BBC not taking religion seriously, says Bishop

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BBC not taking religion seriously, says Bishop

Catholic Herald report- The Anglican Bishop of Leeds has criticised the BBC for failing to prioritise religion.

Following the announcement by the BBC that the specialist role of Commissioning Editor for Religion is to be closed, along with three other top commissioning jobs, Bishop Nick Baines said: “At a time when it is impossible to understand the modern world – its politics, economics, military and humanitarian events – without understanding religion, why isn’t religion being prioritised by the BBC as needing expert commissioning.”

Roger Bolton, the BBC presenter and a Sandford St Martin Trustee which aims to promote excellence in religious programming, said: “It’s the old problem: not taking religion seriously. For instance, why is there no BBC News Religion Editor to complement the Science, Economics, Business, Political, Financial, Arts and Sports Editors?”

On January 23 the BBC announced that the specialist role of Commissioning Editor for Religion would be scrapped with religious programmes being commissioned by one new Commissioning Head of Specialist Factual who also will have responsibility for commissioning BBC TV’s science, business and history programmes.

Source: Catholic Herald

Religious says helping victims includes stopping trafficking demands

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Religious says helping victims includes stopping trafficking demands

Catholic News Service report- Bringing the light of hope to ending human trafficking means confronting the brutal “darkness” of evil that is driving those who exploit others, said a number of women religious helping victims.

Already “thousands and thousands of us are working in networks across the world to dispel this darkness, and it’s not happening, so we have to ask ourselves, ‘What do we do?'” said Loretto Sister Imelda Poole.

Those active in the fight will have to “look at the darkness — the demand, the traffickers, to see if we can work more closely with the police, the justice (system) and, as a church, let us open the doors wider and wider to do research, to really look at the phenomenon, to be as clever as the traffickers,” she said.

She and others spoke at a Vatican news conference Feb. 3 in the run-up to the church’s first International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking to be celebrated every Feb. 8, the feast of St. Josephine Bakhita.

The International Labor Organization and the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime estimate at least 21 million people are victims of human trafficking worldwide, and 2.5 million more people fall into the snares of traffickers each year. The ILO estimates human trafficking generates more than $32 billion a year — the third most-profitable “business” after drugs and arms trafficking.

Comboni Missionary Sister Valeria Gandini, who works on trafficking and migration issues in Sicily, said people who pay for sex “have a great responsibility in trafficking” because “they are the ones who directly abuse the girl,” and the money they hand to the prostitute heads straight to the criminal networks running the industry.

She said that as she is ministering to women on the street, she sees men ranging from grandfathers to young teens on mopeds driving up to proposition the women.

“There is a lack of a sense of responsibility” and awareness that their actions have consequences on others, she said.

Often people are ignorant of the coercive hold traffickers have on these women, thinking the women are freely and willingly prostituting themselves, she said.

As part of their work in preventing trafficking, Sister Gandini said they hand out to “clients” on the streets as well as to people in school and parishes a letter explaining the poverty, trickery, coercion and risks to which the women are exposed.

The hope is that helping people recognize the plight of victims, and the need to respect and protect human dignity will help reduce the demand, she said.

“In order to understand what human trafficking is, it is necessary to meet victims, to listen to them, look at them in the eyes, embrace them,” Sister Gandini said.

So often victims “do not ask for help and they live silently in fear and shame — a silence that we find deafening,” she said.

As a way to raise awareness, the International Union of Superiors General, which includes the superiors of some 1,900 religious orders of women around the world, and the Union of Superiors General, which represents male religious orders worldwide, launched the website a-light-against-human-trafficking.info for the day of prayer, asking people to “shine a light” on the often-hidden problem of human trafficking.

Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said the day of prayer is meant to expand awareness and prayer on a global scale “to the very depths of this evil and its farthest reaches” and inspire people to move from awareness to action.

The only way to stop the worldwide crime of trafficking, he said, is to respond in a way that is as far-reaching, global and coordinated as the traffickers.

Women’s religious orders came together to form the international network, “Talitha Kum” in 2004. The network is one of more than a dozen networks that the superiors general have formed to educate and warn potential victims of trafficking, to work to combat the poverty that feeds the trade in human beings, and to rescue and provide shelter and rehabilitation for the victims.

