Just the facts.

Southern Baptists Lose Almost 1,000 Missionaries as IMB Cuts Costs

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According to Christianity Today:

Six months after announcing plans to cut 600 to 800 missionaries and staff in order to balance its budget, the International Mission Board (IMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) revealed today that it has lost 1,132 workers—almost twice as many as its low-end estimate.

In all, 983 missionaries and 149 US staff have accepted the IMB’s offer of voluntary early retirement or resignation. That brings the number of SBC missionaries in the field down from 4,700 to about 3,800—a return to 1993 levels.

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Glenn Beck Admits He Misled Cruz Audiences About George Washington’s “Don Quixote”

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Breitbart reports:

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza

Glenn Beck has now admitted that he misled audiences at his campaign appearances for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) when he told them the copy of Don Quixote he held in his hand was the same copy that George Washington purchased on the day the Constitution was signed. Beck now admits that the copy he was displaying at Cruz rallies was actually printed in 1796 — 9 years after the Constitution was signed.

The controversy surrounding Beck’s book heated up earlier this week when a spokesperson at George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate told the Huffington Post that the copy of Miguel de Cervantes Don Quixote that Washington purchased on the day the Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787, is “stored safely” in their collection and is not out on the campaign trail with Glenn Beck.

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Ed Note: Glenn Beck is a member in good standing of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Laid off Disney worker breaks down before Senate panel

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Leo Perrero was a highly trained information technology worker at the Walt Disney Company for many years. Even though he had excellent job performance reviews he was told that his his job was being given to foreign workers brought into the country on H-1B visas. Perrero had to train his replacement. Breitbart has the story.

“During the holiday season of 2014, I was sent a meeting invitation by a prominent Disney executive. With an excellent review in hand along with company announcements of record profits my mind buzzed with thoughts of a promotion or a bonus,” Leo Perrero, the former Disney worker testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest. “I walked into a small conference room with about two dozen highly respected fellow IT workers. The Disney executive made a harsh announcement to us all.”

That harsh announcement, Perrero said, was that Disney was laying him and hundreds of others off. He would be without a job in 90 days.

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Pastor Lucado: Trump Saying He’s a Christian “Beyond Reason to Me”

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Donald Trump 2Two megachurch preachers from the lone star state have very different opinions of GOP candidate Donald Trump. In the NewsMax piece Max Lucado takes issue with Trump for calling himself an evangelical Christian. Not so fast, says Lucado. We must first carefully inspect the fruit before we can determine if Trump is a true Christian. If only he had bothered to inspect the fruit of Joel Osteen before agreeing to preach at his church. And there was zero fruit inspection when it came to endorsing and writing the forward to Word of Faith pastrix of Hillsong Church Christine Caine’s book Undaunted. But I digress.

Whether or not The Donald is a Christian doesn’t concern Robert Jeffress who has been introducing him on the stump. Jeffress says the reason he’s supporting Trump is because he’s the most conservative candidate that’s electable.

Our point in bringing Robert Jeffress into the discussion is to show that evangelical leaders often have very different views of the candidates.

Now to Max Lucado’s assessment of Donald Trump:

Best-selling Christian author Max Lucado believes Donald Trump speaks with a forked tongue when he calls himself a Christian one day and launches jaw-dropping personal attacks on people the next.

“It would be none of my business, I would have absolutely no right to speak up except that he repeatedly brandishes the Bible and calls himself a Christian,” the San Antonio pastor said in an interview with Christianity Today magazine.

“If he’s going to call himself a Christian one day and call someone a bimbo the next or make fun of somebody’s menstrual cycle, it’s just beyond reason to me.”

Lucado — the author of nearly 100 Christian books which have sold 80 million copies — said he had never opposed a presidential candidate before the billionaire developer entered the political arena.

“There was a time in Iowa when he said ‘I’m a Christian,’ and somebody asked about forgiveness and he said ‘I’ve never asked God for forgiveness.’ I can’t imagine that. I’m just shaking my head going ‘How does that work?'” Lucado said.

“Does a swimmer say ‘I’ve never gotten wet?’ Does a musician say ‘I’ve never sung a song?’ How does a person claim to be a Christian and never need to ask for forgiveness?”

Trump has made headlines with the shoot-from-the-lip missiles he’s fired at opponents, recently ripping Sen. Ted Cruz as a “totally unstable individual” and the “single biggest liar I’ve ever come across.”

