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.
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Flashback: In 2009, Russell Moore, the former Democrat staffer who currently runs the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention said he wished his wife was a Democrat and more like Hillary Clinton.
In a 2009 column, Russell Moore says he almost pulled out of the driveway of his yet-to-be wife on their first date after seeing a Republican campaign sign in her yard. The thought of a Republican wife was revolting to the left-of-center Southern Baptist leaders, and he wanted a wife more like Hillary Clinton.
Even after I agreed to let my cousin introduce us, I almost stopped it. On our first date, I almost turned around in her driveway when I saw the “Bush/Quayle ’92” sign in the yard. I was campaigning all over south Mississippi for a Democratic congressman, and I was going out with a Republican?
The leftist went on---
More than that, I worried she was “too quiet,” as I explained it to my cousin, too gentle, for the rough world of politics where I planned to live my life and career. I had illusions that I was going to be governor of Mississippi one day, and I needed a wife who had the “fire in the belly” to speak on the campaign stump, pressure donors into giving more, and attack back at political opponents. I needed a partner who was a Mississippi version of (at least the 1990s version of) Hillary Rodham Clinton, I guess I was thinking.
Moore saidEven after I agreed to let my cousin introduce us, I almost stopped it. On our first date, I almost turned around in her driveway when I saw the “Bush/Quayle ’92” sign in the yard. I was campaigning all over south Mississippi for a Democratic congressman, and I was going out with a Republican?The leftist went onMore than that, I worried she was “too quiet,” as I explained it to my cousin, too gentle, for the rough world of politics where I planned to live my life and career. I had illusions that I was going to be governor of Mississippi one day, and I needed a wife who had the “fire in the belly” to speak on the campaign stump, pressure donors into giving more, and attack back at political opponents. I needed a partner who was a Mississippi version of (at least the 1990s version of) Hillary Rodham Clinton, I guess I was thinking.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
GETTYS PROMOTING FOUNDER OF VEGGIE TALES
(Friday Church News Notes, January 31, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - One of the speakers scheduled for Keith and Kristyn Getty’s Sing! Worship Conference 2020 is Phil Vischer, creator of VeggieTales. The announcement promises “three days of deep theology, timeless artistry and rich congregational worship,” but there is no deep theology in VeggieTales. From its inception, it was a dangerous bridge to the world, creating in children a taste for every type of worldly music. The VeggieTale movie Jonah featured “Jump, Jive an’ Wail” by secular rocker Brian Setzer of the Stray Cats. Following are the lyrics: “Baby, baby it looks like it’s gonna hail ... You better come inside Let me teach you how to jive and wail ... Papa’s in the icebox lookin’ for a can of ale ... Mama’s in the backyard learning how to jive and wail.” Vischer says that laughter is a key to teaching. So why didn’t Jesus, the Master Teacher, make people laugh while He taught them spiritual truths? We believe the ultra silly VeggieTales approach to teaching spiritual truths CHEAPENS the things of God. It brings eternal truth down to the level of worldly cartoons. The Bible says that “foolishness is bound in the heart of a child” (Proverbs 22:15). The last thing we need to do is encourage the innate silliness of children, as if they are not already silly enough without the help of sincere but misguided adults. Consider the VeggieTales version of Nebuchadnezzar forcing Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego to worship the idol in the book of Daniel. Nebby K. Nezzer, manufacturer of chocolate bunnies, tries to force Shack, Rack, and Benny to worship a giant bunny. The VeggieTales song “Dave and the Giant Pickle” is dedicated to the psycho-babble theme of “self-esteem.” “Oh Santa” from “Silly Songs with Larry” is about the mythical Santa Claus. The VeggieTales movie Jonah had the king of Nineveh claiming he didn’t know that the things they were doing were wrong and pretending that their chief sin was slapping each other with fish. What a fearful example of trivializing sin! The Gettys have no boundaries and are a bridge to anything and everything. (See “The Gettys: Pied Pipers of Contemporary Worship Music” at www.wayoflife.org.)
Phil Vischer, the creator behind the popular VeggieTales show and brand, created another new staple for kids: The Laugh and Learn Bible for Kids: The Gospel in 52 Five-Minute Bible Stories.
With the release, Vischer’s goal is to help kids better understand God’s word and learn how to apply it to their lives.
“When we teach kids the Bible, either we do one of two things: we hand them a whole full text Bible and they drown, they never make it past Leviticus, or we give them things that are so abbreviated, they’re just little snapshots of Bible stories, that don’t have the connective tissue that makes the Bible one cohesive story,” he said. “Kids want to be part of a big story. That’s why we love Star Wars, it’s why we love Lord of the Rings. It’s why they love Harry Potter. They want to be part of a big story.”
