Translate

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

IS CHINA'S INTERNET CENSORSHIP COMING TO THE U.S. WITH APPLE'S HELP?

IS CHINA'S INTERNET CENSORSHIP COMING 
TO THE U.S. WITH APPLE'S HELP?
 Apple has agreed to follow China's rules in exchange for access to their markets. Does that mean that Americans will be subject to 
China's censorship laws?
"SOCIAL CREDIT SCORES" HAVE BEEN IMPLEMENTED FOR YEARS IN CHINA

FLORIDA: BROWARD SHERIFF'S OFFICE INVESTIGATED DOZENS OF TIMES FOR MISCONDUCT, SAYS LAWSUIT

 DOING THE RESEARCH
 “Approximately 66 BSO (Broward Sheriff’s Office) deputies and other employees, including supervisory personnel were arrested for, charged with, and/or convicted of crimes that run the gamut from Armed Kidnapping, to Battery, Assault, Falsifying records, Official Misconduct, Narcotics trafficking, and other crimes involving dishonesty and violence in the years immediately proceeding 2013 when Jermaine was killed."
 "There are more than 66 investigations by the Broward County State Attorney’s office into Broward County Sheriff’s deputies and employees, ranging from drug trafficking to kidnapping since 2012, according to a 2014 Brady list produced by the Broward State Attorney’s office. Forty of the investigations occurred under embattled Sheriff Scott Israel’s watch." 
 "Israel is always shifting blame and the 
'buck never stops with him'"
 Sara Carter
EXCERPTS ABOVE FROM:  
FLORIDA: BROWARD SHERIFF'S OFFICE INVESTIGATED DOZENS OF TIMES 
FOR MISCONDUCT, SAYS LAWSUIT 
BY MICHAEL TENNANT
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
Florida Governor Rick Scott’s investigation into the Broward Sheriff’s Office’s handling of the February 14 Parkland school shooting is just the latest in a long line of probes into the department’s conduct, according to court filings in a civil suit against Sheriff Scott Israel (shown) and his deputies.
Scott, a Republican, initiated his investigation February 25 after it was alleged that as many as four Broward County deputies remained outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School while the shooting spree, allegedly conducted by Nikolas Cruz, 19, took place inside. At that time it was also known that the Broward Sheriff’s Office had received dozens of calls concerning Cruz over the months and years leading up to the shooting. Since then, there have also been allegations that Broward deputies prevented emergency medical teams from entering the school to treat the injured.
Israel, a Democrat, tried to deflect blame for his deputies’ alleged inaction, telling CNN’s Jake Tapper that “it's not the responsibility of the general or the president if you have a deserter.” He also downplayed the number of calls his office had received about Cruz and claimed his deputies had handled most of those calls appropriately. Israel told Tapper he had provided his agency with “amazing leadership.”

Israel’s “amazing leadership” apparently includes presiding over a department that has been investigated by the Broward County State Attorney’s office at least 66 times since 2012 — 40 of them since Israel took office — and is currently being sued by the family of an innocent man shot and killed by deputies whom Israel later presented with awards, reports journalist Sara Carter.
In 2013, Jermaine McBean, an African-American information-technology engineer, was walking home from a store where he had just bought an air rifle, listening to music with earbuds. Unbeknownst to him, the bag covering the rifle had blown off, and a passing motorist called 911 to report seeing a man carrying a weapon; the caller stated that it could have been an air rifle. Three Broward deputies — Peter Paraza, Lt. Brad Ostroff, and Sgt. Richard LaCerra — arrived and confronted McBean.
Carter writes:
According to David Schoen, the attorney representing McBean’s family in the civil case against the defendants and Israel, witnesses at the scene said McBean’s air rifle was resting on his shoulders, with his arms slung over. McBean couldn’t hear the officers through the earbuds. According to witnesses and court records he eventually turned around and when he did, Peraza fired the shots that led to McBean’s death. Peraza, who had only been working as a deputy for a year, stated to the courts that he feared for his life.
Three months later, Israel gave Peraza and LaCerra the Broward Sheriff’s Office’s “Gold Cross Award” for their “selfless, honorable and brave” actions in the McBean case.
After another two years, Peraza was indicted for homicide and suspended from the police force. A local judge dismissed the indictment, but the Florida Supreme Court “has taken the case on review and has vacated the lower court’s ruling,” notes Carter.
Schoen’s court filing in the civil case states: “Approximately 66 [Broward Sheriff’s Office] deputies and other employees, including supervisory personnel were arrested for, charged with, and/or convicted of crimes that run the gamut from Armed Kidnapping, to Battery, Assault, Falsifying records, Official Misconduct, Narcotics trafficking, and other crimes involving dishonesty and violence in the years immediately proceeding [sic] 2013 when Jermaine was killed. Most of the offenses on the list occurred in the years 2012-2013.”
The list on which Schoen’s assertions were based is the Broward County State Attorney’s 2014 “Brady Cop List,” which identifies police officers who have been investigated for or convicted of crimes. A more recent list would likely identify even more officers, Schoen told Carter.
“Often the cases against [Broward Sheriff’s Office] employees are resolved by guilty pleas resulting in short or no period of incarceration and a chance for the criminal record to be cleared after a period of time,” he claimed in his filing. According to Carter, “Israel is always shifting blame and ‘the buck never stops with him,’ Schoen said.”
Between the Scott investigation and the McBean suit, the buck may finally be landing — with a thud — in Israel’s lap.

