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.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
If Qatar would do this in Somalia, can the millions it has showered upon Georgetown University and other American universities be seen as benign? Georgetown is the epicenter of the “Islamophobia” propaganda industry in the U.S., and has worked indefatigably to manipulate Americans into thinking it wrong and bigoted to oppose jihad mass murder and Sharia oppression of women.
Coincidence? Almost certainly not.
“New York Times obtains recording revealing Qatari complicity in Somalia attack,” Al Arabiya, July 23, 2019:
A businessman linked to the Qatari Emir told Qatar’s ambassador to Somalia that an extremist attack in May was carried out to advance Doha’s interests in the country against the UAE, an audio recording obtained by the New York Times revealed.
According to the New York Times report, in the recording Khalifa Kayed al-Muhanadi tells Qatari ambassador Hassan bin Hamza Hashem that “the bombings and killings, we know who are behind them.”
Al-Muhanadi says the attack was done in order “to make Dubai people run away from there.”
“Let them kick out the Emiratis, so they don’t renew the contracts with them, and I will bring the contract here to Doha,” al-Muhanadi said.
The ambassador then tells al-Muhanadi that the attacks were taking place “to make them run away,” referring to the UAE.
“Our friends were behind the last bombings,” al-Muhanadi replies.
When asked by the New York Times about the recording, neither al-Muhanadi nor the Qatari government denied the authenticity of the phone call, which was secretly recorded by a “foreign intelligence agency opposed to Qatar’s foreign policies.”..
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
Eight years after the Diocese of Orange purchased the Crystal Cathedral — the glittering glass church in Garden Grove where the popular “Hour of Power ” TV show once beamed the late Rev. Robert H. Schuller’s sermons across the globe — the cathedral re-opened its doors Wednesday with a dedication ceremony, marking the end of a two-year, $72.3 million renovation. Renamed Christ Cathedral, the 78,000-square-foot structure and surrounding campus is now the center of Catholicism in Orange County and the seat of Bishop Kevin W. Vann.
The sanctuary will host 11 weekend Masses in four languages starting Saturday, according to Father Christopher Smith, rector and episcopal vicar of Christ Cathedral. The more than 12,000 worshippers can choose from English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Mandarin. The cathedral is the last building on the Christ Cathedral campus to finish renovations. “The cathedral stands as a physical sign of unity of the 62 parishes in the Diocese of Orange, ” Smith said. “We’re kind of the center of town for Orange County Catholics and others.” One innovative aspect of the renovation, Smith said, are “quatrefoils,” specially designed window shades that were added to 11,000 panes of glass to control sunlight. Instead of the bright light that used to come in through the glass building, Smith said the quatrefoils offer a softer glow, giving the cathedral’s interior an “ethereal look.”
TheAdditions also transformed the cathedral into a place for Catholic liturgy, including a marble platform and altar; a 1,000-pound crucifix hanging above it; a cathedra, the bishop’s chair; an ambo, where the Bible is read aloud during Mass; reconciliation chapels where confessions will be heard; a Blessed Sacrament Chapel for private prayers in front of the Eucharist; and an octagonal baptistery with a cross-shaped baptismal pool.
Aspects of the renovations also showcase the diversity of the Diocese of Orange, which, according to its leadership, is now one of the most diverse and fastest growing in the U.S.
The south end of the cathedral features a hand-painted mosaic of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patroness saint of the Diocese of Orange and the Americas.
Relics from Korean, Vietnamese, Mexican and American martyrs — as well as Pope John Paul II — are encased in the altar. And the entryway of the cathedral includes portraits of several saints, including Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church; Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first person born in the U.S. to become a saint; Lorenzo Ruiz, a 17th-century Filipino saint; and Oscar Romero, the archbishop from El Salvador who spoke out against poverty and injustice and who was assassinated in 1980 and canonized last year by Pope Francis.
The diocese is also in the process of building a 2-acre, outdoor shrine to Our Lady of La Vang, a Vietnamese Marian apparition, in a courtyard dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
“We’ve tried very hard to reflect the area we’re in,” Smith said.
On top of the physical renovations, the community underwent a transformation as well.
