It’s Friday, August 2nd, A.D. 2019. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldView.com. I’m Adam McManus.
By Jonathan Clark
Iranian Christian woman sentenced to prison
On Monday, Mahrokh Kanbari, a 65-year-old Iranian Christian woman, was sentenced to one year in prison by the Karaj Islamic Revolutionary Court in Iran.
This comes after her arrest last Christmas Eve and the confiscation of mobile phones, Bibles, and other Christian materials. After being charged with acting against national security, Kanbari was told to go to a religious leader to be “instructed” to return to Islam.
Christianity is extremely restricted in Iran, ranked as the ninth worst nation for Christian persecution by Open Doors.
Hebrews 13:3 says, “Remember the prisoners as if chained with them—those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also.”
UK Parliament legalized sodomite “marriages”
Last month, the UK Parliament voted to legalize homosexual unions in Northern Ireland. Sadly, this comes along with the affirmation of the murder of the unborn in Northern Ireland by Parliament.
The Worldview spoke to Simon Calvert, Deputy Director of Public Affairs at the Christian Institute in the U.K., about how this vote will devastate free speech in Ireland.
CALVERT: “So, the House of Commons has voted to impose same sex marriage on Northern Ireland, and they have done so without seeking any guarantees of the protection of freedom of speech and other important freedoms in Northern Ireland. It’s very striking that when the same Parliament was debating same sex marriage for England and Wales in 2013 many of those who supported it said that they only did so because they were assured that the bill contained for freedom of speech and for religious freedoms.”
Stay tuned for a Worldview Special Report immediately following today’s newscast with more about the state of religious freedom in the U.K.
Street preachers victorious in lawsuits against Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon, known for its hostility to the Christian faith, has now lost two cases against street preachers.
The Pacific Justice Institute announced their lawyers scored an important victory against the city earlier this month in defending Mark Mayberry of Riddle, Oregon who was ticketed and banned from a Portland park for sharing the Gospel and calling for the end of abortion.
The city also lost a case in 2006 when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an injunction on the city, banning the removal of street preachers from city parks.
Psalm 140:11-12 says, “Let not the slanderer be established in the land; let evil hunt down the violent man speedily! I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and will execute justice for the needy.”
Gross Domestic Product up by 2.1%
The U.S. Gross Domestic Product grew 2.1 percent in the second quarter of 2019, slightly outpacing Wall Street expectations. Meanwhile, unemployment, at 3.7 percent, has fallen to a 50-year low.
However, the Federal Reserve began cutting interest rates for the first time since 2008 over concerns about trade tensions with China and slowing economic growth in other countries.
President Trump told reporters the economy is much stronger under his presidency, but criticized the Fed for moving “far too early and far too severely.”
Fireworks erupt between Biden and Castro over illegals
On Wednesday night, CNN hosted a second debate with another 10 Democratic presidential candidates in Detroit, Michigan. Once again, illegal immigration was a hot topic.
CNN’s Don Lemon started the topic with a question for Julian Castro, the former San Antonio, Texas Mayor and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
LEMON: Secretary Castro, you think it should no longer be a crime to cross the U.S. border illegally. President Obama’s homeland security secretary, Jeh Johnson, whom you served with, says that is a public declaration that the border is, quote, “effectively open to all.” How is he wrong?
CASTRO: “The only way that we’re going to guarantee that we don’t have family separations in this country again is to repeal Section 1325 of the Immigration Nationality Act. That is the law that this president, this administration is using to incarcerate migrant parents and then physically separate them from their children.”
LEMON: “Vice President Biden, in the first two years of the Obama administration, nearly 800,000 immigrants were deported, far more than during President Trump’s first two years. Would the higher deportation rates resume if you were president?”
BIDEN: “Absolutely not. I found that the secretary, we sat together in many meetings. I never heard him talk about any of this when he was the secretary. With regard to the Secretary’s point, if you cross the border illegally, you should be able to be sent back. It’s a crime.”
LEMON: “Secretary Castro, please, your response?”
CASTRO: “First of all, Mr. Vice President, it looks like one of us has learned the lessons of the past and one of us hasn’t. What we need are politicians that actually have with some guts on this issue.”
BIDEN: “I have the guts enough to say his plan doesn’t make sense. When people cross the border illegally, it is illegal to do it unless they’re seeking asylum. People should have to get in line.”
You can watch the CNN second night debate starting here.
