Paris Gunman was 'focus of anti-terror' probe; Powerful solar flares expected...more

Paris Champs Elysees shooting: Gunman was 'focus of anti-terror' probe ...The gunman who shot dead a policeman in Paris on Thursday has been identified from papers left in his car, but French officials are yet to release his name.

Local media say the 39-year-old lived in the city's suburbs, and had been seen as a potential Islamist radical.

The gunman wounded two police officers before being shot dead by security forces on the Champs Elysees...

Christian Pastor Detained in China for Singing ‘Jesus Loves You’   ...Pastor Xu Rongzhang was reportedly detained after he led a group of Christians in singing the popular Christian song. Although Xu was released later the same day he was detained, his identification documents and travel permit was not returned to him till two days later.

Xu was never given an explanation why singing “Jesus Loves You” was deemed illegal.

Xu’s situation has been becoming increasingly common for Christians in China. Many have been arrested or worse. Back in February, five Christians were sentenced to three to seven years in prison on the charge that they purchased and sold “forbidden Christian devotional books.”...

Transgender Man Sues Hospital for Refusing to Take Part in 'Transition.'  A woman who wanted a hysterectomy so she could pretend to be a man is now suing a hospital for not taking part in her "transition."

The craziest part is that she had the procedure done with very little fuss or opposition but she, along with the ACLU, believes that Catholic institutions must be made to conform, must be made to submit. The ACLU has now filed suit against Dignity Health Hospital in California.

The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, alleges that Dignity discriminated against Evan Michael Minton, 35, when she sought a hysterectomy as part of her "transition." So Dignity said it couldn't perform the surgery at one of their Catholic hospitals but it was quite willing to perform it at one of their non-Catholic hospitals...

Paul Remembered Mary
Paul loved Christ and His church, and it is obvious from his letters to the local churches that Paul’s love for God’s people was genuine.  At the end of Romans, Paul dives off into a series of greetings and acknowledgements. It’s quite clear that while he wrote entire epistles to Timothy, Paul likewise remembered others who worked behind the scenes.  Not everyone is called to pastor a church, and the church needs people up front and behind the scenes to run properly.

Paul remembered Mary and how hard she worked.  In Romans 16:6, Paul requested that a particular Mary would be recognized for her service.  Paul had remembered her diligent work for the glory of God.  It apparently made an impression on him...

Powerful solar flares could spark auroras next week
-A coronal hole will send solar winds towards Earth on April 23 and April 24
-There is a 75 per cent chance that this will lead to a geomagnetic storm
-Geomagnetic storms are responsible for creating stunning auroras
-But they can also cause havoc for the electrical power grid and satellites

Fearing Dreher: Why the Benedict Option Scares Christians  ...Rod Dreher, in his much-discussed The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation (2017), asserts that we are living in “post-Christian America.” It seems that no one, whether on the left or right,  disagrees with this assessment, from liberal critic Emma Green (“Christianity is no longer the cultural default”), to conservative writers Fr. Dwight Longenecker (“the tsunami of anti-Christian culture”) and New York Times columnist Ross Douthat (“traditional religion in all its forms has become a counterculture in the West”), to Patrick Gilger (“Christian America is already a contradiction in terms”) and Damon Linker (“a minority in a majority secular nation”) also agree.

So, how should Christians react to the widely acknowledged reality that Christendom—that is, civilization and culture based on Christian principles and morality—is dead? Mr. Dreher says that “Christians are now in a time of decision,” and he calls on them to take concrete steps to preserve their Christian way of life in this country. Almost all the reviews of Mr. Dreher’s book concentrate on and criticize his supposedly monastic and society-denying “option” and downplay his very uncomfortable assessment of the need for that option. This review does the opposite...

The Blessing of Selective Ignorance
...Every time you pull up Facebook or Twitter, turn on opinion based news or listen to talk radio, you will find yourself getting angry about things that you didn’t even know about two minutes before. Media companies make loads of money from our attention. Your attention brings in advertising dollars and nothing grabs your attention like events or opinions that make you angry.

Remembering that selective ignorance doesn’t mean ignoring the real news events of the day, but you must remember that there are less real news events going on in the world than you think. An actresses opinion about the President, a Facebook “friend’s” opinion about politics, or a ridiculous Facebook comment on a news story from someone that you don’t know aren’t news, don’t matter to you at all, and will only serve to make you angry. Ignore it. Your life will be better for it...


This is about that (with Andrew Wilson) from Kings Church on Vimeo.