Pastor DeVon Franklin Defends Wife Meagan Good for Showing Breasts in Revealing Dress

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Pastor DeVon Franklin Defends Wife Meagan Good for Showing Breasts in Revealing Dress

DeVon Franklin (Photo: Courtesy of Omg! Publicity)

Christian Post Report – DeVon Franklin and Meagan Good release their first book, “The Wait” on February 2, 2016.

Meagan Good was brought to tears when someone criticized her clothing choices at a church event, but the actress’ husband, DeVon Franklin, defended his wife’s honor.

On Valentine’s Day, the couple spoke at an event that took place at One Church Los Angeles
to promote their new book The Wait: A Powerful Practice for Finding the Love of Your Life and the Life You Love. During the event that was live streamed all over the world, one woman questioned the 34-year-old “Minority Report” actress about her clothing choices.

“This is not offensive, but I was at the grocery store and I looked at a newsstand and saw you, and you had your breasts showing. I wasn’t going to come here, but the Lord brought me here to see you,” the woman told Good. “You are a beautiful young woman and your testimony is awesome. The Lord let me come and push past the judgement, because you have to make sure what you say and what you do match up, you understand?”

When the woman concluded her statement by asking Good if she would “cover up,” her husband and the president of Franklin Entertainment stepped in.

“Wait a minute. No! That is not what we’re here for,” Franklin firmly told the woman. “She’s not gonna cover up, she is gonna wear what she wants to wear in the name of Jesus, amen. Amen?”

The exchange left Good emotional, and she was seen wiping tears from her face. Franklin, the 37-year-old preacher who co-authored The Wait with his wife made sure to express love with the woman while defending his wife’s Christian faith.

“God bless you, we love you. I love you dearly, but she has been a Christian as she is right now. She wore whatever she wanted to wear. So no, we ain’t doing that,” he said. “Y’all about to see another Devon that y’all ain’t never seen! Remember, I’m from Oakland now!”

While the audience was amused at Franklin’s response, Good decided to address the issue firsthand.

“I’d like to say one thing. I could’ve addressed what she said and it would take me a while to address it because I have very specific feelings about that,” she said. “But I just want to say to that young lady, however you feel, if that’s how you really feel, then pray for me. And God bless you.”

Good has not shied away from choosing clothing options with a plunging neckline or exposed skin and admitted to being upset with her critics from within the Church after receiving their negative responses. Last year the couple appeared as speakers at the Essence Festival empowerment panel where they spoke about overcoming harsh criticism from the Church.

“It kind of made me upset with the Church for a while. People don’t know what they do, but you have to love them regardless,” she said at Essence Festival. “But you have to own your truth.”

Although her husband is a preacher, he supported his wife and shared his perspective on the matter.

“So many people try to live by a label, but that’s not the box God put us in,” he said while serving on the panel with his wife. “Who we are is not defined by a box. When I live by your expectations of what I should do, then I limit who I am and then I become depressed because I can’t be my true self.”

During an interview with The Christian Post last month, the couple, who married in the summer of 2012, spoke about their views on dating, love, and keeping God at the center of it all. For the actress, honoring God by waiting to have sex before her wedding night helped her find a newfound confidence in her marriage.

“I’ve seen so many marriages around me deteriorate. The short term thought was a great one but the long term one was very scary to me,” Good revealed to CP. “I think the difference is with implementing The Wait, the foundation that we have is so solid that it makes me feel so much safer and gives me so much more confidence — not just in our marriage but in what God is doing in us and through us. He honors our marriage because we took the time to honor Him with our foundation.”

Source : Christian Post

Manny Pacquiao Defiant After Nike Firing: ‘I’m Happier That People Hear the Truth’ About Gay People

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Manny Pacquiao Defiant After Nike Firing: ‘I’m Happier That People Hear the Truth’ About Gay People

Manny Pacquiao REUTERS/Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports

Christian Post Report – Manny Pacquiao speaks during a press conference to announce his fight with Floyd Mayweather.

Former boxing champion Manny Pacquiao has said that he has no issues with sportswear giant Nike terminating his contract after his controversial comments about gay people, and insisted that it is more important for people “to hear the truth.”

