It’s Tuesday, August 20th, A.D. 2019. This is The World View in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I’m Adam McManus.
By Kevin Swanson
Poland is last pro-life nation in Eastern Europe
After Northern Ireland, the last nation in Western Europe, toppled to allow killing of babies in their mother’s wombs, now Poland is the last nation holding out against abortion in Eastern Europe. The 1993 pro-life law prohibits abortion except for cases where there is a “serious threat to the life or health of the pregnant woman.”
However, a recent survey found that between 25% and 33% of Polish women have had at least one abortion, mostly by obtaining the abortion in Germany or the Czech Republic — where abortions are freely accessible.
Leading party chairman, Jaroslaw Kaczynski called on public laws to “regulate these matters.”
He also noted that he was “grateful” for recent comments from the Polish archbishop who compared the homosexual movement to the former communist domination, and noted that the nation was “under siege.”
2 Thessalonians 2 gives us the heads up, saying, “For this reason, God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
How Mexican Christians are being persecuted
More Christian persecution is taking place in Chiapas, Mexico.
Miguel Pérez Díaz, his eight children and 87-year-old father are living in a shack in the mountains after being kicked out of their village. Villagers were harassing the family for rejecting the indigenous religious practices for the Christian faith, according to Morning Star News.
Pray, please, for the Diaz family.
9th U.S. Circuit Court defunds Planned Parenthood by $60 million
The more liberal 9th U.S. Circuit of Appeals is allowing for the Trump administration to defund Planned Parenthood by about 12% of the federal funds they have received — or about $60 million, reports PBS.
Friday’s ruling rejects a request from 20 some states, Planned Parenthood, and the American Medical Association to block the Trump pro-life policy regarding the funding. The administration put the funding block in place yesterday.
Planned Parenthood’s newly enconsed president, Alexis McGill Johnson, has revealed the organization cannot remain in the program given the new pro-life policies for federal Title X funding. McGill wrote to the court that it is “unrealistic to think grants or private donations” could make up the difference.
However, Planned Parenthood’s most recent financial reports show a record income of $1.67 billion, with $245 million of excess revenue, $563 million coming out of federal and state funding, and the remaining $631 million from private contributions.
The $60 million, by comparison, is only a drop in the bucket for the largest abortion provider in the nation.
Trump vows to keep Mike Pence as Vice President
President Donald Trump told the press yesterday he will plan to keep Vice President Mike Pence on the ticket for the 2020 presidential race, reports Reuters.
TRUMP: “I’m very happy with Mike Pence. I think Mike Pence has been an outstanding VP. I think that he’s been incredible in terms of the love that a lot of people, especially the Evangelicals. They really have a great respect for our Vice President! And so do I.”
Sneak Peak: Hong Kong Christians engaged in fight
Hong Kong Christians are still nervous about the proposed extradition law. The Worldview spoke to Gina Goh of International Christian Concern who witnessed Christians participating in the protest while she was in Hong Kong on a recent trip.
Stay tuned for a Worldview Special Report immediately following today’s newscast.
Unbiblical female church leadership up; fatherlessness in families up too
The Christian Post featured a lead article Monday, attacking “misogyny inherent in so many complementarian churches,” and the idea conveyed by complementarian churches that “God is a chauvinist.”
The article included interviews from Julie Roys, a radio host; Aimee Byrd, a theologian and author with the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals; and egalitarian theologian Ben Witherington III, a professor of New Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary. Witherington finds that women ministers can do better in the pastoral office than men.
The State of Clergywomen report in America reports that in 1960, only 2.3% of U.S. clergy were women. That percentage has increased 10-fold to 20.7% by 2016.
Over the same time period, the number of children born without fathers has also increased about 7-fold from 6% to about 40%. Also more than 80 percent of Roman Catholic lay ecclesial ministers are women.
God’s word does speak to this issue.
1 Timothy 2:9-13 says, “In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God. Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.”
