Trinity United Church of Christ took matters into their own hands to march in light of the police brutality that is trending media.
Church Welcomes Matt and Grace Huang After Nearly 2 Years In Qatar
A standing ovation erupted inside the Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena during Sunday morning service as Matt and Grace Huang were called before the congregation.
The Asian American couple, who were detained in Qatar for almost two years before recently being cleared in the death of their 8-year-old daughter, hugged their two young sons, as some parishioners’ eyes filled with tears. The couple’s captivity drew international headlines.
They thanked the crowd of more than 2,000 for their prayers and support.
Coming back and worshipping with fellow Christians is “just something that we longed for – for so long,” Matt Huang told the parishioners, gathered in a sanctuary aglow with holiday lights. He described the pair’s battle for freedom as having “taught us patience,” adding that they are discovering “amazing, hidden blessings” God bestowed on them “through this crisis.”
“To have you home is the greatest Christmas present that we could ever, ever have,” Senior Pastor Greg Waybright said. He compared the couple’s plight to false accusations faced by Jesus, urging his congregation to keep turning to God for refuge and strength.
The Huang saga began with their arrest in January 2013, when officials in Doha, the capital of Qatar, accused them of starving their adopted daughter to death, with the intent to sell her organs on the black market. Authorities refused to accept their explanation that Gloria died from an eating disorder complicated by the childhood hunger she suffered in her native Ghana.
The Huangs spent nearly a year in jail, as their adopted sons, now 7 and 12, bounced around in foster care until they were able to return to the U.S. to stay with their maternal grandmother. Meanwhile, authorities convicted their parents of child endangerment, despite a botched autopsy and without sharing any evidence with the defendants.
Being in legal limbo cost Matt Huang, an engineer sent to Qatar to help with building new infrastructure for the country’s 2025 World Cup, his job and mounting legal bills eventually forced the couple to sell their San Gabriel Valley home to pay off debts. From the start, their representatives at the Los Angeles-based David House Agency, an expert in managing international crisis, called their case “a tragic cultural misunderstanding” in a nation where Western-style adoptions and cross-cultural families are extremely rare…Read More
Source and Original Content by BCNN1
Arcbishop Spoiling for a Fight with PM over Food Banks
The Archbishop of Canterbury is heading for a row with the Government over calls for a £150 million State-funded system of food banks to help feed the poorest people in Britain.
Shocked by the suffering of those going hungry in the UK, Archbishop Justin Welby wants the Prime Minister, David Cameron, to accept European funds to support food banks and other measures to help those falling through the net as the austerity measures bite.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, the Archbishop calls for more to be done to help hungry families.
Tomorrow, Archbishop Welby will launch a Parliamentary report that calls for a new public body, Feeding Britain, to be set up and for bigger food banks to distribute more free food and advise people on benefits and home budgets.
The inquiry, set up earlier this year with financial backing from the Archbishop’s charitable trust, has taken evidence on the extent and causes of hunger in Britain, the scope of provision to alleviate it and draws comparisons with other Western countries.
It is headed jointly by Labour MP Frank Field and the Bishop of Truro, Tim Thornton, a passionate supporter of food banks. Archbishop Welby has been involved throughout and according to the Mail on Sunday, the report pays tribute to “the support he has given throughout our inquiry.”
Writing in the newspaper, Archbishop Welby said food was being wasted at “astonishing” levels across the UK and that hunger stalks large parts of the country.
Families were being forced to turn to food banks to make ends meet even when they were in employment.
He admitted it was less serious but still said the plight of a family who turned to a food bank in Britain shocked him more than terrible suffering in Africa because it was so unexpected.
“In one corner of a refugee camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo was a large marquee. Inside were children, all ill. They had been separated from family, friends, those who looked after them. Perhaps, mostly having disabilities, they had been abandoned in the panic of the militia attack that drove them from their homes. Now they were hungry…Read More
Source and Original Content by CT
Pope Francis Sends Video Message to Christian Faithfuls in Iraq
Pope Francis has thanked Iraqi Christians for giving witness to Christ in the region.
The Holy Father has released a video message for believers in the country who are being targeted by Islamic State militants.
Tens of thousands have been forced to flee their homes by the extremists who are trying to set up a Caliphate ruled by strict Islamic law.
Pope Francis said: “I wish I could be there with you but since I am not able to travel there I am here with you this way.
“I am very close to you during these difficult times.
“I thank you for the witness you are giving and I know how much suffering there is in this witness. Thank you. Thank you so much.
“It seems like they do not want the presence of Christians in these places but you are there giving witness to Christ.”
Source and Original Content by Premier Christian News
Franklin Graham Speaks on the Islamic Religion
The son of Billy Graham who now heads his father’s evangelistic organisation has described Islam as a “religion of war” and urged Christians to attempt to convert Muslims to their own faith.
Franklin Graham, the fourth of Billy Graham’s five children, said he had not softened his stance since he controversially referred to Islam as a “very wicked and evil religion” in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in 2001 that brought down the World Trade Centre in New York.
