By Kelly Ledbetter, Christian Examiner MEMPHIS, Tenn. (Christian Examiner) – Christian Brothers High School senior Lance Sanderson was sent home earlier this week from school, allegedly for wanting to bring a male date to homecoming. Sanderson says he just wants to be treated like all his classmates, but he is: the CBHS policy against males from other schools attending school events was implemented to prevent fights. Because CBHS administration is enforcing its policy, Sanderson claims it is behaving with discrimination. Sanderson has been openly gay since his freshman year. He says an administrator who is now no longer at the school gave him verbal permission last year to bring a male date to homecoming and prom. To read the rest of the article, click here. … [Read more...]
Syrian pastor won’t abandon his church, despite ISIS brutality
By Kelly Ledbetter, Christian Examiner SWEIDA, Syria (Christian Examiner) – After a car bomb went off in his city last month, a pastor is faced again with the choice to flee the encroaching reach of ISIS in Syria, but he doesn't want to leave his new church. In a report from Christian Aid Mission, the pastor, whose name has been withheld for security reasons, speaks out about his precarious situation, his fears for his family and church, and why he won't leave. "As ISIS pushes westward inside Syria, Christians are in the crosshairs," said the Middle East director of Christian Aid Mission. "They're running out of places where they can safely flee." To read the rest of the article, click here. … [Read more...]
Netanyahu demonstrates ‘deafening silence’ of world on Iran
By Gregory Tomlin, Christian Examiner NEW YORK (Christian Examiner) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood in front of the United Nations 70th General Assembly Oct. 1 and excoriated world leaders for their acceptance of the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by the United States and other western powers. The deal, which will grant Iran the right to eventually resume the enrichment of uranium and develop its ballistic missile program after a period of seven years, is now a matter of record at the world body. It is in the United States, as well, as Republicans failed to muster the votes necessary to kill it in the Senate where, according to the Constitution, it should have been handled as a treaty. To read the rest of the article, click here. … [Read more...]
Oregon pastor’s prediction of persecution comes true after shooter executes Christians at community college
By Tobin Perry, Christian Examiner ROSEBURG, Ore. (Christian Examiner) -- Just last Sunday Pastor Jerry Smart warned his church—increased persecution is coming. The Winston, Oregon, pastor had no idea just how close to fruition his prediction was. "I told our church, 'We're going to see more and more persecution in this world,'" said Smart, pastor of Foursquare Gospel Center in Winston. "I said, 'How many of you believe that?' Most of the people raised their hands. I said, 'I think it's coming.' Of course, I was thinking of Christians in the Middle East. I didn't think it would come to our back door the next Thursday." But of course, it did. On Thursday, a 26-year-old shooter entered Umpqua Community College in nearby Roseburg and killed nine people and injured nine more. A variety of media reports confirm the gunman asked his victims whether they were Christians or not. To read more of this article, click here. … [Read more...]
1% CP Challenge met by 4,422 churches
By Diana Chandler, Baptist Press EDITOR'S NOTE: October is Cooperative Program Emphasis Month in the Southern Baptist Convention. NASHVILLE (BP) - Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee President Frank S. Page has personally signed letters to more than 4,400 Southern Baptist churches that have met or exceeded the 1% Cooperative Program Challenge. Recognized for their contributions are 3,846 congregations that met the challenge for the first time during the 2013-14 fiscal year (Oct. 1-Sept. 30) and 576 that met the challenge for two consecutive years, said Ashley Clayton, SBC Executive Committee vice president for Cooperative Program and stewardship development. The 1% CP Challenge calls on churches to increase their Cooperative Program giving by at least 1 percentage point of their budgets from undesignated gifts by their members and visitors. CP gifts undergird both the work of the state Baptist conventions and the SBC's national and international missions and ministries. In the letters in advance of October's Cooperative Program Emphasis Month on the SBC calendar, Page reminded pastors that every Cooperative Program dollar given is an investment in Baptist outreach. The letters seek to express the … [Read more...]
