ALL CHURCHES NEWS BLOG

Saturday, 20 February 2016

PM Cameron meets cabinet after clinching EU deal

Prime Minister David Cameron met senior ministers on Saturday to win endorsement of an EU deal he hopes will persuade voters to ratify Britain's membership of the world's largest trading bloc at a referendum likely to be held in June.
Cameron hailed a deal clinched with other European Union leaders at a summit in Brussels as granting Britain special status, and said he would campaign hard now to convince voters to stay in the bloc that Britain joined in 1973.
"I will be campaigning with all my heart and soul to persuade the British people to remain in the reformed European Union," Cameron said after securing the deal that was approved by all the other 27 EU leaders.
"We are stronger, safer and better off inside this reformed European Union," Cameron said.

The Australian cardinal who oversees the Vatican's finances has strongly denied newspaper allegations of involvement in child sexual abuse, describing them as "utterly false".
The Sun Herald newspaper reported late Friday that Cardinal George Pell was being investigated by Australian police over allegations of abuse while he was serving in senior positions within the Catholic Church in Australia.
Pell has called for a public inquiry to be conducted into police in the state of Victoria, saying the allegations were leaked "to do maximum damage" before he gives evidence at the end of the month to a child abuse inquiry in his homeland.
Victorian police said they could not comment on any investigations into any individuals.
Pell, once seen as a contender to become pope, was cleared earlier this week to testify at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse via videolink, because of a heart condition.
The ruling frustrated victim groups who wanted him to appear in person.

Two wealthy foundations known for pushing population control have handed more than seven million dollars to a U.S. university to advance programs limiting population growth and "excessive childbearing" in a poor African country.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation have given Tulane University's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine a $7.2-million grant "to help curb population growth and excessive childbearing," in the words of a NOLA.com report, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
"At some point women and men opt to have fewer children in hopes of giving their children a better life," said Jane T. Bertrand, Tulane professor and principal investigator of the new grant, in a February 16 statement from the university, which touts "the benefits of smaller families."
The press release went on to say, "Tulane's work in the DRC aims to increase access and reduce barriers to contraceptive use to encourage this process."
The grant is for "family planning research and programming," according to the statement, and will build upon previous Tulane grants from the two foundations.

A prominent Baptist church in Scotland, which is known informally as the Baptist 'Cathedral of Europe' is going to close down.
Thomas Coats Memorial Baptist, in Paisley near Glasgow, was built to seat 800 people, but now the congregation numbers around 40.
The plan won't be put into action immediately, but unless there is a rapid turnaround, it's reported the church will be closed within five years.
The Minister of the church, Revd Theo Corney, told The Daily Record it was heartbreaking for the congregation. "It's disappointing and it's a shame," he said. "Coats Memorial has got a lot to offer Paisley. It's disappointing for the people who have worshipped at the church for a number of years. It's very sad for them to see its decline."
The building was constructed in 1894, but the congregation's history goes back to 1795. The church's website says, "We are a Baptist church and our services often represent the liturgical year. We aim to be warm and welcoming and to share the love of Christ with all."
There are now around 12,000 members of churches in the Baptist Union of Scotland. Only 55 per cent of Scots now say they have a Christian faith, and declining numbers have been recorded for a number of years in the country's main denomination – the Church of Scotland.
It's thought the building will remain open for civic and music events but there won't be a worshipping community in the building for the first time in more than 100 years.
Renfrewshire Council leader Mark Macmillan said: "The Thomas Coats Memorial Church is one of the jewels in the town's architectural crown and the council has to, and will do, everything it can to make sure this magnificent and world-renowned building is saved."

Bishop: Satan is ‘especially active’ around abortion facilities, so be vigilant

Satan is “especially active” around abortion facilities, so it is essential to be vigilant, the Catholic bishop of Phoenix warned earlier this month.

“We can be certain that when we’re near a place where abortions take place, the Evil One is especially active there,” Bishop Thomas Olmsted said, “but we are not alone when we pray. … We give thanks to God for that and that’s why we pray there together. That’s why we call upon Our Lady of Guadalupe to be with us and keep us under her mantle.”

The bishop was speaking during a February 4 Mass at Phoenix’s St. Mary’s Basilica to commemorate the spring 2016 40 Days for Life vigil, and said that “those engaged in witnessing to the Gospel of Life, and seeking to defend the most vulnerable among us,” were not alone.

“He sent the Apostles two by two,” Bishop Olmsted said. “They were not to go alone.”

40 Days for Life prayer, fasting and outreach vigils, conducted twice each year in both the spring and fall since 2007, kicked off the 2016 spring vigil on Ash Wednesday, with five campaigns this time in the Diocese of Phoenix, in Flagstaff, Tempe, Phoenix, Chandler and Glendale.

Bishop Olmsted has been a vocal proponent of the faith, calling on the men of his diocese last fall to fight for marriage and family, leading Good Friday prayer outside Planned Parenthood last year, and telling a 2013 gathering of Catholic bishops, cardinals and leaders from the Americas that Christians must maintain their trust in the “tough truths” regarding marriage, life and religious liberty if the spread of the Gospel is to be preserved.

