ANDY STANLEY: "WE'RE ON THE SUBWAY TO HELL..."~AS BAD AS JOEL OSTEEN OR MAYBE WORSE

DEEMED OBAMA TO BE 

"PASTOR IN CHIEF", REMEMBER? 

“Theology is simply that part of religion that requires brains.”  G.K. Chesterton

ANDY STANLEY: 

"WE'RE ON THE SUBWAY TO HELL..." 

BY BUD AHLHEIM

SEE: http://pulpitandpen.org/2016/04/24/andy-stanley-were-on-the-subway-to-hell/; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

I’m not much of a Chesterton fan, but he surely could whip out the incisive witticisms. Still, I’m even less of an Andy Stanley fan. Stanley, the (do I have to call him) “pastor” of North Point Church in Atlanta, just wrapped up another festival of Biblical disregard, joining Hillsong pastrix Christine Caine for the Cincinnati Catalyst event.

(Stanley is also scheduled to be a speaker at the upcoming SBC ERLC Conference, hoping perhaps, that sharing the dais with Russell Moore will be no less a discernment issue than sharing one with Caine.  It’s hard these days to decide who is woefully associating with whom; the degrees of separation don’t count, I suppose, when everyone seems to be throwing discernment to the wind.)

The Christian Post featured a recap article of Stanley’s contribution to the Catalyst event: Andy Stanley At Catalyst Cincinnati: Don’t Put Theology Above Ministry; Let Cultural Issues Bump People Out.

CP’s headline immediately prompted my own synapses to pop in recollection of that Chesterton quote above. Andy doesn’t like theology, you see. It does require thinking, but, if you are truly regenerate, you have the Holy Spirit guiding your ever growing understanding of Scripture the more and more you stay focused in it. You don’t have to be a spiritual Einstein to understand theology, but apparently you have to be an Andy Stanley to disregard its unparalleled, and divinely guided, value for the believer, and for the church.

“Once you go astray in your doctrine, you will very soon go astray in your behavior. You can’t divorce doctrine from behavior.”   Martyn Lloyd-Jones

That Stanley is a “pastor” who eschews theology isn’t really a surprise. He also happens to be a “pastor” who eschews preaching and teaching the Bible, too. Expositional preaching just ain’t his thing. (And, if your pastor does it, Stanley says he’s cheating.) Of course, expositional preaching requires a certain grasp of theology, so, that, perhaps, explains why Stanley can’t do it.

Stanley, it seems, is the “right place, right time” sort of relativistic, conviction-free chap for a post-modern culture that forbids anything that posits itself as absolute. If Joel Osteen just doesn’t give you just the right Bible-twisting, Scripture-denying, “it’s all about you, pump you up, you’re a winner” weekly dose of toothy-grinned positive thinking on your trip to eternal destruction, try Andy on for size. He’ll likely be a good, Bible-free fit for ya’.

Vying perhaps for the dumbest theological quote of the year, Stanley said, “If Jesus was worried about guilt by association, he would’ve stayed in Heaven.” Lest his quote be incorrectly exegeted, let me hasten to add that it supported his premise that, above everything else, the church should avoid “rigid ministry systems” and ‘lines in the sand’ on cultural issues” because doing so tends to “bump people out rather than win them over.”  (Emphasis added)  Yeah, well, sure … Jesus was a go with the flow, be a friend to have a friend sort of guy who tried as hard as he could to “win them over”, right?  WRONG … But maybe you need to know theology 101 to realize that.

(FYI, “win them over” is apparent Stanley-speak for “skip Scripture, sing Kum-bah-ya, and condone paganism, because that’s what Jesus would do.” In the Andy Stanley Bible, Jesus is not seen using the words “sin” or “woe,” as in “woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.” They’ve been edited out for ease of cultural compliance, it seems. And never, ever, EVER tell someone they are in “sin.”  Not a popular move, if you wanna be relative … or popular.)

The CP article provides a glimpse, though, into the tough stands Stanley is willing to make on sensitive cultural issues.

“Stanley said that simply because many in society may not uphold biblical standards like abstaining from sex outside of marriage does not mean that the Church should stop talking about it.”

“Many in society may not uphold biblical standards?”

Gee, ya’ think, Andy?  Kinda like how you stand firm on biblical truths by allowing homosexuals to become members of your church? Or advising Christians to bake a gay wedding cake despite their convictions? Or how parents are selfish if they don’t take their kids to a mega-box entertainment complex like yours each Sunday? (Oh, yeah, you did retract that.) But “talking about it,” to Stanley, doesn’t mean calling sin, sin. He’s just not that sort of pastor, you see. Sin is such a theological sort of word, anyway, so cut him some slack, I guess. Clearly not every “pastor” upholds biblical standards, either … so there.