“These all new episodes will re-introduce VeggieTales to existing fans and remind new ones the importance of presenting biblical values through high-quality children’s entertainment.”
SOUTHERN BAPTIST LEADER SAYS MANY CATHOLICS ARE BORN AGAIN
(Friday Church News Notes, January 31, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Southern Baptist Richard Land says that he is seeing “more and more Catholics” who have been born again (“Being ‘born again’ isn’t trendy--it’s meaningful,” OneNewsNow, Jan. 24, 2020). Land was head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission from 1988 to 2013. He made the recent comment in light of the 2018-2019 General Social Survey that found that the use of the term “born again” is spreading to Catholics and mainline Protestants. He said, “It’s not what your denominational affiliation is, it’s whether you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.” But the Roman Catholic Church is not just a different “denomination.” It is a different religion from the New Testament faith once delivered to the saints. Rome has a false christ and a false gospel. Its christ is a consecrated wafer called the host that is worshipped as the very Jesus Christ. Its gospel is baptismal regeneration followed by participation in the other sacraments. I have met “evangelical Catholics” while attending ecumenical conferences with media credentials, but when questioned carefully about salvation, they demonstrate their confusion and their trust in the sacraments and “the church.” I have never met a Roman Catholic who testified, “I am trusting in the blood of Christ alone for salvation; baptism and sacraments have absolutely nothing to do with salvation; Mary and the saints cannot hear and answer prayer; I know that Rome’s gospel is unscriptural and I renounce it.” That would be the testimony of a truly “born again Catholic.” In 2005, Land was recognized by Time magazine as one of the “25 most influential evangelicals in America.” (For documentation of Rome’s gospel from sources such as the Vatican II Council and the New Catholic Catechism, see Is the Roman Catholic Church Changing?, a free eBook available from www.wayoflife.org.)
TRUMP IS THE FIRST PRESIDENT TO ATTEND
MARCH FOR LIFE
(Friday Church News Notes, January 31, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Trump Defends the Unborn,” PJMedia.com, Jan. 24, 2020: “President Donald Trump became the first president in history to attend and speak at the March for Life in person. The president received deafening applause from the thousands in attendance as he championed the dignity of the unborn, condemned radical Democrat proposals on abortion, and touted his historic wins for the pro-life movement. ‘Unborn children have never had a stronger defender in the White House,’ Trump declared. He mentioned his administration's efforts on the Mexico City Policy, a pro-life rule on Title X funding, support for the Little Sisters of the Poor, new rules preserving faith-based adoption, and his 187 confirmed originalist federal judges. ‘Sadly, the far-left is actively working to erase our God-given rights, shut down faith-based charities, ban religious believers from the public square, and silence Americans who believe in the sanctity of life,’ the president declared. ‘They are coming after me because I am fighting for you and we are fighting for those who have no voice, and we will win. When it comes to abortion, Democrats have embraced the most radical and extreme positions for years and decades...,’ Trump added. ‘Nearly every top Democrat in Congress now supports taxpayer-funded abortion all the way up until the moment of birth.’ ... He concluded the speech with a firm declaration of the sanctity of human life, born and unborn. ‘Every child brings joy to a family, every person is worth protecting, and above all we know that every human soul is divine and every human life, born and unborn, is made in the holy image of almighty God,’ Trump said.” CONCLUSION: President Trump demonstrated his ignorance of Scripture in saying that every human soul is divine, but we are glad for his open and unqualified support of the pro-life movement in gross contrast to every Democrat party presidential contender.
TRANSGENDER EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN PASTOR
(Friday Church News Notes, January 31, 2020, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Transgender Latin makes history,” NBC News, Dec. 13, 2019: “Before coming out as transgender, Nicole Garcia prayed daily that God would ‘fix’ her. When her prayers weren’t answered and the feeling in her gut didn’t go away, she gave up on religion. Now, nearly four decades later, Garcia stands behind the pulpit at Westview Lutheran Church in Boulder, Colorado, and delivers weekly sermons to a congregation of more than 100 faithful as their ordained pastor. ‘Nobody can question my faith, my devotion to Christ, my devotion to the church. That’s why I’m the pastor here,’ Garcia, who turned 60 Thursday, told NBC News. ‘Being trans is secondary.’ Garcia, who delivered her first sermon at Westview earlier this month, is the first known transgender Latina to serve as a pastor within the 4 million-strong Evangelical Lutheran Church in America--an unanticipated position for someone who grew up in the Roman Catholic Church and left religion entirely for nearly 20 years.” COMMENT BY BRO. CLOUD: Missing in Garcia’s testimony is biblical salvation. As a Roman Catholic, Garcia was baptized, sacramentalized, and prayed, but he didn’t come on God’s terms in repentance and saving faith. When he became a Lutheran, it was the same thing: sacramentalism. All his life, by his own testimony, Garcia has believed a gospel of works, and it is a false gospel with no life-changing power. Religion cannot “fix” man’s sin problem. The old Adamic nature is full of sin, every type of sin. The Lord Jesus said, “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness” (Mark 7:21-22). Only biblical salvation can “fix” man by regeneration and sanctification. Paul describes how that some of the citizens of wicked Corinth were “fixed.” “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such WERE some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).