“Whatever decision Nike makes is its decision and I respect that,” Pacquiao said, according to USA Today Sports. “Its sponsorship of me now only involves my clothes for my fight. Our contract had already ended aside from sponsoring the boxing.”

“I am not condemning the LGBT (community),” the Christian fighter and Filipino politician added. “What I am condemning is the act. I’m happier because I’m telling the truth … It’s worse if we will hide the truth.

“I’m happier that a lot of people were alarmed by the truth,” the eight-division world champion said.

Pacquiao’s comments that led to the controversy came from an interview he gave with Filipino station TV5, where he said:

“It’s common sense. Will you see any animals where male is to male and female is to female?

“The animals are better. They know how to distinguish male from female. If we approve [of] male on male, female on female, then man is worse than animals.”

Pacquiao later clarified in a number of social media postings that he did not mean to offend LGBT people, but was only talking about what he believes based on the Bible.

“I still stand on my belief that I’m against same-sex marriage because of what the Bible says, but I’m not condemning LGBT. I love you all with the love of the Lord,” he wrote on Facebook.

That did not stop Nike from terminating their professional relationship, however, and the sportswear giant called the boxer’s comments on gay people “abhorrent” in a statement.

“Nike strongly opposes discrimination of any kind and has a long history of supporting and standing up for the rights of the LGBT community,” the statement added.

Pacquiao’s promoter, Bob Arum, the chairman of Top Rank, also argued that the boxer made a mistake by not realizing the gravity of what he was saying.

“Look, there is a portion in the Bible, both in the Old Testament and New Testament, against homosexuality. Modern thinking is that this is prohibition in an ancient time. Many people feel that way. Other people think differently,” Arum said.

He also tried to add context to Pacquiao’s words by noting that the former champion is a “politician first and a fighter second,” and that his views on gay marriage are directed more toward his home country, where the practice is not legal.

“So the statement that he made, as inarticulate as it was, was basically designed for home consumption. It was said in Tagalog (the Filipino language). He didn’t realize – or maybe he did realize and didn’t care – that the world is a small place and a statement made in the Philippines goes viral on the internet,” Arum added.

Source : Christian Post

Kirk Franklin Talks Kanye West’s Song, ‘Ultra Light Beams’

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Kirk Franklin Talks Kanye West’s Song, ‘Ultra Light Beams’

Kirk Franklin and Kanye West (Photo: Instagram/Kirk Franklin)

Christian Post Report – Kirk Franklin and Kanye West pose after SNL performance, New York City, February 13, 2016.

Kirk Franklin surprised people by appearing on rapper Kanye West’s recent album The Life Of Pablo, but the gospel music star is revealing his purpose for appearing on the project.

Franklin, the 46-year-old gospel music artist, songwriter and producer, is featured praying on West’s song “Ultra Light Beams.” In an interview with Hip Hollywood, Franklin revealed how he got involved in the project.

“He asked me to be apart of this one song and it’s very clear what I represent. No profanity, or something that is outside of my faith or what I preach,” Franklin said. “I’m just here to walk out life with people, and whoever. I’m not a pastor to the stars, I ain’t trying to be all that, My job is to just win people to God.”

Franklin appeared on “Saturday Night Live” to perform the song with West, singers Kelly Price and the Dream. For the gospel artist, West is not beyond God’s grace.

“As a Christian I’m trying to be what God wants me to be to whoever, and nobody is beyond receiving Him,” he said. “Nobody’s unforgivable, or unredeemable.”

The musicians were first pictured in a studio when an image on Instagram surfaced on Jan. 29. Since then, 38-year-old West spoke highly of Franklin, 46, in interviews.

While some have questioned why Franklin would be spending so much time with a rapper who frequently engages in public rants, named his sixth album “Yeezus” and uses profane lyrics in his music, Franklin explained his perspective on the matter.

“Before one song was released, I was crucified because my brother asked me to take a picture. Again ‘no Kanye, you’re not good enough,'” Franklin said on Instagram. “No. That is a dangerous message I believe we send to the world when our posture is they have to meet certain requirements before they are worthy to kiss the ring. It says people are not redeemable, forgivable or candidates for grace.”

Franklin’s 12th studio album is called Losing My Religion and he believes shunning West would be acting out of a religious nature.

