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Prosecutor Will Keep Prosecuting Christian Politician for Quoting the Bible

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Finland’s top prosecutor announced Friday she will appeal a unanimous court decision rejecting her allegations of “hate speech” against a Christian politician for quoting the Bible on Twitter. This means Member of Parliament Paivi Rasanen, who has already spent three years being investigated, interrogated, and prosecuted by her government, must now keep fighting in court so that Christianity stays legal in Finland, and possibly all of Europe.

“The prosecutor’s decision to appeal the acquittal verdict may lead to the case going all the way to the Supreme Court, giving the possibility of securing precedent protecting freedom of speech and religion for all Finnish people. Also I am happy that this decision will lead to the discussion of the teaching in Bible continuing in Finnish society. I am ready to defend freedom of speech and religion in all necessary courts, and as far as the European Court of Human rights,” Rasanen wrote in a Friday statement in English, a second language.

Before the Finnish court that ultimately ruled in her favor on March 30, Rasanen’s lawyers argued that applying Finland’s identity privilege laws as the prosecutor general wished would effectively outlaw Christianity in Finland. The prosecutor argued Rasanen broke Finland’s hate speech law on three counts: by tweeting a picture of Bible verses during a public debate about whether Finland’s state church should support a homosexual event; by expressing Christian theology during a radio debate; and by writing a booklet called “Male and Female He Created Them” about Christianity’s teachings that God makes men and women different and those biological differences matter.

The Lutheran bishop who published Rasanen’s booklet is also being prosecuted.

(Read more from “Prosecutor Will Keep Prosecuting Christian Politician for Quoting the Bible” HERE)

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Pastor Dishes Real Story Behind Song on Flight That Triggered Ilhan Omar

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A song sung aboard an airliner by a team of Christians who had been ministering in Ukraine happened just because they wanted to keep up their hopes for those in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bull’s-eye.

That’s according to the pastor who led the song, according to a report in the Christian Post.

It was, of course, a video of that chorus that triggered Muslim Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who posted a snarky response about her family having a prayer time aboard an airline.

The video was posted by Pastor Jack Jensz Jr. and has had more than 35 million views – so far.

The Christian Post explained, “The song came on the heels of Jensz and his team being spiritually high because of what they saw God do while serving at the Ukrainian border. He said the plane ride came after their time in Ukraine, and it was their way of keeping hope going.” (Read more from “Pastor Dishes Real Story Behind Song on Flight That Triggered Ilhan Omar” HERE)

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Ilhan Omar Slammed Over Tweet About Christians Singing on Plane

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Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) faced criticism over the weekend regarding a tweet about Christians who were singing worship music during a flight.

The exact details of the flight, including whether it was a chartered flight, when the flight happened, and the travel itinerary for flight are not clear. . .

Notable responses on Twitter included:

Shant Mesrobian, writer: “A member of Congress is supposed to have the restraint and maturity to not post a stupid, random, old video that for some reason is going viral right now as a way to score religious culture war points on a holy day for millions of people around the world.”

Kurt Schlichter, attorney and columnist: “I think you should shut up and stop being a bigot.”

(Read more from “Ilhan Omar Slammed Over Tweet About Christians Singing on Plane” HERE)

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Jewish Couple Sues to Stop Tennessee Christians From Helping With Adoptions

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Elizabeth and Gabriel Rutan-Ram are suing the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services, but their real beef is with the Holston United Methodist Home for Children. The Knoxville couple, who are Jewish, wished to adopt a boy from Florida, but part of the adoption process involved them taking a state-approved family training course.

According to the lawsuit they filed in state court, they reached out to Holston United because it was the only government-approved agency that could provide them the services they needed. But after initially thinking the home would work with them, they were told that the Methodist group’s core religious principles forbid it from placing children in non-Christian homes. . .

But if they win their case, it will be a blow to religious freedom rather than a triumph for it.

The goal of the lawsuit is to overturn legislation signed into law by Gov. Bill Lee in January 2020 that explicitly permits religious adoption agencies to decline to be involved in cases that “would violate the agency’s written religious or moral convictions or policies.” The Rutan-Rams’ lawyers — backed by the American Civil Liberties Union — contend the law violates both the Tennessee Constitution and the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion. (Read more from “Jewish Couple Sues to Stop Tennessee Christians From Helping With Adoptions” HERE)

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Government Puts Christianity on Trial, Calls the Bible ‘Hate Speech’

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Two Christian leaders in Finland stood trial in Helsinki on Jan. 24 for publicly stating the Bible’s teachings on sex and marriage. Longtime Member of Parliament Paivi Rasanen and Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola defended in court their decision to write and publish, respectively, a pamphlet explaining Christian teachings about sex and marriage.

In the trial’s opening arguments, which will resume on Feb. 14, Finnish prosecutors described quotations from the Bible as “hate speech.” Finland’s top prosecutor’s office essentially put the Bible on trial, an unprecedented move for a secular court, said Paul Coleman, a human rights lawyer with Alliance Defending Freedom International who is assisting in the Finns’ legal defense and was present during Monday’s trial.

“The prosecutor began the day by trying to explain that this case was not about beliefs and the Bible. She then, and I’m not kidding, she then proceeded to quote Old Testament Bible verses,” Coleman said in a phone interview with The Federalist after the trial concluded for the day. “Trial attorneys, Finnish trial attorneys who have been in and out of court every day for years, said they didn’t think the Bible had ever been read out like that in a prosecution.”

Never before has a Finnish court had to decide whether quoting the Bible is a crime. Human rights observers consider this case an important marker for whether Western governments’ persecution of citizens for their speech and beliefs increases.

