Friday, June 15th, in the year of our Lord 2018
By Jonathan Clark
Anti-Conversion Laws Stifle Evangelism in Nepal
Nepal has the fastest growing Christian population in the world in recent years. As the church ministered to orphans and rescued people from human trafficking, the government took notice and even granted religious freedoms.
However, more recently, Hindu nationalists have pressured the government to restrict Christians. Pastors have received death threats, churches have been burned down, and Christian children have been threatened at schools.
Despite Nepal passing anti-conversion bills to stifle Christian evangelism, Nepali believers are holding strong. Joe Handley of Asian Access said these Christians say, “We’re not going to stop. No matter what the government does, it won’t stop the work of God, and we will continue to obey Christ’s command to take the Gospel to the ends of the nations and the ends of the earth.”
Galatians 6:9 says, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”
Christian Pastor Released After Islamic Kidnapping in Burkina Faso
In God’s providence, Christian Pastor Pierre Boena and his family were released recently after being kidnapped a week ago Sunday in Burkina Faso’s north-eastern province of Soum.
This is the country’s second kidnapping of a Christian family in the last month. The African nation is largely Muslim, and Islamic militants are known to be active in the area.
Austria Cracks Down on “Political Islam”
Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced a crackdown on “political Islam” this month.
The country plans to shut down seven mosques and potentially expel dozens of imams who are funded by foreign nations.
Kurz stated, “Parallel societies, political Islam and tendencies toward radicalization have no place in our country.”
Homosexual Irish Prime Minister: Catholic Hospitals Must Abort
Last month, Ireland held a referendum to overturn their Eighth Amendment, which protected the lives of unborn babies.
Ireland’s Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, a self-professed homosexual, said this week that Catholic hospitals will be required to kill unborn babies once new abortion legislation is complete.
Varadkar said individuals, but not institutions, can opt out of abortions on conscience grounds.
Trump’s Dept. of Justice: Leave Churches Alone
The U.S. Department of Justice announced a new initiative on Wednesday to protect churches from discrimination by local government zoning laws.
The “Place to Worship Initiative” comes as multiple churches have faced attacks through zoning laws. Just last week, Alliance Defending Freedom filed a lawsuit against the city of Monroe, North Carolina over an “unconstitutional zoning code” that bars At the Cross Fellowship Baptist Church from meeting in its newly rented facility.
Young People More Secularized than Elders
Young people around the world are becoming more secularized compared with their elders, according to a Pew Research survey of 106 nations from data over the last decade.
The study found that young adults, in 41 mostly Christian countries, were less likely than their elders to say they believe in God, especially in economically prosperous countries.
Canada registered the most secularization with a 28 percentage-point difference between younger and older individuals on religious affiliation.
Jesus warned in Matthew 13:22, “He who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the Word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the Word, and he becomes unfruitful.”
Sneak Peek: More Insight into Jack Phillips’ Supreme Court Case
Last week, Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips won his case before the Supreme Court to not bake a cake celebrating a homosexual wedding. Stay tuned for a World View Special Report on religious liberty following today’s newscast.
Guiness World Record Set by 5 Elderly Siblings
And finally, Fox News reports that the five Mangham siblings from Pike County, Georgia received a Guinness World Record award on Sunday for “the highest combined age achieved by living siblings.”
The siblings have 490 years combined: Helen (102), Rosalee (101), Grace (99), William (96), and Virginia (92).
The Mangham siblings pointed to their Christian faith as the key to a long, happy life. Helen thanked God for His presence with her every day, saying she was grateful “every step of the way.”
1 Peter 3 reminds us, “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil . . . let him seek peace and pursue it . . . For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayer.”
Close
And that’s The World View in 5 Minutes on this Friday, June 15th in the year of our Lord 2018. Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldView.com. I’m Adam McManus. Seize the day for Jesus Christ.
Time now for a World View Special Report by Emily Swanson. I’m Adam McManus.
Special Report: Unsung Hero Behind the Jack Phillips Supreme Court Case
By Emily Swanson
After the Jack Phillips Masterpiece Cakeshop victory last week, The World View spoke to Bill Jack, one of the staunchest supporters of Phillips’ case, about why this case was not just about religious liberty, but about liberty for all.
Bill Jack was one of the heroes behind Phillips’ case, as he took a cake order to another Denver-area bakery that used Bible verses that condemned the sin of homosexuality. He was refused service, and he wanted to bring home the point that if these liberal bakers had the liberty to refuse him service, Phillips should be able to refuse service on the basis of not violating his conscience.
