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Wednesday, August 30, 2017

APOSTATE COMPLEMENTARIANS ISSUE NEW MANIFESTO ON GENDER IDENTITY~CENTRIST POSITION ASSAILED

 Complementarians Issue New Manifesto on Gender Identity
ABOVE: Image: ERLC
Russell Moore, Sam Allberry, Rosaria Butterfield, and Christopher Yuan have endorsed the Nashville Statement.
COMPLEMENTARIANS ISSUE NEW MANIFESTO 
ON GENDER IDENTITY 
 CBMW’s Nashville Statement addresses shifting notions of sex and sexuality.
BY KATE SHELLNUTT
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 America’s top complementarian leaders have 
shifted their focus from gender roles to gender 
identity.
 
On Tuesday, the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) released a new declaration that reasserts the significance of biological sex and traditional marriage over society’s growing LGBT acceptance.
“We are persuaded that faithfulness in our generation means declaring once again the true story of the world and of our place in it—particularly as male and female,” according to the group’s Nashville Statement.
At the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) national conference in Nashville last week, it was endorsed by about 150 conservative Christian leaders—many of them male, Baptist, and Reformed. (The mayor of Nashville, though, was not happy about the name.)
Initial signatories include many CBMW and ERLC leaders; pastors like J. I. Packer, Francis Chan, John MacArthur, and James MacDonald; and authors Rosaria Butterfield and Christopher Yuan.
At its founding by theologian Wayne Grudem 30 years ago, CBMW issued the Danvers Statement, which affirmed the complementary differences between the genders. It came in response to an increasingly feminist society (and church), where conservative leaders feared men and women were losing their biblical distinctions.
That foundational document, often seen as the textbook definition of complementarian convictions, critiques “feminist egalitarianism” and women rising in church leadership, and upholds “vocational homemaking” and wives’ submission in marriage.
The 2017 Nashville Statement, instead of outlining how the genders should live in relation to one another, makes several points defending the existence of two genders in the first place. CBMW upholds “God’s design for self-conception as male or female” in the face of new conversations over transgender identity, gender fluidity, and homosexual relationships.
John Piper called the document—which contains 14 points, each affirming and denying a belief about sex and sexuality—“a Christian manifesto concerning issues of human sexuality.”
“There is no effort to equivocate for the sake of wider, but muddled, acceptance,” he said. “It touches the most fundamental and urgent questions of the hour, without presuming to be a blueprint for political action.”
The new statement affirms that people with same-sex attraction can have “a rich and fruitful life pleasing to God through faith in Jesus Christ, as they, like all Christians, walk in purity of life.” But in another point, it critiques those who would self-identify as gay.
Christians who affirm same-sex relationships have pushed back against the statement—particularly a line that says approving of homosexuality and transgenderism “constitutes an essential departure from Christian faithfulness and witness.” (In the words of Baptist Press, no more “agreeing to disagree” on LGBT issues.) The Liturgists, founded by musician Michael Gungor and podcaster “Science Mike” McHargue, released a counter-statement in solidarity with LGBT Christians.
The Nashvile Statement also suggests that people who identify as transgender can and should accept the “God-ordained link between one’s biological sex and one’s self-conception as male or female,” while acknowledging the dignity of those who are born with physical conditions related to their sex.
It’s hard to capture the complexities of transgenderism in a concise declaration, but CBMW has approached the issue from a theological, biblical standpoint, relying on what researcher Mark Yarhouse calls an “integrity lens,” or concern for the integrity of sex and gender as created by God.
“It makes sense that faithful Christians would start there,” said Yarhouse, author of Understanding Gender Dysphoria: Navigating Transgender Issues in a Changing Culture and director of the Institute for the Study of Sexual Identity at Regent University. “It’s trying to signal what’s going to be within the bounds of evangelicalism, and it will be interesting to see how evangelicals respond to that.” (For more on his research, see Yarhouse’s 2015 CT feature, Understanding the Transgender Phenomenon.)
Some conservative Christians criticized the CBMW’s narrow focus on homosexuality and transgenderism, rather than the underlying gospel issues that have led to a distorted view of “bodily and sexual life” among Christians.
“The spectacles and obvious disputes this statement responds to are the sideshow, not the main action,” wrote Matthew Lee Anderson, in a Mere Orthodoxy post about why his name would not appear among the signatories. “Those obvious manifestations of the ‘spirit of our age’ are not the ones we should worry about; it is those that are not obvious, the subtle temptations that lure us in without us realizing their deadly force.”
The Nashville Statement, with its clear stances on such topics, explicitly expands the CBMW’s central concerns beyond what it had long been known for addressing: women’s roles in the home and the church.
“They seem to have won the battle on women’s ordination, at least in the Southern Baptist and Presbyterian church,” said Wendy Alsup, who was among the female complementarian bloggers who spoke out against CBMW’s theological emphases during last summer’s Trinity debate. “This may be a new iteration of CBMW, but I don’t think it will define them” in the same way as the Danvers Statement did, she said.
Though she had significant concerns about some points in the new declaration, Alsup, author of the new book Is the Bible Good For Women?, said that overall, “This is not a knee-jerk reaction to liberal ideas; this is a thoughtful and biblical statement.”
Aimee Byrd, who raised the issue of the Eternal Subordination of the Son as it relates to complementrian theology, took issue with what the Nashville Statement left out. Not only did it not clarify that particular debate, she wrote, but it doesn’t address her questions on authority and submission; feminine and masculine stereotypes; and the relationships between men and women outside of marriage.
The new statement comes about a year after Denny Burk, a professor at Boyce College, replaced Owen Strachan as CBMW president.
“The spirit of our age does not delight in God’s good design of male and female. Consequently, confusion reigns over some of the most basic questions of our humanity,” said Burk. “The aim of the Nashville Statement is to shine a light into the darkness—to declare the goodness of God’s design in our sexuality and in creating us as male and female.”
 
