The New American reported in their article:
Saturday, September 7, 2013
WALMART WILL OFFER SAME SEX PARTNER HEALTH INSURANCE BENEFITS
The New American reported in their article:
EVANGELICAL FREE CHURCH OF AMERICA-CONTEMPLATIVE, ECUMENICAL, EMERGING & INTERFAITH ASSOCIATIONS
Lighthouse Trails exposed the EFCA's apostate and heretical associations, as in:
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=1803.
In response to a reader's inquiry, Lighthouse has added some updated information in their September 3, 2013 newsletter, which only points to increasing involvement in and support of contemplative practices, authors and their materials. The EFCA now has a close working affiliation with the "Christian Community Development Association" (CCDA), an ecumenical, interfaith think-tank that promotes the emerging view of social justice.
Quote from Lighthouse newsletter:
"It has been a number of years since we wrote about the EFCA’s move toward contemplative. You can read that 2008 article here. Current research indicates that the Evangelical Free Church has continued on this path. One example is the EFCA’s connection with an emerging-type organization called Christian Community Development Association (CCDA). EFCA is listed on the CCDA as a sponsor (and on their own website as a “partner”). CCDA is an ecumenical, interfaith think-tank that promotes the emerging view of social justice inline with change agents like Jim Wallis of SoJourners (also a sponsor for CCDA).
In addition, on the EFCA website, one can find references to contemplative practices such as lectio divina and quotes by contemplative’s such as Henri Nouwen, Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, and several resources for “Spiritual Formation.” The official magazine for the EFCA, EFCA Today, shows how contemplative spirituality is being accepted at the leadership level of the denomination. For example, the Summer 2010 issue has under “Book Recommendations authors Eugene Peterson, Timothy Keller (both contemplative advocates) and the late emergent author, Robert Webber.
As with other evangelical denominations that are promoting contemplative spirituality, this does not mean that every church within the EFCA is doing so. It would have to be looked at on a church by church basis."
________________________________________________________________________
Some videos of CCDA:
COMMON CORE'S ANTI-CHRISTIAN GLOBALIST AIMS
Above book can be purchased at Lighthouse Trails Research here:
Berit Kjos of Kjos Ministries
has written several articles recently about
Common Core public school nationalized educational standards,
its roots and aims:
See: http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/0013/common-core/CC-chronology-1.htm. (Part 1 of 3).
http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/0013/common-core/CC-chronology-2.htm. (Part 2 of 3).
http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/0013/common-core/CC-chronology-3.htm. (Part 3 of 3).
Also see:
Reviving the 'Science' of 'Re-education':
http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/009/re-education.htm.
Legalizing Mind Control:
http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/2003/1-mental.htm.
Justifying Mind Control:
http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/2003/2-mental.htm.
Social and Emotional Learning:
http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/05/ed-watch/1-26-sel.htm.
Bill Gates Teams Up With UNESCO:
http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/0013/common-core/bill_gates_teams_up_with_unesco.htm.
Common Core Forcing Marxism/Nazism on America’s Children:
http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/0013/excerpts/5-common-core-marxism.htm.
Two Moms vs. Common Core:
http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/0013/excerpts/5-moms-common-core.htm.
Brainwashing & "Education Reform":
http://www.crossroad.to/Quotes/brainwashing.html.
A Chronology of the UN-The Revolutionary Steps to Global Tyranny:
http://www.crossroad.to/Excerpts/chronologies/un.htm.
Steps toward Global Mind Control under the banner of "Mental Health" and Education:
http://www.crossroad.to/Excerpts/chronologies/mind-control.htm.
Chronology of World Education:
Moscow Declaration:
Monday, September 2, 2013
IDOLATROUS POPE TO BRING MARY STATUE FROM FATIMA TO VATICAN
Pope Francis has arranged to transport the idol statue of "Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima" in Portugal to the Vatican prior to October 13, 2013, when he is planning on consecrating the world to the "Immaculate Heart of Mary". The "Marian Day" ceremony, which is scheduled to take place at the Vatican will be attended by hundreds of religious movements and institutions that have a special Marian devotion.
See Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_of_Fatima.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctuary_of_Our_Lady_of_F%C3%A1tima.
http://www.americaneedsfatima.org/Articles/what-our-lady-of-fatima-said-on-june-13.html:
Our Lady appeared to Lucia dos Santos, Jacinta and Francisco Marto on May 13, 1917 at Fatima, Portugal. She asked the seers to return to the same place on the same day the following month. On June 13, 1917 she returned and as the preceding month the seers once again saw a great brilliance, which they called lightning, but which was really the glare of the approaching light. Some of the approximately fifty spectators who had come to the place noticed that the light of the sun became dimmer during the first few minutes of the conversation.
Others said that the top of the budding holm oak bent down, as if under the weight of something, a moment before Lucia spoke. During Our Lady's conversation with the seers, some of the bystanders heard a whispering, like the humming of a bee.
Lucia: What does Your Grace wish of me?
Our Lady: I want you to come here on the thirteenth of next month, to pray the Rosary every day, and to learn to read. I shall later say what I want.
(Lucia asked for the cure of a sick person.)
Our Lady: If he converts, he will be cured within the year.
Lucia: I would like to ask you to take us to heaven.
Our Lady: Yes, I shall take Jacinta and Francisco soon, but you will remain here for some time yet. Jesus wishes to use you in order to make me known and loved. He wishes to establish devotion to my Immaculate Heart in the world. I promise salvation to those who embrace it; and these souls will be beloved of God like flowers arranged by me to adorn His throne.
Lucia: Will I stay here alone?
Our Lady: No, daughter. Does that make you suffer much? Do not be dismayed. I will never forsake you. My Immaculate Heart shall be your refuge and the road that shall lead you to God.
"Upon saying these last words, she opened her hands, and for the second time she communicated to us the reflection of that intense light. We could see ourselves in it, as if immersed in God. Jacinta and Francisco seemed to be in the part of this light that went up toward heaven, and I in the part that was cast toward the ground. In front of Our Lady's right hand there was a heart encircled by thorns that seemed to pierce it. We understood that it was the Immaculate Heart of Mary, insulted by the sins of humanity and which desires reparation."
When this vision ceased, the Lady, still surrounded by the light that she radiated, rose from the little tree and glided toward the east until she disappeared completely. Several persons who were closer noticed that the buds at the top of the holm oak were bent in the same direction, as if they had been drawn by the Lady's clothes. They returned to their usual position only some hours later.
______________________________________________________________
See this YouTube video recounting the story:
________________________________________________________________
See this YouTube video recounting the story:
POPE FRANCIS KISSES THE "BLACK MARY" IN BRAZIL, and prayed silently in front of the 15 inch statue of Our Lady of Aparecida.
See: http://childrensrosary.blogspot.com/2013/07/pope-francis-places-people-of-latin.html, which states:
"Pope Francis continues to show his beautiful love for Our Lady.
During his trip this week to Brazil for World Youth Day 2013 he visited the Shrine of Aparecida. It is one of the largest shrines in the world dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. He told those present that he had come to place the people of Latin America under the intercessory protection of Our Lady. Pope Francis went on to say that "it is from Mary that the Church learns true discipleship." (instead of Jesus)
During his trip this week to Brazil for World Youth Day 2013 he visited the Shrine of Aparecida. It is one of the largest shrines in the world dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. He told those present that he had come to place the people of Latin America under the intercessory protection of Our Lady. Pope Francis went on to say that "it is from Mary that the Church learns true discipleship." (instead of Jesus)
This is not the first time Pope Francis has turned to Our Lady and sought her protection and guidance. The Holy Father recalled during the visit that he consecrated his pontificate to Our Lady at the Basilica of Mary Major in Rome.
Pope Francis prayed silently in front of the 15 inch statue of Our Lady of Aparecia, the "Black Mary." His eyes began to tear up and he was visibly moved as he prayed before Our Lady. He later was given a replica of the statue and carried it in his arms. He made a promise to those present that he would again return to this Shrine in 2017 to honor the 300 year anniversary of the finding of the statue of Our Lady of Aparecia in a nearby river. "
____________________________________________________________________________
OTHER PAPAL ADORATION OF "OUR LADY OF FATIMA":
Saturday, August 31, 2013
SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY ON SYRIA'S "CHEMICAL WEAPONS" USE
"It matters if the world speaks out in condemnation and then nothing happens."
