Pastor Who Was Raised by Gay Parents Reveals How Churches Can Minister to Homosexuals

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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)

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Stunning Discovery: Missing Minnesota Girls Found 2 Years Later on Farm

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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)

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U.S. Top Court Rejects Pro-Life Group’s Planned Parenthood Case

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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an anti-abortion group’s bid to force the federal government to reveal more information about a $1 million grant it made in 2011 to women’s health provider Planned Parenthood in New Hampshire.

The nine justices rejected an appeal filed by New Hampshire Right to Life, a group that sued the federal government under freedom of information law to find out about the arrangement.

The Supreme Court’s action leaves in place a February ruling by the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in favor of the government.

The government already has revealed some details about the grant, but New Hampshire Right to Life sought more, including a Planned Parenthood internal document that explains how the group operates its clinics.

Planned Parenthood, which provides abortions as well as health services for women, has been under fire for months by Republican lawmakers and anti-abortion activists over a series of videos produced by an anti-abortion group that purport to show that it improperly sells fetal tissue to researchers for profit. (Read more from “U.S. Top Court Rejects Anti-Abortion Group’s Planned Parenthood Case’ HERE)

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‘Moschino Barbie Is so Fierce!’: Boy Stars in New Barbie Commercial

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The new Moschino Barbie is a huge hit (currently sold-out!), and its commercial is breaking boundaries by featuring a young boy in it.

“Moschino Barbie is so fierce!” the boy screams as he and two female friends laud the doll, done up in designer Jeremy Scott’s sleek glamour.

(Read more from “‘Moschino Barbie Is so Fierce!’: Boy Stars in New Barbie Commercial” HERE)

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Husband of 9/11 Hero Sends Award Back Over Bruce Jenner

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The husband of a cop killed on 9/11 returned his wife’s posthumous Woman of the Year award to Glamour after the magazine gave the same honor last week to Caitlyn Jenner.

James Smith told The Post he yanked the award off the shelf in his Long Island home dedicated to his wife, Moira, and FedExed it back to the magazine.

Moira, who died at the age of 38 after rushing into the south tower, was honored by the magazine a month after her death . . .

“I was shocked and saddened to learn that Glamour has just named Bruce Jenner ‘Woman of the Year,’ ” Smith wrote in his scathing missive of the former Olympic track star and Kardashian reality-show patriarch.

“Was there no woman in America, or the rest of the world, more deserving than this man?” Smith wrote. “At a time when we have women in the armed forces fighting and dying for our country, heroic doctors fighting deadly diseases, women police and firefighters putting their lives on the line for total strangers, brave women overcoming life threatening diseases … the list of possibilities goes on … is this the best you could do?” (Read more from “Husband of 9/11 Hero Sends Award Back Over Bruce Jenner” HERE)

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University to Rename Two Buildings That Reflect School’s Ties to Slavery

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Georgetown University will rename two buildings named for school presidents who organized the sale of Jesuit-owned slaves to help pay off campus debt in the 1830s, the university’s president announced.

Mulledy Hall, a new student dormitory named for the president who authorized the sale of about 272 slaves to a Louisiana plantation owner in 1838, will be called Freedom Hall until a permanent name is chosen.

McSherry Hall, which houses a meditation center and was named for another university president who served as an adviser on the slave sale, will be called Remembrance Hall until it is renamed.

In a letter e-mailed to the Georgetown community Saturday evening, President John J. DeGioia said he was changing the names based on a recommendation he received Friday from his Working Group on Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation. DeGioia appointed the panel of 16 administrators, faculty and students in September to examine slavery­-related sites on campus . . .

The announcement came amid weeks of heightened racial tensions at some U.S. universities, including a demonstration Thursday in Georgetown’s Red Square. A reported 250 Georgetown students and other activists gathered to show solidarity with students protesting the failure of administrators at the University of Missouri and Yale University to take complaints about racism and racial incidents on their campuses seriously. (Read more from “University to Rename Two Buildings That Reflect School’s Ties to Slavery” HERE)

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Starbucks to Become an LGBT ‘Safe Place’

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Starbucks announced Wednesday that its Seattle stores are officially “Safe Places” for members of the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) community.

Partnering with the Seattle Police Department’s “Safe Place” program, 97 of Starbucks’ stores in the Seattle area will finish specific employee training early next week on “how to respond to and engage with LGBT victims of violence and effectively report hate crimes to police.”

