In an amazing story of redemption, a former Atheist who was raised by gay parents is now an influential pastor who seeks to minister to those struggling with same-sex attraction and encourage them to see Christ as their main identity.
Caleb Kaltenbach, the pastor of Discovery Church in Simi Valley, California and author of the book “Messy Grace”, shared his inspiring testimony during a podcast interview with The Church Boys . . .
After three years of serving in Dallas, he felt called to move back to Southern California to lead Discovery Church in Simi Valley. Two weeks before he left, both of his parents gave their lives to the Lord: “I was floored … how did this happen? To this day, I’m still not sure. I do believe my parents are saved.”
Today, Kaltenbach works to minister to those who may feel alienated from the Christian community due to past experiences: “I believe any expression of sexuality outside of heterosexual marriage is sinful,” he said of how he interacts with the LGBT community, “but I don’t believe God called me to make gay people straight.”
“I completely concur that God designed sexuality to be between a man and a woman, but that’s not the first thing I talk about with somebody that’s gay,” he continued. I want to get to know them as a person, to build a friendship.” (Read more from “Pastor Who Was Raised by Gay Parents Reveals How Churches Can Minister to Homosexuals” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2015-11-19 00:15:082016-04-11 10:56:00Pastor Who Was Raised by Gay Parents Reveals How Churches Can Minister to Homosexuals
All drugs including cocaine, heroin and crystal meth will be legal in drug-scarred Mexico within 10 years, former Mexican President Vicente Fox believes, after a court ruling that he said makes the legalization of marijuana inevitable.
“I think marijuana (legalization) is a first step,” Fox said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “It’s now irreversible.”
Fox was president between 2000 and 2006 and became an advocate of legalizing drugs after leaving office.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court approved growing marijuana for recreational use. The landmark decision blasts open the door for an eventual legalization in Mexico, where warring gangs have waged a decade of drug violence.
Now that the court has ruled that it is unconstitutional to prevent people from smoking marijuana, Fox said it would eventually have to make a similar decision for drugs like cocaine and heroin. (Read more from “Ex-Mexico President Sees Cocaine, Heroin Legal in Decade” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-19 00:14:472016-04-11 10:56:00Ex-Mexico President Sees Cocaine, Heroin Legal in Decade
Two Lakeville, Minnesota girls who have been missing since 2013 have been found. Gianna and Samantha Rucki, ages 17 and 16, disappeared in April 2013 during a bitter custody battle between their parents.
Police found the girls Wednesday on a horse farm in Herman, Minn., about 40 miles west of Alexandria, Minn. Authorities suspect an underground support group has been helping to hide the girls all this time . . .
“During the afternoon hours of November 18, 2015, the Lakeville Police Department, along with U.S. Marshals and the Grant County Sheriff’s Department, executed a Search Warrant relating directly to the missing Rucki sisters, Samantha and Gianna. Both Samantha and Gianna were found safe and in seemingly good health at the residence where the Search Warrant was executed. The sisters will return to Dakota County where the unification process can begin.” (Read more from “Stunning Discovery: Missing Minnesota Girls Found 2 Years Later on Farm” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2015-11-19 00:14:232016-04-11 10:56:00Stunning Discovery: Missing Minnesota Girls Found 2 Years Later on Farm
By Mark Hensch. Donald Trump named this senator when asked about his possible running mate in 2016.
“Ted Cruz is now agreeing with me 100 percent,” he said when asked about his vice presidential pick, according to Lifezette.
“Well, I like him,” Trump told radio host Laura Ingraham during her broadcast. “He’s backed everything I’ve said.”
Unlike most of the Republican presidential hopefuls, Cruz has mostly refrained from attacking Trump, even appearing alongside him at a rally in September against the Iran nuclear deal.
The pair has also struck similar tones on topics such as border security and illegal immigration. (Read more from “Here’s Who Trump Wants for VP Spot” HERE)
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Trump Says He Can ‘Feel’ When Terrorism Is Coming
By Eric Levitz. At the third Republican debate, CNBC’s John Harwood pointed to a few of Donald Trump’s more outlandish campaign promises – his vow to get Mexico to buy us a border wall, or to cut taxes by $10 trillion without raising the deficit – and asked whether Trump was running “the comic book version of a presidential campaign.” At the time, Trump took offense at such an outrageous characterization of his very serious candidacy. But last night in Tennessee, the GOP front-runner went full comic book, revealing that he has been gifted with a supernatural, crime-fighting power.