Source: Catholic News Service

Kelvin Cochran compares himself to some Biblical figures

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Kelvin Cochran compares himself to some Biblical figures

Advocate News report– Atlanta’s former fire chief, who was discharged after publishing a virulently antigay book, recently delivered a sermon in which he compared himself to biblical figures such as Job, Daniel—and even Jesus. Kelvin Cochran said he was in “pretty good company when it comes to God-induced sufferings.” He differentiated such suffering from “self-inflicted suffering” and suggested that his discharge was part of a divine plan for Cochran, his family and “the kingdom of God.”

Cochran delivered the sermon at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Cartersville, Ga., on January 25. According to the GA Voice, some religious leaders who at first rallied for Cochran seem to be distancing themselves from the dispute about his firing.

Cochran was fired in early January, following a 30-day suspension. He was given the unpaid suspension after self-publishing a book titled, Who Told You That You Were Naked? The book reportedly includes featured antigay, anti-woman, and anti-Semitic statements. It also equates homosexuality with bestiality and incest.

When he terminated Cochran, Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed explained that the chief was not being fired for his personal beliefs but for publishing a book that violated the city’s nondiscrimination policy. Reed said that the book violated the city’s standard of conduct and made the mayor question the chief’s ability to lead an inclusive workforce. (The city’s nondiscrimination ordinance prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.) Reed has also expressed frustration that Cochran did not discuss the book with him prior to publication and didn’t secure permission.

“His personal religious beliefs are not the issue at all, despite the number of comments and emails I have been receiving on a daily basis,” Reed said previously. “His judgment and ability to manage the department was the subject of this inquiry.”

Reed himself “evolved” on the issue of marriage for same-sex couples and endorsed marriage equality in 2012.

As for Cochran, he maintains that he will be “vindicated.”

“I found out there are worldly consequences for standing for righteousness, but what God is about to show everybody is that there are also kingdom consequences for standing for righteousness. And he’s going to vindicate me in such a way that everybody will see it and everybody will know that it’s nobody but the most high God who is vindicating me,” Cochran said, according to the Voice article.

Source: Advocate News

Egypt Hands Down Mass Death Sentences to 183 Protesters

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Egypt Hands Down Mass Death Sentences to 183 Protesters

Christian Post report– Egypt has handed down death sentences to 183 people involved in the murder of 11 policemen and two civilians during the August 2013 mass protests. Human rights groups have pointed out, however, that the court has failed to hold a single police officer accountable for the deadly clashes.

“Today’s death sentences are yet another example of the bias of the Egyptian criminal justice system,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui of Amnesty International. “These verdicts and sentences must be quashed and all of those convicted should be given a trial that meets international standards of fairness and excludes the death penalty.”

“Issuing mass death sentences whenever the case involves the killing of police officers now appears to be near-routine policy, regardless of facts and with no attempt to establish individual responsibility,” Sahraoui added.

CNN pointed out that 34 of the 183 defendants were tried in absentia, and all have the option to appeal against the sentence.

Clashes between police and protesters during the uprising that ousted former President Mohamed Morsi have sparked several trials, and back in March 2014 the Egyptian court sentenced 529 Muslim Brotherhood supporters to death for their role in the turmoil.

The verdict was slammed by several lawyers, such as Mohamed Zarie, who heads the Arab Penal Reform Organization rights center in Cairo. Zarie argued that the court is seeking revenge rather than justice.

Amnesty said that 415 of those sentences have been upheld. At the same time, no police officers have been charged with the deaths of close to 1,000 protesters in August 2013.

Human Rights Watch voiced similar concerns in a report on Tuesday. The group noted that beside the death sentences, Egypt has jailed more than 41,000 people. While close to 29,000 of those are reportedly Muslim Brotherhood supporters, others have been identified as government critics from various political groups.

“Egypt is at a post-revolution nadir, and right now there’s no light at the end of the tunnel,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW Middle East and North Africa director. “The situation for thousands of Egyptians is getting worse by the day.”

“Authorities have also zealously enforced a 2013 anti-protest law, leading to hundreds of convictions, including of high-profile activists and human rights defenders such as Yara Sallam, Ahmed Maher, and Alaa Abdel Fattah,” the report added.