More recently, he criticised The Episcopal Church’s National Cathedral in Washington for permitting its first Muslim prayer service. On his Facebook page he wrote: “It’s sad to see a church open its doors to the worship of anything other than the One True God of the Bible who sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to earth to save us from our sins.”
His views contrast with those of the Pope, who on his recent three-day visit to Turkey was moved to pray alongside Grand Mufti Rahmi Yaran in Istanbul’s Blue Mosque. Beside working to build better relations with Muslims, Pope Francis is also reaching out to evangelicals, a move which came about because of his friendship with the late Bishop Tony Palmer, a charismatic of the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches.
Franklin Graham told Christian Today that his own views on Islam remained the same as in 2001.
“I have not changed my opinion at all.” He said he looked at Islamic State, at the Taliban and Boko Haram and thought: “This is Islam. It has not been hijacked by radicals. This is the faith, this is the religion. It is what it is. It speaks for itself.”
He added: “I think it is very important that we do all that we can to try to share God’s love with Muslims because they have no hope outside of dying in Jihad. I want them to know, you do not have to die for God. God died for us. He sent His Son to die for us. We do not have to kill ourselves to please God. I want them to know that they can have eternal life.”
Islam itself had not changed at all in 1500 years, he added. “It is the same. It is a religion of war.”
He said he was “sad” that Muslims in the Washington cathedral had “turned their back on the Cross” to worship “another God”. Graham said: “The God of Islam is not the same God of the Judaeo-Christian faith. “The God that we worship in Christianity is a God that has a Son. To Islam, that is blasphemy, to say that God has a son. Therefore, they do not worship the God that we worship.”
Franklin Graham has made an international impact as head of Samaritan’s Purse, a charity whose international relief projects include Operation Christmas Child, where churches and individuals fill shoeboxes with gifts that are donated to children in more than 100 countries…Read More
Source and Original Content by CT
Home Free – Angels We Have Heard On High
This talented a cappella group “Home Free” enter a beautiful church and begin singing the Christmas carol, “Angels We Have Heard On High” with such harmony it is covering everyone in goosebumps who hear it. The acoustics in the church add to the song and their talented voices – what a beautiful rendition of this treasured Christmas carol!
Silent Night: A Stunning Rendition
In beautiful harmony, Kelly Clarkson was joined onstage by Trisha Yearwood and Reba McEntire for a stunning rendition of “Silent Night” that gave everyone in the room goose bumps. Their voices blend together beautifully with this beloved Christmas classic written in 1818 reminding us what Christmas is all about.
Eric Garner Killing, Verdict Outrages Church Leaders
Christian leaders have reponded angrily to the decision of a grand jury not to charge a white police officer following the death of Eric Garner in New York City.
Garner, who had been selling cigarettes on a pavement, was held in a chokehold by Officer Daniel Pantaleo despite saying at least eight times, “I can’t breathe”. The cry has been taken up as a slogan by protesters against the verdict.
K Marshall Williams, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s National African American Fellowship, said that the grand jury’s action was an “outrageous verdict” that is “a clarion call to us to be light in the midst of so much darkness”.
“I cry out to the Lord this morning, for my spirit is deeply grieved and filled with righteous indignation, as I mourn with the family of Eric Garner as they endure the pain of this visualized injustice,” Williams told Baptist Press.
Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious liberty Commission (ERLC) said: “I’m stunned speechless by this news. We hear a lot about the rule of law – and rightly so. But a government that can choke a man to death on video for selling cigarettes is not a government living up to a biblical definition of justice or any recognisable definition of justice.”
The decision came only days after a decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson for killing Michael Brown led to protests in Ferguson, Missouri, and in many other cities.
Moore said that African Americans – especially males – “are more likely to be arrested, more likely to be executed, more likely to be killed.”
“We have to acknowledge that something is wrong with the system at this point and something has to be done,” he said.
“We may not agree in this country on every particular case and situation, but it’s high time we start listening to our African American brothers and sisters in this country when they tell us they are experiencing a problem.
“For those of us in Christ, we need to recognise that when one part of the body of Christ hurts, the whole body of Christ hurts. It’s time for us in Christian churches to not just talk about the Gospel but live out the Gospel by tearing down these dividing walls not only by learning and listening to one another but also by standing up and speaking out for one another.”
US Attorney General Eric Holder, who already has mounted a civil rights review of the Ferguson shooting, on Thursday promised a full probe of the New York case.
Pantaleo could still face disciplinary action from an internal police investigation, his lawyer said, adding that he expects that process to move quickly and that his client would be exonerated.
A departmental investigation will likely focus on whether Pantaleo employed a chokehold, banned by police department regulations, in restraining Garner as he and other officers sought to arrest him for allegedly selling cigarettes illegally on a Staten Island sidewalk in July.
In addition to triggering protests around the country, the New York and Missouri cases have re-ignited debate over a US law enforcement system widely perceived to unfairly target African Americans and other minorities.
Thousands of marchers snaked through the streets of Manhattan on Thursday night, beginning at the evening rush hour and picking up recruits along the way, often weaving between cars and trucks and bringing traffic to a near standstill.
