President Donald Trump told the story behind “God Bless America” at the Israeli American Council National Summit this week in Hollywood, Florida.

According to Faithwire, Trump introduced the Shalva National Center House Band, the group of musicians with disabilities that would be playing the song.

“In every generation, Jewish American patriots have strengthened, sustained, uplifted, and inspired our nation,” Trump said.  “In a moment, the Shalva Band will conclude this event with a song that we know very well.  Before they do, I want to tell the famous story behind it,” the President noted.

Trump said a young Jewish American soldier was stationed at Camp Upton in New York when he wrote a prayer in the form of a song.

“His name was Irving Berlin — maybe the greatest of them all,” Trump said. “And he held that song close to his heart for more than 20 years. He did not release the song until 1938, as the world learned of Hitler’s evil atrocities against the Jewish people.

“On November 10th of that year, his song broadcast through the radio and into the homes all across the country.  Millions and millions of people were inspired.  It was the first time Americans heard Irving Berlin’s timeless hymn, “God Bless America.’”

Trump said the song became the “prayer of our nation.”

“It’s…

An Atlanta church is paying off $10,000 worth of layaway gifts for nearly two dozen families this Christmas season – no strings attached.

“We’ve been called by God to be here, and we want to be a blessing to those in our community,” Kevin Murriel, the senior pastor at Cascade United Methodist Church, told the families during an indoor ceremony at a local Walmart. “… We believe that God is calling us to do [this].”

The gift will impact 23 families who had gifts on layaway at the local Walmart, according to the church’s Facebook post. 

As Murriel spoke, members of the impacted families applauded. 

“We aren’t asking you for anything,” Murriel said. “All we ask is that at some point in your life, that you will pay it forward – that you will bless someone else. Because we’re all blessed to be a blessing.” 

Walmart officials worked with the church to surprise the families.

“Everyone deserves a good Christmas,” Murriel said.

Laurel Sessions told WSB-TV that the church’s generosity means her grandchildren will receive gifts she could not afford. 

“It help[ed] me to be able to pay a bill that I didn’t have the money [for]. I needed this bill paid and it just came right at the right time,” Sessions said.

The church posted a video of the ceremony on Facebook that was viewed more than 10,000 times and sparked plenty of feedback.

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President Trump is outpacing President Obama and every other recent president in appointments to the U.S. federal appeals courts, according to a new analysis that says Trump’s legacy in the legal system will be felt “long after” he leaves office. 

“In less than three years as president, President Trump has done nearly as much to shape the courts as President Obama did in eight years,” Ian Millhiser wrote for Vox.com in an article with the subtitle, “No president in recent memory has done more to change the judiciary than Donald Trump.”

Millhiser’s analysis was shared on social media by liberals and conservative leaders this week – including by National Right to Life President Carol Tobias, who accompanied the link with a smiling emoji. 

“He’s filled the bench with some of the smartest, and some of the most ideologically reliable, men and women to be found in the conservative movement,” Millhiser wrote. “Long after Trump leaves office, these judges will shape American law – pushing it further and further to the right even if the voters soundly reject Trumpism in 2020.”

For starters, Trump’s Supreme Court nominees tipped the ideological balance more so than Obama’s, even though each man nominated two justices. That’s because Trump replaced the moderate/conservative Anthony Kennedy with Brett Kavanaugh, who is thought by experts to be more…

On Tuesday, Democrats unveiled two official articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump that may lead to a full House vote on the matter in the coming weeks.

The charges against Trump were announced by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler and relate to “abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.”

Articles of Impeachment by Anonymous TjVFb1a9 on Scribd

“Unlike President Trump, we understand that our duty, first and foremost, is to protect the Constitution and to protect the interests of the American people,” Nadler said during his announcement, according to CNBC. “That is why we must take this solemn step today.”

According to the official impeachment article documents signed by Nadler, Trump has been charged with “committing high crimes and misdemeanors,” in relation to his dealings with Ukraine and his attempts to have his democratic rival, Joe Biden, investigated.

“Later this week, the Judiciary Committee will meet to consider these articles of impeachment and to make a recommendation to the full House of Representatives,” Nadler added, noting that the President has “compromised our national security and threatened the integrity of our elections.”

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, the man leading the impeachment proceedings, added that Trump’s “continuing abuse of power has left us no choice.”

“To do…

A Southern California church is protesting U.S. immigration policy by displaying a nativity with Joseph, Mary and Jesus isolated in their own chain-linked cages topped with barbed wire.

The target of the protest, according to Fox News, is a Trump Administration policy—ended last year—that separated children from families who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.

In a Facebook post Saturday, the Rev. Karen Clark Ristine, senior pastor at Claremont United Methodist Church, said she was “stirred to tears” by the nativity, which had been in the planning stages since she arrived at the congregation in July.

Her post included words from a “theological statement” displayed near the outdoor nativity.

“In a time in our country when refugee families seek asylum at our borders and are unwillingly separated from one another, we consider the most well-known refugee family in the world,” the statement reads. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, the Holy Family. Shortly after the birth of Jesus, Joseph and Mary were forced to flee with their young son from Nazareth to Egypt to escape King Herod, a tyrant. They feared persecution and death.

“What if this family sought refuge in our country today?

“Imagine Joseph and Mary separated at the border and Jesus no older than two taken from his mother and placed behind the fences of a Border Patrol detention center as more than 5,500 children…