Leftist Pastors Rebuke Franklin Graham for ‘Sins’ Against Christian Community [+video]

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franklinAfter Franklin Graham spoke boldly against the shooting of police officers, a group of pastors, theologians and professors are raising red flags . . .

In his Facebook post, Graham said it all boils down to respect for authority—something younger generations tend to be lacking.

“If a police officer tells you to lay down face first with your hands behind your back, you lay down face first with your hands behind your back. It’s as simple as that. Even if you think the police officer is wrong—YOU OBEY,” Graham writes.

But the group who penned the open letter—including Rachel Held Evans; Gail Song Bantum, whose church bought the old Mars Hill Church building; and Efrem Smith, among others—say Graham has sinned against the Christian community at large.

“You have sinned against us, fellow members of the body of Christ. … Your words hurt and influenced thousands. Therefore, we must respond publicly so that those you hurt might know you have received a reply and the hundreds of thousands you influenced might know that following your lead on this issue will break the body of Christ further,” they write [their open letter appears below]. (Read more from “Pastors Rebuke Franklin Graham for ‘Sins’ Against Christian Community” HERE)

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An Open Letter to Reverend Franklin Graham

Dear Rev. Graham,

We write to you in the spirit of Matthew 18: we aim to reconcile with you. You have sinned against us, fellow members of the body of Christ. While your comments on March 12 were just a Facebook post, your post was shared by more than 83,000 people and liked by nearly 200,000 as of Monday morning, March 14, 2015. Your words hurt and influenced thousands. Therefore, we must respond publicly so that those you hurt might know you have received a reply and the hundreds of thousands you influenced might know that following your lead on this issue will break the body of Christ further.

Frankly, Rev. Graham, your insistence that “Blacks, Whites, Latinos, and everybody else” “Listen up,” was crude, insensitive, and paternalistic. Your comments betrayed the confidence that your brothers and sisters in Christ, especially those of color, have afforded your father’s ministry for decades. Your instructions oversimplified a complex and critical problem facing the nation and minimized the testimonies and wisdom of people of color and experts of every hue, including six police commissioners that served on the president’s task force on policing reform.

In the nadir of your commentary, you tell everyone to “OBEY” any instruction from authorities and suggest that the recent shootings of unarmed citizens “might have been avoided” if the victims had submitted to authority.

And you bluntly insist, “It’s as simple as that.”

It is not that simple. As a leader in the church, you are called to be an ambassador of reconciliation. The fact that you identify a widely acknowledged social injustice as “simple” reveals your lack of empathy and understanding of the depth of sin that some in the body have suffered under the weight of our broken justice system. It also reveals a cavalier disregard for the enduring impacts and outcomes of the legal regimes that enslaved and oppressed people of color, made in the image of God — from Native American genocide and containment, to colonial and antebellum slavery, through Jim Crow and peonage, to our current system of mass incarceration and criminalization.

As your brothers and sisters in Christ, who are also called to lead the body, we are disappointed and grieved by your abuse of the Holy Scriptures. You lifted Hebrews 13:17 out of its biblical context and misappropriated it in a way that encourages believers to acquiesce to an injustice that God hates. That text refers to church leadership, not the secular leadership of Caesar.

Are you also aware that your commentary resonates with the types of misinterpretations and rhetoric echoed by many in the antebellum church? Are you aware that the southern slavocracy validated the systematic subjugation of human beings made in the image of God by instructing these enslaved human beings to “obey their masters because the Bible instructed them to do so?”

Your blanket insistence on obedience in every situation exposes an ignorance of church history. God called Moses to resist and disobey unjust authority. Joseph and Mary were led by the Spirit to seek asylum in Egypt, disobeying the unjust decrees passed down by authority figures in order to ensure the safety of Jesus. And Paul himself resisted authority and ultimately wrote Romans 13 from jail.