"HATE GROUP" SPLC HELPING YOUTUBE PURGE CONSERVATIVES, USING "TRUSTED FLAGGERS" LIKE NAZIS & COMMUNISTS

"TRUSTED FLAGGERS" SNOOP & SNITCH, THEN CENSOR LIKE NAZIS & COMMUNISTS 
 Ted Cruz Destroys Social Media Giants 
On Censorship
 "HATE GROUP" SPLC HELPING YOUTUBE 
PURGE CONSERVATIVES 
BY ALEX NEWMAN
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
The far-left organization known as the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), often described as an “anti-Christian hate group,” is working with YouTube to purge conservatives, Christians, libertarians, and others from the video streaming platform, according to news reports. A number of prominent media figures have already been banned, with others facing demonetization and warnings. Some accounts were restored amid a national outcry. But the new revelations about YouTube partnering with radical leftists and anti-Christian bigots come as Google, Facebook, Twitter and other Internet giants come under increasing fire for blatantly trying to silence right-of-center voices on their platforms. Lawsuits against the tech behemoths are underway, and calls for government regulation are growing louder.
The SPLC role as a “trusted flagger” in policing YouTube for “extremist” content first came to light in an article by The Daily Caller. The news outlet, citing a source with knowledge of the arrangement, said it was not clear when the far-left organization partnered with YouTube, which is owned by Google's parent company Alphabet Inc. The Daily Caller noted that the identities of most of the over 100 outfits that are considered “trusted flaggers” remain hidden. But it is known that the list includes government agencies, as well as radical left-wing organizations funded by European taxpayers. As usual, YouTube and its parent company have been tight-lipped about their censorship operations, which have been criticized for years for unfairly targeting conservatives.

