It’s Wednesday, August 21st, 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)
Mexican pastor shot at point-blank range
A pastor in southwest Mexico was shot and killed during a church service on Sunday amid ongoing targeting of faith leaders by criminal gangs, reports the Christian Post.
According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Pastor Alfrery Canseco was preaching from the pulpit of the Fraternidad Cristiana church in the Oaxaca state when he was shot at point-blank range.
Canseco died while he was being transported to a local hospital. His attacker was arrested after congregants prevented his escape.
His murder comes on the heels of a recent series of attacks that have targeted religious leaders in the region.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide warns that the expansion of criminal groups in Mexico as well as a “climate of impunity” when it comes to crimes they commit has led to an increase in violence against Protestant and Catholic leaders because they are viewed as a threat to criminal groups.
10 religious leaders were killed in Mexico in 2018.
The people of Mexico are hurting. Psalm 34:18 says, “The LORD is close to the brokenhearted.”
Trump vs. Fox News
President Donald Trump criticized Fox News Channel’s network’s polling which shows him trailing every major Democratic candidate in hypothetical head-to-head matchups.
TRUMP: “Fox is a lot different than it used to be. I can tell you that. Fox has changed. And my worst polls have always been from Fox. There’s something going on at Fox. I’ll tell you right now, and I’m not happy with it.”
Toward the end of his Fox News show on Monday evening, Special Report anchor Bret Baier said this.
BAIER: “Well, Fox has not changed. We have a news side and an opinion side. The opinion folks express their opinions. We do polls. Our latest poll had the Democratic candidates head to head, several of them ahead of President Trump. Mr. President, we’ve invited you on Special Report many times. You’ve talked to George Stephanopoulos and Chuck Todd. Come on back. Me, Chris Wallace, the news side cover it fair, balanced and unafraid.”
Trump’s pro-life policy cuts $60 million from Planned Parenthood
On Monday, Planned Parenthood was willing to part with $60 million of Title X taxpayer money rather than stop referring mothers for abortions when they are talking about family planning, reports LifeNews.com.
Title X, which was enacted during the Nixon administration in 1970, grants up to $286 million per year to health care clinics nationwide to provide things such as contraceptives, cancer screenings, STD testing and other health care services to low-income patients.
Serving about 40 percent of Title X patients, Planned Parenthood clinics were the largest provider of Title X care in the country.
Pro-life leaders have cheered the new Health and Human Services rule which redirects Title X funds to pro-life family planning centers that do not perform abortions.
Alyssa Milano: Without my 2 abortions, my life would lack joy
Actress Alyssa Milano, the former star of “Charmed” and “Who’s the Boss?”, has been one of the most outspoken Hollywood celebrities on behalf of abortion. And now we know why. She’s had two abortions herself, reports Yahoo Entertainment.
In a recent episode of her podcast “Sorry Not Sorry,” she explained.
Listen.
MILANO: “In 1993, I had two abortions. I had a career and a future and potential. I knew at that time, I was not equipped to be a mother. And so I chose to have an abortion. And it was absolutely the right choice for me. It was not an easy choice. It was not something I wanted. But it was something that I needed.
“I refuse to allow anyone else’s morality to force me into a life of premarital celibacy. And so I continue to enjoy a sexual relationship with the man I loved. They tell you the pill is 99% effective at preventing pregnancies. And yet, a few months later, I found out I was pregnant again. So I had done what I knew to do to prevent pregnancy and was still pregnant. So once again, I made the right decision to end that pregnancy.
“If I never had my abortions, I would not have my children — my beautiful, perfect, loving, kind, and inquisitive children who have a mother who was so very, very ready for them. I would not have my career, my life would be completely lacking all its great joys. I would never have been free to be myself.”
Tré Phillips, Editor at FaithWire.com, writes, that Alyssa Milano’s “life would look much different from the world she’s created for herself today if she had not chosen to terminate her pregnancies. But that doesn’t equate to a life absent of great joys. According to the Bible, children should increase our joy — not steal it.”
Psalm 127:3-5 declares, “Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from Him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.”
Oprah Winfrey: “People are missing a core moral center”
And finally, Oprah Winfrey was recently asked why deadly shootings like the ones in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio occur in the first place and her answer hit the nail on the head, reports FaithWire.com.