Farrakhan to pastors: Young blacks will leave Christian churches and ‘turn on you’ — to follow him
By Gregory Tomlin, Christian Examiner CHICAGO (Christian Examiner) – Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan has issued a second forceful warning for black ministers in Christian churches who refuse to support his "Justice, or Else!" movement after he called for exercising the Quran's law of retaliation against whites and the government during an address at a Miami church in July. In a series of interview videos posted to his Facebook page, after which he solicits donations and support for his upcoming gathering on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Oct. 10, Farrakhan says the ministers who have closed their doors to him are failing their communities and him. "I have to say this. All of you know what you have done to me," Farrakhan says with his voice raised in the video. To read the rest of the article, click here. … [Read more...]
Brave new world: Obama says gay rights trump religious liberty
By Gregory Tomlin, Christian Examiner NEW YORK (Christian Examiner) – Should gay rights come into conflict with religious belief, religious liberty will lose, President Barack Obama told an audience of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender activists at the Democrat National Committees annual LGBT Gala in New York Sept. 27. "We affirm that we cherish our religious freedom and are profoundly respectful of religious traditions," Obama said. "But we also have to say clearly that our religious freedom doesn't grant us the freedom to deny our fellow Americans their constitutional rights." Obama said government will be respectful and accommodate the "genuine concerns and interests of religious institutions," but that American should "reject politicians who are supporting new forms of discrimination as a way to scare up votes." To read the rest of the article, click here. … [Read more...]
Atheists, ‘Go fly a kite,’ says Texas police chief
By Kelly Ledbetter, Christian Examiner CHILDRESS, Texas (Christian Examiner) – Childress Police Chief Adrian Garcia has a way with words: efficient and direct. So yesterday when he wrote a response to the Freedom from Religion Foundation letter he received about police vehicles bearing the words, "In God We Trust," Garcia needed to use only four words -- "Go fly a kite." "After carefully reading your letter I must deny your request in the removal of our Nations motto from our patrol units, and ask that you and the Freedom From Religion Foundation 'go fly a kite.'" This was his entire one-sentence response. To read the rest of the article, click here. … [Read more...]
Pro-lifers: PPFA head fails to satisfy concerns
By Tom Strode, Baptist Press WASHINGTON (BP) - Congressional testimony by Planned Parenthood's president failed to satisfy the concerns of lawmakers and pro-life advocates in the wake of undercover videos providing evidence the organization trades in baby body parts. Cecile Richards, head of Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), denounced charges -- apparently of unethical or illegal activity by her organization -- based on the videos as "offensive and categorically untrue" in a House of Representatives hearing Tuesday (Sept. 29). The hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee followed the release of 10 secretly recorded videos that show various Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of organs from aborted children. The videos recorded and released by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) also display PPFA employees acknowledging their willingness to manipulate the abortion procedure to preserve body parts for sale and use. In addition, the videos include evidence of the dissection of live babies outside the womb to remove organs. Less than one percent of PPFA's centers facilitate federally approved fetal tissue donation, something many of their patients request, Richards … [Read more...]
Naghmeh Abedini says faith ‘more real’ than before
By Morning Star News ISTANBUL, Turkey, (BP) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani Monday (Sept. 30) declined to meet with the wife of imprisoned American pastor Saeed Abedini during his trip to the United Nations, days after the Christian's wife learned her husband had recently been tortured. Rouhani instead said in a television interview that releasing Iranian criminals held in U.S. prisons would change the "atmosphere and environment," hinting that such a change would be necessary for possibly freeing prisoners such as Abedini. The Iranians in question were sentenced to prison for violating the international trade embargo placed on Iran for trying to develop nuclear weapons, Rouhani said. "There are a number of Iranians in the United States who are imprisoned, who went to prison as a result of activities related to the nuclear industry in Iran. Once these sanctions have been lifted, why keep those folks in American prisons? So they must be freed," he said Sept. 27 on CNN through an interpreter. "If the Americans take the appropriate actions vis-a-vis Iranian citizens who are being imprisoned here, then the right atmosphere and environment will be created for reciprocal action perhaps." Rouhani left New York Monday … [Read more...]