“We work with over 100 organizations as part of our Trusted Flagger program and we value the expertise these organizations bring to flagging content for review,” a YouTube spokesperson was quoted as saying in response to questions about the SPLC. “All trusted flaggers attend a YouTube training to learn about our policies and enforcement processes. Videos flagged by trusted flaggers are reviewed by YouTube content moderators according to YouTube’s Community Guidelines. Content flagged by trusted flaggers is not automatically removed or subject to any differential policies than content flagged from other users.” The spokesperson refused to comment specifically on the SPLC's involvement in the program. The SPLC also did not respond to requests for comments.
The revelations about the SPLC's role sparked immediate condemnation and ridicule from a wide range of commentators. Among the prominent voices speaking out was the Family Research Council, a pro-family group falsely declared a “hate group” by SPLC that was targeted for a terrorist attack by homosexual activist and SPLC devotee Floyd Corkins. “Now, I don't know about you, but an organization that's inspired at least two gunman to shoot conservatives, isn't exactly who I'd trust to define violent speech,” noted FRC chief Tony Perkins in commentary about the revelations on the SPLC's ties to YouTube. “Although no one knows when SPLC joined the program, they do know what it means for conservatives: discrimination.”
Perkins expressed concern that numerous mainstream Christians, conservatives, churches, and organizations have been “recklessly and fraudulently” labeled as “hate groups” alongside the KKK and Nazis. As he sees it, the SPLC's definition of hate is basically “any belief that's contrary to theirs.” Indeed, even disagreeing with homosexual “marriage,” as Obama did when he first ran for president, has been labeled radical and extreme by the SPLC. Especially worrying is that the SPLC, as a “trusted flagger,” is understood to be involved in the creation of algorithms that help censor views it disagrees with. According to Perkins, the SPLC has been trying to have “conventional beliefs” turned into “ground for government punishment.”
“As for Google, YouTube may be a private entity – but it's virtually monopolizing the public square,” Perkins concluded, blasting the SPLC's “ties to domestic terrorism” and its “dangerous extremism” that have led more than a few organizations to sever ties with it. “And with that responsibility comes a higher expectation that civil conversations will be allowed. Just because Google — or its flaggers — disagree with someone doesn't mean they should shut them down. This growing understanding that Big Tech is picking and choosing who can speak in the virtual public square may help explain why there's been a jump in the number of Americans who want to see more government regulation.” And indeed, numerous voices have called for regulation in recent days, even among those who normally eschew unconstitutional government actions.  
Multiple heavy-hitting commentators have also sounded the alarm about the new revelations. Speaking of the partnership between Google/YouTube and the SPLC, Fox News star Tucker Carlson slammed the Internet giant for relying on a “wholly discredited hate group” to police its platform. “One of those trusted flaggers is not trusted at all — it's the Southern Poverty Law Center,” said Carlson, sounding flabbergasted. “It's not an expert on the South, or poverty, or the law.” In short, the SPLC is itself a hate group, according to Carlson and a broad range of experts across the political spectrum, including many on the Left. His guest, tech entrepreneur Eric Schiffer, called the SPLC's involvement “an outrage” and said YouTube owes patriotic Americans an apology for this “gross oversight.”   
Carlson also switched over to a segment on the SPLC by popular libertarian Fox News personality John Stossel, who skewered the fringe left-wing group for hyping phony hate and smearing people who do not deserve to be smeared. The SPLC, Stossel noted, has listed U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, popular media personality Laura Ingraham, and Judge Jeannie Pierro as “extremists.” On the other hand, the SPLC does not list, for example, the violent hate group Antifa on its list, despite that extremist organization's long track-record of violence, brutality, hate, and extremism. “The Center has become a hate group itself,” Stossel warned. “It's now a left-wing, money-grabbing slander machine.” Indeed, the outfit has hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank.
For those unfamiliar with the SPLC, The New American has been exposing the group for many years. It considers The John Birch Society, an affiliate of this magazine, to be a “patriot group,” with patriot meant as a derogatory remark. In the Law Enforcement Charitable Foundation's Intelligence Brief, which goes to all police chiefs and sheriffs in America, the SPLC was exposed for, among other things, celebrating as a “highly respected figure” Bill Ayers. In reality, Ayers is one of America's most notorious domestic terrorists — a man whose Castro-backed terrorist organization bombed police, the Pentagon, the State Department, Capitol Hill, and more. The FBI's asset within Ayers' terror group, Larry Grathwohl, said the communist organization was plotting to exterminate millions of Americans who could not be “re-educated” once foreign communist regimes invaded. 
The intelligence brief for law enforcement also points out how misleading and dishonest much of the SPLC's propaganda has become. For instance, the SPLC's Ryan Lenz claimed to be exposing a vast “anti-Indian movement,” without ever mentioning that the “matriarch of the movement,” as the SPLC put it, is actually a Cherokee Indian. The SPLC has also been caught trying to demonize Christians, Orthodox Jews, and other God-fearing Americans in the eyes of government agencies. Following a number of high-profile scandals, though, even Obama's bureaucracies were forced to sever ties with the SPLC. A number of prominent left-wing activists and civil-rights leaders have slammed the SPLC as scam artists or worse. And SPLC founder Morris Dees has been the subject of intense criticism, especially after he was accused in court documents of beating his wife and sexually molesting his underage step-daughter.
The extensiveness of SPLC's role in YouTube's ongoing campaign to silence conservatives remains unclear. But in recent days, the video-hosting platform has become increasingly aggressive in silencing right-of-center voices — including even prominent, mainstream conservative commentators, as well as videos exposing violence and hate among leftist groups such as Antifa. Among those whose channels have been suspended are classical liberal Carl Benjamin, investigative journalist Jerome Corsi, and more. Alex Jones' enormously influential Infowars has also received “strikes” from YouTube. And a video of Antifa thugs shouting violent threats posted by Mike Cernovich was taken down, leading the commentator to conclude that YouTube endorses far-left violence against conservatives. Even PragerU was censored, sparking a lawsuit against the video site. Some of the actions by YouTube were reversed following a massive outcry, but the censorship has only been getting more extreme.   
As The New American has documented extensively, the new-age “robber barons” of social media all have intimate links to government — and in some cases they are or were funded by government. Jeff Bezos of Amazon, who now owns the Washington Post, has massive contracts with the Central Intelligence Agency. And the CIA's investment arm In-Q-Tel helped finance many of the Internet giants that are today censoring conservative viewpoints. The Big Tech bosses also have extensive links to the Deep State Behind the Deep State, with many of them, including former Google boss Eric Schmidt, attending Bilderberg meetings, the occultist Bohemian Grove, and more. More than a few are also members of the globalist-minded swamp known as the Council on Foreign Relations.
And the Internet giants' affinity for censoring conservatives is no secret. In Europe, the big-tech companies boldly announced their intentions to censor “hate” and “extremism,” which for many EU governments includes the Bible, opposition to mass immigration, the scientific fact that there are only two sexes, and more. The United Nations, known to critics as the “dictators club,” has also been on the warpath, demanding that Internet companies censor ideas that the globalist establishment disagrees with. Unsurprisingly, totalitarian governments — especially the mass-murdering Communist Chinese regime — have been leading the charge for global Internet censorship. But U.S.-based Internet companies have only been too happy to join the jihad against free speech, and especially against conservative, anti-globalist speech.   
In the days ahead, more lawsuits and efforts to regulate the companies will emerge. And while calls for federal regulation of the Internet giants may sound appealing, it is important to recognize that the federal government does not have the constitutional authority to intervene. Instead of seeking further usurpations of power by the feds, Americans would be best served by using the free market to bypass obstacles to free speech set up by left-wing globalist companies in the establishment's pocket. If YouTube will not allow free speech, Americans can migrate over to services that do. If such services do not yet exist, smart entrepreneurs will surely create them. If Google continues to manipulate its search results to bury conservative content, consumers will naturally begin to use other services. And as Facebook becomes infamous for spying on and manipulating its users, it will no doubt face consequences, too.
It is lamentable that a major company such as YouTube would partner with fringe left-wing hate groups to silence patriots and conservatives. But it is not surprising. Ultimately, the free market will be the key to ensuring that free speech survives — whether YouTube, Google, Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft and their allies like it or not. The truth is far too powerful to be shut down.
Related articles: Big Tech and Big Government Censoring the Internet. Who's Next?
YouTube’s Soft Censorship
U.S. Tech Giants Join EU to Censor the Internet
How Google Censors The New American (and Other Conservatives)
“Anti-Christian Hate Group” SPLC Becoming Increasingly Discredited
UN Plots War on Free Speech to Stop “Extremism” Online
Game of Trolls: The Sinister Face of Facebook
After Charlottesville, UN Demands U.S. Quash First Amendment
Facebook Fraud: Ex-workers Admit They Censored Conservative News
EU “Police” Will Censor Internet to Fight “Extremism”
Chinese Communist to Lead UN Agency Seeking to Control Internet
Why Is the SPLC Trying to Crush a Small Jewish Organization?
Leftist SPLC Bemoans Growing Influence of The John Birch Society
After D.C. Shooting, SPLC, Planned Parenthood, and the Feds Under Fire
Protecting Rights: Loyal Americans Targeted by the SPLC 
________________________________________________________
 Jim Hoft / Gateway Pundit Confirm Systematic Censorship Purge
 Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit joins Mike Adams live via Skype to expose the systematic censorship purge against conservatives that has been pushed by the left since the 2016 election.
 