Stanley wants churches to engage culture by being a good neighbors. But that he does it sans Gospel is the problem. It is apparently not necessary to share the wrath and love truths of the Gospel to the dying culture. Instead “churches should not only do good works, but be seen out and about doing them within the community, building a positive reputation.” (Yeah, Andy, where is that whole “be the church with the best worldly reputation” verse in Scripture? I can’t find it.)

<Insert incisive quote here > 

“That very church which the world likes best is sure to be that which God abhors.” Charles Spurgeon

If Stanley would bristle at Lloyd-Jones’ quote (it included the word “divorce”, btw) he surely won’t like the one from Spurgeon, himself a theologian AND a biblical expositor. Stanley’s church seems to be lauded by the world and culture with which he’s engaged; the Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority just added his church to their map as a “place of interest.”

Indeed, Andy, you’ve made North Point into a bonafide “place of interest.”

It’s a “church” with no Biblical preaching, no theology, no Gospel, apparently no membership requirements – do you even have to claim to know God to join? – and absolutely no desire for separateness from the world.

And that’s hardly a feather in the cap of faithfulness if you happen to go by the Bible, at least.  “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers” ring a bell?

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” 1 John 2:15

Well, at least he got his church on a subway map.

Maybe he could even get Perry Noble to do a custom cover tune for North Point … “We’re On The Railway to Hell” … cuz without the Word, that last train stop is going to be off the map, with no return trip.

(Please pray for this man and for the souls in jeopardy under his care.  May Christ through Scripture be preached and exalted.)

APOSTATE PASTRIX JEN HATMAKER AFFIRMS LGBT "CHRISTIANS"

THE CHURCH SHOULD STOP EXCLUDING "GAYBEES"

JEN HATMAKER AFFIRMS LGBT "CHRISTIANS" 

BY BRANDON HINES

SEE: http://pulpitandpen.org/2016/04/25/jen-hatmaker-affirms-lgbt-christians/; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

According to Jen Hatmaker’s friend Doug, she would be the result of a procreative union between George Carlin and Beth Moore.  According to Beth Moore, Jen Hatmaker is a Bible teacher and communicator with whom she is “honored beyond words” to serve.  According to Jen Hatmaker, the church should stop excluding “gaybees.”  According to me, it’s a problem when a popular evangelical speaker who often pals around with Beth Moore and company puts out a Facebook post like the one below and it gets hundreds of likes:

In the post above, Hatmaker seemed to take a soft stance on homosexuality, not once calling its practitioners to repentance or even making the clarification that homosexuality is a sin.  Instead, Hatmaker laments Christian churches which condemn homosexual practice.

As you can see, this post initially makes the mistake of assuming that there is actually a such thing as a “gay Christian.” The Apostle Paul didn’t seem to think that there was.  In 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 he wrote:

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (ESV, Emphasis added).

One could give Hatmaker the benefit of the doubt and conclude that she, a professional communicator, just employed sloppy wording.  This is what I was inclined to do after first reading her post but then I looked into the comment section and witnessed her affirm a “transgender Christian” without calling him to repentance and without clarifying that transgenderism is perversion of God’s created order. She even called this man pretending to be a woman, “sister”, and said, “welcome to the family.”

Hatmaker did find it in her time to mention the sin of racism. I wholeheartedly agree that racism is a sin, but if she took the time to call out and encourage the repentance of this sin, why would she completely ignore the sinfulness of the LGBT crowd? Hatmaker rebukes racism, which is good, but why doesn’t she rebuke the sin which forms the basis of her post?

Interestingly, this isn’t the first time that Hatmaker has touched on the issue of homosexuality. In an article in 2014 about the World Vision “gay marriage” issue, she made the case that the Bible isn’t clear enough on the issue of homosexuality. She stated,

This is a fact: Thousands of churches and millions of Christ-followers faithfully read the Scriptures and with thoughtful and academic work come to different conclusions on homosexuality (and countless others). Godly, respectable leaders have exegeted the Bible and there is absolutely not unanimity on its interpretation. There never has been. Historically, Christian theology has always been contextually bound and often inconsistent with itself; an inconvenient truth we prefer to selectively explain.

Throwing the the Doctrine of God, a Christian essential, to the wind to emphasize her point, she went on to say,

… [T]here has never been ‘one way’ to interpret scripture. There has never been ‘one way’ to be a biblical church. Even the early church leaders had severe and lasting disagreements about the nature of God, the Holy Spirit, Jesus, Salvation, Faith, Works, etc.

In reviewing the article cited above, discernment blogger Christine Pack of Sola Sisters wrote, “The Christian community, the true, Bible-believing Christian community, HAS reached consensus on gay marriage, and that is that it is an abomination in God’s eyes.” (Source).