Gallup poll: 40% of U.S. believe God created man in present state
A new Gallup poll found 40 percent of Americans believe God created man in his present state, up from 38 percent in 2017, but slightly down from 44 percent in 1982.
Meanwhile, belief in a “divinely guided evolution” has fallen from 38 percent to 33 percent since 1982, and belief in evolution without God has grown from 9 percent to 22 percent.
Genesis 1:27 says, “God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
Close
And that’s The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Friday, August 2nd 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.
Special Report: U.K. sodomy law threatens Christians
Time now for a Worldview Special Report by Emily Swanson. I’m Adam McManus.
How will Christians in Northern Ireland be protected now that sodomy has been affirmed by Parliament? That’s the question that we put to Simon Calvert of the Christian Institute.
Calvert said that this time around, the same people who had only voted for homosexual unions in the UK in 2013, didn’t worry about religious freedom like they had six years ago.
CALVERT: “But when they were debating the imposition of same sex marriage on Northern Ireland they did not seek the same guarantees. And so they have voted to require same sex marriage in Northern Ireland without guaranteeing that those liberties will be protected so there’s a lot that’s up for grabs right now.”
Pray that God will protect His people from persecution over their desires to honor Him in the area of marriage. Deuteronomy 20:4 says, “For the LORD your God is He who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.”
He spoke of Asher’s Bakery that was persecuted for declining to make a cake for a homosexual faux marriage.
CALVERT: “Some people may remember the recent case of a Belfast bakery that was sued by the Northern Ireland Equality Commission for refusing to ice a message on a cake in support of same sex marriage. Now, we are very grateful that eventually we won that case in the UK Supreme Court, but what it tells you is that there are some people who really think that you ought to be forced to show your support for same sex marriage even if you don’t agree with it or forced to help promote that view at least.”
These cases remind us to ask the Lord for the boldness that Peter and John declared in Acts 4:19, “But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge.”
Calvert said the risk is that there will be those in Northern Ireland who will seek to force people to violate their conscience before God.
CALVERT: “And so that is the risk that in Northern Ireland you may have some people, and they may even be people who run statutory or state bodies, on Christians and others, who for reasons of good conscience simply cannot endorse same sex marriage.”
He said there’s a need for amendments to protect Christians.
CALVERT: “If you’re going to protect those people, you need to have appropriate amendments to equality law. You may need amendments to public order law in order to protect freedom of speech. And you may need amendments to marriage law to make sure that people celebrating, officiating weddings. Religious representatives can’t be forced to take part in a same-sex marriage. All those are the kind of protections are the kind of protections that are needed, and so far none of those protections are guaranteed. Although you can be sure that we and others will certainly be fighting for them when the time comes.”
Praise God for men and women at the Christian Institute who hold the line in honoring God.
If the devolved Northern Ireland assembly comes back before October, Calvert said that the Parliament vote will be of no effect.
CALVERT: “If the devolved institutions in Northern Ireland are reconstituted, are restored before the 21st of October, then this law passed by Westminster would not come into effect, and it would then be up to the Northern Ireland Assembly itself to debate and vote on a bill on marriage. We would have to wait and see what the Assembly actually did about that. Certainly there are more Assembly members who are in favor of same sex than there used to be. But you can be sure that they would make sure that there are proper protections for religious freedom.”
He said it is unclear whether this would happen by October.
CALVERT: “Whether the devolved institutions in Northern Ireland will be restored before the 21st of October, far be it from me to make a prediction about that. The devolved Government has been stalled for something like two years now. There are many difficulties to be overcome before the parties could come back together and reinstate devolved government in Northern Ireland.”
Calvert mentioned a religious protection that the UK and Wales have for religious freedom that would be greatly needed for Christians in Northern Ireland as well.
CALVERT: “When same sex marriage was introduced in England and Wales there was something called the quad lock, amendments to marriage law to make sure churches couldn’t be forced to officiate same sex marriage and couldn’t be forced to apply for registration as places to register same sex marriage. But you also got amendments to equality law because, as we know, equality law can be misused, to try to take legal action against Christians in these kinds of cases. And we also had amendments made to try to make sure that nobody could try to use the criminal law to try to criminalize the view that marriage is and only ever can be between one man and one woman.”
May the Lord give each Christian in the United Kingdom the strength to trust in the Lord and honor Him, to shine the gospel to the lost, and to uphold the Holy Word of God which never changes.
This has been a Worldview Special Report. I’m Adam McManus.