WOW Gospel 2016 Is No. 1 on Billboard Top Gospel Albums Chart

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WOW Gospel 2016 Is No. 1 on Billboard Top Gospel Albums Chart

Christian Post Report – WOW GOSPEL’s 19th annual compilation is brought to you by RCA Inspiration, Motown Gospel and Word Entertainment.

WOW Gospel is back for its 19th edition to bring some of the biggest gospel songs of the year to fans and is already No. 1 on the Top Gospel Albums charts.

“WOW Gospel 2016” is a 30-track, two-disc album that will feature a DVD that includes 17 videos. People will recognize songs from Kirk Franklin, Erica Campbell, Hezekiah Walker, Marvin Sapp, Fred Hammond, Tasha Cobbs, Jason Nelson and Tasha Page-Lockhart, and more. A number of names featured on the disc are Grammy Award nominees this year, including Israel & Newbreed, Travis Greene and Brian Courtney Wilson.

The WOW Gospel Music Series was created in 1998 and has managed to sell 8 million units since its creation. Last year, WOW Gospel 2015 debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Gospel music chart.

Motown Gospel, RCA Inspiration and Word-Curb all collaborated to get their artists on the album.

“There’s a huge appetite for gospel music, so when you pair that with an album full of the genre’s top hits, fans react,” Michel, the vp of national sales at RCA Inspiration, said in a Billboard report. “It’s a win-win for all the labels involved.”

Franklin, a 45-year-old gospel music artist and executive, is not only No.1 with the collaboration record, but his “Wanna Be Happy” single is also topping the “Hot Gospel Songs” Billboard charts.

Franklin previously told The Christian Post what he looks for in great gospel records.

“People don’t live at church, they live in the real world. So music has to reflect that – how people live, what they’re doing as they go through their trials in life,” he told CP. “So I just hope and pray that we’re always able to tap into that and be that voice for people.”

WOW Gospel 2016 CD (Release: January 29, 2016)
Disc 1

1. Before I Die – Kirk Franklin
2. Bless The Lord – Anthony Brown & Group Therapy
3. Immediately – Tasha Cobbs
4. I Am – Jason Nelson
5. Fill Me Up – Casey J
6. This Place – Tamela Mann
7. Fix Me – Tim Bowman Jr.
8. Different -Tasha Page Lockhart
9. Help – Erica Campbell Featuring Lecrae
10. Gotta Have You – Jonathan McReynolds
11. Nobody – Tye Tribbett
12. Intentional – Travis Greene
13. It Will Be Alright – Brian Courtney Wilson
14. Kingdom – Geoffrey Golden
15. Love On The Radio – The Walls Group

Disc 2

1. Level Next – John P. Kee
2. Great God, Great Praise – Kurt Carr & The Kurt Carr Singers
3. My Words Have Power – Karen Clark Sheard
4. Grace – Ricky Dillard & New G
5. Amazing – Hezekiah Walker
6. I Will Trust – Fred Hammond
7. How Awesome Is Our God – Israel Houghton Featuring Yolanda Adams
8. I Need A Word – Smokie Norful
9. Yes You Can – Marvin Sapp
10. I’m Still Here – Donnie McClurkin Featuring Tina Campbell
11. Already Getting Better – William Murphy
12. King Oh King – Maurette Brown Clark
13. Same God – Richard Smallwood With Vision
14. Nobody Like Our God – Myron Butler & Levi
15. Holding On – VaShawn Mitchell

WOW Gospel 2016 DVD (Release: January 29, 2016)

1. The Walls Group- Love On The Radio
2. Fred Hammond- I Will Trust
3. Tasha Cobbs- Jesus Saves
4. Myron Butler- Nobody Like Our God
5. Israel & New Breed Featuring Yolanda Adams- How Awesome Is Our God
6. Smokie Norful- Forever Yours
7. Jason Nelson- I Am
8. Jonathan McReynolds- Gotta Have You
9. Erica Campbell Featuring Lecrae- Help
10. Travis Greene- Intentional
11. Jermaine Dolly- You
12. Janice Gaines- Wait On You
13. Brian Courtney Wilson- Worth Fighting For
14. The Rance Allen Group- A Lil’ Louder (Clap Your Hands)

Bonus Videos:
15. Casey J- Fill Me Up (Lyric Video)
16. Crystal Aikin- So Amazing (Lyric Video)
17. VaShawn Mitchell- Holding On (Lyric Video)

Source : Christian Post

Valentine’s Day Banned in Pakistani City for Being Too ‘Decadent’

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Valentine’s Day Banned in Pakistani City for Being Too ‘Decadent’

Valentine's Day (Photo: Reuters/Eduard Korniyenko)

Christian Post Report – A couple kisses during a flashmob organised by a local television station on the eve of Valentine’s Day in the southern Russian city of Stavropol, Feb. 13, 2012.

