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University: Staffers Aren’t Allowed to Say ‘Christmas’ or ‘Easter’ (VIDEO)

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A video has been released that shows an official for Western Carolina University instructing resident assistants not to say “Christmas” or “Easter.”

Because they’re not inclusive.

The video of a conference call session was obtained by Young America’s Foundation through a campus bias tip line.

A woman, a housing coordinator, explains:

One thing I do want to let you keep in mind, uh, inclusive excellence is a part of our creed, so we can’t assume that all of our residents celebrate Easter so when you actually were talking about Easter eggs, I’m like, like ‘What Marvel has Easter eggs in a movie or something, like in a video game, so I thought, like something along those lines.’ Uhm. But you can do like or a scavenger hunt, you can hide things in the building, so even during the holidays, uhm, we we can’t you know say Christmas or specific to one religious holiday, we just, we always say holidays. Uhm, just because we have to be inclusive.

(Read more from “University: Staffers Aren’t Allowed to Say ‘Christmas’ or ‘Easter’ (VIDEO)” HERE)

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‘An Easter of Solitude’: Amid Coronavirus, World’s Christians Mark an Easter Like No Other

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By Associated Press. Christians around the world celebrated Easter Sunday isolated in their homes by the coronavirus while pastors preached the faith’s joyous news of Christ’s resurrection to empty pews. One Florida church drew a large turnout for a drive-in service in a parking lot. . .

Worldwide, families who normally would attend church in their Easter best and later gather for festive meals instead were hunkered down at home. Police checkpoints in Europe and outside closed churches elsewhere left the faithful with few worship options other than watching services online or on TV.

At the Happy Gospel Church in Bradenton, Florida, about 100 cars carrying 250 people gathered in the parking lot to hear Pastor Bill Bailey’s Easter sermon. Some sat in lawn chairs or on tailgates, but families stayed at least 6 feet apart; those in their cars occasionally honked to convey agreement with Bailey’s remarks. (Read more from “Amid Coronavirus, World’s Christians Mark an Easter Like No Other” HERE)

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Christians Mark Solemn Easter as Worldwide Cases Approach 2 Million

By CBS News. Christians throughout the world marked a solemn Easter amid the coronavirus pandemic. The number of cases worldwide topped 1.8 million on Sunday and the global death toll rose above 110,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. U.S. deaths passed 22,000. . .

Bells tolled in Spain for the almost 17,000 killed by coronavirus, a death toll behind only the U.S. and Italy. In Britain, the Archbishop of Canterbury led the Easter service online from his kitchen. In New York, the epicenter of the U.S. crisis, Cardinal Timothy Dolan led Mass before an empty St. Patrick’s Cathedral. (Read more from “Christians Mark Solemn Easter as Worldwide Cases Approach 2 Million” HERE)

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‘An Easter of Solitude’: Christians Across the World Mark Easter Sunday Amid the Coronavirus

By USA Today. His voice echoing through the nearly empty St. Peter’s Basilica, a somber Pope Francis celebrated one of the strangest Easter celebrations in Vatican history Sunday amid Italy’s national lockdown for the coronavirus pandemic. . .

“This is an Easter of solitude lived amid the sorrow and hardship the pandemic is causing, whether from physical suffering or economic difficulties,” Francis said in Italian.

Millions of Christians globally celebrated Easter, marking the resurrection of Jesus following his crucifixion. In the U.S., many churches were holding similar remote services intended to help slow the infection’s spread. Congregants posted photos on social media showing them attending drive-in services from their cars, and a pastor at a Boston church delivered his message to photos of his parishioners taped to the pews. . .

Both President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence planned to attend Easter services remotely. Trump said he’d be watching an online service led by Pastor Robert Jeffress of the 4,000-member First Baptist Church in Dallas and a Fox News contributor. (Read more from “‘An Easter of Solitude’: Christians Across the World Mark Easter Sunday Amid the Coronavirus” HERE)

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State Tickets 50 Cars Attending Easter Church Service

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As hymns sang out Easter Sunday from a large outdoor speaker overlooking the Maryville Baptist Church parking lot, two Kentucky State troopers placed quarantine notices on parishioners’ cars and wrote down their license numbers.

