ILLINOIS GOVERNOR PRITZGER IMPLIES HE MAY NOT ALLOW SOME CHURCHES TO FULLY REOPEN FOR UP TO A YEAR OR MORE

ILLINOIS GOVERNOR PRITZGER IMPLIES 

HE MAY NOT ALLOW SOME CHURCHES 

TO FULLY REOPEN FOR UP TO A YEAR OR MORE 

BY HEATHER CLARK

SEE: https://christiannews.net/2020/05/08/illinois-gov-implies-he-may-not-allow-some-churches-to-fully-reopen-for-up-to-a-year-or-more/; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research 

purposes:

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (Christian News Network) — Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker implied this week that it may be up to a year or more before some churches in the state will be permitted to fully reopen, depending on their size, according to guidance on public gatherings from scientists and epidemiologists.

A reporter with WBBM News radio had asked Pritzker on Wednesday during his daily COVID briefing if he could elaborate on when churches can have meetings with more than 50 people — if such would not be allowed until the final phase of the reopening plan.

“Can the governor provide more clarity to churches regarding holding services? Should they plan not to hold services larger than 50 people until their region has moved to phase five?” inquired Cisco Cotto, a graduate of Moody Theological Seminary, as read by an assistant who fielded questions submitted by the media.



Phase five is known as “Illinois Restored,” and according to Patch.com, “could be a long way off.”

“Well, you know that in phase three, there can be gatherings — church gatherings — of 10 or fewer. In phase four, 50 or fewer. So that’s the guidance that’s been given to me,” Pritzker replied. “I’m not the one providing that guidance. It really is what the scientists and epidemiologists are recommending.”

The state just entered phase two last week, and phase three will begin no earlier than May 30. Phase four does not have a designated date but will most likely be determined by the perceived success of phase three.

Phase five is even further down the road, most likely whenever there is a vaccine available to the public, Patch.com reports. According to some experts, that could be in 12 to 18 months.

“Here’s the truth, and I don’t like it any more than you do,” Pritzker acknowledged during the press conference. “Until we have a vaccine or an effective treatment … the option of returning to normalcy doesn’t exist. We have to figure out how to live with COVID-19 until it can be vanquished.”

Conversely, this week, 3,000 churches in California advised of their intention to open their doors on May 31, the calendar date of the Christian Pentecost.

“As ministers of the Gospel, we have complied with the orders of governing bodies to cease meeting in-person as has been our practice for nearly 2000 years since the first Day of Pentecost. We respect the governing authorities and their role in public safety. However, the governing authorities have suspended our meetings indefinitely, refusing to provide a date upon which we can lawfully commence our practice of worshiping God together in our houses of worship,” reads a “Declaration of Essentiality for Churches” posted online.

“While we are thankful to the governing authorities for the significant efforts made to protect the public from COVID-19, the remaining threat of COVID-19 is outweighed by the severe restrictions upon the free exercise of our religion that we deem ‘essential,'” it reads. “We are committed to public safety and will follow reasonable guidelines established and applied to similarly situated organizations.”

A number of pastors held a joint press conference on Thursday to outline their views.

“We have a pastor in the south, in Chula Vista, feeding hungry people a mile long in cars, socially distancing,” Jim Doman, the founder of Church United, remarked, according to Fox News. “How can the Church not be essential?

“It’s the heart of Jesus to love and care for all people. The heart of God supersedes government.”

SOUTHERN BAPTISTS ABANDONING SOCIAL JUSTICE HERESY FOR HERESY OF DOMINIONISM

SOUTHERN BAPTISTS ABANDONING 

SOCIAL JUSTICE HERESY FOR 

HERESY OF DOMINIONISM 

SEE: https://reformationcharlotte.org/2020/05/07/southern-baptists-abandoning-social-justice-heresy-for-heresy-of-dominionism/; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research 

purposes:

For the last several years, the social justice movement has swept the Southern Baptist 

Convention and it’s tentacles reach every possible corner of nearly every single church in 

the entire denomination leaving a stain of intersectionality, feminism, and even in some 

cases, LGBTQ activism.

The current Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) president, JD Greear has ushered in a new era for the denomination with his liberal rhetoric. From calling on Christians to stand up for LGBTQ rights to calling on Christians to stand up for Islamic rights, he has helped move the denomination from a solid, biblical God-honoring foundation to one that defies the mission of the Church.

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president, Al Mohler has stood in the way of any meaningful conversation on the fact that social justice has been taking over the denomination and his protege, Russell Moore has been leading this dog and pony show. From open-borders initiatives to asserting that white people are idolaters of racial power, nobody can deny that Moore has ushered the denomination into this new paradigm.