A city in Pakistan has banned Valentine’s Day after hardline religious groups decried the holiday as being too “decadent.”

The village of Kohat, located in the country’s north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, has prohibited local shops from selling Valentine’s Day gifts and cards, although police have yet to enforce the ban.

The drastic move comes after conservative Islamic groups lobbied to have the holiday banned due to its “decadent” nature that they say may encourage eroticism.

Kohat is located near Pakistan’s tribal area, which is known for its conservative Muslim majority population.

As BBC News reports, Maulana Niaz Muhammad, district administrator for the city, says that the holiday was banned for fear it would encourage “obscene” behavior.

“Valentine’s Day has no legal grounds, and secondly it is against our religion, therefore it was banned,” Muhammad said.

The celebration of the February 14 holiday has been an issue for Pakistan before, with conservative Muslims arguing that the observance gives into western values of romance and sexualization.

While there have been calls to ban the festive day in cities like Islamabad and Karachi in the past, Kohat appears to be the first city following through with an official government ban on the celebration.

Two years ago, the conservative Jamaat-et-Islami political party paid to have billboards erected in Karachi that called on residents to “Say No to Valentine’s Day.”

Syed Askari, a spokesman for the group, told The Express Tribune that Muslims believe Valentine’s Day goes against their values of marriage.

“Valentine’s is against Islamic culture. In our view, relationships are sacred. We have arranged marriages in this culture and people don’t get married for love,” the political leader said, adding, “This is imposing Western values and cultures on an Islamic society.”

According to the Hindustan Times, fights broke out in Karachi in 2015 when students with the Quran Academy, an Islamic seminary, began attacking young couples attending a public Valentine’ Day party. The young activists separated men from women, destroyed decorations and interrupted entertainment.

Faisal Manusi, who serves as the nazim of the seminary, told the media outlet that the aggressive acts of the students were not supported by university officials.

“We do not encourage violence but this was too much for them to see and keep quiet,” he said.

Despite protests from hardline Muslim groups, shop and restaurant owners in several cities argue that business is better than ever on February 14, owing the popularity of the holiday to younger Pakistani generations.

Along with Kohat, the town of Banda Aceh in Indonesia announced earlier this month that it was banning the romantic day due to its secular nature.

Illiza Saaduddin Djamal, the town’s mayor, argued that the holiday should be banned because it has no connection to Islam.

“Our society and the Muslim youth should certainly not be celebrating non-Islamic holidays,” the mayor said, according to Breitbart News. “The law says it is haram. The government is obliged to protect the public and younger generation from unlawful acts.”

Source : Christian Post

Former Yazidi Sex Slaves Form All-Female Battalion to Attack ISIS in Iraq

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Former Yazidi Sex Slaves Form All-Female Battalion to Attack ISIS in Iraq

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  • women battalion(Photo: Reuters/Omar Sanadiki)
A member of a Female Commando Battalion which is part of the Syrian Army, wears her headgear in the government-controlled area of Jobar, a suburb of Damascus March Christian Post Report – 19, 20Christian Post Report – 15. This Battalion consists of several hundred female fighters who have had military training and carry out combat duties. Picture taken during a Syrian Army organised trip.
  • women battalion(Photo: Reuters/Omar Sanadiki)
    • Members of a Female Commando Battalion which is part of the Syrian Army, sit atop of a tank in the government-controlled area of Jobar, a suburb of Damascus March Christian Post Report – 19, 20Christian Post Report – 15. This Battalion consists of several hundred female fighters who have had military training and carry out combat duties. Picture taken during a Syrian Army organised trip.

    Hundreds of Yazidi women who were forced by Islamic State into sexual slavery have come together to form an all-female battalion to launch a massive assault against their abusers in Iraq.