Mike Phelan, director of the Phoenix diocese’s Office of Marriage and Respect Life, also stressed the importance of prayer and the spiritual component of the 40 Days for Life vigil.

“Forty Days for Life is doing the most fundamental, foundational and probably important part of the pro-life movement, which is public prayer and witness,” said Phelan. “There is a lot of spiritual battle that happens around these clinics.”

7 new pro-family groups added to radical leftist group’s infamous ‘hate’ list

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is at it again, labeling seven more Christian and conservative organizations as "Hate Groups" for following the Bible.
The infamous group, once a respected civil rights champion, has become a homosexual watchdog for LGBTQ "discrimination," blacklisting any church or fellowship that questions gay activities.
The list already included of 48 "anti-LGBTQ" groups. This time, the SPLC seeks to ostracize D. James Kennedy Ministries, Faith 2 Action, Citizens for Community Values, Greenville Georgia's Faith Baptist Church, Friendship Assembly of God church in Colorado Springs, The Campus Ministry USA, and Conservative Republicans of Texas.
D. James Kennedy Ministries began in 1974 as Coral Ridge Ministries, with the mission of bringing the Gospel to America and the world.

A newborn baby, only one week old, was tragically abandoned in a waste site, like the dozens of cut up children in paper buckets found inside a dumpster behind a Michigan abortion facility in the 1990s.
But this tiny baby was alive.
Her mother stuffed a diaper in her baby's mouth and left the helpless little one at an illegal dumping site. The child, a girl, was found wrapped in a blanket, according to police spokesman Ikobeng Hlubi. She was taken to an area hospital, where she was treated, and doctors determined she was strong enough to be released.
Not only did she survive the ordeal, but officials say she is now safe and as healthy as can be expected.
"The newborn has since been released from hospital and is now at a place of safety," Hlubi said. He added that the abandonment is being investigated as a case of child neglect.
In the past decade, newborn babies have been flushed down toilets, abandoned in dumpsters, or thrown into trashcans. One Catholic deacon says the horrific trend is a return of an ancient pagan practice. "This situation amounts to a modern resurgence of the ancient pagan practice once called exposure," wrote Deacon Keith Fournier. "Unwanted babies were left out on rocks to be eaten by birds of prey or taken by slave traders."
Author George Grant, researching an Ohio Planned Parenthood facility in the late 1980s, found in its garbage dumpster – among countless butchered babies – a perfectly formed child, and the over a dozen suppositories in her paper bucket revealed that she was bigger than estimated and therefore harder to abort and deliver. Grant noticed that the backs of her thighs were deeply and cleanly cut. Obviously, she was born alive, and the abortionist had sliced her legs so she would bleed to death.
Statistics are not kept in such cases.
Historically, the barbarism of exposure ended only under the influence of Christianity. "It was the Christians who saved [these babies], and transformed those cultures from cultures of death into cultures of life," Fournier explained.

NY’s Gov. Cuomo prepares to ban therapy for youth with unwanted same-sex attraction

Insurance coverage for reparative therapy for minors with unwanted same-sex sexual attractions is about to become illegal in New York State.
However, attempts to change gender are encouraged, according to a press release from Governor Andrew Cuomo, who said, "We will not allow the misguided and the intolerant to punish LGBT young people for simply being who they are."
"Conversion therapy is a hateful and fundamentally flawed practice that is counter to everything this state stands for," continued New York's ostensibly Catholic governor. "New York has been at the forefront of acceptance and equality for the LGBT community for decades – and today we are continuing that legacy and leading by example. We will not allow the misguided and the intolerant to punish LGBT young people for simply being who they are."
Those comments echo Cuomo's words from two years ago, when he said pro-life and pro-marriage advocates are "extreme" and "have no place in the state of New York."
Cuomo's regulations disallow coverage of reparative therapy by insurers and Medicaid.

What Is the Key to True Happiness?

One of the greatest lessons I've learned is that you can't be both selfish and happy. I know this is true through my own personal experience, but more importantly, the Bible has some things to say about the attitude we should have about "self."
For example, love is not selfish. In the Amplified Bible, 1 Corinthians 13:5 says, "... Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking. ..." In 1 Corinthians 15:31, the apostle Paul said, "... I die daily [I face death every day and die to self]" (AMPC), which basically means he was not self-seeking but instead focused on doing what God called him to do with his life.
There are also Scriptures that teach us the importance of having self-control. Galatians 5:23 lists self-control as a fruit of the Spirit, and 2 Timothy 1:7 says that in Christ, we have a spirit "of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control." If you've lived very long, you realize that not being selfish requires self-control, because we're all born with a human nature that is selfish.

Dear Chuck,
This week the always vocal Kanye West has been tweeting that he is $53 million in "personal debt," and asking billionaires involved in charities to support him because he is "the greatest artist of all time," meanwhile I've been intrigued by the example of Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch who has reportedly not spent any of his $50 million salary, living quietly instead on his endorsement income. Do you see some financial advice for the rest of us in the headlines?
Intrigued by Celebrity Headlines
Dear Intrigued:
The mistake that many of us make with money — rich or poor, famous or unknown — is spending more than we make while failing to save for the future.

