Rev. Rafael Cruz: U.S. Christian Churches Under Attack, Pastors Must Not Be Silenced (+video)

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Rev. Rafael Cruz, director of Purifying Fire Ministries and father of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), said the Christian church in America is under attack “more and more every day,” and noted that many pastors are afraid of losing their tax-exempt status if they speak out on political issues.

Cruz stressed, however, that “no church in America has ever lost its tax-exempt status for speaking on what’s happening in the country.”

. . . CNSNews.com asked Rev. Cruz, “What do you think are some of the major problems facing the pastors in America today, and what would be your message to them?”

He said, “Well, I think the major challenge the pastors have is the pastors are afraid, and fear has come into the pastors because of lack of knowledge. And, you know, if the enemy can put fear into the hearts of the pastor, in essence the enemy accomplishes what he wants to do and that is to silence the pastors.”

“Many pastors are afraid of losing their tax-exempt status if they speak on what’s happening in our society today,” said Rev. Cruz. “But the reality is that no church in America has ever lost its tax-exempt status for speaking on what’s happening in the country. So, it is an empty threat. But never the less, it’s had the desired result – that is, to silence the pastors.”

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Oldest Woman in America Credits God for her Longevity

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Her life spans parts of three centuries.

And today, Jeralean Talley will hit a milestone only a handful in the world ever have experienced: She turns 115.

The Inkster woman, who bowled until she was 104, went fishing last year, still gets around on her own with the help of a walker, had some memorable birthday gifts in recent years, including checks for $113 — a dollar for every year she lived at that point — and jewelry from a couple of her doctors.

She plans to celebrate her birthday with friends and family at New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church in Inkster on Sunday and has one outing lined up today: a trip to the doctor for a checkup. . .

Talley’s answer to why she has lived so long hasn’t changed over the years: “It’s all in the good Lord’s hands,” she said. “There’s nothing I can do about it.”

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New Boy Scouts President Supports Homosexual Adult Leaders

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Photo Credit: APRobert Gates, the new president of the Boy Scouts of America, said Friday that he would have moved last year to allow openly gay adults in the organization — a step further than the Scouts ultimately took — but said he opposes any further attempts to address the policy now.

Gates took over an organization this week that serves about 2.5 million youth but faces continued membership declines and fights over its inclusion of openly gay boys, but not adults. Gates addressed those issues Friday, a day after Scouting’s national leadership elected him president.

“I was prepared to go further than the decision that was made,” Gates told The Associated Press in an interview in advance of a speech before the group’s national leaders at its annual meeting in Nashville, Tennessee. “I would have supported having gay Scoutmasters, but at the same time, I fully accept the decision that was democratically arrived at by 1,500 volunteers from across the entire country.”

The BSA’s National Council voted at last year’s annual meeting to accept openly gay youth, after a monthslong process with protests on both sides. Gates planned to tell Scouting’s leaders Friday that a continued fight over the issue threatens BSA’s future.

“Given the strong feelings — the passion — involved on both sides of this matter, I believe strongly that to re-open the membership issue or try to take last year’s decision to the next step would irreparably fracture and perhaps even provoke a formal, permanent split in this movement — with the high likelihood neither side would subsequently survive on its own,” Gates said in prepared remarks.

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Is your cellphone giving you premature wrinkles?

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Already, if you want ageless skin you can’t smile, frown, laugh, go in the sun, jog, smoke or sleep on your side. Now you can add another item to the I’m-worried-it-may-cause-wrinkles list: looking down at your iPhone.

So called “tech neck” — a phenomenon that happens when we look down at our laptops or iPhones too often — may cause etched lines, wrinkles, double chins and loose skin to occur, a plastic surgeon told Elle magazine. Put simply (and depressingly): your smartphone, tablet and laptop may be giving you the neck of a much older person.

While it’s unclear whether the technology is causing this “tech neck” or if we’re simply noticing our less-than-smooth necks more in this selfie-obsessed world, one thing is clear: more people than ever are demanding neck lifts.

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Electric Chair is Back . . . in Tennessee

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Republican Gov. Bill Haslam on Thursday signed a bill into law allowing the state to electrocute death row inmates in the event the state is unable to obtain drugs used for lethal injections.

Tennessee lawmakers overwhelmingly passed the electric chair legislation in April, with the Senate voting 23-3 and the House 68-13 in favor of the bill.

Richard Dieter, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said Tennessee is the first state to enact a law to reintroduce the electric chair without giving prisoners an option.

“There are states that allow inmates to choose, but it is a very different matter for a state to impose a method like electrocution,” he said. “No other state has gone so far.”

Dieter said he expects legal challenges to arise if the state decides to go through with an electrocution, both in terms of whether the state could prove that lethal injection drugs were not obtainable and on the grounds of constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

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Joe Miller Says Begich Should Release Correspondence with IRS

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Photo Credit: SenateDemocrats

Responding to reports that the IRS is continuing to refuse disclosure of communications with Mark Begich relating to its discrimination against tea party and other conservative groups, Joe Miller is calling on the senator to release any and all correspondence or documents (electronic or otherwise) exchanged between himself, his staff and top IRS officials between 2009 and the present.

“I would think in an election year, especially, Mark Begich would want to clear his name of any wrong-doing with respect to IRS profiling,” Miller said. “He should see this as an opportunity to show Alaskans that there really is a difference between his mode of operation and that of the White House with respect to transparency.”

At issue is a FOIA request submitted a year ago that the IRS has still not complied with. In the request, the National Republican Senatorial Committee reportedly asked for all correspondence and documents that passed between Mark Begich’s office and top IRS officials between 2009-2013.

The IRS appears to be stonewalling, having asked no less than six times for more time to compile and go through the information, clearly implying that such documents exists. A FOIA request is supposed to be responded to within 30 days of receipt.