That the market for ladies Christian teaching will abide the faltering of one of its denizens (Hatmaker) on the issue of homosexuality is a reason for great concern. I think it is important for us to examine Hatmaker’s teachings on other subjects very closely to see if they truly align with Biblical orthodoxy.  Given her statements on homosexuality, it wouldn’t be surprising if they didn’t.

_____________________________________________________

Culture/Church Divide featuring Jen Hatmaker
Emphasis Should Be On "Social Justice" Issues Instead of Morals ( as per the Catholic Church)

KARI JOBE, POPULAR CHARISMATIC WORSHIP ARTIST, TEACHING DANGEROUS THEOLOGY

SEE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kari_Jobe

Popular Charismatic Worship Artist, Kari Jobe, Teaching Dangerous Theology

BY JEFF MAPLES

SEE: http://pulpitandpen.org/2016/05/04/kari-jobe-dangerous-theology/; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

It’s never-ending. The apostasy, the lack of discernment, the gullibility. How can anyone who proclaims the name of Jesus Christ not recognize the dismal state of the professing church? Words cannot even begin to describe the how far away the church is from Christ in these days. The attractions, the concerts, the conferences. People joining hands with those teaching for shameful gain things they ought not to teach. This is not revival, but the falling away in it’s most deceptive and extreme form–a form of godliness that denies its power.

Tickets go on sale in May for Outcry Tour 2016. The music festival will be held in several cities around the nation, and features some of the most lauded names in “worship.” The groups include Hillsong, Kari Jobe, Rend Collective, Housefires, Urban Rescue, Chad Veach, and none other than Elevation Worship.

Now, I’m not exactly sure who these people are worshiping, but it isn’t Jesus. Yet, thousands of Christians are blindly sending their children to partake in this evil.

In the Charismatic Evangelical church, there is a movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). It is a movement that elevates experience above doctrinal truth. Often times you will see many with contradictory beliefs about the basic tenets of Christianity come together in prayer and worship. This is the driving force behind this modern worship scene that’s creeping into once solid churches.

Hillsong United is among the most deceitful and subversive worship music movements. Hillsong music is popular, and is played throughout even some of the most theologically solid churches, deceptively luring people away from doctrinal truth and into an experiential form of idolatry that removes Jesus as the sole object of worship, and places the emphasis on ear-tickling lyrics and music that draws on people’s emotions. Read more about them here.

But another of Outcry’s featured singers, Kari Jobe, is also a popular musician being promoted in churches, especially to our youth. Jobe, out of seeker-sensitive NAR Robert Morris’ Gateway church, is known for popular songs like I Am Not Alone, and Love Came Down. She is also under the leadership of Gateway’s NAR Apostle and elder, Jack Hayford, author of the song Majesty, which teaches the heretical “Kingdom Now” theology. However, she is one of those who are teaching for shameful gain things she ought not to teach (Titus 1:11).

One of her most popular songs, Forever, published by Bethel Music (the same outfit that produced Jesus Culture), contains some really aberrant theology. Besides the fact that she’s a female pastor in a church, her theology alone should be enough to disqualify her as a teacher. Below is a sample of her lyrics:

One final breath He gave 
As heaven looked awayThe Son of God was laid in darknessA battle in the graveThe war on death was wagedThe power of hell forever broken

Then, In an interview about her song, Forever, she said,

My favorite part of the whole thing is … we talk about the death on the cross and we talk about the resurrection,but that time in between was when Jesus was in hell rendering hell. And ransacking hell. And defeating the enemy – taking those keys to death and hell and the grave to be victorious over that when he rose from the dead.

Of course, we can pick apart almost any song, even some of the best traditional hymns. But the serious error here is that she is teaching a heresy that strikes at the heart of Christian theology, which is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. She gets a pass, though, you know, because “artistic license and stuff.”

This idea that Jesus died and went to Hell stems from an old heresy that is prominent in Word of Faith circles that teach that Jesus died spiritually, and was “born again” after defeating Satan in Hell. Popular teachers of this false teaching are Joyce Meyer, Kenneth Copeland, and Creflo Dollar. Joyce Meyer writes in her book, The Most Important Decision You’ll Ever Make, the following:

Jesus paid on the cross and went to hell in my place. Then as God had promised, on the third day Jesus rose from the dead. The scene in the spirit realm went something like this: God rose up from his throne and said to demon powers tormenting the sinless son of God, “let him go.” Then the resurrection power of Almighty God went through hell and filled Jesus. On earth his grave where they had buried him was filled with light as the power of God filled his body. He was resurrected from the dead–the first born again man. (source)

And Kenneth Copeland similarly writes:

For three days He suffered everything there is to suffer. Some people don’t want to believe that. They want to believe that after His death, Jesus just stayed in that upper region of Sheol that the Bible calls paradise, but they’re mistaken! If He had simply stayed there, there would have been no price paid for sin. (source)

This flies right in the face of biblical truth that Christ’s death on the cross was victorious over sin. Jesus proclaimed victory in his final breath on the cross (John 19:28-30). Jesus had no need to go to Hell to finish any work, and he certainly did not die spiritually (John 17:4, Acts 2:31, Col 2:14, etc.).

