Promote Your EVENT on Christian Mail | The Christian Mail

New Movie: Little Boy” Set to Make Big Waves

Movies

A new American movie called “Little Boy,” an upcoming drama film, directed by Smithsonian Institute Award Winning Director Alejandro Gómez Monteverde (Bella), and written by Monteverde and Pepe Portillo, promises to make a big splash in 2015.

It features an all-star cast and two Oscar nominated actors including Emily Watson, Tom Wilkinson, as well as Kevin James, Ben Chaplin, Michael Rapaport, Cary Tagawa, Ted Levine, David Henrie, Eduardo Verastegui and Jakob Salvati, the 7-year old lead actor who delivered an extraordinary Oscar caliber performance.

The film is executive produced by Roma Downey and Mark Burnett, the producers of the hit movie “Son Of God”, and the upcoming remake of “Ben-Hur”. Little Boy is produced by Eduardo Verastegui, Leo Severino, Alejandro Monteverde, Emilio Azcarraga, Bernardo Gomez, Micky Ohare and Sean Wolfington.

Mark Joseph, an award-winning film and music producer, author, columnist and founder of MJM Entertainment Group, has kindly supplied the story line for the ASSIST News Service, so here it is:

Pepper Flint Busbee, nicknamed “Little Boy” by the folks in his town, is constantly ridiculed and bullied due to his unusually short stature. The bullying and nicknames do not bother him in the slightest, however, because he finds every comfort a child could need in the unique relationship he shares with his father. The two are inseparable. Little Boy considers his dad his best, and only, friend.

Consequently, his world is shattered when his Dad enlists to fight against the Japanese in the Pacific. Pepper’s life pauses as he awaits word of James’ promised return from the war. His hope vanishes when the Busbee family receives word that James has been captured and taken as a prisoner of war by the Japanese. (Photo via ANS)

Inspired by the supernatural powers of his comic book hero, “Ben Eagle”, and a sermon of the town’s pastor where the preacher announces that with “faith the size of a mustard seed you can move mountains”; Pepper is convinced he can garner the power to achieve the impossible—end the war and return his father home safely…Read More

Source and Original Content by BCN

Employees Refrained from Uttering Religious Greetings to Customers

World News

SmartStyle, a family hair salon brand located inside Walmart stores, has declared war on Christmas. Regis Corporation owns the salon, which also operates under brand names like Supercuts, Sassoon Salon, Regis Salons and MasterCuts.

“I got a haircut yesterday at SmartStyle in Walmart,” an employee from the American Family Association (AFA) reports. “The woman who cut my hair told me the employees had been instructed to refrain from ‘religious’ greetings such as ‘Merry Christmas’ and ‘God bless you.’ I asked her if it was a corporate decision and she said they had been instructed by the district manager on such greetings.”

Could it be true? The AFA called the SmartStyle corporate office to confirm. A company representative told the group, “Employees are instructed to say ‘Happy Holidays’ so that they don’t offend people who are Jewish or other religions.”

Franklin Graham is taking note of this type of hostility. As he sees it, the United States in the last few decades has witnessed increased hostility toward the sacred nature of Christmas, erupting into what has become a blatant war on Christmas.

“Stores, schools and communities across America continue to find new and intolerant reasons to remove any religious references to Christmas, stripping it of any holy or historical significance. Christian songs, prayers and other spiritually vital connections to the Lord Jesus Christ are deleted or diminished,” Graham says.

“That’s because at its root and core, the war on Christmas isn’t really about Christmas at all—it’s about the Son of God. The war on Christmas is a war on Christ and His followers. It’s the hatred of our culture for the exclusive claims that Christ made: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).

Want to take action? You can contact SmartStyle right now and let them know their anti-Christmas policy and move to prohibit employees from wishing their customers a “Merry Christmas” is not acceptable.

“SmartStyle employees are not cattle or robots. They are real people, with real feelings, who want to give a genuine, heartfelt greeting to their customers,” the AFA said in its ActionAlert. “But at SmartStyle, political correctness is taking away the joy of Christmas for its employees and its customers.”

Source and Original Content by Charisma News

Google to Unveil Kid-Friendly Versions of Chrome, Search and YouTube

Technology

Google Inc plans to roll out child-friendly versions of its most popular products in a bid to be “fun and safe for children”, USA Today reported, quoting Pavni Diwanji, the company’s vice president of engineering.
The company will likely create specific versions of its search, YouTube and Chrome products for children aged 12 and under, USA Today reported, adding that Google did not provide a timeline for the rollout.

