Mississippi House Passes Bill Banning Abortions Based on Race, Sex, or Genetic Abnormalities

The Mississippi House of Representatives passed a bill that, if enacted, will ban abortions performed due to an unborn baby’s race, sex, or possible genetic abnormalities.

Known as House Bill 1295, the measure was passed last Thursday by a vote of 79-33, with six abstentions, three voting present, and one vacancy.

Sue Liebel, state policy director for the pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List, celebrated the results of the vote and expected the legislation to ultimately pass.

“Abortions carried out because of a baby’s sex, race, or potential disability, such as Down syndrome, is no less than modern-day eugenics,” said Liebel in a statement.

“SBA List is confident these staunch pro-life advocates will continue to champion this bill until it reaches Governor Tate Reeves’ desk — a strongly pro-life governor who will not fail to sign it into law.”

Also known as the Life Equality Act of 2020, the bill gives an exemption for medical emergencies.

“Abortions predicated on the presence or presumed presence of genetic abnormalities continue to occur despite the increasingly favorable post-natal outcomes for human beings perceived as handicapped or disabled,” explains HB 1295 in part.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Michael Gryboski

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Timothy D. Padgett on Coronavirus and the Hope of Christianity

A contagion stalks the land, and we play at not being afraid.

We make our jokes, suggesting a black market for toilet paper and how this is all an introvert’s dream. We cultivate rationalizations, noting that more people die in a week from tuberculosis than this new blight has felled in all. We keep our distance, zeroing in on the implications for the 2020 election.

But we are afraid.

It’s hard not to be scared when we see the numbers grow, when we see $11 trillion wiped from the economy, when we see the affected areas slither their way across the map, ever closer to home. There’s something unnerving about a new and unknown ailment that the powers that be are powerless to contain.

It’s unsettling when all the comforts we’ve grown accustomed to enjoying seem to be slipping from our grasp. Dining out with friends, greeting associates with a handshake, even touching our own faces — all of these now cast an ominous shadow on our lives.

We are not the first to face such fears. And, as much as we wish it otherwise, we will not be the last. We can look back to the most famous plague of all — The Black Death that wormed its way across Europe nearly 700 years ago. From there we read Boccaccio’s morbidly beautiful account where he describes the fabulous and wealthy in his city who:

[A]fter dining heartily with their friends here, have supped with their departed friends in the other world!

Our shaky confidence in our prepping abilities — what with our Netflix, our Facetime, and our hoarded toiletries — also finds it echo in the past, this time in delightfully dark words of Edgar Allen Poe. In his tale, “The Masque of the Red Death,” an old-world princeling hides away from the disease outside, secure in the knowledge that he is safe:

The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure. There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet-dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and security were within. Without was the “Red Death.”

We can think of other works where fear reigns. There’s H. G. Wells’ “The War of the Worlds,” which, despite its reputation as simply a tale of aliens, is more about human fear on a mass scale, as the most civilized of nations comes unglued in days when faced with an unstoppable nemesis. Or, somewhat more contemporary, we see a plague-induced panic in Stephen King’s “The Stand,” as the thin veneer of culture strips away as the bodies begin to fall.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Timothy D. Padgett

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Study Shows Many Churches Are Unprepared to Provide Online Services

With a new warning from the CDC against mass gatherings or events of 50 or more people over the next eight weeks, many churches are unprepared to provide online alternatives amid the new coronavirus pandemic, a recent study shows.

“Large events and mass gatherings can contribute to the spread of COVID-19 in the United States via travelers who attend these events and introduce the virus to new communities. Examples of large events and mass gatherings include conferences, festivals, parades, concerts, sporting events, weddings, and other types of assemblies. These events can be planned not only by organizations and communities but also by individuals,” the CDC said Sunday in their announcement about gatherings including church services.

“Therefore, CDC, in accordance with its guidance for large events and mass gatherings, recommends that for the next 8 weeks, organizers (whether groups or individuals) cancel or postpone in-person events that consist of 50 people or more throughout the United States,” the CDC added.

