Facebook Purges Ads for Illegal Wildlife in Southeast Asia as Online Trade Surges – Urban Christian News

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Facebook Purges Ads for Illegal Wildlife in Southeast Asia as Online Trade Surges – Urban Christian News

FILE PHOTO: An undated screenshot taken by WWF of a Facebook page selling wildlife is seen written in Burmese in Myanmar, obtained August 5, 2020. Courtesy of World Wide Fund for Nature/Handout via REUTERS

YANGON (Reuters) – An ad showing a civet cat cowering in a cage being offered for sale on Facebook was just one of hundreds that the social media giant has removed in a crackdown on Southeast Asia’s illegal wildlife trade during recent weeks.

“Not too wild, not too-well behaved. If interested, call…” the seller wrote on the post, using an account in Myanmar, a major source and transit point for the trade in wild animals.

Facebook has a ban on the sale of animals on its platform.

But, in the five months through May 2020, a report seen by Reuters showed World Wildlife Fund researchers had counted 2,143 wild animals from 94 species for sale on Facebook from Myanmar alone.

The vast majority of posts – 92% – offered live animals, including birds of prey, while gibbons, langurs, wild cats, and hornbills were in high demand.

Wildlife charities said more than 500 posts, accounts, and groups were taken down in April and July after they alerted Facebook, which said its staffers remove content that breaches rules as soon as they become aware.

“We are committed to working with law enforcement authorities around the world to help tackle the illegal trade of wildlife,” a Facebook spokesperson said.

‘INCREASING IN EVERY COUNTRY’

Campaigners say the advent of zoonotic diseases like the novel coronavirus, which is suspected of having jumped from animals to humans, has not…

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Death of ‘Well-Loved’ Texas Pastor Shows Coronavirus Spread to Rural Areas

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Death of ‘Well-Loved’ Texas Pastor Shows Coronavirus Spread to Rural Areas


Death of ‘Well-Loved’ Texas Pastor Shows Coronavirus Spread to Rural Areas

(RNS) — A small United Methodist church in Texas is “absolutely heartbroken” after losing its pastor to COVID-19 as the pandemic spreads to rural areas of the country previously spared by the virus, according to its district superintendent.

The Rev. Tom Wood, pastor of First United Methodist Church of Itasca, Texas, died July 29, according to his obituary posted on the church Facebook page. He was 83.

Leah Hidde-Gregory, Central District superintendent for the United Methodist Church’s Central Texas Conference, confirmed Wood had died of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

“He was well-loved within the community and through the church, and he came in with so much excitement,” Hidde-Gregory told Religion News Service. “Itasca is a very small town in the northern part of Hill County, and he came in with a lot of energy and just really revived that congregation, and they were blessed to have him for so long.”

Wood was a successful salesman and business owner who came to ministry later in life, according to his obituary.

He served First United Methodist for 17 years, but, Hidde-Gregory said, he always told other pastors, “You know, I’m not a real pastor.”

The pastors he served alongside disagreed, she said. 

When the pandemic struck, Wood began meeting weekly on Zoom with a group of nine pastors serving similar churches in Central Texas led by the…

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Senator Ted Cruz Calls out Department of Defense for ‘Unabashedly Discriminating’ against Believers

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Senator Ted Cruz Calls out Department of Defense for ‘Unabashedly Discriminating’ against Believers


Senator Ted Cruz Calls out Department of Defense for ‘Unabashedly Discriminating’ against Believers

Sen. Ted Cruz has sent another letter to Defense Secretary Mark Esper, reiterating concerns about “religious discrimination” and a “culture of hostility towards religion” in the Department of Defense.

According to CBN News, Cruz sent out an initial letter to the department in June. His follow-up letter again asks Esper to stop the “targeting (of) religious individuals.”

“The Department must do better. It must take affirmative steps to stop those in its ranks from targeting religious individuals and violating the United States Constitution,” Cruz said in the letter, according to Fox News.

Cruz also mentioned in his letter Christian Air Force veteran Jay Lorenzen. Lorenzen was slated to speak at an annual training event for Marine Corps JAG reservists in July, but his appearance was canceled after the Military Religious Freedom Foundation complained that Lorenzen’s beliefs would influence his presentations.

In his first letter, Cruz wrote that he worried that the MRFF was “waging a campaign against the chaplaincy, and frankly, against religious freedom in the military generally.”

In his follow-up letter, he said the Department of Defense is “unabashedly discriminating” against believers.