St. Callistus, a parish in Garden Grove, was relocated to the Christ Cathedral campus — where it held Mass at the cathedral’s Arboretum — so that it could start the process of becoming a cathedral parish, the “mother church” of the diocese.
“We’ve grown from going through a period of grief because of what was being left behind to coming to an understanding that we have been called to be the cathedral parish,” said Trudy Mazzarella, a parishioner at what is now called the Christ Cathedral Parish, “and that it’s very special to have that kind of responsibility.”
In addition to performing normal parish functions, cathedral parishes also serve the entire diocese by hosting special Masses, such as ordinations, and other events put on by the bishop.
Excitement for the cathedral’s opening has “grown exponentially,” Mazzarella said, comparing the dedication to the joy a family feels celebrating Christmas.
Since 2012, Mazzarella has also served as director of tour ministry for Christ Cathedral, organizing group and individual tours for visitors from 63 countries.
“I’m already getting phone calls and emails from people all over the United States wanting to get in there, and asking, ‘when can we book a tour?’” she said.
Designed by the post-modern architect Philip Johnson, the old Crystal Cathedral became the largest glass building in the world when it was completed 39 years ago.While the dedication marks the transformation of the cathedral’s interior — and community — one thing that wasn’t touched in the renovations was the building’s iconic exterior.
While the reflective exterior is a far cry from the traditional architectural style of most Catholic churches, Smith said the diocese wanted to preserve the legacy of Crystal Cathedral and its founder.
“We see ourselves as continuing in the footsteps of a great Christian preacher who built Christ Cathedral in the first place, ” he said.
Schuller retired in 2010 and died in 2015. Grandson Bobby Schuller, a pastor in Irvine, is continuing the “Hour of Power” broadcasts in the evangelical tradition.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
President Donald Trump wants Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, to cut the Fed Funds rate by a full percentage point Wednesday afternoon. Powell is certain to give him just one-quarter of that, with the possibility of more cuts soon.
The president has expressed regret repeatedly about his appointment of Powell as head of the country’s central bank, blaming him for raising rates four times last year, nine times since 2015, intentionally slowing his economy just as his reelection campaign is heating up.
The last time the Fed cut rates was in late 2008 when the central bank dropped rates to near zero in hopes they would stimulate the moribund post-real-estate-crash economy back to life. It took Trump’s Tax Cut and Jobs Act, combined with regulatory relief, to stir the economy. Powell’s concerns about incipient inflation caused him to raise rates in anticipation.
But with inflation low, the global economy slowing, and pressure from the White House, Powell is likely to open the door for more rate cuts later on this year. He may also terminate the Fed’s “balance sheet roll-off” earlier than scheduled. That effort to reduce the Fed’s holding of nearly $4 trillion in U.S. treasuries is sucking $50 billion out of the economy every month which Trump has accurately called “quantitative tightening.”
Anticipation has already affected long-term mortgage rates, which have dropped from 4.94 percent last November to 3.75 percent last week. This saves a homeowner more than $250 a month on a $250,000 30-year mortgage.
A quarter-point cut on a $5,000 credit card balance would lower the minimum monthly payment by $1 a month, while on a $30,000 home equity loan (HELOC or home equity line of credit) it would save the borrower a little over $6 a month.
Those holding a $200,000 adjustable-rate mortgage would see their monthly payment drop by $56 while those shopping for a new car would save $3 a month on a $25,000 loan. Those holding federal student loans would not be impacted as those rates are fixed by Congress and are not affected by any move Powell might make. In other words, the rate cut will have little immediate impact on the U.S. economy.
The real impact will be on how Powell juggles future rate cuts. Market watchers will be paying close attention to his statement Wednesday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. for clues about giving the president more of what he is demanding. The chairman will be expressing concerns over trade talk uncertainty, slowing business investment, and sluggish growth worldwide. He is likely to generalize about the problems facing Germany, where growth has slowed to a virtual standstill, and China, where government figures have clouded that economy’s real economic performance. He is likely to use phrases like “watching closely” and “carefully measuring” and “being sensitive” to further slowing globally.
He will most certainly say nothing about threats by the president to fire him if he doesn’t give him what he wants. He already answered that question back on July 10 when Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) asked him during a House Financial Services Committee hearing whether he would “pack up his stuff and go” if the president asked him to. Said Powell: “Of course, I would not do that,” adding, “The law gives me a four-year term and I fully intend to serve it.”
