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Public High School Comes Under Fire for Reading Daily Bible Scripture, Superintendent is Defiant in Response to Atheist Group’s Complaints

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An atheist activist group has its sights set on a White Oak, Texas, high school after it was revealed that the principal reads students daily Bible scriptures, an exercise referred to as “Thought for the Day.” But if the defiant response from the White Oak ISD superintendent is any indication, it seems no one will be backing down.

Superintendent Michael Gilbert not only defended White Oak High School principal Dan Noll in a written statement, he also told the Freedom From Religion Foundation, “I’m sorry you feel that way. I will be praying for you and your staff daily.”

Noll’s daily scripture readings made headlines after a student recorded the principal and gave the audio to an atheist blogger. The tradition apparently goes back decades, according to students who spoke to KETK-TV.

In his statement, Gilbert said in his statement that he “will not pursue any action against our High School Principal or any other member of our faculty/staff concerning this issue” . . .

“Let me be clear, this is an attempt to draw us into a contest of words for the sole purpose of giving the FFRF a large amount of free press/recognition that they and their very few members (1,200 in Texas) do not deserve. This group and others like it, are wanting us to provide them with negative quotes to use in the promotion of their agenda. We can and will make the adjustments needed to ensure our students experience a morally sound, positive character based education. There are a multitude of options to provide our students, faculty and staff the opportunity to express their First Amendment Rights as provided for in the United States Constitution. Let me also be clear that we have not (in my opinion) violated anyone’s rights and/or subjected anyone to undue stress. Bible studies and scriptures are allowed in schools. The requirement is that the material be presented in a neutral manner. It is my position that we met that standard with the morning announcements.” (Read more from “Texas Principal Comes Under Fire for Reading Daily Bible Scripture, Superintendent’s Response to Atheist Group Is Epitome of Defiant” HERE)

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Former SEAL Chaplain Could Be Kicked out of Navy for Christian Beliefs

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A chaplain who once ministered to Navy SEALs could be thrown out of the military after he was accused of failing “to show tolerance and respect” in private counseling sessions in regards to issues pertaining to faith, marriage and sexuality, specifically homosexuality and pre-marital sex, according to documents obtained exclusively by Fox News.

Lt. Commander Wes Modder, who is endorsed by the Assemblies of God, has also been accused of being unable to “function in the diverse and pluralistic environment” of the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command in Goose Creek, S.C.

“On multiple occasions he discriminated against students who were of different faiths and backgrounds,” the Chaplain’s commanding Officer Capt. Jon R. Fahs wrote in a memorandum obtained by Fox News.

Modder is a highly decorated, 19-year veteran of the military. Prior to becoming a Navy chaplain, he served in the Marine Corps. His assignments included tours with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit and Naval Special Warfare Command – where he served as the Force Chaplain of the Navy SEALs . . .

In Modder’s most recent review, Fahs declared that the chaplain was “the best of the best,” and a “consummate professional leader” worthy of an early promotion. (Read more about the former SEAL chaplain HERE)

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Jesus Tattoo Website Sues Texas School for Discrimination

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Is Jesus like a tattoo artist? One group thinks so, and it’s going to court to get its message out.

JesusTattoo.org, a Christian website using a “modern parable” that depicts Jesus as a tattoo artist, asked to advertise their website on a Texas High School’s stadium jumbotron. When the district denied their request last year, the religious group sued, claiming discrimination in Little Pencil v. Lubbock Independent School District.

A federal appeals court will hear the case Tuesday, and the national religious legal group, Alliance Defending Freedom, has taken up representing JesusTattoo.org. ADF Legal Counsel Matt Sharp, who worked extensively on the case, told The Daily Caller News Foundation that this case is part of a trend of contentious religious speech cases they are seeing in schools.

Sharp told TheDCNF that ADF wants to set a precedent to protect this speech in schools nationwide.

“All of these are part of a larger effort to make sure that religious speech can’t be targeted and censored simply because a government official finds it offensive,” he told TheDCNF. ”The courts have consistently held that even local principals are required to follow the first amendment in every regard.” (Read more about the Jesus tattoo website suing HERE)

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Atheists Say Congressional Prayer Caucus a Threat to US Constitution

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An activist atheist group is attacking the congressional prayer caucus, and it’s out for blood.

The American Humanist Association sent a letter to newly elected members of Congress imploring them not to join the congressional prayer caucus, saying the caucus is a threat to the U.S. Constitution and American rights.

