Anchorage Will Pay $100,001 to Settle LGBT Dispute with Christian Women’s Shelter

Anchorage Will Pay $100,001 to Settle LGBT Dispute with Christian Women’s Shelter



Two months after losing in court, the city of Anchorage, Alaska, has decided it won’t try and force a Christian women’s shelter to take in biological men who identify as women. 


The city on Monday announced it would pay $100,001 to settle a lawsuit against it by the Downtown Hope Center, which received a complaint in 2018 after it turned away a biological man who identifies as a woman and referred him to a hospital. The complaint with the Anchorage Equal Rights Commission said the Hope Center’s action violated the city’s ordinance banning discrimination on the basis of gender identity. 


The Hope Center, which operates according to Christian principles, provides shelter to abused women, many of whom have been beaten by men.


Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which represented the Hope Center, argued in court the women would be fearful of sleeping in the same building with a biological man – and might leave the shelter altogether. 


In August, a judge ruled the Hope Center is exempt from Anchorage code and not a public accommodation.


ADF applauded the judge’s ruling and the settlement. 


“All Americans should be free to live out their faith and serve their neighbors – especially homeless women who have suffered sexual abuse or domestic violence – without being targeted or harassed by the government,” said ADF senior counsel…

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Illinois Congressman Proposes Bill Banning State-Funded Travel to Pro-Life States

Illinois Congressman Proposes Bill Banning State-Funded Travel to Pro-Life States



A Democratic senator has proposed a bill that would stop Illinois from requiring employees to go on sponsored travel to states with pro-life protections.


State Rep. Daniel Didech says the bill would prohibit travel to states with strict abortion laws, such as laws banning abortions after eight weeks, laws that restrict abortion after a heartbeat is detected and laws that do not allow abortions for victims of rape and incest, Faithwire reports.


The bill would let the state attorney general publish a list of states with those types of laws.


Didech says the proposed law is not meant as a “boycott” of those states.


“This is not like a boycott of those states or anything like that, although, in effect, it may look similar,” Didech told The State Journal-Register. “The purpose of the bill is to protect women who may not be able to get the health care they may need when they’re traveling on official state business.


“What these other states are doing is, to me, very dangerous. To a large extent, yes, abortion is a big part of it, but it’s not entirely about abortion,” Didech said. “As a member of the legislature, I have the responsibility to protect our state employees.”


But pro-life advocates say the proposal is a more political move than one meant for the care of women.


“This bill is yet another indicator that Illinois legislators will…

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Christian Teacher Fired for Not Using Transgender Student’s Pronouns, Sues School Board

Christian Teacher Fired for Not Using Transgender Student’s Pronouns, Sues School Board



Christian French teacher Peter Vlaming is suing the Virginia school district that fired him in December 2018 for refusing to use a transgender student’s preferred masculine pronoun.


According to WTVR, the West Point school board unanimously decided to terminate Vlaming when a 9th-grade student transitioned to male and requested to be referred to as “he” or “him.” Vlaming refused to use the pronouns because he believed he would be lying, but he compromised initially and told the school that he would use the student’s full name instead of the pronouns.


However, later in the school year, all of Vlaming’s students were using virtual reality goggles and walking around the classroom, Faithwire reported. The transgender student was about to collide with the wall and Vlaming shouted, “Don’t let her hit the wall.”


The student withdrew from Vlaming’s class after the incident and school officials suspended Vlaming for insubordination, later firing him.


“By failing to follow the directive he was therefore discriminating and creating a hostile environment,” Superintendent Laura Abel said.


Vlaming has filed a lawsuit against the school district for violating his freedom of speech and religion. Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative law firm, represents him.


“Vlaming’s conscience and religious practice prevent him from…

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‘I Pray for the President All the Time,’ Nancy Pelosi Says

‘I Pray for the President All the Time,’ Nancy Pelosi Says



Several days after announcing an impeachment inquiry against the president, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told MSNBC that she lifts Trump up in prayer.