Tensions rose as a crowd of at least 3,000 congregated in Times Square about an hour before midnight, shouting at police, “Who do you protect?” as hundreds more officers moved in to force protesters onto sidewalks. There were a number of arrests but no overt outbursts of violence.
Hours earlier, protesters parading through lower Manhattan staged sporadic sit-ins at intersections before police in riot gear warned them to move on or face arrest. Most marchers complied, and the atmosphere among the racially mixed crowd was boisterous, upbeat and mostly peaceful.
Sharon Gordon, 52, of Matawan, New Jersey, said she hoped politicians would take heed. “There’s been a confluence of social media and outrage,” she said. “I do believe for the first time we’re about to make a change.”
Subsequent waves of marchers later crossed two bridges connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn, briefly blocking traffic, then converged on Manhattan’s southern tip, at the ferry terminal for Staten Island.
The main group of demonstrators headed west and briefly closed the West Side Highway, resulting in at least a handful of arrests, before turning north again through Greenwich Village and Chelsea.
A smaller crowd confronted police with taunts. Chesray Dolpha, 31, yelled at the officers: “We are not violent. We are not touching you. What are you doing with that baton, brother?” The police made eye contact but did not reply.
Thursday’s rallies in New York and elsewhere were generally larger and more numerous than the previous night.
Unlike the August 9 fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a policeman under disputed circumstances in the St. Louissuburb of Ferguson, Missouri, Garner’s encounter with New York police was captured on video that went viral online.
The clip from a bystander’s mobile phone shows Pantaleo grabbing Garner from behind with his arm wrapped around Garner’s throat, wrestling him to the sidewalk as three other officers helped subdue him. Garner is heard repeatedly gasping, “I can’t breathe”.
Pantaleo’s lawyer, Stuart London, said on Thursday his client testified to the New York grand jury that he never put pressure on Garner’s neck but instead used a proper takedown technique.
The city’s medical examiner has said officers killed Garner by compressing his neck and chest, adding that Garner’s asthma and obesity contributed to his death.
Although chokeholds are officially prohibited, the 2,000-page police patrol guide is vague about whether they are permitted under certain circumstances, said Maria Haberfeld, who heads the law and criminal justice department at John Jay College.
That grey area, she said, may have influenced the grand jury and could be a factor in the departmental probe.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who took office in January promising to improve police relations with minorities, told reporters the city’s thousands of officers would undergo extensive retraining.
“The relationship between police and community has to change,” he told a news conference. “People need to know that black lives and brown lives matter as much as white lives.”
Source and Original Content by CT
Pastor Killed in Shelling Attack in Ukraine
Funds are needed urgently to support the wife and children of a pastor killed in a shell attack in Eastern Ukraine.
Sergei Reuta, an evangelical church leader from Luhansk, was forced to leave his home, church and the entire area, along with his congregation, when the town was taken over by separatists.
According to Mission Network News, he was warned that if he stayed, he would be executed.
He and his family moved in with relatives near Donetsk, where he began working as a chaplain to Ukrainian solders, and became known as “Padre”.
He was on his way to visit and pray with wounded soldiers when he was killed by a shell that hit his car.
Sergei’s wife and three children have no means to support themselves and are in urgent need of help.
Source and Original Content by CT
Kenyan Christians Urged to leave Northern Region due to Terror Attacks
Kenyan trade unions have urged non-Muslim public sector workers including teachers and doctors to leave the country’s lawless northern region, site of two deadly attacks by militants in the past two weeks, because of the security risks.
Somali militant Islamist group al Shabaab killed 36 non-Muslim workers on Tuesday at a quarry in northeast Kenya. They also shot dead 28 non-Muslim bus passengers on November 22 while sparing Muslim travellers.
Many of the public sector workers in less prosperous northern Kenya are Christians who moved from the Rift Valley in the west, lured by promises of more work.
“They (the authorities) must guarantee the safety of workers,” said Wilson Sossion, secretary-general of the teachers’ union and also general secretary of Kenya’s Trade Union Congress.
He said the unions’ call was addressed to 10,000 teachers and 6,500 other public servants, including doctors and nurses.
The governor of northeast Kenya’s Mandera county, Ali Roba, implored the workers to stay put, saying an exodus would only deepen the area’s isolation from the rest of the country. As it is, the region struggles to attract qualified workers, he said.
“It’s unfortunate that the likes of the Kenyan National Union of Teachers is going on the media to say civil servants who are non-Muslim should leave,” he told Reuters. “Terror is terror, it’s affecting us equally.”
The exodus has already started, though Sossion said he did not know how many workers had so left Mandera.
“People are scared,” said Ken Mulinga, a clinical officer originally from western Kenya who fled Mandera this week after spending five years in the region. “The best thing for now is to leave that place and watch from a distance.”
President Uhuru Kenyatta, under pressure to do more to curb the incessant militant attacks which have killed more than 200 people since 2013, announced a shake-up of his security team on Tuesday after the killing of the quarry workers.
Al Shabaab says it will keep up its attacks to persuade Kenya to pull its troops out of Somalia, where its forces have joined other African Union troops battling the militants…Read More
Source and Original Content by CT