John Kerry
And I believe, as President Obama does, that it is also important to discuss this directly with the American people. That’s our responsibility, to talk with the citizens who have entrusted all of us in the Administration and the Congress with the responsibility for their security. That’s why this morning’s release of our government’s unclassified estimate of what took place in Syria is so important. Its findings are as clear as they are compelling. I’m not asking you to take my word for it. Read for yourself, everyone, those listening. All of you, read for yourselves the evidence from thousands of sources, evidence that is already publicly available, and read for yourselves the verdict reached by our intelligence community about the chemical weapons attack the Assad regime inflicted on the opposition and on opposition-controlled or contested neighborhoods in the Damascus suburbs on the early morning of August 21st.
Our intelligence community has carefully reviewed and re-reviewed information regarding this attack, and I will tell you it has done so more than mindful of the Iraq experience. We will not repeat that moment. Accordingly, we have taken unprecedented steps to declassify and make facts available to people who can judge for themselves. But still, in order to protect sources and methods, some of what we know will only be released to members of Congress, the representatives of the American people. That means that some things we do know we can’t talk about publicly.
So what do we really know that we can talk about? Well, we know that the Assad regime has the largest chemical weapons program in the entire Middle East. We know that the regime has used those weapons multiple times this year and has used them on a smaller scale, but still it has used them against its own people, including not very far from where last Wednesday’s attack happened. We know that the regime was specifically determined to rid the Damascus suburbs of the opposition, and it was frustrated that it hadn’t succeeded in doing so.
We know that for three days before the attack the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons personnel were on the ground in the area making preparations. And we know that the Syrian regime elements were told to prepare for the attack by putting on gas masks and taking precautions associated with chemical weapons. We know that these were specific instructions. We know where the rockets were launched from and at what time. We know where they landed and when. We know rockets came only from regime-controlled areas and went only to opposition-controlled or contested neighborhoods.
And we know, as does the world, that just 90 minutes later all hell broke loose in the social media. With our own eyes we have seen the thousands of reports from 11 separate sites in the Damascus suburbs. All of them show and report victims with breathing difficulties, people twitching with spasms, coughing, rapid heartbeats, foaming at the mouth, unconsciousness and death.
And we know it was ordinary Syrian citizens who reported all of these horrors. And just as important, we know what the doctors and the nurses who treated them didn’t report – not a scratch, not a shrapnel wound, not a cut, not a gunshot wound. We saw rows of dead lined up in burial shrouds, the white linen unstained by a single drop of blood. Instead of being tucked safely in their beds at home, we saw rows of children lying side by side sprawled on a hospital floor, all of them dead from Assad’s gas and surrounded by parents and grandparents who had suffered the same fate.
The United States Government now knows that at least 1,429 Syrians were killed in this attack, including at least 426 children. Even the first responders, the doctors, nurses, and medics who tried to save them, they became victims themselves. We saw them gasping for air, terrified that their own lives were in danger.
This is the indiscriminate, inconceivable horror of chemical weapons. This is what Assad did to his own people.
We also know many disturbing details about the aftermath. We know that a senior regime official who knew about the attack confirmed that chemical weapons were used by the regime, reviewed the impact, and actually was afraid that they would be discovered. We know this.
And we know what they did next. I personally called the Foreign Minister of Syria and I said to him, “If, as you say, your nation has nothing to hide, then let the United Nations in immediately and give the inspectors the unfettered access so they have the opportunity to tell your story.” Instead, for four days they shelled the neighborhood in order to destroy evidence, bombarding block after block at a rate four times higher than they had over the previous 10 days. And when the UN inspectors finally gained access, that access, as we now know, was restricted and controlled.
In all of these things that I have listed, in all of these things that we know, all of them, the American intelligence community has high confidence, high confidence. This is common sense. This is evidence. These are facts.
So the primary question is really no longer: What do we know? The question is: What are we – we collectively – what are we in the world going to do about it?
As previous storms in history have gathered, when unspeakable crimes were within our power to stop them, we have been warned against the temptations of looking the other way. History is full of leaders who have warned against inaction, indifference, and especially against silence when it mattered most. Our choices then in history had great consequences and our choice today has great consequences. It matters that nearly a hundred years ago, in direct response to the utter horror and inhumanity of World War I, that the civilized world agreed that chemical weapons should never be used again.
