It’s Monday, July 29th, A.D. 2019. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I’m Adam McManus.
By Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com)
China upholds 7-year prison sentence against U.S. pastor
China has announced its decision to uphold a North Carolina pastor’s seven-year prison sentence for “organizing illegal border crossings” — a crime more commonly applied to human traffickers — despite his appeal, reports the Christian Post.
John Cao, a U.S. permanent resident from Greensboro, North Carolina, and his co-worker, Jing Ruxia, were arrested after coming back into China from neighboring Myanmar on March 5, 2017.
The two men had been volunteering to teach at 16 schools in northern Myanmar which serve more than 2,000 students. Cao had been ferrying back and forth across a river that divides the countries for more than three years without pushback from either government.
Supreme Court greenlights Trump’s border wall
In a 5-4 decision on Friday, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to tap billions of dollars in Pentagon funds to start construction on 100+ miles of border wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, reports the Associated Press.
The court’s five conservative justices – Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, John Roberts, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh — gave the administration the green light to begin work on four contracts it has awarded using Defense Department money. Funding for the projects had been frozen by lower courts while a lawsuit over the money proceeded.
(The money Trump identified includes $3.6 billion from military construction funds, $2.5 billion in Defense Department money and $600 million from the Treasury Department’s asset forfeiture fund.)
Muslim Congresswoman divorcing husband for second time
Democratic Muslim Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and her husband, Ahmed Hirsi, – the father of her three children – have split and are heading for their second divorce, reports The Daily Mail.
The bust-up comes just as critics are demanding answers as to whether she previously married her own brother in a successful bid to get him into the United States.
Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said, “The evidence is overwhelming. Rep. Omar may have violated the law and House rules.” He added that she should be investigated for perjury, immigration fraud, marriage fraud, state and federal tax fraud and federal student loan fraud.
Unplanned played outside D.C.’s Planned Parenthood
Unplanned, the movie about Abby Johnson’s conversion from abortion mill director to pro-life advocate, was shown on the sidewalk in front of Washington, D.C.’s Planned Parenthood abortion complex, reports LifeSiteNews.com.
Rev. Pat Mahoney, Director of the Christian Defense Coalition and the driving force behind the effort, said this.
MAHONEY: “God, we cry out, that Planned Parenthood will end up on the scrap heap of history, like segregation and slavery. The Scriptures declare ‘Speak to the mountain and say be removed in My name and cast in the sea and it shall be done. (Mark 11:23) And so we say to this mountain, ‘’In your holy name, O God, let this place close.”
Joshua Harris kissed Christ goodbye
Joshua Harris, the author of the best-selling book “I Kissed Dating Goodbye”, announced in an Instagram post Friday that he is no longer a Christian, reports the Christian Post.
The shocking admission comes a week after Harris publicly announced that he and his wife, Shannon, were separating after 20 years of marriage, but would remain “friends” as they continue to raise their three children together.
Harris also apologized to homosexuals for not supporting faux same-sex marriage.
Proverbs 14:12 declares, “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.”
Who could have imagined that Christian author Joshua Harris would kiss Christ goodbye?
South Dakota requires “In God We Trust” displayed at gov’t schools
A new law in South Dakota now requires all public schools across the state to feature the “In God We Trust” motto on display, reports CBS News.
Students returning to school this fall will be greeted by the message, which supporters say is meant to “inspire patriotism.”
Needless to say, the Freedom From Religion Foundation is livid.
The U.S. Treasury Department says “In God We Trust” first appeared on coins in 1864 and was adopted as the country’s official motto in 1956, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the proposal into law. It first appeared on paper money the following year.
Nevada mayor takes stand against library’s Drag Queen Story Hour
The mayor of Sparks, Nevada, Ron Smith, objected strenuously to a local library’s decision to host a Drag Queen Story Hour event, detailing his unsuccessful efforts to block the event, reports LifeSiteNews.com.
Over the Mayor’s objection, the Washoe County Public Library hosted adult crossdressers reading to children between the ages of three and eight, and pose for photos.
Smith complained, “It doesn’t make any sense to me. It is absolutely ridiculous. Why would you have transgender people talking to kids?”