IRONICALLY NAMED LINCOLN "BEREAN" CHURCH HOSTING ROMAN CATHOLIC, MATT MAHER

 "ECHOS OF WORSHIP TOUR" 
ECHOES APOSTATE CATHOLICISM 
AT A SO-CALLED "PROTESTANT" CHURCH"
 http://cdn.breathecast.com/data/images/full/25637/matt-maher.jpg
IRONICALLY NAMED LINCOLN "BEREAN" CHURCH HOSTING ROMAN CATHOLIC, MATT MAHER
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so (Acts 17:11)
This short passage about Paul’s interactions with the Bereans has been used for thousands of years as emblematic of commendable discernment. Having come from Thessalonica after their rejection of the Gospel, Paul spent a short time in the mountain hamlet of Berea, where he found them to be noble on account of their careful discernment in considering his words and comparing it to the Holy Scripture. Soon, the Jewish mob from Paul’s past came to Berea and stirred them up as well, but this hasn’t stopped millennia of Christians from admiring the Bereans for their careful study of Scripture.
The Lincoln “Berean” Church is in Lincoln, Nebraska. The ‘about’ section of the Berean Church website says…
Salvation cannot be earned through moral or religious works or rituals.
Although the church’s doctrinal statement is Protestant and evangelical, it’s pastor, Bryan Clark, has invited a Roman Catholic who holds to opposite convictions on Justification to lead the church in worship on March 23 of this year. Entitled, “The Echoes of Worship,” Maher’s website thus advertises his visit to this Protestant church.
In our post, Matt Maher is Not Saved, Stop Singing His Music in Church! we explained the problem.
It doesn’t matter if Matt Maher says he’s a Christian or makes a “Christian-sounding” profession of faith. He is still a Roman Catholic, who practices idolatry, and is not repentant of it. It doesn’t matter if some of his music sounds okay. It doesn’t matter if he says he believes in Jesus. If he is unrepentant of his sin, he has not been regenerated.
But let’s go out on a limb here, and say that perhaps he is saved, and just hasn’t come to realize yet through sanctification that he’s caught up in a false religion. Sanctification is both immediate and progressive, therefore, it is possible for a Roman Catholic to be saved, and still (temporarily) be in the Roman Catholic Church. It still doesn’t matter. He’s still practicing sin, should be called to repentance, and by no means should he, or his worship music be played in a Bible-believing church. We wouldn’t do that for other unrepentant sinners. Why do we make exceptions for Roman Catholics?
We wouldn’t do that for other unrepentant sinners. Why do we make exceptions for Roman Catholics?
Oddly enough, there’s not a section on Lincoln Berean Church’s website that explains what a Berean is. The church members attending on March 23 need to stop and think about what a Berean is and why the church was given the name to begin with. The truth is, Bereans would not be asking a sola denying lost person to come lead them in worship.
___________________________________________________
 Matt Maher: Building the One-World Church Through Music
BY DAVID CLOUD
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
September 14, 2010
David Cloud, Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061
866-295-4143,
fbns@wayoflife.org
First published August 20, 2013 - David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org
zz_maher_8_19
The following study of popular worship singer Matt Maher further illustrates the fact that contemporary praise music is a key element in building the end-time, one-world “church.” It describes the very dangerous spiritual world to which many fundamental Baptist churches are building bridges.
Many are deceived by the fact that contemporary praise musicians sing about the Lord in such a seemingly sincere manner. They ask, “Can it be wrong to sing Maher’s ‘Lord, I Need You’?”