But if denying the power of the cross isn’t enough to turn your head away from Kari Jobe’s music, perhaps her treatment of Jesus would be enough to make your stomach turn. Another popular song, The More I Seek You, she treats Jesus more like a lover than a savior.

The more I seek you, 
The more I find you 
The more I find you, the more I love you

I wanna sit at your feet
Drink from the cup in your hand.
Lay back against you and breathe, feel your heart beat
This love is so deep, it’s more than I can stand.
I melt in your peace, it’s overwhelming

Besides the theology in this song just being plain horrible, she displays a total lack of understanding of God’s love for us. God’s love for us is not an erotic (Greek: eros) love, but agape. Agape is a parental, sacrificial, unconditional love, whereas eros is a bodily, emotional kind of love. The lyrics in this song pervert the nature of God’s love.

I don’t see how anyone could worship our sovereign God to music like this, yet the eroticizing of God’s love for us is gaining steam. Hillsong’s Forever Reign is another popular song in evangelical churches that does this, while Ann Voskamp, a popular women’s bible study writer, and author, pushes the same foolishness in her book, 1000 Gifts. Voskamp writes, “I fly to Paris and discover how to make love to God.”

One of the Hallmarks of NAR worship is to use repetitive phrases and rhythmic cadences to draw people into a trance-like state, believing that by doing so, you can have intimacy with God. In reality, what it does is cause people to zone out, and not really think about what they are saying. Being under the influence of NAR Apostle, Jack Hayford, who has been instrumental in transforming the worship music scene, it comes as no surprise that her music incorporates this tactic. Jack Hayford claims direct, divine revelation from God, and says that while driving by a Catholic church, God directly told him not to judge them. He says God directly said to him,

Why would I not be happy with a place [Catholic Church] where every morning the testimony of the blood of my Son is raised from the altar?

Being that the Catholic Church worships a false Jesus, you can rest assured that Hayford did not hear that from God. Yet, this is a man influencing Kari Jobe, and many other modern worship music artists.

All of this and more is what the evangelical church is feeding its sheep. Wolves, snake oil salesmen, bad theology…and nobody bats an eye. Children are being sent off to church camps and “Christian” concerts to be fed goat’s milk through worship. Sadly, many truly love Jesus, and desire to worship him rightly, but have no idea that their music is leading them down a path of destruction. Music is tearing down doctrinal lines and creating unholy alliances at a faster pace than once thought possible. No longer do Evangelicals, Catholics, and other professing Christians have to stand against each other over “matters of secondary importance…like the Bible,” we can now unite around our new idol of worship music.

STONEWALL INN: OBAMA TO NAME NEW YORK CITY TAVERN AS NATIONAL MONUMENT TO GAY RIGHTS

SALLY JEWELL, INTERIOR SECRETARY

JONATHAN JARVIS, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

OBAMA TO NAME NEW YORK CITY TAVERN AS NATIONAL MONUMENT TO GAY RIGHTS 

BY HEATHER CLARK

SEE: http://christiannews.net/2016/05/04/obama-to-name-new-york-city-tavern-as-national-monument-to-gay-rights/; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

NEW YORK — Barack Obama plans to mark “Gay Pride Month” in June by designating a tavern in New York City as being a national monument to “gay rights”—the first move of its kind made by an American president.

The Stonewall Inn had been raided by police in 1969 over reports of homosexual activity at the private bar and dance club, which resulted in six days of rioting from homosexuals who opposed the raid. The incident is considered by some as sparking the homosexual rights movement in America.

Barack Obama cited the location in his 2013 inaugural address, stating, “We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths—that all of us are created equal—is the star that guides us still, just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall.”

While the tavern has already been designated a landmark by the city, New York Rep. Jerrod Nadler and Sen. Kristen Gillibrand, both Democrats, proposed in September that the area be made into a national park and launched a petition drive for its designation. They stated that they believed they had a better chance of memorializing the site with Obama than with the Republican-controlled Congress and have been pushing for the designation before Obama leaves office in January.

“We must have federal recognition of the LGBT movement’s history and origins and ensure that this piece of LGBT history is preserved for future generations,” Nadler said.

Mayor Bill DeBlasio has expressed his support for the proposal, as well as Sen. Chuck Schumer.

“Making the Stonewall Inn site a unit of the National Park system is the right thing to do,” Schumer has stated.

Christopher Park, located across the street from the Stonewall Inn, would be part of the national system if approved. A sculpture of four men symbolizing “gay liberation” was dedicated in the park in 1992. It had been commissioned by Peter Putnam of the Mildred Andrews Fund and created by George Segal.