You can thank Mayor Smith for taking a stand by email through a special link in our transcript today at www.TheWorldview.com or call (775) 353-2311.
(Recently, an Oregon library deleted pictures of children actually lying on top of a drag queen.)
Interstate Batteries chairman’s unapologetic Christian faith
And finally, Norm Miller, the chairman of Interstate Batteries and a devout Christian, holds to a simple philosophy: Love God, love others, and treat them the way you’d want to be treated, reports the Christian Post.
Miller said, “If you make them happy, they keep doing business with you, and they’ll tell others about you as well.”
Plus, Interstate Batteries gives new employees a Bible, a copy of the “Jesus” film, and access to a chaplain and Bible studies.
After racking up three DWI arrests by the time he was 34, Miller realized he was an alcoholic and cried out, “God help me! I can’t handle it!” A short time later, a friend told Norm to read the Bible — and as he read, he became convicted of his sin, prayed to receive Christ and began to seek out discipleship.
Miller felt convicted after reading Matthew 10:28: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in Hell.”
Close
And that’s The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Monday, July 29th in the year of our Lord 2019. Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I’m Adam McManus (adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.
Print stories
North Korean defector documents conditions in prisons
North Korean defector Illyong Ju, whose cousin’s family was executed for sharing the Gospel, described the regime’s notorious political prison camps, saying “The females are not provided any medication when they are giving birth. They forcefully have to lose their babies. In terms of food or provision, they are only given a very small portion of corn,” reports the Christian Post. Ju escaped with his family to South Korea.
At the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, Vice President Mike Pence said that “The North Korean regime formally demands that its officials act to ‘wipe out the seed of [Christian] reactionaries’ through torture and murder. Possession of a Bible is a capital offense.”
GOP Congressman to Democrats: Drop the Russian bone
Republican Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said it was time that Democrats moved on after the unending Russian-related inquiry into President Trump, reports CNSNews.com.
JORDAN: “Understand where we’re at: three years ago next week is when the Trump-Russia investigation began. And the FBI investigated for 10 months. Understand the big picture–the President is falsely accused. FBI investigates it for 10 months. They find nothing. We know that because we deposed (former FBI Director James) Comey and he told us that.
“And then Bob Mueller takes over in May of 2017, and he investigates it for 22 months. So, here we are now three years later, and Bob Mueller found no collusion, no conspiracy, no coordination. It is definitely time to move on.
“Let’s stop the continuous investigation into something that we’ve already spent three years on. And let’s focus on those issues that really matter to the American people.”
New Age Pres. candidate: Doctors overprescribe antidepressants
Democratic presidential candidate and New Age guru Marianne Williamson said that she believes antidepressants are overprescribed by doctors, saying that divorce, losing a loved one, being abandoned, going bankrupt are all difficult, painful things, but they are not mental illnesses.
In addition, Williamson, an advocate for “A Course in Miracles,” said that “the medicalization of depression is a creation of the medical industry. For millennia, depression was seen as a spiritual disease, and for many of us it still is.”
NYC Mayor Bill Blasio begs for donations
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, one of the 20 Democratic presidential contenders, resorted to begging for $1 donations during an interview Friday in a desperate attempt to meet the 130,000 contributor threshold to qualify for the third Democratic presidential debates in September, reports the New York Post.
In addition, candidates and poll at 2 percent. De Blasio hit the 2 percent mark for the first time in a July 2019 Quinnipiac University poll.
Italian town outlaws taking Lord’s name in vain
Saonara, a northern Italian town of 10,000 people, has had enough of people taking the Lord’s name in vain and those who do will be fined up to $350 for blasphemy, reports The Telegraph.
The mayor, Walter Stefan, said the move was designed to get rid of uncivilized behavior and promote public decency.
New prosthetic enables feeling
Researchers at the University of Utah have developed a prosthetic system that will allow patients to regain their sense of touch, reports USA Today.
Gregory Clark, associate professor, said, “Traditional prosthetic hands lack sensory feedback, which makes them clumsy to control and makes them feel unnatural.”