It’s Monday, May 18th, 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)
40% more families likely to homeschool this fall
A RealClear Opinion Research poll released Thursday found 40 percent of families are more likely to choose to homeschool their children or engage in virtual learning once the coronavirus pandemic subsides, reports Breitbart.com.
The Worldview spoke to Mike Donnelly, Senior Counsel of the Home School Legal Defense Association.
DONNELLY: “It’s a pretty amazing thing when you think about 40% more people homeschooling in the fall. There are other polls that suggest it could be lower than that. perhaps 15%. But even if you apply the 15% number, you are looking at about 8.5 million more children homeschooling in the fall, which would be pretty incredible, a significant transformative outcome.”
Donnelly explained what might prompt parents to consider homeschooling.
DONNELLY: “People are starting to hear what the schools are going to do in the fall. And it sounds like a lot of people aren’t too keen on things like constant hand sanitizing and having to juggle multiple kids with multiple online classes, half on, half off, you know, three kids at school this day, two tomorrow, while they’re trying to juggle their own jobs, which may require them to telecommute more or less. So, there’s a complication factor.”
Among the parents interested in homeschooling, listen to the fascinating ethnic differences.
DONNELLY: “The Real Clear Politics Paul was very interesting in terms of the breakdown of ethnicity and being more likely to homeschool with Asians at 53.8%, Blacks at 50.4% and then Hispanics at 38.2% and whites at 36.3%. What would explain the disparity? And why would Asians of blacks be more likely, with such a significant disparity, to want to homeschool? I think I would say the reason is, those are the two smallest groups in homeschooling right now.
“You’ve got black homeschoolers is about 8% of the total population, Asians is about four or 5%, Hispanic 24% and white is the rest. So, with Asian and black communities, homeschooling is much newer in those communities and so you would naturally see a larger opportunity for growth.”
Deuteronomy 6:7 reminds believers to impress God’s commandments on their children. “Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”
YouTube censors epidemiologist for opposing lockdown
Dr. Knut Wittkowski, former head of biostatistics, epidemiology and research design at Rockefeller University, says YouTube removed a video of him opposing a lockdown which had racked up more than 1.3 million views, reports the New York Post.
He is a ferocious critic of the nation’s current steps to fight the coronavirus. He has derided social distancing, saying it only prolongs the virus’ existence, has attacked the current lockdown as mostly unnecessary, and said the pandemic will only end after it has sufficiently spread through the population.
Listen to what Dr. Wittkowski said in the now-deleted video from YouTube.
WITTKOWSKI: “With all respiratory diseases, the only thing that stops the disease is herd immunity. About 80% of the people need to have had contact with the virus, and the majority of them won’t even have recognized that they were infected or they had very, very mild symptoms, especially if they’re children.
“So, it’s very important to keep the schools open and kids mingling, to spread the virus to get herd immunity as fast as possible. And then the elderly people who should be separated and the nursing homes should be closed during that time, can come back and meet their children and grandchildren after about four weeks when the virus has been exterminated.”
In April, YouTube said it would be “removing information that is problematic” about COVID-19.
We have a link to the video which YouTube censored in our transcript today at www.TheWorldview.com.
Wittkowski, who walks around his New York neighborhood without a face mask and eats at underground restaurants, said, “We don’t have to fear anything but fear. Wasn’t that an American who said that?”
Indeed, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in his 1933 inauguration, said this.
ROOSEVELT: “Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
YouTube censored audiobook “Coronavirus and Christ”
In addition, last Friday, YouTube censored the audiobook version of Reformed theologian John Piper’s new book, Coronavirus and Christ, claiming it violated “community standards”, reports the Christian Post.
The book offers six biblical answers to the question: “What is God doing through the coronavirus?”
The video by John Piper, the chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary in Minnesota and the founder of www.DesiringGod.org, had received over 187,000 views within the five weeks that it remained on YouTube, according to Disrn.
However, an archived version of the audiobook is still available here and on the Crossway Podcast here which we have linked in our transcript today at www.TheWorldview.com.
Price is Right game show donated $100,000 to Planned Parenthood
In a May 11 primetime special of the “The Price is Right,” America’s longest-running game show, it donated nearly $100,000 to Planned Parenthood on behalf of RuPaul, a drag queen entertainer, reports the Christian Post.
Drew Carey, the host, introduced him.
CAREY: “So, Ru, you’re going to be playing for charity.