According to the Washington Post, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis are scheduled to travel to New York City for a meeting about the matter on May 9. Interior Department spokesman Amanda Degroff told reporters that Obama has “made clear that he’s committed to ensuring our national parks, monuments and public lands help Americans better understand the places and stories that make this nation great.”

The White House has yet to confirm Obama’s plans to declare the site a national monument next month.

As previously reported, homosexuality was outlawed in early America as a number of states passed sodomy laws under their criminal statutes, banning sexual activity between those of the same gender due to biblical prohibitions against it.

“By 1791, when the original 13 states ratified the Bill of Rights, they all treated sodomy as a criminal offense,” chronicles on the matter state.

In 1778, General George Washington ordered Lieutenant Frederick Gotthold Enslin to be drummed out of the camp for “attempting to commit sodomy” with a male soldier.

His March 14th proclamation stated, “His Excellency, the Commander in Chief, approves the sentence, and with abhorrence and detestation of such infamous crimes, orders Lieut. Enslin to be drummed out of camp tomorrow morning by all the drummers and fifers in the Army never to return; the drummers and fifers to attend on the Grand Parade at guard mounting for that purpose.”

GUN CONFISCATION NEAR: SOCIAL SECURITY ADMIN. MOVES TO STRIP 75,000 AMERICANS OF 2ND AMENDMENT RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS EACH YEAR~ATTACK ON SENIORS & DISABILITY RECIPIENTS

GUN CONFISCATION NEAR; 

LOSS OF BENEFITS THE CLUB

CAROLYN COLVIN, SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATOR

SOCIAL SECURITY ADMIN. MOVES TO STRIP 75,000 AMERICANS OF 2ND AMENDMENT RIGHT

Ruling applies to Americans who have filed for 

and receive benefits

BY KURT NIMMO

SEE: http://www.infowars.com/social-security-admin-moves-to-strip-75000-americans-of-2nd-amendment-right/; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

If you are a recipient of or have filed for Social Security disability, you may soon have your Second Amendment right nullified.

Back in January, Obama penned an executive order allowing the Social Security Administration (SSA) to report certain individuals to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System, the database Federal Firearms Licensees use to determine whether a prospective buyer is eligible to purchase firearms.

“The reporting that SSA, in consultation with the Department of Justice, is expected to require will cover appropriate records of the approximately 75,000 people each year who have a documented mental health issue, receive disability benefits, and are unable to manage those benefits because of their mental impairment, or who have been found by a state or federal court to be legally incompetent,” a fact sheet released by the White House on January 4 states.

Acting Commissioner Carolyn W. Colvin signed the rule and it was posted to the Federal Register on April 28, according to Guns.com.

The “Implementation of the NICS Improvement Amendments Act”spells out a five-step qualification process that will be used to first identify and then report selected Title II and Title XVI beneficiaries to the Department of Justice.

Americans who have filed a claim with the agency based on disability and are adjudicated as having a diagnosed Mental Disorder Listing, are over 18 but under retirement age, and receive benefits through a representative payee approved by SSA due to being incapable of managing their own payments will have their Second Amendment right stripped.

“The SSA has reported that as many as 75,000 individuals per year could meet such guidelines. As of March 2016, the agency reports that 65,488,000 people are receiving Social Security, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), or both, making the estimated number expected to report to NICS comprise 0.11 percent of those currently receiving benefits,” notes Chris Eger.

Government Considers Large Number of Americans Mentally Ill

The SSA website breaks down who might qualify as mentally impaired, including individuals who have problems with “adaptive activities such as cleaning, shopping, cooking, taking public transportation, paying bills, maintaining a residence, caring appropriately for… grooming and hygiene, using telephones and directories, and using a post office.”

Moreover, people determined to have issues with the “capacity to interact independently, appropriately, effectively, and on a sustained basis with other individuals… such as family members, friends, neighbors, grocery clerks, landlords, or bus drivers… [and] demonstrate impaired social functioning by, for example, a history of altercations, evictions, firings, fear of strangers, avoidance of interpersonal relationships, or social isolation” will be classified as mentally disabled and not qualified to exercise the Second Amendment.

According to the government, “social impairment” is a mental illness and includes those who either are unable or unwilling to “initiate social contacts with others, communicate clearly with others, or interact and actively participate in group activities.” The classification is based upon “cooperative behaviors” that include “consideration for others, awareness of others’ feelings, and social maturity.” According to the SSA, not “responding appropriately to persons in authority” is a form of mental illness.

Template for Future Attacks on the Second Amendment

For now, the ruling only applies to Americans who have filed for and receive government benefits and are medically determined to be afflicted by the above.

However, considering government mission creep and the determination of the Obama administration and Democrats to reduce the number of Americans practicing their rights, we can expect an effort to adjudicate more individuals incapable of possessing firearms.