Inside the church, roughly 50 worshipers ignored Gov. Andy Beshear’s order against mass gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic so they could attend services together on Christianity’s holiest day.

Several said as they left that they had no intention of abiding by the notice on their windshields that called for a 14-day self-quarantine or face the threat of “further enforcement measures.” . . .

Even so, it’s clear that Maryville’s pastor, the Rev. Jack Roberts, has no intention of ending in-person services, despite the deadly pandemic, putting his church among a handful of others across Kentucky that have rebuffed Beshear’s wishes.

Roberts arrived at the church Sunday morning to find several piles of nails dumped at the church entrances to the parking lot. He said he wouldn’t tell his congregation to follow or defy the orders that Beshear announced Friday in his ongoing effort to hold down the spread of COVID-19. (Read more from “State Tickets 50 Cars Attending Easter Church Service” HERE)

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State to Record License Plates of Easter Churchgoers, Enforce Quarantines; Church Members Issued $500 Fines for Parking Lot Service

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By Fox 19. Gov. Andy Beshear introduced a new executive order Friday that anyone who decides to participate in a mass gathering over Easter weekend will be forced to quarantine for 14 days.

The license plates of participants will be recorded and provided to local health departments, Beshear said. The departments will then come to the participant’s door and provide them with a 14-day quarantine order.

The participant will also be notified attending the gathering is misdemeanor violation of the emergency orders issued by the governor and Kentucky Department for Public Health.

“There are some that say, ‘This is my choice, about if I go some place and get the coronavirus,’” he said. “But it is not the next person’s choice you spread it to.”

The governor introduced the order after he announced 11 new deaths due to COVID-19 in Kentucky, bringing the Commonwealth’s total to 90. (Read more from “State to Record License Plates of Easter Churchgoers, Enforce Quarantines” HERE)

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Temple Baptist Church Members Issued $500 Tickets for Parking Lot Service

By Delta Democrat-Times. . .The parking lot of the church was full Wednesday night with members of the church who gathered in parked vehicles to listen to Pastor Arthur Scott’s sermon broadcast on a low-power FM frequency radio. . .

Those social distancing mandates were strengthened with Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves shelter-in-place order on April 3 and further strengthened with Greenville Mayor Errick Simmons’ executive order on Tuesday that all church buildings are to be closed for both in-person and drive-in church services.

The executive order further halted drive-in church meetings and encouraged those churches to use other means to communicate their message.

That’s what the membership of Temple Baptist Church thought they were doing on Wednesday, but Simmons said their meeting in the parking lot of the church is in direct defiance of the executive order. . .

Gordon, who is also a representative for the Washington County Board of Supervisors, was in the parking lot Wednesday night and both he and his wife were issued $500 tickets. (Read more from “Temple Baptist Church Members Issued $500 Tickets for Parking Lot Service” HERE)

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Woman Brings Baby and Gun to Easter Service. Churchgoers Leap Into Action.

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On Sunday, a 31-year-old female Navy veteran holding her 10-month-old son and a gun, strode into a San Diego Easter service, climbed on stage, and allegedly pronounced she was going to blow the church up. Churchgoers had a different idea, according to police: they tackled her.

The San Diego Police Department stated that they arrived at the auditorium of the Mount Everest Academy, where the services were being held, within two minutes of being alerted. They identified the woman and it is reported that she was speaking unintelligibly. Police stated that after they examined the gun, they found it was unloaded; the church’s pastor, Benjamin Wisan, stated that the woman had attended services at the church at other times prior to the incident. Police have reportedly been summoned to deal with her at the church before. . .

One post that the suspect allegedly made stated, “The one who came as Jesus was a liar!!! Another word for ‘The Comforter’ is The Advocate! Why would he say that unless he’s the Adversary??? Which means that since we’ve been worshipping him as God and believing everything he said, we’ve all be deceived. But the #greatdeception is even more than that…please read my video descriptions in this and in my other videos too!! I’m not trying to make a name for myself or anything—but this is finally the Truth!!!!!”