That was the world’s resolve then, and that began nearly a century of effort to create a clear redline for the international community. It matters today that we are working as an international community to rid the world of the worst weapons. That’s why we signed agreements like the START Treaty, the New START Treaty, the Chemical Weapons Convention, which more than 180 countries, including Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon, have signed on to.
It matters to our security and the security of our allies. It matters to Israel. It matters to our close friends Jordan, Turkey, and Lebanon – all of whom live just a stiff breeze away from Damascus. It matters to all of them where the Syrian chemical weapons are. And if unchecked, they can cause even greater death and destruction to those friends. And it matters deeply to the credibility and the future interests of the United States of America and our allies.
It matters because a lot of other countries, whose polices challenges these international norms, are watching. They are watching. They want to see whether the United States and our friends mean what we say. It is directly related to our credibility and whether countries still believe the United States when it says something. They are watching to see if Syria can get away with it, because then maybe they too can put the world at greater risk.
And make no mistake, in an increasingly complicated world of sectarian and religious extremist violence, what we choose to do or not do matters in real ways to our own security. Some cite the risk of doing things, but we need to ask, what is the risk of doing nothing?
It matters because if we choose to live in a world where a thug and a murderer like Bashar al-Assad can gas thousands of his own people with impunity, even after the United States and our allies said no, and then the world does nothing about it, there will be no end to the test of our resolve and the dangers that will flow from those others who believe that they can do as they will.
This matters also beyond the limits of Syria’s borders. It is about whether Iran, which itself has been a victim of chemical weapons attacks, will now feel emboldened, in the absence of action, to obtain nuclear weapons. It is about Hezbollah, and North Korea, and every other terrorist group or dictator that might ever again contemplate the use of weapons of mass destruction. Will they remember that the Assad regime was stopped from those weapons’ current or future use, or will they remember that the world stood aside and created impunity?
So our concern is not just about some far off land oceans away. That’s not what this is about. Our concern with the cause of the defenseless people of Syria is about choices that will directly affect our role in the world and our interests in the world. It is also profoundly about who we are. We are the United States of America. We are the country that has tried, not always successfully, but always tried to honor a set of universal values around which we have organized our lives and our aspirations. This crime against conscience, this crime against humanity, this crime against the most fundamental principles of international community, against the norm of the international community, this matters to us. And it matters to who we are. And it matters to leadership and to our credibility in the world. My friends, it matters here if nothing is done. It matters if the world speaks out in condemnation and then nothing happens.
America should feel confident and gratified that we are not alone in our condemnation, and we are not alone in our will to do something about it and to act. The world is speaking out, and many friends stand ready to respond. The Arab League pledged, quote, “to hold the Syrian regime fully responsible for this crime.” The Organization for Islamic Cooperation condemned the regime and said we needed, quote, “to hold the Syrian Government legally and morally accountable for this heinous crime.” Turkey said there is no doubt that the regime is responsible. Our oldest ally, the French, said the regime, quote, “committed this vile action, and it is an outrage to use weapons that the community has banned for the last 90 years in all international conventions.” The Australian Prime Minister said he didn’t want history to record that we were, quote, “a party to turning such a blind eye.”
So now that we know what we know, the question we must all be asking is: What will we do? Let me emphasize – President Obama, we in the United States, we believe in the United Nations. And we have great respect for the brave inspectors who endured regime gunfire and obstructions to their investigation. But as Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary General, has said again and again, the UN investigation will not affirm who used these chemical weapons. That is not the mandate of the UN investigation. They will only affirm whether such weapons were used. By the definition of their own mandate, the UN can’t tell us anything that we haven’t shared with you this afternoon or that we don’t already know. And because of the guaranteed Russian obstructionism of any action through the UN Security Council, the UN cannot galvanize the world to act as it should.
So let me be clear. We will continue talking to the Congress, talking to our allies, and most importantly, talking to the American people. President Obama will ensure that the United States of America makes our own decisions on our own timelines based on our values and our interests.
Now, we know that after a decade of conflict, the American people are tired of war. Believe me, I am, too. But fatigue does not absolve us of our responsibility. Just longing for peace does not necessarily bring it about. And history would judge us all extraordinarily harshly if we turned a blind eye to a dictator’s wanton use of weapons of mass destruction against all warnings, against all common understanding of decency. These things we do know.