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New York – -(AmmoLand.com)- The march for more gun laws in New York continues with on another assault on the rights of the citizens in what is truly becoming the Empire State. The latest is sponsored by state Senator James Sanders Jr. of the 10th Senate District which low and behold is over seventy-five percent Democrat and is in southeast Queens, some of the more crime-ridden parts of New York City.
The bill (S7065) (A01589) would make it mandatory that every gun owner in the state of New York get a mental health evaluation before they could purchase a firearm. This wouldn’t be a one-time thing, this would be for everygun and of course, these evaluations would have to be held at a location of the state of New York’s choosing and would be at the expense of the person looking to purchase the gun. This new assault on the rights of gun owners comes in the face of the ever progressive agenda of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s regime making it more than well known that gun owners in New York State are not only not wanted, they are on his list of targets and as he has said in the past if people don’t like his rules, then they are free to leave. The way things are going in New York, that’s getting to be the only thing they are free to do.
So, each time a gun owner wants to buy a gun, no matter what, they will have to seek out an approved mental health professional to have an evaluation performed.
For rural gun owners, where most people who own guns in the state happen to live, it would involve a drive to probably your nearest hospital. In my locale, that’s at least forty-five miles in one direction. Then there’s the cost of the expense to the price of the gun, which no one knows since it will be at the discretion of the doctor, and if the gun owner has health insurance if it will even be covered, etc.
NY Democrat State Senator James Sanders Jr.
Once the potential gun owner has the proof, he or she passed their mental health evaluation then they have to take that to the gun store and still fill out the paperwork. So, you can imagine this would be the death knell for all gun shows in the state because there would be no one walking out of one with a firearm purchased at all since the NICS check won’t even be able to be performed until the mental health screening is done. In fact, since most doctors don’t have weekend office hours, gun shops might as well close up because they won’t be doing much in the way of selling.
As usual, this new law would do absolutely nothing to keep criminals but it would another hurdle in a long line of infringements to law-abiding gun owners in a state where the ruling party with its new no cash bail law has dumped criminals back out on the streets to re-offend while law-abiding citizens are pleading with police and what few lawmakers are listening to reign in the lawlessness that is now just beginning to be realized.
There is also a larger and much more sinister motive to think about here. New York passed its own version of a Red Flag law last year, and unlike other states, it allows schools and just about anyone else to petition the courts to get an ERPO and have someone’s firearms taken away. Now can you imagine every gun owner now having to be subjected to a mental health exam, over and over again, where one wrong question, one misconstrued answer or even the bias of the doctor could not only prevent someone from legally buying the gun they were looking to get, but also lead to the police coming to the house and taking the rest and with a doctor’s word versus the citizen’s in court, the gun owner, soon to become the former gun owner, wouldn’t stand a chance legally.
This is just the ongoing pattern of gun control laws not only sweeping New York, and now Virginia and other states, but are just the tip of the spear of what the left really wants, to take guns by any means necessary. What these lawmakers couldn’t do one way is now being done another. I urge any gun owner in the state of New York to oppose this legislation, we can’t play the “it won’t happen here” game anymore, because when that gets said enough times, it does happen here, and it will happen here. This is an election year for all of the lawmakers in New York, and the cash bail law is proving to be so unpopular that it could cost a few Democrats their Senate and Assembly seats, perhaps enough to gain back some power, enough to keep Andrew Cuomo in check. Call your elected officials, write them, email them, and make sure they know where you stand, we are on our own here, we cannot rely on the NRA in New York which has sadly all but vanished.
The Founding Fathers never had a lobby group, they were on their own too, and New York was once part of the bastions of freedom from tyranny, I believe it can be done once again.