Bill Jack said that he wanted the Colorado government to apply the anti-discrimination law equitably to both Jack Phillips and the bakery that refused him service.
“I believe in liberty for all, not liberty for some. If we don’t have liberty for all we have liberty for none. What I saw was that there was a law, an anti-discrimination act that was being applied by an unelected, appointed, commission. They were applying that act and that law inequitably. They were only applying it to certain people.
“So I wanted to find out if the law was going to be applied equitably which is why I approached several bakeries to see if they would put Bible verses on a cake. And, if not, then the commission would find that I had been discriminated against on the basis of my creed, Christianity, because Christianity is a protected class under the anti-discrimination laws.”
Bill Jack said that if these laws are not applied, regardless of who the person is, they are not “just laws.”
“If this law was going to be applied strictly, everyone would start screaming that it was not a just law, but it was only being applied piecemeal. It was being used as a weapon against those people who had an objection to participating in an event that was a violation of their conscience.”
Bill Jack said that Phillips was misrepresented as denying service to a same sex couple, but that he was refusing to support an event they were asking him to participate in by providing a cake.
“It has been misrepresented that Jack Phillips denied service to a same sex couple. He did not. He did not deny them service. He said, ‘I will sell you anything in the shop. I just can’t bake you a wedding cake because that is an iconic symbol of marriage. And he refused to participate in an event that was a violation of his conscience.”
Bill Jack said just as the bakers he asked to bake him a cake had the right to deny him service, Phillips should have been given that same right.
“Again, I believe those bakers I approached have every right to deny my service for whatever reason they choose. They can deny me service on the basis of the color of my shirt. But once again if they’re going to apply that particular law, then they’d better apply it equitably because justice has a blindfold on; the statue of justice has a blindfold on for a reason, and it does not recognize any distinction. And what we’ve got now is we’ve got special interest groups that are saying, ‘We want special treatment.’ That is not the way the law should be applied.”
Bill Jack said he was thankful for the decision of the justices for Phillips, but there was something disconcerting about it going all the way to the Supreme Court in the first place.
“It was a very narrowly drawn decision. It should never have gotten to the Supreme Court. The legislature should have reigned in the Colorado Civil Rights Commission long ago because they have exceeded their jurisdiction. There was an attempt recently to add amendments to the Colorado Civil Rights Charter, and that would have included trial by jury and transparency.
“What’s happened is that the Democrats in the state house have said, ‘No we don’t want transparency. We want kangaroo courts. We want to use this as a weapon specifically against Christians,’ and I find that reprehensible.”
Bill Jack said this case was a crucial matter of conscience, not religious liberty.
“It is a matter of freedom of conscience. I believe if I approached an atheist who had an event center or an event supply that set up bleachers, and I was a Christian concert and I said, ‘I’d like to contract you to set up bleachers at my Christian concert,’ and he said, ‘No, I just don’t want to,’ he should not be forced to do so.”
Bill Jack said that now is the opportunity for Christians to press the issue of freedom of conscience.
“I think we should press the issue. I think the legal associations that have taken up Jack’s case and have won this should recognize this as merely a shot across the bow of the opposition. It has put the opposition into panic mode. We should press the issue with the Barronelle Stutzman case in Washington. This is not a won and done victory. It is a very narrowly drawn decision. If it had gone against Jack Phillips, the other side would have used it as a sledgehammer against every case where Christians have said, ‘I don’t want to participate in an event that’s a violation of my conscience.’”
Bill Jack remarked that the church of Jesus Christ must be called out to stand for liberty and not hide under the desire for personal peace and affluence.
“Churches need to rise up and say, ‘We stand for liberty for all.’ The sad thing about this whole thing was that there was not a march on the state Capitol by churches and pastors. What they did is they cowered in a corner and they said, ‘Oh do what you want to do to business owners like Jack Phillips, but please give us as a church an exemption so we don’t have to be subject to those same anti-discrimination laws.’”
Bill Jack praised God for how He had used Jack Phillips for such a time as this.
“He has done this with humility and integrity. And He has done it with grace. He should be lauded. God chose him for such a time as this. Nobody else could have done this. I can’t say enough about his character and his humility.”
Bill Jack encouraged Christians to support Phillips by ordering cakes from his bakery and staying up to date on current cases that threaten our liberties through adfLegal.org.
To support Jack’s cakeshop, you can go to his website at MasterpieceCakes.com or support him financially after all his losses through a special link in our transcript today.
This has been a World View Special Report. I’m Adam McManus.