We also know that we have a President who does what he says that he will do. And he has said very clearly that whatever decision he makes in Syria, it will bear no resemblance to Afghanistan, Iraq, or even Libya. It will not involve any boots on the ground. It will not be open-ended. And it will not assume responsibility for a civil war that is already well underway. The President has been clear: Any action that he might decide to take will be a limited and tailored response to ensure that a despot’s brutal and flagrant use of chemical weapons is held accountable. And ultimately, ultimately, we are committed – we remain committed, we believe it’s the primary objective – is to have a diplomatic process that can resolve this through negotiation, because we know there is no ultimate military solution. It has to be political. It has to happen at the negotiating table, and we are deeply committed to getting there.
So that is what we know. That’s what the leaders of Congress now know. And that’s what the American people need to know. And that is at the core of the decisions that must now be made for the security of our country and for the promise of a planet where the world’s most heinous weapons must never again be used against the world’s most vulnerable people.
Thank you very much.
Our intelligence community has carefully reviewed and re-reviewed information regarding this attack, and I will tell you it has done so more than mindful of the Iraq experience. We will not repeat that moment. Accordingly, we have taken unprecedented steps to declassify and make facts available to people who can judge for themselves. But still, in order to protect sources and methods, some of what we know will only be released to members of Congress, the representatives of the American people. That means that some things we do know we can’t talk about publicly.
So what do we really know that we can talk about? Well, we know that the Assad regime has the largest chemical weapons program in the entire Middle East. We know that the regime has used those weapons multiple times this year and has used them on a smaller scale, but still it has used them against its own people, including not very far from where last Wednesday’s attack happened. We know that the regime was specifically determined to rid the Damascus suburbs of the opposition, and it was frustrated that it hadn’t succeeded in doing so.
We know that for three days before the attack the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons personnel were on the ground in the area making preparations. And we know that the Syrian regime elements were told to prepare for the attack by putting on gas masks and taking precautions associated with chemical weapons. We know that these were specific instructions. We know where the rockets were launched from and at what time. We know where they landed and when. We know rockets came only from regime-controlled areas and went only to opposition-controlled or contested neighborhoods.
And we know, as does the world, that just 90 minutes later all hell broke loose in the social media. With our own eyes we have seen the thousands of reports from 11 separate sites in the Damascus suburbs. All of them show and report victims with breathing difficulties, people twitching with spasms, coughing, rapid heartbeats, foaming at the mouth, unconsciousness and death.
And we know it was ordinary Syrian citizens who reported all of these horrors. And just as important, we know what the doctors and the nurses who treated them didn’t report – not a scratch, not a shrapnel wound, not a cut, not a gunshot wound. We saw rows of dead lined up in burial shrouds, the white linen unstained by a single drop of blood. Instead of being tucked safely in their beds at home, we saw rows of children lying side by side sprawled on a hospital floor, all of them dead from Assad’s gas and surrounded by parents and grandparents who had suffered the same fate.
The United States Government now knows that at least 1,429 Syrians were killed in this attack, including at least 426 children. Even the first responders, the doctors, nurses, and medics who tried to save them, they became victims themselves. We saw them gasping for air, terrified that their own lives were in danger.
This is the indiscriminate, inconceivable horror of chemical weapons. This is what Assad did to his own people.
We also know many disturbing details about the aftermath. We know that a senior regime official who knew about the attack confirmed that chemical weapons were used by the regime, reviewed the impact, and actually was afraid that they would be discovered. We know this.
And we know what they did next. I personally called the Foreign Minister of Syria and I said to him, “If, as you say, your nation has nothing to hide, then let the United Nations in immediately and give the inspectors the unfettered access so they have the opportunity to tell your story.” Instead, for four days they shelled the neighborhood in order to destroy evidence, bombarding block after block at a rate four times higher than they had over the previous 10 days. And when the UN inspectors finally gained access, that access, as we now know, was restricted and controlled.
In all of these things that I have listed, in all of these things that we know, all of them, the American intelligence community has high confidence, high confidence. This is common sense. This is evidence. These are facts.
So the primary question is really no longer: What do we know? The question is: What are we – we collectively – what are we in the world going to do about it?
As previous storms in history have gathered, when unspeakable crimes were within our power to stop them, we have been warned against the temptations of looking the other way. History is full of leaders who have warned against inaction, indifference, and especially against silence when it mattered most. Our choices then in history had great consequences and our choice today has great consequences. It matters that nearly a hundred years ago, in direct response to the utter horror and inhumanity of World War I, that the civilized world agreed that chemical weapons should never be used again.