“I pray for the president all the time. I pray for the safety of his family—wish that he would pray for the safety of other families and do something courageous on guns—but I also pray that God will illuminate him to see right from wrong. It’s very problematic,” she said to MSNBC’s Morning Joe, according to the Washington Examiner. “There is no cause for any joy. This is a very sad time for our country.”


Pelosi has mentioned her prayers several other times, including in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar.


“At night and in church on Sunday, I pray for him,” she said. “The prayer is that God will open his heart to meet the needs of the American people. I said to my pastor, ‘These prayers are not working.’ He replied, ‘Maybe you’re not praying hard enough.’”


According to the article, Pelosi believes her parents, a powerful Italian-American Catholic Democrat and “his politically savvy wife”, raised her “to be holy.”


In December of last year, the House Speaker also said that she gave a mini-Bible lesson to the president during one of their meetings, Faithwire reports. She talked about 1 Kings 3, which explains Solomon’s prayer after taking over from King David.


“I told [Trump]…

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Christians in India told to ‘go back to where we came from’

He told religious freedom charity Aid to the Church in Need that: “Christians are living mostly in fear at present – much more in the north, where they are a minority.”

Bishop Kujur’s Catholic diocese covers part of Odisha state (formerly Orissa), where an anti-Christian program in 2008 left 100 or more dead, 50,000 homeless, with attacks on 4,500 houses and 250 churches.

The bishop said his safety would be put at risk if he released key details about the oppression and persecution suffered by Christians and other minorities but said: “Since 2002, there have been problems.

 

 

“There is a fear about how the government will react now the right wing has taken over. We have apprehensions it will not go well for the Christians.”

The elections earlier this year (which in India lasts several weeks) delivered a majority for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with 303 seats.

Violence against Christians has been occurring before this election though, with 477 anti-Christian incidents in India in 2018, according to a US-based charity Persecution Relief, up from 440 in 2017.

Bishop Kujur said: “A lot of people don’t know what is happening to Christians in India. Christians are seen as foreigners and as not belonging to India. We are told to go back to where we came from.

“Christians are not in Modi’s good books. They are seen as converting the others to…

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Christian in Uganda Loses Children, Mother and Stepfather to Islamist Attack, Sources Say

Christian in Uganda Loses Children, Mother and Stepfather to Islamist Attack, Sources Say



NAIROBIKenya, Oct. 2, 2019 (Morning Star News) – A 36-year-old Christian near Kampala, Uganda is mourning the deaths of his son, daughter, mother and stepfather, who were killed when Muslim extremists set their house ablaze seven weeks ago, sources said.


Before the radical Muslims set Ali Nakabale’s house on fire on Aug. 20 in Nakaseke, Nakaseke District about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Kampala, his wife and other area Muslims had become enraged that he and his mother had converted from Islam to Christianity, Nakabale said. He and his 56-year-old mother, Nankya Hamidah, had put their faith in Christ at an open-air evangelistic event in August 2018.


“I had just visited my aunt only to receive sad news of the burning of our house,” the distraught Nakabale told Morning Star News by phone. “Upon arriving home, I found the house destroyed by fire that burned my four family members, including my two children. On reaching the mortuary, I found their bodies burned beyond recognition.”


Killed along with Hamidah were Joseph Masembe, who had also left Islam to follow Christ and had married Hamidah in November 2018 after her husband’s death earlier that year; Nakabale’s 9-year-old daughter, Afsa Lawada; and his 6-year-old son, Yakubu Njabuga.


A neighbor told Morning Star News that he and others became aware of the fire at 1 a.m. on Aug….

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Swedish church leaves Twitter after declaring Greta Thunberg is successor to Jesus Christ

The tweet from last December said: “Announcement! Jesus of Nazareth has now appointed one of his successors, Greta Thunberg.”

The tweet has gained recent popularity since Thunberg has been in the spotlight this year with her fiery speeches warning against global warming.

 

In an impassioned speech at the UN climate action summit, the 16-year-old, who has inspired a global climate strike movement, told delegates they would never be forgiven if they failed to tackle rising temperatures.