“We want to be thoughtful about what we do, giving parents the right tools to oversee their kids’ use of our products,” USA Today quoted Diwanji as saying.

A Google spokesperson declined to comment, but confirmed that the effort described in the report was accurate.

Source and Original Content by Ndtv

World’s Fastest Camera to Capture 100 Billion Frames Per Second

Technology

A team of biomedical engineers has developed the world’s fastest camera, a device that can capture events up to 100 billion frames per second.

The current ultrafast imaging techniques are limited by on-chip storage and electronic readout speed to operations of about 10 million frames per second.

“For the first time, humans can see light pulses on the fly,” said Lihong Wang, professor of Biomedical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis.

“Because this technique advances the imaging frame rate by orders of magnitude, we now enter a new regime to open up new visions,” said Wang.

The team used a technique called compressed ultrafast photography (CUP) to make movies of the images they took with single laser shots.

This is a series of devices customised to work with high-powered microscopes and telescopes to capture dynamic natural and physical phenomena.

Once the raw data are acquired, the actual images are formed on a personal computer.

“These ultrafast cameras have the potential to greatly enhance our understanding of very fast biological interactions and chemical processes and allow us to build better models of complex, dynamical systems,” said Richard Conroy from National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, US.

The camera may have wider application in areas like biomedicine, astronomy and forensics.

“Combine CUP imaging with the Hubble Telescope, and we will have both the sharpest spatial resolution of the Hubble and the highest temporal solution with CUP,” said Wang.

“Each new technique, especially one of a quantum leap forward, is always followed a number of new discoveries. It’s our hope that CUP will enable new discoveries in science ones that we can’t even anticipate yet,” said Wang.

The research appeared in the journal Nature.

Source and Original Content by Ndtv

Hong Kong Cardinal turns Himself in to End Protests

Asia
Slider Display
World News

Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, retired bishop of Hong Kong, joined organisers of civil disobedience surrendering to police this week, hoping to end an occupation campaign that has lasted more than two months.

Cardinal Zen remained at the police station for an hour. As he left, he asked people to pray for democracy in the city.

The Occupy Central movement, a civil disobedience campaign to block roads in the central business area, was initiated by Benny Tai Yiu-ting, an associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong, and the Rev Chu Yiu-ming, a Baptist pastor, in an effort to force the Hong Kong and Chinese governments to allow true democracy in the city. The protesters feel government authorities have handpicked candidates for the 2017 election of Hong Kong’s chief executive.

Benny Tai turned himself in to police at the same time. He told reporters after he left the police station that it was time to promote civic education in different platforms, instead of continuing the occupation, as insisted on by the student group. The bulk of the protesters are now thought to be students.

Cardinal Zen had said on his blog in late November that struggling for democracy may be a long road, but a “miracle may take place, like David hurls a stone to hit down Goliath. And no one would expect that the Berlin Wall fell down all of a sudden 25 years ago.”

The cardinal, 82, is a supporter to the Occupy Central movement. Last June he launched a walking campaign, walking 52 miles over seven days in different areas in Hong Kong, to ask more people to join an unofficial referendum on democratic reforms.

Recently, protesters and the police had clashed violently. Many academics said police used excessive force to clear the roads.

Source and Original Content by Catholic Herald

NFL Player Cut Off from CNN Interview for Glorifying Christ

America
World News

New Orleans Saints tight end Benjamin Watson was recently interviewed on CNN after posting a response to Ferguson on Facebook that went viral. The interview was reportedly interrupted immediately after Watson publicly spoke about his faith in Jesus Christ, prompting some to wonder if CNN was censoring Watson’s words.

“The only way to really cure what’s on the inside is understanding that Jesus Christ died for our sins,” Watson said in the interview.

CNN Interviewer Brooke Baldwin said she “got it” then the interview went to a green screen The Christian Post reports.

Baldwin then said, “Just like that, we lost him,” later explaining that the satellite window with New Orleans suddenly closed.

The timing of the interview cutoff prompted some to wonder if CNN was blocking Watson from preaching his faith. A Canada Free Press headline read “Did CNN really cut off Benjamin Watson for saying Jesus is Lord?” A headline from RedState said “What Happens When Benjamin Watson Preaches Jesus on CNN?”