That was the world’s resolve then, and that began nearly a century of effort to create a clear redline for the international community. It matters today that we are working as an international community to rid the world of the worst weapons. That’s why we signed agreements like the START Treaty, the New START Treaty, the Chemical Weapons Convention, which more than 180 countries, including Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon, have signed on to.
It matters to our security and the security of our allies. It matters to Israel. It matters to our close friends Jordan, Turkey, and Lebanon – all of whom live just a stiff breeze away from Damascus. It matters to all of them where the Syrian chemical weapons are. And if unchecked, they can cause even greater death and destruction to those friends. And it matters deeply to the credibility and the future interests of the United States of America and our allies.
It matters because a lot of other countries, whose polices challenges these international norms, are watching. They are watching. They want to see whether the United States and our friends mean what we say. It is directly related to our credibility and whether countries still believe the United States when it says something. They are watching to see if Syria can get away with it, because then maybe they too can put the world at greater risk.
And make no mistake, in an increasingly complicated world of sectarian and religious extremist violence, what we choose to do or not do matters in real ways to our own security. Some cite the risk of doing things, but we need to ask, what is the risk of doing nothing?
It matters because if we choose to live in a world where a thug and a murderer like Bashar al-Assad can gas thousands of his own people with impunity, even after the United States and our allies said no, and then the world does nothing about it, there will be no end to the test of our resolve and the dangers that will flow from those others who believe that they can do as they will.
This matters also beyond the limits of Syria’s borders. It is about whether Iran, which itself has been a victim of chemical weapons attacks, will now feel emboldened, in the absence of action, to obtain nuclear weapons. It is about Hezbollah, and North Korea, and every other terrorist group or dictator that might ever again contemplate the use of weapons of mass destruction. Will they remember that the Assad regime was stopped from those weapons’ current or future use, or will they remember that the world stood aside and created impunity?
So our concern is not just about some far off land oceans away. That’s not what this is about. Our concern with the cause of the defenseless people of Syria is about choices that will directly affect our role in the world and our interests in the world. It is also profoundly about who we are. We are the United States of America. We are the country that has tried, not always successfully, but always tried to honor a set of universal values around which we have organized our lives and our aspirations. This crime against conscience, this crime against humanity, this crime against the most fundamental principles of international community, against the norm of the international community, this matters to us. And it matters to who we are. And it matters to leadership and to our credibility in the world. My friends, it matters here if nothing is done. It matters if the world speaks out in condemnation and then nothing happens.
America should feel confident and gratified that we are not alone in our condemnation, and we are not alone in our will to do something about it and to act. The world is speaking out, and many friends stand ready to respond. The Arab League pledged, quote, “to hold the Syrian regime fully responsible for this crime.” The Organization for Islamic Cooperation condemned the regime and said we needed, quote, “to hold the Syrian Government legally and morally accountable for this heinous crime.” Turkey said there is no doubt that the regime is responsible. Our oldest ally, the French, said the regime, quote, “committed this vile action, and it is an outrage to use weapons that the community has banned for the last 90 years in all international conventions.” The Australian Prime Minister said he didn’t want history to record that we were, quote, “a party to turning such a blind eye.”
So now that we know what we know, the question we must all be asking is: What will we do? Let me emphasize – President Obama, we in the United States, we believe in the United Nations. And we have great respect for the brave inspectors who endured regime gunfire and obstructions to their investigation. But as Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary General, has said again and again, the UN investigation will not affirm who used these chemical weapons. That is not the mandate of the UN investigation. They will only affirm whether such weapons were used. By the definition of their own mandate, the UN can’t tell us anything that we haven’t shared with you this afternoon or that we don’t already know. And because of the guaranteed Russian obstructionism of any action through the UN Security Council, the UN cannot galvanize the world to act as it should.
So let me be clear. We will continue talking to the Congress, talking to our allies, and most importantly, talking to the American people. President Obama will ensure that the United States of America makes our own decisions on our own timelines based on our values and our interests.