“People are suffering, people are dying, entire ecosystems are collapsing, we are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and the fairy tale of endless economic growth. How dare you?”

The church’s tweet was met with some sarcastic and humorous responses, while others bashed the Church.

One person tweeted: “Time and time again I ask myself: when was the Swedish church kidnapped by left-wing extremists?”

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The famous pastors who attended Justin and Hailey Bieber’s wedding

The pop star and model got legally married last year in private, planning to throw a bigger celebration later on, which they did at Montage Palmetto Bluff in South Carolina on Monday.

Hailey Baldwin grew up in a Christian family and is the daughter of actor Stephen Baldwin. Justin Bieber came to faith as an adult, getting baptised in the bath at the home of Hillsong NYC leader Carl Lentz.

Carl Lentz posted a picture on Instagram of himself with a group of like-minded young pastors in America.

 

 

Alongside him was Chad Veach from Zoe Church, Judah Smith from City Church in Seattle, Joel Houston (son of Hillsong founder Brian Houston and co-pastor of Hillsong NYC) and Rich Wilkerson Jr., the pastor at Miami Vous church who conducted the wedding of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian.

 

 

Carl Lentz also uploaded a picture of Justin Bieber with his son, saying: “Love you @justinbieber …you are a loyal friend, a kind hearted human being, a musical genius and continue to grow into a fantastic HUSBAND! Congratulations to you and @haileybieber… and thanks for being a steadfast big bro, to this little man..your one of his heroes and I think he has picked wisely!! Future is bright…”

 

 

Chad Veach uploaded a picture of all the pastors posing in a ostentatious room in the venue.

 

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Ex-police officer found guilty of killing youth pastor

A jury reached the verdict in Amber Guyger’s high-profile trial for the killing of youth pastor Botham Jean, in Dallas, after six days of witness evidence but just a handful of hours of deliberation.

Cheers erupted in the courthouse as the verdict was announced, and someone yelled: “Thank you, Jesus!”

 

In Texas, the sentence for murder is from five to 99 years in prison. The jury returned on Tuesday afternoon for the punishment phase.

It is unclear how long that part of the trial will last. Testimony will resume on Wednesday.

(Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News via AP, Pool)

Botham Jean’s mother, Allison Jean, rejoices in the courtroom after fired Dallas police Officer Amber Guyger was found guilty of murder, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019, in Dallas.

 

The basic facts of the unusual shooting were not in dispute throughout the trial. In September 2018, Guyger walked up to Mr Jean’s apartment – which was on the fourth floor, directly above hers on the third – and found the door unlocked.

She was off duty but still dressed in her police uniform after a long shift, when she shot Mr Jean with her service weapon. The 26-year-old accountant had been eating a bowl of ice cream before she entered his home.

Jean grew up in St Lucia and attended Harding University, a private Christian university in Arkansas to start a his career as an accountant.

He often led campus worship…

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Christian doctor loses legal battle over refusing to use transgender pronouns

Dr David Mackereth said he was sacked from his job for refusing to identify clients by their chosen gender instead of their biological sex.

The tribunal ruled that his Biblical view was “incompatible with human dignity”.

 

The ruling stated: “Belief in Genesis 1:27, lack of belief in transgenderism and conscientious objection to transgenderism in our judgment are incompatible with human dignity and conflict with the fundamental rights of others, specifically here, transgender individuals.

At proceedings in July, giving evidence, Dr Mackereth had said that he was asked in a conversation with his line manager: “If you have a man six foot tall with a beard who says he wants to be addressed as ‘she’ and ‘Mrs’, would you do that?”

Dr Mackereth, who now works as an NHS emergency doctor in Shropshire, said that in good conscience he could not do this and said that his contract was subsequently terminated over his refusal.

According to Christian Concern, which is giving the doctor legal support, he told the tribunal he was suspended the following month after being “interrogated” by his boss for refusing to “call any six-foot-tall bearded man ‘madam’ on his whim”. The medic claims he was told he was “overwhelmingly likely” to lose his job unless he agreed.

Dr Mackereth left his role on 25 June 2018, after an email exchange with his boss in…

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