If a nuclear bomb explodes, these are the emergency supplies you should have prepared or grab on the run

Business Insider

Dave Mosher11 hrs ago

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North Korea on July 4 reportedly launched its first intercontinental ballistic missile — a rocket capable of traveling more than 3,400 miles with a weapon on top.


The feat suggests that the isolated country, which is one of nine nations that together wield more than 14,900 nukes, can strike Alaska.

However, the rest of the country faces a much different and shadowy nuclear threat: A terrorist-caused nuclear detonation, which is one of 15 disasters scenarios that the federal government has planned for — just in case.

"National Planning Scenario No. 1 is a 10-kiloton nuclear detonation in a modern US city," Brooke Buddemeier, a health physicist and expert on radiation at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, told Business Insider. "A 10-kiloton nuclear detonation is equivalent to 5,000 Oklahoma City bombings. Though we call it 'low yield,' it's a pretty darn big explosion."

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Buddemeier couldn't say how likely such an attack might be today. But the concern isn't unfounded, since weapons-grade nuclear materials have proliferated in recent years, along with smaller, kiloton-class bombs. And while governments do their best to safeguard nuclear weapons materials, there's no guarantee a terrorist couldn't succeed in obtaining them.

Ellen G White - Early Writings - 01 My First Vision

Hobby Lobby fined over smuggling artifacts

7:50 am, July 6, 2017, by CNN Wires



A few blocks away from the National Mall, a historic building is being transformed to hold thousands of biblical artifacts owned by the president of Hobby Lobby.

The Museum of the Bible — slated to open later in November — is headed by Steve Green and will focus on the Bible’s impact, history and narrative, its website says.

The arts and crafts retail chain recently agreed to turn over thousands of biblical artifacts to the Department of Justice, but Green still owns about 40,000 items that will be displayed at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, the museum states on its website.

“This is about the Bible. It’s not about a faith, tradition or a church or a denomination. It’s about a book,” Green said about the museum in a video posted online.

40,000 antiquities

Green, the driving force behind the museum, has spent the last few years curating one of the world’s largest private collections of biblical texts and artifacts for the museum.

He has been able to gather about 40,000 biblical antiquities that helped influence the Bible’s formation since he purchased the first artifact in 2009, according to the latest of the museum’s annual reports.

The collection’s gem is the Codex Climaci Rescriptus, one of the world’s earliest surviving Bibles, and it includes texts in Jesus’ Palestinian Aramaic language.

“We believe it is the most incredible book that’s ever been written,” Green told CNN in a 2011 interview. “It is a book that has been ridiculed and vilified and yet loved.”

Another item is a large portion of a Gutenberg Bible, which provoked the 15th century revolution in printing. A King James Bible, an influential centuries-old English translation, and other items emphasizing Jewish, Catholic and Protestant contributions to the book, are also part of Green’s collection.

A traveling exhibit

The religious relics have not been stored in a warehouse gaining dust awaiting the museum’s opening.

A preview of the museum’s collection has been going on a cross-country tour since 2011, visiting cities like Oklahoma City, Atlanta, and more recently, Santa Clarita, California.

The “Passages” exhibit focuses on how “the biblical narrative has been passed on from ancient times to the modern age.”

“The Bible didn’t come from Mount Sinai to Moses and end up in a Red Roof Inn desk drawer,” said Scott Carol, the first director of the collection.

A long-time Christian company

The Oklahoma City-based chain has never been shy about its Christian orientation since it was founded in 1972.

Its mission statement outlines a dedication to Christian principles and they are known for putting out religious newspaper ads around the holidays.

In 2014, Hobby Lobby led a legal battle in which the company argued that for-profit companies should not be required to pay for specific types of contraceptives for their employees. The Supreme Court ruled in their favor.

As other religious companies in the US, Hobby Lobby stores across the nation are also closed on Sundays to allow “associates time for family and for worship,” the company states on their website.

The chain’s owners, the Green family, also own a Christian bookstore and educational supply chain.

By Nicole Chavez


Source

Religious Freedom Is Under Threat in America, But God!

U.S. calls for global diplomatic effort to punish and sway North Korea

The 11 vaccines set to become compulsory in France and why French doctors are firmly in favour

healthvaccines

Photo: AFP

The Local/AFP
news.france@thelocal.com
5 July 2017
14:17 CEST+02:00

Eleven vaccinations for young children will be made compulsory in France from 2018. A "short term evil for the long term good", doctors say.