Earlier this year, Begich joined New York Senator Chuck Schumer and other vulnerable Democrats in calling for more scrutiny of certain issue advocacy groups that claim tax exempt status. He has suggested the tax code is being used for cover to engage in political activities.

Just this week, the junior senator boasted of calling the IRS Commissioner to his office, alleging unfair targeting of Alaska’s airline industry. Yet he has been strangely silent regarding blatant political profiling of Tea Party and conservative groups by the IRS, leading some to speculate on his personal involvement in encouraging potentially criminal activity.

Miller concluded, “I think Alaskans have a right to know if Mark Begich played a role in illegal activities at the IRS during the course of his public duties. If he didn’t, it should be a small matter to provide the records his office has of correspondence and other documents exchanged with top officials at the IRS.”

Famous Lefty Alarmist: Because of Global Warming, You Will ‘Eat the Bodies of Your Dead’

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Photo Credit: IJ Review Yeah, he really said that. The “he” is Paul Ehrlich, a Stanford University biologist, (in)famous for his widely discredited 1968 book, “The Population Bomb,” in which he predicted mass starvation in ’70s and ’80s due to overpopulation. (Yeah, I know; it never happened.)

Anyway, not only is Ehrlich “back,” he’s doubling down on his apocalyptic rhetoric. This time, the end of the world as we know it will be brought about by…wait for it…global warming.

Despite the fact that the “oblivion” Ehrlich predicted in 1968 never came to pass, he now claims that scarcity of resources will get so bad because of global warming that we humans will need to drastically change our eating habits.

How bad, you ask? This bad:

We will soon begin asking: if “it is perfectly okay to eat the bodies of your dead because we’re all so hungry?” He added that humanity is “moving in that direction with a ridiculous speed.”

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Restaurant With ‘No Weapons, No Concealed Firearms’ Sign Robbed at Gunpoint

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Photo Credit: Reuters A Durham, North Carolina restaurant with a sign on its front door reading, “No Weapons, No Concealed Firearms,” was robbed at gunpoint on May 19.

Gunsnfreedom.com published a photograph of the sign on May 21, making “The Pit” restaurant a self-declared gun free zone–the same kind of zone Michael Bloomberg and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America pressure other restaurants into becoming.

According to Durham’s ABC 11, around 9 PM “three men wearing hoodies entered the restaurant through the back doors with pistols, and forced several staff members to lie on the floor.” The armed men “also assaulted two employees during the crime.”

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China And Putin May Have Just Screwed America’s Future, And Your Retirement With It

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Photo Credit: flickr / ohkylelAlthough receiving relatively little attention from the mainstream media, the Bank of China (BOC) just signed a non-dollar settlement deal with VTB, one of Russia’s largest commercial banks. The agreement will allow VTB and BOC to pay each in their domestic currency, removing the need for the US Dollar to settle the trade. This might not sound like much; but in terms of international trade and finance, it is huge. Since the Bretton-Woods agreement after WWII, nations have used the USD in international business dealings. But reserve currency status does not last forever. The Dollar is losing this position, and it will have serious ramifications for the United States and everyone invested in the dollar.

As an ex bond/FX trader, I understand the benefits the United States receives as a result of the USD enjoying reserve status. There is a natural bid, or demand, for entities to own Dollars. Countries want to store their wealth in an instrument that will retain its value. For almost eighty years, this has been the United States Dollar. But we have squandered this position through our financial irresponsibility. As our sovereign debt approaches twenty trillion Dollars, nations and corporations can be forgiven for wondering if we will ever have the will or the means to pay back this astounding sum of money. They believe we will have to devalue our currency, i.e. print money, to settle what we owe as a country. Therefore, they are starting to look for other vehicles to store their wealth and settle their transactions in.

Even before signing this bilateral deal, China in particular has been one nation that has started to move its assets elsewhere to protect its interests. Vince Miller, senior market strategist at Birch Gold Group, believes that the Chinese are putting a staggering sum of their wealth into gold: “When China last reported their gold holdings in 2008, they had 1,054 tons. Since then, they’ve gone absolutely silent on how much they have, but if you start to add up the numbers – the reported imports flowing into the country each month, the estimated NON-reported imports on top of that, plus what the Chinese can mine in gold from within their borders – we wouldn’t be surprised if some recent reports that put the nation’s current holdings in the 3,000 to 5,000 ton range were accurate.”

As more nations make moves similar to the Chinese, the demand for Dollars will start to slide as this process unfolds. As there is less reserve currency demand, the value of the Dollar will fall. This will have a negative impact on the American consumer, as import prices will rise. The United States will be much more susceptible to economic crises; and the value of our currency will swing much more freely, making it much harder for businesses and individuals to manage their finances. Our standard of living will shrink further than it already has. No country has ever devalued its way to prosperity. Only banana republics try to do this. Americans also will have to pay much more when they travel overseas.

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Ben Shapiro: The VA Scandal Proves That Democrats’ Approach To Healthcare Doesn’t Work

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Photo Credit: IJ Review The on-going V.A. scandal has outraged many people across the country, both Democrats and Republicans alike. President Obama himself is “madder than hell” about the cooked and secret waiting lists, some of which may have led to the deaths of dozens of veterans and delayed care to many more.

In a column Thursday at Truth Revolt, Ben Shapiro writes that many Democrats and left-wing pundits actually lauded the V.A. as their model of a single-payer, government run healthcare system that could replace America’s current healthcare system.

Among those who idolized the V.A., Nobel Prize Winning economist and commentator, Paul Krugman:

Multiple surveys have found the VHA providing better care than most Americans receive, even as the agency has held cost increases well below those facing Medicare and private insurers…the VHA is an integrated system, which provides health care as well as paying for it.

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