Watson still seemed appreciative of the interview opportunity tweeting, “Great time speaking with @BrookeBCNN this afternoon. Thanks for having me on. #humbled.”

Source and Original Content by Christian Headlines

Irish Catholics fight against Gay Marriage

Europe
World News

Ireland’s Church said it would be “a grave injustice” if gay and lesbian couples were granted equality in marriage as it began an uphill battle to persuade voters to reject same sex marriage in a referendum next year.

Ireland will hold the vote just over two decades after the once stridently Catholic country legalised homosexuality and as the once dominant role of Catholicism fades amid revelations of rape and beatings by priests and members of religious orders.

With a recent poll showing 67 percent support for enshrining same-sex marriage in the constitution and 20 percent opposed, Ireland’s Catholic bishops launched a 15-page pamphlet setting out its position.

It mirrored a document issued at the end of a synod, of some 200 Roman Catholic bishops from around the world in October which dropped parts of a document that had talked more positively of homosexuals than ever before.

“To put any other view of unions on the same level as Christian marriage would be disservice to society rather than a service,” Bishop Liam MacDaid told a news conference.

“In a same sex union, children would be deprived of what a man and woman can give to children in a stable marriage.”

A series of investigations into clerical sex abuse have rocked the authority of the Church in Ireland, revealing a state-abetted cover-up at Catholic-run institutions that were labeled places of fear and neglect in a 2009 official report

The Catholic Church helped organise some of the largest protests in decades in France last year to oppose legalisation of gay marriage.

Ireland recognised the legal rights of same-sex couples for the first time in 2009. The move toward further rights follows a government decision last year to allow limited access to abortion that led to large protests from both sides of the debate.

The Church’s launch came a day after Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny was pictured in one of Dublin’s main gay bars at an event held by his party’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) society.

Kenny had to expel five of his 76-member conservative Fine Gael party for voting against last year’s abortion bill, having lost one deputy over economic austerity measures.

“The Taoiseach (Prime Minister) in a gay bar is a first,” renowned Irish drag queen Panti Bliss, owner of Pantibar, the bar Kenny visited, wrote on its Facebook page.

“Only a few years ago a Taoiseach wouldn’t have dared, so it shows how times have changed.”

Source and Original Content by CT

World Religious Leaders Commit to Bringing an End to Human Slavery by 2020

Slider Display
World News

Pope Francis and several of the world’s leading religious leaders joined together in a pledge to end human slavery by 2020, focusing on the tens of millions of people “in chains” due to human trafficking and forced labor.

“The physical, economic, sexual and psychological exploitation of men and women, boys and girls, is chaining tens of millions of persons to inhumanity and humiliation,” the pope said and signed the pledge to do “all in our power, within our faith communities and beyond” to end modern slavery by 2020.

The signatories of the declaration included Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury; Rabbi David Rosen, international director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee; Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi al-Modarresi, an influential Shiite scholar; Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, as well as representatives for Ahmad el-Tayeb, a grand imam from Egypt.

Francis called modern slavery “an atrocious plague,” speaking at a ceremony on Tuesday on the U.N. Day for the Abolition of Slavery, according to Catholic News Service.

The Walk Free Foundation, an Australia-based human rights group, reported last month in its global slavery index that there are close to 36 million people living as slaves, or forced into brothels.

“We pledge ourselves here today to do all in our power, within our faith communities and beyond, to work together for the freedom of all those who are enslaved and trafficked so that their future may be restored,” the declaration read.

“Today we have the opportunity, awareness, wisdom, innovation and technology to achieve this human and moral imperative,” it added.

The multi-faith initiative was started by the Global Freedom Network, which in March first brought together the Vatican, the Anglican Communion, and el-Tayeb’s Al-Azhar University in Cairo.

The Roman Catholic Church leader thanked the religious leaders who gathered on Tuesday to sign the document, calling it an “act of fraternity” for the many women, men and children who are exploited for personal or commercial gain.

“We cannot tolerate that the image of the living God” present in every human being “is subjected to this most abominable form of trafficking,” Francis said.

The other religious leaders also sounded off on the crisis, with Hindu leader Mata Amritanandamayi noting that she has heard the stories of suffering of hundreds of victims. She said that “if we fail to do something, it will be a travesty against future generations.”

