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.
Just as Infowars and Alex Jones have been saying for years, Radical
Islamic terror is now being used to vastly grow the police state and in
the newest example, give reason for martial law in London.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan Tells Public
'Get Used To' Islamic Attacks
Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, has told the public in his town to get used
to Islamic terror attacks because he believes more will occur in the
near future and doesn't plan on combating the extremists.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
LANSING, Mich. — A federal judge has
granted an injunction to a Michigan farmer who was banned from selling
at a local farmer’s market for operating his business in accordance with
his beliefs on marriage. “The City of East Lansing must grant Country Mill Farms any
necessary license and allow Country Mill Farms to sell its goods at the
East Lansing Farmer’s Market for the remainder of the 2017 season,” ordered
U.S. District Court Judge Paul Maloney on Friday. “The City of East
Lansing may enforce the vendor guidelines against Country Mill Farms,
with the exception that Country Mill Farms may not be found in violation
of the guidelines for declining to host same-sex wedding ceremonies at
the Country Mill Farms.”
“On the evidence before this court, the City amended its
vendor guidelines and then used the changes to deny Country Mill’s
vendor application,” he wrote. “There exists a substantial likelihood
that Plaintiffs will be able to prevail on the merits of their claims
for speech retaliation and for free exercise of religion.”
ADVERTISING
As previously reported, Steve
Tennes, a Roman Catholic, operates Country Mill Farms, a fruit orchard
in Charlotte, Michigan. The 120-acre farm is open to the public, and
also sells pies, caramel apples, donuts and other goods that may be
enjoyed on-site. Each fall, hay rides, a petting zoo and other
activities are offered, and Tennes also allows his back yard and farm to
be used for weddings.
While he has employed homosexuals at his farm, Tennes
believes it would be a violation of his faith to participate in or allow
a same-sex ceremony to be conducted on his property.
Therefore, in 2014, when he was contacted by two lesbians
who wanted to be “wed” in an orchard, he referred the women to another
farm that does not share his convictions. Last year, two years following
the incident, one of the women wrote on Country Mill Farms’ Facebook
page, urging customers to stop patronizing Tennes’ business because he
wouldn’t let her use his property for her ceremony.
Some customers consequently inquired about the matter and
Tennes’ convictions, to which he responded that “[d]ue to [his] personal
religious beliefs,” he would refer any such requests to another farm
nearby.
However, when officials with the East Lansing Farmer’s
Market—who had invited Tennes to participate in the market for the past
six years and had publicly praised his business—learned of the matter,
they asked him not to attend. Officials stated that they had received
complaints and feared that there would be protests.
Tennes decided to discontinue hosting weddings of any kind
on his property until he gave further consideration to the issue. He
advised the City that he would be present that weekend at the farmer’s
market.
There were no protests or comments from customers, and he continued to sell at the market for the rest of the season.
In December, Tennes announced that he would resume hosting weddings at his home and farm.
“The Country Mill engages in expressing its purpose and
beliefs through the operation of its business and it intentionally
communicates messages that promote its owners’ beliefs and declines to
communicate messages that violate those beliefs,” he wrote, in part, on
Facebook.
“It remains our deeply held religious belief that marriage
is the union of one man and one woman and Country Mill has the First
Amendment Right to express and act upon its beliefs.”
As a result, East Lansing officials required all vendors at
the farmer’s market to sign an agreement that they will comply with the
City’s “public policy against discrimination … while at the [market] and
as a general business practice.” The City also allegedly instructed the
Market Planning Committee not to invite The Country Mill for 2017.
Tennes sent in an application after not being invited, and was denied.
“It was brought to our attention that The Country Mill’s
general business practices do not comply with East Lansing’s civil
rights ordinances and public policy against discrimination,” the City
wrote. “… [A]s such, The Country Mill’s presence as a vendor is
prohibited by the City’s Farmer’s Market vendor guidelines.”
Tennes sent the City an email requesting clarification, and
officials responded with a copy of his Facebook post and the new vendor
guidelines.
Therefore, Tennes filed suit in June out of his belief that
in the City’s quest to prohibit discrimination, it was rather
discriminating against him.
On Friday, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction,
stating that it is apparent that the City changed its policies to
target Tennes and his religious beliefs.
“The context in which the vendor guidelines were amended and
then applied to Country Mill supports Plaintiffs’ claim that their
religious beliefs or their religiously-motivated conduct was the target
of the City’s actions,” Maloney wrote.