I would answer by asking this: Is Matt Maher, who prays to Mary and believes that she aids men in salvation, singing about the same “Lord” as the Bible-believing Christian? When the pope and thousands of Roman Catholics, who hold to a false gospel and worship a piece of bread as Jesus, join their voices to sing this song, who are they singing to in reality, according to God’s Word?

Too many professing Bible-believing Baptists are following their emotions and their vanity and the crowd and their bellies (e.g., build bigger churches, sell more books, don’t offend the popular leaders, etc.) rather than God’s Word and the Spirit of Truth.
___________

The Canadian born Matt Maher (b. 1974), who lives in Tempe, Arizona, is an eight-time GMA Dove Award Nominee. He has a degree in Jazz Piano from Arizona State University.

Like John Michael Talbot, Matt Maher is a Roman Catholic ecumenical bridge builder.

He grew up Catholic but had a “profound awakening” through a charismatic Catholic group. This consisted of an emotional experience that he had while watching a skit “The Broken Heart” about a girl who gets a new heart from God after giving hers away to a young boy.
“‘I was standing in the back of the room and I burst into tears,’ Maher remembered. Not long after, he started writing worship songs for the group’s prayer sessions and devoted himself to performing Christian music” (“Catholic Rocker Matt Maher,” Religion News Service, May 17, 2013).
The skit did not present the biblical gospel, and Maher’s conversion was not a biblical conversion. It was a religious conversion that did not include repentance from error and rejection of Rome’s false christ and false gospel.

Maher’s wife is Methodist, but they are raising their son “in the Catholic Church,” while also taking him to Methodist services “so he can experience both traditions” (Religion News Service, May 17, 2013).

This is the perfect recipe for the building of the end-time, one-world “church.”

Maher ministers at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Tempe, which is devoted to Mary as the Queen of Heaven. The sign at the front of the church says, “Mary, Mother of Life, pray for us.”

Maher is on the board of directors for the Catholic youth organization Life Teen.

He calls himself a “musical missionary,” a missionary for Rome, that is.
Christianity Today says “Maher is bringing his music--and a dream of unity into the Protestant church” (“Common Bonds,” CT, Oct. 27, 2009). He says, “I’ve had co-writing sessions with Protestants where we had that common denominator, and I’ve seen in a very radical way the real possibility of unity.” He says, “I look at it like the Catholic church is my immediate family, and all my friends from different denominations are extended family.”

David Wang says Maher is “one of the most successful Catholic artists to cross over into mainstream Christian rock and find an audience among evangelicals” (“Catholic Rocker Matt Maher,” Religion News Service, May 17, 2013).

In the following video clip, Maher performs at the 2013 Catholic World Youth Day in front of the pope, a great venerator of Mary as the Queen of Heaven, and a massive crowd of Roman Catholics, singing his popular praise song “Lord I Need You.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky0g_9dyhbU-

Maher led worship for Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the Rally for Youth in April 2008.

Maher says, “The arms of St. Peter’s are really big” (Religion News Service, May 17, 2013).

Maher, who tours with non-Catholics, comments:
“What’s fantastic about it is we’re all Christians from different denominations and we’re learning to understand each other. It just means that we’re writing about mysteries that we don’t fully understand.”
Maher is happy that other Catholic musicians are coming into the forefront of the contemporary praise movement, such as Audrey Assad, who signed with Sparrow Records, and producer Robbie Seay.

Leaving the Catholic Church is not an option for Maher, because he says, “I love my faith and the expression of it.” He intends, rather, for his music to be “a bridge.” He says that contemporary worship music is a way to “build relationships with people and link arms with them for the Kingdom.”

He says that touring with people like Michael W. Smith is producing ecumenical unity because people come to the concerts and find themselves standing beside a priest or nun, and they learn that “we’re all in this family together.”

What kingdom, though? There is the kingdom truth and light and the kingdom of heresy and darkness. The New Testament frequently warns of a great apostasy before the return of Christ. These warnings began to be delivered through with the ministry of Christ Himself (Mat. 7:15-23; 24:4-5, 11, 24) and were completed through the ministries of the apostles and prophets (e.g., 1 Timothy 4:1-6; 2 Timothy 3:13; 4:3-4; 2 Peter 2; Jude). The apostles warned that there will be false christs, false gospels, and false spirits, and taught the churches to be perpetually on guard, testing everything by the absolute standard of God’s Word (Acts 17:11; 20:28-31; 2 Corinthians 11:4; 1 Thess. 5:21; Heb. 5:12-14). They warned that false teachers would be deceptive, appearing as wolves in sheep’s clothing and as ministers of righteousness (Mat. 7:15; 2 Cor. 11:13-15). They warned about the cunning craftiness of false teachers (Eph. 4:14) and their ability to deceive through “good words and fair speeches” (Rom. 16:17-18).

These warnings are typically ignored throughout the world of Contemporary Christian Music, and those who take the warnings seriously are dismissed as unloving, judgmental Pharisees or worse.

Maher hosts the ecumenical WorshipTogether’s New Song Cafe.

He performs with a wide variety of “evangelical” Contemporary Christian musicians. He is in the Provident Label Group with Michael W. Smith, Third Day, Jars of Clay, and others.

