American Keith Broomfield Killed by ISIS; Mother Says Son Believed ‘It Was God’s Will’ for Him to Fight Terror Group

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American Keith Broomfield Killed by ISIS; Mother Says Son Believed ‘It Was God’s Will’ for Him to Fight Terror Group

JB Public Facebook Post (Jennifer Broomfield)

Christian Post Report – Keith Broomfield, 36.

American Keith Broomfield, who according to his mother recently turned his life over to God, died as a volunteer fighter against ISIS on June 3 in northern Syria.

Donna Broomfield told NBC News from her home in Westminster, Massachusetts, “I didn’t want him to go but I didn’t have a choice in the matter. He turned his life over to the Lord and he decided this was God’s will and God wanted him to do it.”

Broomfield’s mother told NBC that what she’s waiting for now is “for his body to come back.”

The State Department confirmed that Broomfield, 36, was killed in Syria fighting alongside the Kurdish Protection Unit (YPG) battling ISIS. He is believed to be the first American who has died volunteering to fight against ISIS.

NBC News reported that a woman named Jennifer Broomfield, claiming to be Keith’s sister, posted pictures of her last text messages with her brother on Facebook. 

In the text message Broomfield told his sister: “Sometimes you got to be a man whether you want to or not. I don’t expect anyone to understand but I don’t need anyone to either. I appreciate your concern and take it as a kindness.”

She, too, paid tribute to Broomfield, saying, “My brother died to defend my sisters who are being sold, enslaved, raped and murdered.”

She further praised him by adding that he’s defending “my brothers who are shot and beheaded and dumped into piles of trucks.”

Her posts about Broomfield, public on Facebook, also included a posting of the 23 Psalm. “I didn’t think I would lose him,” she said.

Broomfield’s mother explained that he left the U.S. four months ago. The Kurdish militia also paid tribute to him on their Facebook page, according to the Daily Mail.

“He was a warrior with the courage and the heart of a lion,” Kurdish forces said. They thanked his mother for “raising such a wonderful son,” while promising revenge for killing “one of our brothers.” In the post, Kurdish forces promised to chase ISIS “from our land to the gates of hell,” praising Broomfield as a “martyr.”

The Daily Mail also reported that dozens of Westerners have joined the fight against ISIS and The Christian Post reported back in April that American men, mostly former soldiers and Marines, are independently volunteering their expertise to fight against the Islamic militants.

At least one Australian and a British volunteer have died volunteering in the fight against ISIS. The two Westerners joined forces with the Kurds, who have been the most successful against ISIS.

Broomfield’s sister-in-law, Melissa Broomfield, added confirmation to his mother’s words. “He said God told him he had to go and without a second thought, he went,” she said.

Broomfield was a production manager for the family’s manufacturing firm before volunteering and paying his own way to join forces with the Kurds.

More than 3,000 U.S. troops are now in Iraq and the White House announced Wednesday that they are sending 450 additional troops to assist the Iraqi government in its fight to combat ISIS.

Source : Christian Post

Pastor Saeed Abedini ‘Viciously Beaten’ in Iranian Prison, Told His Only Way Out Is to Deny Jesus Christ

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Pastor Saeed Abedini ‘Viciously Beaten’ in Iranian Prison, Told His Only Way Out Is to Deny Jesus Christ

<b>Christian Post Report</b> – U.S. Pastor Saeed Abedini in this undated photo.” title=”<b>Christian Post Report</b> – U.S. Pastor Saeed Abedini in this undated photo.” name=”jpg” src=”http://images.christianpost.com/full/60039/u-s-pastor-saeed-abedini-in-this-undated-photo.jpg” class=”imgPhoto” width=”550″ height=”450″ /> <small class=(Photo: ACLJ.org)

Christian Post Report – U.S. Pastor Saeed Abedini in this undated photo.

American pastor Saeed Abedini has reportedly been “viciously beaten” by fellow prisoners in an unprovoked attack in the Iranian prison where he’s being held. The pastor was punched in the face, leaving his eyes beaten black and blue, but prison guards intervened and prevented further injury.