“A factfinder could infer that the change in the vendor
guidelines was motivated by Plaintiffs’ religious beliefs or their
religiously-motivated conduct. And, the City’s hostility to Plaintiffs’
religion or religious conduct was then manifested when the City used its
facially neutral and generally applicable ordinance to deny Plaintiffs’
vendor application,” he reiterated.
Maloney said that the City has not proven that its actions are justified in light of Tennes’ right to free exercise of religion.
“For this motion, the City has not asserted that the change
the vendor guidelines and the ordinance are justified by a compelling
interest or that the vendor guidelines and the ordinance are narrowly
tailored to advance that interest,” he wrote. “Elsewhere, the City has
argued that sexual orientation anti-discrimination laws are valid. That
proposition, by itself, does not accomplish what the City must show to
undermine Plaintiffs’ free exercise claim.”
The religious liberties group Alliance Defending Freedom
(ADF), which represented Tennes in court, cheered the outcome of the
first round of the legal battle.
“Just like all Americans, a farmer should be free to live
and speak according to his deeply held religious beliefs without fear of
government punishment,” Legal Counsel Kate Anderson said in a
statement. “As the court found, East Lansing officials changed their
market policy to shut out Steve because they don’t like his … beliefs
regarding marriage. The court was right to issue this order, which will
allow Steve to return to the 2017 farmer’s market while his case moves
forward.”
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
With Mayor Patrick Wojahn breaking the council’s original 4-4 tie,
the city council of College Park, Maryland, on September 12 approved by a
4-3 vote a measure to allow resident non-citizens, presumably including
illegal immigrants, to vote in local elections. College Park is home to the University of Maryland campus, and the
charter amendment as passed will allow foreign students attending the
university on education visas to vote in city elections, provided they
have met College Park’s residency requirements for voting.
The vote took place after four hours of debate, during which both sides vigorously defended their position.
One councilman, Fazlul Kabir, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen and
University of Maryland instructor, proposed putting the question up for
voter consideration in November’s election. After his call for a
referendum was voted down, Kabir proposed amending the city charter to
allow only noncitizens who are permanent residents — informally known as
“green card” holders — to register to vote. That amendment was rejected
after Wojahn broke the council’s 4-4 tie.
Kabir abstained from the final vote. The Diamondback, the student newspaper for the University of
Maryland, reported that one city resident supporting the change to give
noncitizens the vote said opponents were “white supremacists”
exhibiting “xenophobia.”
However, Beth Debrovsky, a resident who voted against the change,
argued that only citizens should be allowed to vote as it is
“constitutional.”
“Although you come up here and you say that there are hundreds of
citizens and residents of College Park that are for this charter, I can
tell you that there are thousands against it,” she said, according to
Fox 5 DC. “Voting is a right of the citizens. It’s plain and clear. It’s
constitutional. It's also written at the state level and it also
belongs at the local level.”
Fox 5 DC also quoted a statement from a supporter of the change, Todd
Larson, who campaigned for the proposal and is co-director of the Green
America group. “The reality is allowing all people to vote in municipal
elections is going to make College Park more inclusive, and that has
been the history of voting rights expansion in the United States and
what has happened in our neighbors in Maryland who have expanded voting
rights to non-U.S. citizens,” he maintained. The Washington Times reported that College Park holds
municipal elections in odd-numbered years in November, and they are
conducted by city officials separate from county, state, and federal
races, for which voters must be U.S. citizens. The charter amendment
will go into effect in the November 2019 election.
The decision to allow non-citizens (and even those who are in this
country illegally) breaks a long-standing principle that with rights
come responsibilities. Voting has long been considered a right afforded
only to citizens who have accepted all of the responsibilities that come
with citizenship, such as serving on juries when summoned.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Before a crowd of left-wing politicians, interest groups, and labor
unions, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) unveiled legislation to create a
national single-payer healthcare system Wednesday. “Today, we begin the long and difficult struggle to end the
international embarrassment of the United States being the only major
country on earth not to guarantee health care to all its people,” said the self-described socialist senator. Sanders’ Medicare for All Act would, over a four-year period, move
all U.S. residents from their current public or private insurance
programs to a single federal program with comprehensive coverage and no
copayments except in the case of prescription drugs. Such a program
would go far beyond Medicare, making Uncle Sam the sole source of health
insurance in the nation — private insurance would be outlawed —
therefore giving Washington total control over the healthcare system.
Not for nothing did The Atlantic dub Sanders’ plan “the U.K.’s [National Health Service] on steroids.”