In 2014, under the cover of “gun violence” and in the wake of Sandy Hook, the Obama administration pledged federal dollars to an initiative designed to test students in K-12 public schools for mental illness.

“Public schools, which have increasingly taken on aspects of psychiatric clinics in recent years, will get infused with more than $150 million in federal grants to further this agenda under the auspices of Obama’s 2013 executive action titled ‘Now is the Time to Do Something About Gun Violence,’” WND reported.

In February, Infowars reported on a recommendation by the United States Preventive Services Task Force to force health insurance companies to pay for mental health screening.

“Mandatory depression screening will not just raise insurance costs,” writes Ron Paul. “In order to ensure that the screening mandate is being properly implemented, the government will need to create a database containing the results of the screenings. Those anti-gun politicians who want to forbid anyone labeled ‘mentally ill’ from owning a firearm will no doubt want to use this database as a tool to deprive individuals of their Second Amendment rights.”

In January, the US Department of Health and Human Services modified the government’s Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy Rule “to expressly permit certain HIPAA covered entities to disclose to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) the identities of individuals who are subject to a Federal ‘mental health prohibitor’ that disqualifies them from shipping, transporting, possessing, or receiving a firearm.”

For the government, mandatory mental health screening is an ideal mechanism for stripping Americans of their right to own firearms. As Ron Paul notes, even “mental health professionals acknowledge that there is a great deal of subjectivity in mental health diagnosis.”

The move by the SSA to nullify the Second Amendment right of 75,000 Americans is only the beginning. If Hillary Clinton enters the White House, we can expect further efforts to diminish and eventually relegate the cornerstone of the Constitution to the dustbin of history.
____________________________________________________
SEE ALSO:
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/23109-obama-admin-seeks-to-curtail-gun-rights-of-those-on-disability-benefits

CONGRESS PLOTTING TO PSYCHOLOGICALLY PROFILE CHILDREN THROUGH "SETRA" DATA MINING IN SCHOOLS

CONGRESS PLOTTING TO PSYCHOLOGICALLY PROFILE CHILDREN

BY ALEX NEWMAN

SEE: http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/education/item/23104-congress-plotting-to-psychologically-profile-children; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

After passing an Obama-backed education bill that undermines parental rights and state and local control over schools under the guise of making every student “succeed,” Congress is plotting its next unconstitutional “education” scheme: a bill to fund psychological testing and profiling of your child, and the data-mining to go with it. Under the scheme, which already sailed through the U.S. Senate late last year, schools would vacuum up huge amounts of data on students, including information on their “social and emotional learning,” attitudes, values, beliefs, and more.

That data will then be shared with basically everyone, including Big Brother in Washington, D.C., and all of his cronies. The measure will also be exploited to help the federal government figure out what works when it comes to indoctrination and transforming the minds of children, proponents of the legislation hope. Critics, however, blasting the scheme as dangerous “child abuse,” are working to kill the radical S. 227 bill in the House of Representatives.  

The legislation, dubbed Strengthening Education Through Research Act, or SETRA, purports to re-authorize and fund an array of expired unconstitutional Bush-era federal programs under the Education Sciences Reform Act. The Senate SETRA bill was shepherded through with “unanimous consent” and no recorded vote by Republican Senator and former U.S. Education Secretary Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, one of the key figures behind the Orwellian Obama-backed monstrosity known as the “Every Student Succeeds Act” (ESSA). Along with other establishment Republicans, Alexander conspired with the Obama administration, as they bragged later, to cement Common Core in place nationwide and shred parental rights with the unconstitutional ESSA statute. All the while, Alexander and others pretended that the bill restored state and local control over education. While the new SETRA scheme passed easily in the Senate, the legislation is currently being held up in the House amid a massive public outcry surrounding privacy rights, parental rights, and other concerns.

Under the bill, the anti-constitutional federal “education” bureaucracy, which Ronald Reagan promised to abolish but never did, would devour more than $3 billion in taxpayer money on the “research,” according to the Congressional Budget Office. Among the various schemes funded in the bill are “grants” for state governments to build more databases to house your children's most personal information, known as “longitudinal data systems.” The legislation also funds a series of national tests. In particular, the bill aims to finance “education” research, much of it dealing with children's subjective emotions, attitudes, values, beliefs, and other elements of what is known as the “affective” domain. As this magazine reported in February, due to efforts of the establishment and the federal government, Big Brother is now literally trying to get inside your child's head.       