“Generally speaking prayer caucuses are unnecessary and a threat to the wall of separation of church and state,” AHA Legal Director David Niose told TheDCNF. “The caucus is little more than a platform for pandering to the Christian right, and membership in it amounts to a public statement that a politician is hostile to the rights of Americans who are nonreligious and non-theistic.”

Niose added that the caucus promulgates the idea that American Christians are under attack, an idea he says is untrue. (Read more about the congressional prayer caucus HERE)

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The Top Ten Biblical Archaeology Discoveries of 2014

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Photo Credit: Biblical Archaeology The Animals Went in Two by Two, According to Babylonian Ark Tablet
An Old Babylonian flood tablet translated by British Museum scholar Irving Finkel describes how to build a circular ark.

Qumran Phylacteries Reveal Nine New Dead Sea Scrolls
Yonatan Adler’s work revealed new phylacteries containing unopened tefillin Dead Sea Scrolls texts, confirming a continuity of Jewish practice over the past two millennia.

Canaanite Fortress Discovered in the City of David
An enormous 18th-century B.C.E. structure that isolates and protects the Gihon Spring is believed to be the fortress described in the Book of Samuel that King David later conquered.

Huqoq 2014: Update from the Field
Huqoq excavation director Jodi Magness and mosaics specialist Karen Britt discuss a new mosaic that might depict the legendary meeting between Alexander the Great and the Jewish high priest.

Monumental Entryway to King Herod’s Palace at Herodium Excavated
Archaeologists excavating at Herodium National Park uncovered a massive corridor to King Herod’s hilltop palace-fortress.

Coins Celebrating the Great Revolt Against the Romans Unearthed near Jerusalem
Excavations near Jerusalem uncovered a rare hoard of coins dating to the fourth year of the Great Revolt against the Romans (69/70 C.E.).

Oldest Metal Object from the Southern Levant Discovered
The discovery of a 7,000-year-old copper awl at Tel Tsaf suggests that metal was used in the southern Levant several hundred years earlier than previously thought.

Early Bronze Age: Megiddo’s Great Temple and the Birth of Urban Culture in the Levant
Megiddo’s Great Temple is a structure that, according to its excavators, “has proven to be the most monumental single edifice so far uncovered in the EB I Levant and ranks among the largest structures of its time in the Near East.”

Skilled Craftsmen, Not Slaves, Smelted Copper at Timna
Scholars suggest that ancient metalworkers in the Timna Valley were not slaves, as popularly believed, but highly skilled craftsmen.

6,500-Year-Old Ur Skeleton Resurfaces in Penn Museum
A skeleton unearthed from an Ubaid-period (5500–4000 B.C.E.) grave at Ur was recently rediscovered in the basement of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

(Read more about these Biblical archaeology discoveries HERE)

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New Islamic Terrorist Tactic: Little Girl Suicide Bombers

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Photo Credit: The Guardian

Photo Credit: The Guardian

By Nicholas Kurch. The Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram has ramped up attacks and is now using female children to carry out their mission to create an Islamic state in the region. One 13-year-old girl says she was given to Boko Haram by her father and was told, along with two other girls, to attack a textile factory in Kano, Nigeria’s second largest city.

“When I was told I would have to die to enter paradise, that I would have to explode a bomb and die, I said I cannot do it,” the 13-year-old girl said.

Two of the girls detonated their suicide-vests, killing 4 and injuring the girl. When it was the girl’s turn, she could not go through with the attack and turned herself in to police.

“I said no. I said I would not detonate,” the girl said.

The young girl said her father, who at the time of this writing is still at large, joined Boko Haram and gave her daughter to the organization to be used as the leaders saw fit. (Read more about Islam’s girl suicide bombers HERE)

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Al-Qaida Calls For ‘Lone Wolf’ Attacks On Airliners

By Katie Frates. The article says the purpose of the attacks is to “crush the enemy’s economy,” and describes a lone wolf as “hard to uncover, because none knows him but Allah. He has no relationship with any group or any individuals.”

The terrorist organization identified American Airlines, United, Delta, British Airways, easyJet and Air France as the airlines to attack, Daily Mail reports. It also targeted Bill Gates and former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, although it describes Bernanke as the current chairman, even though he stepped down in February.