France's new prime minister Edouard Philippe announced during Tuesday's parliamentary address that from 2018 vaccines for young children that are unanimously recommended by health authorities will become obligatory from 2018.

During June, new health minister Agnes Buzyn announced that she wanted to make 11 vaccines compulsory for young children.

Three vaccines: diptheria, tetanus and polio are already obligatory but from 2018 these will be joined by eight more: whooping cough, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitus B, influenza, pneumonia and meningitis C.

At present these vaccinations are only recommended by the state and the decision whether or not to inoculate a child is left in the hands of the parents, who are often swayed by theories and scare stories about health risks of certain vaccines.

Philippe said in his speech on Tuesday that "diseases that we believed to be eradicated are developing once again, children are dying of the measles in France and in the country of Pasteur, that is unacceptable."

And in June new health minister Agnes Buzyn told Le Parsien newspaper that the current system causes “a real public health problem”, adding that measles is coming back.

Since 2008, measles has killed 10 children in France.

“We have the same problem with meningitis. It's not acceptable that a 15-year-old teenager could die just because they have not been vaccinated," the minister said.

At the end of June, 200 senior doctors and hospital bosses announced themselves in favour of the move with a petition published in Le Parisien.

"Vaccination isn't only a personal choice that solely benefits the person who is vaccinated" but "it aims to protect the population, in particular children, the elderly and fragile," wrote the health professionals.

"Systematic vaccination has eradicated diseases, such as Smallpox " the text noted, "but the reduction in the vaccination coverage rate of the population has led to the resurgence of certain diseases such as measles."

But not everyone in France has been positive about vaccinations in recent years and many are unlikely to support the government's move.

In a survey published in October, just 69 percent of people said they had confidence in vaccinations, representing the lowest level since 2012.

People who are anti-vaccinations stress the alleged dangers involved, highlighting the use of additives like aluminium in some jabs.

They have also accused laboratories of putting profitability ahead of the health of children.

But those doctors who signed the appeal in favour of the vaccinations are shocked and insist the false information must be fought.

"We are astonished to see that 41 percent of the French say they are wary of vaccinations", said François Chast, head of pharmacology at Paris hospitals.

"It is urgent to fight the speeches of anti-science and anti-vaccination lobbies that play on fear, they show nothing and rely on a few very rare side effects to discredit vaccines that save millions of lives," he said.

Professor Alain Fischer, president of a body that advises on vaccinations added: "As soon as we talk about a vaccination obligation, it triggers a row."

"Unfortunately there are no other solutions to combat the upsurge in childhood diseases. It is a short term evil for a long term good "he said.

The announcement comes soon after Italy introduced a new law that forces children to be vaccinated against 12 common illnesses before they can enroll in state schools.

Reacting to the controversial law Italian expert on infectious diseases Alberto Giubilini said the government was justified to coerce parents into vaccinating their children.

“The benefits of vaccination in terms of protection from infectious disease outweigh the costs and risks of vaccination,” he said. “For instance, the World Health Organisation estimates that between 2000 and 2015, measles vaccination prevented more than 20 million deaths.”

Source

Persecution by Protestants and Catholics

July 5


Ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. Matthew 10:22.

There is no necessity for thinking that we cannot endure persecution; we shall have to go through terrible times.

The persecutions of Protestants by Romanism, by which the religion of Jesus Christ was almost annihilated, will be more than rivaled when Protestantism and popery are combined.

The commandment-keeping people of God erelong will be placed in a most trying position; but all those who have walked in the light, and diffused the light, will realize that God interposes in their behalf. When everything looks most forbidding, then the Lord will reveal His power to His faithful ones. When the nation for which God has worked in such a marvelous manner, and over which He has spread the shield of Omnipotence, abandons Protestant principles, and through its legislature gives countenance and support to Romanism in limiting religious liberty, then God will work in His own power for His people that are true. The tyranny of Rome will be exercised, but Christ is our refuge.

When the leading churches of the United States, uniting upon such points of doctrine as are held by them in common, shall influence the state to enforce their decrees and to sustain their institutions, then Protestant America will have formed an image of the Roman hierarchy, and the infliction of civil penalties upon dissenters will inevitably result.