So far, the most outrage on SETRA appears to have been triggered by sections 132 and 157 of the bill, which, among other concerns, expand federal “education” research into what is known as “social and emotional learning,” or SEL. Rather than focusing on academic knowledge — reading, writing, math, and so on: basically the areas parents expect their children to be learning — SEL branches into the values held by a child. If approved, that section of SETRA “will result in cultivating government-approved thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors in children,” reads a warning posted by the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition, which opposes the bill. “This already seems to be happening with Common Core and Competency Based Learning. The government has no constitutional, statutory, or moral right to collect data on any of these highly personal aspects of our children’s lives. Schools should instill academic knowledge, not explore matters rightly left to family and place of worship.”

One of the leaders of the group, Dr. Karen Effrem, has been speaking out on the issue for years. “Parents are expected to submit their children to this kind of government profiling and psychological experimentation with no explanation, no way to express concern, [and no way to] opt their children out,” Dr. Effrem, a pediatrician and the president of Education Liberty Watch, was quoted as saying. Under SETRA, parents are left without any way to “see the federally mandated assessments or to find out what private, sensitive psychological data was collected on their children as part of some online assessment and shared with some third-party vendor without their consent.” In a brief phone interview with The New American, she said it was critical that parents get involved in the fight to protect their children from this sort of government overreach.  

In the handout urging parents to demand that the bill be ended, the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition warned that SETRA is “a dangerous bill that allows the federal government to research and collect data on our children’s most sensitive psychological makeup.” Members of Congress are warned in the document that a vote for SETRA is a vote for “dangerous psychological profiling of our children,” and that parents will not forget how their elected representatives vote on the bill. “This is nothing less than governmental child abuse,” it added. “This is a federal data mining and psychological profiling bill that will further endanger our children's privacy and freedom of thought.” The education-focused coalition, which includes dozens of liberty-minded organizations, also warned that SEL data was notoriously hard to measure, and that even prominent experts in the field have warned against using it for the purposes that government is pushing.

At the national level, Robert Holland, a senior fellow for education policy with the non-partisan Heartland Institute, also slammed the implications of the legislation in a recent column lambasting Uncle Sam for trying to become “Uncle Shrink” to America's children. “In plain language, this means the government will assess children every single step (or crawl) of the way, from cradle to career, to be certain they acquire all the attitudes, beliefs, and dispositions the omniscient, omnipotent government deems they must have,” Holland warned, highlighting some of the most troubling implications of the bill. “Uncle Shrink approves, but what about U.S. parents? Are they ready to let the government assume their child-rearing responsibilities?”

Already, he cautioned, millions of children at school, including preschoolers, are being subjected to “various psychology-focused educational components that have been implanted in federal education legislation over the past decade.” Under SETRA, and the recently approved ESSA, it is only going to get worse. “This kind of subjective probing of children’s attitudes, beliefs, and behavior amounts to psychological profiling that (thanks to electronic dossiers) could haunt an individual throughout a lifetime,” Holland warned.  

Other voices in education sounding the alarm included American Principles in Action (APIA). “If SETRA passes in its current form, the federal government will be empowered to expand psychological profiling of our children,” explained APIA senior fellows Jane Robbins and Emmett McGroarty in a column published last month. “Parents must understand this threat so they can mobilize to stop it.... SETRA would go beyond merely wasting money and plunge the government into an area it has no constitutional, statutory, or moral right to invade: the psychological makeup of children.” The two also warned House members that a vote for SETRA as it now stands was a vote for psychologically profiling innocent children. “It will be unforgivable if they vote for SETRA,” they added, echoing the concerns of numerous education activists, experts, and researchers trying to kill the bill.

Also extraordinarily troubling to critics is that under section 157 of SETRA, all of that data on your children will be fed into interlinked state and federal databases, and tracked from “early childhood” through to the adult years. “Subjective governmental analysis of children’s thoughts, feelings, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors should NEVER be fed into a longitudinal system that will potentially follow them for the rest of their lives,” the anti-Common Core coalition said, adding that language pretending to prohibit national databases was phony. The potential for abuse is massive. And even in the exceedingly unlikely event that the government does not end up abusing it, all of that data could easily be stolen by hackers, foreign governments, identity thieves, criminals, and more.

Lawmakers have already exposed the danger to privacy posed by the U.S. Department of Education and its lawless data-gathering and -mining schemes. Earlier this year, House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) warned that a breach of the Education Department's systems would make the 2015 hack of the Office of Personnel Management seem like nothing. “Almost half of America’s records are sitting at the Department of Education,” Chaffetz was quoted as saying. “I think ultimately that’s going to be the largest data breach that we’ve ever seen in the history of our nation.” The department received an F on a federal score card ranking for data security, and its Inspector General found “ widespread deficiencies” in cybersecurity.  

The bill does have some supporters, however. Among them are the Big Government-promoting neocons at the American Enterprise Institute. Pretending to speak for the “right,” the group expressed confusion over why the “bipartisan” scheme is being held up in the House. “After all, even principled conservatives skeptical of federal involvement in education can see a role for Washington when it comes to research, and one that is entirely consistent with the genius of American government,” claimed Frederick Hess, director of education policy studies at AEI, in a column that virtually nobody read. Other SETRA backers include the Data Quality Campaign funded by Common Core financier Bill Gates, which essentially wants government to collect all data on everyone, along with one of the key lobbying groups behind Common Core, the so-called Council of Chief State School Officers.

