Starbucks has started a new advertising campaign, #whatsyourname, in the United Kingdom in partnership with Mermaids, a nonprofit group that supports young trans-identifying people and their families, the coffee chain has announced.

Starbucks’ #whatsyourname campaign “celebrates” the company’s signature practice of taking a customer’s name, writing it on a cup and calling it out, by extending it to “transgender and gender diverse people,” the American coffee chain says in a statement.

It’s to celebrate “the significance it can have for some transgender and gender diverse people as they use their new name in public.” It’s “a symbol of our warm welcome. It is part of the Starbucks Experience and creates a moment of connection between our baristas and customers,” the company adds.

As part of the campaign, the company released a commercial showing a trans-identifying teen looking uncomfortable every time her name “Jemma” is called. Only when a Starbucks barista calls “James,” that’s when the teen is seen smiling. The commercial was created in partnership with creative agency Iris and “was inspired by real life experiences of people who were transitioning. We discovered that they found Starbucks stores to be a safe space, where their new name was accepted, and they could be recognized as who they are.”

“We were moved to discover that individuals find our stores a safe space to try out their new names when transitioning.”

Starbucks is also selling “mermaid tail” cookies in its stores to financially support the transgender helpline run by Mermaids with the aim of raising at least £100,000 (roughly $130,000).

SOURCE: Christian Post, Anugrah Kumar

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Voters in Switzerland approved on Sunday a proposal to include sexual orientation in the existing criminal law against hate crimes. Evangelicals have warned that it will conflict with freedom of expression.

In a referendum, more than 62 percent of voters supported the proposal to make discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and sexual identity a criminal offense, according to pollster gfs.bern, Reuters reported.

Although the Swiss parliament had passed a law in 2018 to include sexual orientation in its anti-racism statutes, providing for imprisonment of up to three years for an offender, opponents gained the 50,000 signatures needed to call for a referendum on proposed legislation.

The Swiss Evangelical Alliance, locally known as SEA-RES, called the decision “problematic and superfluous.”

“Extending criminal protection against hatred and discrimination to members of sexual minorities is problematic and superfluous. On the one hand, the existing law already offers sufficient possibilities for punishment and, on the other hand, a conflict with freedom of expression is foreseeable,” SEA-RES said in a statement.

While evangelicals “condemn all forms of hatred and violence against people of all sexual orientations” and believe current laws already protect LGBT persons, the proposed legislation could restrict religious freedom by penalizing those who speak out against LGBT lifestyles or in favor of traditional marriage “in accordance with the understanding of the Bible,” the alliance warned.

The historic Protestant Church of Switzerland (or EKS), which is theologically liberal in its teaching on sexuality, supported the changes in the law and encouraged voters to vote “yes” in the referendum, according to Evangelical Focus.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Anugrah Kumar

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Hindu extremists in southern India beat Christian children during a worship service before filing a false police complaint against the congregation, according to one worshiper.

Christians in Malasamudra village, Karnataka state had begun worship on Jan. 19 when about 20 radical Hindus came up the stairs to the terrace and began taking photos and videotaping them, Mary Bellary, who along with her husband Hanumanthappa Bellary was hosting the worship, told Morning Star News.

“They flashed camera lights at children, and we requested them to please go and not disturb the prayers,” she said. “But they continued taking pictures, videotaping us and passed comments, saying, ‘Look! Christians gathered here on the terrace to carry out conversions.’”

Bellary and other women tried to stop the Hindu extremists from video recording the 12 children present, but were pushed away. When the Christians asked them to leave, the intruders put their hands on the women’s chests and pulled their sarees, tearing them, Bellary said.

“They punched my 15-year-old son in his stomach, and other kids also got hurt,” she told Morning Star News. “They were kicked to the floor and were beaten up on their backs. My uncle and husband tried hard to protect the women and children, but those men were very aggressive and physically stronger than us.”

“The children just kept looking at us crying for help,” she added.

Terrified by the attacks, the Christians did not leave their homes in Gadag District for the rest of the day, according to Bellary.

“If we hear that you stepped out of your homes and told anybody about this, we will set your homes on fire and will burn you alive,’” the assailants reportedly told the Christians.