In modern times, Christian brothers and sisters abided by Paul’s command to the persecuted Roman church. They presented their bodies as living sacrifices. They refused to conform to the oppressive patterns of this world. Rather, they were transformed by the renewing of their minds. (Romans 12:1-2) Throughout the Jim Crow South, in El Salvador, and in the townships and cities of South Africa Jesus followers disobeyed civil authority as an act of obedience to God — the ultimate authority, the Lord, who loves and demands justice (Psalm 146:5-9, Isaiah 58, Isaiah 61, Micah 4:1-5, all the prophets, Luke 4:16-21, Luke 10:25-37, Matthew 25:31-46, Galatians 3:27-28). Likewise, Christians who marched in Ferguson, Mo., New York City, and Madison, Wis., follow in the holy footsteps of their faithful predecessors.

As one who understands human depravity, your statement demonstrates a profound disregard for the impact of sinful individuals when given power to craft systems and structures that govern millions. The outcome is oppression and impoverishment — in a word, injustice.

Finally, if you insist on blind obedience, then you must also insist that officers of the justice system obey the U.S. Constitution, which protects the right of all to equal protection under the law. Yet, reports confirm unconscious racial biases in policing, booking, sentencing, and in return produce racially disparate outcomes within our broken justice system.

Likewise, you must also call on officers to honor their sworn duty to protect and serve without partiality. The Federal Bureau of Investigations director, James B. Comey, acknowledges that law enforcement has fallen short of this mandate : “First, all of us in law enforcement must be honest enough to acknowledge that much of our history is not pretty. At many points in American history, law enforcement enforced the status quo, a status quo that was often brutally unfair to disfavored groups.”

Let us be clear: We love, support, and pray for our police officers. We understand that many are doing an excellent job under extremely trying circumstances. We also understand that many officers are burdened by systems that routinely mete out inequitable racialized outcomes.

For the past nine months, many of your fellow Christian clergy have been engaged in sorrowful lament, prayerful protest, spirit-led conversations, and careful scriptural study to discern a Godly response to these inequitable racialized outcomes within America’s justice system. We have wrestled with God like Jacob, begging God to bless us with peace in our streets and justice in our courts.

Rev. Graham, as our brother in Christ and as a leader in the church, we forgive you and we pray that one day you will recognize and understand the enduring legacy of the institution of race in our nation.

Now is the time for you to humbly listen to the cries of lamentation rising nationwide. We do not expect you to be an expert in racial issues, police brutality, or even the many factors that go in to our complicated and unjust criminal system. We do, however, expect you to follow the example of leaders and followers of Jesus throughout the scriptures and modern history. We expect you to seek wise counsel and guidance first from those who bear the weight of the injustice and second from other experts in the field.

Ultimately, we invite you to join us in the ongoing work of the ministry of reconciliation.

In Jesus,

Onleilove Alston
Executive Director
Faith in New York

Dr. Brian Bantum
Associate Professor of Theology
Seattle Pacific University

Rev. Leroy Barber
Global Executive Director, Word Made Flesh
Chair of the Board, Christian Community Development Association

Rev. Phil Bowling Dyer
National Director, Black Campus Ministries
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship

Austin Channing Brown
Resident Director and Multicultural Liaison
Calvin College

Dr. Mae Elise Cannon
Author, Social Justice Handbook and Just Spirituality
Co-author, Forgive Us: Confessions of a Compromised Faith

Dr. Christena Cleveland
Associate Professor of Reconciliation Studies
Bethel University

Rev. Dr. Orlando Crespo
Latino Leadership Circle
Board Member, National Latino Evangelical Coalition

Rev. Léonce B. Crump Jr.
Lead Pastor
Renovation Church

Dr. Curtiss Paul DeYoung
Executive Director
Community Renewal Society

Rachel Held Evans
Author, Blogger, Advocate

Rev. Dominique Gilliard
Executive Pastor
New Hope Covenant Church in Oakland, CA

Josh Harper
National Director for Urban Programs
Intervarsity Christian Fellowship