 

STASI SNITCHES: GOVERNMENT PUSHES PEOPLE TO REPORT OTHER DRIVERS

STASI SNITCHES: GOVERNMENT PUSHES PEOPLE 
TO REPORT OTHER DRIVERS
 

NORTH CAROLINA: "JACOB'S NEW DRESS"; "GENDER EXPANSIVE" AGENDA PUSHED IN SCHOOLS TO COUNTER ALLEGED BULLYING

 http://cdn.amreading.com/wp-content/uploads/JacobsDress.jpg 
THE "WELCOMING SCHOOLS" PROGRAM 
TO COUNTER "BULLYING"
EXCEPT THE GOVERNMENT IS DOING THE BULLYING
 VIDEO:
 North Carolina School Pulls First Grade Book About Dress Wearing Boy, Called "Jacob's New Dress"
 
NORTH CAROLINA: "JACOB'S NEW DRESS"; 
"GENDER EXPANSIVE" AGENDA PUSHED IN SCHOOLS
 Published on Aug 29, 2017
It’s not just California pushing a transgender agenda on kindergartners. North Carolina has a transgender agenda as well. Do you know WHAT your child is being taught? Do you know WHY they are doing this?

EMERGENCY!: PURGE OF CONSERVATIVE SITES & PLATFORMS HAS BEGUN~SOME CENSORING TO PLEASE IRAN

EMERGENCY!: PURGE OF CONSERVATIVE SITES & PLATFORMS HAS BEGUN
 Published on Aug 29, 2017
The masters of social media are doing their best to stop the growth of the new conservative media.
 
YouTube, Twitter, Instagram censoring content 
to suit Iran’s Islamic authorities
BY ROBERT SPENCER

AIR FORCE VET SLAMS CATHOLIC PAUL RYAN FOR DEFENDING ANTIFA

 Air Force Vet Slams Paul Ryan For Defending Antifa

Air Force Vet Slams Paul Ryan For Defending Antifa

“How can you call them anything but what they are – domestic terrorists?”