“The law allows the Interior Ministry near-total power to ban any gathering of more than 10 people that it has not authorized. Security forces have used the law to repeatedly and violently disperse unauthorized demonstrations, resulting in a number of deaths,” claims in the report continued.

Egypt has faced a number of violent years, with protesters bringing down former President Hosny Mubarak in 2011, before the fall of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has called for an end to such deadly clashes, and called on Muslim leaders to help in the fight against extremism.

Source: Christian Post

Twitter suspends Suspected Boko Haram Twitter Account After Releasing Photos of Children Extremists

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Twitter suspends Suspected Boko Haram Twitter Account After Releasing Photos of Children Extremists

Telegraph report– Twitter has suspended an account purportedly set up by Boko Haram, the Nigerian terrorist group causing havoc in the country’s north, which it had used to post pictures of child soldiers in training.

The account, @Alurwa_Alwuthqa, was set up on January 18 as part of what is believed to be a bid to mimic the successful PR and recruitment campaigns of groups like al-Shabaab in Somalia and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Within days, it had gained 4,000 followers and on January 25, announced in Arabic the capture of Monguno, a strategic town close to Maiduguri, the state capital of Borno province and Boko Haram’s birthplace.

Pictures have also been posted on the account to suggest Boko Haram, which means “Western Education is Sinful”, was actively training child soldiers, a tactic borrowed from conflicts in other parts of Africa.

They showed children as young as ten dressed in dark robes, training in military formation and holding AK-47 assault rifles.

“Photo of Cubs nation,” the caption reads. “Generation of conquest and victory, God willing.”

The profile also posted a link to a video interview with Abu Mus’ab Al barnawi, who is said to be the group’s spokesman, in which he discussed the capture of Baga, the village where an estimated 2,000 civilians were killed.

A second video showed an interview with a group of Boko Haram fighters, explaining their motivation.

There has been intense speculation online about whether the account was genuine, since others set up previously have proved to be fake. However, the suspension of the account by Twitter boosted claims that it was.

The US State Department also lent credibility to the claims by tweeting a photo of the purported child soldiers, writing: “Amid its massacres of innocents, Boko Haram running training camps for child soldiers.”

The videos posted to the account, if genuine, reflect a growing sophistication in Boko Haram’s publicity machine, which previously was limited to disseminating shaky clips showing the group’s leader Abubakabar Shekau flanked by arms-laden pick-up trucks and ranting in rudimentary Arabic.

Across the continent, al-Shabaab in Somalia has some prolific tweeters in its ranks, with several British-born jihadis thoughts to be among them, and live-tweeted the attack on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall before its account was shut down by Twitter.

Isil already has proved similarly fluent in social media, posting videos, pictures and messages on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr, using hashtags to tap into popular searches. Social media monitors suggest that its PR campaign is gaining results, with hundreds of thousands of online accounts discussing the group.

In response, the head of GCHQ has accused social media websites of helping terror groups and called for closer ties with intelligence agencies.

Ryan Cummings, chief Africa analyst for Red 24, a crisis management firm, said the Twitter account appeared to be just one outlet in a “media network” launched by Boko Haram in mid-January through trusted jihadi channels also used by Isil.

He said the interviews reflected a desire to dispel the notion that Boko Haram was killing indiscriminately, and emphasised the group’s Islamic credentials.

“It does seem very legitimate and until it was shut down, offered some very interesting insights into the operations and methodology of the organisation,” he said.

“The fact that there was no mention of Abubakabar Shekau, for example, suggests a new degree of factionalism, and the strengthening of links with groups like Isil which is something he never supported.”

Source: Telegraph

Selma Movie – Official Trailer

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Selma Movie – Official Trailer

SELMA is the story of a movement. The film chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition. The epic march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement.  Director Ava DuVernay’s SELMA tells the real story of how the revered leader and visionary Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) and his brothers and sisters in the movement prompted change that forever altered history.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPgs2zshD9Y[/youtube]

Pastor Preaches against Abortion

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Pastor Preaches against Abortion

Christian Post report– Matt Chandler, lead pastor of The Village Church in Texas, recently preached against abortion from the pulpit, doing what many U.S. pastors apparently avoid like the plague, according to a survey’s findings and the observation of some Christian leaders.

