It’s Friday, June 16th, A.D. 2023. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I’m Adam McManus.
By Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com)
23 ISIS Libyan Muslim militants sentenced to death
A Libyan court sentenced 23 ISIS-Libya Muslim militants to death for their involvement in the 2015 insurgency centered on the city of Sirte on the Mediterranean coast in north-central Libya, reports International Christian Concern.
The court also sentenced 14 Muslim militants to life in prison and another 14 to multiple years in prison.
Proverbs 21:15 says, “When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers.”
Here’s the back story.
After NATO-backed rebels ousted longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi in August 2011, the Libyan security situation devolved into chaos as rival factions vied to fill the power vacuum. Islamic extremist groups—including Ansar al-Sharia (the group allegedly responsible for the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi)—worsened the political instability in Libya by forming a coalition against the transitional government known as Libya Dawn.
In 2015, ISIS-Libya—the largest contingent of the Islamic State outside Iraq and Syria—established a stronghold in eastern Libya and launched a high-profile attack in Tripoli leading to the abduction and beheading of dozens of Egyptian Christians.
Amid the ongoing conflict between rival political factions and Islamic extremist groups, Libyan Christians are particularly vulnerable to persecution, especially those who have converted from Islam. That’s why Open Doors lists Libya as the fifth most dangerous country for Christians worldwide.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. could beat Biden in Iowa and New Hampshire
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a Democratic challenger to President Joe Biden, could win in the traditional first-to-vote states of Iowa and New Hampshire, reports Axios.com.
Biden’s team is indicating the president won’t be on the ballots in those states if they vote before South Carolina which is Biden’s choice to have the first primary.
What’s going on?
Well, Democrats in Iowa and New Hampshire could defy Biden and move ahead with their contests — even as the party warns it will strip them of their national convention delegates if they jump the gun.
Since Biden’s surprise decision last December to make South Carolina the first state in the Democrats’ 2024 season with a primary on February 3, New Hampshire Democrats have openly protested.
In touting South Carolina to kick off the primary season, Biden’s team has said it wanted voting to start in a racially diverse state to give minorities more of a say in early presidential contests. But he is making the move because he knows he has a better chance of winning there.
GOP senator warns parents to “flee” California over radical transgender bill
On Tuesday, California Republican state senator Scott Wilk issued a stark warning to the parents in the Golden State, urging them to “flee” the state if they love their children. He expressed his grave concern about a radical bill’s likely passage into law that could result in parents being considered “abusive” if they simply refuse to affirm their own child’s gender confusion, reports LifeSiteNews.com.
California’s Senate Judiciary Committee voted 8-2 on Tuesday night (with one abstention) to pass Assembly Bill 957, which would characterize a “parent’s affirmation of the child’s gender identity as part of the health, safety, and welfare of the child.” Senator Roger Nielo, a fellow Republican, joined Wilk as the only two “no” votes.
Shockingly, the measure would even require judges to consider whether or not parents “affirm” a child’s “transgender” identity as one of the factors in the consideration of custody disagreements by changing Section 3011 of the California Family Code by by which LifeSiteNews previously reported.
Senator Wilk didn’t hold back.
Listen.
WILK: “If a parent does not support the ideology of the government, [the children] are going to be taken away from the home. Today, it only involves divorce proceedings, but I can assure you this is not going to end with divorce proceedings. If you love your children, you need to flee California. You need to flee.
“It just breaks my heart. I’m born and raised in this state. I love this state. I’m not going to stay in this state, because it’s just too oppressive. I believe in freedom. So, I’m going to move to America when I leave the legislature.”
Amazon shuts down Smart Home
And finally, Amazon reportedly shut down a customer’s smart home after the Black delivery driver claimed he heard a racial slur coming through the doorbell, even though no one was home, reports The Daily Mail.
Brandon Jackson, of Baltimore, Maryland, a Black man himself, came home on May 25 to find that he had been locked out of his Amazon Echo, which many devices, including his lights, are connected to.
He would later learn that Amazon locked him out of his account after a delivery driver dropped off a package the day before. Jackson, an engineer at Microsoft, said “everything seemed fine” after the package arrived at his home and had initially thought he was locked out because someone had tried to “access my account repeatedly, triggering a lockout.”
But none of that was true. A representative directed him to an email he received from an executive that provided a phone number to call. When he called the number, he was told in a “somewhat accusatory” tone that the driver had reported “receiving racist remarks” from his doorbell.
Jackson wrote on Medium, “This incident left me with a house full of unresponsive devices, a silent Alexa, and a lot of questions.”
He said most of the neighborhood and its delivery drivers are also Black and it would be “highly unlikely that we would make such remarks.”
He wrote, “Finally, when I asked what time the alleged incident occurred, I realized it was practically impossible for anyone in my house to have made those comments, as nobody was home around that time (approximately 6:05 PM).”
After reviewing the doorbell footage, he learned the device had given an automatic reply, saying: “Excuse me, can I help you?” He also said the video showed the driver had been wearing headphones during the interaction and “must have misinterpreted the message.”
It wasn’t until six days later he regained access to his account, with “no follow-up email to inform me of the resolution. I am seriously considering discontinuing my use of Amazon Echo devices and will caution others about this incident.”
It appears increasingly likely that the smart phones, smart homes, or even bank accounts of Christians will be disabled by the politically correct Big Tech and Big Government tyrants who disagree with our defense of life, our affirmation of God’s design for sex and sexuality, and any Christian evangelistic witness.
In Matthew 16:24–26, “Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”
Close
And that’s The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Friday, June 16th in the year of our Lord 2023. 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.