Petition Demands City Ceases Intimidation Of Pastors

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Petition Demands City Ceases Intimidation Of Pastors

Faith Driven Consumer, the group that launched the #IStandWithPhil campaign that advocated for Phil Robertson’s return to Duck Dynasty, is pushing out another major petition campaign #HoustonWeHaveAProblem demanding that the city of Houston immediately “cease and desist all bullying and other offensive actions” against a group of pastors who are victims of an aggressive harassment effort at the hands of the city government.

The city is demanding that a group of pastors turn over any sermons—including personal correspondence such as emails—”dealing with homosexuality, gender identity or Annise Parker, the city’s first openly lesbian mayor.”

“Pastors are a critical part of the very fabric of American society. They have been iconic champions of major moral issues such as American Independence, abolishing slavery, women’s suffrage, child labor laws, and civil rights. Now, a group of pastors who have continued this tradition are being bullied by the strong-arm tactics of the government of America’s fourth-largest city—simply for preaching out of the same book that Houston’s officials took their oath of office on,” said Chris Stone, Founder of Faith Driven Consumer.

“Today, we are launching the#HoustonWeHaveAProblem petition drive at HoustonProblem.com because we know that untold millions of Americans are or will be outraged by this. We are asking people of conscience to sign up, stand with pastors everywhere and show the city of Houston that we will not tolerate intolerance… Read More

Source and Original Content by Charisma News

US Students Observe “Bring Your Bible to School Day”

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US Students Observe “Bring Your Bible to School Day”

Students across the United States will bring their Bibles to school today (Oct. 16) as part of a national initiative to encourage young people to share their faith with peers. According to The Blaze, Bring Your Bible to School Day is sponsored by Focus on the Family in an effort to promote religious freedom.

Focus on the Family is using the event as a way to teach students their constitutional rights.

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) attorney Jeremy Tedesco said, “Christian students don’t abandon their constitutionally protected freedoms at the schoolhouse gate. Their freedom to express their beliefs includes the right to bring their Bible to school, to read it during their free time, and to engage in other activities as part of ‘Bring Your Bible to School Day.’”

The ADF also released a public memo, informing schools that students are permitted by law to carry a Bible and read it during non-instructional time.

“Students have a constitutional right to participate in and promote ‘Bring Your Bible to School Day.’ Unfortunately, schools all too often censor religious expression for fear of violating the often misunderstood ‘separation of church and state,’ for dislike of religious viewpoints, or for a desire to avoid controversy,” the memo read.

Source and Original Content by Christian Headlines

Recognition Of Palestine Supported By The Church Of Sweden

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Recognition Of Palestine Supported By The Church Of Sweden

Erik Lysén, head of the international policy unit at the Church of Sweden, has called the recognition of Palestine an important step towards the peace process.

“In the long term it may lead to a lasting two-state solution, in which Israelis and Palestinians live side by side within safe and recognized borders,” he said.

Lysén’s comments come after the Swedish government’s formal recognition of the state of Palestine.

“The Swedish Government’s decision comes in a key course of events as the situation on the ground is deteriorating daily through the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements,” Lysén said.

In August 2014, Israel announced its confiscation of nearly 380 hectares in the vicinity of Bethlehem. At the end of September, further announcements were made that Israeli authorities had approved the plans for new settlements in Eastern Jerusalem, a decision that was strongly criticised by the European Union (EU) and the USA.

“Hopefully, Swedish recognition will pave the way for recognition of Palestine by other countries in the EU. Today about 130 states, including some EU member states, have recognized Palestine,” Lysén added.

Speaking on the war during the summer, underlining the importance of obtaining a lasting solution to the conflict, Lysén said that “such a solution can only be achieved through peaceful means. All breaches of international law in the form of violence and attacks on civilians, irrespective of who carries them out, must cease, and the perpetrators must be the subject of legal proceedings.”

In 2012 the General Synod, the highest decision-making body in the Church of Sweden, decided to urge the Swedish government to work towards Palestine being accepted as a full member of the United Nations.

Through its several initiatives for advocacy, the WCC mobilises its member churches and partners to work for peace in Palestine and Israel, with the aim of ending the illegal occupation in accordance with UN resolutions, encouraging actions for peace and justice for all the peoples in the region.

Source and Original Content by Ekklesia.co.uk

Syrian Refugees Get Relief from Messianic Jews, Christian Arabs

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Syrian Refugees Get Relief from Messianic Jews, Christian Arabs

A team of Israeli Messianic Jews and Arab Christians have been assisting Syrian war refugees. The group recently visited a church where 219 refugees families (over 700 people) were taking shelter after fleeing from ISIS and other Islamist groups.