“I will not turn my back on my brother. I will love him, prayerfully grow with him,” he wrote. “However long he’ll have me, and however long the race takes. To a lot of my Christian family, I’m sorry he’s not good enough, Christian enough, or running at your pace…and as I read some of your comments, neither am I.”

Source : Christian Post

‘Risen’ Actor ‘Loves’ Telling Jesus’ Resurrection Through Doubter’s Eyes (Interview)

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‘Risen’ Actor ‘Loves’ Telling Jesus’ Resurrection Through Doubter’s Eyes (Interview)

Joseph Fiennes (L) and Tom Felton as Roman soldiers Clavius and Lucius in a scene from Risen (YouTube/Sony Pictures Entertainment)

Christian Post Report – Joseph Fiennes (L) and Tom Felton as Roman soldiers Clavius and Lucius in a scene from “Risen.”

NEW YORK – Actor Joseph Fiennes of the movie “Risen,” releasing Friday, praises the telling of the gospel of Jesus Christ through the lens of the skeptic and affirms it’s the story of every man.

“I think the message is up to the individual and I think there’s huge takeaways. There is, if you’re a believer, a wonderful opportunity to be inspired in terms of continuing that conversation of faith and what that means to you. If you’re a non-believer, there are other takeaways such as the power of forgiveness and redemption and a second chance. Clavius gets a second chance in many ways,” Fiennes told The Christian Post.

“Risen” is the epic biblical story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, as told through the eyes of a non-believer. Fiennes admittedly revealed that he’s on his own spiritual journey and it’s constantly changing. He says this film provides a safe platform for every man to look at the Gospel account through the eyes of a doubter.

“I love the component that he might be in every man for people to hang their own position of faith on him or look at that conversation through him. Here’s a man that gets to witness the resurrection first hand and then the next day he says to Peter when they’re on their journey in Galilee, ‘Maybe it was a trick? Does he have a twin brother?’ He can’t shut off this intellectual noise and I think that’s true of a lot of us and I think that noise, maybe there’s another word for it. Maybe it’s doubt and it’s something that we’re all subject to,” said the actor.

Fiennes plays Pontius Pilate’s tribune Clavius, a vicious official in ancient Rome that is put in charge of finding the body of Jesus and bringing all of his disciples to justice after the resurrection. Fiennes praised his character’s disbelief and confessed that was why he wanted to play the character.

“It’s a beautiful human condition – doubt. It’s to be loved and cherished and understood. Not to be scared of, I think,” he continued. Fiennes said he was also intrigued by the role because of director Kevin Reynolds. “He a director that I love and admire and is a veteran of cinema,” he gushed.

Another reason the Salisbury, Wiltshire, England native wanted to take the part was his respect for the account of Christ.

  • Risen
    (Photo: Sony Pictures)
    Film still for “Risen” (2016).
  • Risen
    (Photo: Sony Pictures)
    Film still for “Risen” (2016).
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“The story of Christ was a story told to me when I was very young and it arrested me from an early age,” Fiennes admitted. “I love the idea that we get to visit this story but we don’t end at the cross. So many films end at the cross and the cross is fairly heavy place to end. I think it’s brave, and brilliant that a filmmaker and writer would say, ‘Well let’s get into the second equation because that’s the payoff and the big uplifting point, the final equation.’ So to end at the cross is sad and it’s great that we get to go beyond that to the resurrection.”

“Risen” is filled with graphic scenes of death and combat but the tribune Clavius does get confronted with the reality that Jesus has risen. He admitted that even after seeing with his own eyes the resurrection, it’s a reality that cannot be reconciled, which to Fiennes is the selling point for those who may never fully accept the biblical account of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“If you’re a non-believer you get to enjoy this ride without it being a preachy Sunday school lesson,” he said. “A lot of [Christian] films do come across like that. They come across conservative, sunday school, low production value, cheesy and they’re inauthentic. There’s an authenticity here – it’s gritty, it’s hard, it’s gory and you really feel the texture of the time and place. I think that’s because of the high production value.”