Now, we know that after a decade of conflict, the American people are tired of war. Believe me, I am, too. But fatigue does not absolve us of our responsibility. Just longing for peace does not necessarily bring it about. And history would judge us all extraordinarily harshly if we turned a blind eye to a dictator’s wanton use of weapons of mass destruction against all warnings, against all common understanding of decency. These things we do know.
We also know that we have a President who does what he says that he will do. And he has said very clearly that whatever decision he makes in Syria, it will bear no resemblance to Afghanistan, Iraq, or even Libya. It will not involve any boots on the ground. It will not be open-ended. And it will not assume responsibility for a civil war that is already well underway. The President has been clear: Any action that he might decide to take will be a limited and tailored response to ensure that a despot’s brutal and flagrant use of chemical weapons is held accountable. And ultimately, ultimately, we are committed – we remain committed, we believe it’s the primary objective – is to have a diplomatic process that can resolve this through negotiation, because we know there is no ultimate military solution. It has to be political. It has to happen at the negotiating table, and we are deeply committed to getting there.
So that is what we know. That’s what the leaders of Congress now know. And that’s what the American people need to know. And that is at the core of the decisions that must now be made for the security of our country and for the promise of a planet where the world’s most heinous weapons must never again be used against the world’s most vulnerable people.
Thank you very much.
GERMAN AUTHORITIES FORCIBLY ABDUCT FOUR HOMESCHOOLERS
ADOLF HITLER ON HITLER YOUTH:
It was in 1937 when Adolf Hitler said: “The youth of today is ever the people of tomorrow. For this reason we have set before ourselves the task of inoculating our youth with the spirit of this community of the people at a very early age, at an age when human beings are still unperverted and therefore unspoiled. This Reich stands, and it is building itself up for the future, upon its youth. And this new Reich will give its youth to no one, but will itself take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing.”_______________________________________________________________
WUNDERLICH HOMESCHOOLED CHILDREN ABDUCTED
BY POLICE WITH BATTERING RAM
WHO INVADE THEIR HOME
BY POLICE WITH BATTERING RAM
WHO INVADE THEIR HOME
FOUR CHILDREN TAKEN TO UNKNOWN LOCATION
POLICE SAY PARENTS WILL NOT SEE CHILDREN SOON
At 8:00 a.m. on Thursday, August 29, 2013, in what has been called a "brutal and vicious act," a team of 20 social workers, police officers, and special agents stormed a homeschooling family's residence near Darmstadt, Germany, forcibly removing all four of the family's children (ages 7-14). The sole grounds for removal were that the parents, Dirk and Petra Wunderlich, continued to homeschool their children in defiance of a German ban on home education.
Judge Koenig, a Darmstadt family court judge, signed the order authorizing the immediate seizure of Dirk and Petra Wunderlich's children on August 28. Citing the parents' failure to cooperate "with the authorities to send the children to school," the judge also authorized the use of force "against the children" if necessary, reasoning that such force might be required because the children had "adopted the parents' opinions" regarding homeschooling and that "no cooperation could be expected" from either the parents or the children.
This story has been reported by at least several news sources to date:
The New American:
German authorities’ latest abduction of four homeschooled children, aged 7 through 14, occurred in the early hours of August 29. As the Wunderlich family was preparing to start the school day, a swarm of armed “special agents” with a battering ram arrived at the family’s home to seize the kids. According to court documents obtained and translated by theHome School Legal Defense Association, the sole justification for the home invasion and abduction was the parents’ refusal to surrender their children for government-approved “education.”
“I looked through a window and saw many people, police, and special agents, all armed,” Dirk Wunderlich, the father, told HSLDA after the terrifying ordeal. “They told me they wanted to come in to speak with me. I tried to ask questions, but within seconds, three police officers brought a battering ram and were about to break the door in, so I opened it.” According to Wunderlich, as neighbors stood outside crying, his 14-year-old daughter Machsejah was forcibly removed from home by two large, rude policemen “as if she were a criminal.” When Petra Wunderlich tried to kiss and hug Machsejah as she was being marched away to an undisclosed location, one of the “special agents” elbowed the distraught mother out of the way and said it was “too late for that.” Before leaving, officials promised the parents that they would not be seeing their children again "anytime soon."
The Blaze:
Christian Post:
crossmap.christianpost.com/news/german-dirk-and-petra-wunderlich-homeschool-family-raided-by-police-children-seized-4909.