He has written songs with and for “evangelical artists” such as Chris Tomlin (“Your Grace Is Enough”), Bethany Dillon, Matt Redman, Jars of Clay, Passion (“Here For You”), and Phillips, Craig and Dean.

Maher sings of Christ and the resurrection and grace, but these terms must be interpreted in light of Rome’s heresies. Salvation by grace, according to Rome, is salvation through the sacraments. Christ is idolatrously worshipped in the consecrated wafer of the mass. Christ’s resurrection did not complete the believer’s salvation; it provided the storehouse of grace to the Catholic Church to distribute through its sacraments, particularly baptism and the mass and confession to a priest.

Maher told
Christianity Today that those who criticize his relationship with the Catholic Church are misinformed and “mis-taught” and they “have a bad understanding of Catholic teaching,” but that is not true for me. I have studied the writings and history of the Catholic Church extensively. If Maher thinks that the Roman Church teaches salvation by grace alone through the blood of Christ alone without works, he is deceived by the ecumenical program which was launched at Vatican II and which has been effective in creating the end-time one-world church.

At the Council of Trent (1545-1563), the declarations of which are still in force, the Roman Catholic Church formally condemned the biblical gospel of salvation through by grace alone through faith alone. Consider the following declarations of Trent:
“If anyone says that justifying faith is nothing else than confidence in divine mercy, which remits sins for Christ's sake, or that it is this confidence alone that justifies us, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA” (Sixth Session, Canons Concerning Justification, Canon 12).
“If anyone says that the justice received is not preserved and also not increased before God through good works, but that those works are merely the fruits and signs of justification obtained, but not the cause of its increase, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA” (Sixth Session, Canons Concerning Justification, Canon 24).
In its most formal and authoritative statements since Trent, Rome has continued to deny that salvation is by grace alone through Christ's atonement alone through faith alone without works or sacraments. Consider the following statements of the authoritative Vatican II Council of the mid-1960s, called by Pope John Paul XXIII and attended by more than 2,400 Catholic bishops-–
“For it is the liturgy through which, especially in the divine sacrifice of the Eucharist, 'the work of our redemption is accomplished,' and it is through the liturgy, especially, that the faithful are enabled to express in their lives and manifest to others the mystery of Christ and the real nature of the true Church” (Vatican II, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Introduction, para. 2).

“As often as the sacrifice of the cross by which 'Christ our Pasch is sacrificed' (1 Cor. 5:7) is celebrated on the altar, the work of our redemption is carried out” (Vatican II, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Chapter 1, 3, p. 324).

“... [Christ] also willed that the work of salvation which they preached should be set in train through the sacrifice and sacraments, around which the entire liturgical [ritualistic] life revolves. Thus by Baptism men are grafted into the paschal mystery of Christ. ... They receive the spirit of adoption as sons” (Vatican II, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Chap. 1, I, 5,6, pp. 23-24).

“From the most ancient times in the Church good works were also offered to God for the salvation of sinners, particularly the works which human weakness finds hard. Because the sufferings of the martyrs for the faith and for God's law were thought to be very valuable, penitents used to turn to the martyrs to be helped by their merits to obtain a more speedy reconciliation from the bishops. Indeed, the prayers and good works of holy people were regarded as of such great value that it could be asserted that the penitent was washed, cleansed and redeemed with the help of the entire Christian people” (Vatican II, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Apostolic Constitution on the Revision of Indulgences, chap. 3, 6, pp. 78,79).

Rome’s gospel is a heretical combination of faith plus works, grace plus sacraments, Christ plus the church. It redefines grace to include works. It confuses justification with sanctification. It confuses imputation with impartation. It views justification not as a once-for-all legal declaration whereby the sinner is declared righteous before God and is granted eternal life as the unmerited gift of God, but rather as a PROCESS whereby the sinner is gradually saved through participation in the sacraments. There is no eternal security in the Roman gospel because salvation allegedly depends partially upon man's works. According to Roman Catholic theology, Christ purchased salvation and gave it to the Catholic Church to be distributed to men through its sacraments. This is not only a false gospel, it is a blasphemous usurpation of Christ's position as only Lord and Saviour and Mediator.
Our Sunday Visitor's Catholic Encyclopedia, published in 1991, defines justification as “THE PROCESS by which a sinner is made righteous, pure and holy before God.”
“Justification in the Catholic Tradition comes about by means of faith in Christ, AND in a life of good works lived in response to God's invitation to believe. ... That works are clearly required in the New Testament for union with Christ is seen in the many parables such as the Good Samaritan, Lazarus and Dives, and others” (emphasis added).
Therefore, when committed Roman Catholics like Matt Maher and John Michael Talbot sing of Christ’s grace, they don’t mean what the Bible means. They are using a Roman Catholic theological dictionary, but because of the widespread ignorance that exists in “evangelical” and even “fundamentalist” churches people are deceived by the language.

If a Roman Catholic does not accept what the Catholic Church teaches, he or she should leave and stop pretending to be both a Catholic and a believer that salvation is by Chris’s grace alone without works.

(See “How Rome Denies Salvation by Grace Alone” at the Way of Life Literature web site --
www.wayoflife.org.)

