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THE CHURCH MILITANT Ephesians 5:11-"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them". This Christian News Blog maintains a one stop resource of current news and reports of its own related to church, moral, spiritual, and related political issues, plus articles, and postings from other online discernment ministries, and media which share the aims to obey the biblical commands to shed light on and refute error, heresy, apostasy, cults, and spiritual abuse.
________________________________________________________VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani met for talks on Tuesday (Jan. 26) — the first such encounter since 1999 — in a private meeting in which the pontiff pressed Rouhani on fostering Middle East peace and countering terrorism and arms trafficking.The 39-minute meeting in the apostolic palace also touched on the landmark deal on Iran’s nuclear capacity that has been praised by the pontiff, and the two leaders discussed the situation of the church in Iran and inter-religious dialogue.“I ask you to pray for me. It’s been a pleasure and I wish you well in your work,” Rouhani said at the end of their talks, addressing the pope in Farsi through a female translator.“I thank you for this visit and I hope for peace,” Francis said in Italian, aided throughout the appointment by a Farsi-speaking translator.In a statement issued after the meeting, the Vatican described the talks as “cordial” and said “common spiritual values emerged” in the discussions.The Vatican said Francis and Rouhani discussed religious freedom and “the important role that Iran is called upon to fulfill, along with other countries in the region, to promote suitable political solutions to the problems afflicting the Middle East, (and) to counter the spread of terrorism and arms trafficking.”The Vatican visit was a key stop on a four-day visit to Italy and France by Rouhani that had been postponed after the November terror attack in Paris. The tour is seen as part of the effort by Rouhani and Iranian moderates to revive relations with the West and open Iran to business opportunities.Francis can help promote the “thaw in diplomatic relations between Iran and other countries,” much as he did with Cuba and the U.S., the Rev. Bernardo Cervellera, editor of the Rome-based Asia News, told The Wall Street Journal. “If we want peace in the Middle East, Iran and Iranian Islam have a vital role to play.”Estimates on the number of Christians in Iran vary between 100,000 and 300,000, and the number of Catholics is pegged at about 20,000.Christians are a recognized religious minority and have certain rights, but they face strict limitations as well.The release this month of an Iranian-American evangelical Christian pastor, Saeed Abedini, after more than three years in jail in Iran, allegedly for trying to set up house churches, underscored the religious freedom and human rights problems that have been flagged by the U.S. State Department.Rouhani was joined at the Vatican on Tuesday by his foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, along with two representatives from the Iranian Embassy to the Holy See. The Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and Foreign Minister Paul Gallagher were also present.In an exchange of gifts, Francis presented his guest with a medallion of St. Martin of Tours, a fourth-century French bishop depicted giving his cloak to a beggar. The pope told Rouhani it was a symbol of brotherhood.Francis also gave him an English-language copy of his landmark 2015 encyclical on the environment, “Laudato Si’.” Noting that the papal letter had not been translated into Farsi, the pontiff also offered Rouhani a copy in Arabic.The president in turn gave his host a rug hand-woven in Qom, a Shiite holy city in Iran, and a large book by artist Mahmoud Farshchian.Rouhani arrived at the Vatican late in the morning for the one-on-one with the pope, a day after arriving in the Italian capital for high-level diplomatic and business talks.The impetus for the European tour was the historic agreement signed last year by Tehran and six world powers, including the U.S., that requires it to curtail its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.Francis cited the deal as one of the key achievements of 2015 “which give solid hope for the future,” along with the Paris climate change deal.“I think first of the so-called Iran nuclear deal, which I hope will contribute to creating a climate of detente in the region,” the pope told the Holy See diplomatic corps earlier this month….
