Anti-Christian harassment around the world; What’s really behind Ontario’s new sex-ed...more

 Former SEALs chaplain could be kicked out of Navy for Christian beliefs ...Michael Berry, a military veteran and attorney with Liberty Institute a law firm that specializes in religious liberty cases is representing Modder. He accused the military of committing a gross injustice against the chaplain in a letter to the Navy. He told me they will respond forcefully and resolutely to the allegations – which they categorically deny.

“We are starting to see cases where chaplains have targets on their backs,” Berry said. “They have to ask themselves, ‘Do I stay true to my faith or do I keep my job?’”

He said Modder is being punished because of his Christian faith...

Kidnapped Missionary in Nigeria Released The Free Methodist Church USA announced the release of its kidnapped missionary in Nigeria, Phyllis Sortor.

In a statement signed on behalf of the Board of Bishops of the church, David W. Kendall said the 71-year-old Sortor was released by her captors on Friday evening (March 6). Kendall said armed gunmen abducted Sortor on Feb. 23 (not Feb. 24 as previously reported) from Hope Academy school in Emi-Oworo village in the central Nigerian state of Kogi.

Saying Sortor was released into the care of authorities and Free Methodist Church leaders, Kendall thanked all in Nigeria and in the United States for efforts to secure her release. He did not state whether the church or Nigerian authorities paid a ransom...

Are LARCs [long-acting reversible contraceptives] the Solution to Nonmarital Childbearing?  ...What might happen should the government encourage a sustained period of sterilization among a poorer population already experiencing high rates of early premarital sexual activity, serial cohabitation, and sexually transmitted infections, but low rates of marriage? While the St. Louis study indicated that abortion rates (abortions per 1000 women of childbearing age) would probably decline, the abortion “ratio” (abortions per pregnancies) soared; in other words, the usual ratio is one abortion for every five pregnancies, but in the St. Louis project, there was one abortion for every pregnancy...

The CIA Campaign to Steal Apple’s Secrets ...By targeting essential security keys used to encrypt data stored on Apple’s devices, the researchers have sought to thwart the company’s attempts to provide mobile security to hundreds of millions of Apple customers across the globe. Studying both “physical” and “non-invasive” techniques, U.S. government-sponsored research has been aimed at discovering ways to decrypt and ultimately penetrate Apple’s encrypted firmware. This could enable spies to plant malicious code on Apple devices and seek out potential vulnerabilities in other parts of the iPhone and iPad currently masked by encryption.

The CIA declined to comment for this story...

A global problem: Anti-Christian harassment around the world ...“The world’s two largest religious groups, Christians and Muslims, continued to be harassed in the most countries, and there was a notable increase in the number of countries in which Jews and adherents of folk religions were harassed,” the Pew Research Center said in a Feb. 26 report on trends in religion-related restrictions and hostilities.

Christian groups suffered social or government harassment in 102 countries in 2013, while Muslims faced similar problems in 99 countries. Jewish groups faced harassment in 77 countries, a seven-year high...

Florida Town Threatens To Shut Down Churches Who Violate Strict New Code  Pastors and parishioners across Lake Worth, Fla., are up in arms following a recent city decision to begin forcing churches to secure permits or risk hefty fines and the possibility of being forced to close.

According to recent reports, at least one church – which met inside a local coffee shop – was visited by a clandestine code enforcement officer sent to gather information about the gathering. Fox News released a portion of the officer’s report, which included the fact that he witnessed “what appeared to be a ministry in progress” complete with “people holding what appeared to be Bibles or religious books” and “an unknown man with a cross around his neck.”

Local authorities returned the following week, reports confirm, and informed Pastor Mike Olive that his congregation would have to leave the premises within a week, citing the absence of a permit as the cause...

What’s really behind Ontario’s new sex-ed    ...The sex-ed will teach kids that the homosexual relationship between “two mothers or two fathers” is ordinary. It will teach them to embrace various sexual deviations in the name of “accepting differences, being inclusive.” With ideas such as “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” it will teach them that one can be a boy on the outside but a girl on the inside. It will teach them that the dangerous and unhealthy practices of ‘anal and oral sex’ are biologically and morally equivalent to vaginal intercourse.

According to this vision, there is no right or wrong way to live and act as humans. It is a vision that is not only at odds with the sciences that study man, such as psychology, biology, and medicine, but it is also at odds with common sense, the wisdom of the ages, and with God’s own revelation to man. Human nature is not malleable and open to manipulation. Kids formed according to this false vision of man become hurt when they act in ways contrary to human nature. In turn, they can hurt others...

Here’s How the New Christian Left is Twisting the Gospel ...Faith and culture will continue to collide in America. The culture wars, the growth of family, the success of missions, the prosperity of our great nation—the future rests on millennial evangelicals’ worldview. And that is cause for concern, because something has gone wrong with young evangelicals’ theology.

The millennial generation’s susceptibility to “feel-good” doctrine is playing a big part in America’s moral decline. Millennials’ religious practices depend largely on how the actions make us and others feel, whether the activities are biblical or not. For example, we only attend churches that leave us feeling good about our lifestyle choices, even if those choices conflict with God’s clear commandments. We dismiss old hymns that focus on God’s transforming salvation, love and mercy and opt for “Jesus is your boyfriend” songs. Or we contribute to nonprofits that exploit and misuse terms such as justice, oppressed and inequality because tweaking the language makes us feel more neutral, less confrontational.

Popular liberal evangelical writers and preachers tell young evangelicals that if they accept abortion and same-sex marriage, then the media, academia and Hollywood will finally accept Christians. Out of fear of being falsely dubbed “intolerant” or “uncompassionate,” many young Christians are buying into theological falsehoods. Instead of standing up as a voice for the innocent unborn or marriage as God intended, millennials are forgoing the authority of Scripture and embracing a couch potato, cafeteria-style Christianity all in the name of tolerance...