Short of being fired then, the next best thing Powell can do is to give the president what he wants — on the installment plan.
U.S. ARMY VETERAN LAUNCHES INDEPENDENT BID AGAINST DEMOCRAT MINNESOTA REP. ILHAN OMAR
Controversial Democrat congresswoman Ilhan Omar faces yet another 2020 challenger for her seat in Congress. One America's Meghann Dyke takes a look at their bid to unseat Omar.
Judicial Watch questions ethics of Rep. Ilhan Omar
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
It's the Omar/Sharpton playbook and it works.
No bigotry is so ugly that it can't be whitewashed in the service of the greater cause of hating President Trump. Just ask Ibraheem Samirah.
The Virginia Democratic lawmaker who disrupted President Trump’s speech in Jamestown on Tuesday has a history of making anti-Israel remarks on social media.
Ibraheem Samirah, a Virginia state delegate, interrupted Trump’s event commemorating the 400th anniversary of the first legislative assembly in the U.S. by shouting: “You can’t send us back! Virginia is our home!”
FOX News calls it anti-Israel. That really understates it.
Aside from the usual rants about Israel, Samirah had posted that the Jews had stolen his grandfather’s land and “washed off as the Promised Land for Jews only (using the Torah and Zionist ideology, a 3000 yo religious book and a 100 yo Jew-only philosophy.)”
Samirah’s hatred for Israel wasn’t news. The Jordanian Muslim BDS activist had co-founded a chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace (a misnamed pro-terrorist hate group that is neither peaceful nor Jewish), had served as a spokesman for Students for Justice in Palestine, a hate group whose chapters had been involved in numerous anti-Semitic incidents ranging from hate speech to acts of violence, and had spoken at an American Muslims for Palestine conference: an organization accused of supporting Hamas.
And it gets much uglier.
Another spokesman for the Islamic Action Front was Ibraheem Samirah’s father.
Sabri Samirah had chaired the Islamic Association for Palestine, a Hamas offshoot. The IAP had published material on its website cheering attacks on America before 9/11.
Sabri had come to the United States on a student visa before losing his legal status. After he left to visit his native Jordan, he was banned from returning in 2003 as a "security risk to the United States".
During his time in Jordan, Al Jazeera described Sabri as a “leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan”.
Ibraheem Samirah had called his father as a role model who inspired his “Palestinian” activism. His own statements suggest that he identifies with the Muslim Brotherhood.
"If you hand him over to the Jews, we will turn the ground upside down over your heads," it warned.
"You will lament your dead just as we did to you in Lebanon in 1982 when we destroyed the Marine House with a boobytrapped car, and there are plenty of cars in our country. You also still remember the oil tanker with which we blew up your soldiers in Saudi Arabia."
As Americans continue to lament our dead at the hands of Islamic terrorists, the son of the spokesperson for the Islamic Action Front has become an elected Democrat official in Virginia.
This is what the Democrats have become. A party of racists and terrorists.
Here's Mikhael Smits also discussing Samirah's background.
Dem lawmaker who disrupted Trump speech has history of anti-Israel remarks, just like the other Muslim Democrats
RAW INTERVIEW: Virginia Delegate Ibraheem Samirah explains why he interrupted Trump's speech
Ibraheem Samirah is the Democrat candidate in the Feb. 19 special election for the 86th HOD. You may know that Ibraheem tweeted that giving money to Israel is worse than giving money to the Ku Klux Klan. But it's not just what he has tweeted. His actions also matter.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
FLOWER MOUND, Texas — An 18-year-old who was allegedly sexually abused seven years ago by a now former children’s minister at The Village Church in Texas, led by Reformed pastor Matt Chandler, has filed suit against the church on claims of gross negligence and to obtain damages for emotional distress.
According to reports, in 2012 Associate Children’s Minister Matthew Tonne abused the then 11-year-old girl, who is not being identified, as she was in her cabin at Mount Lebanon Kids Camp.
The Village Church had a policy prohibiting the opposite sex from being in children’s cabins, but both male and female staffers allegedly used the cabin where the girl and others were sleeping to hold meetings.