RUPAUL: “Yes!”
CAREY: “All through the show, you’re going to be playing alongside the contestants. And whenever you win and the rest of the contestants win, we’re going to match and give to a special charity that Ru is playing for.”
RUPAUL: “That’s right.”
CAREY: “What’s the charity?”
RUPAUL: “Well, I am playing for Planned Parenthood which provides vital and often free services for both men and women.”
(Audience cheers)
One thing is for sure. Planned Parenthood never kills babies in the womb for free. There’s always a hefty price.
Isaiah 59:7 says, “Their feet rush into sin; they are swift to shed innocent blood. They pursue evil schemes; acts of violence mark their ways.”
Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles offered this commentary.
KNOWLES: “Everything about that clip is wrong. A man who dresses up like a woman going on middle America’s former favorite show to raise money to kill a million babies a year. Something clearly has gone wrong in the culture.
“Price is Right: Very simple game show, very middle America. You know, this was one bastion where the sort of liberal, progressive wackos that runs so many of the other parts of Hollywood and television, they hadn’t quite infected. It was such a simple game. You go on, and you try to guess the price of regular goods. And then if you get the price right, you win prizes.
“How did they infect that one? How did the Left even get in to that one? Because the Left destroys everything it touches.”
Close
And that’s The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Monday, May 18th 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.
Print stories
Nigerian Muslims have killed 620 Christians in 2020
Since the beginning of the year, a Nigerian civil society organization estimates that about 620 Christians were killed and hundreds of homes, as well as churches, were damaged in Nigeria as Muslim attacks continue, reports the Christian Post.
No wonder Nigeria is ranked as the 12th worst country in the world for persecution of Christians on the Open Doors World Watch List this year.
2 Thessalonians 5:7-8 says, “All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with His powerful angels.”
New York tourist in Hawaii arrested over COVID guidelines
A tourist from New York was arrested for allegedly violating Hawaii’s traveler quarantine after he posted on Instagram photos of himself sunbathing and carrying a surfboard.
Hawaii authorities have been cracking down on travelers who defy a mandatory 14-day quarantine for people arriving in the islands, a rule put in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus, reports the Associated Press.
Tarique Peters, 23, of the Bronx, arrived in Honolulu last Monday. In a news release, Hawaii police reported that “he allegedly left his hotel room the day he arrived and traveled many places using public transportation,” saying they “became aware of his social media posts from citizens who saw posts of him — on the beach with a surfboard, sunbathing, and walking around Waikiki at night.”
Agents from the state attorney general’s office arrested him Friday morning, and his bail was set at $4,000. Hotel staff told the agents they saw Peters leave his room and the hotel numerous times.
Democrats’ $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill bigger than last 4 bills
In a 208-199 vote on Friday, Democrats have powered a massive $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill through the House, an election-year measure designed to brace a U.S. economy in free fall and a health care system struggling to contain a pandemic still pummeling the country, reports the Associated Press.
It would cost more than the prior four coronavirus bills combined. It would deliver almost $1 trillion for state and local governments, another round of $1,200 direct payments to individuals and help for the unemployed, renters and homeowners, college debt holders and the struggling Postal Service.
Dr. James Dobson, psychologist and founder and president of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, condemned it, saying it “is laced with special interest spending that has nothing to do with our current health and economic calamity.”
“It is appalling the Democrats are willing to mortgage the future of our children and grandchildren, all to ram through a socialist agenda that runs counter to the wishes of most Americans, not to mention the Constitution of the United States!”
Plus, the word “cannabis” appears in the bill 68 times as Democrats want to measure diversity among the people who profit off of marijuana.
Police threaten church’s drive-in service with $1,000 fine
The Central Bible Baptist Church in New York, which had to discontinue its drive-in worship services after being threatened by the Massena Police Department that a fine of up to $1,000 would be imposed, on Friday challenged the claim that drive-in services violate Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s COVID-19 Executive Orders, reports the Christian Post.
The Rutherford Institute wrote to Police Chief Adam Love on Friday on behalf of the church, saying, “You are mistaken in your assertion that church ‘drive-in’ worship services are prohibited under New York’s current emergency orders and could result in fines.”
The Chief of Police warned Pastor Samson Ryman, who held drive-in worship services on May 3 with 23 worshipers in 18 vehicles, that his church violated the law and he could be subject to prosecution for holding the drive-in services and would face a fine of up to $1,000.