“In my book I predicted terrorism because I can feel it,” Trump told supporters at Tennessee’s Knoxville Convention Center on Monday night. “I can feel it like I feel a good location … I really believe I have an instinct for this kind of thing.” (Read more from “Trump Says He Can ‘Feel’ When Terrorism Is Coming” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-18 00:49:582016-04-11 10:56:00Here’s Who Trump Wants for VP Spot; Trump Says He Can ‘Feel’ When Terrorism Is Coming
By Valerie Richardson. Less than 3 percent of the Syrian refugees admitted to the United States so far are Christian and 96 percent are Muslim, the result of a referral system that Republican Sen. Tom Cotton says “unintentionally discriminates” against Christians.
State Department figures released Monday showed that the current system overwhelmingly favors Muslim refugees. Of the 2,184 Syrian refugees admitted to the United States so far, only 53 are Christians while 2,098 are Muslim, the Christian News Service reported.
Mr. Cotton and Sen. John Boozman, both Arkansas Republicans, called Monday for a moratorium on resettlements, a White House report on vetting procedures, and a re-evaluation of the refugee-referral process.
“[T]he United States’ reliance on the United Nations for referrals of Syrian refugees should also be re-evaluated,” said Mr. Cotton in a statement. “That reliance unintentionally discriminates against Syrian Christians and other religious minorities who are reluctant to register as refugees with the United Nations for fear of political and sectarian retribution.”
The current system relies on referrals from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Syria’s population in 2011 was 90 percent Muslim and 10 percent Christian, CNS said. (Read more from “US Discriminates Against Christian Refugees, Accepts 96% Muslims, 3% Christians” HERE)
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So Far: Syrian Refugees in US Include 2,098 Muslims, 53 Christians
By Patrick Goodenough. President Obama said Monday that calls from some quarters for the U.S. to admit only Christian refugees from Syria were “shameful,” yet the reality is that today’s refugee system discriminates, not against Syrian Muslims, but against Christians and other non-Muslim minorities.
Critics say this is because the federal government relies on the United Nations in the refugee application process – and since Syrian Christians are often afraid to register with the U.N., they and other non-Muslims are left out.
Fleeing persecution at the hands of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and other jihadist groups, Syrian Christians generally avoid U.N. refugee camps because they are targeted there too.
Most refugees considered for resettlement in the U.S. are referred by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Applications are then handled by one of nine State Department-managed resettlement support centers around the world, a process that includes vetting and interviews by the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and takes an average of 18-24 months. There are occasions when a process can begin without UNHCR referral, but this usually applies in cases of close relatives of refugees already in the U.S. (Read more from “So Far: Syrian Refugees in U.S. Include 2,098 Muslims, 53 Christians” HERE)
Per NZHerald, two or three men have barricaded themselves in an apartment in Paris and are exchanging automatic weapon gunfire with police officers, according to journalist Djamel Mazi, who is live tweeting the action from Paris.
Mazi reported the sound of explosions had been heard from the area where the gunfight was taking place. He said locals were told to leave the area as police are attempting to catch one of the suspects from Friday’s shooting in Paris.
(Read more from “Watch: Heavy Gunfire Breaks out in Paris as Police Hunt for Terrorists” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-18 00:47:522016-04-11 10:56:01Watch: Heavy Gunfire Breaks out in Paris as Police Hunt for Terrorists
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) on Tuesday announced he is suspending his campaign for the White House.
“I’ve come to the realization that it is not my time,” Jindal said during an early evening Fox News interview with Bret Baier. “I am suspending my campaign for president of the United States . .
Jindal’s campaign failed to resonate with voters since his entrance into the 2016 race last summer.
He never appeared in a main stage GOP presidential debate based on his low polling numbers, which often have registered at or below 1 percent.
During the Fox interview, Jindal declined to immediately name a GOP rival that he would support. Fourteen candidates remain in the Republican race. (Read more from “This GOP Candidate Just Dropped out of the Race” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-18 00:46:532016-04-11 10:56:01This GOP Candidate Just Dropped out of the Race
Ben Carson’s super-PAC created a new commercial in response to the Paris terrorist attacks, highlighting the retired neurosurgeon’s hardline opposition to allowing Syrian refugees into the U.S.
In the ad — titled “Courage,” which is expected to be run alongside two others as an online or TV commercial in the early states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina — Carson criticizes President Obama for welcoming refugees from Syria.
Carson’s voiceover declares: “When the president says things like, you know, through an executive order, ‘I’m going to bring 100,000 people in here from Syria,’ Congress needs to say ‘you do that and we’re going to defund everything, including your breakfast.'”