But SBC leaders are quietly abandoning the entire narrative now, pretending that they never supported, or outright denying it altogether. Starting with Al Mohler, he’s held a number of podcasts where he’s recently denounced the worldview of Critical Race Theory — a worldview the denomination officially embraced and adopted in 2019 at the behest of Mohler’s underlings — and calling it “antithetical to the gospel.”

And, after spending years promoting every possible tenet of social justice and intersectionality, SBC president JD Greear denounced it on Twitter recently.









J.D. Greear@jdgreear










"When Intersectionality joins efforts with the gospel it leaves us with an immature faith, a false hope, and a deceptive vocabulary." -Rosaria Butterfield https://buff.ly/2WstJF7 













Intersectionality and the Church | Tabletalk

When Intersectionality joins efforts with the gospel it leaves us with an immature faith, a false hope, and a deceptive vocabulary.
tabletalkmagazine.com











14

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Which can only lead one to wonder, why all of a sudden are these people — he just as recently as January, intended to double down on their support for Critical Race Theory and intersectionality at the convention all of a sudden jointly shift?

If the Southern Baptist Convention is anything, it isn’t coherent. And the denomination’s lack of any meaningful confession of faith and doctrinal standards leaves it open to being tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine (Ephesians 4:14) and never landing on anything to cohesively hold the denomination in place.

In other words, the denomination goes through cultural movements like dirty diapers and paper plates and when they’re done, they move on to the next. In this case, they appear to be abandoning social justice and embracing a new heresy — at least, new to the Southern Baptist Convention.

Enter the New Apostolic Reformation.









The New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) is a dominionist cult — though they deny any organization — that typically embraces a movement called the Seven Mountain Mandate. The Seven Mountain Mandate is what NAR cultists say are seven cultural “mountains” that Christians must conquer in order to usher in the Kingdom of God. These sevel mountains include the arts and entertainment, business and finance, church and religion, media, education, family and health, and government.



The idea is that Christians must take “dominion” (hence the name, Dominionism) over these areas of culture and “Christianize” them. Once Christians have achieved full dominion over these, the Kingdom of God can finally be ushered into Earth.

This is where Ronnie Floyd comes in. Floyd, former SBC president and now president of the Southern Baptist Executive Committee, announced earlier this year that he was launching an investigation into the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) which is headed by Russell Moore (mentioned above). Moore, who has single-handedly turned the denomination into a social justice boat ride, has been under fire for his push to shift the denomination to the left. Now that he’s being investigated — and churches have withheld money from the denomination because people are tired of throwing their tithes and offerings at his agenda — other SBC leaders are taking note. Several high-ranking employees at the ERLC have moved on in recent months.

But Ronnie Floyd is a dominionist — though he denied this in an email to me a few years ago. His actions speak much louder than his words and his eschatology on several fronts is deeply flawed and over-realized. So much so that Floyd has embraced rank heresy.

Floyd is a friend of Mike Bickle — one of the most highly influential NAR leaders of today — and Floyd has spoken at his IHOPKC church in the past. After participating in the ecumenical NAR event and fully indulging himself in it (he wasn’t just there to preach the gospel, he is fully immersed in the movement), he has spent years attempting to move the denomination in that direction.

Floyd has an over-emphasized view of the power of prayer. While prayer is certainly biblical, edifying, worshipful, and powerful, Floyd’s version of prayer has entered the realm of mystical. And Floyd, as the leader of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee and as a leader of the National Day of Prayer, Floyd is merging his mystical beliefs of prayer with the Seven Mountain Mandate and calling on Southern Baptists to join him.



And other SBC leaders have joined him. JD Greear, David Platt, Kevin Ezzell, and a host of other Southern Baptist leaders have joined him. But, interestingly, Russell Moore was not mentioned.





They’ve massaged the mountains a bit. They put the arts and entertainment mountain together with the media mountain and invented the military mountain. But military falls under the government mountain. Nevertheless, the United States New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) types are obsessed with their own US military and war.

It appears that this NAR heresy is going to be the next heresy that Southern Baptists are going to have to fight. The leadership of this denomination are so egregiously undiscerning and unqualified that they just take whatever cultural movement is tossed in their lap at the moment — whether it’s from the progressive left or the conservative right — and run with it until it dies or something new comes along.