David Michael Miller, a military member who was one of the people reportedly subduing the suspect, told ABC 7, “After she started pointing the gun at the baby, one of the older gentlemen grabbed it from her and then me and a couple of other men tackled her. We got the baby away from her. A few minutes after that, the cops came in. She was trying to run away or something so a cop tackled her through a row of chairs. They arrested her and pulled another gun out of her bra.” (Read more from “Woman Brings Baby and Gun to Easter Service. Churchgoers Leap Into Action.” HERE)

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Marauding Parents in Easter Egg Hunt Rampage: Out-Of-Control Adults Push Children to the Ground, Steal Their Buckets and Leave One Four-Year-Old ‘Bloody’ at Chaotic Free Event

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An Easter egg hunt descended into chaos on Saturday after parents in Orange, Connecticut, stormed the field.

Children as young as four were trampled by adults in a rampage to steal buckets and grab as many of the 9,000 hidden eggs as possible from the third annual free event at the PEZ headquarters.

One four-year-old son was left ‘bloody’ on the sports field and a two-year-old girl was shoved into the mud, witnesses claimed.

A horrified parent described the scene as ‘an angry mob of chaos’ with ‘not one toddler hunting for eggs’ among the crowds of adults . . .

She added: ‘My toddler that was standing with her brothers were shoved into the field and went with the flow. By that time it didn’t matter. I had to yell GO to my boys because it was like an angry mob of chaos. (Read more from “Marauding Parents in Easter Egg Hunt Rampage: Out-Of-Control Adults Push Children to the Ground, Steal Their Buckets and Leave One Four-Year-Old ‘Bloody’ at Chaotic Free Event” HERE)

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Obama Makes Another Anti-Christian Statement, This Time at Yesterday’s Easter Prayer Breakfast

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mrBy Matt Wilstein. Towards the end of his speech at Tuesday morning’s Easter Prayer Breakfast, President Barack Obama appeared to veer off script to make some comments that implicitly referenced the fierce debate that has been raging over the last week about “religious freedom” laws in Indiana, Arkansas and elsewhere.

“On Easter, I do reflect on the fact that as a Christian, I am supposed to love,” Obama said. “And I have to say that sometimes when I listen to less-than-loving expressions by Christians, I get concerned.” As the crowd began to murmur, the president backed off, saying, “But that’s a topic for another day.”

“I was about to veer off,” he explained. “I’m pulling it back.” (Read more from “Obama Denounces ‘Less-than-Loving’ Christians at Easter Prayer Breakfast” HERE)

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Rush: Left Has ‘Fear and Hatred of Christianity’

By Ian Hanchett. Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh stated that the left has a “fear and hatred of Christianity” on Monday.

Rush said that he thought it was odd that people on the left seem to believe Pope Francis I agrees with them on many issues, “even though they hate religion, even though they’re frightened of it, even though they’re scared to death of it, which is the real truth of it all, they so desperately want the pope to be one of them. It’s one of the most amazing psychological things, I think. Modern leftists, particularly modern really extreme leftists — I mean, most of the culture war that is occurring in this country and has been going on for 30 years, if the truth be known, at the root of it is a fear and hatred of Christianity and religion in general, Christianity specifically, but religion in general.”

He continued, “that is what people on the left just have the biggest struggle with. It’s a giant enemy. It’s a powerful enemy, an enemy they have no control over, an enemy they will never be able to dominate, an enemy they will never be able to obliterate and they know it, but they nevertheless try.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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A City on a Hill, If You Can Keep It

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CThe history behind the religious observances known as Passover and Easter are not just foundational to the Jewish and Christian faiths, but also to the founding of the United States of America.

The story of the Passover displays the awesome power of the one, true living God in whose image we are made. Through a series of plagues He inflicts upon the tyrannical kingdom of Egypt and its pagan pantheon, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob demonstrates that He alone is God—and there is no other. That the state is not god, despite Pharaoh’s claims to the contrary, nor are the false idols the state demands the people worship.

To make plain His sovereignty, the God of Israel selects a defrocked member of the Egyptian court, who is now a lowly shepherd because he defied the state and stood up for his fellow Jew, to be His people’s deliverer.

His name is Moses.

Since Pharaoh refuses to obey God’s command to “let my people go” throughout the course of the plagues, God raises the stakes on the stubborn and wicked Egyptian government. After many years of shedding innocent Jewish blood, even decreeing forced abortions to keep the Israelite population down, the oppressive Egyptian regime faces a reckoning. So God sends a plague of death on the first-born sons of Egypt as justice for their mass murder and enslavement of the Jews.