The CDC encouraged event organizers to shift to virtual meetings when possible to help protect vulnerable populations such as older adults and those with compromised immune systems. Many churches have been responding by moving church services online.

Research from the Nashville-based LifeWay Research conducted last fall found that just 22% of pastors livestream their entire service while about 10% livestream their sermon only. Some 41% of pastors admitted that they don’t post any portion of their church service online, while about 52% say they post the sermon online after the church service is complete.

Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research, said in a release to The Christian Post that churches with weekly attendance of more than 250, tend to be most prepared to offer services online but they are in the minority.

“If they need to, almost a third of churches can gather virtually this week using technology and processes they already have in place,” McConnell said.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Leonardo Blair

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PODCAST: The Scripture & the Sense Podcast #447: Amos 4:13 with Daniel Whyte III

This is Daniel Whyte III president of Gospel Light Society International with The Scripture & the Sense Podcast #447, where I read the Word of God and give the sense of it based on an authoritative commentary source such as the Bible Knowledge Commentary or Matthew Henry Commentary. This podcast is based upon Nehemiah 8:8 where it says Ezra and the Levites “read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.” The aim of this podcast is that through the simple reading of the Word of God and the giving of the sense of it, the church would be revived and the world would be awakened.

Today we are reading Amos 4:13.

13 For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The Lord, The God of hosts, is his name.

________

That was Amos 4:13. Now here is the sense of it.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary reads:

Amos likened God’s terrifying approach in judgment to the darkening of a storm. The One who formed the mountains and created the wind now covered those high places with churning clouds. The early dawn turned back to eerie darkness as black swells unfolded to shroud the earth. The flash of lightning and the reverberation of thunder marked God’s ominous “tread” from one hilltop to another as He approached the Northern capital. God had revealed His thoughts to man; His intent to judge had been made known. Now, as the Lord God Almighty, Commander of all forces in heaven and earth, advanced against them. Their judgment was inescapable.

____________

Thank you for listening to the Scripture & The Sense Podcast. Remember to read the Word of God each and every day and pray without ceasing to God for wisdom to understand it and apply it to your life. Most importantly, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Please stay tuned for a complete presentation of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ so that you can get your soul saved from Hell to that wonderful place called Heaven when you die. May God bless you and keep you is my prayer.

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Online Church Attendance Quadrupled Sunday in Light of COVID-19, Company Says

Online Church Attendance Quadrupled Sunday in Light of COVID-19, Company Says


Online church attendance quadrupled on Sunday as congregations faced local restrictions and CDC recommendations to help slow the spread of COVID-19, according to a major online church platform.

The Church Online Platform, operated by Life.Church, saw a total of 4.7 million devices streaming church services Sunday, four times the average attendance for a typical weekend.

The platform has seen more than 6,000 new churches sign up during the past week and serves more than 20,000 churches worldwide. It allows churches to stream their own services with chat and one-on-one prayer features.

“With everything going on in the world, we believe it’s vitally important for the Church to continue to meet online and spread messages of hope,” said Bobby Gruenewald, Life.Church pastor and innovation leader. “In the same way that hospital doors will remain open to meet the physical needs of people during this time, we’re encouraged to see so many churches leveraging online technology to remain open and help meet their spiritual and emotional needs.”

The platform is free, according to a press release from Life.Church.

Churches can use a smartphone or camera to “record their sermon, upload it to a site like YouTube, and begin streaming in less than an hour,” the press release said.

“We’re encouraged to see such an overwhelming response from churches around the world who refuse to let…

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Pope Francis Asks God to Stop Coronavirus Plague With ‘His Hand’ — If the Pope Does Not Stop His Priests from Raping Little Boys and Committing Homosexuality, God Probably Won’t Stop This Epidemic

The Pope Did Say One Good Thing: ‘Don’t Waste These Difficult Days, Reconnect With Your Family’

“During these difficult days we can find small, concrete gestures expressing closeness and concreteness towards the people closest to us, a caress for our grandparents, a kiss for our children, for the people we love. These are important, decisive gestures. If we live these days like this, they won’t be wasted.”