Later that evening, officers from Gadag Town Police Station told the Christians that the Hindu extremists had filed a complaint against them, she said.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Leah MarieAnn Klett

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A judge has refused to block an Oklahoma law banning telemedicine abortions, or abortions in which a doctor guides a patient via video conference through a medication-induced termination of pregnancy. 

Oklahoma County District Judge Natalie Mai rejected a motion for a preliminary injunction on Oklahoma’s telemedicine ban, as well as another state law mandating that only physicians perform abortions.

Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter said in a statement on Friday that the litigation against the laws was “extreme” and sought to “overthrow commonsense safety laws.”

“Abortion advocates used to say that abortion should be between a woman and her doctor, but now they are attempting to take the doctor out of the room, and out of the picture altogether,” stated Hunter.

“We look forward to our continued defense of these laws and others that have been enacted to protect Oklahoma women’s health and safety, as well as the dignity of the unborn.”

Hunter also labeled the judge’s decision “thoughtful” and believed that it “stays faithful to the U.S. Supreme Court’s repeated assertion that there is ‘no doubt’ that these types of laws are reasonable and constitutional.”

Last November, the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit attempting to strike down the two Oklahoma laws, labeling them unnecessary.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Michael Gryboski

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Redemption Church Pastor Ron Carpenter Jr. said he was promised a retirement package of $6.25 million to be made in annual payouts of $250,000 for 25 years in a failed transition agreement with fellow megachurch pastor John Gray of Relentless Church, court documents filed in South Carolina on Friday reveal.

The documents were filed in an ongoing eviction case between Carpenter and Gray over payments for the Relentless Church campus, owned by Carpenter.

Gray was given until the end of 2019 to take his church elsewhere amid allegations that he had been “shady” and “dishonest” in executing the controversial transition agreement with the Carpenters after they passed the reins of their Redemption Church campus to him in 2018. Gray had rebranded it as Relentless Church.

Carpenter and his wife Hope then moved to San Jose, California, to officially become the new pastors of the 14,000-member Jubilee Christian Center, which they renamed Redemption.

According to a copy of the transition agreement cited by Greenville News, Gray was to take the role of senior pastor and then change the name of the church allowing Carpenter to take the “Redemption” name with him.

The agreement said the church’s board agreed to pay Carpenter an annual payment of $250,000 for 25 years as part of a $6.25 million retirement package. It also noted that Redemption Church also had a mortgage obligation of more than $12 million.

Redemption Church argued that Relentless Church failed to make mortgage payments to lenders, failed to pay Redemption when a lease agreement was made and failed to vacate the property as a tenant in default.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Leonardo Blair

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In the aftermath of the blaze that razed his home and left him as the sole survivor early Saturday, fire officials in Mississippi say the lifeless bodies of five of Jake Presley’s six children were found huddled together in one room while the bodies of his wife and another child were found in another bedroom.

“They say you’re not supposed to question God, but how can you have anything like this happen and not ask why,” family friend Lynn Lee, who is a member at Raymond Road Baptist Church where the entire family were members, said as the congregation grieved Sunday in a WAPT report.

Fire Chief Jeff Blackledge told The New York Times that firefighters responded to a call around 12:30 a.m. and found the Presley family home on Old Vicksburg Road in Clinton engulfed in flames.

“At the time, they didn’t know how many people were inside the house, if anybody,” Chief Blackledge said.

They later discovered that inside the home were Jake’s wife, Brittany, 33, and their six children identified by city officials as: Lane, 13; Lawson, 12; Grayson, 6; Malcom, 4; Felicity, 1; and Landon Brookshire, 15.

Allen Short, a neighbor, told WLBT3 that Jake Presley tried desperately to save his family but the attempt only left him with second-degree burns and smoke inhalation for which he is currently being treated in hospital.

Short also raised concern that burglar bars on the family home may have been a factor in the family’s inability to escape the fire.

“I’d seen the dad and he told me, he didn’t think nobody else had gotten out. And, of course, with the burglary bars being on the house, I don’t know if that was a big factor in him trying to get them out and everything. It’s just — it’s just devastating,” said Short.

“[Jake Presley’s] hair was singed and he had a big cut on his arm where he busted one of the windows trying to get in there to him. And just couldn’t get to them,” he said.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Leonardo Blair

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Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders stated at a forum in New Hampshire that he believes it is “absolutely essential” for a Democrat to be pro-choice on abortion.