“These people lost everything,” says one member of the Israeli group, whose names need to be protected. “They even saw family members murdered or kidnapped.”

The Arab and Jewish team are working together with local Christians who are doing what they can to care for the needs of the multitudes of children who have been devastated by the war. The team brought a large financial gift from the Body of Christ in Israel, Jews and Arabs who wanted to reach out to the Syrians in a practical way.

“We brought milk for children, diapers, jackets, warm clothes, toys and candy; we purchased heaters and blankets, small cooking stoves and cooking pans. What a joy to see the faces of the young ones that walked around barefoot, having lost everything, receiving new sandals,” the team member recalls.

In addition to the practical humanitarian needs, they are also supporting educational opportunities for the multitudes of displaced children, including Bible teachings. “We do not want to pass the pain to our children,” said a local Arab Christian working with the refugees… Read More

Source and Original Content by Israel Today

US Govt Deploys Ebola SWAT Teams

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US Govt Deploys Ebola SWAT Teams

President Barack Obama is now ordering the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to deploy medical “SWAT teams” within 24 hours to any hospital reporting a new case of Ebola.

The move comes after revelations the CDC may have been too lax in its procedures, allowing a nurse who’d treated an infected patient to travel on an airplane.

“We are monitoring, supervising, overseeing in a much more aggressive way exactly what’s taking place in Dallas initially and making sure that the lessons learned are then transmitted to hospitals and clinics all across the country,” the president said.

Amber Joy Vinson, the second Dallas nurse to catch Ebola, treated Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who died at a Dallas hospital last week. She then flew to Cleveland to visit family and back to Dallas before she knew she had the disease.

Vinson contacted the CDC about her travel plans beforehand. The agency admits it was a mistake to give her permission to fly with a heightened temperature of more than 99 degrees.

Vinson is now in isolation at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.

“It’s making you wonder, you know, is it safe to even, you know, to get on any of these planes going anywhere?” air traveler Joyce Walton said.

The CDC says the risk to the 132 passengers is extremely low. Nevertheless, air travelers are still uneasy and the country is nervous… Read More

Source and Original Content by CBN News

COGIC Makes Moves To March And Demand Justice For Michael Brown

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COGIC Makes Moves To March And Demand Justice For Michael Brown

The 107th Holy Convocation of the Church of God in Christ will be held from November 3-11, 2014 in St. Louis, Missouri and as a concerned progressive Christian of the millennial generation, I implore you that during this week of meetings, worship services and workshops that you lead this aggregation of people outside of the Edward Jones Dome toward the seats of governmental power in the city of Ferguson, the city of St. Louis and the state of Missouri and demand justice on behalf of the family of Michael Brown.

Growing up in the institutional Black Church, I understand that as an institution that it was instrumental in the liberation of Africans enslaved on these shores both in the visible and invisible church as well as the liberation of the descendants of these same African slaves who never experienced the emancipation of their own bodies from the bondage of white racism and chattel slavery. I also understand that the Black Church, as an institution, has held the nexus of pneumatological power from the inception of this country as well as possession of a prophetic voice that produced both a Martin Luther King and a Bishop Charles Mason, a Malcolm X and a Bishop Gilbert Patterson, a Jarena Lee and a Jacqueline McCollough, a Prathia Hall and a Gertrude Stacks, a Thomas Dorsey and a Dr. Mattie Moss Clark.

To plan a national convention that provides an economic boost to the city of St. Louis as much as $35 million in years past, but potentially miss the power of your presence to be in the city of St. Louis at such a time as this is the equivalent of Peter missing the Holy Spirit multiple times leading toward the conversion of Cornelius; to potentially ignore the plight of your own brothers and sisters a mere 12 miles away in Ferguson is tantamount to standing at the foot of cross and watching Jesus suffer not just a spiritual crucifixion, but a political lynching and say nothing–and do nothing! We sit in churches week after week and hear about our own sisters and brothers succumbing to oppressive systems of politics and education, race and religion and we do nothing–we say nothing. Bishop Blake, et. al., now is your time and your opportunity to do something about it.

The time is now to utilize the power of the Holy Ghost and the possession of the prophetic voice to turn the world upside down… Read More

Source and Original Content by BCNN 1

“US Churches Are Weak Due To Worldliness”, Christian Author

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“US Churches Are Weak Due To Worldliness”, Christian Author

U.S. churches are weak because they’re worldly, according to Christian author Os Guinness.