Judge overturns NC Gov prohibition of indoor worship services
Judge James Dever III, a federal judge in North Carolina, issued an order Saturday to allow indoor worship services, blocking Democratic Governor Roy Cooper’s enforcement of restrictions on churches during the coronavirus pandemic, reports the Christian Post.
In his 22-page order, Judge Dever wrote, “The record, at this admittedly early stage of the case, reveals that the Governor appears to trust citizens to perform non-religious activities indoors (such as shopping or working or selling merchandise) but does not trust them to do the same when they worship together indoors,” according to The Associated Press.
Rev. Ronnie Baity, founder and pastor of Berean Baptist Church in Winston-Salem and president of nonprofit organization Return America, said, “Freedoms curbed eventually becomes no freedom at all. If there’s ever been a time our communities need the church, it is now.”
LAPD wants COVID test for arrested suspects
The Los Angeles Police Department wants to give a rapid-result coronavirus test to everyone its officers arrest and is pushing city officials to secure the equipment to do so, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Missionary pilot delivering COVID supplies died in Indonesian crash
Last Tuesday, Joyce Lin, an American missionary pilot, died in a crash just minutes after her plane took off to deliver COVID-19 supplies to remote villages in Indonesia, reports the Christian Post. She was 40.
Lin worked for the Idaho-based Mission Aviation Fellowship whose pilots use Cessna and KODIAK aircraft to transport medicine, doctors, disaster relief, evangelists, Bible translators, food supplies, agriculture and other things to remote areas around the world to share “Christ’s love beyond where the road ends.”
Lin was the only person on the plane.
America didn’t shut down during Hong Kong flu of 1969
Woodstock, the rock ‘n roll festival attended by 300,000 people, was held in August 1969 in the midst of the H3N2 or Hong Kong Flu pandemic which started in early March, reports the New York Post.
The virus was reported in mid-July 1968 in Hong Kong. By September, it had infected Marines returning to the States from the Vietnam War. By mid-December, the Hong Kong flu had arrived in all fifty states.
But schools were not shut down nationwide, other than a few dozen because of too many sick teachers. Face masks weren’t required or even common.
While it’s way too soon to compare the numbers, H3N2 has so far proved deadlier than COVID-19. Between 1968 and 1970, the Hong Kong flu killed between an estimated one and four million, according to the CDC and Encyclopaedia Britannica, with US deaths exceeding 100,000. As of this writing, COVID-19 has killed more than 295,000 globally and around 83,000 in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Both viruses spread quickly and cause upper respiratory symptoms including fever, cough and shortness of breath. They infect mostly adults over 65 or those with underlying medical conditions, but could strike people of any age.
The Hong Kong virus rarely made front-page news. A 1968 story in the Associated Press warned that deaths caused by the Hong Kong flu “more than doubled across the nation in the third week of December.” But the story was buried on page 24. The New York Post didn’t publish any stories about the pandemic in 1968, and in 1969, coverage was mostly minor, like reports of newly married couples delaying honeymoons because of the virus and the Yonkers police force calling in sick with the Hong Kong flu during wage negotiations.
The idea that a pandemic could be controlled with social distancing and public lockdowns is a relatively new one, said Tucker. It was first suggested in a 2006 study by New Mexico scientist Robert J. Glass, who got the idea from his 14-year-old daughter’s science project.
Biden’s on-line campaign rally was awkward
In a fascinating column by Andrew Ferguson in The Atlantic, he asks, “What is a presidential candidate without cheering crowds, balloon drops, overbearing music, a stage choked with grinning sycophants? Or without a dour Jim Lehrer or even a Larry King prodding him with uncomfortable questions face-to-face?
“Now we know the answer. Last week, as Biden remained confined to his Delaware home, his campaign took to YouTube to put on a virtual rally. It’s still available online, though in truncated, buttoned-up, highly edited form. When it was unfolding in real time, it was messier.
“Seldom has the need for a crowd—hundreds of humans, thousands of the buggers, packed together shank to flank—been felt so acutely. Without applause, laughter, and the crush of swaying bodies, the conventions of a political rally come off as ludicrous.
“The blackouts, the indecipherable monologues, the speakers staring silently, endlessly, waiting for a prompt.
“The crisis has forced [Joe Biden] into being only a simulation of a presidential candidate. It has done the same to his rival, of course, but the difference is, his rival gets to be president too.”