“Safe Place,” started by openly gay Seattle Police Officer Jim Ritter, is a campaign against bias crimes. Since May, Officer Ritter has spoken with 650 businesses across Seattle, all of whom have supported the campaign, displaying rainbow-badge decals in their windows . . .

Starbucks may serve as precedent for other large companies to support the initiative as well. With 2,000 extra pairs of eyes, Ritter is convinced the program will help “put bullies on notice that they can’t get away with victimizing people.”

Starbucks has shown its support for the LGBT community in other ways recently, raising a gay pride flag at its Seattle headquarters and airing a commercial featuring contestants from “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” Bianca Del Rio and Adore Delano. (Read more from “Starbucks to Become an LGBT ‘Safe Place'” HERE)

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The Astonishing Amount of Data Being Collected About Your Children

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Parental concerns about student privacy have been rising in recent years amid the growing use by schools, school districts and states use technology to collect mountains of detailed information on students. Last year, a controversial $100 million student data collection project funded by the Gates Foundation and operated by a specially created nonprofit organization called inBloom was forced to shut down because of these concerns, an episode that served as a warning to parents about just how much information about their children is being shared without their knowledge.

Here’s an important piece on the issue by Leonie Haimson and Cheri Kiesecker. Haimson was a leading advocate against the inBloom project who then, along with Rachael Stickland, created the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy, a national alliance of parents and advocates defending the rights of parents and students to protect their data. Kiesecker is a member of the coalition.

Remember that ominous threat from your childhood, “This will go down on your permanent record?” Well, your children’s permanent record is a whole lot bigger today and it may be permanent. Information about your children’s behavior and nearly everything else that a school or state agency knows about them is being tracked, profiled and potentially shared.

During a February 2015 congressional hearing on “How Emerging Technology Affects Student Privacy,” Rep. Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin asked the panel to “provide a summary of all the information collected by the time a student reaches graduate school.” Joel Reidenberg, director of the Center on Law & Information Policy at Fordham Law School, responded:

“Just think George Orwell, and take it to the nth degree. We’re in an environment of surveillance, essentially. It will be an extraordinarily rich data set of your life.”

(Read more from “The Astonishing Amount of Data Being Collected About Your Children” HERE)

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‘Love Note’ Lands Fourth Grade Student in Principal’s Office

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Many of us remember passing a love note to our first crush, but for one Hillsborough fourth grader, a note had school administrators using phrases like “sexual harassment” . . .

“[He told his crush] how she wears the same uniform and how her eyes sparkled like diamonds,” his mother said.

But soon, she says other students found out about the note and started teasing her son about wanting to see the little girl naked.

“That’s when the principal proceeded to tell me that it wasn’t appropriate that he was writing the note and that if he writes another note, they are going to file sexual harassment charges on my 9-year-old,” the mom said.

Hillsborough school district said they did not threaten to involve authorities. But they did say the boy wrote more than one note and that the notes were unwanted, so that borders on harassment. (Read more from “‘Love Note’ Lands Fourth Grade Student in Principal’s Office” HERE)

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Teacher Fired for Refusing to Address Girl, 6, as Transgender Boy

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A federal discrimination complaint has been filed on behalf of a [Texas] educator who says she was wrongly terminated for refusing to address a 6-year-old girl as a transgender boy, the teacher’s attorneys said Tuesday.

Madeline Kirksey, of Houston, who worked at the Children’s Lighthouse Learning Center location on Clay Road, was fired Nov. 3 after she would not agree to treat the child as a male and call the child by a new male name, according to a copy of the filing with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Attorney Andy Taylor pointed to Kirksey’s protected class as a black female over 40 who holds religious convictions. “All of those rights were not vindicated but destroyed,” Taylor said.

Taylor represented the plaintiffs who challenged the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, which was originally passed by the city council but was repealed by Houston voters last week. Taylor is joined in Kirksey’s case by attorney Briscoe Cain. Kirksey’s pastor also attended and spoke at a morning news conference at a Galleria-area hotel.

Reached by phone Tuesday, Jamie Izaks, a spokesman for the Children’s Lighthouse Learning Centers, said Kirksey was not fired because of the matter relating to the transgender student. He said he could not comment on matters related to employment. (Read more from “Teacher Fired for Refusing to Address Girl, 6, as Transgender Boy” HERE)

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