Sixteen senators — a full third of the upper chamber’s Democratic
contingent — introduced the bill along with Sanders. Several are rumored
to be considering a run for the White House in 2020, including
Minnesota’s Al Franken, California’s Kamala Harris, and Massachusetts’
Elizabeth Warren.
In a press release, Sanders intimated that his bill would usher in a nirvana of healthcare unconstrained by the laws of economics:
The Medicare for All Act of 2017 would
ensure that Americans will no longer have to delay or avoid going to the
doctor because they can’t afford it; that a hospital stay will not
bankrupt you or leave you deeply in debt; that you will be able to get
the prescription drugs you need at a price you can afford; that middle
class families will never have to spend 20 or 30 percent of their
incomes on health care; and, that Americans will save billions of
dollars a year in medical administrative costs.
This, of course, ignores the history of single-payer healthcare
systems in other countries. In Canada or the U.K., for instance, a
person may not avoid or delay going to the doctor because it costs him too much, but he may still end up with a long wait or denial of care because the system is overwhelmed by people seeking “free” care and the government
can’t afford to pay for every procedure every person wants or needs. In
fact, hospitals may even euthanize him to cut costs — and be rewarded
for doing so. Moreover, despite Sanders’ contention that his plan would
give Americans more control over their own healthcare, by ceding
control of healthcare financing, people also cede control of their
healthcare choices and even their very lives, as Charlie Gard’s parents recently discovered to their horror.
On top of that, the notion that Medicare should be expanded is based
on a false perception of that program’s success. “Medicare can’t even
ensure [low-cost, high-quality care] for the people who are currently
eligible for the program,” wrote
David Hogberg, senior fellow for healthcare policy at the National
Center for Public Policy Research. “Expanding it to cover all Americans
would only exacerbate its shortcomings for patients.” The program has
distorted the healthcare market, caused over- and undertreatment of
patients, burdened doctors with massive amounts of paperwork, and seen
its budget balloon far beyond initial projections — to the point that it
now has $58 trillion in unfunded liabilities.
With numbers like that, it’s no wonder Sanders has been cagey about
the expected cost of his bill — and even more so about how to pay for
it. A version of the plan he released during his 2016 presidential
campaign was estimated to cost $1.4 trillion per year; this one will
almost certainly be even more expensive. Sanders isn’t saying where the
government will get the money for all this, but he has suggested, not
surprisingly, significantly higher taxes on everyone, especially the
rich.
Sanders’ bill isn’t likely to get very far in a Congress run by Republicans; but as The Atlantic
observed, “It’s now a rallying point, one its creators and sponsors aim
to make the center of Democratic policy making for years to come.” Given
that Democrats have won practically every healthcare battle of the last
half-century, Americans ought to be very worried indeed.
(For more about about Medicare-for-all, read "Does Single-payer Signal a Solution?")
______________________________________________________
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
More than 50 girls in New South Wales were trafficked
into forced marriages to older men, with some ‘brides’ being as young as
nine years old.
These girls are children in need of protection, but the
“Islamophobia” ploy has become yet another weapon to terrorize infidels
into immobility. The West in effect is being turned into a two-tier
system: one law for Westerners and another for Muslims.
Denmark has been forced to allow ‘wives’ as young as 14
to be reunited with their ‘husbands’ after authorities deciding that
upholding child protection laws breached migrants’ human rights.
The West has been forced into silence through lawfare, through false
accusations about “Islamophobia,” while the most sinister abuses
continue to be perpetrated against human beings, whose human rights are
apparently trumped by those of their abusers.
Family and Community Services Minister Pru Goward…. said ‘the community’ does know that child brides do exist, but they choose to turn the other cheek, and ignore it
Back in June, Muslim cleric Ibrahim Omerdic was “convicted
for marrying a child bride to a much older man under laws prohibiting
forced marriage in Melbourne, Australia”; but that was only one case
prosecuted. The Islamic Council of Victoria conceded that “marriage at a
younger age is permitted in other countries and cultures,” but not in
Australia, while “the Victorian Board of Imams disowned Omerdic” for not
observing the laws of Australia.
Does anyone spot a problem with the mainstream Islamic Council and
Victorian Board of Imams? Rather than condemn the abhorrent abuse of
young girls, the primary concern they expressed was about the laws of
Australia. They didn’t say it was warped or wrong to marry these young
girls to older men, as it is in accordance with the Hadith and Islamic
tradition.
