Wednesday, June 6th, in the year of our Lord 2018
By Adam McManus
Chinese Officials Beat Up Pastor on Tiananmen Square Anniversary
On Monday, June 4 at 3:30 pm, local Communist authorities raided Autumn Rain Covenant Church in Sichuan, China to summon pastor Wang Yi and preacher Li Yingqiang ahead of their scheduled prayer vigil on the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, reports International Christian Concern.
Two hours later, pastor Wang Yi, his wife, four preachers including Li Yingqiang, and 11 members of the church were taken away by the police.
In the process, preacher Li Yingqiang was brutally pushed against the wall, choked, and slapped multiple times by police officers.
The authorities also cut the church’s electricity and placed a notice on the wall which read “[…] this is not an authorized place for religious gathering, […] please go to an authorized and registered religious venue to participate in religious activities.”
Monday marked the 29th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre in China, where an estimated several hundred to thousands of student protesters were killed by the government, with more than 10,000 people arrested during and after the protests.
Colorado Christian Baker Speaks Out
Jack Phillips, the Christian baker from the Denver, Colorado suburb who was told by the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday that he should not be compelled to bake a cake for a homosexual wedding, offered his reaction on NBC’s Today show yesterday morning.
“I was thrilled the United States Supreme Court has decided that we can try and enter the wedding business again and realize that I serve everybody. I just said I don’t create cakes for every occasion that people ask me.
“I don’t create cakes for Halloween. I wouldn’t create a cake that would be anti-American or disparaging against anybody for any reason.”
And Phillips’ attorney, Kristen Waggoner of Alliance Defending Freedom, added this.
“The court made very clear as we made clear in our argument before the court that Jack loves and serves anyone who walks into a store, but he doesn’t express all messages. And that was critical for the court’s decision. Justice Kennedy made clear that religious hostility by the government has no place in a pluralistic society.”
Phillips has lived by 1 Corinthians 10:21 which says, “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
Christians Take Issue with ReVoice Conference
A homosexual/transgender so-called “Christian” conference scheduled to be held July 26–28 at Memorial Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Missouri has been accused by some of pushing a radical leftist agenda on conservative evangelical churches at the expense of sound Christian teaching, reports The Christian Post.
Stephen Black, executive director of First Stone Ministries, is opposed to the positions that sexual orientation is a fixed identity, that the term “sexual minorities” — which applies to a group identity — should be allowed in Christianity, and that people can be both gay and Christian.
Americans Oppose Abortion, Human Cloning, but Approve of Assisted Suicide
Forty-eight percent of Americans still believe abortion is morally wrong, while 43 percent believe it is morally acceptable, according to Gallup.
A full 81 percent of respondents said human cloning is morally wrong, while just 16 percent said it is morally acceptable, reports Life News.
Sadly, a slim majority of Americans are buying into the false “death with dignity” claims of the euthanasia movement, with 54 percent saying doctor-assisted suicide is morally acceptable. In contrast, 42 percent said the deadly practice is morally wrong.
Wealthy Fashion Designer Commits Suicide
55-year-old fashion designer Kate Spade hanged herself with a scarf in her Park Avenue home in New York City yesterday morning, leaving a suicide note addressed to her 13-year-old daughter Frances which said “I have always loved you. This is not your fault. Ask Daddy!”, reports The Daily Mail.
Her sister explained that Kate suffered from debilitating depression for years and refused to get medical help.
Kate Spade & Co, known for her line of fashionable purses, had sold the brand to Coach for an astonishing $2.4 billion in 2017.
Mexico Tangles with Trump over Tariffs
Mexico will impose a 20 percent tariff on pork legs and shoulders from U.S. suppliers in retaliation for President Donald Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum, reports Reuters.
Those products amount to 90 percent of the country’s $1.07 billion annual imports of the cuts.
Sneak Peek: Bill Clinton’s Lack of Remorse
Former President Bill Clinton is still trying to put his best political spin on his sexual harassment of former White House intern Monica Lewinsky 20 years ago. Stay tuned for some jaw-dropping audio in my World View special report immediately following today’s newscast.
Ashton Kutcher: The New Good Samaritan
And finally, Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher joined the fight against sex-trafficking. His non-profit group called “Thorn” reports that it identified 5,791 victims in 2017, reports The Christian Post.
Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children helps fight child sex abuse and human trafficking using software to bring sex traffickers to justice by providing law enforcement with information on suspected sex slavery networks and their victims.
Ephesians 5:11 says, “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.”
Close
And that’s The World View in 5 Minutes on this Wednesday, June 6th in the year of our Lord 2018. Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldView.com. I’m Adam McManus. Seize the day for Jesus Christ.
Special Report: Bill Clinton’s Refusal to Take Responsibility
Time now for a World View Special Report. I’m Adam McManus.
By Adam McManus
In an NBC interview on Monday with Craig Melvin about the new novel former President Bill Clinton co-authored with James Patterson, Clinton doubled down on his view that he doesn’t owe Monica Lewinsky a person-to-person apology for taking advantage of her when she was a White House intern.
Craig Melvin: “Looking back on what happened then, through the lens of #MeToo now, do you think differently or feel more responsibility?”
