Boy Claims Officials Tried to Take His Bible After Banning Him From Reading It During After-School Program

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Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com

Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com

A little boy who claims he was told by officials at an after-school program that he couldn’t read his Bible is getting support from the American Civil Liberties Union.

The civil rights group’s Tennessee branch is defending the child, sending a letter to the Cannon County REACH after-school program in an effort to urge officials to better train staff on the proper handling of participants’ religious rights, the Christian Post reported.

Staff at REACH reportedly not only told the boy he couldn’t read the Bible, but they also allegedly tried to take it from him, saying that the program could lose state funding if he continued reading it.

“[The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee] has a long-standing commitment to uphold and defend Tennesseans’ ability to practice religion, or not, as they choose,” Hedy Weinberg, the organization’s executive director, said in a statement. “The goal of our letter is to clarify for the REACH program what seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of how the Constitution protects religious liberty.”

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China On Course to Become ‘World’s Most Christian Nation’ Within 15 Years

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Photo Credit: ALAMY

Photo Credit: ALAMY

It is said to be China’s biggest church and on Easter Sunday thousands of worshippers will flock to this Asian mega-temple to pledge their allegiance – not to the Communist Party, but to the Cross.

The 5,000-capacity Liushi church, which boasts more than twice as many seats as Westminster Abbey and a 206ft crucifix that can be seen for miles around, opened last year with one theologian declaring it a “miracle that such a small town was able to build such a grand church”.

The £8 million building is also one of the most visible symbols of Communist China’s breakneck conversion as it evolves into one of the largest Christian congregations on earth.

“It is a wonderful thing to be a follower of Jesus Christ. It gives us great confidence,” beamed Jin Hongxin, a 40-year-old visitor who was admiring the golden cross above Liushi’s altar in the lead up to Holy Week.
“If everyone in China believed in Jesus then we would have no more need for police stations. There would be no more bad people and therefore no more crime,” she added.

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US College Students Studying Abroad Prime Targets for Espionage Activity

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Photo Credit: FBI.GOV

Photo Credit: FBI.GOV

The FBI has issued a stern warning to U.S. college students studying abroad: Beware of foreign intelligence officers who are discreetly targeting young, often naive Americans for espionage activities.

Glenn Shriver seemed like any other adventure-seeking college student — embarking on a study abroad program to China in 2004 while majoring in international affairs at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan.

The cash-strapped college junior from Jenison, Mich., soon became an easy target of Chinese intelligence officers, who first paid him to write political papers in what seemed like a benign job. The People’s Republic of China officers then befriended Shriver — sometimes meeting him in swanky hotel penthouses — and asked that he consider applying for U.S. government jobs.

Shriver complied, spending the next few years applying for jobs with the U.S. government — in particular, with the CIA and State Department — and receiving a total of $70,000 in exchange for doing so. When his scheme to provide the Chinese with classified information was uncovered in 2010, Shriver, now 32, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years in prison.

The FBI is highlighting Shriver’s case in a new effort to educate students about the unforeseen dangers of studying abroad. The bureau released a 28-minute video this week, titled, “Game of Pawns,” in which they dramatize Shriver’s experience in Shanghai and the espionage activity that would later lead to his arrest and imprisonment. The FBI is urging all U.S. students to view the video before they leave the country to help them understand when they’re being targeted or recruited for espionage.

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Boko Haram Leader Claims Abuja Bombing, Tells Obama to Go ‘To Hell’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The leader of Nigeria’s Boko Haram terrorist group in a weekend video claimed responsibility for a deadly bomb attack in Abuja last week, taunting the government for its failure to defeat the Islamist group and telling President Obama and other world leaders to go “to hell.”

“To hell with Obama!” Abubakar Shekau said during the rant. “To hell with [U.N. secretary-general] Ban ki Moon! To hell with [French president] Francois Hollande! To hell with [Russian president] Vladimir Putin!”

Although Shekau claimed responsibility for last Monday’s bomb blast in Abuja, which cost at least 75 lives and was the deadliest terrorist attack ever in the capital, he did not refer to the abduction hours later of more than 100 schoolgirls in the country’s far north-east. A Borno state’s top education official said in a statement Friday 85 of the girls remain missing.

Shekau, one of three Boko Haram leaders designated by the State Department in 2012 under an executive order designed to disrupt funding to terrorists, said his group carried out the bombing in Abuja because of the killing of Muslims in Nigeria and elsewhere. His remarks in the local Hausa language were translated by Premium Times, an Abuja-based media group.

“We carried out the attack because you kill Muslims in Plateau,” he said in comments directed at Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, and referring to the Nigerian state that lies roughly on the divide between the country’s Muslim north and Christian south.

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Behind the Cornucopia of Higher Food Prices

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Photo Credit: CNBC

Photo Credit: CNBC

Alert shoppers are accustomed to watching food prices go up and down. But a string of forces—from droughts to diseases—is raising the cost of a trip to the grocery store at a rapid clip.

And it looks like it will be a while before the price pressure eases.