The teen’s family says that she told them about the incident in February 2018, at which time they contacted both the church and the police.
In June 2018, the church fired Tonne, but because of an ongoing problem with drunkenness. According to the Religion News Service, Chandler outlined last month during the annual Southern Baptist Convention meeting that Village Church did not know at the time that Tonne had been accused of sexual abuse.
The teen and her family, however, allege that Tonne had been identified in May, a month before his firing.
In September, Village Church posted a notice on its website that the Cedar Hill Police Department was investigating a report of a sexual assault at a camp that youth from the church had attended in 2012. It expressed support for the teen who had come forward, and provided assurance that “no persons of interest in this investigation … have access to children at The Village Church.”
“It took courage and strength for the child and the family to share this information, and we want to support them in any way possible,” the statement read. “We have been working with the family and Detective [Michael] Hernandez to do all that we can to bring healing and the light of justice to this situation, including the decision to make this investigation public now.”
The church also noted that it has since required all staff and volunteers who work with children to undergo training with the third party organization MinistrySafe.
Tonne was indicted by a Dallas County grand jury in January on a charge of “indecency with a child involving sexual contact,” and he turned himself in to police. He denies any wrongdoing and is free on bond.
The girl is being represented by Boz Tchividjian, a grandson of Billy Graham and brother of former pastor Tullian Tchividjian. He is the founder of GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment) and a former child abuse prosecutor.
According to Relevant Magazine, the lawsuit alleges that The Village Church failed to “implement reasonable policies and procedures to detect and prevent the sexual abuse of [the child] by Tonne,” and that it also did not “adhere to the policies and procedures it had in place at the time.”
The Village Church has “not yet to date demonstrated a good faith desire to resolve this,” Tchividjian further told The New York Times. “We have provided ample opportunity and ample time for that. We have hit a brick wall, and at that point in time we had to make the difficult but necessary decision to press forward to filing the lawsuit.”
Chandler said during a sermon last month that while the thought he and others did the best they could to care for the family as soon as he became aware — viewing the matter not just as a pastor but also a father, he also stated that he has been “introspective” about the matter and outlined specific ways that the church could do better.
“This is every parent’s worst nightmare. This is every organization’s worst nightmare,” he stated. “At no point did we try to hide or obscure the facts. I am not interested in defending any name here, but to see justice and healing.”
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
A swimming pool in the German city of Düsseldorf has been forced to introduce mandatory ID card checks in an effort to stop sexual assaults and rowdy behavior by migrant youths that has required the police to be called out on numerous occasions.
Following a crisis summit between administrators, the mayor and the police chief, an online ticket system linked to people’s IDs has been established to control who is allowed to enter the pool.
“In Rheinbad we have introduced an identity card for all visitors,” said Düsseldorf Mayor Thomas Geisel. “Those who do not comply, will not be let in. It is absolutely unacceptable and inconceivable that families who want to spend their free time here are harassed by youth gangs.”
As we reported earlier this month, the pool had to be closed twice after hundreds of male migrants harassed a family, prompting a huge police deployment.
Last Friday, the pool had to be cleared again as around 60 North African migrants began engaging in aggressive beahvior. Outnumbered, the six security guards on patrol had to call police for backup. 20 officers arrived and the pool was closed.
“It should be known, that before the migrant crisis, German swimming pools didn’t need six security guards to maintain order. It’s likely that they didn’t need any at all,” comments Voice of Europe.
It remains to be seen how authorities will prevent the kind of people who cause mayhem from using the pool. They could only really do so by barring people from North African countries, which would set off a nationwide controversy and lead to widespread accusations of racism.
MULTI-MILLIONAIRE OWNS THREE EXPENSIVE HOMES, SPENDS $300,000 FLYING AROUND THE COUNTRY, HAS OPULENT LIFESTYLE, WHILE PROMOTING
"GREEN NEW DEAL"
Bernie Sanders has launched a bid for the 2020 presidency, and is promoting his vision for a socialist America while condemning the one-percent for their wealth. However, Bernie doesn't exactly practice what he preaches.
One America's Pearson Sharp explains.
BERNIE SANDERS BLASTS GREED, YET OWNS
SWANKY VACATION HOME
Vacation home three times the average home cost in Vermont, according to media reports
“A nation based on greed will not survive morally, economically or politically,” Sanders stated.
