Thursday, May 4th, in the year of our Lord 2017, the National Day of Prayer
By Adam McManus
Iran Fails Attempt to Launch Missile from Submarine
Iran attempted to launch a cruise missile from a submarine in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday but the test failed, two U.S. officials told Fox News.
An Iranian Yono-class “midget” submarine conducted the missile launch. North Korea and Iran are the only two countries in the world that operate this type of submarine.
In 2015, North Korea conducted a successful ballistic missile test from a submarine for the first time.
North Korea Confirms Having Imprisoned American Accounting Professor
Speaking of North Korea, the country confirmed yesterday that it is holding an accounting professor, bringing to three the number of Americans held in its prisons as international tensions escalate, reports Fox News.
It was widely known that Kim Sang Dok, who also goes by the name Tony Kim, was nabbed at Pyongyang International Airport on April 22nd, but state-controlled media now has confirmed the development.
The 58-year-old captive joins University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier and American businessman Kim Dong Chul who have already been sentenced to 10-15 years of hard labor on trumped up charges in the Hermit Kingdom’s infamous gulags as the world continues to pressure North Korea over its rogue nuclear weapons program.
Congress Votes on New Obamacare Replacement Bill
The U.S. House of Representatives will vote today on a controversial Republican bill that would repeal and replace key parts of Obamacare, reports CNBC.
Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California told NBC News that they indeed have the votes to win passage of the bill, unlike last time when the bill was pulled at the last minute.
The vote was scheduled after two leading Republicans, Reps. Billy Long and Fred Upton, agreed to switch their expected “no” votes on the bill to “yes” votes.
Some Republican members opposed the bill because they believe it would lead to higher premiums for many people. And a bloc of conservative GOP members opposed the bill because it did not go far enough in repealing Obamacare.
Former Obama Adviser Criticises Hillary Clinton for Blaming Comey for Election Loss
Former top Obama adviser David Axelrod blasted Hillary Clinton yesterday on CNN’s “New Day” for blaming her election loss on FBI Director James Comey
“Jim Comey didn’t tell her not to campaign in Wisconsin after the convention. Jim Comey didn’t say, ‘Don’t put any resources into Michigan until the final week of the campaign.’
“And one of the things that hindered her in the campaign was a sense that she never fully was willing to take responsibility for her mistakes, particularly that server… If I were advising her, I would say, don’t do this. She said the words ‘I’m responsible,’ but everything else suggested that she doesn’t really feel that way.”
Christian Bakery in Ireland Declines Another Gay Marriage Cake Order
Asher’s Bakery in Northern Ireland lost their appeal last year after they refused to make a cake for a homosexual faux “wedding.” According to new reports, Asher’s recently declined another cake order that read, “Gay Marriage Rocks.” The customer, Grainne McCann, said he would not sue.
The World View talked to Scottish filmmaker Colin Gunn about the case.
“Well the cake requests are going to keep coming because Asher’s has been left open legally, unfortunately. The law, which should have protected them basically on their own property rights which is the simple idea that you don’t have to provide a service if you don’t want to; the problem is that the law has gone against that. And it’s forcing them to do things against their conscience. There’s many people out there that have for their own reasons to bring a lawsuit or just for their own self-aggrandizement.”
Gunn said Asher’s Bakery has handled each case in a Christ-like way. They even offered to go the extra mile to deliver a different christening cake the customer also ordered.
“While being persecuted they talked very openly about the gospel, about their expression to not cause harm to homosexual people in the sense of going after them vindictively. Even in this recent story the person had ordered another cake and they were willing to drive that cake free to that event; going the extra mile. And that’s really a biblical principle. Christ taught that idea of going the extra mile.”
Ivanka Trump Advises Planned Parenthood to Do Abortions Under Another Name
During a secret meeting in January, first daughter Ivanka Trump told the Planned Parenthood abortion business it should stop doing abortions and instead do them under another name so Planned Parenthood itself could continue to receive its taxpayer funding, reports LifeNews.