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes
AUSTIN, Texas (Associated Press) — A Houston grand jury investigating undercover footage of Planned Parenthood found no wrongdoing Monday by the abortion provider and instead indicted anti-abortion activists involved in making the videos that provoked outrage among Republican leaders nationwide.David Daleiden, founder of the Center for Medical Progress, was indicted on a felony charge of tampering with a governmental record and a misdemeanor count related to purchasing human organs. Another activist, Sandra Merritt, was also indicted on a charge of tampering with a governmental record. It’s the first time anyone in the group has been charged criminally since the videos started surfacing last year.In a statement announcing the indictment, Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson didn’t provide details on the charges, including what record or records were allegedly tampered with and why Daleiden faces a charge related to buying human organs. Anderson’s office said it could not provide details until the documents charging Daleiden and Merritt were formally made public, which was expected later Monday.FULL ARTICLE HERE: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/20160125_ap_54d1cc76510045129460a3858abb1a91.htmlSHOCK: Indictments in Planned Parenthood Investigation
Published on Jan 26, 2016A Harris County grand jury investigating allegations that a Planned Parenthood clinic in Houston illegally sold the tissue of aborted fetuses has cleared the organization of wrongdoing and instead indicted two anti-abortion activists behind the undercover videos that sparked the probe.Government, Defying All Logic, Ignores Baby Butchers – Goes after Those Who Expose Them
SEE: http://the-trumpet-online.com/government-defying-all-logic-ignores-baby-butchers-goes-after-those-who-expose-them/; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:The lead attorney for one of the undercover pro-life reporters indicted this week in the aftermath of last year’s exposing of Planned Parenthood says prosecutors are pursuing bogus charges, Planned Parenthood officials are the obvious criminals and America is reaching a “scary” point where politics determine the outcome of the justice system.On Monday, a Harris County, Texas, grand jury elected not to indict Planned Parenthood for allegedly selling organs and other body parts of aborted babies. Instead, the members returned a felony indictment of tampering with a government record against Center for Medical Progress President David Daleiden and his colleague, Sandra S. Merritt. If convicted, they could each spend as much as 20 years in prison.“These two individuals will be exonerated. There’s no question about that,” said Liberty Counsel Chairman Mathew Staver, who is lead counsel for Merritt. “They’ll have their day in court. We look forward to that.”Since news of the indictment began to spread, pro-life supporters launched the Twitter hashtag #IStandWithDavid to show their support.Daleiden was charged with an additional misdemeanor of trying to purchase organs from aborted babies.According to the indictment, the felony tampering charge accuses Daleiden and Merritt of fabricating California driver’s licenses to gain entry to the Houston Planned Parenthood facility.Staver said the statute is being badly misapplied in this case.“They were using journalistic tactics like lots of journalists do,” Staver said. “It’s not just David and Sandra. This is something that has been done by journalists for a long time.”In addition, he said there is an explicit exception to the law.“If you take a driver’s license and you tamper with it and make it look like it’s valid for you because you have had your driver’s license revoked for a DUI or whatever, and you then present that as your driver’s license to the police officer knowing that you really have no driver’s license, that is what’s covered by this situation,” he explained.As a result, Staver is supremely confident both defendants will be cleared.“This indictment really goes beyond what the statute words say, and certainly the intent of the statute,” he said. “That’s why I think this will be thrown out at the end of the day.”Staver said the misdemeanor charge against Daleiden may be even more bogus.“That’s even more outrageous because he’s purchasing what from whom, and the seller doesn’t get anything to that effect? If someone’s going to purchase something, you have to have a seller selling something, and it’s illegal to sell body parts,” Staver said.He said Daleiden has even stronger ground in that he had no intent to actually buy any body parts from aborted babies. He said no one would videotape their activities and then disseminate it far and wide if they believed it was criminal.Staver believes the absence of charges against Planned Parenthood is the greatest travesty of all in this case.“It’s obvious what they’re doing. They’re on video. It’s multiple times, multiple people, high-ranking Planned Parenthood individuals. They’re talking callously about aborting baby body parts. They’re talking about preserving certain fetal organs intact because they can get higher prices for them. Then they’re talking about selling these body parts, so it’s pretty obvious,” Staver said.He continued, “Planned Parenthood is the one that has committed criminal acts here. They’re the ones that should be indicted and having to reveal to the rest of the public the inner workings of Planned Parenthood, this brutal, barbarous kind of activity that Planned Parenthood is doing and being funded by state and federal tax dollars in the process.”So how did this happen? Staver sees two potential issues, beginning with the grand jury process itself.