Facebook shut down two Christian ministry pages this month, without warning or explanation, renewing fears about the social media giant’s ability to control access to an important corner of today’s public square.

A Facebook media representative said due to privacy issues she could not discuss details about the company’s actions against The Tree of Life Outreach and Sheologians. The representative also refused to speak on the record about company protocol for denying administrative access and what constitutes a violation of Facebook’s community standards.

On Oct. 3, Facebook blocked administrative access to all Pastor Ron Cusano’s pages, including The Tree of Life Outreach page he uses to conduct Bible studies for house churches in Pakistan, India, and Africa. Facebook “kicked out” all Sheologians administrators from their personal accounts Oct. 13, preventing them from accessing their page, Sheologians founder Summer White told me. Facebook offered no explanation other than a notification saying the page’s content may have violated community standards.

Facebook forbids “hate speech,” which it defines as “attacks” against people based on characteristics including sexual orientation and gender identity. The company warns individuals or groups “dedicated to promoting hatred against these protected groups are not allowed a presence on Facebook.”

Both White and Cusano said…

A recent survey has revealed that the majority of Brits believe four of the 10 Commandments are not nearly as important in modern society.

The Christian Post reports that the survey was carried out by YouGov and revealed Brits’ opinions on the importance of each Commandment.

The two which the most survey participants (93 percent) said were still important were the Commandments against murder and against stealing.

Below these, 87 percent of those surveyed said not bearing false witness was still relevant and 73 percent said not committing adultery was still an important Commandment to follow.

Next, 69 percent said honoring one’s father and mother is still important, while 61 percent affirmed the relevance of not coveting someone else’s possessions.

As far as the other four Commandments, however, only a relatively small percentage of those surveyed said they were still important today.

Thirty-one percent said that not worshipping idols is still important, 23 percent said the same for using God’s name in vain, 20 percent affirmed the importance of not worshipping other gods, and 19 percent still believe in keeping the Sabbath as a holy day to God.

Interestingly, the Commandments which have apparently become less important in peoples’ beliefs today are the ones that most are most foundational to a right relationship with God.

“The four Commandments…

President Trump declared on Thursday that the opioid crisis in America is serious enough to be labelled a public health emergency.

According to The Weekly Standard, drug addiction takes the lives of 175 Americans every day. This astonishing number caused the President to speak out.

“We want the next generation of young Americans to know the blessings of a drug-free life,” Trump said. “Each of us has a responsibility to this effort. We have a total responsibility to ourselves, to our family, to our country, including those who are struggling with this addiction.”

Although the President’s declaration is followed by provisions allowing the Health and Human Services Department to divert funding to the opioid crisis, as well as allow the HHS to hire additional experts, the President’s critics pointed out that it does not require Congress to allocate additional funding specifically for the crisis.

In fact, according to Politico, the declaration “disappointed state officials and public health experts.”

Nevertheless, some experts, such as Dr. Corey Waller of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, called the declaration “a big step” in combating opioid addiction.

“I’m happy that we’re seeing follow-through on the commitment to address this as the crisis that it is,” said Waller.

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Publication…

Hundreds of Iraqi Christians who had returned to their homes after initially leaving because of the Islamic State were forced from their homes again because of violence.

According to The Christian Post, hundreds of families in the Kurdish town of Telskuf were told this week to leave the city because of Iraqi soldiers. The soldiers were planning to recapture the city.

Some 1,000 Christian families had returned to the city in the last year.

Most of the Christians who returned to the town fled again to the town of Alqosh. Reports said that only a priest and a handful of people who worked for the church stayed behind.

“Nobody wants this to be collateral damage in a contest between these two entities,” a source told The Christian Post. “It’s a Christian town and you have the Kurdish peshmerga and the Iraqi army fighting over it and the people who had just faced genocide and just moved home are going to be the unintended victims here.”

The plan to recapture the city, however, was stopped, but the situation is “touch-and-go.”

“We are very grateful that just this evening American government involvement was able to stop the planned battle for Telskuf — a town in Nineveh recently liberated from ISIS and rebuilt with a $2 million grant from the government of Hungary,” said Carl Anderson, head of the Catholic-fraternal organization and advocacy group Knights of…