Pope Francis spends his days in the Vatican following closely the news on the coronavirus emergency. Two days ago he went to Santa Maria Maggiore and to the church of San Marcello al Corso to pray. He tells la Repubblica what these days are teaching him.

Holy Father, what did you ask for when you prayed in the two Roman churches?
“I asked the Lord to stop the epidemic: Lord, stop it with your hand. That’s what I prayed for.”

How can one live these days so that they are not wasted?
“We must rediscover the concreteness of little things, small gestures of attention we can offer those close to us, our family, our friends. We must understand that in small things lies our treasure. These gestures of tenderness, affection, compassion, are minimal and tend to be lost in the anonymity of everyday life, but they are nonetheless decisive, important. For example, a hot meal, a caress, a hug, a phone call… They are familiar gestures of attention to the details of everyday life that make life meaningful and that create communion and communication amongst us”.

Isn’t it how we always live?
“Sometimes, we only experience a virtual form of communication with one another. Instead, we should discover a new closeness. More concrete relationships made of attention and patience. In their homes, families often eat together in great silence, but not as a result of listening to each other, rather because the parents watch television while they eat, and children are on their mobile phones. They look like monks, all isolated from each other. Here there is no communication, whereas listening to each other is important because that’s how we can understand the needs, efforts, desires of the other. This language made of concrete gestures must be safeguarded. In my opinion, the pain of these days should open us up to this concreteness”.

SOURCE: Repubblica, Paolo Rodari

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New York Daily News Reports Some Evangelical Leaders Are Linking the Homosexual Community to New Coronavirus Plague

Some Evangelical leaders think the LGBTQ community is somehow linked to COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

On Wednesday, the Rev. Steven Andrew named March “Repent of LGBT Sin Month.”

“God’s love shows it is urgent to repent, because the Bible teaches homosexuals lose their souls and God destroys LGBT societies,” he said in a press release.

“Obeying God protects the USA from diseases, such as the Coronavirus,” said the anti-LGBTQ preacher, who has been nicknamed “Pastor Jazz Hands” for his somewhat theatrical way of speaking, as well as his pronounced lisp.

As pastor of USA Christian Church, Andrew is “focused on pastoring the nation to reaffirm covenant that the USA serves the Lord, with pastors nationwide,” according to a description on his website.

“Our safety is at stake, since national disobedience of God’s laws brings danger and diseases, such as coronavirus, but obeying God brings covenant protection (Exodus 15:26),” Andrew said. “God protects the USA from danger as the country repents of LGBT, false gods, abortion and other sins.”

According to the Right Wing Watch, fellow right-wing pastor, E.W. Jackson, said on his radio show earlier this week that the “homovirus” is devastating the American family and society.

SOURCE: New York Daily News, Muri Assunção

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Florida Pastor Refuses to Cancel Church despite CDC Recommendations of Social Distancing

Florida Pastor Refuses to Cancel Church despite CDC Recommendations of Social Distancing


Despite restrictions on large gatherings because of COVID-19, Florida Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne refuses to close his Tampa-based church, The River.

Newsweek reports that on Sunday, Howard-Browne encouraged his congregants to greet one another at the service despite social distancing.

“Well I know they don’t want us to do this, but just turn around and greet two, three people,” he said on Sunday.

“Tell them you love them, Jesus loves them,” he added as people shook hands and hugged one another.

‘Listen, this has to be the safest place … If you cannot be safe in church, you in serious trouble,” he continued.

Howard-Browne later asserted that he had no intention of closing his church, the New York Post reports.

“We are not stopping anything. I’ve got news for you, this church will never close. The only time the church will close is when the Rapture is taking place.”

Howard-Browne’s “Bible school”, Revival Ministries International, will also remain open.

“This Bible school is open because we’re raising up revivalists, not pansies,” he said on Sunday.

Since Monday, the state of Florida reported four deaths from COVID-19,…

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Israeli Rabbi Meir Mazuz Says Coronavirus Plague Outbreak is Divine Punishment for the Abomination of Homosexuality and So-Called Gay Pride Parades

An Orthodox Israeli rabbi has claimed the spread of the deadly coronavirus in Israel and around the world is divine retribution for gay pride parades.