Lisa Sharon Harper
Chief Church Engagement Officer
Sojourners

Dr. Troy Jackson
Director, The AMOS Project
Co-author, Forgive Us: Confessions of a Compromised Faith

Micky ScottBey Jones
Director of Training and Program Development
Transform Network

Kathy Khang
Intervarsity Christian Fellowship

Steve Knight
Co-founder
Transform Network

Rev. Michael McBride
Pastor
The Way Christian Center in Berkeley, CA

Jimmy McGee
CEO and President
The Impact Movement

Rev. Soong-Chan Rah
Milton B. Engebretson Professor of Church Growth and Evangelism
North Park Theological Seminary

Rev. Alexia Salvatierra
Coordinator of Welcoming Congregations Network
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Dr. Andrea Smith
Board Member
North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies

Rev. Efrem Smith
President and CEO
World Impact

Rev. Gail Song Bantum
Executive Pastor
Quest Church

Alexie Torres-Fleming
Organizer, Advocate, Speaker

Jonathan Walton
Blogger, College Student Organizer, Poet

Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove
Director
School for Conversion

Jim Wallis
President and Founder
Sojourners

Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner
President, Skinner Leadership Institute
Co-Chair, National African American Clergy Network

Ken Wytsma
President
Kilns College

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Chris Rock Explains How Not to Get Your A** Kicked by the Cops

Franklin Graham’s advice was not too far removed from what Chris Rock advised in the following [very salty] comedy routine.

WARNING: this video contains obscene language:

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‘In Islam, They Are All Rotten Apples’: Ex-Muslim’s Call for Religion’s Reboot [+video]

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051006ALI016LRThere was a time when author and activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali believed it all: that, according to Islam, the infidel should die, that the Quran is infallible, that those who violated sharia law — thieves, gays, adulterers — deserved to be stoned to death or beheaded, as they were each Friday in a public gathering place she and her brother called “Chop-Chop Square.”

Today, she is that rare thing: a public intellectual who, despite death threats and charges of bigotry, calls for an end to Islam — not just as the faithful know it, but as we in the West think we know it.

“The assumption is that, in Islam, there are a few rotten apples, not the entire basket,” Ali tells The Post. “I’m saying it’s the entire basket.”

In her book, “Heretic,” Ali argues for a complete reformation of Islam, akin to the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. Though her own education led her to reject Islam and declare herself an atheist, she believes that for the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims, there must be another way.

“If you are a child brought up to believe that Islam is a source of morality” — as she was, in Africa and Saudi Arabia — “the Muslim framework presents you with the Quran and the hijab. I don’t want to be cruel and say, ‘You grow up and you snap out of it.’ But maybe we who have snapped out of it have not done our best to appeal to those still in it,” she says. (Read more from “‘In Islam, They Are All Rotten Apples’: Ex-Muslim’s Call for Religion’s Reboot” HERE)

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12-Year-Old Girl Accused of Trying to Poison Mother for This Bizzare Reason

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iphoneeBy Emily Shapiro. A 12-year-old Colorado girl has been detained for allegedly trying to kill her mother twice by poisoning her drinks with bleach, after her mother took away her iPhone, police said.

The woman first felt sick on March 2, after drinking a smoothie, according to the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office. While she noticed the smell of bleach from her glass, the woman assumed her daughter hadn’t rinsed it properly, according to the sheriff’s office.

Then a few days later, the mother again recognized the smell of bleach coming from something she was going to drink and she confronted the pre-teen, the sheriff’s office said. The girl allegedly told her she wanted to kill her because she took away her iPhone, according to the sheriff’s office.

The girl had allegedly poured bleach into her mother’s water carafe, the sheriff’s office said. (Read more from “12-Year-Old Girl Accused of Trying to Poison Mother for This Bizzare Reason” HERE)

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Are Smartphones Making Our Children Mentally Ill?