The Battle of Long Island was one of the pivotal battles during the American Revolution and was fought in New York.Without the defeat of the British at the Battle of Saratoga it's likely the Revolutionary War would have had a different outcome. New York was founded with the blood of patriots.
About David LaPell
David LaPell has been a Corrections Officer with the local Sheriff's Department for thirteen years. A collector of antique and vintage firearms for over twenty years and an avid hunter. David has been writing articles about firearms, hunting, and western history for ten years. In addition to having a passion for vintage guns, he is also a fan of old trucks and has written articles on those as well.
_____________________________________________________________ SEE ALSO: https://www.secondamendmentdaily.com/2020/01/new-york-bill-requires-mental-health-checks-before-any-firearms-purchase/ EXCERPTS: "This sort of posturing by Senator James Sanders is especially rich. Mr. Law-and-Order wants to require mental health evaluations for gun owners but New York voters remember that in 2016, he was personally investigated by the FBI for corruption. Apparently he was offering to approve funding to certain projects in exchange for huge financial kickbacks. The investigation ranged to wire fraud, and more–all the way back to his campaigning for City Council." "Because while these same extreme leftist politicians are crying about gun violence, they’re voting to release hundreds of violent felons!" "As of January 1st, a bill that Governor Cuomo and his radical left friends passed now allows violent felons to walk free until their trail–without even posting a bond. Arsonists, burglars, those who assault a child, manslaughter suspects, drug dealers–even those who sell to children, sex perverts who make and distribute child porn, and hundreds more….all go free under Cuomo’s new bail reform law!"
"A Chronicle source has confirmed that the office of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharaha, left, is investigating how state Sen. James Sanders Jr. allocated money to community nonprofits when he was a city councilman. At the same time, Sanders is vehemently denying a complaint that he sought a kickback from a Rockaway organization seeking city funding in 2012."
"But its larger story was based on allegations by Malisa Rivera and Marion Moses that Sanders in 2012 offered to fund their group to the tune of $1.7 million, allegedly in return for a kickback of $250,000."
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When the freedom of speech is entirely a dead letter, those who were supposed to be its guardians will congratulate themselves for never having been “racist.”
“Deplatformed: How Big Tech Companies & Corporate America Subvert the Second Amendment,” by Sam Jacobs, Ammo.com, January 26, 2020:
…Big Tech’s War on Free Speech
There is a war against free speech and Big Tech is the one waging it. Congress has looked into this, with Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas leading the charge, not allowing Facebook and other Big Tech companies to weasel out of answering hard questions that the public has about censorship on the Internet.
It’s less true to say that Facebook, Google and other Big Tech platforms “lean left” than it is to say that they push a globalist, neoliberal, corporatist line that eschews any sort of values or ethics other than growth. Edward Abbey has said that the philosophy of growth for the sake of growth is also the philosophy of the cancer cell.
The Big Tech war against free speech is nothing new and there have been canaries in the coal mine for years. Everyone remembers MILO being shown the door on Twitter for a dubious accusation that he led a mob against actress Leslie Jones. But the real test case was not him, it was hacker and troll Andrew Auernheimer, commonly known by his handle “weev.”
weev (always lowercase) is difficult to defend because he has unpopular viewpoints. To wit, he has a large swastika tattooed on his chest. However, proponents of the First Amendment and free speech shouldn’t be concerned with what weev thinks or says, because what he thinks or says is irrelevant to whether or not he has the right to think it and say it. But Twitter and other Big Tech platforms were smart in choosing such an ideological pariah to test the waters.
There is a direct line to be drawn from the deplatforming of weev on Twitter to the unpersoning of Alex Jones to the shadow banning and outright deplatforming of conservative voices all across the web. Mainstream, establishment conservatives have done themselves a disservice by attempting to defend themselves against deplatforming on the basis that “I’m not a Nazi” for two reasons.
First, it doesn’t matter if you’re a Nazi or not. All legal speech should be allowed on social media, or else Big Tech is an editorial content curator, which makes it liable for anything that is posted on there. This means that your ex-spouse lying about how you missed Little Timmy’s baseball game on Facebook can be construed as defamation, for which Facebook is liable because they didn’t remove the status update. Facebook’s pretense that it is a content-neutral platform, a claim that is patently false, is what protects it from being sued every time someone lies about someone else on the platform or from being hauled into court every time that ISIS uses WhatsApp to coordinate an attack.
But the other reason is that for many on the left, there is not a tangible difference between weev, MILO, Alex Jones, Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter, Wayne LaPierre, Ted Cruz, Ben Sharpiro or the President of the United States. Anyone to the right of John McCain is seen as either a literal fascist, a fascist apologist, or a gatekeeper who opens the door to fascist ideology.