The number of girls seeking help from the UK’s National
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) for fear of
being trafficked into a forced marriage is at a record high
These cases constitute the rape of underage, defenseless, voiceless
girls. Yet few care enough about these innocent girls to intervene on
their behalf, for fear of bring branded racist. Instead, last December,
the South Australia state government actually blocked a bill to prevent forced child marriages, presumably so as not to offend Muslims who support this Islamic tradition.
“Girls as Young as Nine Are Trafficked into Forced Marriages in Australia”, by Victoria Friedman, Breitbart, September 13, 2017:
More than 50 girls in New South Wales were trafficked
into forced marriages to older men, with some ‘brides’ being as young as
nine years old.
Australia’s Seven News obtained documents from the Australian Federal
Police on child marriage in the country. In just two years, a total of
57 children were victims of forced marriage in Australia, with almost
all, 51, being from the Sydney area.
The AFP documents included: references to an email from a girl who
wrote she was being held against her will and being forced to marry; a
situation report with allegations of a forced marriage at the end of the
school year; and a human trafficking referral of a girl who was forced
to travel outside of Australia and then exploited.
Family and Community Services Minister Pru Goward said that children
were under “enormous pressure” from their parents to marry. The minister
said ‘the community’ “does know” that child brides do exist, but they
choose to “turn the other cheek”, and ignore it.
Ms. Goward urged friends and relatives of children at risk of being
trafficked or forced into marriage to come forward and to tell the
children they do not have to marry, otherwise “we’ll end up with a
continuation of forced marriages”.
Officials are left helpless to save the children once they leave the
country, with documents noting the case of two young sisters from the
Sydney suburb of Liverpool who were trafficked overseas for marriage.
The AFP admitted all they could do was wait to see if the girls came
back to Australia…..
A video of the ceremony shows the cleric instructing the girl that
“as a wife, you have a duty to obey your husband”. The groom, meanwhile,
is advised of his obligation to provide the minor with a “sexual
education”.
The number of girls seeking help from the UK’s National Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) for fear of being
trafficked into a forced marriage is at a record high, with figures
showing that as of the end of 2016, there has been just one conviction
for child marriage in Britain.
Following the migrant crisis on the continent, the number of Muslim
child brides in Germany’s capital, Berlin, is on the rise, and in
Scandinavia, child ‘wives’ are being ‘tolerated‘ in migrant centres in
Norway, Denmark, and Sweden.
Denmark has been forced to allow ‘wives’ as young as 14 to be
reunited with their ‘husbands’ after authorities deciding that upholding
child protection laws breached migrants’ human rights.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Jihad Watch recently posted an article
about Saudi schools “teaching Muhammad’s statements that Jews and
Christians are accursed and Muslims must kill Jews.” Such teachings
begin as early as first grade. Now, additional information has emerged
that “an official textbook for fifth graders published by the Saudi
Ministry of Education states that the approach of the Day of
Resurrection will be recognizable by a series of signs. “The Hour will
not come until Muslims will fight the Jews, and Muslims will kill the
Jews.”
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s constitution is the Quran and the Sunnah. Article 6 of
Saudi law states that “Citizens shall pledge allegiance to the King on
the basis of the Book of God and the Prophet’s Sunnah, as well as on the
principle of ‘hearing is obeying] both in prosperity and adversity, in
situations pleasant and unpleasant.” This critical piece of information about the virulently anti-Semitic
5th grade official Saudi textbook will likely be dismissed by Westerners
despite its serious implications, since it does not fit into the widely
held fantasy that jihad groups such as al Qaeda and the Islamic State
are an aberration of Islam. Jews and all Westerners would do well to
consider the fact that this textbook demonstrates the Saudi government’s
truthful stance against Jews, such that it is even teaching youngsters
the way of jihad by the sword against Jews.
“Saudi Arabia 5th-Grade Schoolbook: The ‘Hour’ Will Come After Muslims ‘Kill the Jews’”, by Thomas D. Williams, Breitbart, September 15, 2017:
Saudi Arabia has come under fire for using schoolbooks
for children that disparage Christians as “unbelievers” and promise that
the day of resurrection will not come until Muslims have fought and
killed the Jews. An official textbook for fifth graders published by the Saudi
Ministry of Education states that the approach of the Day of
Resurrection will be recognizable by a series of signs. “The Hour will
not come until Muslims will fight the Jews, and Muslims will kill the
Jews,” it declares.