When Maria Shriver asked Pastor Judah Smith this week "Why should I believe in God?" he seemed stumped initially until he admitted that he doesn't like convincing people to worship God.
Smith, who sat down with Shriver in an Architects of Change Live conversation about the new children's book he wrote along with his wife, Chelsea, titled I Will Follow Jesus Bible Storybook was engaging with his host about faith when she asked him the question he introduced himself.
"How do you answer that question?" asked Shriver.
"What's that?" responded Smith.
"How can I believe in God? You know these terrible things have happened. I don't have a job, my parents are dead, you know, I don't have any money, why should I believe in God? Nothing is going my way," said Shriver, playing devil's advocate.
"I tell them to talk to my wife," said Smith, who leads The City Church in Seattle, Washington, with his wife. "I think she has a lot of great answers. ... Diversion is a powerful thing I've learned."
"Yeah, right up there with denial," Shriver hit back, laughing.
He continued deflecting for a while before he began settling into a response.
"I think this idea that believing in God is something that you concoct, it is something that you conjure up. It is something that over a succession of emotional discussions or sermons you develop this habit of now it's happened. I think, I believe that there is a God space in every human soul," he said.

"I believe we were designed inherently to be worshipers, and I think you see it in culture.

Islamic State is using child soldiers at "an increasing and unprecedented rate", according to a report released yesterday. The death rate for children recruited by and fighting for ISIS has doubled since January 2015.
ISIS has used children in a number of its propaganda campaigns, but analysis of the use of child and youth "martyrs" by ISIS between January 2015 and January 2016 discovered that they are being used on a grander scale than previously recognised.
"The Islamic State has so heavily championed the mobilisation of children – on a scale rarely associated even with violent extremist organisations – that it suggests organisational concerns that far outweigh short-term propaganda benefits," the report by the Combating Terrorism Centre in New York said.
Researchers analysed 89 recorded deaths of child soldiers via social media and encrypted communications app Telegram.
"The data unambiguously suggests that the Islamic State's mobilisation of children and youth for military purposes is accelerating," the report said.
"On a month-by-month basis, the rate of young people dying in suicide operations rose, from six in January to 11 in January 2016.
"The rate of operations involving one or more child or youth is likewise increasing; there were three times as many suicide operations involving children and youth in January 2016 as the previous January."
While most children involved were described as "adolescent", some were also believed to be under 12 years old.
Charlie Winter, one of the authors of the report, noted that, unlike many other extremist organisations, ISIS was not using children in a markedly different way to how they used adults.
"The way children are being used is perhaps counterintuitive in the context of child soldier precedence.

While Jordan Smith's The Voice victory may not have come as a surprise after his repeated reign of the top of the iTunes singles chart, Smith said he didn't want to risk disappointment. This season of The Voice was his second encounter with the singing competition; when he first auditioned in 2014, he was rejected.

"It was difficult because it was something that I wanted very badly," Smith said at the press conference. "I had this dream in my heart to be a part of the show and I thought that I was meant to do it. I really thought for a very long time, for a few years, that I was meant to do this. When I auditioned and didn't make it, it was a little devastating."

The former Lee University student returned "home" this week with a special chapel service and press conference.

Now, Smith said he sees that he wasn't ready the first time, and that his year-long wait prepared him through what he described as small, everyday things: working two jobs, attending class, traveling with Lee singers and performing in Lee's alternative chapel band.

"With that whole entire year of preparation, I see that when I actually got to be on the show was the exact right time," Smith said.

A man twice entered the changing room of a swimming pool and began disrobing, once in front of a young girls' swim team, saying transgender policies gave him the right to do so.
The unidentified man entered Evans pool in Seattle near Green Lake last Monday, February 8, and began taking off his shirt in front of female patrons.
When asked what he was doing, he said, "The law has changed and I have a right to be here."
"Seeing this individual in the locker room, parents of swim team members (girls) and women who had paid for lap swim became alarmed and alerted our front desk staff," said Seattle Parks spokesman David Takami in a statement. "In response, an Evans pool staff member entered the women's locker room and asked the man to leave." They offered both the man and the girls the opportunity to use a family changing room.
He left, only to return during a later youth lap swim, Takami said.
Officials said he had made no attempt to present himself as a woman, nor to identify as transgender when he checked in.

A new study shows what expectant mothers have known for centuries: their babies in the womb respond when they stroke their pregnant bellies.
The University of Dundee conducted a study of 23 expectant mothers between the 21st and 33rd week of gestation. While a sonogram documented their babies' reactions, the mothers read a story to their babies, and then later rubbed their abdomens, and then later, as a "control test," mothers simply lay still with their hands at their side.
Not surprisingly, developing babies responded to both the voices of their mothers and their mothers' touch, even indirectly through stroking the maternal abdomen. The study notes that babies "actively regulate their behaviors as a response to the external stimulation," and they do so earlier than previously thought.
The study also found that the child within responds more to his mother's touch than to her voice.
The Scottish researchers concluded that "maternal touch of the abdomen [is] a powerful stimulus" and that the developing babies' arm, head, and mouth movements when the mother touched her abdomen "may indicate that fetuses are trying to communicate with their mothers, fathers, and family members."
The decreased movement in reaction to the mother's voice may indicate attentiveness, not a lack of response. The study admitted, "Further research is necessary to truly determine the intent of fetal responses to touch and sound."
Babies farther along in pregnancy showed more movement in response to both their mothers' voices and touch, even though their movement was restricted due to their growing size.