Spectator:
http://spectator.org/blog/2013/08/30/german-state-seize-homeschoole,
Excerpts:
"The children are now effectively property of the state. How can Germany be considered a true democratic government when the liberties of parents and children are being consumed by their government?"
" The family resettled near Darmstadt, just 25 miles south of Frankfurt, with some trepidation. It is mandatory that all residents of Germany register with their local municipal authorities. Within days of the family registering their presence in the town, authorities initiated a criminal truancy case, and just months later the “Youth Welfare Office” was granted legal custody of the children. However, the court left the children in the residence with the parents since they were being well treated and otherwise cared for by their parents."
Spectator:
http://spectator.org/blog/2013/08/30/german-state-seize-homeschoole,
Excerpts:
"The children are now effectively property of the state. How can Germany be considered a true democratic government when the liberties of parents and children are being consumed by their government?"
" The family resettled near Darmstadt, just 25 miles south of Frankfurt, with some trepidation. It is mandatory that all residents of Germany register with their local municipal authorities. Within days of the family registering their presence in the town, authorities initiated a criminal truancy case, and just months later the “Youth Welfare Office” was granted legal custody of the children. However, the court left the children in the residence with the parents since they were being well treated and otherwise cared for by their parents."
"Authorities even took the children’s passports, making it impossible for the family to escape—a violation of a number of human rights guaranteed to them by the European Convention of Human Rights, said HSLDA Chairman and Founder Michael Farris."
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This terrorist act was a fulfillment of the promise by state and school authorities last year to return:
“Come Peacefully Now or by Force Later” article at
Home School Legal Defense:
http://hslda.org/hs/international/Germany/201211270.asp.
See One News Now:
Friday, August 30, 2013
GENDRON & HAUSER: CATHOLIC SACRIFICE OF THE MASS UNNECESSARY & PRIESTHOOD REPLACED BY JESUS CHRIST OUR HIGH PRIEST
The Catholic Eucharist:
Published on Aug 29, 2013 on YouTube Channel of Proclaiming the Gospel:
Mike Gendron and Jason Hauser discuss the errors, fallacies and heresies associated with the daily sacrifices of a Eucharistic Christ on Roman Catholic altars. Our dear Catholic friends and loved ones need to know the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect high priest offered Himself, the perfect sacrifice, once for all sin for all time, to a perfect God who demands perfection. Our Lord cried out, "It is finished" and the eternal sin debt was paid in full for all who believe. There are no more sacrifices and offerings for sin.
JOHN KERRY SECRETARY OF STATE ISSUES MILD "REQUEST" TO IRAN TO RELEASE AMERICAN PRISONERS
BECAUSE THE UNITED STATES HAS LOST MORAL AUTHORITY, THIS IS THE RESULT:
From the State Department:
http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2013/08/213592.htm, containing no particular outrage, firm condemnations, references to violations of moral law, and/or international law by John Kerry:
U.S. Citizens Detained or Missing in Iran
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
August 28, 2013
The United States respectfully asks the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to work cooperatively with us in our efforts to help U.S. citizens Robert Levinson, Amir Hekmati, and Saeed Abedini to return to their families after lengthy detentions.
Mr. Levinson went missing from Kish Island, Iran, in March 2007. Mr. Levinson is not only a husband, but a caring father to seven children. His family has endured with courage and quiet dignity the pain of spending so many important family milestones without him there. They shouldn’t have to endure additional worry about his whereabouts and well being. We call again on the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to uphold its offer to help find Mr. Levinson and return him safely to his family.
The United States is also deeply concerned about the fate of dual U.S. citizens Amir Hekmati and Saeed Abedini. Tomorrow marks the two-year anniversary of Mr. Hekmati’s detention in Iran on false espionage charges. On September 26, Mr. Abedini will have spent a year in detention in Iran. He was sentenced to eight years in prison on charges related to his religious beliefs.
President Rouhani has shared in his speeches and interviews over the past few months his hope and vision to improve the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s relationship with the world.
We urge the Iranian Government to release Mr. Hekmati and Mr. Abedini and to help us locate Mr. Levinson so that they may be reunited with their families as safely and as soon as possible.
These men belong at home with those who love them and miss them.
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Meanwhile the White House spokesperson is flippant when asked about Christians in Egypt being held in prison and tortured or killed, as seen in this YouTube video:
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