President Clinton: “No. I felt terrible then, and I came to grips with it.”
Craig Melvin: “Did you ever apologize to her?”
President Clinton: “Yes …You are giving one side and omitting facts.”
Craig Melvin: “Mr. President, I am not trying to present a side. I asked if you’d ever apologized, and you said you have.”
President Clinton: “I have.”
Craig Melvin: “You apologized to her?”
President Clinton: “I apologized to everybody in the world.”
Craig Melvin: “But you didn’t apologize to her.”
President Clinton: “I have not talked to her.”
Craig Melvin: “Do you feel like you owe her an apology?”
President Clinton: “No. I have never talked to her. But I did say publicly on more than one occasion that I was sorry. The apology was public.”
Craig Melvin: “And you don’t think a private apology is owed?”
James Patterson: “I think this thing has been 20 years ago. Come on. Let’s talk about JFK. Let’s talk about, you know, LBJ. Stop already.”
President Clinton: “Do you think JFK should have resigned? Do you believe President Johnson should have resigned?”
Craig Melvin: “Mr. President . . .”
President Clinton: “Someone should ask you these questions because of the way you’ve formulated these questions. I dealt with it 20 years ago plus.”
Erin Ryan of The Daily Beast wrote, “Instead of remorse, Clinton offered a brand of sleazy obfuscation that has come to personify the gaudy detachment political elites still have from the moment in which we live.
“There was the self-pity, saying, ‘I left the White House $16 million in debt’, the argumentum ad populum, saying, ‘Two-thirds of the American people sided with me’, and the clever, vague distractions, saying, ‘you typically have ignored gaping facts in describing this’. There was even the misdirection. ‘I’ve apologized to everybody in the world,’ which he said when asked whether he’d expressed sorrow to Monica Lewinsky.
And Ryan notes there was even moral preening.
“I had a sexual harassment policy when I was governor in the ’80s. I had two women chiefs of staff when I was governor. Women were overrepresented in the attorney general’s office in the ’70s. For their percentage in the bar. I’ve had nothing but women leaders in my office since.”
The former president even had the audacity to paint himself as a supporter of the #MeToo movement, a public groundswell of women who have come forward to tell their stories of sexual abuse and harassment at the hands of powerful men.
No reference to Juanita Broaddrick, who claims he raped her decades ago in an Arkansas hotel room while he was the state’s married governor.
I suppose that we can find comfort in the truths described in two verses from Jeremiah 17.
First, verse 9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can understand it?” And second, verse 20 which says, “I, the Lord, search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”
This has been a World View Special Report. I’m Adam McManus.
Print stories
Japanese Christian Missionaries Deported from China
After China detained 21 members of a Japanese Christian group between May 5 and 15, they were likely deported for missionary work and have now been returned home, reports the Japan Times.
Chinese authorities have been intensifying efforts to crack down on missionary work, labeling it an illegal activity.
Dennis Rodman: The Wild Card at the U.S./North Korea Summit
Not only will NBA star Dennis Rodman be present at the Singapore summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, but he could even play some sort of role in the negotiations, reports the New York Post.
One source said, “No matter what you might think about his presence. One thing’s for sure the ratings will be huge. A lot of times in situations that involve complex diplomacy countries like to identify ambassadors of goodwill and whether you agree with it or not Dennis Rodman fits the bill.”
The zany, 6-foot-7 ex-baller — who has struck up an unlikely bromance with the pint-sized, 5-foot-7 Kim, and has visited the rogue regime five times in the past — took some of the credit for getting the two leaders together.
British Parliament Wants to Outlaw Pro-Life Speech
British Members of Parliament have stepped up their campaign for a nationwide ban on prayers and vigils outside abortion mills across England and Wales ahead of the high court hearing next week, reports Christian Today.
Abortionists and their staff do not like that pro-life activists display images depicting aborted babies outside the abortion mills, potentially discouraging their clients from paying money to murder their unborn children.
Americans Burned Out on the News
Almost seven-in-ten Americans (68%) feel worn out by the amount of news there is these days, according to a Pew Research Center survey.
While majorities of both Republicans and Democrats express news fatigue, Republicans are feeling it more. Roughly three-quarters (77%) of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents feel worn out over how much news there is, compared with about six-in-ten Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (61%).
McConnell Cancels Summer Vacation
Mitch McConnell is canceling all but a week of the Senate’s traditional August recess, hoping to keep vulnerable Democrats off the campaign trail and confirm as many of President Donald Trump’s judicial and executive branch nominees as possible, reports Politico.com.
Social Security in Big Trouble
Social Security consists of two programs, one for retirees and one for people who claim disability benefits. According to the Wall Street Journal, the retirement program’s reserves are projected to be depleted in 2034, a year sooner than projected in last year’s report. And the disability fund is expected to run out in 2032.
Of course, Social Security is funded by using payroll taxes paid by workers and employers to pay for benefits. Last year, there were 2.8 workers for every Social Security recipient, down from 3.3 in 2007.
Most people do not connect the dots between the 50 million abortions and the 50 million fewer American workers who would be paying taxes.