The Scriptures teach that popery is to regain its lost supremacy, and that the fires of persecution will be rekindled through the time-serving concessions of the so-called Protestant world. In this time of peril we can stand only as we have the truth and the power of God.... The prospect of being brought into personal danger and distress, need not cause despondency, but should quicken the vigor and hopes of God's people; for the time of their peril is the season for God to grant them clearer manifestations of his power.

Maranatha, p.194.

Sodom and Gomorrah | Ancient Sin City. The Sodomites Full Documentary - ...

Climate and the G20 summit: some progress in greening economies, but more needs to be done

July 3, 2017 10.17am EDT

Niklas Höhne, Andrew Marquard, and William Wills

Authors
Niklas Höhne

Professor of Mitigation of Greenhouse Gases, Wageningen University
Andrew Marquard

Senior Researcher on energy and climate change, University of Cape Town
William Wills

Research Coordinator, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Disclosure statement

Niklas Höhne is also partner at the New Climate Institute, a not-for-profit research institute. He receives funding from governments, foundations, industry associations and NGOs.

Andrew Marquard is a full time employee of the Energy Research Centre, University of Cape Town, which has received project-based funding from the following organisations: the South African government, the UNFCCC, GIZ, the EU, OECD, UNITAR, UNDP, SA NRF, WWF, Earthlife Africa and the Children's Investment Fund.

William Wills is research coordinator at CentroClima/COPPE/UFRJ and managing partner of EOS Strategy, a private consulting company. He also receives funding from CAPES - Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education in Brazil.
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University of Cape Town

provides funding as a partner of The Conversation AFRICA.

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Protests at the Brandenburg Gate, in Berlin, against the US withdrawal from the Paris climate change deal. Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters



On July 7, G20 leaders will gather in Hamburg for their annual meeting. One likely outcome: another clash over climate change between the host government, Germany, and United States president Donald Trump.

As the Chinese did last year, German Prime Minister Angela Merkel has prioritised climate on the G20 agenda, just when the US administration is rolling back many environmental policies.

President Trump has announced that he wants his country to leave the Paris agreement, saying that the international accord is unfair to the US.
A report to evaluate progress

The question of what is fair in climate politics is hugely important.

Trump’s definition of fairness – “America First” – is probably not mutually acceptable to most other nations. But countries will hesitate to scale up their ambitions unless they are convinced that others are doing their fair share.

To address this question, we have put together our third annual stocktake on their progress in a report – coordinated by the global consortium Climate Transparency – that determines how far the G20 has come in shifting from fossil fuels to a low-carbon economy.

Jesuit Zollner on the role of his Order in the Vatican

© Fabio Frustraci (dpa)



07/04/2017

"Do not strive for offices"


According to Pope Francis, the new prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, occupies another position in the Vatican with a Jesuit. This is not a rarity even to religious brothers.

Domradio.de: You are a member of the Jesuit Order. This is also the Order, which belongs to Pope Francis. On the weekend it became known that the new prefect of the Congregation of the Faith is also Jesuit. What role does your Order play at the Vatican? A pretty big, right?

Father Hans Zollner SJ (theologian, psychologist, Jesuit and member of the Pontifical Child Protection Commission in the Vatican): Yes, at the moment we are nominally playing a fairly large role. We have been around the past decades, almost centuries, always represented as consultants in the Vatican. But this has been more and more in the background. The fact that there are now two people at the leading edge of the Catholic Church is very extraordinary. I can also say that many of us are not happy.

The United States in Prophecy

July 4

I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. Revelation 13:11.

One nation, and only one, meets the specifications of this prophecy; it points unmistakably to the United States of America.

Here is a striking figure of the rise and growth of our own nation. And the lamb-like horns, emblems or innocence and gentleness, well represent the character of our government, as expressed in its two fundamental principles, Republicanism and Protestantism.

The Lord has done more for the United States than for any other country upon which the sun shines. Here He provided an asylum for His people, where they could worship Him according to the dictates of conscience. Here Christianity has progressed in its purity. The life-giving doctrine of the one Mediator between God and man has been freely taught. God designed that this country should ever remain free for all people to worship Him in accordance with the dictates of conscience. He designed that its civil institutions, in their expansive productions, should represent the freedom of gospel privileges.

But the enemy of all righteousness has designs upon God's purpose for this country. He will bring in enterprises that will lead men to forget that there is a God. Worldliness and covetousness, which is idolatry, will prevail through the working of the archdeceiver, till the law of God, in all its bearings, shall be made void.

