It’s Friday, March 22nd, A.D. 2024. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I’m Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com)
Christian family in India beaten over refusal to deny Christ
A Christian couple in central India haven’t seen their two young children for more than a month after an attack by followers of a traditional tribal religion drove them from their village for refusing to recant their faith, reports The Christian Post.
Aayatu Podiyami, 35, was assaulted twice in Sukma District for refusing to deny Christ.
The animist village head asked, “What have you decided? Will you renounce your Christian faith or leave the village?”
Podiyami replied, “Where will I go? This is my home. I have been believing in Jesus for four years, and I want to continue believing in Him.”
He managed to escape into the jungle on both occasions, but his father, Mangu Podiyami, “is not young and swift” and was unable to outrun the second assault. He explained, “The mob stopped beating him after he passed out, and his assailants thought he was dead.”
He and his wife and father have not returned home since taking refuge at a secure place on February 12. The couple has two daughters, ages 7 and 4. He said, “I cannot go back home to see my children. Our assailants are on the watch, eyeing our house, waiting for me to return. God is our only hope. Please pray for us. I can see no way forward.”
Pope Francis condemns those who didn’t take COVID jab
Speaking as part of his newly released memoirs, Pope Francis has issued fresh condemnation of critics of the abortion-tainted COVID jabs, saying that opposition to the shots “distressed” him since “being against the antidote is an almost suicidal act of denial,” reports LifeSiteNews.com.
Cuba on ‘verge of collapse’ from Marxist policies
Protests have continued this week in Cuba over one of the island’s worst ever economic and energy crises as food shortages and blackouts push the country toward the “verge of collapse,” reports Fox News.
Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio tweeted, “There is no U.S. food embargo on Cuba. Last year Cuba imported over $300 million in food & commodities from the U.S. The reason Cuba is on the verge of collapse is because Marxism always leads to hunger, poverty, and shortages.”
Christian teacher fired for refusing to affirm 8-year-old’s “gender transition”
A teacher in the United Kingdom who was fired for not affirming the gender transition of an 8-year-old is fighting back in court, reports Christian Headlines.
The controversy began in 2021 when Hannah, an elementary school teacher, was told that an 8-year-old was joining her class and that the child must be addressed by a new name and pronouns and be allowed to use restrooms and changing rooms of the opposite biological sex.
Hannah told administrators she would not affirm the child’s new identity because doing so would harm not only the child but the other children in the class. She noted that many trans-identifying children later de-transition. In addition, affirming the child’s transgender identity would violate her conscience and her Christian faith.
Loneliness in seniors: Worse than alcoholism, obesity, and smoking
Loneliness may be the worst thing for the health of older adults, reports StudyFinds.org.
Researchers from the Regenstrief Institute and the Indiana University School of Medicine found that loneliness, which has emerged as a major biopsychosocial stressor, is worse for older people than alcoholism, obesity, and smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.
This study, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, suggests that primary care clinicians could be at the forefront of addressing this silent epidemic. Apparently, 53% of older adults visiting primary care facilities report feeling lonely. These feelings significantly impact their physical and mental health, reducing their overall quality of life.
In Psalm 25:15-18, David writes, “My eyes are ever toward the LORD, for he will pluck my feet out of the net. Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring me out of my distresses. Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sin.”
The remarkable man in the iron lung
And finally, a man who set the Guinness World Record for living the longest time in an iron lung spoke about the love of God his family showed him, reports The Christian Post.
For more than 70 years, Paul Alexander, who died on March 11th at the age of 78, had been confined to a large cylindrical mechanical ventilator that used air pressure to help him breathe since polio paralyzed his chest muscles in 1952 at age 6, three years before the rollout of the polio vaccine.
He learned how to write and paint with his mouth using a long plastic stick and spent years learning how to spend limited time outside the iron lung through a special technique of gulping down air, notes The Guardian.
When he was 8, his therapist promised him a puppy if he could learn how to use the technique to remain outside the iron lung for three minutes, which influenced the title of his 2020 self-published autobiography, entitled Three Minutes for a Dog: My Life in an Iron Lung. The book took him eight years to type out or dictate.
He eventually was able to spend portions of the day outside the iron lung with the help of a modified wheelchair that kept his body upright.
With the aid of a tutor, Alexander graduated second in his class at Samuell Alexander High School in 1967 at the age of 21.
After two years of fighting assertions from admissions officials that he was too crippled to attend, he also went to college, first at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and then at the University of Texas at Austin, where he received his bachelor’s degree in 1978 and a law degree in 1984. After passing the bar exam in 1986, he specialized in family law and bankruptcy as an attorney in Dallas and Fort Worth.
During a remarkable videotaped interview with his friend Christopher Ulster in 2022, Alexander detailed the horrific experience of becoming paralyzed at such a young age, but noted how deeply his parents loved him amid his suffering, which he said reminded him of God’s love.
As he laid in the iron lung, he could look to his right and admired his late parents, whose portraits he kept next to him. He said, “I had a whole life lived with them, and it was amazing.”
Alexander also explained the importance of finding purpose regardless of one’s limitations.
Listen to this audio clip from the 22-minute video interview.
ALEXANDER: “You know I get up in the morning and I say, ‘What can I do today to accomplish something?’ I look at people and I just want to say, ‘Why are you here? What is the purpose? There’s a purpose in your life. What do you do to make things better?’ Because that’s the way I think.”
Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.”
Close
And that’s The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Friday, March 22nd in the year of our Lord 2024. 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.