Perhaps none of that is surprising considering trends in education and data-gathering at the national and even global level. As part of the United Nations Agenda 2030, the UN's road-map to global tyranny, the “dictators' club” wants as much data as possible on everything, including education. The UN's education agency, UNESCO, is also working with the Obama administration as its “global partner” in “cradle to career” education reform, seeking to transform and standardize the attitudes and values of children worldwide, as its ringleaders openly admit in speeches and on their websites. Big Data will be crucial to all of that.

It will also be a critical component of “education” in the future, explained Knewton boss Jose Ferreira, who according to the U.S. Education Department “collects millions of data points about student users” via his partnership with the Common Core-profiteering publishing giant Pearson. “The human race is about to enter a totally data-mined existence.... The world in 30 years is going to be unrecognizably data mined,” Ferreira explained at an Orwellian “Education Datapalooza” confab hosted by the Obama administration's increasingly lawless education bureaucracy. “Education happens to be today the world's most data-minable industry, by far.”

Ferreira's outfit, “Knewton,” gathers five to ten million “actionable data per student per day,” he said, boasting of using “the science of psychometrics to cascade out hundreds of other data.” The company has more data on students than “any company has about anybody else about anything, and it's not even close.” In the 2012 talk, he boasted that the scheme would ensnare hundreds of millions of children in the coming years. Eventually, projecting the lines suggests that, without concerted action to stop it, the future will be Orwellian beyond anything George Orwell could have imagined in his wildest dreams.  

If the federal government is not restrained, the end result will be disaster on a national and even planetary scale. As a first essential step, parents must protect their own children from this sort of abuse. That means removing them from the clutches of federally controlled government schools and either seeking out a well-vetted private or Christian school, or homeschooling. After that, parents, taxpayers, and educators should rise up and demand that Washington, D.C., stop lawlessly dumbing down and psychologically profiling students. America's future is literally at stake.   

Related articles:

Big Brother Seeking to Get in Your Child's Head — Literally

White House and GOP Conspired on Education Takeover

Orwellian Nightmare: Data-mining Your Kids

Obama and GOP Unleash “Community Schools” to Replace Parents

UN Seeks “Unprecedented” Amount of Data to Impose Agenda 2030

Feds Seek Home Visits, Calling Parents "Equal Partners"

National Campaign Launched to Abolish U.S. Education Department

Education Malpractice

Common Core: A Scheme to Rewrite Education

Opposition Slams GOP-Obama “Education” Agenda

Common Core and UN Agenda 21: Mass Producing Green Global Serfs

UN Plots Future of Education: Creating Green “Global Citizens”

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SEE ALSO:

http://edlibertywatch.org/2015/02/s227-setra-is-a-federal-data-mining-bill-that-destroys-student-privacy/

http://edlibertywatch.org/2016/01/1481/
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Common Core Data Mining
and How to Protect Your Child

Published on Oct 11, 2014

Connecticut parent Cheryl Hill explains the insidious and invasive methods of Common Core Data Mining, how the data is shared nationwide and the rights of parents to protect their children.

Alongside Common Core, Feds Will
Vacuum Up Data on Kids

Published on Aug 29, 2014

Veteran educator Mary Black explains how, contrary to establishment claims, Common Core and the federal government's broader education "reform" agenda will indeed vacuum up huge amounts of information on American children for data-mining and other purposes.

Exploring the Link Between Federal Data Mining and Common Core

Published on Oct 2, 2013

Joy Pullmann, an education research fellow at the Heartland Institute, talks with Duke Pesta regarding data mining and testing consortiums regarding Common Core.

http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture...

In an exclusive studio interview with The New American magazine's Dr. Duke Pesta, Heartland Institute Education Research Fellow Joy Pullmann outlined the crucial link between the Obama-backed "Common Core" nationalization of schooling, the federally funded tests that go with the standards, and the vast data-gathering apparatus being erected by the administration to gather private information on U.S. students. The Common Core assessments, which have already been adopted by about four in five state governments, are a key element underpinning the entire scheme, she explained.

"The first thing people have to know is that testing is inseparable from Common Core," said Pullmann, a leading analyst focused on the education "reform" agenda with the non-partisan Heartland Institute. "When governors signed a bunch of documents saying 'yeah, we want to do this nationalization of education project,' one of the things that they signed on to was the Common Core initiative, and they defined it as standards plus assessments. So those assessments, those tests, are the enforcement mechanism to make sure that Common Core gets into the minds and into the hands of teachers and children in the classrooms."