“[A grand jury] is basically giving one side of a story without the other side represented,” he said. “Certainly we need to respect the grand jury’s process, but I do know there are situations where grand juries don’t get all the information, and they are going on information that is being presented to them, which is a very narrow slice of the pie. That’s why prosecutors need to be so ethically above board.”That last point leads to Staver’s second major concern. While Harris County District Attorney Davon Anderson is a Republican who calls herself pro-life, one of her assistant prosecutors most certainly is not.LifeNews revealed that Lauren Reeder, a prosecutor in Anderson’s office, is listed as an unpaid director for the Houston Planned Parenthood clinic in question on the facility’s most recent 990 tax form from 2014.“The district attorney or the assistant district attorney has a lot of power in either giving evidence to give one side or withholding evidence to not give the other side,” Staver said.In the big picture, Staver fears America is entering a “very scary” phase in which politics and ideology matter more than the law in resolving hot-button cases.“When you get into two different particular areas, abortion and the issue of homosexuality and same-sex marriage, it seems all the common sense, all the logic, all the rules of procedure, frankly, the rule of law just gets tossed to the side and you have these outrageous, shocking situations,” he said.“What’s driving it? It’s not the rule of law. It’s ideology and it’s politics and it should have nothing to do with judicial proceedings. When you ultimately mix ideology and politics with the judiciary, you’re really messing up the system that the founders envisioned. All of us should be concerned about that because [we] all lose our liberty,” said Staver, noting that those who cheer today’s decisions could find the winds blowing against them soon. Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/01/attorney-for-indicted-pro-life-reporter-its-outrageous/#SXogbrUVYilWDl26.99
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Planned Parenthood Board Member Works in Office of D.A. Who Prosecuted Pro-Life Investigator
BY HEATHER CLARKrepublished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposesHOUSTON, Texas — A member of the board of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast works in the office of the district attorney who pursued the prosecution of a pro-life investigator before a grand jury, while the abortion giant went free.David Daleiden of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) was indicted on Monday by a grand jury in Houston on a felony charge of “tampering with a governmental record” for creating a fake driver’s license in conducting his undercover investigation, as well as a misdemeanor count related to the purchasing of human tissue.Daleiden, 27, had posed as a representative of a fetal tissue procurement company in order to engage in discussions with Planned Parenthood officials as a potential buyer of bodily organs. He recorded the interactions, conducted at various locations across the country, as part of his “human capital” investigative series that was released in July.Sandra Merritt, 62, was also charged with tampering with a governmental record for likewise printing the license, which was used to obtain access to Planned Parenthood gathering in Houston.While Daleiden and Merritt were charged for seeking to buy fetal tissue, Planned Parenthood was not charged for agreeing to obtain compensation for the body parts of aborted babies, nor outlining that it had been doing so with other scientific companies nationwide. Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards announced after several of the videos were released that the organization would cease accepting compensation for fetal organs following outrage over the matter.“The Center for Medical Progress uses the same undercover techniques that investigative journalists have used for decades in exercising our First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and of the press, and follows all applicable laws,” Daleiden said in a statement.“We respect the processes of the Harris County district attorney, and note that buying fetal tissue requires a seller as well,” he noted. “Planned Parenthood still cannot deny the admissions from their leadership about fetal organ sales captured on video for all the world to see.”There have also been concerns following the discovery that a prosecutor in the Harris County district attorney’s Division of Criminal Family Law also serves as a director on the board of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast.According to reports, Lauren Reeder told District Attorney Devon Anderson earlier this year about her work with the abortion giant in order to be “transparent.” However, she also said that she didn’t see a conflict of interest in the situation.“I don’t think there’s any conflict in my dual roles in two separate organizations,” Reeder told reporters.Anderson said that Reeder would not be involved with the case.“She will not be involved in any manner in this investigation,” she told the Houston Chronicle. “If at any time in the future, reliable and credible information is brought to my attention that would question our ability to continue to perform a fair, thorough and independent investigation of this matter due to her board membership, I will revisit the issue of seeking the appointment of an independent prosecutor and act accordingly.”Some still find the situation to be ironic.“Daleiden is being charged with the very crime he was exposing? Seriously?” writes Tim Brown with Freedom Outpost. “He can play the part, just like police do when they engage in drug busts, but have only the intention of exposing the crime and yet, he is the one charged with what these devils are engaged in?”“Why are the company executives shown in the videos not also being indicted for being willing to make the sale? If it’s wrong to make a purchase of baby parts, surely it is wrong to be selling them,” he said. “The double standard of the DA’s office is right out in the open for all to see! This is an injustice!”