The 100,000 figure does not reflect Obama’s current policy. The president has said he plans to resettle at least 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year.
The chairman of the pro-Carson super-PAC, John Philip Sousa IV, said in a telephone interview that Friday’s terrorism caused his super-PAC — named The 2016 Committee — to insert the Syrian refugee message and get the ad out quickly. (Read more from “Watch: Carson Super-PAC Releases Anti-Syrian Refugee Ad” HERE)
Since his election, President Obama has gone out of his way to praise the tenets of Islam–sometimes even at the expense of Christianity. A few of his greatest hits include:
– “We are no longer a Christian nation.”
– “Since our founding, Muslim Americans have enriched the United States” . . .
Here’s a trip down memory lane of President Obama bending over backwards to make nice with Muslims.
(Read more from “Here’s a Montage of All the Times Obama Praised Islam–Even at the Expense of Christianity” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-18 00:45:132016-04-11 10:56:01Watch: Here’s a Montage of All the Times Obama Praised Islam–Even at the Expense of Christianity
On Nov. 12, President Barack Obama said of ISIS: “What is true is that from the start, our goal has been first to contain, and we have contained them.”
On Nov. 13, ISIS-connected terrorists left 129 people dead and 352 wounded in Paris.
ISIS naturally dominated Obama’s Monday press conference at the G20 summit in Turkey. Yet although the president used the words “leader” and “leadership” fourteen times, the concept was, ironically, absent from his remarks. Speaking with as much passion as an instructional video on waste reclamation, he doubled down on his legacy of inaction, infighting, and incompetence.
The first question came from a reporter for Agence France-Presse: “The equation has clearly changed. Isn’t it time for your strategy to change?”
The president responded, “Well, keep in mind what we’ve been doing.” He then delivered a laundry list of international cooperation, targeted airstrikes, and economic pressure aimed at thwarting the Islamic State. The implication: He’s already on the right track. Nothing needs changing.
Not once did he address what was obvious to the reporter and the world: The Paris atrocity has demonstrated that his ill-defined strategy to “degrade” ISIS is a failure, one that has endangered the Western world and that clearly needs to change.
He grossly caricatured those who take issue with his strategy—or lack thereof—as “a few who have suggested that we should put large numbers of U.S. troops on the ground” and implied that his only option was the current course, “unless we’re prepared to have a permanent occupation of these countries.” This rhetoric has become a pattern: When faced with credible criticism, create false choices.
That the president is entirely unwilling to accept the need for improvement or adaptation in the light of this obvious foreign policy failure leads to uncomfortable questions about how insulated from reality the man might be.
There have been few lapses in leadership as maddening—and insulting to the American people—as Obama’s refusal to outline a clear path to victory against a force that certainly has a clear strategy against free nations: indiscriminate bloodshed.
A strategy connects ends and means—what is our goal (end), and how do we get there (means)? It is not clear what Obama’s goal is. Is it to destroy ISIS? Or just to keep their damage to a minimum so that it becomes the next president’s problem?
To be sure, Obama landed some pre-emptive strikes, but they were against Americans who happen to be Republicans:
You know, I had a lot of disagreements with George W. Bush on policy, but I was very proud after 9/11 when he was adamant and clear about the fact that this is not a war on Islam. And the notion that some of those who have taken on leadership in his party would ignore all of that, that’s not who we are.
The president proves more artful at destroying straw men dressed up as GOP presidential hopefuls than he is at targeting terrorists. I suppose he is most afraid of the group that endangers him professionally.
Further, he condemned as “shameful” American governors who have demanded closer vetting of Syrian refugees or refused to accept them from Washington. In light of the fact that at least one attacker in Paris had a Syrian passport, and that high numbers of those entering Europe are neither Syrian nor refugees, the governors’ concern seems prudent rather than pernicious. Slandering them for prioritizing the safety of their own citizens is as galling as it is cowardly.
The president’s clear intention was to use the aftermath of the Paris atrocity to make excuses and launch partisan political attacks. It will be difficult to unify against ISIS behind a man who is more interested in dividing his own countrymen.
Obama’s remarks on Monday morning could have been his “Tear Down This Wall” moment, his “Never Give In.” Instead, we got “I’m Too Busy for That.”
Obama’s remarks in Turkey will be studied in history and foreign policy curricula for years to come as a prideful dereliction of leadership. (For more from the author of “After Paris, Obama’s Abandonment of Leadership” please click HERE)