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Trump Claims Yearly IRS Audits May Be Because He’s “Strong Christian”

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Christian News Network reports:

In speaking about being audited by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) each year, the thrice-married, unbridled tongued Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Thursday night that perhaps he is being targeted by the government because he is a “strong Christian.”

“I’m always audited by the IRS, which I think is very unfair,” he told CNN’s Chris Cuomo following the GOP debate in Houston. “I don’t know, maybe because of religion, maybe because of something else, maybe because I’m doing this, although this is just recently.”

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After Obama, the commander in chief will also be entertainer in chief

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According to USA Today:

Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and John Kasich all say so: America is electing a commander in chief, not an “entertainer in chief.’’ Civics teachers everywhere say, amen!

But a candidate who wants to beat one outstanding entertainer (Donald Trump) for the right to succeed another (Barack Obama) must be able to put on a show, and to go on one. An ability to entertain — in even quirky settings — has become part of the job.

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Mega-Ministry Methods: David Jeremiah Sows the Wind and Reaps the Windfall

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Warren Throckmorton of Patheos has some disturbing news about Pastor David Jeremiah’s business dealings:

One of the key events that led to the demise of Mars Hill Church in 2014 was the revelation that the church leaders had used around $250,000 of church money to strategically buy a spot on the New York Times bestseller list for Mark and Grace Driscoll’s 2011 book Real Marriage. Manipulating bestseller lists became a debated topic for several months after it was learned that other leading Christian authors had also used Result Source to manipulate the bestseller list (e.g., Les & Leslie Parrott, and David Jeremiah). Articles in World, Christianity Today, and this blog examined the ethics of the matter.

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“Together 2016”: Denominations link arms with Chrislebrities to erase doctrinal divisions

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Berean Research reports on yet another attempt to unite denominations:

Wolf in sheep's clothing

Doctrinal distinctives? Divisions? Not any more. Several major denominations will be blended up smoother than a Vitamix cocktail in a few weeks.

This summer, a “Next Great Awakening” is bringing Assemblies of God Supt. George O. Wood and Southern Baptist Convention president Ronnie Floyd together to link arms in spiritual unity with the Pentecostal Charismatic Churches of North America, Grace Communion International (formerly the Armstrongism Worldwide Church of God), and a host of familiar Chrislebrities including Hillsong United, Francis Chan, Hillsong’s pastorix Christine Caine, Ravi Zacharias, Kari Jobe, Josh McDowell, Lois Palau and others. The number organizers have in mind: One Million.

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Azusa redux: Lou Engle, Greg Laurie uniting denominations?

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From Berean Examiner:

“Can you believe with us that denominations will unite, that the races could come together, that God could make us one, as the antidote to the terrific division in our day? Could you believe with us for stadium Christianity where signs and wonders are breaking out and mass evangelism explodes across our country- the Third Great Awakening?”

So asks NAR-affiliated false teacher Lou Engle, founder of the “Azusa Now: The Call” set for April 9th at the LA Coliseum. “We are believing for an outbreak of God’s glory that will touch the Lord on this day! If we move together, we can see a shift in the body of Christ, unto a day of greater healings and a great awakening for America!”

When Azusa Now calls all denominations, it includes the Church of Rome:

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Newsweek calls those who believe in divine creation “evangelical extremists”

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Noah's ArkIn today’s The Briefing Albert Mohler discussed an article that appeared in Newsweek entitled “Noah’s Ark Rises In Kentucky, Dinosaurs And All” that has to do with the Ark Encounter, the replica of Noah’s Ark being built by the ministry Answers in Genesis. According to Mohler, “The article itself is an attack on the ministry and an attack on the project, but what’s really, really interesting is the subhead in the article, because it speaks of evangelical Christians who deny the theory of evolution and believe in divine creation as,

“evangelical extremists.”

Lindsay Tucker’s piece, says Mohler, “is really not all that important, but the headline is. It tells us that, according to the liberal secular elites in this country, if you believe in the biblical account of creation, you are an evangelical extremist. The dominant secular academy so committed to the worldview of Darwinism and evolution finds it inconceivable that a large sector of Americans still refuse to accept evolution and still believe in the biblical account of creation. So what exactly do they think of us? As being eccentric, or odd, or confessional, convictional? No, as this headline makes very clear, they consider us “evangelical extremists.” Who knew that merely believing in the total truthfulness and the historicity of the book of Genesis would earn us the label “evangelical extremists” in Newsweek magazine, but there it is in plain print.”