I have been shown that Satan is stealing a march upon us. The law of God, through the agency of Satan, is to be made void. In our land of boasted freedom, religious liberty will come to an end.

When our nation, in its legislative councils, shall enact laws to bind the consciences of men in regard to their religious privileges, enforcing Sunday observance, and bringing oppressive power to bear against those who keep the seventh-day Sabbath, the law of God will, to all intents and purposes, be made void in our land; and national apostasy will be followed by national ruin.

Maranatha, p.193.

Growing Concern Over Climate Change Is Creating Interfaith Dialogue

Social Justice

Two years after Pope Francis launched Laudato Si, the Vatican's plea to save the Earth, Trump rejected its tenets and the Paris Agreement. But people of all faiths are unified globally to beat climate change.

Author: Justin Catanoso

Publish date:Jun 13, 2017

Two years after Pope Francis launched Laudato Si, the Vatican's plea to save the Earth, Trump rejected its tenets and the Paris Agreement. But people of all faiths are unified globally to beat climate change.



Activists display banners calling for action on climate change and against world poverty as they arrive on St. Peter's Square prior to Pope Francis' Sunday Angelus prayer at the Vatican.

(Photo: Gabriel Bouys/Getty Images)

On May 24th, a grim-faced Pope Francis handed a signed copy of Laudato Si to President Donald Trump during his visit to Rome. The United States president, who has called climate change "a hoax," promised to read the papal encyclical, a spiritual and secular plea to save the Earth from environmental destruction.

Churches to the EU: Our future depends on common values

latest press releases

Webnews, 28/06/2017

Churches to the EU: Our future depends on common values


On 27 June, the European Parliament, under the patronage of President Antonio Tajani, convened a dialogue with representatives of Jewish, Muslim, and Christian communities on the future of Europe.



The high-level dialogue was inspired in part by recent European Parliament resolutions on improving its various treaties and on the 2017 European Commission White Paper on the future of Europe.

Churches are equally invested in these conversations, notably through the COMECE’s upcoming Vatican gathering (Re)thinking Europe and CEC’s open letter and consultation What future for Europe?

EU officials responsible for dialogue with religious and non-confessional organisations opened the afternoon’s proceedings. Mairead McGuiness, First Vice-President of the European Parliament, offered remarks on the EU’s approach to its own future in uncertain times. She stressed the importance of religious communities in contributing to developing an ever-closer union among the people of Europe.

Frans Timmermans, First Vice-President of the European Commission, underscored the identity of the EU as more than a common market. The EU, he noted, is about strengthening understanding through listening to people with whom you agree and also disagree.

Two panel discussions brought together religious contributions on the potential and future of the EU treaty system. Archbishop Jean-Claude Hollerich SJ, Primate of Luxembourg, advocated for a fresh vision for Europe, and that the full potential of the treaties could help develop this new European dream. CEC President Rt Rev. Christopher Hill KCVO, DD called for deeper engagement with the principles of solidarity, subsidiarity, and sovereignty to counter disenchantment about Europe, even among the churches.

Among the diversity of religions, Christian traditions, scholars, and EU representatives gathered, all agreed that faith-based contributions are essential in building up a “soul for Europe” and a European Union bonded by much more than politics and economics.


Speakers:

Archbishop Jean-Claude Hollerich, SJ

Catholic Primate of Luxembourg

Bishop Irja Askola
Bishop of Helsinki, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland

Prof Pantelis Kalaitzidis
Director of the Orthodox Academy of Volos

Albert Guigui
Chief Rabbi of Brussels, representative of the Conference of European Rabbis

Rt. Rev. Christopher Hill KCVO, DD
President of the Conference of European Churches, Church of England

Mr Khalid Hajji
Secretary-General of the European Council of Moroccan Ulema, President of Brussels Forum of Wisdom and World Peace

Bishop Tamas Fabiny
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hungary

(Moderator) Ms Mercedes Bresso

Co-rapporteur on the Future of Europe, European Parliament Committee on Constitutional Affairs

(Moderator) Ms Danuta Hübner
Chair of the European Parliament Committee on Constitutional Affairs

Dialogue seminars take place under Article 17 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union, which guarantees open, regular, and transparent dialogue between the churches and the European Union.

For a complete programme of speakers and panellists, please click here.