BY PAUL JOSEPH WATSON

SEE: https://www.infowars.com/air-force-vet-slams-paul-ryan-for-defending-antifa/; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
An Air Force veteran has slammed Speaker of the House Paul Ryan for defending Antifa, the violent Alt-Left group that has been responsible for innumerable violent assaults on Trump supporters.
Two days after the violence in Charlottesville, Ryan posted a Facebook update in which he lashed out at Donald Trump for saying that both sides were responsible for violent unrest.
“There are no sides,” wrote Ryan. “There is no other argument. We will not tolerate this hateful ideology in our society.”
Ryan has failed to condemn Antifa despite the group’s many violent attacks on Trump supporters, the vast majority of whom are not neo-nazis or white supremacists.
An anonymous Air Force veteran has responded with a powerful letter which warned Ryan that Trump supporters were perfectly willing to vote him out of office.
“After all the times you’ve seen Antifa attack people who were peacefully demonstrating, how can you call them anything but what they are – domestic terrorists?” asked the vet.
“This weekend in Berkeley is a classic example of the MANY times Antifa has attacked conservatives. Why do you legitimize domestic terrorism by not calling it what it is?” the letter continues.
The veteran goes on to assert that Trump supporters will abandon the Republican Party en masse if the GOP continues to undermine the MAGA agenda.
“We are here sir, and we are watching you. Don’t think for a moment that we the people will continue to allow you and your ilk to lie, cheat, and steal from us. We’re tired of it. We won’t take Antifa’s and the Alt-Left’s path and resort to violence. No. We’ll stop opening our wallets for your campaigns, and we’ll cast our votes elsewhere. That’s what will really get our point across.”
“MAGA is indeed bigger than the president, but we still love him and stand behind him 100%. Donald Trump has become the champion of the people, people like me. And there are tens of millions of us. Tread carefully, Mr. Speaker,” the letter concludes.
Meanwhile, Paul Nehlen, who is challenging Ryan in the Republican primary, called the Speaker of the House a “coward” for failing to condemn Alt-Left violence.
“What he is doing is working to further divide the country so that he can keep his hands on the levers of power. People aren’t buying what Ryan is selling in terms of this fake narrative that there is only one side to the violence,” said Nehlen.
As we reported yesterday, even the mainstream media is now being forced to go back on the narrative that Antifa has the moral high ground, with both the Washington Post and MSNBC’s Joe Scaborough denouncing the group.
 

THOSE STYLISH, BUT DEADLY "MRAPS"!: TRUMP RE-AUTHORIZES MILITARY EQUIPMENT FOR POLICE

 http://www.military-today.com/apc/maxxpro_mrap.jpg
ABOVE: THE "MRAP"
 Militarized Police & Equipment: 
Instruments Of Tyranny
by David Knight of Real News
 “The means of defense abroad have always become instruments of tyranny at home” - James Madison. A warning unheeded as Trump resumes militarily equipping police. Rand Paul tells us why and David Knight gives you the background and where you can find how your police are being militarized.
 
 TRUMP RE-AUTHORIZES MILITARY EQUIPMENT 
FOR POLICE 
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
By executive order issued under “the authority vested in [him] by the Constitution,” Donald Trump restored the federal program whereby local and state law enforcement can apply to receive surplus military equipment from the U.S. Department of Defense.
In a speech delivered Monday, August 28 at the national convention of the Fraternal Order of Police being held in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions revealed the president’s plan “to a cheering crowd,” according to the Washington Post’s report on the attorney general’s announcement.
The pipeline of materiel from Pentagon to police precinct is known as Department of Defense Program 1033, and it has been a fruitful bough from which local law enforcement has eaten eagerly.
Robots, facial recognition, and drones: These are the technologically advanced tools that used to belong to the military, but are now commonplace in local police departments thanks to grants authorized decades ago by the Defense Department’s 1033 program and now reauthorized by President Trump’s latest executive order.
The current president had to use his pen to power up the program after the previous president used his to curtail it after the protests following the events in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2015.
Why did President Trump find it necessary to open what President Obama had closed? There was no official declaration from the White House, unless one counts the title of the executive order: “Presidential Executive Order on Restoring State, Tribal, and Local Law Enforcement's Access to Life-Saving Equipment and Resources.”