The American Center for Law and Justice, the law group which represents his wife, Naghmeh Abedini, and the couple’s two children in the U.S., said that the prisoners also demolished a small table that the pastor had used to study and read during the beating that he endured last week.

Abedini was allowed to see a prison doctor, who determined that he does not have any broken bones. On Wednesday, he was able to see a family member who came to visit him and see his injuries first hand.

“It is heartbreaking to me and my family that Saeed was again beaten in prison. Saeed’s life is continuously threatened not only because he is an American, but also because he is a convert from Islam to Christianity. It’s time to get Saeed home before it is too late,” Naghmeh Abedini said in response to the news.

Back in May, Abedini marked his 35th birthday in prison, where he has spent over two and a half years for his Christian faith. He was arrested in Iran in 2012 while working on an orphanage for children, and later sentenced to eight years in prison.

The pastor has faced a number of beatings while in prison, both from other inmates and guards. The ACLJ and Naghmeh Abedini have expressed concerns that his condition worsens after each beating.

Last week, Abedini spoke before Congress, pleading for further actions to be taken to help free her husband.

“Over the last three years, I have had to watch my two children, Rebekka (who is 8 years old) and Jacob (who is 7 years old), suffer daily as they have grown up without a father or a mother,” Abedini said.

“I am here today as a single mother who is trying to be strong for her children, and as a wife who humbly admits, I need your help. I cannot bear to look at my children’s longing eyes one more time and explain to them why their daddy is still not home.”

She later told The Christian Post that Abedini has been told his prison sentence will be increased unless he denies his Christian faith — something she insists her husband will not do.

“The times they have moved him in and out of solitary [confinement] and the times they have threatened him, they said ‘You will stay here longer than the eight years and your only key to freedom is if you deny your Christian faith and you return to Islam.’ The guards have said that, officials have said that continuously,” Abedini said.

Source : Christian Post

Why Don’t Bible Students Get Biblical Marriage?

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Why Don’t Bible Students Get Biblical Marriage?

Why Don't Bible Students Get Biblical Marriage?

Christian Post Report – For five years, Dr. Abigail Rine has been teaching a course on gender theory at George Fox University, an evangelical school in the Quaker tradition.

At the beginning of the semester, she tells her students that “they are guaranteed to read something they will find disagreeable, probably even offensive.”

Writing at FirstThings.com recently, she related how five years ago it was easy to find readings that challenged and even offended the evangelical college students “considering the secular bent of contemporary gender studies.”

But today, things are different. “Students now,” she says, “arrive in my class thoroughly versed in the language and categories of identity politics; they are reticent to disagree with anything for fear of seeming intolerant — except, of course, what they perceive to be intolerant.”

And what do they find “intolerant”? Well, in her class, an essay entitled “What is Marriage?” by Sherif Girgis, Robert George, and Ryan Anderson, which was the beginning of the book “What Is Marriage?: Man and Woman: A Defense.”

Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/marriage-redefined-young-evangelicals-in-crisis-140114/

Source : Christian Post

Welcome to … Cannabis Church?

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Welcome to … Cannabis Church?

Welcome to . . . Cannabis Church?

Christian Post Report – Indiana’s First Church of Cannabis, a religious organization pushing the boundaries of recreational marijuana use in the state that recently received tax-exempt status, has released its own version of the Ten Commandments named “The New Deity Dozen.”

The “Deity Dozen” includes 12 basic guidelines for living for the group and encourages member to “practice these in your daily adventures in life, teach others to do the same.”

Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/indiana-marijuana-church-releases-its-own-ten-commandments-the-new-deity-dozen-140128/

Source : Christian Post

Christians in Turkey’s Parliament: The Kurdish Party Changes Turkish Political Landscape in Unprecedented Way

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Christians in Turkey’s Parliament: The Kurdish Party Changes Turkish Political Landscape in Unprecedented Way

turkey (Photo: Reuters/Umit Bektas)

Christian Post Report – Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan makes a speech during a graduation ceremony in Ankara, Turkey, June 11, 2015.