Some of that pressure is coming from California—the source of roughly half the nation’s fruits and vegetables—where a long-running drought is forcing farmers and ranchers to cut production. After the driest year on record, large sections of farmland are expected to lay fallow this year as the Golden State copes with an ongoing water crisis

That could have “large and lasting effects on fruit, vegetable, dairy and egg prices,” according to a recent USDA report, which said the full impact has yet to be felt.

Smaller cattle herds have forced meat prices higher in March—up more than 5 percent from a year ago, as demand remained strong despite tightener supplies. Ranchers are getting higher prices for cattle and food companies are able to pass them along.

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16-Year-Old California Runaway Survives Flight to Hawaii in Plane’s Wheel Well

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Photo Credit: The Maui News / CHRIS SUGIDONO

Photo Credit: The Maui News / CHRIS SUGIDONO

A 16-year-old boy stowed away in the wheel well of a flight from California to Hawaii on Sunday, surviving the trip halfway across the Pacific Ocean unharmed despite frigid temperatures at 38,000 feet and a lack of oxygen, FBI and airline officials said.

FBI spokesman Tom Simon in Honolulu told The Associated Press on Sunday night that the boy was questioned by the FBI after being discovered on the tarmac at the Maui airport with no identification.

“Kid’s lucky to be alive,” Simon said.

Simon said security footage from the San Jose airport verified that the boy from Santa Clara, Calif., hopped a fence to get to Hawaiian Airlines Flight 45 on Sunday morning. The child had run away from his family after an argument, Simon said. Simon said when the flight landed in Maui, the boy hopped down from the wheel well and started wandering around the airport grounds.

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Franklin Graham: Muslims Who ‘Want to Practice Sharia Law’ Should ‘Go Back Where You Came From’

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

“We should be afraid of sharia law” in America, and Muslims here who want to practice sharia should go back to where they came from, “to those nations that recognize sharia law,” said Rev. Franklin Graham, head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

In a recent interview with the Charlotte Observer, Graham was asked, “Some say you demonize Islam, and Christians in this country have opposed building a mosque or are worried about Sharia law. Isn’t it –”

Graham, who oversees the international Christian aid group Samaritan’s Purse, said, “We should be afraid of Sharia law. We should be absolutely afraid of it. No question about it, because there’s no tolerance in Sharia law. It persecutes those that do not believe in Islam.”

“And I would say to Muslims in this country, if they want to practice Sharia law, go back to where you came from, to those nations that recognize sharia law,” said Graham. “But we have our own laws here.”

Sharia law is the law of Islam, governing public life as well as private life. “Also meaning ‘path’ in Arabic, sharia guides all aspects of Muslim life, including daily routines, familial and religious obligations, and financial dealings,” states a backgrounder on sharia published by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). “Marriage and divorce are the most significant aspects of sharia, but criminal law is the most controversial.”

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Bible Critic Says Jesus Isn’t God, Stephen Colbert Leaves Him Speechless – You’ll Be Cheering at the End

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As we mentioned, Stephen Colbert, heir to David Letterman’s chair on “The Late Show,” openly talks about his Catholic faith. It’s a surprise to those who know the comedian only as the satirical conservative host of “The Colbert Report.”

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Miller Slams ‘Reckless and Irresponsible’ BLM

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Photo Credit: Natural News

Photo Credit: Natural News

Joe Miller today spoke out on the recent standoff between Bureau of Land Management officials and ranchers over disputed land in Nevada.

“The Bureau’s actions were reckless and irresponsible,” Miller said. “Lives could have been lost. There is a right way and a wrong way to do things, and federal agents “gunning up” against otherwise law-abiding citizens and depriving them of their First Amendment Rights isn’t just wrong, it’s unAmerican.”

Miller further pointed out that the Bundy case raises deeper concerns about the 10th Amendment and State jurisdiction. He has long been an advocate of Constitutional limits on the federal government, and of returning power to the states. He believes the best future for our state is Alaskan control of Alaska’s land and resources.

“What we saw in Nevada was the ugly underbelly of a federal government that has gone too far. It’s time for Alaska to assert its prerogatives under the 10th Amendment,” Miller said. “What I don’t understand is the deafening silence from our Congressional delegation on this case, especially in light of the BLM’s role in overseeing 87 million acres in Alaska and the recent federal raids on gold miners near Chicken.”

Joe Miller is a husband, father, combat veteran, and advocate of Constitutional liberty who believes in individual rights, private property, free markets and the sanctity of human life.

Here’s the Message Obama Offered This Week to Those Celebrating Passover, Easter

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Photo Credit: SAUL LOEB / AFP / Getty

Photo Credit: SAUL LOEB / AFP / Getty

President Barack Obama used his weekly address to offer his warm greetings to the millions celebrating Easter this Sunday, while also recounting the Passover Seder he hosted at the White House earlier in the week.

“For millions of Americans, this time of year holds great meaning,” Obama said.

“Earlier this week, we hosted a Passover Seder at the White House, and joined Jewish families around the world in their retellings of the story of the Exodus and the victory of faith over oppression,” he continued.

The president then focused on his message to Christians celebrating Easter this weekend.

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