“Risen” is certainly not laced with scripture since it’s written from the persepective of a Roman officer but there are particular scenes throughout the film in which the disciples share some of the original principles of Christ and Christianity. Perhaps to add some comedic relief when the disciple known as Bartholomew is interrogated, the very hippy, goofy-like character maintained that a follower of Jesus’ only weapon is “love.”

Furthermore as the film comes to a close and Jesus is about to ascend into heaven, he gives the charge found in Mark 16:15: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”

Fiennes praised the film’s handling of getting the balance between scripture and cinema right. “It’s not too revisionist and it’s not Sunday school, it’s great. It’s been a tough journey but I think we got there,” the actor concluded.

“Risen” hits theaters Feb. 19th. Directed by Reynolds and written by Reynolds and Paul Aiello, the film also stars Tom Felton, Peter Firth, and Cliff Curtis. For more information visit Risen-movie.com

[email protected]

Source : Christian Post

Paralyzed Christian Man Sentenced to Death to Save Wife From Being Tortured by Police

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Paralyzed Christian Man Sentenced to Death to Save Wife From Being Tortured by Police

Pakistani Christians (Photo: Reuters/Mohsin Raza)

Christian Post Report – A member of the Pakistani Christian community holds a placard as he shouts slogans during a protest rally to condemn Sunday’s suicide attack in Peshawar on a church, with others in Lahore September 23, 2013. A pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the 130-year-old Anglican church in Pakistan after Sunday mass, killing at least 78 people in the deadliest attack on Christians in the predominantly Muslim country.

A disabled Christian man sentenced to death in Pakistan has claimed that he was forced into admitting blasphemy charges in order to save his wife, who was being tortured by police.

“There is no man who can stand to see his wife being tortured by police, so to save my wife, I confessed,” Shafqat Emmanuel said in his appeal, according to Mail Online.

Emmanuel and his wife, Shagufta Kausar, were found guilty of blaspheming against the Muslim prophet Muhammad in text messages to their local imam in 2013, and sentenced to death.

The conviction came despite the Christian couple explaining that they are illiterate.

Farukh Saif, an official of World Vision in Progress, an organization defending the Christian couple, has tried to argue that the blasphemous text messages could not have been sent by his clients.

“There was no evidence that the text messages came from a phone owned by the couple. In the first place they had lost the phone some months before July 2013 and secondly there was no SIM card in their names. The only evidence police produced was a bill for a SIM card from a shop owner which is unheard of,” Saif said.

The husband, who is paralyzed from the waist down, is also now insisting that supposed confessions to the blasphemy crime should not hold up in court, since the couple were forced into making them by way of torture at the hands of police.

A number of persecution watchdog groups, including Open Doors and International Christian Concern, have pointed out that false accusations of blasphemy are common in Pakistan, as many people abuse the law for personal gain, or to settle domestic scores.

Christians have often found themselves the target of these blasphemy laws, and there have been a number of death-row cases that have made international news in recent times, including the death sentence for Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian mother of five.

Last week, Emmanuel filed an appeal at Lahore High Court to ask for bail in account of his deteriorating health.

“I have developed bedsores and I may die in jail as there is no possibility of a better treatment there,” the disabled man revealed.

“There are serious contradictions in witness accounts against me and my wife and we are hopeful of an acquittal on our appeal,” he added.

Source : Christian Post

‘God’ Quits Twitter: Famous User Posing as God Goes Offline

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‘God’ Quits Twitter: Famous User Posing as God Goes Offline

God Twitter (Photo: Twitter/@TheTweetOfGod)

Christian Post Report – @TheTweetOfGod Twitter account hacked, February 14th 2016.

Leaving behind almost three million followers, David Javerbaum is ending the incredibly popular parody account that has claimed the title of “God” on Twitter.

The Twitter account was founded in 2010 to accompany his novel, The Last Testament: A Memoir, which is now a Broadway play called “An Act of God.”

Javerbaum, who previously worked on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” explained to Southern California Public Radio The Frame, why he decided to call it quits.

“It’s been taking up too much of my time and energy and mental agility. And I have other things that I want to do in my life and I just have to, at a certain point, just cut that cord. And the point was this weekend,” Javerbaum said.

@TheTweetOfGod was hacked on Valentine’s Day with a post that read, “Vote Trump 2016.” Javerbaum admitted that being hacked led to his decision.