Incumbent Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) received 40.9 percent of the vote on Sunday, giving them the win, but not without setbacks.

The Republican People’s Party (CHP) won 25 percent of the vote, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) 16 percent, and the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) with 13 percent.

AKP’s win this year was its worst performance since it assumed political leadership in Turkey in November of 2002. With 86 percent turnout in the elections, the ruling party had only 258 seats in Turkey’s new legislative body. This figure is down from the 327 seats it won during the previous elections in 2011, when the AKP received over half of the public vote.

Now the Islamists will only be able to form a government in coalition with one of the other victorious parties, since they failed to reach the benchmark of 276 seats – the necessary minimum for the continuation of the party’s more than 10-year rule. Had HDP not passed the 10 percent barrier (the minimum figure that allows political parties to have seats in the Turkish parliament), the 550 seats of the legislative body would have been split among the top three winners, instead of four. That way Erdogan’s AKP would have had enough MPs to form a new government without a coalition.

It is the first time in Turkish history that the Kurdish political party has critically reshuffled the country’s political landscape in such a manner.

Presumably that was the reason why Erdogan’s government intensified efforts to undermine the Kurdish party’s rating during the run-up to the elections. Last week President Erdogan accused Armenians, journalists, the Alevi-Muslim minority members and homosexuals of helping HDP. “They [HDP] also received the support of some foreign media outlets, which see Turkey as their colony,” he claimed.

Just a few days before making this statement, Erdogan said that it was CNN, The New York Times and BBC that were working to weaken and destroy the Turkish Republic.

In response to a question at the daily press briefing, Marie Harf, Senior Advisor for Strategic Communications at the Department of State, called Turkey to respect the freedom of press and decried Erdogan’s attempts to blame Armenians, journalists and homosexuals.

According to Mehmet Yuksel, the Kurdish party’s U.S. representative, “President Erdogan became more aggressive after he had realized AKP might not gain the absolute majority in elections.” According to Yuksel’s statistics, the U.S.-based Turkish citizens ranked the Kurdish party second during the early voting, which took place in May. “In America, the voters put the secular CHP and Kurdish HDP on the top, while Erdogan’s AKP came only the third,” Yuksel told The Christian Post.

However, the Kurdish party got not only get the Kurdish votes, but also the majority of votes from Turkey’s other national minorities, as well as feminists and LGBTs. Last April, 750 feminists in Turkey called for support of the HDP, for which they initiated an online petition. The HDP will give half of its parliament seats to women: a historically unprecedented high quota in Turkish politics.

HDP is largely viewed as a more liberal and democratic party in Turkey. As a matter of fact, two Christian deputies, representing the Armenian and Assyrian communities have been elected to Turkey’s new parliament from HDP’s list last Sunday.

Two more Armenians were elected from the ruling party and secular opposition. This brings the total number of Christian parliamentarians in the 550 membered Turkish legislative body to four – the highest figure since the founding of the republic almost a century ago.

However, it would be safe to assume that it was the Kurdish party’s initiative to bring Christians to the parliament that abetted the Turks to follow the same pattern. There had been no Armenian winners in any Turkish party for decades, prior to HDP’s historic move. Dr. Taner Akcam, professor at Clark University, Massachusetts, thinks that the inclusion of Armenian candidates into the electoral lists had also to do with “growing civil society in Turkey.”

“After Hrant Dink’s (editor of Turkish-Armenian weekly, who was killed in Istanbul in 2007, C.P.) assassination Armenian Genocide and the problems of Armenian community as minority in Turkey became one of the central issues. And each party wants to get connected with this growing civil movement. One important reason is that this movement is very much related to the ‘conscience of the society,'” Akcam mentioned in email communication.

The Kurdish party also supports Turkey’s reconciliation with its past and speaks in favor of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide of 1915. The Turkish government and nationalists deny the historic fact of this century-old crime.