In the fall of 2009, Maher traveled with Michael W. Smith on the New Hallelujah Tour.

In the fall of 2010, he was a guest singer at the David Crowder Band’s Fantastical Church Music Conference at Baylor University.

In early 2011, Maher toured on the Rock and Worship Roadshow headlined by MercyMe.

In July 2012, Maher sang “Hold Us Together,” the ecumenical theme song for Mormon Glenn Beck’s Restoring Love conference in Dallas, Texas.

In July 2012, Keith and Kristyn Getty and Stuart Townend joined Roman Catholic Matt Maher on NewsongCafe on WorshipTogether.com. They played and discussed “The Power of the Cross,” which was co-written by Getty-Townend. The 10-minute program promoted ecumenical unity, with Maher/Townend/Getty entirely one in the spirit through the music. Major doctrinal differences are so meaningless that they are not even mentioned. Spiritual abominations such as papal supremacy, the mass, infant baptism, baptismal regeneration, and Mariolatry were entirely ignored. Jude 3 was despised and Romans 16:17 completely disobeyed for the sake of building the one-world church through contemporary Christian music.
 
For more about Roman Catholic contemporary Christian artists see Audrey Assad, Dion Dimucci, Ray Repp, Peter Scholtes, John Michael Talbot, and Kathy Troccoli in this Directory of Contemporary Worship Musicians.
______________________________________________________
SEE ALSO:
 

"HEAVENLY BODIES: FASHION & THE CATHOLIC IMAGINATION"~VATICAN JOINS VOGUE & VERSACE IN PAPAL FASHION SHOW~DISPLAYING SUMPTUOUS VATICAN LITURGICAL VESTMENTS, JEWELED MITERS, HISTORIC PAPAL TIARAS

 "HEAVENLY BODIES: FASHION & THE CATHOLIC IMAGINATION"
QUEER PRIESTHOOD GOES FROM 
PEDOPHILIA TO GARMENT FETISH
 "The Vatican is loaning some of their most extravagant clothing items to the fashion icons to display the church’s wealth and their influence on fashion."
 Vatican, the Met assemble show 
on Catholic effect on fashion
 (26 Feb 2018) VATICAN, THE MET ASSEMBLE SHOW ON CATHOLIC EFFECT ON FASHION: The Vatican's culture minister joined Donatella Versace and Vogue's Anna Wintour on Monday (26. FEB. 2018) to show off a sampling of sumptuous Vatican liturgical vestments, jeweled miters and historic papal tiaras that are starring in an upcoming exhibit of Catholic influences in fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 
"Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination" opens May 10 at the Met in New York and represents the most extensive exhibit of the museum's Costume Institute, officials said. It also represents the first time some of the Vatican's most precious treasures from the Sistine Chapel sacristy are being exhibited outside the Vatican. Along with the papal treasures, the Met show includes garments for more ordinary mortals by designers spanning Azzedine Alia to Vivienne Westwood, all set against the backdrop of the Met's collection of Medieval and religious artwork. The exhibit will be spread out among various Met galleries as well as the Cloisters branch in upper Manhattan in what organizers said was a planned "pilgrimage" blending fashion, faith and art. With Ennio Morricone's soundtrack to "The Mission" playing in the background, visitors on Monday were able to glimpse at a small sampling of the soon-to-be-shipped Vatican treasures: The white silk cape embroidered with gold threat that once belonged to Pope Benedict XV, and the emerald, sapphire and diamond-studded mitre, or pointed bishops' hat, of Pope Leo XIII. They were put on display at the Palazzo Colonna, a former papal residence in downtown Rome that is a jewel of the Roman Baroque period. Wearing a cardinal-appropriate red and black velvet tunic dress, Wintour said the exhibit shows the influence of the papacy over millennia. "Part of the power of the church has been how they look, and how they dress," Wintour told The Associated Press. "They have this extraordinary pressence." Wearing his red-trimmed clerical garb and red zucchetto, or beanie, Ravasi told the crowd at Palazzo Colonna that clothing oneself is both a material necessity and a deeply symbolic act that was even recorded in the biblical story of Adam and Eve.
  SANCTIFYING ITS LOVE OF FASHION:
Highest Fashion! Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi Joins Andrew Bolton, Donatella Versace, and Anna Wintour for the Rome Launch of the Met’s Show “Heavenly Bodies Fashion and the Catholic Imagination”. Are you a true fashion disciple? Then prepare for a pilgrimage. Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and TheCatholic Imagination opens at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on on May 10—but today in Rome we glimpsed the most significant hint so far of the wonders to come. Held in the gilded splendor of the historic Galleria Colonna, today’s launch was graced by the presence of Cardinal Ravasi.
 Rihanna Co-Hosting Catholic-Themed 2018 Met Gala