Coleman said “it was very surreal” to watch Rasanen, a medical doctor and pastor’s wife, and Pohjola, whom The Federalist interviewed in person in November, be grilled by secular prosecutors about details of Christian theology in a secular court. The two Christians had the opportunity to essentially preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in court. (Read more from “Government Puts Christianity on Trial, Calls the Bible ‘Hate Speech’” HERE)

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‘You Are Fighting God’: YouTube Pounces on Bible as ‘Hate Speech’

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YouTube this week determined a sermon from popular Christian leader Pastor John MacArthur is “hate speech” for stating both biblical precept and scientific fact.

According to columnist Todd Starnes, YouTube “removed the clip and sent me a message saying the pastor’s sermon was hate speech.”

The Big Tech player said, “Our team has reviewed your content, and, unfortunately, we think it violates our hate speech policy. We’ve removed the following content from YouTube: ‘There is no such thing as transgender. You are either XX or XY. That’s it. – Pastor John MacArthur.'”

Starnes explained MacArthur is pastor of Grace Community Church and his messages are broadcast on hundreds of radio stations, he’s a best-selling author and a “beloved member” of the evangelical community.

His message on Sunday was part of a nationwide campaign to draw attention to Canadian legislation that would silence pastors on LGBT issues. That law, actually, threatens pastors who speak biblical, or even scientific, messages about the LGBT agenda with five years in prison. (Read more from “‘You Are Fighting God’: YouTube Pounces on Bible as ‘Hate Speech’” HERE)

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Woke Lesson at Public High School Told Students They’re Privileged if They’re Christian, Straight, or Male

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A California school district reportedly went into damage control mode after the Daily Signal called it out for lessons that told high school students they are the beneficiaries of privilege if they are Christian, male, or straight.

The Desert Sands Unified School District in La Quinta, which is in Riverside County, said it was taking “corrective” measures after the lessons came to light, the outlet said.

“The lesson was not in alignment with the district-adopted curriculum” and “actions are being taken to rectify the situation,” the district told the Daily Signal in a statement, adding that “the teacher was operating outside the scope of [the] adopted curriculum and had potentially presented a biased position. Corrective action is underway.”

The outlet said it hasn’t been able to identify which teacher used the lesson.

District parent Celeste Fiehler posted the lesson in the Facebook group Informed Parents of California after another parent told her about it, the Daily Signal said. (Read more from “Woke Lesson at Public High School Told Students They’re Privileged if They’re Christian, Straight, or Male” HERE)

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Is the West Becoming Pagan Again?

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This year, at the height of what used to be called the Christmas season, a Pew Research Center poll on religion revealed that only slightly more Americans described themselves as Roman Catholics (21 percent) than as believers in “nothing in particular” (20 percent). The millennial generation, which includes most adult Americans under 40, is the first one in which Christians are a minority.

Many Americans have a sense that their country is less religious than it used to be. But is it really? The interplay among institutions, behaviors and beliefs is notoriously hard to chart. Even if we could determine that religious sentiment was in flux, it would be hard to say whether we were talking about this year’s fad or this century’s trend.

Or perhaps we are dealing with an even deeper process. That is the argument of a much-discussed book published in Paris this fall. In it, the French political theorist Chantal Delsol contends that we are living through the end of Christian civilization — a civilization that began (roughly) with the Roman rout of pagan holdouts in the late fourth century and ended (roughly) with Pope John XXIII’s embrace of religious pluralism and the West’s legalization of abortion.

The book is called “La Fin de la Chrétienté,” which might be translated as “The End of the Christian World.” Ms. Delsol is quite clear that what is ending is not the Christian faith, with its rites and dogmas, but only Christian culture — the way Christian societies are governed and the art, philosophy and lore that have arisen under Christianity’s influence.

That is still quite a lot. In the West, Christian society is the source of our cultural norms and moral proscriptions, not to mention the territory of our present-day culture wars, with their strident arguments over pronouns and statues and gay bridegrooms and pedophile priests. (Read more from “Is the West Becoming Pagan Again?” HERE)

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Baby Jesus Presented at the Temple in Jerusalem: ’And the Favor of God Was Upon Him’

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From the Gospel according to Luke, in the days after the birth of Jesus Christ on the first Christmas:

And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angle before he was conceived in the womb.

And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said:

Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.

(Read more from “Baby Jesus Presented at the Temple in Jerusalem: ’and the Favor of God Was Upon Him’” HERE)

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12 Christian Missionaries Released After Being Held Hostage by Haitian Gang

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After being kidnapped and held hostage by a dangerous Haitian gang for two months, the remaining captives of a group of 17 Christian missionaries have finally been freed.

A spokesman for the Haitian police, Gary Desrosiers, confirmed to CBS News on Thursday that the last 12 captives were set free this week. Two hostages had previously been released in November, and then three others were released earlier this month.

Christian Aid Ministries also confirmed the news in a celebratory statement Thursday, saying, “We glorify God for answered prayer — the remaining twelve hostages are FREE! Join us in praising God that all seventeen of our loved ones are now safe. Thank you for your fervent prayers throughout the past two months. We hope to provide more information as we are able.”

The group then quoted a Bible verse, Exodus 15:1b, which says, “I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously.”

Republican Rep. Bill Huizenga of Michigan, the home state of a few of the hostages, said in a statement Thursday, “Today is the day we have been hoping for, praying for, and working so hard to achieve.” (Read more from “12 Christian Missionaries Released After Being Held Hostage by Haitian Gang” HERE)

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