Speaking at the “Our Rights, Our Courts” forum in Concord on Saturday, the senator from Vermont was asked by MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle if he believed it was possible to be pro-life and a Democrat.

While acknowledging the existence of a few pro-life Democrats in Congress, Sanders nevertheless concluded, “By this time in history, I think when we talk about what a Democrat is, I think being pro-choice is an essential part of that.”

In response, Princeton University Professor Robert P. George took to Twitter to denounce Sanders‘ comments, believing that the candidate was “officially excommunicating pro-life Democrats.”

“So: if you’re pro-life you are unacceptable, unwanted, an intruder. Time to go elsewhere,” said George.

Nevertheless, George also commended Sanders for showing “superiority to his competitors in terms of honesty and forthrightness.”

“His answer was direct and clear. No oiliness. Sanders is a man of principle–I only wish he had the right principles,” he added.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Michael Gryboski

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ABOVE: NASA scientist Dr. Holly Gilbert appeared on Monday afternoon’s edition of CBN’s Newswatch to help us understand how the sun affects our lives here on earth. Newswatch is seen weekdays on the CBN News Channel.  For a programming schedule, click here.  

ANALYSIS

NASA and the European Space Agency launched a new mission to the center of our solar system — the Sun — Sunday night from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The joint mission will produce high-resolution photos of areas of the sun never seen before. It will provide the first pictures of the sun’s poles, and NASA scientists tell CBN News it will help us to understand how the Sun affects our lives here on Earth and better forecast space weather.

“The sun’s magnetic field drives all that activity and really creates the different cycles. Every 11 years the sun gets more and more active and then it gets less active. So, a lot of sunspots, a lot of solar storms. In order for us to understand and model this stuff, we need to see the entire sun,” Dr. Holly Gilbert said. 

The solar orbiter will come within 26 million miles of the Sun – inside the orbit of Mercury – at its closest approach.

While Solar Orbiter won’t venture close enough to penetrate the sun’s corona, or crown-like outer atmosphere, like Parker, it will maneuver into a unique out-of-plane orbit that will take it over both poles, never photographed before. Together with powerful ground observatories, the sun-staring space duo will be like an orchestra, according to Gunther Hasinger, the European Space Agency’s science director.

“Every instrument plays a different tune, but together they play the symphony of the sun,” Hasinger said.

Full science operations will begin in late 2021, with the first close solar encounter in 2022 and more every six months.

The scientists’ endeavor will help them predict space weather, which can disrupt communications on earth.  Plus, their observations on the star in our solar system will help shed light on other stars near us. 

More than a dozen spacecraft have been launched to study the Sun over the past 30 years. Technology advances have allowed the latest spacecraft to get even closer. 

In an interview on Monday’s edition of CBN’s Newswatch, Gilbert said this mission will help scientists understanding the cycles of the sun.

“The sun’s magnetic field drives all of that activity and really creates the different cycles,” Gilbert said. “Every 11 years the sun gets more and more active and then it gets less active. So there are a lot of sunspots, a lot of solar storms. In order for us to be able to forecast and understand and model this stuff, we need to see the entire sun. So the Solar Orbiter will provide the entire image of the sun, giving us that information that we can use to then form our models and then forecast space weather.”

Follow the Solar Orbiter’s mission. 

There are more than 100 verses mentioning the sun in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.  From the Sun’s creation in the book of Genesis, “And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars,” in Gen. 1:16 to its ultimate end in Acts 2: 20 when Jesus returns: “The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.”

Even though the Beatles released their song “Here Comes The Sun” in 1969, the book of Ecclesiastes has reminded readers about the Sun millennia before that.

“Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.” — Ecclesiastes 11:7

The book of Psalms praises the sun as a work of God. 

 “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” –Psalm 19:1-6

“From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised!”— Psalm 113:3

The Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth wrote about the Sun.

“There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.” — 1 Corinthians 15:41 

He also reminded Christians there who exactly was the “light.”

“For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” — 2 Corinthians 4:6 

In Matthew 5:45, Jesus tells the multitude that God caused “the sun to rise on the evil and on the good.”

“So that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous,” — Matthew 5:45. 

In John 8, Jesus also reminds his disciples that he is the light of the world.  

“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” — John 8:12

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