Speaking at the Family Research Council in Washington, Guinness added that churches have lost influence in America because Christians are fearful and compromised.

He said this is a time when the world needs “a positive and persuasive alternative vision of human flourishing.”

Guinness said he thinks too many American Christians lack the “courage to be different and to clearly make a stand” in a culture that’s increasingly disdainful and even hostile to Christianity.

Source and Original Content by CBN News

Arsonist Target Oklahoma Salvation Army

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Arsonist Target Oklahoma Salvation Army

Police and fire officials in Shawnee, Oklahoma, are working to figure out who is setting fire to Salvation Army busses. Firefighters responded to two bus fires on Saturday.

Officials with the charity said the busses were used to take children to and from after-school programs.

“They were just in total disbelief. They don’t understand why would somebody take their vehicle,” Salvation Army Captain Phillip Canning said.

The first fire was set early Saturday morning. The second was set in the evening. Canning said it appears that the arsonist tried to use the first aid kit as fuel for the second fire.

The Salvation Army hopes anyone with information comes forward.

Source and Original Content by CBN News

African Pastors Interceed For America

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African Pastors Interceed For America

A group of African pastors and leaders recently gathered in Washington, D.C., to pray for revival for the Church and for America.

Participants prayed and sang praises as they called out to God to forgive the nation’s sins and return our land to its biblical roots.

Ebele Okafor of Wailing Women Worldwide attended the rally.

“The only hope we have now is Jesus Christ,” she said.

The event, called “A Solemn Assembly,” was organized by the African Strategic Leadership Prayer Network (ASLPN), a team of African Christian leaders from around the world.

Dr. Michael Obi is the group’s national coordinator.

“We as African immigrants have always believed that the spiritual awakening in Africa was a result of the sacrifices of American missionaries or Western missionaries,” Obi told CBN News.

“And here in America we see the nation in a spiritual coma and because of that God opened our hearts and burdened our hearts,” he said, adding that the problem in America is not physical but spiritual.

Believers from across racial and denominational lines who attended the solemn assembly agreed these are critical days for America, and national repentance through prayer is the only hope.

“We have people from all over Africa, different parts of Africa combined with Native Americans, caucasians, African-Americans and with one voice, with one heart we lifted up our voices unto God on behalf of the Church and on behalf of this nation,” ASLPN National Chairman Darlingtston Johnson said.

There was special prayer for young people who attended the prayer rally as they called upon the name of the Lord on behalf of their generation.

“Prayer isn’t just for the older generation but it’s for our generation too,” Emmaline Elliott said. “God is longing for his people to turn to Him in prayer.”

Organizers of the prayer event said they long to see their intercession make a lasting difference in America now and in the future.

“We really believe that before the end of December we’re going to see major things happen in this nation as a result of this prayer that will bring a change in the culture — in the atmosphere of the nation,” Dr. Obi said… Read More

Source and Original Content by CBN NEWS

Houston Pastors Challenge Intimidation By Mayor

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Houston Pastors Challenge Intimidation By Mayor

Christians across the nation are mobilizing to defend a group of Houston pastors who were ordered by the city to turn over any sermons dealing with homosexuality, gender identity issues or Houston mayor. Their message is simple: Don’t Mess with Texas Preachers.

Dave Welch, the executive director of the Texas Pastor Council, is one of the five ministers who received a subpoena. He said he will not be intimidated by Annise Parker, who is the city’s first openly lesbian mayor, nor will he comply with the city’s demands.

“My answer to that is: Bring it on,” he said.

Houston’s city attorney issued the subpoenas in a response to a lawsuit filed related to the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (H.E.R.O.), the city’s new non-discrimination ordinance, also known as the “Bathroom Bill.”

The new law, which has yet to take effect, would (among other things) allow men who identify as women to use the restrooms of their choice—and vice versa. Opponents launched a petition drive to put the issue on the ballot.

However, the city threw out the petitions claiming there were not enough legitimate signatures. Opponents then filed a lawsuit, which led the city to issue the subpoenas.

Ironically, none of the five subpoenaed pastors are plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

Welch told me pastors across the Lone Star State are mobilizing and in the very near future they plan to hold a “Don’t Mess with Texas Pulpit Sunday” event.

“We are dealing with bullies used to getting away with abuse of power,” Welch said. “We called their bluff on this…Read More

Source and Original Content by Charisma News

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