Big Tech will not stop at deplatforming actual, self-avowed fascists, nor will it stop at conspiracy theorists, edgy conservatives, or even “respectable” centrist types like Dave Rubin. To throw the far right under the bus in the hopes of satisfying Big Tech’s blood lust is a strategic mistake – it legitimizes the entire process of deplatforming, which will eventually swallow up anyone who believes in the Constitution and the rule of law. Big Tech and the left either see no difference between you and a Nazi, or pretend not to because it’s politically expedient.
This is doubly important because of how many Big Tech companies are actively spying on their users. The EFF maintains an annual detailed list of who is telling the government about its users and their data, who informs users that the government is sniffing around about them, and who even bothers to disclose their data retention policies.
What this means is that if and when the federal government begins compiling a list of “potential right-wing terrorists” or “right-wing extremists” (to the extent that they do not already maintain such lists), they will have a ready-made mine of data from Big Tech, who have shown themselves to be more than willing to cooperate with the federal government, with minimal or no arm-twisting on the part of the feds. Take, for example, the Philadelphia synagogue shooter. Self-proclaimed “free speech” platform Gab was more than willing to hand over all the data they had about his account to the feds without even being asked.
Sure, no one wants to be in the position of defending a synagogue shooter. But the point is that these platforms, even the ones who allegedly have your back, have shown themselves willing to roll on their users provided enough of a fever is whipped up in the press.
Conservatives Censored on Social Media
It’s worth showing just how many mainstream, run-of-the-mill conservatives have been censored by Big Tech – it’s not just the MILOs and the weevs of the world who are being shown the door. Indeed, we believe that these types are censored not out of any actual desire to suppress so-called “hate speech,” but instead to act as a test case for setting the precedent for suppressing legal speech. Here are some examples that are worth considering:
Pastor Rich Penkoski: This pastor runs a popular Facebook page, “Warriors for Christ.” He was suspended mid-sermon for criticizing the rainbow flag. He was previously banned for calling an atheist a liar and sharing verses from the Quran that called for the killing of non-Muslims.
Over Two Dozen Catholic Pages: In July 2017, Facebook banned several Catholic pages with millions of followers. Most were based in Brazil. Facebook removed the pages without explanation.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn: Not even elected officials are immune from social media deplatforming. Facebook removed an ad for Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn’s campaign that attacked pro-abortion group Planned Parenthood.
Alveda King: Facebook removed paid ads from Martin Luther King’s niece Alveda King for her documentary on Roe v. Wade.
Ryan T. Anderson: Twitter refused to run several ads from Christian radio stations for an upcoming interview with Ryan T. Anderson. Anderson is a critic of transgenderism and radical gender ideology.
Robert Spencer: The head of JihadWatch.org, a website covering radical Islam, was removed from social media and even had his credit cards canceled. He also claims that Google buries him in results for searches about “jihad.”
Brian Fisher: The President of the Human Coalition notes that this anti-abortion group has had prayer apps removed from the Apple store and has had its content repeatedly removed from Twitter despite taking pains to ensure that all of it is within Twitter’s narrow, anti-First Amendment guidelines.
PragerU: PragerU is very much the picture of mainstream, run-of-the-mill, completely non-edgy conservatism on the Internet. Despite this, they repeatedly have their content removed from YouTube. Dennis Prager, head of PragerU, is suing YouTube. He notes that Delta Air Lines couldn’t say “conservatives can’t fly with us,” but YouTube, ostensibly a neutral platform, is effectively allowed to say that conservatives can’t use their services.
David Kyle Foster: David Kyle Foster is a leader in the “ex-gay” movement, a group of Christians who claim that their religion has “cured” their homosexuality. His Vimeo channel, featuring over 700 personal testimonials, was pulled from Vimeo for being “hateful.”
Even the Declaration of Independence has been removed from Facebook as “hate speech” due to their “filtering program.” Yes, really. Nor is it only conservative groups who have been targeted. Moderates and leftists who don’t toe the party line – like Andy Ngo, Tim Pool and Michael Tracey – have likewise been targeted by deplatforming and shadowbanning.
Deplatforming is not limited to social media. Chase Bank has been accused of depriving conservative voices of banking services. This returns us to the Mark of the Beast notion: What good is free speech if banks – banks – can keep you from receiving payments. And how far off are we from seeing conservative voices deprived of their ability to pay?
Imagine showing up at the grocery store and finding out that your money’s no good because you have a concealed carry permit. Sound far-fetched? So would have having your bank account closed for being a conservative activist….