COMECE, the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Union, is made up of Bishops delegated by the Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of the 28 Member States of the European Union. In accordance with its Mission as defined in its Statutes, COMECE monitors the political process of the European Union in all areas of interest to the Church.

The Conference of European Churches (CEC) is a fellowship of 115 Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican and Old Catholic Churches from across Europe, plus more than 40 National Council of Churches and Organisations in Partnership. CEC was founded in 1959. It has offices in Brussels and Strasbourg.

Source

Pope Francis sends message to UN Food and Agriculture Organization

Pope Francis sends message to UN Food and Agriculture Organization: Full Text

Pope Francis sent a message to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations - AP

03/07/2017 11:30

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Monday sent a message to participants in the 40th General Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in Rome.

The message was read out by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State.

At the end of the message, Cardinal Parolin officially announced that Pope Francis will visit the Rome headquarters of the FAO on World Food Day, 16 October 2017, at the invitiation of its Director-General, José Graziano da Silva.

Please find below the official English translation of the message:

Message of His Holiness Pope Francis to the Participants in the 40th General Conference of FAO

Adventist Hospital in the US Will Close Next Month (in July 2017)

JUNE 22, 2017

Walla Walla General Hospital had faced financial challenges for years.

Alast-resort plan to save a Seventh-day Adventist hospital in the US State of Washington has failed, and the hospital is instead expected to close its doors next month. The plan tried to find a way of transferring control of Walla Walla General Hospital’s services to Providence Health & Services. The initiative, however, was halted after Adventist Health, which manages 20 Adventist hospitals in the US West Coast region, including Walla Walla, received word that unexpected regulatory challenges have arisen which could linger for an undetermined duration of time.

According to an Adventist Health media release, because of this new development, “Adventist Health and Providence Health & Services have ceased planning for the transfer of membership” that they had jointly announced on April 3. Instead, Adventist Health has announced its intention to close facilities effective Monday, July 24.
“Physicians and staff have faithfully and selflessly served this community for more than a century.”

Pope, Trump offer support to parents of dying child Charlie Gard

By Hilary Clarke, CNN
Updated 1:41 PM ET, Mon July 3, 2017




Charlie Gard has a rare genetic disorder known as mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome.

Story highlights

Pope hopes Charlie Gard's parents' desires "will be respected," statement says
Donald Trump offers unspecified support in tweet

London (CNN) The fate of Charlie Gard, a terminally ill infant, has come to the attention of two of the most powerful people on the planet: Pope Francis and US President Donald Trump.


Last week, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that a hospital can discontinue life support to the baby, who has a rare genetic disease. His doctors wish to take him off life support, but his parents disagree. Charlie's parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, wanted the hospital to release Charlie into their custody so they can take him to the United States for an experimental treatment.

'Pope's Hospital' Put Profits Before Patients

Ecumenical vs. Evangelical

June 23, 2017

by Mike Riccardi




One of the most devastating attacks on the life and health of the church throughout all of church history has been what is known as the ecumenical movement—the downplaying of doctrine in order to foster partnership in ministry between (a) genuine Christians and (b) people who were willing to call themselves Christians but who rejected fundamental Christian doctrines.



In the latter half of the 19th century, theological liberalism fundamentally redefined what it meant to be a Christian. It had nothing to do, they said, with believing in doctrine. It didn’t matter if you believed in an inerrant Bible; the scholarship of the day had debunked that! It didn’t matter if you believed in the virgin birth and the deity of Christ; modern science disproved that! It didn’t matter if you embraced penal substitutionary atonement; blood sacrifice and a wrathful God are just primitive and obscene, and besides, man is not fundamentally sinful but basically good! What mattered was one’s experience of Christ, and whether we live like Christ. “And we don’t need doctrine to do that!” they said. “Doctrine divides!” Iain Murray wrote of that sentiment, “‘Christianity is life, not doctrine,’ was the great cry. The promise was that Christianity would advance wonderfully if it was no longer shackled by insistence on doctrines and orthodox beliefs” (“Divisive Unity,” 233).