Planned Parenthood has repeatedly refused that suggestion as abortion is an integral part of its business. It called Ivanka’s suggestion “naïve.”
During the campaign, President Trump repeatedly said he would defund Planned Parenthood unless it stopped killing babies through abortion.
Lawsuit Revived Against County Clerk Kim Davis
A federal appeals court on Tuesday revived a damages lawsuit against Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who in 2015 refused to grant marriage licenses to homosexual couples because it conflicted with her Christian beliefs.
While the homosexual couple — David Ermold and David Moore — eventually did get a license, a three-judge appeals court panel said they could sue over Davis’ initial refusal to grant one, after the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2015 said the Constitution guaranteed a right to homosexual marriage.
The homosexual men are seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
Special Report on Possible Religious Liberty Executive Order After the Newscast
The religious liberty issue is front and center in the top three concerns of Evangelical Christians. Stay tuned for a Special Report immediately following today’s newscast on a possible Religious Liberty Executive Order signed by President Trump today.
Plus, audio from Anne Graham Lotz, the chairman of the National Day of Prayer being held today, about its unique theme.
Sean Hannity Says He Is Staying with Fox News
Despite rumors that Sean Hannity might leave his long-time broadcast home at Fox News in the wake of the resignation of his longtime friend and former producer Bill Shine, Hannity told his 30-member staff on Tuesday afternoon that he will not be leaving.
Dove Soap Releases Ad Featuring Transgender “Mother”
Dove soap, owned by Unilever, just released a so-called “inclusive” Mother’s Day advertisement that includes a male to female “transgender” individual named “Shea” as an example of real motherhood. This man, who presents himself as a woman, is in a fornicating relationship with a biological woman with whom he sired the child in the Dove ad.
“We are both his biological parents. You get people that are like, ‘What do you mean? You’re the mom?’ We’re like, ‘Yep. We’re both gonna be moms.’”
As the CitizenGo petition declares, “by definition, a mother is a woman in relation to her child or children. By attempting to include biological men under this definition, Dove has devalued the importance of women in motherhood. Help us tell Dove that men cannot be mothers!
“Unfortunately, this advertisement reflects a larger cultural shift away from real motherhood. The British Medical Association recently urged medical personnel to refer to pregnant patients as ‘pregnant people’ instead of ‘expectant mothers,’ because the term ‘expectant mothers’ might be offensive to transgender and intersex men.”
Special Report on Religious Freedom and the National Day of Prayer
As promised, a Special Report now on religious freedom and the National Day of Prayer.
Retired Navy chaplain Wes Modder participated in a webcast hosted by Family Research Council on Tuesday to highlight reasons why President Donald Trump and his administration should move swiftly to enact an executive order on religious freedom that would protect First Amendment rights, especially for those who hold biblical beliefs on marriage and abortion, reports the Christian Post.
Modder, who served as a chaplain at the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command in South Carolina and served four years in the Marines, got in trouble in February 2015 for communicating his Christian belief on homosexuality during counseling.
Modder described his feelings at the time. “I was shocked. I felt betrayed by my country and by the Navy. I [was] providing good, biblical worldview-based counseling and private sessions with my assistant, voluntarily.”
Thankfully, Modder was exonerated in September 2015 when the Navy Personnel Command cleared Modder of wrongdoing.
The Christian chaplain abided by the words of Peter, the disciple, from Acts 5:29, “We ought to obey God rather than men.”
Mike Berry, his attorney with the First Liberty Institute, said, “To take away religious freedom from those who swear an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution, to me, is really the greatest form of offense that I can imagine.”
Trump Might Sign Religious Liberty Executive Order Today
In a related story, President Donald Trump is expected to sign a religious liberty executive order, possibly today, on the annual National Day of Prayer. The order would protect Christian organizations like the Little Sisters of the Poor, a group of nuns who minister to the impoverished elderly, from being forced to pay for abortions.