Close
And that’s The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Tuesday, August 20th in the year of our Lord 2019. 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.
Special Report: Hong Kong Christians fear Communist reprisal
Time now for a Worldview Special Report by Emily Swanson. I’m Adam McManus.
On Sunday, 1.7 million citizens from Hong Kong poured in the streets, despite the rain, despite the threat of violence by Hong Kong police. They stood for freedom – freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion.
Despite the fact that the Hong Kong leader, Carrie Lam, has vowed that the extradition bill is now dead, Hong King Christians are still nervous about that proposed bill.
The Worldview spoke to Gina Goh of International Christian Concern who witnessed Christians participating in the protest, while she was in Hong Kong on a recent trip.
GOH: “When I was there, it was in early June, and that was at the beginning of this movement. At the beginning, it was very straight forward. All the people who were on the street; they were demanding that the government DELETE to retract this extradition law because at that time they were about to put it through legislative council and do the second repeat. Back then it was pretty straightforward, and I think it was June 11th or 12th, if I remember correctly, is when the police started to fire tear gas.”
Goh said that it was then when thing started to ‘heat up.”
GOH: “As we see now, there is a lot of police brutality, and there are a lot of arrests. They want a release of some of the arrested people, and they want an investigation into some of the police brutality. And also that they shouldn’t call this protest a ‘violent protest.’
Goh said that Christians in Hong Kong are participating in these protests because of how the extradition law could affect their religious freedom.
GOH: “A lot of these Christians involved in these protests in the beginning, of course, they are worried for overall freedom of speech. They feel like once they let this extradition law pass, of course it’s not directly related to freedom of speech, but what they are afraid of, if they say something that’s against the Chinese government, the Chinese government can issue a document to Hong Kong and say, ‘So and so said something against the Chinese government, and this is a violation of such-and-such law, so I require that you send this person to China. And the Hong Kong government will have to do that.”
Goh said the Chinese Communists could make up charges against Hong Kong Christians in order to imprison them in mainland China.
GOH: “As a result, the Communist government; they can trump up charges all the time for everybody that they find to be threatening to their regime. That’s something they are afraid of, and also in particular, the Hong Christians can be targeted, especially those who are helping or involved in China ministry.
“For example, someone bringing Bibles inside, bringing an audio Bible player, or going inside and providing training for underground churches, inside China, then once they return to China, they can ask the Hong Kong government, ‘You have so-and-so Hong Kong persons here, and he did this, he is in violation of crimes or subversion of state power. They would come up with some kind of suspicious crime name.”
Goh referred to the case of a Hong Kong Christian businessman who was targeted with these kinds of accusations.
GOH: “They actually had a case like this before. Back then it wasn’t so much extradition, and there was a Hong Kong businessman; he was bringing Bibles inside. He was charged for two years and then sentenced. He was in China at the time of the arrest.
“They are afraid that if this law passes, then it means that people who are involved in ministry in China, then they are at higher risk for being arrested even if they return to China because they think that they are safe. Chinese government can basically extend their arm and say, ‘Bring these people back. I am going to prosecute them and going to arrest them and put them in jail.”
Goh said that Hong Kong Christians have much more freedom of religion in Hong Kong than Chinese Christians do.
GOH: “If I could put them on a scale, Hong Kong Christians are at 95%, and China is pretty low especially with the recent revised religious regulations in 2018. Hong Kong Christians, not just Christians, but different religions there are able to practice faith according to their wishes. And also we have to remember that Hong Kong was under British rule, for a long period of time. During that time, a lot of missionaries and different churches and denominations and established a lot of schools and charity organizations, that are all faith-based. They have between 40-60% schools in Hong Kong that are faith-based.”
Goh said to keep praying for protection for the Hong Kong Christians. Stay tuned for more updates throughout the week on our brothers and sisters in Hong Kong.
This has been a Worldview Special Report. I’m Adam McManus.