“The First Amendment unambiguously protects the ‘free exercise’ of religion. More to the point, it protects ‘religious observers against unequal treatment……

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Statue of Billy Graham to be installed in US Capitol: The anniversary of the Voting Rights Act and the ultimate solution to the sin of racism

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Statue of Billy Graham to be installed in US Capitol: The anniversary of the Voting Rights Act and the ultimate solution to the sin of racism

The Rev. Billy Graham speaks during the Mission Metroplex at Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas, in a Thursday, Oct. 17, 2002 file photo. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)

If you’ve been to the US Capitol, you’ll remember its collection of one hundred statues, two from each state of the Union. Some, like Helen Keller and Thomas Edison, are known to us all. Others are less famous nationally.

North Carolina currently honors Charles Brantley Aycock and Zebulon Baird Vance. However, the former was one of the masterminds of an 1898 race riot in which a local government composed of Black Americans was overthrown and replaced by white officials. 

In his place, a life-sized statue of Billy Graham will be installed sometime next year. Rev. Graham is one of his home state’s most beloved figures, with two state highways named to honor him. One of Charlotte’s biggest tourist attractions is the library documenting his life and ministry and its grounds that include his gravesite and restored childhood home. 

The statue will feature Rev. Graham as he looked in the 1960s, preaching and holding a Bible in one hand. His son, Franklin Graham, said, “My father would be very pleased that people thought of him in this way. But he would want people to give God the glory and not himself.” 

Let’s consider the replacement of Aycock’s statue with that of Billy Graham as a parable for our day. 

The Old House Chamber, designated as the National Statuary Hall by President Abraham Lincoln in July 1864. Public domain.

“It gives me a great deal of hope” 

Today is the anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, which was signed into law on August 6, 1965 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. It prohibits discriminatory voting practices, enforces the voting rights of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, gives racial minorities the right to vote across the country, outlaws literacy tests, and bars state or local governments from imposing voting…

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Prayer Points on Today’s Open Heavens 6 August 2020

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TREM Devotional 6 August 2020 – You Must Know Who You Are And What You Carry

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5 Reasons Why Behavior Problems Pop Up In Kids Ministry

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“I just can’t do it anymore. The kids are out of control. I can’t get them to listen. I don’t think I’m the best one to be serving in this spot.”

Chances are high that you have heard this type of statement from a volunteer in your church. Dealing with children’s behavior is a universal issue in children’s ministry. No matter the size, location, or denomination of your church, kids make poor behavioral choices. 

There are reasons why kids misbehave. When we identify these reasons, we can better understand how to minister to the kids in our church. 

    1. Leaders aren’t prepared.  When working with children, downtime is of the devil. If there are gaps in classroom momentum, kids will fill those gaps and probably not in ways that you prefer. When leaders are fumbling over their lesson or having to stop to look for supplies, kids find the opportunity to engage in other behaviors. 
    2. Kids have unmet needs – It is very difficult for a child to feel motivated to participate if he is hungry and hasn’t had breakfast. If a child was awake all night, she may act out. In order to learn and participate, kids need to feel safe, secure, and connected. By choosing to look beyond the behavior and identify unmet needs in the life of the child, we are showing grace that reflects the gospel of Jesus. 
    3. Unrealistic expectations – When we have expectations that are not realistic for the age group that we are serving, we set kids up to fail. When kids fail to meet our expectations, we…

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Candidates Of Deep Battles By Pastor D.K. Olukoya

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Anglican Communion 6 August 2020 – The Significance Of Jesus’ Transfiguration

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Christian women detail racism they face in workplace

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Christian women detail racism they face in workplace

By Blake Fussell, Contributor Follow
Unsplash/Christina @ wocintechchat.com

Racism goes beyond the black and white narrative seen on television, said a group of minority Christian women.

When Jenny Yang, who is Asian American and vice president of Policy & Advocacy on Refugee Resettlement at World Relief, attended a Congress briefing recently, a man began using hand sanitizer. At that moment, a woman behind her made a joke, saying, “He needs it, he’s the one next to an Asian.”

Yang said she knows colleagues who have experienced other harmful words and stereotypes. Asian Americans have been facing increased racism due to the coronavirus’ origin in the Wuhan Province in China.

She and other women spoke about racial issues they face in the workplace and abroad during COVID-19 as part of Women at Work‘s online event this week.

“The racist biases and tendencies are exposed because of the pandemic. A lot of my friends who are Asian American had personal issues of racism because of COVID,” Yang said. “It goes to show that even at the highest levels of government, racism doesn’t hide its head.”

At the Congress briefing, Yang said she had a friend who spoke up to the woman who made the joke. Once the woman realized how hurtful the words were, she apologized. The ignorance of a person’s bias was a key issue highlighted during the Women at Work discussion because racism can infect culture through comments as simple as a joke,…

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