The magazine, published by Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, urges readers to take inspiration from Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the “underpants bomber” who attempted in 2009 to blow up a plane on Christmas. The attack failed when the bomb did not fully detonate, and he is now serving a life sentence in the U.S. It also praises Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a suspect in the Boston Marathon Bombing in 2013 that killed three and injured over 200. (Read more from this story HERE)

LGBT Activist, Lesbian Hired as the Dean for Religious Life at Stanford

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the-very-reverend-dr.-jane-shawThe church needs to focus more on art and less on religion and converting people in an effort to become less “churchy,” according to Stanford University’s Dean for Religious Life, The Very Reverend Dr. Jane Shaw.

“I think people are always slightly surprised that I’m not very churchy as a person,” Shaw told the Palo Alto Online in an interview. “I don’t think church is to be more churchy. I think church is about, anyone should be welcome. I’m really interested in how you welcome many different kind of constituencies, certainly not convert them, not even necessarily to do religion all the time.”

Stanford announced that Shaw, 51, was to join the school’s Department of Religious Studies in July as a dean and professor of religious studies, moving to the school from Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. At Grace Cathedral, Shaw was not only the first woman to head the church, but the first openly lesbian dean.

Shaw, hailed as a “champion within the LGBT community” by the Palo Alto Online, was a founding member of the Chicago Consultation, a think tank made up of Anglican and Episcopal bishops, clergy, and lay people who support the full inclusion of LGBT people into the church and the worldwide Anglican Communion.

According to the university’s press release, Shaw is to “provide spiritual, religious and ethical leadership to the university community, serve as minister of Memorial Church and also teach undergraduates and graduate students as a professor of religious studies.” (Read more about the lesbian hired as dean HERE)

Prominent Scientist Says ‘Religion Will Go Away in a Generation’ If Atheists Use This Tactic to Teach Children (+video)

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Photo Credit: @LKrauss1

Photo Credit: @LKrauss1

Cosmologist and theoretical physicist Lawrence M. Krauss believes that religion could be eradicated — or at least largely removed from society — in just one generation.

Krauss, who made this claim while delivering a speech to the Victorian Skeptics Cafe in Australia in late August, spoke, among other subjects, about how children should be taught about faith in schools, claiming that religious systems shouldn’t be treated “as if they’re all sacred.”

Instead, he argued for changes in how children learn about religion and critical thinking — proposals that are just beginning to gain traction this week.

“What we need to do is present comparative religion as a bunch of interesting historical anecdotes and show the silly reasons why they each did what they did,” he said. “Instead of shying away from it, we have to explicitly educate people to confront their own misconceptions.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Refuses to Add Religious Exemption to Homosexual Employment Mandate

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Photo Credit: Christian News

Photo Credit: Christian News

Barack Obama has refused to include a religious exemption in an executive order that he plans to sign today, which mandates that federal contractors hire homosexual and transgender persons.

According to White House representatives, Obama will sign the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) on Monday without any provisions for religious entities. The order prohibits federal contractors from refusing to hire prospects on the basis of their gender identity or “sexual orientation.”

“Following on his pledge for this to be a year of action to expand opportunity for all Americans, the president has directed his staff to prepare for his signature an executive order that prohibits federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity,” an unnamed White House official told Time last week.

“The action would build upon existing protections, which generally prohibit federal contractors and subcontractors from discriminating in employment decisions on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. This is consistent with the president’s views that all Americans, LGBT or not, should be treated with dignity and respect,” they stated.

Read more from this story HERE.

Liberals Hate Religion Because Government Is Their God

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Phtoo Credit: TownHall The liberal attack on religion stems from envy, greed, anger and hate, just like every other precept of liberalism. Liberals envy the loyalty and devotion that religion inspires. They hunger greedily to have it for themselves.

Mostly, they are angry because the religious dare to defy them and to reject the ugly and inhuman tenets of collectivism. And they hate God for having the temerity to define right and wrong. They consider that their sole prerogative.

The liberal freak-out over the Hobby Lobby decision is just the latest example of the left coming out of the closet and embracing its anti-faith bigotry.

It’s interesting to see how liberals approach the controversy, and how they fail to even accurately describe it. In the big picture, the Hobby Lobby case basically pitted the right of individuals to practice their religion even when they combine into closely-held corporations against a newly-minted pseudo-right of women to receive free birth control insurance coverage. Now, the right of religious liberty has been recognized for over two hundred years in the First Amendment. The pseudo-right of free birth control insurance coverage came into being when bureaucrats at the Department of Health and Human Services decided to mandate it following passage of Obamacare in 2010.

Naturally, the liberals side with the government bureaucrats’ four year-old whim over the established principle of religious liberty.

Read more from this story HERE.