The remarks by Rabbi Meir Mazuz, reported by the Israel Hayom daily on Sunday, drew condemnation from rights groups, including the Anti-Defamation League, which urged him to apologize.

An influential Sephardic rabbi, Mazuz is the former spiritual leader of the defunct ultra-nationalist and homophobic Yachad party, and is head of the Kiseh Rahamim yeshiva in Bnei Brak.

On Saturday night he gave a talk at the yeshiva, during which, according to the report, he said a pride parade is “a parade against nature, and when someone goes against nature, the one who created nature takes revenge on him.”

Mazuz said that countries all over the world are being called to account because of their gay pride events, “except for the Arab countries that don’t have this evil inclination.” That was why, he claimed — falsely suggesting there has only been one case of infection in the Arab world — they have not seen a spread of coronavirus.

The outbreak in Iran, one of the most serious in any country, he explained as being due to the wicked ways of Iranians and “their hatred of Israel.”

According to the newspaper, Mazuz had earlier claimed Israel would be protected from the coronavirus.

“It is regrettable that in times like these when the whole world comes together to eradicate coronavirus, Rabbi Mazuz finds it appropriate to blame the virus’s outbreak on the LGBTQ community. We harshly condemn his statements and urge him to apologize,” the ADL’s Israel branch said in a statement.

The modern Orthodox Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah group also condemned Mazuz’s remarks.

“Using this time of need to incite against the LGBT community is unacceptable. Trying to get people to return to religion cannot come at the price of harming others,” it said in a statement.

Israel has thus far had 39 cases of coronavirus, including 14 new cases announced on Sunday night, but no deaths.

Mazuz is no stranger to controversy or hateful rhetoric. In November 2015 he claimed gay pride parades and other forms of “sinful behavior” were the reason terrorists murdered Eitam and Naama Henkin on October 1, 2015.

At a memorial event for the Henkins, Mazuz said that their shooting death at the hands of Palestinian terrorists had been a form of divine retribution.

In 2016 Mazuz attributed the collapse of a Tel Aviv parking garage that killed six people and an explosion that destroyed the Amos-6 satellite to Shabbat desecration.

Israel has two major gay pride parades each year, one in Tel Aviv and another in the capital, Jerusalem, which is billed as promoting tolerance.

Source: The Times of Israel

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Healthcare providers are experiencing pre-traumatic stress disorder: ‘Fear not, for I am with you’

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NOTE: Welcome to our second Special Edition Daily Article responding to the coronavirus pandemic.

I will publish an article like this each weekday afternoon as we look at a breaking news story in the context of biblical encouragements to “fear not.”

In these days, it is vital that we fight fear with faith. I hope these Special Editions will be a source of biblical hope for you.


We are familiar with PTSD—post-traumatic stress disorder. Now doctors are dealing with pre-TSD, pre-traumatic stress disorder.

A physician in the San Francisco Bay Area published today a sobering article for the Washington Post about her healthcare colleagues. It is so urgent that I wanted to quote from it at length today.

“I’m not anxious; I’m pre-traumatized.”

Dr. Alison Block writes:

“Trauma is defined as a deeply disturbing experience. With
post-traumatic stress disorder, after suffering a trauma, a person experiences
intrusive negative thoughts and psychological distress. Doctors and nurses see
news from our colleagues in China, South Korea and Italy, letting us know in no
uncertain terms what is coming. The result is that we are all feeling the
psychological ramifications of the trauma. We just haven’t experienced the
trauma yet.”

She continues: “We’re expecting systems overwhelmed
with sick patients who will line the hallways of our emergency rooms and
hospital wards. We know doctors and nurses will get sick and have to
self-quarantine for fourteen days, leaving the healthcare workforce decimated.
Physicians unknowingly exposed to the coronavirus will spread the disease to
our most vulnerable populations. We will run out of beds and ventilators in
intensive care units, and we will have to make harrowing, traumatic decisions
about who lives and who dies based on nothing more than utilitarian guesses
about remaining ‘life years.’”

This part of her article was especially sobering: “We
know that we will get…

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