How Harper Lee Used the Bible to Guide Her Writing

Though most recognize Nelle Harper Lee's name from her writing, those in Monroeville, Alabama, knew her by her quiet faith.
As many reflect on Lee's death Friday, they also examine her Christian foundations.
From the prophetically-titled Go Set a Watchman to the inspirational social advocacy of To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee's faith was always present in her works.
"That's what she loved - the elegance of the language of the King James Version," said historian Wayne Flynt, a longtime friend of Lee and also a Baptist minister. "She grew up in a Bible-reading family. She was imprinted with it as a child."
Flynt continued: "Go Set a Watchman means, 'Somebody needs to be the moral compass of this town.' Isaiah was a prophet. God had set him as a watchman over Israel.

'One church building is now a centre of ISIS': Syrian Christian speaks out about life in Raqqa

"You're constantly alert, never looking into someone's eyes when walking on the street; always aware of what to say and not to say," a Syrian Christian has told World Watch Monitor about life in Raqqa under ISIS rule.

After ISIS took control of the Syrian city of Raqqa in 2014, John – a Chrisitian in his early 20s using a pseudonym – decided to stay in the city with his parents, and survived living there for 18 months, before escaping in the middle of the night.
"Life in Raqqa carries on as usual in many ways. Shops and restaurants are open. There is food, electricity, and water," he said. "People are more fortunate than those living in a city like Aleppo."
However, this day-to-day normality is contrasted with routine executions and violence.
"I saw a lot of cruelty. Every Friday they executed people. I was there when they beheaded the first man in public.

Led by charismatic preachers and self-proclaimed prophets, African churches are swelling with promises of miracle healings, signs and wonders.
But in recent months, governments across the continent are trying to rein in these churches.
Africa's experience with Christianity has for the most part been positive. About 63 percent of Africans identify as Christian, and Christian denominations founded and still run schools and hospitals. They have played critical roles in helping to keep communities together and stitching together a fraying social fabric.
But while trying not to trample on religious freedom, governments are increasingly frustrated with tales of clergy fleecing their followers and are proposing a raft of new measures to protect unsuspecting church members from corrupt or immoral schemes.
Take Kenya. Recently, a Nairobi pastor banned women from wearing undergarments and bras to church.

While Catholic nuns are required to obey health care regulations that they say violate the teachings of their faith, large corporations like ExxonMobil are exempt, a new website says.
That fact and other details of the Little Sisters of the Poor v. Burwell court case are available on the new site: thelittlesistersofthepoor.com/#littlesisters, announced the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the legal group that represents the sisters, on Tuesday.
“This website demonstrates that everything the Little Sisters of the Poor do is motivated by faith,” said Melinda Skea, director of communications for the Becket Fund. “It also shows that the government has very weak claims to force the Little Sisters to violate their faith.”
Issued under the Affordable Care Act, the HHS mandate requires employers to offer free coverage for contraception, sterilization and some drugs that can cause abortions.
The regulation has sparked a years-long dispute between the administration and hundreds of plaintiffs nationwide, who argue that the mandate forces them to violate their religious convictions.
Meanwhile, some other health plans have been “grandfathered” in and are not subject to the mandate.

While mulling over possible topics for this article, I turned to my husband and asked, "Keith, what's the one thing about women that most men want to understand?"
He chuckled and replied, "That's easy: How to get their wives in the mood." Then he paused and added, "And let me read it when you're finished."
Ah, yes, what is that elusive, secret switch you can flick to turn women on? I wonder whether you men suspect we women have one, whether we're all in a giant conspiracy to hide it from you, sort of like Samson and Delilah in reverse.
If I could share any secret with you, it would be this: We women don't actually know what that switch is either. After almost two decades of marriage, I've decided women's sex drives are such a mishmash of competing elements that only God knows what's really going on. We're largely hormonal. We're also emotional. And we're spiritual.

As someone who is not tech savvy, nor am I a product ambassador, but I am an observer of culture, systems and organizations. Kris Vallaton of Bethel Church in Redding, California, recently said prophetic people are not as concerned about the what, but they are very concerned about the why.
I guess there is some prophetic giftings in me, for I love to know why something works. My friends will tell you that I am constantly analyzing the church and seeking to understand why so many people are leaving the church, are done with the system, but are still lovers of God and people. This question, which resonates in my spirit and mind on a daily basis, was illuminated in a powerful way when I entered the Apple Store in my city.
I walked into this store, which is only identifiable by a symbol of an Apple with a bite taken out of it.

