Miami threatens to evict congregation over Pastor’s sermons calling homosexuality sin (+video)

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A Miami pastor is fighting back after the head of the Miami-Dade school district threatened to evict his church, which rents space on Sunday in one of the district’s schools, because of the pastor’s public stand against homosexuality.

After President Obama came out publicly in support of same-sex marriage, Pastor Jack Hakimian of Impact Miami, a Southern Baptist congregation that rents space on Sundays in North Miami High School, began to preach sermons pointing out that, according to the Bible, homosexual behavior is a sin.

According to Baptist Press News, the school district’s superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, responded to the sermons with a statement that Hakimian’s take on homosexuality “appears to be contrary to school board policy as well as the basic principles of humanity.” Carvalho told ABC television news affiliate local10.com that he had asked “for immediate legal review to seek the termination” of the church’s lease contract with the school district. “I am making this decision not on the basis of policy or politics, but as a rejection of prejudice and intolerance,” claimed Carvalho.

A spokesman for the district followed up Carvalho’s comments, saying that the school board and superintendent had reviewed the “allegations” against the pastor and found his words “disturbing and appalling.”

Hakimian immediately responded to Carvalho’s threats by calling a press conference and demanding an apology from the superintendent and a promise that the district would stop its harassment. “I never thought I’d be penalized for teaching on Christian marriage and sexual ethics from the Bible, the very Bible that presidents swear on, in a privately rented space at an event not sponsored by the school or district,” the Miami Herald quoted Hakimian as saying. “We ask Mr. Carvalho to retract his intolerant statements, apologize, and commit to never again to bully or discriminate against those he disagrees with.”

Here’s the video of Pastor Hakimian’s press conference responding to Miami-Dade school district’s eviction threat:

Read more from this story HERE.

DC Fetal Pain Bill Fails House but Pro-Life Leaders Remain Optimistic

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A bill that would ban abortions in the District of Columbia after 20 weeks of pregnancy failed to pass the House on Tuesday, but anti-abortion activists hailed the vote as a sign that their efforts ultimately would succeed.

The bill was based on the disputed claim that fetuses can feel pain at a gestational age of 20 weeks or older. The National Right to Life Committee, an anti-abortion group, made the legislation its top priority on Capitol Hill this year. Nine states have passed similar measures, and a federal judge upheld a similar law in Arizona this week.

The vote in favor of the bill was 220-154, with 17 Democrats joining 203 Republicans to support it. But because it was considered under special rules requiring a two-thirds vote for passage, the bill won’t proceed to the Democratic-controlled Senate, where it was unlikely to come up for a vote.

Opponents said the bill was an attempt to roll back a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion. Advocacy groups on both sides of the abortion debate were noting how each lawmaker voted, putting members under additional pressure.

“Today’s groundbreaking majority vote constitutes a giant step towards this bill ultimately becoming law,” said Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee. He added that the lawmakers who voted against it “will have to explain to their constituents why they voted to endorse a policy of legal abortion for any reason, until the moment of birth, in their nation’s capital.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Generals continue blind effort to remake military for Obama; now prepping women for combat

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Photo credit: US Army

To graduate from boot camp, soldiers must perform 35 pushups and 47 situps and run two miles in at least 16 minutes and 36 seconds — but that’s only for male soldiers.

Female troops are required to do 13 pushups and 43 situps and run two miles in 19 minutes and 42 seconds.

As the Army weighs integrating women into armor and infantry combat positions, the command in charge of soldier training is looking at requiring women to meet the same physical goals as men.

If wartime studies over the past decade are a guide, the Army can expect an increase in injuries and attrition among female soldiers as they seek to match men in strength and endurance.

The Pentagon bans women from direct combat roles, but this year opened 14,000 support jobs that can put female soldiers closer to the front lines on battlefields.

Read more from this story HERE.

Same agencies involved in Sandusky abuse cases stripped doctor of license for reporting abuse

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Jim Singer, formerly a psychologist working in Pennsylvania, said that he reported a case of child molestation in 1986 to Pennsylvania’s Child Protective Services agency, and not only was his report ignored, but soon after, in retaliation, the Pennsylvania Psychology Board prosecuted Singer and eventually removed his license to practice psychology.