By Peter Stanford. Julie Lynn Evans has been a child psychotherapist for 25 years, working in hospitals, schools and with families, and she says she has never been so busy.


“In the 1990s, I would have had one or two attempted suicides a year – mainly teenaged girls taking overdoses, the things that don’t get reported. Now, I could have as many as four a month.”

And it’s not, she notes, simply a question of her reputation as both a practitioner and a writer drawing so many people to the door of her cosy consulting rooms in west London where we meet. “If I try to refer people on, everyone else is choc-a-bloc too. We are all saying the same thing. There has been an explosion in numbers in mental health problems amongst youngsters” . . .

“Something is clearly happening,” she says, “because I am seeing the evidence in the numbers of depressive, anorexic, cutting children who come to see me. And it always has something to do with the computer, the Internet and the smartphone.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Where is this in the Constitution?! Feds to Weigh Children in Daycare

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first ladyBureaucrats from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will weigh and measure children in daycare as part of a study mandated by First Lady Michelle Obama’s Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act.

The agency published a notice in the Federal Register on Friday proposing data collection on what meals are served in professional and home daycare facilities and how much physical activity children perform.

Aside from assessing how healthy the food in daycare is, the USDA will also check the weight and height of roughly 3,000 children . . .

The study is required by section 223 of Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, which was championed by Mrs. Obama and passed in 2010. The main aspect of the law implemented new standards for school lunches . . .

“The intent of the study is to document the quality of meals and snacks offered in childcare facilities, relative to the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA), which are prepared by USDA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the types of activities that might promote or inhibit healthy weight and development,” the USDA said. “The study will also provide insights into how nutritional quality and physical activity in childcare might be improved. Lastly, the study will collect data on the costs of childcare meals and snacks in relationship to CACFP reimbursements, other funding, and meal quality.” (Read more from “Feds to Weigh Children in Daycare” HERE)

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Weedkiller Alert over Cancer Link Worrisome to Gardeners, Farmers

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round upThe World Health Organisation’s cancer agency has declared that one of the UK’s most widely used weedkillers is “probably carcinogenic to humans”.

Amateur gardeners and professional farmers have been urged to “think very carefully” about using the popular herbicide Roundup, which contains glyphosate.

A summary of the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s (IARC) report, published in The Lancet Oncology, said that the herbicide had been detected “in air during spraying, in water, and in food”.

It had also been detected “in the blood and urine of agricultural workers, indicating absorption”.

Andreas Kortenkamp, professor of human toxicology at Brunel University, London, said that the people who are most at risk are those applying the weedkiller to their plants. (Read more from “Weedkiller Alert over Cancer Link” HERE)

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Church Sign About ‘Legalizing Sin’ Draws Controversy [+videos]

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cHURCHBy Chellie Mills. A controversial church sign about “legalizing sin” is the talk of one Oklahoma town.

One person says they feel the sign seems to be about recent marriage laws in Oklahoma.

However, others in the community interpreted it differently.

“I really don’t know what that pertains to,” Rodney, a Seminole resident, said.

The sign is posted on the wall of the Amazing Grace Pentecostal Church along Highway 99. (Read more from “Church Sign About ‘Legalizing Sin’ Draws Controversy [+video]” HERE)

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Controversial Marriage License Bill Passes House, Headed to Senate

By Abby Broyles. A bill passed by the Oklahoma House of Representatives would change the way marriage licenses are issued.

That duty would fall under responsibility of members of the clergy or those authorized to perform marriage ceremonies.

Some lawyers are saying the bill is unconstitutional.

The author of House Bill 1125, Rep. Todd Russ, wrote it in response to the Supreme Court’s decision making same-sex marriage Constitutional.

He said Oklahoma should be able to go around the decision, but legal experts say that’s not how it works. (Read more from this story HERE)

Coma Victim Comes Back to Life After Hearing Doctors Ask Her Husband the Unthinkable

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coma victimA mother has described how she heard a doctor asking her husband about switching off her life-support as she lay in a medically-induced coma after collapsing from a rare condition.