“We will call for opening of the Turkish-Armenian closed border and recognition of the Armenian Genocide. But, first, Turkey needs a government,” Yuksel said.

Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu resigned this week and if no coalition forms by mid-July, new elections should take place.

Haykaram Nahapetyan is the Washington, DC correspondent for the Public TV of Armenia and analyst at Noravank scientific educational foundation.

Source : Christian Post

Cardinal Burke Defends Christian Marriage as ‘Foundation of Human Culture;’ Calls Out Secular Forces Pushing ‘Unnatural Sexual Activity’

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Cardinal Burke Defends Christian Marriage as ‘Foundation of Human Culture;’ Calls Out Secular Forces Pushing ‘Unnatural Sexual Activity’

Burke (Photo: Cardinal Burke/Facebook)

Christian Post Report – Cardinal Raymond Burke at the Shrine Church St. Peter and Paul and Philomena.

Roman Catholic Raymond Burke spoke in Ottawa, Canada, in defense of a Christian view of marriage, declaring there is no “true form of human sexuality other than that intended by God.”

The Catholic Cardinal, who serves as the patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, spoke to NET Canada, an evangelistic organization of young Catholics, last Thursday.

“The defense and promotion of human life and of marriage and the family is at the foundation of a Christian culture, and indeed, of any viable human culture,” he said.

Burke, an American, called the current culture a “disordered moral state” and told the Catholic audience that a holy life in North America demands a martyrdom of “public witness to the faith.” Burke pointed to a myriad of secular forces attacking marriage.

“One necessarily thinks of the ever advancing agenda of those who want to redefine marriage and family life to include the unnatural sexual activity of two persons of the same sex, which is justified as tolerance of so-called ‘alternative forms’ of human sexuality — as if there were a true form of human sexuality other than that intended by God, our Creator and Redeemer, as he has written it in our body and soul,” Burke asserted.

In his remarks, Burke called the culture “thourougly secularized,” and said those in power are ever advancing an “anti-life” and “anti-family” agenda.

Burke called the sexual act between a married man and woman “fundamental to Western culture” and added a caveat against misinformed “contraceptive thinking which fears life, which fears procreation.”

Unlike Roman Catholicism, most Protestant denominations do not take an official moral position against certain forms of contraceptives.

Burke quoted Pope Benedict in denouncing selfish forms of sexual liberation and freedom calling it “signs of the tyranny which perverts mankind that result in a fatal misunderstanding of freedom which actually undermines freedom and destroys.

“The pride of man fails to recognize that all he is and has comes from the end of God who has created and redeemed us after the sin of our first barons,” he added.

Much of Burke’s remarks turned back to martyrdom, which he said is faithful to the teaching of Christ. He called the culture “hostile and more pervasively,” one of “indifference” toward Christian beliefs on human sexuality and that “tempts us toward discouragement.”

“Given the breakdown in family life and the wholesale attack on innocent and defenseless human lives, and the violation of the integrity of the union of marriage in our society, the call to the martyrdom of witness is even more urgent,” stressed Burke.

Burke is viewed by many Catholics as a voice of cultural and theological conservatism within the Roman Catholic Church. He denounced the recent vote for same-sex marriage in Ireland with strong language, declaring even pagans “never dared to say this was marriage.” He has publicly stated that the Catholic Church can never talk enough about abortion and “the integrity of marriage as between one man and one woman.”

Burke concluded his remarks by saying, no doctrine “can make man truly happy, only the Cross and the glory of the risen Christ” can grant peace to the “conscience of believers” and “salvation to his life.”

Source : Christian Post

Christian Millionaire Wayne Huizenga Jr., Shares Conversion Story With Almost 500 New York City Businessmen at Luis Palau Event

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Christian Millionaire Wayne Huizenga Jr., Shares Conversion Story With Almost 500 New York City Businessmen at Luis Palau Event

Luiz Palau and Wayne Huizenga Jr. at Marriot Marquis Hotel (Photo: Christianpost/ Vincent Funaro)

Christian Post Report – Renowned Evangelist Luiz Palau and businessman Wayne Huizenga Jr. shared the Gospel with almost 500 businessmen at a breakfast which took place in New York City at the Marriott Marquis Hotel on June 9, 2015.