Trump has invited conservative leaders to the White House today for what they expect will be the ceremonial signing of a long-awaited—and highly controversial—executive order on religious liberty.
One senior administration official cautioned that the order has not yet been finalized, and noted that lawyers are currently fine-tuning the draft language.
Anne Graham Lotz Speaks of Urgent Need to Pray for the Healing of the Nation
Throughout the nation, Christians will be gathering by the hundreds of thousands for the annual National Day of Prayer.
A little history.
In 1775, the first Continental Congress called for a National Day of Prayer.
In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln called for such a day.
In 1952, Congress established the National Day of Prayer as an annual event by a joint resolution, signed into law by President Harry Truman.
Then, in 1988, the law was amended and signed by President Ronald Reagan, designating the National Day of Prayer as the first Thursday in May.
This year the chairman is Anne Graham Lotz, the daughter of America’s most famous evangelist, Billy Graham.
Listen to how she described this year’s urgent theme.
“I’m Anne Graham Lotz, Chairperson of the National Day of Prayer. I’m so grateful for this privilege because if ever we needed to pray for our nation, it’s now.
“Our situation is similar to the one found in the Old Testament. God’s people had disobeyed Him, rebelled against Him, defied Him, provoking a severe judgment. He sent in the Babylonians who broke down the walls of Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and took the nation of Judah into captivity.
“67 years later, one of the captives who had risen to the heights of leadership under Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, followed by the Medes and Persians, was a man named Daniel. He writes in the Old Testament book by his name that he was reading God’s Word, according to Jeremiah, when he discovered a promise that, after 70 years, God would set the captives free — on one condition – that they would seek God with all of their hearts.
“Daniel responded to the promise he read in Jeremiah by holding God to His Word with a very powerful prayer that is recorded in Daniel Chapter 9. A prayer that changed not only his nation, but the nation in which he had been held captive.
“I, too, have been reading God’s Word. I’ve read in 2 Chronicles 7:14 that God has promised that ‘if My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin and heal their land.’
“The theme for the National Day of Prayer this year blends 2 Chronicles 7:14 with Daniel’s prayer in chapter 9:19, ‘For Your great name’s sake, hear us, forgive us, heal us.’
“All of us can agree that our nation needs healing. And God promises to do so, but on the condition that we pray humbly, seek His face, and turn from our own sin. Will America be healed? We won’t know until we join together and pray.”
To find and join a National Day of Prayer event near you today, go to www.NationalDayofPrayer.org and click on the “Events” tab.
This has been another Special Report. I’m Adam McManus.
Asia Bibi’s Appeal Has Been Delayed Again
Pakistani Christian mother Asia Bibi’s appeal of the death sentence has again been delayed, according to The Christian Post.
Accused of blasphemy against Islam by some Muslim women, Bibi was given the death sentence and has been in prison for eight years, awaiting the slow judicial process of appealing her case.
Congress Pushes Spending Bill That Retains Funding for Planned Parenthood
Congress is reportedly pushing forward a spending bill that would allow Medicaid dollars to continue to be given to Planned Parenthood, reports Christian Headlines.
The bill is part of negotiation to avoid a potential government shutdown. The $1 trillion spending deal would keep the federal government operating through the end of September.
According to reports, Democrats in Congress have conceded $12.5 billion in additional military spending and $1.5 billion in additional funding for border security.
But sadly, as of now, $500 million of funding for the murder giant Planned Parenthood is in the bill.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List, said, “With pro-life Republican majorities in both houses, it is incredibly disappointing that any Republican spending bill would contain continued funding for Planned Parenthood.”
Founder of Facebook Plans to Increase Monitoring of Videos for Criminal Activity
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced yesterday that he will hire an additional 3,000 people to help monitor videos on the social-media platform for potential crimes.
Facebook has come under fire recently after a string of killings and violent attacks were broadcast on its Facebook Live platform.
And that’s the World View in Five Minutes.