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Jury That Prosecuted Pro-Life Investigator Never Voted on Charging Planned Parenthood
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ASHEVILLE, North Carolina — An American pastor who was imprisoned in Iran for over three years is now speaking about his time behind bars, acknowledging that he and others were beaten by Iranian authorities.“In interrogation, once they beat me very badly,” Saeed Abedini told Fox’s Greta Van Susteren on Monday, “because they wanted me to write something [to admit guilt], which I didn’t do that.”“It actually was in a courtroom where the judge closed the door and the interrogators started beating me, which in that time, I had stomach bleeding,” he said.“They beat you with their fist?” Van Susteren asked.“Yes,” Abedini replied.He said that he was soon threatened that he was going to be placed with other prisoners who would “beat him to death.” Abedini stated he was indeed beaten badly by his cellmates, but “God saved me over there.” At one point, he was even beaten in the head with a heavy iron chair, the pastor shared.Abedini said that Iranian authorities adiditionally tried to intimidate him by stating that they would track him after he is released.“They said, ‘When you finish your sentence, and you go to the U.S., we always follow you, and if you continue the thing that you did, we’re going to kill you,'” he explained, noting that Iran had killed another pastor.Abedini said that when he was first arrested and brought before the judge, he was accused of conspiring to take down the Iranian government with Christianity. He tried to explain that he was not seeking to do so, but was merely helping orphaned children and sharing the gospel, but his response was not received.“The judge said, ‘You know why you are here,’ and I said, ‘Yeah, I’m here because of my Christian faith and starting house churches all over Iran,” Abedini recalled. “And the judge said, ‘No, you are not here for this. You are here because you want to use Christianity to remove government.'”“And it was like, ‘No, I don’t want to do that. I just came here to start [an] orphanage, loving people and [to] share the gospel with people and just that,'” Abedini recalled. “And he said, ‘No, you guys are using Christianity to remove the government.'”When he said the would pray for the magistrate, the judge began yelling. He spent two months in solitary confinement, part of the time with his eyes covered, before being moved to more dangerous locations.Abedini told Van Susteren that he witnessed others being beaten behind bars and observed the guards taking prisoners to be hanged each Wednesday.“They were scared, and so the soldiers would take their hands, their feet [and] grab them like when they take a lamb for the slaughtering,” he remembered. “It was very graphic things, what I saw when they took people for execution.”As previously reported, Abedini, a former Iranian Muslim turned Christian, left Iran in 2005 and moved to the United States with his wife and two children to find religious freedom after facing conflict with authorities for planting house churches in the county. In 2012, he traveled back to Iran to build an orphanage and visit his parents when he was taken into custody.He was sentenced to eight years in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison, but was transferred to to Rajai Shahr Prison in 2013, where he remained until two weeks ago when he was set free in a prisoner swap between the U.S. and Iran.