WINFREY: “I think what people are missing is a core moral center. Churches used to do that. It was a central place you could come to and there was a core center of values about a way of living and a way of being in the world.”
While Oprah’s spirituality is one of her own construction, she was right to point people to the church and, ultimately, to the Bible which contains the truth that would provide the very “core center of values” to which she referred. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Pray that Oprah comes to faith in Christ.
Close
And that’s The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Wednesday, August 21st 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
Mainstream media ignores the Nigerian Christian genocide
Because of the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram, which is literally translated, “Western education is a sin,” the roughly 91 million Christians living in Nigeria, Africa fear for their lives, and for good reason.
In 2018 alone, some 3,731 Christians living in the country were killed for their faith. In fact, a staggering 10 believers are estimated to be killed every day as a result of their religious convictions, reports FaithWire.com.
Leah Sharibu, one of the 110 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram, is still in captivity, refusing to renounce Christ while the others have been freed.
To date, nearly 30,000 people have been killed and more than two million have been displaced as a result of Boko Haram.
New poll reveals that pro-lifers more motivated to vote
The Public Religion Research Institute has released an interesting poll this week regarding public attitudes toward legal abortion. Most public-opinion polls conducted by media outlets and survey-research firms contact only several hundred people.
By contrast, the Public Religion Research survey, conducted between March and December of last year, surveyed more than 40,000 Americans.
The poll contains two findings that are particularly helpful to the pro-life movement. When asked if government health-insurance programs for low-income women, such as Medicaid, should cover abortions, 46 percent of respondents agreed and 48 percent disagreed.
The survey shows that 27 percent of Americans who oppose abortion will only vote for a candidate who shares their views on the issue. In contrast, just 18 percent of voters who describe themselves as “pro-choice” will only vote for a candidate who favors legal abortion.
Unfortunately, since the was conducted in 2018, the respondents had yet to react to the extreme abortion laws of New York and Illinois where they made abortion legal up until the day of birth or the protective pro-life laws in states such as Missouri, Georgia, and Alabama to protect the unborn.
Documented botched abortions reveal need for legislation
The horrifying details of a Louisiana woman’s botched abortion at a Baton Rouge abortion mill are one reason “born alive” laws are making headlines again, reports FaithWire.com.
On March 15th, the woman went in for an abortion and ended up being sent to a local hospital to have emergency surgery and a hysterectomy, following the botched abortion, according to a report by WAFB 9.
Unfortunately, this case is not atypical.
According to Fox News, forty babies were born alive following botched abortions in three states alone since 2016.
In June, Minnesota reported that 11 infants were born alive following botched abortions since 2016. Likewise, Arizona also reported that the state had a total of ten born alive babies in 2017, and Florida had nineteen since 2017.
These Born Alive Abortion Survivors only tell a portion of the story, as only a few states have laws for clinics to report botched abortions to the state.
Republicans have tried to push voting on the “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act” every day Congress has been in session since February.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo), would require doctors to provide medical assistance to babies born alive after a botched abortion. The “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act” does not change laws in regards to abortion, it simply requires doctors to give medical care to babies born alive.
House Republicans have attempted to bring the legislation to a floor vote 80 separate times now, but every single time House Democrats block the vote from taking place.
Kirk Cameron’s 3 tips for Christian parents
Christian actor and producer Kirk Cameron, father-of-six, says there are three things parents should do to help their children find their identity in Christ in today’s post-modern, social-media obsessed culture, reports the Christian Post.
First, be the “full of faith Christian that you want your children to become,”
Second, pursue a strong, healthy relationship with your children.
And third, make the word of God the center of your home and what you teach them.” Help them to find their “sense of identity in who God says we are.
Wife of Missing Firefighter holds to faith
As search efforts continue for two men who are missing in Florida, one woman is clinging to continued prayer and her steadfast faith, reports FaithWire.com.
Stephanie McCluney is relentlessly combing the beaches during prayer walks, hoping to find a sign of where her husband, Brian McCluney, and friend, Justin Walker, could be since they launched their 24-foot boat on August 16 in Port Canaveral for a day on the water, but have not been seen since.
Brian served as a medical corpsman in the Navy and was a firefighter and paramedic for the Jacksonville, Florida Fire Department.
Stephanie said, “I know that that ocean is large, and my God I serve is larger. He can change the winds and the waters at His command. I have faith, I have so many prayer warriors behind me.”