As the aftermath of the Penn State University molestation scandal unfolds, most observers believe that if the proper authorities had been alerted to the crimes much earlier, many children could have been saved. That’s not always the case, says Singer.

Speaking exclusively with The Daily Caller, Singer said that most of the same Pennsylvania government agencies that were outraged over the PSU scandal — Child Protective Services, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, and the Pennsylvania State Police — all ignored and buried his report of child molestation.

In 1986, Singer was working as a psychologist at the Dubois Regional Medical Center in Dubois, Pa. During a session with a female teenage patient, Singer said the patient revealed to him that she was being sexually abused by her father. Upon having two more medical professionals confirm this, Singer said that he reported the abuse to the state’s Child Protective Services agency.

TheDC has exclusively acquired a letter from one of the two medical professionals, Dr. Albert Varacallo, vouching for the veracity of Singer’s claims.

Read more from this story HERE.

Here’s a video report from when this case first broke:

Federal Judge blocks Obama from forcing Catholic businesses to provide birth control

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Photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

A Colorado business owned by a Catholic family does not have to comply with President Barack Obama’s new healthcare mandate that private employers provide employees with insurance coverage of birth control, a Colorado federal judge ruled on Friday.

District Judge John Kane in Denver temporarily blocked the government from the enforcing the contraception requirement against the religious owners of Hercules Industries Inc, a private manufacturer of heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment.

The ruling only affects this plaintiff but opens the door for any company to seek relief on religious grounds. Lawyers for the Department of Health and Human Services argued that a temporary exemption for Hercules would interfere with the government’s ability to implement the law. But Kane was not persuaded.

“This harm pales in comparison to the possible infringement upon (the Newland family’s) constitutional and statutory rights,” the judge wrote. He noted that the government had already created numerous exceptions for religious employers, exempting over 190 million health plan participants.

The law posed an imminent harm to the company’s owners by forcing them to support contraception, sterilization and abortion in violation of their religious beliefs or face steep fines, Kane said.

Read more from this story HERE.

US Church Remains in ‘Coma’ Despite Cataclysmic Events in Middle East

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The church in America is no longer simply in a slumber when it comes to its lack of awareness about the persecuted church in the Middle East; it is in a “diabetic coma,” says the leader of a persecution watchdog group in the U.S.

“For years we’ve said wake up and strengthen what remains,” Open Doors USA President and CEO Dr. Carl Moeller told The Christian Post in an exclusive interview. “We would think of the American church as a napping church and that we would elbow it and it would wake up and rouse itself and do something.

“In my mind today, the picture I have is a church in a diabetic coma that has gorged itself on the sweets of affluence, materialism, and the idolatry of worshipping the materialistic world. That diabetic coma is now life threatening. We as a church are at the point of death – not the church in the Middle East. We are the ones who can no longer rouse ourselves to even pray for an hour on behalf of things that God would have us pray for.”

Moeller said he has been working with Open Doors for almost 10 years to bring an awareness of “the suffering church to the American church conscience.”

“Revelation 3:4 says, ‘Wake up, and strengthen what remains about to die.’ For 50-plus years Open Doors has taken that verse as a motive to wake the church in the West up and to motivate them to go and strengthen what remains in the Body of Christ that is about to die in those places where the church is suffering,” he explained. “It’s always been a case where we talked about waking the church up in the West, but also serving the church that is in utter persecution.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Caroline Kennedy says the Kennedy clan is “at its lowest point ever”

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Photo credit: Rubenstein

Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of JFK, is battling to save her legendary family from being torn apart by in-fighting, tragedy, legal scandals and bitter divorce.

The 54-year-old has allegedly admitted that the dynasty is at its ‘lowest point ever’.

The Kennedys’ latest public scandal was the arrest of Kerry Kennedy, Caroline’s cousin and daughter of assassinated Senator Robert Kennedy, who was suspected of driving under the influence of drugs.

The 52-year-old hit a tractor-trailer in New York and fled the scene last month before officers found her unable to walk, talk or see straight.