Bezalel: Meet the artists bringing creativity and community together

Artists are often depicted as solitary characters, whiling away days – and nights – in their studios, often with a tortured expression. But while creativity can sometimes inspire an isolated lifestyle, a collective of Christian creatives are seeking to offer an alternative. Bezalel – an arts community set up in 2011 to bring creatives together – believes that creativity has an essential role to play in enabling any community to flourish.

This group of 20-something artists have united around their shared love of community, creativity and God to develop Bezalel, which hopes to bring together other artists and support them.
Although there's a danger of this all sounding pretty theoretical and convoluted, the idea is simple: "God created us to be both creative and to live in community with each other", says Christy Balfour, an artist involved with the project. And so that is what these friends are seeking to live out.
The idea is in Bezalel's DNA, right down to the choice of name.

Already the hungriest country in the world, Burundi faces 'total implosion'

Burundi is on the brink of a "major crisis", Unicef has warned, as political strife continues to dominate the country.

Violence broke out in April last year when President Pierre Nkurunziza announced he was running for a third term, which opponents said was unconstitutional. A coup was attempted, but failed, and Nkurunziza went on to win the election in July with more than 91 per cent of the vote, amid an opposition boycott.
A fresh wave of violence then erupted in the capital, Bujumbura, in December, resulting in the deaths of more than 130 people in just two days.

Barack Obama has cut all funding for sex education programmes which teach it is best to wait until marriage.
In a move that will enrage many Republican Christians, abstinence-based sex education programmes will lose their $10 million-a-year grant under the US President's 2017 budget proposal.
The final budget of Obama's administration will also increase funding for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program and maintain it for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Adolescent and School Health.
Currently the US Department of Health and Human Services offers grants to states and territories teaching abstinence-based programmes.

Scientists at Southampton University have recorded a Bible on a revolutionary new storage device capable of surviving for billions of years.
The researchers from the University's Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) have created a five-dimensional data storage process which combines a 360TB data capacity, thermal stability up to 1,000 degrees and lasts for 13.8 billion years – the approximate age of the universe – at room temperature.
The discs are the size of a coin. Other major documents the research team has encoded are the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Newton's Opticks and Magna Carta.
The documents were recorded using ultrafast laser, producing extremely short and intense pulses of light.

She said, ‘If you love me, you’ll let me do this’ as she cut the baby out of my womb, mom testifies

The trial began Wednesday for a Colorado woman accused of luring a pregnant woman to her home and cutting the baby out of her body, so she could present the child as her own.
Despite macabre testimony, the most powerful piece of evidence may be a picture of the victim, 27-year-old Michelle Wilkins, smiling and displaying her baby bump shortly before the attack.
When she was assaulted last March 18, Wilkins was seven months pregnant with a daughter she and her boyfriend had already named Aurora. "We were prepared" for the girl's arrival, Wilkins testified in court yesterday.
As a final preparation, she answered a Craigslist ad for free baby clothes.
Although never pregnant, Dynel Lane told her family - including her own daughters and her longtime live-in beau - that she was expecting a baby boy.

A 25-year-old porn star tested negative for HIV, as pornography performers must on a regular basis, and then proceeded to "act" with at least seventeen people over the next 22 days. But he did, in fact, have the virus that leads to AIDS, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. He infected at least two men: one another gay porn star and the other a recreational sex partner.
The infected pornographer's seventeen sex partners range from across the U.S. and four countries.
The CDC dubbed the porn star "Patient A" and concluded, "This HIV infection did, in fact, occur on set." AIDS Healthcare Foundation president Michael Weinstein said porn industry testing "failed."
The CDC says such findings prove that regular STD "testing alone is not sufficient to prevent HIV transmission."
Some porn producers require HIV testing within two weeks of participating in pornographic sex.

A study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health concludes that teens who are sexually active but do not use condoms become absentee fathers.
The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (NLSAH) conducted a twenty-year, nationally representative study of over ten thousand males during the fourteen years from adolescence to adulthood. The major study was recently analyzed by a team mainly from Northwestern University for "reproductive knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs" and their possible correlation with male parenting. The team's conclusions were published as "Adolescent Reproductive Knowledge, Attitudes, and Beliefs, and Future Fatherhood."
Of the 10,253 males in the NLSAH research, 3,425 became fathers by the end of the study.

After a series of stunning declines through the month of January and the first half of February, global financial markets seem to have found a patch of relative stability at least for the moment. But that does not mean that the crisis is over.
On the contrary, all of the hard economic numbers that are coming in from around the world tell us that the global economy is coming apart at the seams. This is especially true when you look at global trade numbers. The amount of stuff that is being bought, sold and shipped around the planet is falling precipitously. Don't be fooled if stocks go up one day or down the next. The truth is that we are in the early chapters of a brand-new economic meltdown, and I believe that all of the signs indicate that it will continue to get worse in the months ahead. The following are 21 new numbers that show that the global economy is absolutely imploding.
1. Chinese exports fell by 11.2 percent year over year in January.
2. Chinese imports were even worse in January.

Escaped Boko Haram rape victims persecuted and ostracised by own communities

Victims of rape and kidnapping at the hands of Boko Haram are often rejected and ostracised after they are released, reveals a new study by UNICEF and International Alert.