Ironically enough, some of Sanders supporters were “questioning his socialist authenticity,” according to NPR, when he bought a $575,000 vacation home in 2016, which was around three times the average home price in his home state of Vermont.
“The $575,000, four-bedroom home includes 500 feet of Lake Champlain beachfront on the east side of the island, according to the Vermont newspaper Seven Days,” NPR stated. “The purchase makes this Sanders’ third home, and after the news broke of his recent purchase, the Internet became a breeding ground for complaints.”
It’s worth noting that Sanders’ hypocrisy of pushing socialism yet enjoying the fruits of capitalism is fairly common in socialist countries in which the country’s wealth is concentrated among a tiny elite while the population starves.
Given that, it’s almost as if Sanders is suggesting that a socialist country will not survive morally, economically or politically.
However, his schick of pushing socialism on a national stage seems to be working well for him financially.
The same can’t be said about Burlington College in Vermont which went bankrupt after Sanders’ wife served as its president for several years.
“People find it odd that the greatest proponents of socialism seem to live in high style,” stated a 2017 article from the Daily Wire. “The Castros are worth at least a billion dollars. Stalin lived the high life while his people starved in the Soviet Union.”
“Hugo Chavez’s second-oldest daughter is worth in excess of $4 billion; Chavez’s family owns 17 estates in the country. Current socialist leader Nicolas Maduro is also in the money.”
“Socialism is fine for those at the bottom,” the article continued. “It’s those at the top who really benefit, though, from just a few too many pudding cups. But they won’t be giving those up anytime soon.”
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says that churches and faith-groups are an important Democratic ally in promoting open borders, amnesty, and immigration lawlessness. Many evangelicals are taking part in a leftist propaganda plot, and don’t know it.
Foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you; for in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor I have had mercy on you (Isaiah 60:10).
God is for the building of border walls, and more than a few passages speak of good fences as a sign of national prosperity. In fact, an entire book of the Bible (Nehemiah) is devoted to the building of a border wall designed to keep out foreign invaders. Isaiah 60:10 (above) speaks of border walls as a sign of God’s compassion for the nation and even mentions foreign nations paying for it as a particularly powerful demonstration of God’s favor. So maybe Mexico should build our wall after all.
Speaking last week, Pelosi derided the president for performing his function as America’s Commander in Chief and went so far as to explain to illegal aliens how they could thwart US law enforcement officials who were tasked with serving immigration warrants. She also claimed in her speech that America’s churches were a key ally in the Democratic agenda to provide safe residency to upwards of 11 to 20 million undocumented Democrats.
Pelosi said…
“[Churches] were very concerned that this goes too far because these raids were not what they signed up for with President Trump. And I think their calls to the president made a difference. Hopefully the president will think again about it or these groups will weigh in once again.”
Pelosi’s comments come as ICE officials are busy carrying out plans to serve more than two thousand warrants on illegal immigrants who have broken other U.S. laws beside immigration policies.
Since losing the 2016 presidential election largely due to ignoring evangelical influence, Democrats have worked tirelessly to rope in America’s evangelicals and mobilize them for a liberal victory in 2020. Polarizing America along ethnic and ideological grounds is a key component of this election cycle for Democrats. They hope immigration is the one issue that finds common ground with people of faith.
Democrats have made incredible inroads into the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, largely due to the influence of Russell Moore, who serves as the president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, an entity owned by the Southern Baptist Convention. Moore—a former Democratic staffer and proud communitarian—has done everything within his power to turn ordinarily conservative evangelicals into advocates for lawlessness on this issue.
Moore helps to run the Evangelical Immigration Table, funded and started by the National Immigration Forum, a foundation belonging to George Soros. Through Moore and his colleagues at the ERLC and sister organization (they share contributors, writers, speakers, and council members), The Gospel Coalition, many churches are beginning to cave on this issue that may very well swing the 2020 elections.
The two leaders, Pelosi and Moore, aren’t without connections. After it was revealed that an ERLC-backed group began to advocate for “gay rights,” Moore spoke alongside Pelosi at an event for the CCCU in partnership with the National Association of Evangelicals, which is a sub-organization of the World Council of Churches.