Following Kerry Kennedy’s arrest, the clan reportedly acted like a ‘organized-crime family… playing hard ball with bare knuckles’ by trying to influence the police investigation by ordering their own barrage of independent tests to prove Kerry’s innocence.

Read more from this story HERE.

City officials’ threats against Chick-fil-A may backfire

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As we reported several days ago, Chick-fil-A is receiving heavy criticism from liberals and the gay community for its stance on traditional marriage.  Now, local city officials are trying to create economic hardship for the restaurant chain.  Not so fast say legal experts:

On July 20, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino indicated that Chick-fil-A will find it “very difficult” to obtain licenses for a restaurant in his city, but he backed away from that assertion. He later told the Boston Herald, “I can’t do that. That would be interference to his rights to go there.”

Chicago is the latest city to tell Chick-fil-A that it is not welcome. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said July 25 he would support Alderman Proco Moreno’s announcement that he would block construction of the restaurant in his district. Moreno said, “If you are discriminating against a segment of the community, I don’t want you in the First Ward.” Emanuel has articulated similar sentiments. He said, “Chick-fil-A values are not Chicago values. They disrespect our fellow neighbors and residents.”

But according to legal experts, barring construction of Chick-fil-A because the owners oppose gay marriage is a clear case of discrimination. “The government can regulate discrimination in employment or against customers, but what the government cannot do is to punish someone for their words,” said Adam Schwartz, senior attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. “When an alderman refuses to allow a business to open because its owner has expressed a viewpoint the government disagrees with, the government is practicing viewpoint discrimination.”

Schwartz noted that even the American Civil Liberties Union, which is known for its pro-gay “marriage” position, recognizes that the government cannot exclude a business simply because it has taken a stance against gay “marriage.” Such a policy could be a slippery slope and could then be used against businesses that support gay “marriage.” Though the ACLU supports gay “marriage,” “we also support the First Amendment,” Shwartz said. “We don’t think the government should exclude Chick-fil-A because of the anti-LGBT message. We believe this is clear cut.”

Jonathan Turley, a professor at the George Washington University Law School, said Moreno’s intentions raises “serious” constitutional concerns. “It’s also a very slippery slope,” Turley told FoxNews.com. “If a City Council started to punish companies because of the viewpoints of their chief operating officers, that would become a very long list of banned companies.” Turley said that Moreno’s actions could be “execessive and likely unconstitutional.”

Read more from Raven Clabough’s story HERE.

 

Fall ’40 Days for Life’ kicks off; submit your application now!

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“Ex Planned Parenthood manager — fired after speaking out against a dangerous abortion procedure — conducts 40 Days for Life campaign outside her former workplace, leading to its permanent closure.”

But, as Jesus said in Matthew 19:26, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Watch the 9-minute video above that tells the story of the miracle in Storm Lake, Iowa.

God does work miracles … and He can accomplish many more miracles like this when we are faithful to His call to “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.”

If a former Planned Parenthood manager can muster the courage to lead a 40 Days for Life campaign outside of her former workplace, could God be calling YOU to lead a 40 Days for Life campaign in your community?

Read more from this story HERE.

Click HERE for the 40 Days for Life website and application.

Photo credit: afagen

Democrats refuse to take down ad making fun of MS patient Ann Romney

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Last week, LifeNews reported on a Democratic Party ad that essentially made fun of a patient with multiple sclerosis, the wife of presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

The Democratic National Committee unveiled a video featuring footage of Ann Romney’s dancing show horse as a way of mocking Mitt Romney for “dancing” around the issue of his taxes and whether he would make public additional tax returns that the IRS has certified are legitimate. The video was meant to be the first in a series of videos on the topic and the first featured the horse, owned jointly by Ann and Mitt Romney.

However, Ann Romney owns the horse in part because she relies on the animal, and other show horses she trains, to help her with therapy for her multiple sclerosis, a debilitating disease. Ann Romney, in an interview with Robin Roberts on “Good Morning America,” took offense to the ad.

That eventually led DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse told ABC News to issue an apology of sorts.

“Our use of the Romneys’ dressage horse was not meant to offend Mrs. Romney in any way, and we regret it if it did,” he said. “We have no plans to invoke the horse any further to avoid misinterpretation.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: andreavallejos