For their own protection, the Jews are instructed to paint their doorposts with the sacrificial blood of a precious lamb, which was an animal that signified innocence. That way, the plague would “pass over” the Jewish families and spare them from the judgment. This is the plague that finally breaks Pharaoh’s will, and he agrees to allow the Israelites to leave.

There is more to the story, but once their “exodus” is complete the Jews are finally free.

However, even a free people need order. So God gives Moses “the law” beginning with the “Ten Commandments.” This is how the Jews will live so that they will be a light to all nations. Modeling the character, holiness, mercy, and justice of God to the rest of the world as His covenant people.

It is from this story the founding generations of this country established what our Declaration of Independence refers to as “the laws of Nature and Nature’s God.” In fact, the original basis for our civic laws comes right from the law revealed through Moses:

1. You shall have no other gods before Me.
Every state Constitution mentions and thanks God for its existence, freedom, or both.

2. You shall not make idols.
The state is not god. Only God is God. Therefore, the state cannot establish a religion, nor restrict it.

3. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
The name of God is so sacred, we make every elected official swear an oath of integrity and loyalty “so help me God.” A reminder that by betraying your promise to your countrymen, you’re really betraying God.

4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Days of remembrance (Saturday for Jews, Sunday for Christians, religious holidays, observances, etc.) are protected and made accessible by law.

5. Honor your father and your mother.
Parents were the ultimate arbiter of how best to raise, educate, and prepare their children to become adults. Only in extreme situations would the state interfere.

6. You shall not murder.
The “unalienable” right to life mentioned in the Declaration of Independence.

7. You shall not commit adultery.
The civil law so revered the sacrament of marriage that it originally criminalized sexual behavior outside of the marriage covenant.

8. You shall not steal.
Private property rights were protected by law.

9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Perjury is a crime. We even impeached a president for it.

10. You shall not covet.
You don’t have a “right” to that which you didn’t earn and doesn’t belong to you, but instead have the same opportunity to succeed and fail in our meritocracy as everyone else does.

Then there’s Easter, which is so integral to Christianity there isn’t Christianity without it.

Either the God of Israel supernaturally intervened into human history to raise from the dead His only begotten Son named Jesus Christ, himself a Jew, or He did not. Christianity leaves no middle ground for interpretation here, but simply puts the onus on each individual to believe or not believe based on the evidence (faith and reason).

Making each individual responsible for their belief or unbelief demonstrates how individualism is prioritized in Christianity. While the Jews were given a covenant as a people reconciled to God as a distinct culture, Christianity says every individual in the world can now be reconciled to God through Christ—who paid for their sins at the Cross. No matter where they live, how they look, or what language they speak.

As the lamb’s blood once protected the Jews from God’s wrath at the Passover, Christ has become the “the lamb of God.” God has shed the blood of His own son to atone for our sins that separated us from Him (what Christians refer to as “Good Friday”). Thus protecting us from the judgment we deserve. As a result, a relationship between individual believer and the most powerful being in the universe is now possible.

The emphasis Christianity places on the individual was a great influence on our Founders, many of whom were Christians. Hence, they established a government where rights and liberties were granted by God to individuals, not through a collective like government, and were not based on a group identity or social status.

Both Passover and Easter prove the God we serve is not a passive being, nor does He turn a blind eye to sin and injustice. That He will go to great lengths to put rebellious regimes in their place, but also to seek and save those who are lost. These two events are not merely religious theory, but actual history that transformed the world and inspired the founding of the world’s greatest nation—the United States of America.

And we will suffer consequences for abandoning these truths. As the great Puritan Founder John Winthrop said in his famous “City on a Hill” speech, citing the words of Moses from the Torah:

“But if our hearts shall turn away so that we will not obey. But shall be seduced and worship other gods of our pleasures and profits and serve them, it is propounded to us this day we shall surely perish out of the good land whether we pass over this vast sea to possess it. Therefore, let us choose life that we and our children may live. By obeying His law and cleaving to Him. For He is our life and our prosperity.” (See “A City on a Hill, If You Can Keep It”, originally posted HERE)

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