NEW YORK – Christian millionaire Wayne Huizenga Jr., shared his conversion testimony with almost 500 businessmen and community leaders in New York City Tuesday at a breakfast hosted by renowned evangelist Luis Palau in preparation for the upcoming NY City Fest event set for July 11 in Central Park, Manhattan.

Palau and his son Kevin hosted a breakfast to discuss the upcoming festival, which will feature performances from Christian singers including Toby Mac, Mandisa and Matt Redman on the Great Lawn of Central Park.

And Huizenga, son of billionaire businessman and co-founder of three Fortune 500 companies Harry Wayne Huizenga was invited by the Palau’s to share his story of salvation.

Huizenga, who has shared his testimony before, was raised in the Dutch Reformed Church which he described as “strict.” He was turned off from the church however after his mother was booted out for divorcing his father.

He said his stocks in Blockbuster made him a rich man at a young age, but he told the crowd that he felt something was still missing from his life.

“Dad was successful, we owned the [Florida] Marlins, the [Miami] Dolphins, the [Florida] Panthers, three professional sports teams. I flew around on his private jet. [I thought] it doesn’t get any better than this. But God had a plan,” said Huizenga Jr.

By this time he was married with children and his mother challenged him to raise them with some sort of grounding and recommended he return to church. He told her he didn’t have the time for church since he was partying on the weekends and engaging in excessive drinking. He took her words more seriously however, after meeting Navy Captain Brad McDonald who he frequently accompanied on fishing trips.

“He didn’t swear a lot, he didn’t drink in excess like I did. He had a peace about him that was unlike anyone I’d had ever seen before,” said Huizenga.

After spending about three years getting to know McDonald, Huizenga decided he wanted to be more like him and that’s when the Captain suggested a relationship with Christ.

“He told me I had a hole in my heart, not a physical hole. [He said] That hole in your heart can’t be filled with anything, but a relationship with God,” continued Huizenga.

And he listened.

After attending a few different churches, Huizenga said he truly accepted Christ and repented during an altar call at a megachurch when a pastor told him he believed God had a purpose for his life.

“It was kind of uncontrollable for me. I heard this voice inside me say: ‘Sit down, everybody’s looking at you. You look foolish.’ There was no way of me getting back into that chair,” said Huizenga.

Huizenga stood in front of 3500 people and accepted Christ that day. He continued his partying lifestyle, but said he felt guilty after engaging in those activities he once enjoyed. God had changed him and one of his Christian friends told him that he “was taking God partying” by living a double life. He eventually changed his lifestyle.

His newfound faith also made him realize that what he had before was “a relationship with church, but not a relationship with God.” He was now able to do more than just carry a Bible and look like a Christian.

Huizenga’s mother fell gravely ill and passed away, but his faith allowed him to care for her in a way he would not have been able to before meeting Christ.

Palau followed up Huizenga’s testimony by stating the millionaire is a “new man” and reiterated the point he made about having a relationship with the church, but not God or Christ.

“Make sure that your retirement plan includes eternal life,” Palau added.

Contact: [email protected]; follow me on Twitter @vinfunaro

Source : Christian Post

ISIS Destroys Ancient Iraqi Christian Church and Turns It Into ‘Mosque of the Mujahideen’ for Islamic Jihadists

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ISIS Destroys Ancient Iraqi Christian Church and Turns It Into ‘Mosque of the Mujahideen’ for Islamic Jihadists

ISIS, Church, 1,800, Louis Sako, Mosul, Christians (Photo: Shoebat.com)

Christian Post Report – An 1,800-year-old church being burnt to the ground in Mosul, Iraq.

One of Mosul’s largest Christian churches is being destroyed and turned into a mosque for Islamic State jihadists.

