bias, clawing its way to #15 in the world on Facebook for total engagement, #12 in the world on Facebook for Shares, and #10 in the world on Facebook for comments.

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United Methodists may never agree on LGBT issues. Can they stay together anyway?

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Michelle Boorstein of the liberal Washington Post reports:

The global United Methodist Church begins its once-every-four-years legislative meeting Tuesday, and the focus has been on whether to change or keep the denomination’s rejection of homosexuality. But a broader question is up for a vote: What do the 13 million Methodists from Africa to Asia to America have in common?

In a globalized, polarized time, it’s a question that could be asked of many faith groups, from Catholics and Jews to Muslims and Mormons. For the next 10 days, it will be put to the United Methodists, with hundreds of delegates from around the world hashing out more than 1,000 proposals on topics from abortion and whether to digitize hymnals to potentially divesting from businesses connected with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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White House Suggests “Just Putting Up Curtains” Will Protect Privacy in Transgender Locker Rooms

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According to CNSNews:

White House Spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Friday that the Department of Education issued specific suggestions today along with its directive that federally funded schools nationwide must allow students to use bathrooms and locker rooms according to their “gender identity” and that one of those suggestions was “just putting up curtains” in school locker rooms.

“There are some school districts across the country that have sought to enhance the privacy of their students by making relatively minor changes to shared use facilities,” Earnest said. “In some cases that means just putting up curtains, so that people are, have more privacy when they are changing their clothes or taking showers in what had previously been shared use facilities.”

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Judge Faces Removal, $40K Fine Because of Her Beliefs About Marriage

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The Daily Signal reports:

A state agency wants to remove a small-town judge in Wyoming from two posts because she told a reporter that her religious beliefs would prevent her from solemnizing same-sex marriages.

In her full-time responsibilities, Municipal Judge Ruth Neely isn’t authorized to preside over marriages. In part-time duties on the local Circuit Court, though, she could be asked to do so.

Now supporters across Wyoming and the nation are siding with Neely as she asks the Wyoming Supreme Court to prevent the state Commission on Judicial Conduct and Ethics from ending her 21-year career as a municipal judge in Pinedale, a town with a population of 2,030 just south of Yellowstone National Park.

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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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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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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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