It’s Wednesday, October 13th, A.D. 2021. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I’m Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com)
By Jonathan Clark
Saudi Arabia still bans Christians from worshipping in public
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recently updated their report on Saudi Arabia. The report notes conditions in the country “remained poor despite some ongoing improvements” since 2020.
Saudi Arabia has been limiting the role of some of its Islamic-based legal systems. However, religious minorities continue to face severe persecution, especially Christians.
Christians are banned from praying and worshipping in public or even building their own church structures. People accused of insulting Islam can face arrest, torture, and execution.
China real estate company set to default
China’s Evergrande Group, the world’s most indebted property developer, is set to enter default next week, signaling a broader economic crisis coming to the country.
China’s property sector accounts for nearly 30% of the Chinese economy.
Evergrande’s massive debts have fueled an inflated real estate market. The company has built vacant apartment buildings across China that could house an estimated 90 million people.
China’s economic crisis is also accompanied by a birth implosion. The country’s previous one-child-per-family policy led to the deaths of hundreds of millions of babies. And now there are 30 million more boys in China than girls.
Galatians 6:7 says, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”
New York eliminated religious exemptions for COVID shot
A New York district court issued a preliminary injunction on the state’s COVID-shot mandate for health care workers seeking religious exemptions.
New York’s initial shot mandate included exemptions for religious or medical reasons. However, the state eliminated all religious exemptions at the end of August.
Liberty Counsel, a Christian legal rights group based in Orlando, Florida, has also filed a case against the mandate on behalf of 1,500 health care workers.
If you are looking for a religious exemption to continue working at your job, go to www.lc.org/exempt. That’s www.lc.org/exempt.
Southwest cancels 2,000+ flights; pilots object to COVID-shot mandate
On Monday, Texas-based Southwest Airlines cancelled hundreds of flights. That came after a weekend with nearly two thousand flight cancellations.
The airline blamed weather and air traffic control issues, but no other airline reported similar disruptions.
The cancellations began after the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association asked a federal court to block Southwest’s COVID-shot mandate on behalf of 9,000 pilots last week.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott bars COVID mandates
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order on Monday, barring all entities from requiring their employees to get a COVID shot.
The ban applies to private businesses as well as public entities.
The order says entities cannot compel people to get a COVID shot if they object to it “for any reason of personal conscience, based on a religious belief, or for medical reasons.”
U.S. Episcopal church lost 60,000 members
The U.S. Episcopal Church reports that it lost over 60,000 members last year.
The liberal mainline denomination’s membership in 2020 was 1.736 million, down from 1.798 million in 2019. Membership has been falling since the 1960s when it was over 3.5 million.
The Episcopal Church’s Sunday attendance has also been falling even before the COVID shutdowns. Baptisms and weddings also fell significantly.
Revelation 2:5 says, “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.”
Singleness has its costs
Pew Research reports that 38% of American adults, aged 25 to 54, were single in 2019, up from 29% in 1990.
Men are now more likely to be without a partner than women.
Even though more people are living in sin than marrying, overall, more and more people are living without any partner.
The study found unpartnered adults on average have lower earnings, are less likely to be employed or economically independent, and have lower educational attainments than partnered adults.
Virginia Christian woman celebrates 110th birthday
And finally, Viola Roberts Lampkin Brown celebrated her 110th birthday this month in Virginia.
Brown lived through two world wars, the flu pandemic, decades of segregation, and now another pandemic. And get this. Brown hasn’t gotten a COVID shot. But she said she’s trusting God to get her through these times.
Brown’s nephew, Andrew Roberts, told The Christian Post that Brown is known as a woman of prayer and service to the church. Her favorite Scripture is Psalm 27.
Psalm 27:4 says, “One thing I have desired of the LORD, That will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple.”
Close
And that’s The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Wednesday, October 13th, in the year of our Lord 2021. 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.