Chandler, married father of three, president of the church-planting Acts 29 Network, and co-author of such books as The Explicit Gospel and the upcoming The Mingling of Souls, took on the subject of abortion late last month as part of an on-going sermon series.

It was just in December when Chandler shared a stage with respected theologian and former pastor John Piper, who stated his belief that “there are cowards in the pulpit who won’t touch the subject of abortion with a 10-foot pole.”

It was at the “A Time to Speak” panel event where Piper made that scathing remark, and also included race as one of the rarely-, if ever-touched sermon subjects.

Chandler, who has spoken from The Village Church pulpit on racism and white privilege in the past, made it clear in his Sunday, Jan. 25 a sermon titled “The Sanctity of Life,” that he is not among the alleged “cowards in the pulpit.”

“I don’t believe this is a political issue,” Chandler says to the multi-campus Village Church before launching into his sermon, the video of which was made available online. “I believe this is a scientific issue and a deeply theological issue. I’m not trying to make political statements.”

Chandler goes on to state that by delivering his anti-abortion message, he was “treading a strange space.” He also acknowledges his need for the Holy Spirit to grant him “all the boldness” to “tell everyone in this room that abortion is murder.”

“It is the murder of a human being. I’m going to have to say it. I’m going to show it to you in the Word. I want to prove it to you with science. I want to just lay it before you and say abortion is murder. It’s a holocaust like the world has yet to see,” he adds.

Chandler then notes the tens of millions of deaths attributed to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and Germany’s Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler.

“The United States since Roe v. Wade, not globally but the United States, has blown past both of those brothers and have made them look angelic as we have slaughtered wholesale 55 million little boys and little girls.”

He adds, “I gotta say that. If I don’t say that, then all the things that the secular world says about megachurch pastors become true about me: that I want you to like me, and I want your money, and I want to be famous and I want… I’m far more afraid of God than I am of you.”

But “I am no fool,” says Chandler. “There are murderers among us.

“At the same time that I prophetically and boldly and courageously say, ‘Abortion is murder,’ I also need to step into this space knowing we are guilty of it. Many of us are guilty of it. Maybe we weren’t the ones who had the abortion. Maybe we coerced and pressed somebody to have the abortion or just paid for the abortion. I need to say to you…listen to me…where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.”

The pastor also said in his message, according to a published transcript:

Here’s where I need to chat with you. If, as we progress today, you become more and more aware and painfully aware that you are a murderer, the default position of the human heart is to downshift into shame, to begin to feel dirty, to begin to feel like you don’t fit, like there’s no place for you, there’s no way God can forgive you. I’m trying to just head you off at the pass and lovingly tell you that even in your murdering, you need to get over yourself.

The grace and mercy of God covers sin. What you need to do is lean into that rather than downshift into a pity party for yourself. Holy Spirit conviction always has a sweet edge to the ache. See, Holy Spirit conviction reminds us not only are we guilty but that Christ has paid the bill for our guilt. Without that sweet edge, you’re not hearing what the Bible says. You’re actually trying to sow seeds of bitterness and anger and rage in your own heart.

This is what I want to talk about this morning. I’m going to try to walk this line. So I’m going to be passionate. I’m going to look upset. I think all those things are right and good. We’re talking about 55 million souls and counting. A thousand every day, almost all under the guise of convenience, not medical emergency. It’s a horrific, brutal, disgusting practice. Many of us are guilty, but most of us are indifferent.

The Village Church community, which has published a list of resources related to the “Sanctity of Human Life” sermon, has heard several messages related to a multi-part series titled “Prayer” since Jan. 4. Chandler, lead teaching pastor, picked up the series on Jan. 11, when he preached a message titled “Racial Reconciliation.”

His “Sanctity of Life” Jan. 25 sermon used as a primary text Psalm 139, a common go-to Bible passage for issues related to life. For example, the psalm, attributed to unified Israel’s fist king, David, and directed to God, reads in verse 13, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.”

Chandler’s message was presumably heard by the estimated 10,030 members that attend the Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated Village Church, which has its central location in Flower Mound, Texas.