    The members of the newly formed group, “Sun Ladies,” who managed to escape their captors, say they want vengeance as well as safety for themselves and other women, Fox News reports.

    The more than Christian Post Report – 100 women, who are between the ages of Christian Post Report – 17 and 37, are preparing to launch an offensive on Mosul, the stronghold of Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, for it was in this city that many of them were forced by terrorists to serve as sex slaves.

    “Whenever a war wages, our women end up as the victims,” Capt Khatoon Khider, a member, was quoted as saying. Recalling the persecution of Yazidi minority, she said, “Women were throwing their children from the mountains and then jumping themselves because it was a faster way to die. Our hands were all tied. We couldn’t do anything about it.”

    She continued, “Now we are defending ourselves from the evil. We are defending all the minorities in the region. We will do whatever is asked of us.”

    The women fighters have received training from the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, and about 500 more are ready for training.

    “Our elite force is a model for other women in the region,” Khider said. “We want to thank all the other countries who help us in this difficult time, we want everyone to take up weapons and know how to protect themselves from the evil.”

    There were about 600,000 Yazidis in Iraq, who consider themselves to be Kurds ethnically and live mostly in north-central Ninevah province and northeastern Iraqi Kurdistan. At least 200,000 of them have been displaced by ISIS violence.

    Yazidis believe that God governs the world through seven angels with “Malak Tawous,” or Peacock Angel, as the leader, who disobeyed God’s command to bow down to humanity but was forgiven and made the head angel due to his devotion. Therefore, Yazidis are accused of worshipping the Devil, or Satan, as the leader angel resembles Satan in Abrahamic texts.

    ISIS aims to form a Caliphate in the Levant, a region also known as the Eastern Mediterranean, through “jihad,” and has asked minorities, including Yazidis and Christians, to flee, convert to Islam, or be killed.

    An all-female police force of ISIS earlier released a manifesto which was laced with references to the Islamic scriptures, encouraging girls as young as 9 to marry Jihadis and asking women to remain “hidden and veiled” and serve their “masters.

    “It is considered legitimate for a girl to be married at the age of nine. Most pure girls will be married by sixteen or seventeen, while they are still young and active,” it said.

    In its English propaganda publication, ISIS earlier sought to justify its barbarity, saying it is “Islamic” to capture and forcibly make “infidel” women sexual slaves.

    “Before Shaytan [Satan] reveals his doubts to the weak-minded and weak hearted, one should remember that enslaving the families of the kuffar [infidels] and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the Shari’ah that if one were to deny or mock, he would be denying or mocking the verses of the Qur’an and the narration of the Prophet … and thereby apostatizing from Islam,” stated the ISIS’ propaganda magazine “Dabiq,” named after a site in Muslim apocalypse mythology.

    Source : Christian Post

    Kanye West’s ‘Gospel Album’ Features Kirk Franklin Praying in ‘Ultra Light Beam’

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    Kanye West’s ‘Gospel Album’ Features Kirk Franklin Praying in ‘Ultra Light Beam’

    Kirk Franklin (Photo: Reuters/Lucy Nicholson)

    Christian Post Report – Gospel artist Kirk Franklin holds his awards for Best Gospel Album and Best Gospel Song “Hello Fear” at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California, February 12, 2012.

    Weeks after appearing in a studio with Kanye West, the rap mogul is revealing that gospel artist Kirk Franklin is indeed featured on his new album, The Life Of Pablo.

    West, 38, played songs from his new album Thursday at New York City’s Madison Square Garden arena. The event served as both a listening party and fashion show, where West’s Yeezy Season 3 clothing collaboration with Adidas was also previewed.

    According to The New York Times review of the record, the first song on the album “Ultria Light Beams” features the gospel music artist, producer and songwriter praying.

    “Indeed, the opening track, ‘Ultra Light Beam,’ features the gospel singer Kirk Franklin, along with Mr. West’s fellow Chicago M.C. Chance the Rapper. ‘This is a god dream,” Mr. West raps, adding later: ‘Pray for Paris/pray for the parents,”‘ the Times reports.

    Rolling Stone wrote about the gospel music veteran’s feature on West’s album, describing it as, “a preacherly invocation by Kirk Franklin.”

    The show appeared live on the Tidal streaming service that West partially owns along with a number of other entertainers including Jay-Z, Beyonce, Rihanna and Madonna.

