It’s Thursday, January 5th, A.D. 2023. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I’m Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com)
By Jonathan Clark
How Chinese Communists are co-opting Christianity
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom released a report on China last month.
The Chinese Communist Party is continuing its five-year plan to sinicize major religions in the country, including Christianity.
The report noted, “Official campaigns to sinicize religion have a disproportionally adverse impact on Christianity. … State-controlled religious organizations have been involved in altering, censoring, and controlling the content of Christian religious texts (such as the Bible) … doctrines, sermons, and hymns to ensure their alignment with the Chinese Communist Party’s interpretation of religion.”
Those who do not bow to such control face severe persecution.
Abortion: Global leading cause of death
Abortion was the leading cause of death last year, accounting for 40% of all deaths.
Worldometer statistics report over 44 million unborn babies were killed by abortion in 2022.
By comparison, an estimated 16 million people died from disease last year, 9.6 million from cancer, 6 million from smoking, and 2 million from HIV/AIDS.
In the United States, there are an estimated 1,500 to 2,500 abortions per day. This means nearly 20% of all pregnancies in America (not including miscarriages) end in abortion.
Psalm 106:37-38 says, “They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons; they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.”
Hungary’s tax policies urges married couples to have kids
In contrast, one country is seeking to support families.
Hungary implemented a new tax policy this month that exempts mothers under the age of 30 from paying income tax. The tax exemption also applies to working adults under the age 25 and mothers with at least four children. The program offers financial support for buying seven-seater cars as well.
Hungary has been enacting pro-family policies to encourage increased birthrates.
GOP’s McCarthy voted down time after time for House speaker
House Republicans flailed through a long second day of fruitless balloting Wednesday, unable to either elect Kevin McCarthy as House speaker or come up with a new strategy to end the political chaos that has tarnished the start of their new majority, reports the Associated Press.
Yet McCarthy wasn’t giving up, even after the fourth, fifth and sixth ballots produced no better outcome.
Twenty conservative holdouts still refuse to support him, leaving McCarthy far short of the 218 votes typically needed to win the gavel.
Appearing on Fox News, Republican Congressman Chip Roy of Texas, one of the 20 conservatives opposing McCarthy, said this.
ROY: “[McCarthy] has been in the leadership of Republicans since 2009. During that time, the debt has gone from 11 trillion to 32 trillion. In other words, we want to be able to have a check against The Swamp. This is about changing this town. Is anybody listening to this actually happy with what Congress is doing? Do you think Congress is doing a good job? The answer is ‘No.’ So, why would we embrace the status quo? Why would we keep doing the same thing over and over again, that’s what’s happening in that room.
“And this morning, a group of folks threatened some of us and they lost votes on that. Mike Rogers threatened to say he’s going to kick those of us off of any committees who dared to challenge the coronation of the Speaker. And it was not received well by a lot of people in the room. Mike Rogers is emblematic of the problem. He is precisely why we ended up with bills like the $1.7 trillion monstrosity that was destroying our freedom. I’m not blinking!”
House Speaker elections required multiple ballots 14 times
Throughout American history, there have been 14 instances of Speaker elections requiring multiple ballots. Thirteen of 14 multiple-ballot elections occurred before the Civil War, when party divisions were more nebulous.
The last time a Speaker election required two or more votes on the floor happened in 1923 with the election of Frederick Gillett, a Republican, from Massachusetts.
Twitter previously suspended 250,000 accounts
The latest batch of Twitter files show just how many accounts the social media company suspended on behalf of the U.S. government prior to Elon Musk taking over, reports CBN News.
New Twitter owner Elon Musk tweeted, “US govt agency demanded suspension of 250K accounts, including journalists and Canadian officials!”
Meanwhile, the Christian Post reports Twitter reinstated its account last Saturday. The Christian news group tweeted, “Our Twitter account has just been reinstated after a 9-month suspension because we correctly called Biden official Rachel Levine a man — and we refused to retract this truth.”
88% of Congressmen claim to be Christians
Pew Research reports this year’s 118th U.S. Congress remains untouched by two American demographic trends: the decline of Christianity and the rise of religious disaffiliation.
Self-identified Christians have dropped to 63% of the population, and those who identify with no religion have increase to nearly 30% of the population. However, 88% of voting members of Congress say they are Christians, and only one member identifies as religiously unaffiliated.
Since the 1960s, the Protestant makeup of Congress has dropped from 74% to 56%. Meanwhile, Roman Catholic identification has increased from 18% to 27%. Identification with other religions or no religion increased from 6% to 15%.
Cardiac arrest of NFL player results in prayer on field
And finally, NFL Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest during a game Monday against the Cincinnati Bengals that turned into a viral prayer meeting. The rest of the game was suspended.
Hamlin, #3, had just stood up after being tackled before collapsing to the ground. Medics immediately performed CPR to restart his heart which lasted for nine minutes.
At the same time, head coach Sean McDermott gathered with his team to pray over their teammate. An ambulance took Hamlin to the ICU where he remains in critical condition with signs of improvement.
His uncle, Dorrian Glenn, told CNN that Hamlin remained sedated on a ventilator as doctors worked toward getting him to breathe on his own.
ESPN commentator prayed spontaneously on air
Across social media, players and fans alike offered prayers for Hamlin. A day after the game, ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky prayed a spontaneous prayer for him on “NFL Live.”
Listen.
ORLOVSKY: “We just want to pray, truly come to You, and pray for strength for Damar, for healing for Damar, for comfort for Damar, to be with his family, to give them peace. If we didn’t believe that prayer didn’t work, we wouldn’t ask this of You God. I believe in prayer. We believe in prayer. We lift up to Damar Hamlin’s name in Your name, Amen.”
ANOTHER ESPN COMMENTATOR: “Amen.”
1 Peter 5:6-7 says, “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”
Close
And that’s The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Thursday, January 5th 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.