View Newsweek’s article

New book: Homosexuals & everyone else need Gospel

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The book was penned by Denny Burk and Heath Lambert of Boyce College. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote the forward. Baptist Press has the story:

The Gospel demands change for homosexuals just as it demands change for all people, two Baptist collegiate professors write in a new book, “Transforming Homosexuality: What the Bible Says About Sexual Orientation and Change.”

“If we withhold that truth from them out of fear of offending them, then we don’t love them. We cut them off from salvation,” Denny Burk and Heath Lambert write. “The only way for them to be saved is to receive Christ. The only way to receive Christ is by repentance and faith.”

Burk and Lambert are faculty members at Boyce College, the undergraduate school of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.

Burk, professor of biblical studies, and Lambert, visiting professor of biblical counseling who also is executive director of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors, acknowledge that homosexuality can be an uncomfortable subject to talk about amid the championing of the Bible’s clear standards for sexuality.

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Marco Rubio’s deputy campaign manager is a gay “marriage” activist

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Life Site News reports:

A pivotal member of Marco Rubio’s campaign actively encouraged the Supreme Court to impose gay “marriage” on the entire nation by judicial fiat.

Senator Rubio’s deputy campaign manager, Rich Beeson, signed a legal brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to redefine marriage in last summer’s Obergefell v. Hodges case.

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Utah Governor Says Using Anesthesia on Babies Being Murdered May Be “Most Humane” Abortion Method

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Christian News Network reports:

The Republican governor of Utah said on Wednesday that he would consider signing a proposed bill requiring the use of anesthesia on babies that are being murdered in the womb, opining that it may be the “most humane” way of ending a child’s life.

Gov. Gary Herbert said that he is personally opposed to abortion, but remarked that if the practice is considered legal in America, it should be carried out as “humanely” as possible.

“You know, abortion is a very emotional issue,” he told reporters at a news conference. “Rather than get into the abortion debate, I guess the question is: If we’re going to have abortion, what is the most humane way to do it?”

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Pope Francis calls Donald Trump “not Christian” over wall stance

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From Berean Research:

Ironically this is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Many Protestants believe that Pope Francis isn’t a true Christian either. Why? Because he teaches a false gospel. (See our White Paper on the RCC). That aside, the Pope of Rome has no business injecting his personal views into American politics the way he has. Could his aim be to sway the election? Two out of six candidates are Catholics — Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio. Would the pontiff like to see a Catholic win the nomination and go on to become the next President of the United States? Of course he would! I mean, think about it. Should either Bush or Rubio become president, the RCC would be in a much better position…..to rule the world.

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Beck begs South Carolinians to support Ted Cruz — “Fall to your knees and pray to God to reveal to you what the hour is”

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Wolf in sheeps clothing 4What many people don’t realize is that New Age Mormon Glenn Beck held a rally at a “church” whose senior pastor is New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) “Apostle” and wolf in sheep’s clothing Rick Joyner. Beck is in South Carolina stumping for GOP candidate Ted Cruz whose father, Rafael Cruz, is also ensconced in the heretical NAR movement. Just last week the senior Cruz received an “anointing” from Kenneth Copeland, a notorious Word of Faith/prosperity preacher.

According to Breitbart :

At a campaign rally held last week at the MorningStar Fellowship Church in Fort Mill, South Carolina, for GOP presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), radio talk show host Glenn Beck begged those in attendance to support Cruz’s campaign.

“I am telling you right now, this is your last call, America,” Beck proclaimed. “This is your last call.”

A video compilation created by the People for the American Way’s RightWingWatch.org shows Beck imploring attendees to seek God and ask Him who they should vote for in the forthcoming presidential elections.

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FCC commissioner: U.S. tradition of free expression slipping away

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Washington Examiner reports:

The American traditions of free expression and respectful discourse are slipping away, and college campuses and Twitter are prime examples, according to a member of the Federal Communications Commission.

“I think that poses a special danger to a country that cherishes First Amendment speech, freedom of expression, even freedom of association,” FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai told the Washington Examiner. “I think it’s dangerous, frankly, that we don’t see more often people espousing the First Amendment view that we should have a robust marketplace of ideas where everybody should be willing and able to participate.