The Emergence of the Social Gospel

The result of this kind of thinking was the social gospel of the early 20th century. If what it means to be a Christian has little to do with creeds and everything to do with deeds, then what makes someone a Christian is whether they’re laboring for the betterment of society—feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, working for justice, and so on. And so across denominational lines, professing “Christians” were coming together to promote unity around a common mission, even if they didn’t share a common faith. In 1908, more than 30 denominations representing over 18 million American Protestants set their doctrinal differences aside and met in Philadelphia at what is called the Federal Council of Churches. Their great concern was not the Gospel, but how to address the social issues of the day: race relations, international justice, reducing armaments, education, and regulating the consumption of alcohol. This was the beginning of the modern ecumenical movement.

Now, in each of these denominations there were faithful Christians who recognized that—as much as social ills mattered—the body of Christ was not defined most fundamentally by a common social agenda, but by a common confession of faith in the Christ of Scripture. These faithful men, led by the great Presbyterian professor J. Gresham Machen, among others, understood that there were certain fundamental truths that no one claiming to be a Christian could deny. A Christ who is not fully God is a fundamentally different Christ than one who is fully God. A salvation that can be more-or-less earned through good morals and good deeds is a fundamentally different salvation than the one purchased freely on the cross by our wrath-bearing Substitute. A religion built upon the authority of man’s ideas is a fundamentally different religion than one built upon the authority of God as revealed in Scripture. And so these men—pejoratively labeled Fundamentalists—insisted that the doctrinal fundamentals of the Christian faith were non-negotiable, and that, if they were abandoned, it didn’t matter how many people-who-called-themselves-Christians you could gather into one place: there was no true unity.

Trump vows to support and defend religious freedom in U.S.

BY Catherine Lucey, Associated Press

July 2, 2017 at 9:22 AM EDT

U.S. President Donald Trump waves at the Celebrate Freedom Rally in Washington, U.S. July 1, 2017. Photo by Yuri Gripas/Reuters

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump vowed to support and defend religious liberty, telling a gathering of evangelical Christians that the threat of terrorism is “one of the most grave and dire threats to religious freedom in the world today.”
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Republicans plan to bring back religious freedom bill
Trump to ease tax rules so religious groups may endorse political candidates

“We cannot allow this terrorism and extremism to spread in our country, or to find sanctuary on our shores or in our cities,” Trump said Saturday night at a “Celebrate Freedom” concert honoring veterans. “We want to make sure that anyone who seeks to join our country shares our values and has the capacity to love our people.”

The evangelical megachurch First Baptist Dallas and Salem Media Group sponsored the event at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. First Baptist Pastor Robert Jeffress was a strong backer of Trump during the 2016 campaign.

The event at times felt like one of Trump’s signature campaign rallies, with the president promising an adoring crowd that America would “win again” and prompting cheers with attacks on the news media.

“The fake media tried to stop us from going to the White House, but I’m president and they’re not,” he said.

READ NEXT: Trump vows to repeal political limits on churches

Trump appeared on a stage decorated with a massive American flag. Choirs performed “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and other hymns and debuted a song with the lyrics “make America great again” — Trump’s campaign slogan.

Besides speaking to the event’s religious theme, Trump renewed his campaign promise to always take care of America’s veterans.

“Not only has God bestowed on us the gift of freedom, he’s also given us the gift of heroes willing to give their lives to defend that freedom,” he said.

Overwhelming support from evangelical voters helped propel Trump to victory in 2016. Since he took office, Christian conservatives have been overjoyed by Trump’s appointment of Justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court and his executive order ordering the IRS to ease up on a rarely enforced limit on partisan political activity by churches.

Trump was spending the pre-Independence Day weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, but traveled back to Washington for the event.

Source

CEOs Make Good on their Covenant with Pope Francis

Presentation of the message for the first World Day of the Poor

2017.06.13

Presentation of the message for the first World Day of the Poor

The Vatican

Published on Jun 13, 2017


Presentation to journalists of the message for the first World Day of the Poor, to be celebrated on November 19th 2017

Pope Francis Appoints Spanish Jesuit Ladaria to Succeed Cardinal Müller

Pope Francis Appoints Spanish Jesuit Ladaria to Succeed Cardinal Müller:

Archbishop Luis Ladaria Ferrer, currently Secretary to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, takes over as prefect of the important dicastery, replacing Cardinal Gerhard Müller whose five-year mandate was unusually not renewed.