Jenny Bone, who was feared to have catastrophic brain damage after going into cardiac arrest, lay listening to the life-or-death conversation but was paralysed and unable to intervene.

She recalls her husband John ruling out ending her life – despite a previous conversation when she said she wanted to die if incapacitated permanently. The 40-year-old later recovered and now says she is relieved he went against her wishes.

‘I was aware of conversations around me,’ she said. ‘The most frequent one was being turned in the bed. A familiar “ready, steady, turn” would come from the nurses.

‘The most alarming was between a doctor and my husband enquiring as to my wishes surrounding being kept alive on a ventilator and that they were unsure whether my mental ability had been impaired due to lack of oxygen while they were attempting to restart my heart. (Read more from “Coma Victim Comes Back to Life After Hearing Doctors Ask Her Husband the Unthinkable” HERE)

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Watch: Pro-Hillary Ad That Exploits Little Girls Sparks Social Media Backlash; ‘An Embarrassment for the Left’

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hclintonnTwisted new political ads in support of Hillary Clinton confirm that world truly is – upside down.

Luke Montgomery is the “brains” behind the political ads that were released Wednesday. He’s also the same opportunist who made a 2014 viral video of little girls dropping F-bomb’s.

This time, he exploited little girls to promote Hillary Clinton and urge people to sign a petition to support her if she decides to run for president . . .

The little feminists in training run through the streets wearing patriotic colors and demonstrate for the camera the clear indoctrination and misinformation that’s been drilled into their heads.

It all adds up, as one Twitter user puts it, to “an embarrassment for the left” (if they were capable of it). (Read more from “Watch: Pro-Hillary Ad That Exploits Little Girls Sparks Social Media Backlash; ‘An Embarrassment for the Left'” HERE)

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Popular Black Rapper Tells Playboy She Hates ‘Everything About This Country,’ Especially ‘Fat, White Americans’

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Photo Credit: The Bear Collective
Rapper Azealia Banks, who generally uses controversy to sell her lackluster music, is at it again — this time disparaging America and “fat, white” people.

“I hate everything about this country,” the New York born rapper told Playboy Magazine. “Like, I hate fat white Americans. All the people who are crunched into the middle of America, the real fat and meat of America, are these racist conservative white people who live on their farms. Those little teenage girls who work at Kmart and have a racist grandma — that’s really America.”

And of course she believes that — despite her tremendous success considering her egregious lack of talent — she is a victim of racism.

“It’s always about race,” she said, comparing herself to white pop sensation Lorde.

“Lorde can run her mouth and talk shit about all these other b**ches, but y’all aren’t saying she’s angry. If I have something to say, I get pushed into the corner.” (Read more from “Popular Black Rapper Tells Playboy She Hates ‘Everything About This Country,’ Especially ‘Fat, White Americans'” HERE)

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Democrats Block Human Trafficking Bill, Complaining about Abortion Language

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An anti-human trafficking bill that just two weeks ago had broad, bipartisan support was filibustered and stalled Tuesday by Senate Democrats upset over anti-abortion language they claim was subtly inserted into the measure.

The Justice for Victims in Trafficking Act fell five votes short of garnering the 60 needed to advance in the chamber. The legislation would create a federal fund for victims’ services and law enforcement tools financed by fines levied on convicted traffickers.

Democrats objected to a section of the bill that nodded to the Hyde Amendment – a nearly four-decade-old legislative provision that bans taxpayer-funded abortions. Language in the trafficking bill prohibited funds raised by the fines to be used for abortions.

“The partisan provision embedded in the Senate version of this bill is not something the survivors of human trafficking are asking for,” Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said Tuesday.

[T]he bill’s author and the chamber’s majority whip, decried the Democrats’ opposition, saying Tuesday he feared the Senate was “losing its soul.” (Read more from “Democrats Block Human Trafficking Bill over Abortion Language” HERE)

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