 VATICAN JOINS VOGUE & VERSACE 
IN PAPAL FASHION SHOW
CARDINAL RAVASI: 
A "TRANSCENDANT GRANDIOSE DIMENSION",
IF YOU PLEASE?
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
ABOVE: Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi and designer Donatella Versace
"The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality." – Revelation 17:4
John the Revelator received prophecies from Jesus about what has traditionally been interpreted as the Roman Catholic Church. The excerpt above is just a part of that prophecy, which speaks of the opulent, prosperity-dripping extravagance of a church that made its wealth by taking advantage of the poor and selling purported salvation for the trappings of modern fashion.
John Gill, the early Baptist commentator and predecessor to Charles Spurgeon said of the passage:
[This] may denote her hypocrisy, she being gilded with these things, as the word signifies, when she was inwardly rotten, corrupt, and filthy; and may point out the things by which persons have been enticed into the communion of the church of Rome, and to comply with her idolatrous worship and practices; and may also respect the prodigious riches, which have, by various methods, been brought into the pope’s coffers; these, with other things, are reckoned among the merchandise of Babylon
How ironic, then, that the Vatican is teaming up with Vogue Magazine and the Versace fashion line to showcase the influence of the papacy on gaudy, riches-doused clothing lines for immodest men and women.
An exhibition on Vatican wealth and style will begin on May 10 and is called Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination. The website says:
The Costume Institute’s spring 2018 exhibition—at The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters—will feature a dialogue between fashion and medieval art from The Met collection to examine fashion’s ongoing engagement with the devotional practices and traditions of Catholicism.
Serving as the cornerstone of the exhibition, papal robes and accessories from the Sistine Chapel sacristy, many of which have never been seen outside The Vatican, will be on view in the Anna Wintour Costume Center. Fashions from the early 20th century to the present will be shown in the Byzantine and medieval galleries, part of the Robert Lehman Wing, and at The Met Cloisters.
The event is sponsored by Versace, Vogue, and Conde’ Nost (a syndicate that sells Glamour Magazine, GQ, Vanity Fair, Allure, and Epicurious Magazines). You can find a video of some of the displays below.
 The Vatican is loaning some of their most extravagant clothing items to the fashion icons to display the church’s wealth and their influence on fashion.

WASHINGTON STATE LAWMAKERS PASS BILL REQUIRING INSURANCE COMPANIES TO COVER ABORTIONS

 
  http://seattletimes.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/politicsnorthwest/files/2014/02/hobbs1.jpg
ABOVE: SENATOR STEVE HOBBS, DEMOCRAT
WASHINGTON STATE LAWMAKERS PASS BILL REQUIRING INSURANCE COMPANIES 
TO COVER ABORTIONS
BY HEATHER CLARK
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 OLYMPIA, Wash. — Lawmakers in Washington State have passed a bill that 
requires insurance companies to cover abortion and contraception.
The Senate passed S.B. 6219, also known as the Reproductive Parity Act, on Saturday 27-22 after approving changes made by the House. It now moves to Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee, who is expected to sign the legislation into law.
“[I]f a health plan issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2019, provides coverage for maternity care or services, the health plan must also provide a covered person with substantially equivalent coverage to permit the abortion of a pregnancy,” the bill reads in part.
It refers to abortion as “reproductive health care,” and asserts that “[a]ccess to contraception has been directly connected to the economic success of women and the ability of women to participate in society equally.”
 “Unintended pregnancy is associated with negative outcomes, such as delayed prenatal care, maternal depression, increased risk of physical violence during pregnancy, low birth weight, decreased mental and physical health during childhood, and lower education attainment for the child,” the legislation, put forward by Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens, also claims in arguing why contraception access should be expanded.
 Read the bill in full here.
“The Reproductive Parity Act is a dramatic example, in my mind, of how we put people first and how we can improve women’s access to services that are critical to their health,” Sen. Annette Cleveland, D-Vancouver, asserted in January as the bill was being considered in the Senate.

However, others lamented the culture of death that the bill perpetuates.
“What are we coming to that we can’t value human life?” asked Sen. Jan Angel, R-Kitsap, according to the Daily Sun News.
“People who oppose abortion at any stage do so because it violates their conscience,” Sarah Davenport-Smith of the group Human Life told local television station KIRO. “Every citizen is guaranteed absolute freedom of conscience in all matters of religious sentiment, belief and worship. S.B. 6219 forces Washingtonians to go against their conscience and pay for abortions.”
2018 is not the first time that the bill has been presented to lawmakers. In 2013, the Reproductive Parity Act cleared the House but was not successful in the Senate. The measure has long been backed by NARAL Pro-Choice Washington.
As previously reported, from its early years, Christians have decried abortion in America as being the savage murder of innocent children. Even in 1872, preacher Thomas De Witt Talmage wrote in his book “The Abominations of Modern Society”:
“Herod’s massacre of the innocents was as nothing compared to that of millions and millions by what I shall call ante-natal murders. You may escape the grip of the law, because the existence of such life was not known by society, but I tell you that at last God will shove down on you the avalanche of His indignation, and though you may not have wielded knife or pistol in your deeds of darkness, yet, in the day when John Wilkes Booth and Antony Probst come to judgment, you will have on your brow the brand of murderer.”
Ecclesiastes 11:5 also reads, “As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child, even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.”
_________________________________________________
 Sen. Hobbs discusses health insurance, reproductive parity act