As military forces reclaimed land captured by the jihadist group, hundreds of women and girls have been released from captivity, said the study. However in refugee camps or in their home communities, they face persecution.
"As they return, many face marginalization, discrimination and rejection by family and community members due to social and cultural norms related to sexual violence," the report says.
"There is also growing fear that some of these girls and women were radicalized in captivity.

The imposition of penalties by Anglican leaders on The Episcopal Church (TEC) has failed to heal the tear in the fabric of the Anglican Communion, conservative leaders said.
"There can be no true walking together until there is repentance for what is acknowledged even by TEC as a breach of core doctrine," said Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, Primate of Kenya and Chairman of the Gobal Anglican Futures Conference, in his letter on the Primates' Meeting.
"The fabric of the Communion is still badly torn and there is a strong possibility that this year we shall see other provinces taking the same step."
The primates imposed "consequences" on TEC for approving gay marriage and consecrating gay bishops. The Anglican Church in Canada is expected to vote on gay marriage this summer.
According to a statement from the primates at last month's meeting in Canterbury, TEC will "no longer represent us on ecumenical and interfaith bodies, should not be appointed or elected to an internal standing committee and that while participating in the internal bodies of the Anglican Communion, they will not take part in decision making on any issues pertaining to doctrine or polity."
However, Archbishop Wabukala said it was clear that TEC "appear to have moved well beyond the possibility of changing course."

On my commute home, I will sometimes listen to talk radio. I recently came across a show in which a husband was calling in to discuss problems he was having in his marriage.
He and his wife had been married for over 10 years, and he was clearly frustrated. His main issue was that he and his wife had nothing in common. The only possible thing was that they liked a TV show or two; however, they would rarely talk about them. They'd watch in silence.
As he continued to share his story, it became obvious that he and his wife had grown apart. The marriage was devoid of intimacy and sex. What had started as differing interests had sprouted like a weed into dissatisfaction.
Eventually that grew into disconnection and bitterness. This husband had even reached a place where he thought the remedy was leaving his wife to find a woman with whom he had more in common. Fortunately, it didn't need to get to that point.
If you are feeling as though you and your wife have nothing in common, here are some encouraging thoughts to help your marriage:
1. Realize it's OK. You do not have to have the same interests to have a good and thriving marriage. Marriage is about selflessly loving, supporting and caring for one another. Putting the other person's interests before your own. When each partner does that well, the health of the marriage follows. You don't need to love the things they love, but you do need to love them.
2. Appreciate your differences. Don't love them in spite of your differences. Love them because of them. There are great advantages and strengths that come with being different.

Pope Francis on Wednesday railed against immigration policies that force many underground and into the hands of drug gangs and human smugglers, praying at Mexico's border with the United States in what was once one of the world's deadliest cities.
He walked up a ramp lined with flowers to a cross erected in Ciudad Juarez in memory of migrants who have perished trying to reach the United States just a stone's throw away.
There he blessed three small crosses which will be sent to the dioceses of El Paso, Ciudad Juarez and Las Cruces, New Mexico. Shoes of migrants who died were laid beside them.
Overlooking the Rio Grande that separates the two countries, it was the closest the Pope came to the US border during his six-day visit to Mexico.
He then celebrated Mass just 80 yards (73 meters) from the border crossing in a fairground, connected via video link to faithful gathered at a university stadium in El Paso.
"We cannot deny the humanitarian crisis," the Pope said shortly before he wrapped up his six-day visit to Mexico and took off for Rome.

A group of workers at a legal brothel in Nevada are campaigning for Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, calling themselves "Hookers for Hillary."
"I'm for Hillary because she's cracking down on domestic violence," explained 26-year-old Entice Love. "I've been in a relationship for a long time where I'd been thrown down stairs, black eyes, fractured ribs … When I'm looking at who I want to pick for the presidency, I look at what are they doing that I can relate to that will be of benefit for me.

When I think of a holy man or woman, I envision a person living in a cave who doesn't watch TV or movies or listen to secular music. The unspoken definition of holiness by American church culture is not cussing, not smoking, not drinking alcohol, not watching R rated movies or not listening to secular music while reading your Bible and praying regularly. The definition of holiness according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is "the quality or state of being holy" and the title of persons of high religious position.
Yet God's definition of holiness in Leviticus 19 is shockingly different from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

Evangelical church in Chiapas suffers arson attack on eve of Pope's arrival

An evangelical church in Chiapas, Mexico, was attacked and burned this week, just a day before Pope Francis visited the region.