Why Don’t Pastors Preach About Abortion?

Surveys have consistently shown that religious Americans remain split in their stances on abortion. The Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan fact tank, reported in 2013 that 49 percent of U.S. adults personally believe that it is morally wrong to have an abortion. White evangelical Protestants were the largest group to express that belief (75 percent), while 64 percent of Hispanic Catholics and 58 percent of Black Protestants expressed agreement.

The American Culture and Faith Institute, a nonprofit promoting “Judeo-Christian principles” and led by George Barna, found in its 2013 survey of “412 theologically-conservative pastors” that less than half (47 percent) had included abortion in their sermons 12 months piror. The survey also found that “almost all of the pastors (95 percent) believe that the Bible provides principles that relate to the morality of abortion.”

Robert Craig Sproul, Jr., son of the popular Calvinist pastor and Ligonier Ministries founder Robert Charles Sproul, shared in January on his radio program, “Jesus Changes Everything,” that he has heard at least three reasons from pastors on why they choose not to preach about abortion.

“From that list of what I hear most frequently, the first thing I hear is that they think this issue is a political issue, and we’re not supposed to preach political sermons,” says Sproul in the episode titled “Silence Of the Shepherds.”

Sproul, a teaching fellow at Ligonier Ministries and a professor at Reformation Bible College at Ligonier Academy, notes in regard to the second reason that “pastors have told me that it is just too upsetting to their congregants. These pastors are thankfully aware of what too many miss, that their pews are filled with women who have murdered their own babies, and the husbands/boyfriends/fathers who have helped them. They rightly recognize the crushing burden of guilt that these people can feel. And they wrongfully refuse to address it.”

As for the third reason, “I have heard pastors proudly insist that they only preach the Bible, and abortion is not mentioned in the Bible,” says Sproul.

Sproul goes on to suggest the three “real reasons” he believes many pastors avoid preaching to their members about abortion: 1. these pastors think “their congregation is already persuaded on the issue;” 2. these pastors “don’t know how to encourage the saints to respond to this great evil;” and 3. “pastors won’t preach against abortion because of their own guilt.”

Source: Christian Post

 

Just Do It – Bishop T D Jakes

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Just Do It – Bishop T D Jakes

We like you to Listen to – Just Do It – by Bishop T D Jakes

You can fast-forward to the start of the sermon

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpXUM6IIRCQ[/youtube]

Remain Blessed !

President Obama Forgets To Salute Marine, See What Happens After That!

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President Obama Forgets To Salute Marine, See What Happens After That!

President Obama forgot to salute when he boarded Marine One. He later realized his mistake and went back to the Marine.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np7lObaDiBk[/youtube]

Humility ! – a good virtue

– Credit: youtube/cnn

Al Qaeda says France is Now Their Top Enemy

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Al Qaeda says France is Now Their Top Enemy

Christian Today report– An al-Qaeda leader in Yemen announced last week that France has replaced the United States as their top enemy.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) leader Ibrahim al-Rubaish said the change is due to the “weakening” of the US in the “war on Islam.”

AQAP also took responsibility for the January 7 Charlie Hebdo attacks in a video featuring another AQAP leader, Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi. The Paris assault by Saïd and Chérif Kouachi left 12 people dead.

While it is unclear whether AQAP ordered the attack at Charlie Hebdo, at least one of the brothers allegedly met with senior al-Qaeda recruiter and cleric Anwar al-Awlaki before he was killed in an airstrike in 2011.

Al-Rubaish’s video, published on YouTube on Friday, called for attacks on the West, and specifically named France as a target. The militants also encouraged attacks on anyone who mocked the Prophet Muhammad, and said those assaults could be carried out “without consulting anyone.”

Charlie Hebdo editor-in-chief Stephane Charbonnier was targeted in a previous propaganda campaign, and was among those killed last month.

AQAP was formed in 2009 after militants in Saudi Arabia joined those in Yemen.

The organisation was behind an attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines plane in December 2009, the attempted bombing of two US cargo planes in  October 2010, and another failed airline bomb plot on May 2012.

US officials consider AQAP the most dangerous branch of Al-Qaeda.

Source: Christian Today

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