The Islamic State terror group posted flyers throughout Mosul announcing in a decree that the Syrian Orthodox Church of St. Ephraim is reopening as the “mosque of the mujahideen” or jihad fighters. Christian symbols and relics have already been scrubbed and demolished from the ancient church.

It’s believed that all Christians have either been executed or have evacuated the city since Islamic militants overran the area last year. Christians were told to flee or face execution.

“They (ISIS) take everything from us, but they cannot take the God from our hearts, they cannot,” said Nicodemus Sharaf, archbishop of the Syriac Orthodox Church in Mosul, who’s now a refugee.

  • Marked Christian Homes in Mosul
    (Photo: AINA News)
    The Arabic letter “n” (inside red circle), signifying “Nasarah” (Christian), on a Christian home in Mosul.

The BBC reported Tuesday that homes belonging to Christians and other religious minorities have been confiscated or marked for demolition. A man calling himself Hisham told the BBC that many Muslims no longer go to the mosques because they have become so radicalized.

“The group has even replaced the imams in the mosques with pro-IS people,” said Hisham. “Many of us have stopped going to the mosques because those attending are asked to give an oath of allegiance and we hate that.”

A woman named Hanaa also talked to the BBC and described ISIS’ restrictions on women under Shariah law: “We had heard stories of men being flogged because their wives didn’t put their gloves on.”

Nuri Kino, founder and president of A Demand for Action, an organization that seeks to protect religious minorities in the Middle East, told Newsweek that the continued attacks against Christians is all part of the religious cleansing IS demands.

“They destroy our artefacts, our churches and try to erase us in any way they can,” he said.

Last year in The Washington Post, Ishaan Tharoor noted:

“The militants espouse a radical, puritanical strain of Sunni Islam whereby all shrines or holy sites that honor lesser beings than their God are considered apostate.”

Islamic militants have said they do not care whether a historic relic or piece of religious art “costs billions of dollars,” according to them, Allah orders their destruction.

The situation for Christians has grown so desperate that Iraqi Archbishop Bashar Warda told “60 Minutes” in March that the only way to stop the death and destruction is to defeat them militarily.

“Sometimes you take some hard measures, unfortunate measures, to deal and treat this cancer,” he asserted.

In April, Newsweek reported grim comments by Max Abrahms, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and political science professor at Northeastern University, who believes that if Mosul is taken back by coalition forces or the Iraqi government they will find out that the number of executions have been underestimated in that city.

“I think that initially, last summer, the international community was not paying that much attention to Islamic State. During that time, under the nose of the international community, they slaughtered thousands of civilians.”

Iraq (Photo: Reuters/Ahmed Malik)

A girl holds up a sign that reads: “I am an Iraqi, I am a Christian” at Mar Girgis Church in Baghdad, July 20, 2014. The head of Iraq’s largest church said on Sunday that Islamic State militants who drove Christians out of Mosul were worse than Mongol leader Genghis Khan and his grandson Hulagu who ransacked medieval Baghdad. Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako led a wave of condemnation for the Sunni Islamists who demanded Christians either convert, submit to their radical rule and pay a religious levy or face death by the sword. Sako was speaking at the special church service in east Baghdad where around 200 Muslims joined Christians in solidarity.

Source : Christian Post

Christian Conservative Pat Boone on Caitlyn Jenner: ‘Everybody Should Go Read First Chapter in the Book of Romans’

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Christian Conservative Pat Boone on Caitlyn Jenner: ‘Everybody Should Go Read First Chapter in the Book of Romans’
  • Pat Boone
    (Photo: Rogers & Cowan)
    Pat Boone released a new album as a tribute to The Ink Spots May 1, 2012.

Christian Post Report – Iconic Christian singer and actor Pat Boone says that “everybody should go read first chapter in the Book of Romans” when considering Bruce Jenner’s recent transition into Caitlyn Jenner.

Bruce Jenner, a former Olympic gold medalist, came out as a transgender woman Caitlyn Jenner earlier this month. She appeared also appeared in Vanity Fair magazine where she talked openly about her transition.