According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), a U.S.-based advocacy group,
Saudi Arabia’s religious studies curriculum “contains hateful and
incendiary language toward religions and Islamic traditions that do not
adhere to its interpretation of Sunni Islam,” including the labeling of
Jews and Christians as unbelievers “with whom Muslims should not
associate.”
Human Rights Watch undertook a comprehensive review of school
religion books published by the Saudi Education Ministry for the 2016-17
school year. The curriculum, titled al-tawhid, or “Monotheism,”
comprises 45 textbooks and student workbooks for the primary, middle,
and secondary education levels.
The September 11, 2001 jihadist attacks that killed some 3,000
Americans provoked public outrage at the incendiary language in Saudi
schoolbooks after it became known that 15 of the 19 hijackers of 9/11
were Saudi citizens. Saudi officials promised at the time to expunge the
abusive language from its curriculum. A decade and a half later,
however, some of this insulting and dangerous content is still a part of
Saudi texts, HRW declared.
In February 2017, Saudi’s education minister acknowledged the need
for a “broader curriculum overhaul” but offered no specifics as to when
if ever such an overhaul would take place.
“As early as first grade, students in Saudi schools are being taught
hatred toward all those perceived to be of a different faith or school
of thought,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human
Rights Watch. “The lessons in hate are reinforced with each following
year.”
Although the U.S. State Department has designated Saudi Arabia a
“country of particular concern” under the International Religious
Freedom Act (IRFA) ever since 2004, the American government has elected
to waive the penalties, economic sanctions, arms embargoes, and travel
and visa restrictions that accompany this designation.
During his speech in Riyadh in May 2017, President Donald Trump
underscored the importance of religious liberty in the Middle East,
while also announcing a massive $110 billion arms purchase by the Saudis
as part of economic deals between the two countries totaling some $400
billion.
“For many centuries the Middle East has been home to Christians,
Muslims and Jews living side-by-side,” he said. “We must practice
tolerance and respect for each other once again—and make this region a
place where every man and woman, no matter their faith or ethnicity, can
enjoy a life of dignity and hope.”
In its recent report, HRW painted a dour picture of the state of
religious freedom in Saudi Arabia, beginning with the indoctrination of
schoolchildren.
“The curriculum reserves its harshest criticisms for Jews,
Christians, and people of other faiths,” HRW declared, and the texts
often refer to them as kuffar, or “unbelievers.”
One fifth-grade textbook refers to Jews and Christians as among the
“original unbelievers” and declares that it is the duty of Muslims to
excommunicate them: “For whoever does not [excommunicate them], or
whoever doubts their religious infidelity is himself an unbeliever.”
The proper attitude toward such unbelievers is “hostility and
antagonism,” the textbook states, while warming Muslims never to join
with them in their celebrations.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
(Natural News) In a
twisted, almost demonic effort to equate patriotism with the murder of
unborn babies, Hollywood celebrities are now openly touting Planned
Parenthood T-shirts that read, “United We Plan” alongside patriotic
imagery (which seems especially odd, given that nearly all of these
people hate the American flag and despise patriotism). Their “United we Plan” slogan seems truncated, so we’ve added the
rest of the message in our mock-ups below: “To murder babies.” This is
the message they really believe in, after all. Their T-shirts should
complete the thought. This is the sickening, twisted messaging of Planned Parenthood these
days: To murder unborn children is portrayed as patriotic. Somehow,
taking the life of an innocent child is a celebration of “women’s
choice.” It is with this twisted, delusional self-deception that Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards recently declared “every person has the right to live” in an absurd defense of DACA, utterly failing to realize how her organization is in the business of ending the lives of minorities.
It never ceases to amaze me how Leftists can literally celebrate
murder, death, pain and suffering… all in the name of joy, freedom and
“tolerance.” (Read Abortions.news to stay informed on this issue.)
It’s time to end all taxpayer funding of abortion.
If people want to get abortions, taxpayers shouldn’t have to subsidize
such life-ending medical procedures just to appease twisted, sicko
abortion celebration cultists who think it’s joyful to murder an unborn
child.
Here’s Chelsea Handler celebrating the murder of unborn black babies: (photo mocked up to add “to murder babies”)
It makes us wonder: Do these Hollywood Leftists have no idea that the
founder of Planned Parenthood was a black-hating racist who called
black people “weeds” who should be “killed in the womb” in order to
prevent them from living? If you don’t know the real history of Margaret
Sanger, you need to read this Truthwiki entry right now.