A local Nashville television station, however, reported a partial transcript of Attorney General Sessions’ remarks, and they cast further light on the likely reasons for the restoration:
Helping law enforcement do their jobs, helping the police get better, and celebrating the noble, honorable, essential and challenging work of our law enforcement communities will always be a top priority of President Trump and this Department of Justice. We will always seek to affirm the critical role of police officers in our society and we will not participate in anything that would give comfort to radicals who promote agendas that preach hostility rather than respect for police.
President Trump is serious about this mission. He is doing all he can to restore law and order and support our police across America. And that is why, today, I am here to announce that President Trump is issuing an executive order that will make it easier to protect yourselves and your communities. He is rescinding restrictions from the prior administration that limited your agencies' ability to get equipment through federal programs, including life saving gear like Kevlar vests and helmets and first responder and rescue equipment like what they’re using in Texas right now.
Some of these programs, like the Department of Defense's 1033 program that Congress signed into law more than 25 years ago, have recycled more than $5.4 billion in used gear and equipment that taxpayers had already purchased, and made it available for your agencies to repurpose it in the fight against terrorism, crime, and disaster relief. Equipment like helicopters and armored vehicles are also vitally important to emergency and disaster response efforts. 
One sheriff told me earlier this year about how, due to the prior administration's restrictions, the federal government made his department return an armored vehicle that can change the dynamics of an active shooter situation. These are the types of helmets and gear that stopped a bullet and saved the life of an officer during the Orlando nightclub shooting. This is the type of equipment officers needed when they pursued and ultimately killed terrorists in San Bernardino. Studies have shown this equipment reduces crime rates, reduces the number of assaults against police officers, and reduces the number of complaints against police officers.
Those restrictions went too far. We will not put superficial concerns above public safety. All you need to do is turn on a TV right now to see that for Houstonians this isn’t about appearances, its about getting the job done and getting everyone to safety.
There it is in the words of the attorney general. The reasons local law enforcement needs leftover military war fighting equipment is to keep you safe. Safety.
The arguably oldest exchange ever conducted between the governed and the governors: The latter promise safety if the former will purchase it with liberty.
One federal lawmaker mentioned that dangerous and often deadly deal (liberty for safety) in a statement issued just minutes after AG Sessions revealed the restoration of the 1033 program.
In a press release announcing legislation aimed in limiting the scope of the Pentagon-to-police distribution deal, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said:
Americans must never sacrifice their liberty for an illusive and dangerous —or false — security. I disagree with Attorney General Sessions on the Department of Defense’s 1033 program. The militarization of our law enforcement is due to an unprecedented expansion of government power in this realm. 
It is one thing for federal officials to work with local authorities to reduce or solve crime, but it is another for them to subsidize militarization. 
I will oppose this move by the Attorney General and the administration, and I will continue to fight for civil liberties and criminal justice reform, which will all be major issues this fall. 
Defense Department grants of military materiel to police departments are the opposite of the movement sponsored for decades now by The John Birch Society to “Support Your Local Police.” Police who receive vehicles, surveillance equipment, weapons, training, and tear gas from the Pentagon are hardly local, and when there is a conflict of interest between those being served (the community) and those providing the powerful weapons, the people are all too likely to be ignored in favor of the givers of the free stuff: the federal government.
Jim Fitzgerald worked for eight years as a vice and narcotics squad detective in Newark, New Jersey, before joining the staff of The John Birch Society, and he is currently the point man for the organization’s “Support Your Local Police” initiative.
In an interview with The New American conducted in 2014, Fitzgerald said of the military-grade equipment being bought by local law enforcement with DHS grant money, “The only reason to have this equipment is to use it,” and it is likely it would be used against local citizens who have risen up and created some sort of civil disorder.
Paradoxically, the police’s push to be prepared and trained to quell civil unrest is fomenting the feelings that could create such an uprising. Americans are tired of reading reports of law enforcement behaving less like the police and more like the gestapo, less like servants of the law and more like servants of the state, deployed with the training, technology, tactics, and weapons capable of enforcing the increasingly unconstitutional edicts of the ruling regime.
On January 20, 2017, Donald J. Trump placed his hand on a Bible and swore to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." Where in that document is the president granted — as he claims he is in the first sentence of his executive order — the power to, as Sessions worded it, "restore law and order and support police across America"?

PRESIDENT TRUMP RECEIVES MAJOR BRIEFING ON HURRICANE HARVEY IN TEXAS~ARRIVAL IN AUSTIN

PRESIDENT TRUMP RECEIVES MAJOR BRIEFING 
ON HURRICANE HARVEY IN TEXAS
 TRUMP'S ARRIVAL IN AUSTIN