Boone, who has sold nearly 50 million records since his career began in the 1950s, shared his thoughts on Jenner while speaking to The Christian Post on Tuesday.

“Well I feel sad, I do feel sad for him. There’s a lot of things that influence something like that, and he had a lot of unhappiness,” said the 81-year-old entertainer. “I think he has eight kids, doesn’t he? That, I hope, was a major consideration, I don’t know how he worked that out in his mind, on his children. But it’s his life, and there’s a whole chapter in the book of Romans that talks about things like this happening. You can read all about it. In fact, everybody should go read first chapter Romans.”

He added: “It doesn’t matter what I think about it, it’s what God says.”

In Romans Chapter 1, the Apostle Paul condemns sexual behavior such as homosexuality as sinful. In verse 24, it reads: “Therefore God gave them over in the in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised. Amen.”

In verses 26-27 he continues: “For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.”

Jenner’s transition has been met with both praise and criticism, and she is now widely considered to be the most famous openly transgender person in the world.

Boone is well known for covering rhythm and blues hits of the ’50s and ’60s such as “Tutti Frutti,” and Elvis Presley was once the opening act for his show in 1955. Over the course of Boone’s legendary career, the gospel singer has enjoyed 38 Top 40 hits and countless gold and platinum records. Also a best-selling author, he has served as a motivational speaker, television personality, and conservative political commentator over the past six decades.

follow me on Twitter @emmakoonse

Source : Christian Post

Bishop of Oslo Speaks Out Against ‘Unacceptable’ Music Video Simulating Gay Sex With Priest Before Church Altar

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Bishop of Oslo Speaks Out Against ‘Unacceptable’ Music Video Simulating Gay Sex With Priest Before Church Altar
  • Frogner Church in Oslo, Norway
    (Photo: Frogner Church Website)
    Frogner Church in Oslo, Norway

Christian Post Report – The Bishop of Oslo is speaking out after Norwegian entertainer Tooji used Oslo’s Frogner Church as a backdrop for a raunchy music video where the singer announced his sexual orientation by filming an intimate encounter taking place in front of the church’s altar with another man portraying a priest.

Touraj Keshtkar, the 28-year-old entertainer known as Tooji who represented Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012, announced his homosexuality on Monday with the release of his “Father” music video. The visuals were filmed in the Frogner Church in Oslo, Norway where Tooji kissed a man portraying a priest before both men stripped naked in an intimate exchange before what appeared to be a supportive congregation.

As the video progresses, the pair turn into angels while they are embracing intimately.

Once the Bishop of Oslo, Ole Christian Kvarme, caught wind of the video he released a statement about Tooji’s video.

“I was informed about the case after it was taken a decision in Frogner parish to lease out the nave and the recordings were made . Regardless of the music video’s message and the sender is shooting intimate scenes before the altar totally unacceptable and is a gross abuse of the church,” the Bishop said in a statement on the Norwegian Church’s official website. “Nave should never be used as a visual backdrop for sexual scenes in a commercial production.”

While Tooji spoke out about wanting to make the music video to put “human rights above religion” because of intolerance of homosexuality, the Bishop did not cite that as the reason he felt the video was egregious.

“A similar scene between man and woman would be equally unacceptable . What has happened here violates the rules and regulations we have for the use of church space,” said the Bishop. “Beyond this, it is not natural for me to comment further.”

The Norwegian Church website explains that the bishop was not informed about the content of the video before the space was rented out. When Tooji approached Frogner church officials to rent the location for his music video last April, he reportedly left out the fact that the project would include raunchy scenes.

“The church has pointed out that there are scenes in the film that does not correspond to the project description that formed the basis for their decision,” information from Frogner parish states.

Since releasing the music video, Tooji was reportedly fired from being presenter of Nordic Eurovision talent show Melodi Grand Prix Junior, according to Breitbart.com reports.

Tooji’s The Father Project music video can be viewed here. WARNING: This video may be inappropriate for some users, not suitable for work or children.

follow me on Twitter @CAThomasos

Source : Christian Post

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