Early morning on February 15, the Fuente de Fe, Alabanza y Poder church in Zinacantán city was raided and subject to an arson attack, according to Evangelical Focus.
Unidentified assailants broke into the church, damaging a window and the door in the process, and gathered around 200 chairs, the pulpit, curtains and tables and burnt them. The fire that ensued damaged the ceiling.
Due to the Pope's visit to the region, the police office in the city was closed, and the church's pastor, Ciro Díaz Méndez, was therefore unable to report the attack. However, he – along with a legal representative – went to the church to verify the damages.
The next day, Pope Francis spoke against exploitation and oppression of the indigenous people of Chiapas, saying the world should seek forgiveness for their treatment of them.
"How well we would all do, to do some soul searching and learn to say sorry," Francis said.
Evangelical Focus noted that "the Pope did not mention any of the attacks and aggressions some Mexican evangelical communities have suffered in the recent years, most of the times (sic) just for not renouncing their faith."
This latest attack against evangelical christians in Chiapas, Mexico is not an isolated incident. On 4 January, armed villagers raided and destroyed the homes of Protestants in Leyva Velazques village, Chiapas, forcing them to flee to nearby mountains.
Protestants are a minority religion in Mexico and "in the rural areas where we see persecution, many villages and their councils are dominated by adherents to syncretistic Catholicism," ICC's advocacy manager, Nathaniel Lance, previously reported.

Priests in El Salvador banned from secular study to avoid 'worldly temptations'

Priests in El Salvador have been prohibited from studying at secular universities in order to avoid the temptation of worldly desires, according to NDTV.
The instruction was given by the country's Episcopal Conference in a letter published by a church newspaper, Gazette Orientacion.
"It is not proper or convenient for us, as we run many risks when out in the world, beyond abandoning the parish and priestly life," the letter said.
Any suggestion that a course was being taken to equip the priest for post-ministry work would not be allowed, according to the letter.
"That does not go with our vocation and mission – such temptation should be far from us," it said.
If a priest did want to study at a secular university, he would need a letter of approval from his bishop, the letter added, and the Episcopal Conference would seek to find a similar course at an ecclesiastical college.
The bishops said that this ban on secular study was inspired by Pope Francis' homily on 26 April last year, when he ordained 19 new priests.
In the homily, Francis encouraged priests to "diligently read and meditate on the Word of the Lord, that you may believe what you read, teach what you have learned in faith, and practice what you teach."
El Salvador is a majority-Christian country, with 47 per cent of the nation identifying with as Roman Catholic.

Judge to Cincinnati: You must allow a sex club near your child development center

Cincinnati just witnessed the power of individual citizens speaking out against the sex industry coming to their town. And then Cincinnati witnessed a judge overruling their concerns.
Butler County pleas judge Craig Hedric ruled that West Chester Township officials improperly rescinded a license for a sexually oriented business in their community.
Melissa Warren, a Fort Wayne "Swinger's Club" owner, wanted to expand her sex trade into the Cincinnati suburbs. She and her boyfriend Eric Adams invested in land in West Chester Township and set up positive meetings with township officials to secure a zoning permit and license for her "sexually oriented business."
Warren and Adams got their permit and license – township officials bent over backward, as they say, to publicly defend Warren and her "business," saying she did everything right.

A Kansas family facing what doctors say is the almost certain death of one of their unborn babies has received some comfort in the form of an unexpected, and touching ultrasound photo.
Ian and Brittani McIntire told Fox6 that they hadn't expected to have any more kids, but unexpectedly became pregnant with twins.
However, they soon found out that one of the babies - a boy - wasn't developing as he was supposed to.

A professor at Our Lady of the Lake University (OLLU) in San Antonio, Texas, is encouraging students to attend and work an off-campus “drag show” where students and faculty will dress up and perform as members of the opposite sex to raise money for a course at the University.

World War III Approaches: An Invasion of Syria Is Imminent

As you read this article, Turkish forces are massing along the border with Syria, and the largest "military exercises" in the history of the Middle East are being held in northern Saudi Arabia. The Saudis are publicly warning that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "will be removed by force" if a political solution cannot be found, and Turkey is claiming that it may have to establish a "safe zone" in northern Syria "for humanitarian purposes.

Denise Matthews, who performed the song "Nasty Girl," had a career-changing, born-again experience that included renouncing her earlier ways, which included an addiction to crack cocaine.
"I sing to Jesus for Jesus now," she told Rolling Stone. "This gives me pure joy ... worship! I apologize profusely to those I have offended deeply a million times over."
Matthews, who was known as "Vanity," died Monday (Feb. 15) at age 57. She had been diagnosed with "sclerosis encapsulating peritonitis," a life-threatening abdominal condition.
Matthews had collaborated with Prince and was the lead singer of Vanity 6, a 1980s female singing group. She said she turned away from drugs in the 1990s and converted to Christianity.
Recently, she attempted to raise money to cover her medical expenses through gofundme.com. As of Tuesday, her page on the crowdfunding site had raised more than $6,600 toward a $50,000 goal.
In an update posted four months ago, she wrote: "I went into the emergency twice this week, boy it is not fun suffering in this body of weak flesh... but Jesus is straightening out all my crooked places in my heart as i go thru this time of pain....i won't complain!"
Fellow entertainers mourned via Twitter, noting Matthews' Christian faith.
Drummer Sheila E. tweeted about her sadness that her "friend in Christ" had died.