SEVERAL CHURCHES FILE JOINT LAWSUIT AGAINST MICHIGAN GOVERNOR WHITMER OVER UNCONSTITUTIONAL STAY AT HOME ORDER

SEVERAL CHURCHES FILE JOINT LAWSUIT AGAINST MICHIGAN GOVERNOR WHITMER OVER UNCONSTITUTIONAL 

STAY AT HOME ORDER 

SEE: https://reformationcharlotte.org/2020/05/07/several-churches-file-joint-lawsuit-against-michigan-governor-over-unconstitutional-stay-at-home-order/; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research 

purposes:

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, governors in almost every state in the country 

issued executive orders bypassing state legislature to enact Unconstitutional lockdowns 

that kept businesses closed, churches from gathering, and people locked away in their 

homes under the threat of force by law enforcement who chose to uphold these governor’s 

orders rather than the Constitution they swore to uphold. Thankfully, in many local and 

county governments, many did not — including some in Michigan.

Following widespread protests in the state of Michigan — which included tens of thousands of citizens driving into the state capital city of Lansing — several sheriffs in the state vowed not to enforce the draconian orders. Instead of listening to the citizens’ protest of her infringement of their constitutional rights, instead, Governor Janet Whitmer proceeded to blame and ridicule them.

Now, several churches, pastors, laypeople, and a former Republican delegate have filed a joint lawsuit against the Michigan tyrant claiming that her orders continue to hinder religious gatherings against afforded them in the First Amendment of the Constitution despite the “exceptions” that are made.

Whitmer’s executive order, which is in effect until May 15, says “neither a place of religious worship nor its owner” could be penalized or charged with a misdemeanor for “allowing religious worship at such place,” and that “no individual would be subject” to penalties for not wearing a face mask, which is currently a legal requirement in confined public places, including grocery stores.”

However, the lawsuit argues that “Nothing in this provision applies to individuals attending a place or worship as clergy or congregants,” and “A promise to not subject a geographic location or its ‘owner’ to the criminal penalty … merely adorns the Constitution with a fig leaf and does not protect individuals or change the clear language of the order prohibiting any religious services or other ministry functions at a church or religious organization.”



The lawsuit asks a federal judge to deem the 1945 Emergency Powers Act and the 1976 Emergency Management Act, which afforded Whitmer the power to issue her executive orders, unconstitutional.

“Nothing in the U.S. Constitution authorizes a state governor to suspend constitutional representative governance by declaring new emergencies every 28 days into perpetuity,” the complaint says. “Allowing one person to wield absolute power is not a republican form of government, it is tyranny.”



The entire lawsuit can be seen at this link.

NC GOVERNOR ROY COOPER BLAMES CORONAVIRUS SPREAD ON CHRISTIANS

NC GOVERNOR ROY COOPER BLAMES CORONAVIRUS SPREAD ON CHRISTIANS 

SEE: https://reformationcharlotte.org/2020/04/20/nc-governor-blames-coronavirus-spread-on-christians/; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research 

purposes:

PNP NEWS — In 64 AD, the Great Fire of Rome burned down much of the city, 

including the Circus Maximus. The fire raged for six days. Emperor Nero, reportedly, 

played away on his violin. 

Later, he blamed Christians for starting the fires to deflect from his own culpability.

Nearly two-thousand years later, during the Great Coronavirus Panic of 2020, Governors around the country are blaming church-going Christians for spreading the virus, even though there is no empirical data to suggest that people attending church are uniquely susceptible to the virus.

Albeit, anecdotal accounts of churchgoers getting sick do exist and it does happen, which is all the reason Democrats need to point the finger at believers for making the entire society sick. North Carolina’s Democrat Governor, Roy Cooper, blamed church-goers and legislators defending First Amendment rights for the spread of the virus in the Tarheel State.

According to the Carolina Journal, Governor Cooper said at a press conference on Friday, “When people gather together and are around each other for a long time, the evidence is overwhelming that the virus can spread so much more easily.”

He continued, “Unfortunately, this has happened at churches in our state and in our country.”

While there certainly have been outbreaks in churches across the country, they have largely been few and far between. It’s estimated that only 1% of the 7% of churches still meeting have seen any coronavirus among their members, and the number of deaths ranks in the double and not triple or quadruple digits.

The governor’s remarks, blaming Christians for the spread of coronavirus above and beyond any other form of secular interaction is entirely unscientific and unsubstantiated.

Some pushed back and the governor’s Nero-like comments (see below).









Senator Phil Berger


✔@SenatorBerger










In NC's capital city: "No communion," "no tithes," "no [religious] literature.” Yet the same gov't orders allow ppl to pay cash for take-out food after reviewing a menu at the local McDonalds.

