It’s Monday, July 22nd, 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)
Pence announced sanctions on Iranian-backed militia leaders
At the State Department’s second Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom Thursday morning, Vice President Mike Pence announced new sanctions against Iranian-backed militia leaders accused of committing human rights abuses in the Ninevah Plains of Iraq, where Christians and other religious minorities are struggling to rebuild their lives in the aftermath of genocide, reports the Christian Post.
PENCE: “The United States will not stand idly by while Iranian-backed militias spread terror. And today I am announcing that the United States has placed sanctions on two leaders of Iranian-backed militias for all they’ve done. We will hold them accountable.”
Trump takes Lord’s name in vain
At his Greenville, North Carolina rally last Wednesday, President Donald Trump took the Lord’s name in vain. Twice.
The Charlotte Observer reports that State Senator Paul Hardesty of West Virginia was so offended that he sent a letter of rebuke to the White House, saying, “There is no place in society — anywhere, any place and at any time — where that type of language should be used or handled. Your comments were not presidential. Please remember Mr. President, in the United States of America, ‘In God We Trust,’ not curse.”
President Trump broke the third commandment that Moses received on Mt. Sinai. Exodus 20:7 declares, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.”
You can send an email of objection to President Trump through a special link in our transcript today at www.TheWorldview.com or write a letter or call President Trump at 202-456-1111.
House Chaplain casts out darker spirits
After what he called a “contentious” week, House Chaplain Rev. Patrick Conroy felt compelled to expel what appeared to be “darker spirits” at play in the chamber with a special prayer Thursday morning.
That contentiousness resulted from how the House should respond to President Trump’s tweets a week ago Sunday telling four freshmen Democratic black congresswomen that they should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came” and “then come back and show us how it is done” rather than “loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States” how to run the government.
While all four have expressed anti-American sentiment, only one of the four, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, was born outside America, in Somalia, Africa in particular, before she became an American citizen. The other three — Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Alexandria Cortez of New York, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan – were born in America.
Listen now to the prayer of House Chaplain Conroy.
CONROY: “Let us pray. We thank you, o God, for giving us another day. This has been a difficult and contentious week in which darker spirits seem to have been at play in the people’s house.
“In Your most holy name, I now cast out all spirits of darkness from this chamber, spirits not from You. I cast out the spirit of discouragement which deadens the hope of those who are of goodwill. I cast out the spirit of petty divisiveness, which clouds the sense and the desire to be of fruitful productivity in addressing the issues more appropriately before this House.
“I cast out any sadness brought on by the frustration of dealing with matters detrimental to the honorable work each member has been called to engage in. Pour out, O Lord, Your sacred oil as You did upon Aaron of old. Anoint Your servants here, in the House, with a healing balm to comfort and renew the souls of all in this assembly.
“May Your Spirit of wisdom and patience descend upon all. May all that is done within the People’s House may be done for Your greater honor and glory. Amen.”
While Christian radio talk show host Michael Brown found Trump’s initial three tweets about “The Squad” to be inaccurate and inappropriate, he does not believe that they were racist.
Christian author Joshua Harris announces separation
Joshua Harris, the Christian pastor who wrote “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” and “Boy Meets Girl”, announced on Instagram that he is separating from his wife Shannon to whom he has been married since 1998, reports Christian Today.
(Harris was lead pastor of Covenant Life Church, the founding church of Sovereign Grace Ministries in Gaithersburg, Maryland from 2004 until 2015, when he stepped down to become a student at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.)
Referring to the married couple, Matthew 19:6 says, “So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
Pray that they would reconcile.
Planned Parenthood aborts Wen’s job
Planned Parenthood fired their president Leana Wen because she was not enthusiastic enough in her advocacy for baby-killing.
The murder giant’s board of directors secretly aborted her presidency eight months into her developing job last Tuesday, reports ChristianToday.com.
Not only did Wen frame abortion in healthcare terms rather than political language, but she also refused to use “trans-inclusive” language such as saying “people” instead of “women”.
Parental rights attorney arrested for standing for mother
Last Wednesday, Tennessee parental rights attorney Connie Reguli was arrested in retaliation for recording conversations with investigators and case managers as well as pushing back against the DeKalb County child welfare’s “harassment” of a mother, her client, reports ParentalRights.org.
Reguli had taken issue with the county’s normative use of ex parte orders to seize children from their homes without first giving parents a hearing, or even notice of the accusations against them. An ex parte order is supposed to be an emergency measure employed to gain permission to remove a child where “there is imminent risk of irreparable harm before a hearing could be held,” explained Reguli.
PA school threatens to take kids from parents over unpaid lunch bills!
And finally, a Pennsylvania school district is warning that children could end up in foster care if their parents do not pay overdue school lunch bills, reports US News.
The district says that it is trying to collect more than $20,000, and that other methods to get parents to pay have not been successful.
After complaints, district officials announced they plan to send out a less threatening letter this week.
Close
And that’s The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Monday, July 22nd 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.
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Eritrea, Africa shuts down 24 Catholic clinics and a hospital
After seizing nearly two dozen Catholic-run clinics in the last month, the authorities in Eritrea, Africa have now moved to shut down all of the health centers operated by the Catholic Church in the country, reports ChristianToday.com.
According to the police report, “the nuns were told to leave the hospital immediately and were prevented from taking hospital equipment with them.”
The government has said that the closures were enforced under 1995 regulations banning the involvement of religious institutions in programs connected to schools, hospitals, agriculture and the elderly.
Son of Pakistani governor killed for stand against blasphemy laws speaks out
Shaan Taseer, the son of late Pakistan governor Salmaan Taseer who was assassinated in 2011 because of his support for imprisoned Christian mother Asia Bibi, told religious freedom advocates that there are over 200 people still jailed in Pakistan today on trumped-up charges of blasphemy, reports the Christian Post.
Although he was a Muslim himself, the late Salmaan Taseer’s advocacy for Bibi drew the ire of radicals in Pakistan who demanded he issue a retraction. When Taseer refused to retract his support for Bibi or his calls for blasphemy reform, a fatwa was issued calling for his death.
Three days before he was assassinated, Taseer tweeted, “I stand with the weakest of the weak but I have been asked to retract and also refused. Not if I am the last man standing.”
On Jan. 4, 2011, Taseer was shot 27 times by his bodyguard, Mumtaz Qadri.
Shaan Taseer, his son, has followed in his late father’s footsteps in calling for an end to Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which are regularly used by Muslims in the Muslim-majority country to take advantage of or settle scores with religious minorities.