    “You know this album is really a gospel album and the first song ‘Ultra Light Beams’ said ‘this is a God dream’ — and this is something, like all y’all 20,000 people here right now, that couldn’t happen without God really holding me down,” West told the Madison Square Garden audience, E! News reports. “I’ll forever appreciate Jay-Z for that, I’ll forever appreciate Adidas for that, and I’ll forever appreciate my wife and her family for supporting me.”

    When he was finished presenting the new album and clothing collection, Us Weekly reported
    that West made sure to thank Franklin in front of his audience.

    “Kanye says he has to hand the iPod over and go backstage with his wife and kids. He thanks us for letting him ‘spill his gut out. Kanye also thanks Kirk Franklin, Rihanna and others on the album. He says he’s going to be mad if he goes backstage and forgets any names,” according to Us Weekly.

    Last week, the rapper said he and Franklin, 46, were discussing West’s eighth studio album. And West explained why he was referring to it as a gospel record.

    “When I was sitting in the studio with Kirk, Kirk Franklin, and we’re just going through it, I said this is a gospel album, with a whole lot of cursing on it, but it’s still a gospel album,” West said in an interview on Big Boy Radio. “The gospel according to Ye. It’s not exactly what happened in the Bible, but it’s this story idea of Mary Magdalene becoming Mary.”

    Source : Christian Post

    Church Leaders Reject UN’s Call to Increase Abortions to Combat Zika Virus

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    Church Leaders Reject UN’s Call to Increase Abortions to Combat Zika Virus

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    • Zika virus(Photo: Reuters/Mariana Bazo)
    A health worker gives information during a preventive campaign against the Zika virus and other mosquito-borne diseases, at the cemetery of Presbitero Maestro in Lima, Peru, February Christian Post Report – 12, 20Christian Post Report – 16.
  • Zika virus(Photo: Reuters/Mariana Bazo)
    • A health worker fumigates as part of preventive measures against the Zika virus and other mosquito-borne diseases, at the cemetery of Presbitero Maestro in Lima, Peru, February Christian Post Report – 12, 20Christian Post Report – 16.
  • Zika virus(Photo: Reuters/Map)
    • Map showing countries affected by the Zika virus, January 20Christian Post Report – 16.

    Roman Catholic Church leaders in Latin American countries dealing with the outbreak of the Zika virus are pushing back against groups that are promoting abortion for women who are pregnant.

    The Zika virus, which is transmitted through the bite of infected Aedes mosquitos, was once confined to parts of Africa and Asia, but has now spread to 2Christian Post Report – 1 countries in the Americas and the Caribbean. Symptoms from the virus are suspected to cause neurological birth defects such as microcephaly, a brain deformity, but medical researchers have yet to confirm the link.

    Auxiliary Bishop Leonardo Ulrich Steiner of the Catholic Church in Brazil, a nation with hundreds of confirmed cases of Zika, denounced a recent call from the United Nations to loosen abortion restrictions to allow women who’ve contracted the virus to abort their pregnancies in the first, second or third trimesters.

    In comments given to the Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper that were published Wednesday, Steiner stated that “Abortion leads to eugenics, the practice of selecting perfect people.”

    “Microcephaly has been occurring in Brazil for years. They are taking advantage of this moment to reintroduce the abortion topic,” continued Steiner.

    Peruvian Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani also condemned the U.N’s call to abortion babies as a means of combatting microcephaly and other Zika symptoms.

    “Today we are surrounded by Herods, but Herods with neckties, public posts and budgets,” said Cipriani, alluding to the New Testament king who ordered that all of the babies of Bethlehem be killed in order to stop Jesus from growing up.

    “The United Nations, in the face of this Zika mosquito virus, has decreed that we should approve abortion everywhere so as to kill the children.”

    U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, stated last week that nations which strictly regulate or ban abortion should allow the procedure in light of the spread of the Zika virus.

    “In Zika-affected countries that have restrictive laws governing [abortion], the situation facing women and girls is particularly stark on a number of levels,” said Al Hussien.

    “Upholding human rights is essential to an effective public health response and this requires that governments ensure women, men and adolescents have access to comprehensive and affordable quality sexual and reproductive health services and information, without discrimination.”


    Contact: [email protected]; follow me on Twitter @leoblair

    Source : Christian Post