Pope shakes up Vatican by replacing conservative doctrinal chief

Sat Jul 1, 2017 | 7:47 PM EDT

Newly elected cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Muller of Germany arrives during a consistory ceremony led by Pope Francis in Saint Peter's Basilica at the Vatican February 22, 2014.
REUTERS/ALESSANDRO BIANCHI


By Philip Pullella | VATICAN CITY

In a major shake-up of the Vatican's administration on Saturday, Pope Francis replaced Catholicism's top theologian, a conservative German cardinal who has been at odds with the pontiff's vision of a more inclusive Church.

A brief Vatican statement said Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller's five-year mandate as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a department charged with defending Catholic doctrine, would not be renewed.

The position is the most important one that a pope fills in the Vatican hierarchy after the Secretary of State. Most incumbents keep it until they retire, which in Mueller's case would have been in six years.

SPIRITUAL FORMATION -- Bill Hughes

Confusion And Incivility In Our World

Volume XXXVI Issue VII July 2017
Last Trumpet Ministries, PO Box 806, Beaver Dam, WI 53916
Phone: 920-887-2626 Internet: http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings."

Jeremiah 17:9-10

"O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things."

Matthew 12:34-35

"Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment."

Matthew 22:37-38

"For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints."
I Corinthians 14:33

In this issue of the Last Trumpet Newsletter, we will examine a world run amok with confusion, chaos, and incivility. At this present time, there are throngs of people walking about in a state of confusion, seemingly uncertain of many things, including something as simple and basic as one's gender. In Genesis 1:27 we read, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." Yet, today we live in a world where some women want to be men, some men want to be women, and some people do not want to be either man or woman. Those who refuse to be called either male or female are now referred to as "non-binary" human beings. (1)

In June 2017 it was announced that Oregon will become the first state in the United States to allow individuals to choose a third gender for their state issued identification or driver's license. On these identification cards, male will be marked with the traditional M, female will be marked with an F, and the third "non-binary" gender will be marked with an X. (2) The new policy came about largely on the efforts of a man named Jamie Shupe who became the first person in the United States to be legally pronounced neither male nor female in 2016. Shupe had previously tried to transition to the female gender but eventually decided he did not want to be female either. "I only became a female because I had no other choice. All of the systems channeled me in that direction, both medical and government, until I took a stand against that. It wasn't until I got to Portland [Oregon] and got exposure to the queer community that I then understood how wrong all what had been done to me was," Shupe stated. Despite Shupe's claim to be neither male nor female, he seems to acknowledge that he was born with a male body. "Turning a male body, especially an older male body into female, I think it really sets the stage for people committing suicide. I mean you had to maintain a hyper-feminine appearance 24-7 or you were back to getting called sir," Shupe lamented. (3) It is my personal belief that this individual is being tormented by evil spirits. Shupe even uses the pronouns "they," "them," and "their" as personal identifiers which suggests that there is more than one evil spirit involved. Needless to say, Shupe does not think highly of Christians. "All the Bible-thumpers believe that there's only males and females according to the Bible. I'm the person who destroyed that in the United States," Shupe boasted. (4) The new policy will take effect in Oregon on July 1, 2017. (5)

Following Oregon's lead the American capital city of Washington, D.C., also announced that they will begin issuing identification cards and driver's licenses with a non-binary gender option on June 26, 2017. (6) A similar change in policy might soon be implemented in the state of New York where New York Assistant Speaker of the House Felix Ortiz has introduced legislation that if passed would allow a non-binary gender designation on driver's licenses and identification cards. "Our governmental agencies should reflect the society we live in. While this change may seem small, it is a step forward to change the rigid mindset often faced by many today," Ortiz stated. (7)

Why are a growing number of men finding it so painful to be part of the male gender? In recent decades, we have seen an effort from the liberal left to villainize manhood. We are often told that men are responsible for all of the world's woes and that being a masculine man is a bad thing. Leftists frequently refer to this so-called problem as "toxic masculinity." (8) Consider the words of the famous singer and actress known as Bette Midler who posted a message online in response to a recent terrorist attack in London. In this message, Midler wrote: "More sorrow and grief at the hands of madmen. Men and religion are worthless." (9) Instructors at college campuses will often preach against masculinity too. For example, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill published a website in 2016 which asked, "How has the concept of masculinity contributed to the perpetration of violence in our society?" (10) It was also reported that students at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, were subjected to a mandatory orientation video which declares that the three most damaging words a boy can hear are "be a man." (11) Is it any wonder that some men are so desperate to not be members of the male gender?