René Laennec: Google Doodle honours Christian medical pioneer

Google's masthead today shows two figures on either side of a pair of lungs. One of them is a modern doctor with a stethoscope and the other is an antique gentleman holding a sort of tube to his ear.
The tube is actually a stethoscope too, and it was the invention of René Laennec, whose 235th birthday it would have been today.
Laennec was a Breton, a brilliant doctor who was also a devout Christian. Born in 1781, he studied medicine under his uncle and treated soldiers wounded in France's revolutionary wars under Napoleon. Before his death at the age of only 45 he made important discoveries about cirrhosis of the liver, melanoma and tuberculosis, the disease that was to kill him.
His most significant contribution to medicine, though, was the invention of the stethoscope.

The Church of England is to launch a nationwide "digital evangelism" campaign to reach out to the one million children educated in church schools once they leave school. The social media project will also aim to reach children leaving secular schools.
The aim is to show the "unchurched" generation what Christianity has to offer, using means of communications they are familiar with such as Snapchat, WhatsApp and Instagram.
Details of the campaign were today revealed in a presentation to the General Synod at Church House, Westminster by Canon John Spence, who heads the finance committee of the Archbishops' Council. Finance is likely to be agreed at the General Synod in York in July.
"It is unlikely we will see a net growth in church membership over the next 30 years," Spence admitted to the synod.

"Timely, realistic and frightening" were the words that William Daroff, senior vice president for public policy and director of the Washington Office of the Jewish Federations of North America, used to describe reports about the Middle East security situation.
Speaking on the second day of the leadership mission of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Daroff's remarks came after an hour-long session focused on Iran after the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), otherwise known as the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, and just before another hour-long panel discussion on "the Middle East volcano."
The 42nd annual Israel mission for the Conference of Presidents, an umbrella body representing 50 U.S. Jewish organizations, kicked off Feb. 14 as the group of more than 100 delegates was welcomed with a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The meeting minutes and panel discussions reflected the current gloom-and-doom picture of the region.
"Syria will leave us with two bad options: We will have either Daesh (Islamic State) or Iran on our border," said Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon on Feb. 15.
"I don't think Israel has lost.

In school. At a football match. In a superhero movie. At the pub. In the supermarket. In an ever-so-slightly edgy pop song. We hear the f-word so often these days that much of the time it simply washes past us. Used not only as a curse or a graphic substitute for 'sex', but also as the Oxford Dictionary puts it, as 'an intensifier', it's got to be one of the most popular words in the English language.

Australian victims of child sex abuse have raised over $85,000 through crowd funding to travel to Rome to watch the Vatican's Australian-born finance controller give videolink evidence to a local inquiry.
Catholic Cardinal George Pell, a man once seen as a contender to become pope, had been scheduled to testify at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in the Australian city of Ballarat.
But earlier this month he was excused from attending in person after his lawyers cited health concerns, angering victims.
An online crowd funding campaign to send 15 church abuse survivors, representatives and their supporters to Rome to watch Pell give his videolink evidence raised over A$120,000 ($85,000) since Monday.
The fund raising efforts were helped along by Australian comedic musician Tim Minchin who released a satirical song attacking the Cardinal's decision not to return for the inquiry.
The inquiry heard testimony last year that priests suspected of abuse in Pell's former diocese were moved between parishes and put in church-appointed rehabilitation instead of being reported to police.
"The survivors of Ballarat and District child abuse feel that a face-to-face hearing is important for healing and understanding" said the group's crowd funding page.
"With the news that Cardinal Pell could not come here, it seems appropriate to get the survivors to Rome to sit in front of Pell as he gives evidence."
A royal commission spokesman said in an email that the commission was making inquiries about a possible venue for the victims in Rome.

5 Foods That May Cause You Joint Pain

Individuals who are returning to eating real foods (not processed) and experiencing relief from inflammation-related diseases. Seventy percent of the body's immune cells are in the digestive system. Focus placed on gut health becomes of vital importance for natural healing to occur.
The Inflammation Response
When an individual eats food that triggers allergies, the body's response is inflammation. Foods containing bacteria trigger the same reaction. The body becomes inflamed to protect the critical systems. Prolonged inflammation results in severe health conditions.
The inflammation response occurs when undigested proteins pass into the blood, creating an additional health concern. Enterocytes aid the digestive process within the intestines.

It's not always easy being single: third wheeling it at the movies, persevering through some awkward dates and scrambling for a good answer when well-meaning friends and family members ask if you've met anyone "special" yet.
Although it has its fair share of uncomfortable situations and weekend nights sitting on the couch in pajamas, being single does not have to be the time in your life you barely get through.
Here are a few ways to live life fully and pursue growth in your single season:
1. Go on adventures.

Known as general editor of the Ryrie Study Bible, Dr. Charles Caldwell Ryrie died Feb. 16, 2016, as he neared his 91st birthday. Ryrie taught systematic theology at Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS), then became the longtime dean of doctoral studies until he retired in 1983.
Born in St. Louis in 1925, he grew up in Alton, Illinois. For a time, he attended Haverford College in Pennsylvania and planned to follow his father's footsteps and become a banker. Instead, he opted to go to DTS after meeting with the school's founder, Lewis Sperry Chafer, and hearing a ministry call from the Lord, according to an obituary posted by DTS.
After receiving his first master's degree, he moved to California to teach at Westmont College but later returned to DTS.

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