Thich Nhat Hanh, a Zen Buddhist leader, added that compassion must also be extended to the traffickers, arguing that they also have suffered. He called on activists to “help them wake up” from the wrong they are committing.

Welby added that people can avoid the exploitation of others with their “own actions and choices as consumers and users of financial services whose managers can put great pressure on companies in which they invest.”

Francis has spoken out a number of times against human slavery during his papacy. Back in June, the Vatican leader warned human traffickers that they will be held accountable for their crimes.

“One day everything comes to an end and they will be held accountable to God,” the pope said about those responsible for human trafficking, slave labor and arms manufacturing, also calling them “merchants of death.”

Speaking on the eve of the World Day Against Child Labor, the pontiff pleaded for the “tens of thousands of children who are forced to work in degrading conditions, exposed to forms of slavery and exploitation, as well as abuse, mistreatment and discrimination.”

Source and Original Content by CP

Televangelist Creflo Dollar Joins Bahamas in Honoring the Munroes on Eve of Funeral

World News

Popular televangelist and founder of World Changers Church International Creflo Dollar is expected to join the nation of Bahamas Wednesday in a national tribute to honor the lives of renowned pastor Myles Munroe and his wife, Ruth, who died in a fiery jet crash along with seven others in that country last month.

Dollar is among a number of notable gospel figures, including singer CeCe Winans, who is expected to pay tribute to the pastor in celebrations for the a state recognized funeral service for the couple on Thursday.

“Honored to be speaking at the home going service for Myles Munroe and pastor Ruth Munroe today in the Bahamas,” Dollar noted in a post on Instagram Wednesday.

A daylong schedule of activities is expected to unfold Wednesday, including the national memorial service that will take place at the 15,000-seat Thomas A. Robinson Stadium Oaks Field Sporting Complex in Nassau, Bahamas.

The remains of their bodies laid in state at the Bahamas Faith Ministries Diplomat Center where members of the Munroe family and senior government officials paid their respects in a private ceremony. The general public was allowed to start paying tribute and sign a book of condolence at noon. That session is expected to close at 5 p.m.

Churches around the world, such as the City of David Church in places like Nigeria, held services in honor of the couple.

Munroe and his wife perished in the jet crash on Nov. 9 with seven other members of their Bahamas Faith Ministries team who have all since been laid to rest in separate funerals over the last few weeks. They are: Richard Pinder, chief pilot Captain Stanley Thurston, first officer Frahkan Cooper, youth pastors Lavard and Radel Parks, their son, Johanan Parks, and their unborn child, as well as Diego Santiago.

Munroe and wife are survived by their children, Myles Munroe Jr. and his sister, Charissa, as well as extended family.

Source and Original Content by Christian Post

“America is waging war on Christmas” , Franklin Graham

America
World News

The United States is experiencing a “war on Christmas”, according to Franklin Graham.
Writing in December’s Decision magazine, the leading evangelical and founder of Samaritan’s Purse said that in the last few decades the US ” has witnessed increased hostility toward the sacred nature of Christmas, erupting into what has become a blatant war on Christmas”.

He went on: “Stores, schools and communities across America continue to find new and intolerant reasons to remove any religious references to Christmas, stripping it of any holy or historical significance. Christian songs, prayers and other spiritually vital connections to the Lord Jesus Christ are deleted or diminished.”

He instanced cases around the country where authorities had removed Christian symbols or rebranded the Christmas holidays, claiming that in Ramsey County, Minnesota, the courthouse banned red poinsettias and that the city of Pittsburgh referred to the Christmas holidays as ‘Sparkle Days’.

Graham concluded that “at its root and core, the war on Christmas isn’t really about Christmas at all—it’s about the Son of God. The war on Christmas is a war on Christ and His followers.” He referred to prophecies of persecution in the ‘last days’, saying: “We should not be taken aback, then, when a day that should be devoted to meditating upon the marvelous, virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ is instead treated in a scandalously secular way that denies His deity and saving work.”

However, he says, “The war on Christmas—the war on Christ—is doomed to fail. Christ came the first time to rescue us from our sin; He is coming a second time to establish His kingdom forever under His righteous reign.”

Source and Original Content by Christian Today

1...3,7693,7703,771...3,893 Page 3,770 of 3,893