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Baptists take sides in Texas abortion case

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According to Baptist News:

Conservative groups including the Southern Baptist Convention say a law regulating abortion clinics is beneficial for women’s health, while individuals aligned with the moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and progressive Alliance of Baptists say a woman’s religious views — not those of legislators — is what matters in reproductive choice.

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“Keep Your $10”: “Christian” Rapper Andy Mineo Mocks Fans, Defends Use of Profanity

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Christian News Network has the story:

An unrepentant professing Christian rapper, who is associated with similar artists such as Lecrae, Tedashii and Sho Baraka, is claiming that it is permissible for Christians to use profanity and is arguing in defense of those who profess Jesus but use expletives.

Andy Mineo, known for his “God Belongs in My City” nationwide concert tour, recently began a discussion on his Twitter page by posing the question, “Do you guys really think if a person uses ‘profanity’ (words we’ve given meaning) in their music they couldn’t possibly be Christian? Why?”

The question soon turned into repeated defense as followers opined that profanity is not becoming of a Christian.

“Well, the tongue is ‘full of poison.’ Let me ask this, if a preacher uses profanity on the stage what would that look like?” one follower, identified as Seth, asked.

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“Pope Francis” Nominates Over 1,000 “Super Confessors” to Forgive Certain Sins

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According to Christian News Network:

Roman Catholic leader Jorge Bergoglio, also known as Pope Francis, recently nominated over 1,000 priests to be “super confessors” and forgive sins that only top level officials would normally claim authority to forgive.

As the Vatican has declared 2016 as being the “Jubilee Year of Mercy,” the pontiff selected 1,142 priests that he dubbed “missionaries of mercy” and sent them out to receive confession from those who had committed especially grave sins in the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church.

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Trump Says He’d Consider Bill Pryor for Supreme Court, AG Who Prosecuted “Ten Commandments” Judge

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Christian News Network reports:

During Saturday night’s Republican presidential debate in South Carolina, Donald Trump said that if he were to nominate a judge to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, he would consider Diane Sykes or Bill Pryor, the latter of which prosecuted “Ten Commandments Judge” Roy Moore.

“If I were president now, I would certainly want to try and nominate a justice. And I’m absolutely sure that president Obama will try and do it,” he said in light of Scalia’s sudden death Friday night. “I hope that our Senate, Mitch and the entire group, is going to be able to do something about it in terms of delay.”

“We could have a Diane Sykes or a Bill Pryor,” he added, providing examples of who he would nominate if he were president. “We have some fantastic people.”

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Senior U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia found dead

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My San Antonio reports:

Associate Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead of apparent natural causes Saturday on a luxury resort in West Texas, federal officials said.

Scalia, 79, was a guest at the Cibolo Creek Ranch, a resort in the Big Bend region south of Marfa.

According to a report, Scalia arrived at the ranch on Friday and attended a private party with about 40 people. When he did not appear for breakfast, a person associated with the ranch went to his room and found a body.

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Millennials Pick Socialism Over Capitalism

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Breitbart reports:

As Santayana said, those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Less than two decades after socialism seemed to have been confined to the dust-heap of history, another generation may have to learn hard lessons.

The survey, taken at the end of January, found that 43 percent of Americans under 30 had a favorable view of socialism. Less than a third of millennials had a favorable view of capitalism. No other age or ethnic demographic preferred socialism over capitalism.

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Judge Rules Against ACLU as Kim Davis Hasn’t “Interfered” With Issuance of “Gay Marriage” Licenses

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Christian News Network reports:

A federal judge in Kentucky has ruled that Kentucky clerk Kim Davis did not violate his order not to interfere with her deputies’ issuance of “marriage” licenses to homosexuals when she removed her name and other identifying information from the documents.

As previously reported, Davis had requested last year that then-Gov. Steve Beshear allow for her name to be removed from any marriage licenses as the U.S. Supreme Court was set to consider the issue of same-sex “marriage.”

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Transgender issues: High school athletics and a bathroom bill killed

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Sexual confusionGrand Forks Herald: Legislation against transgender high school athletes proceeds in South Dakota

Legislation intended to overturn a policy allowing transgender students to participate in athletic competition at the high school level in South Dakota won approval Tuesday in the state House of Representatives.

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Associated Press:Transgender bathroom bill dies in Virginia committee

A legislative panel has killed a bill that would have required students to use the bathroom that corresponds with their biological sex.

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