This is an outrageous and unconstitutional overstep of government authority. #ncpol






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THE GOSPEL COALITION INCITES FEAR, SAYS CONGREGATIONAL SINGING IS DANGEROUS

THE GOSPEL COALITION INCITES FEAR, SAYS CONGREGATIONAL SINGING IS DANGEROUS 

SEE: https://reformationcharlotte.org/2020/05/08/the-gospel-coalition-incites-fear-says-congregational-singing-is-dangerous/; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research 

purposes:

The Gospel Coalition abandoned the gospel long before it became an outlet for 

progressive politics and anti-gospel rhetoric. The Gospel Coalition is largely a 

propaganda outlet for loosely affiliated church leaders to come together and 

promote woke theology and Democrat talking points.

Now, The Gospel Coalition has released a story that does nothing more than incite fear in those already struggling with anxiety amid the coronavirus outbreak which would lead to nothing more than a decline in church attendance — and it’s based on nothing but unverified talking points. The article suggests that congregational singing — a historic and essential practice of the Church and part of worship — is dangerous and can spread coronavirus.

In the article titled Is Congregational Singing Dangerous? Ken Boer writes that the following could be reasons that congregational singing is dangerous:

Singing produces an aerosol cloud larger than speech does, and possibly larger even than coughing.
The louder you sing, the more you spread.
People absorb more particles when singing because they breathe more deeply.
Air-handling systems can cause particles to be redistributed throughout the room.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that singing may have been a factor in recent outbreaks.


Let’s just be clear — none of this is based on any kind of scientific fact and to suggest that people shouldn’t worship in church, or go to church at all, is irresponsible and shows a lack of concern for biblical truth and an unhealthy fear of that which God has commanded us not to be fearful of.

…for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. — 2 Timothy 1:7

I mean, honestly, if this guy is afraid of singing, I wonder what he thinks about preaching.

FACEBOOK CENSORSHIP COUNCIL INCLUDES PRO-MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD ACTIVIST

FACEBOOK CENSORSHIP COUNCIL INCLUDES PRO-MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD ACTIVIST

BY PAUL JOSEPH WATSON

SEE: https://www.infowars.com/facebook-censorship-council-includes-pro-muslim-brotherhood-activist/; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:

Facebook’s new censorship council, which will decide what content gets deleted from the website, includes a pro-Muslim Brotherhood Yemeni activist.

“The independent board, which will be able to overturn Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s decisions on whether individual pieces of content should be allowed on Facebook and Instagram, is a high-profile response to criticism of how the social media company handles problematic content,” reported Channel News Asia.

The “oversight board” will include none other than Nobel Laureate Tawakkol Karman, the Yemeni woman who became one of the faces of the Arab Spring uprising in 2011.

Karman’s activism includes supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization that has been blamed for terrorist attacks.

Karman previously denounced arrests of Muslim Brotherhood members and opposed the move to bar the Muslim Brotherhood from participating in Egyptian politics.

In Yemen, the Muslim Brotherhood is led by Abdul Majeed al-Zindani, a Sunni Islamist viewed by the United States as a “Bin Laden loyalist” and someone who is listed as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” by the US Treasury Department.

No doubt Karman’s tolerance for allowing criticism of Islam on Facebook’s platform will be in short supply.

Kevork Almassian@KevorkAlmassian

Facebook forms a "supreme court" which will decide what content to allow or remove from the world's largest social media platform. One of the members of the supreme court is notorious Muslim Brotherhood activist Tawakkol Karman.

1,731

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As we highlighted earlier this week, another one of Facebook’s censorship czars is none other than anti-Trump Professor Pamela Karlan.

Karlan made a name for herself because of a rant at the impeachment hearings during which she made Barron Trump the punch line of a joke.

Karlan was also described by the New York Times as a “full-throated, unapologetic liberal torchbearer.”

These are the people who will be deciding whether your Facebook posts violate the social media network’s increasingly draconian rules.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr responded to the announcement of the oversight board by slamming it as a partisan fraud.

“Meet your new speech police,” said Carr. “Facebook now has an Oversight Board empowered to take down posts.”

“Gotta be non-partisan people, right? Nope! 1 is Pam Karlan: testified to impeach @POTUS, “baron” Trump line, Obama DOJ, & NYT calls ‘full-throated, unapologetic liberal torchbearer.'”

“Facebook’s decision undermines its claim that posts won’t be censored for partisan political reasons. Karlan testified that ‘President Trump must be held to account.’ She wrote *in 2016* that she felt ‘a responsibility to challenge [Trump] in the court of public opinion.'”