 “The triggering event was I got hacked. The Twitter account got hacked. God got hacked, which wasn’t surprising. There were a number of obscene messages put up there briefly and then removed,” he said.

The account, which is still live for the time being, was regularly used for satire and harsh ungodly commentary.

“Working on Twitter for a long time, it just miniaturised the way you think, because that’s the medium. You’re a miniaturist. And if I’m going to work on other things that require anything longer — i.e. anything else in the world — I need to stop doing that,” he ended.

One of the most popular tweets on the account was one posted after the death of David Bowie.

“David Bowie was the God I always wanted to be,” @TheTweetOfGod posted the day after the singer died. That post has been retweeted more than 21,000 times.

What is probably the accounts final tweet, the word “Justice” was posted on the day Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died.

While it might be goodbye for good, Javerbaum did not leave his followers without giving them a set of his own commandments. The revised set of commandments included “floss,” “don’t hate,” and “cut the bull****”.

Although the popular account is named God and people have professed that it in fact was “god,” Javerbaum said he never “claimed to be God.”

“In interviews I don’t claim to be God,” he told the radio station.

The writer concluded by admitting that he will miss the attention he received from the wacky Twitter account.

“I think the thing I’ll miss most is the thing I’m leaving deliberately. You tweet something and immediately you see people retweeting it and it feels like, Oh, you have made people laugh. You have caused people to react. And it’s a rush,” he ended.

Javerbaum was not specific about what his future projects would be.

Source : Christian Post

Pope Francis, Influenced by Nuns in Congo History, Allows Contraception in Zika Virus Case

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Pope Francis, Influenced by Nuns in Congo History, Allows Contraception in Zika Virus Case

Christian Post Report – Pope Francis waves to the crowd while arriving to celebrate Mass in San Cristobal de las Casas, February 15, 2016.

Pope Francis suggested Thursday that the use of contraception may be justified in countries combating the Zika virus.

The head of the Roman Catholic Church made his surprising statement on Thursday during his flight back to the Vatican from Mexico, where he spent six days touring the Latin American country and speaking on issues like government corruption, immigration, and drug trade.

When speaking about the fast-spreading Zika virus, Francis said the use of contraception “isn’t an absolute evil” in fighting the disease, which is spread by mosquitos and causes birth defects, including microcephaly in newborns.

The pontiff pointed to a statement made by Pope Paul VI in the 1960’s that stated nuns with a high risk of suffering rape in the Congo may use contraception to avoid pregnancy.

“Avoiding pregnancy isn’t an absolute evil, and in certain cases such as this one, as in that one I mentioned of Blessed Paul VI, it was clear,” the pope told reporters. “I would also ask doctors to do their utmost to find vaccines against these mosquitoes that carry this disease. This needs to be worked on.”

Francis also clarified that while contraception may be the lesser of two evils, abortion still remains “an absolute evil” that should never be considered when fighting the disease.

“Abortion is never the lesser evil, it’s a crime,” Francis continued. “It’s to discard one to save another one. It’s what Mafia does; it’s a crime, an absolute evil.”

However, contrary to Pope Francis’ statement on Thursday, several Catholic bishops in South America have said in past weeks that abortion and contraception are not acceptable methods for combatting the Zika virus.

Catholic bishops became more outspoken on the issue after the World Health Organization encouraged women living in or traveling to countries affected by the virus to postpone their pregnancy until the issue is resolved, or use safe sex.

“Contraceptives are not a solution,” Bishop Leonard Ulrich Steiner, the secretary general of the National Council of Bishops of Brazil, said in an interview with the New York Times this month. “There is not a single change in the church’s position.”

Steiner and other bishops have instead urged couples to use “natural family planning” to avoid pregnancy.

Currently there have been cases of the Zika virus in Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean.

Brazil is considered to be a major epicenter for the virus outbreak, with an estimated 1.5 million native cases in 2015 alone.

Although countries are continuing to caution pregnant women on the disease, the U.S. pharmaceutical company Inovio announced this week that it has had “promising” results in testing a new Zika vaccine on mice.

The company said in a statement that pre-clinical trials for the vaccine have yielded “robust and durable immune responses,” adding that it hopes to begin testing humans by the end of this year.

Source : Christian Post