It’s Wednesday, February 19th, A.D. 2020. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I’m Adam McManus.
By Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com)
Muslims kill 24 Christians and pastor in Burkina Faso, Africa
On Sunday, gunmen believed to be a part of an Islamic terror group attacked a church in Northern Burkina Faso, Africa, reports the Christian Post.
During the attack, the Muslim militants killed at least 24 Christians including the pastor of the church. Eighteen other members of the church were also hurt during the attack.
Burkina Faso has the fastest growing humanitarian crisis in Africa which has displaced over 530,000 people in the past year alone.
The attack comes as over 4,000 were killed by Islamic extremist attacks in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, Africa in 2019.
Revelation 6:9-10 says, “When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’”
Boy Scouts of America declares bankruptcy over sex abuse cases
The Boy Scouts of America said yesterday that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy amid a flood of lawsuits over allegations of child sexual abuse stretching back decades, reports Reuters.
The bankruptcy, filed in Delaware, will allow the Boy Scouts to bring all of the lawsuits into one court and try to negotiate a settlement, rather than using the organization’s funds to fight each case in court, which might leave some victims with nothing.
Membership in the organization’s Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts fell 13% at the end of 2018 from the end of 2012, according to its annual report.
Coronavirus has claimed 2,004 lives, infected 74,185 people
As of February 18th, China’s National Health Commission said there are now a total of 74,185 confirmed people who have been infected with the coronavirus. 2,004 of them have died, reports CNBC.
Hubei province reported an additional 132 deaths and 1,693 newly confirmed cases related to the pneumonia-like coronavirus as of yesterday.
Most of the fatalities in the Hubei province occurred in the city of Wuhan, China where the disease was first detected in late December.
Bloomberg joins Democratic presidential debate tonight in Nevada
By spending more than $400 million of his own money and largely bypassing his opponents by skipping the early primary states, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg has rocketed to double-digit support in enough national polls to qualify for tonight’s Democratic presidential debate in Nevada, reports the Associated Press.
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren tweeted, “It’s a shame Mike Bloomberg can buy his way into the debate.”
Bloomberg’s aide says he’s eager to take on Sanders. They’ve characterized the race for the presidency as a three-way contest — between Bloomberg, Sanders and President Donald Trump.
Bloomberg’s big challenge could be maintaining his cool on the debate stage amid what’s certain to be a volley of attacks from rivals. The former mayor has a history of becoming short or testy during press conferences.
Trump’s 11 clemency decisions
Yesterday, President Trump issued 11 clemency decisions for high-profile figures — most notably commuting the sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat who was convicted for attempting to sell Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat when he was elected president, reports Fox News.
Interestingly, after Blagojevich was impeached and removed from office, he appeared on NBC’s “The Apprentice,” the reality TV show hosted by Donald Trump.
TRUMP: “We have commuted the sentence of Rod Blagojevich. He served eight years in jail. That’s a long time. I watched his wife on TV. I don’t know him very well. He’ll be able to go back home with his family after serving eight years in jail. That was a tremendously powerful, ridiculous sentence in my opinion.”
Last night, Blagojevich walked out of the Federal Correctional Institution in Englewood, Colorado. A commutation means the sentence has been cut short, but the felony remains on his record.
Trump also announced he pardoned financier Michael Milken, who pleaded guilty for violating U.S. securities laws. After he battled prostate cancer, he became one of America’s leading philanthropists over the past four decades, dubbed as “The Man Who Changed Medicine” in a Fortune cover story. In 1993, Milken launched the Prostate Cancer Foundation.
TRUMP: “We have Mike Milken who’s gone around and done an incredible job for the world with all of his research on cancer. And he’s done this and he suffered greatly. He paid a big price, paid a very tough price. But he’s done an incredible job.”
Furthermore, Trump confirmed he has pardoned former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, who was sentenced on tax fraud charges in 2010. It comes on the same day the White House announced Trump granted a full pardon to former San Francisco 49ers owner Edward DeBartolo Jr., who was convicted of failing to report a bribe to the former governor of Louisiana when he pleaded guilty in 1998.
A pardon actually expunges the felony from the record of the person pardoned.
Sony looks to portray Spider-Man as a bisexual
And finally, a report says that Sony plans to portray Spider-Man as a bisexual in an upcoming movie.
Citing anonymous but reliable sources, the entertainment blog We Got This Covered reports that Sony is “particularly keen on getting Andrew Garfield back, as they want to portray his version of the hero as bisexual and give him a boyfriend in the film.”
Back in 2013, Garfield said that Spider-Man could be portrayed as “gay”. “Why can’t we discover that Peter [Parker] is exploring his sexuality? It’s hardly even groundbreaking! … So why can’t he be gay? Why can’t he be into boys?”
Last year, a major homosexual rights organization, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, started pushing for 20 percent of all television characters to be LGBT by the year 2025.
Despite the fact that Hollyweird thinks it’s politically correct to portray Spider-Man as a bisexual, the Word of God does not change. Leviticus 18:22 says, “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.”
Close
And that’s The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Wednesday, February 19th in the year of our Lord 2020. 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.