Brendan Carr

✔@BrendanCarrFCC

 · May 6, 2020

Meet your new speech police!

Facebook now has an Oversight Board empowered to take down posts.

Gotta be non-partisan people, right? Nope!

1 is Pam Karlan: testified to impeach @POTUS, “baron” Trump line, Obama DOJ, & NYT calls “full-throated, unapologetic liberal torchbearer.”

Brendan Carr

✔@BrendanCarrFCC

2. Facebook’s decision undermines its claim that posts won’t be censored for partisan political reasons.

Karlan testified that “President Trump must be held to account.”

She wrote *in 2016* that she felt “a responsibility to challenge [Trump] in the court of public opinion.”

1,373

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________________________________
SEE ALSO:

Facebook names Muslim Brotherhood operative to oversight and censorship board

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2020/05/facebook-names-muslim-brotherhood-operative-to-oversight-and-censorship-board; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research 

purposes:

It is easy to see where all this is tending, although no one seems to have the wit or the will to do anything about it. The social media giants, anxious to make sure that President Trump is not reelected, are moving quickly now to defame and discredit, or silence altogether, all those who dissent from their far-Left agenda. Google recently deep-sixed Jihad Watch from the first page of search results for “Robert Spencer,” which is now filled entirely with the libels of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Bridge Initiative, and the like, with nothing favorable at all. Nor am I the only one this has happened to: I noticed it when I saw Daniel Greenfield writing about the same thing having happened to him, and tried it on my own name. The far-Left’s favored religion, Islam, will be protected on Facebook, even in its jihadist forms, while Tawakkol Karman and her colleagues will make sure that the social media behemoth, through which most people get their news, is entirely divested of all content critical of the religion of peace. We have been blocked from posting on our Jihad Watch page at Facebook for several months now; this new “oversight board” will mop up any dissenting voices that are still active there.



“Facebook sparks controversy by naming Brotherhood figure to oversight board,” Arab Weekly, May 8, 2020 (thanks to Northern Virginiastan):


LONDON – The name of Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Yemeni Nobel Prize winner Tawakkol Karman stood out as an odd addition to the list of Facebook’s first 20 oversight board members.

The new oversight body includes four chairs: Former Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Stanford Law School Professor Michael McConnell, Columbia Law School Professor Jamal Greene and Dean of the Universidad de los Andes Faculty of Law Catalina Botero-Marino.

Apart from Karman, other members include Kenyan human rights activist Maina Kiai, Pakistani digital rights activist Nighat Dad and former editor of the Indonesian publication Jakarta Post, Endy Bayuni.

Facebook said it selected the four co-chairs who in turn helped choose the rest of the 16 members.

“The Oversight Board is an external body that members of our community can appeal to on some of the most significant and challenging content decisions we face,” announced Facebook.

The social media company pointed out that it expected the members “to make some decisions that we, at Facebook, will not always agree with — but that’s the point: they are truly autonomous in their exercise of independent judgement.”

The decisions by the oversight board are expected to influence “content moderation guidelines” for Facebook and Instagram.

Brent Harris, Facebook’s director of public policy, said the company “will implement the board’s decisions unless doing so violates the law.” Over the next few months, the body expects to grow to around 40 total members.

Radicalisation experts believe that by choosing Karman for the influential role, Facebook failed to recognise the link between the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideological advocacy and extremist activity….

When Karman won the 2011 Nobel Peace prize for her “role in Arab spring protests,” the Muslim Brotherhood’s website, Ikhwanweb, released a statement on Twitter identifying her as a “Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood member,” sparking widespread speculation and criticism about her connection to the group.

Despite tactical disagreements about alliances in Yemen’s war, Karman is a leading figure of  Yemen’s Islah Party, a Muslim Brotherhood affiliate.

Karman has repeatedly defended the Muslim Brotherhood, even describing the group as “one of the victims of official tyranny and terrorism in the region, which Trump gives his supports and assistance.” She has said she believes the movement’s role in the region will “necessarily” grow in the future.

Many social media users in the Middle East and North Africa region reacted to Facebook’s selection of Karmancwith [sic] confusion and derision as the Yemeni writer is more known for her Islamist activism and divisive stances than for public service commitment….

The choice of Karman to Facebook’s advisory board will add to suspicions about the social media body’s political leanings and is unlikely to enhance the company’s credibility in the Arab world, experts say.

_________________________________________________________________

SEE ALSO:

https://www.jihadwatch.org/2020/05/the-muslim-brotherhood-

operative-on-facebooks-content-oversight-board-part-2