A cross that was placed on the helmets of Arkansas State University football helmets to remember two fallen classmates is being removed after anti-Christianists demanded they be removed.
The helmets had the initials of ASU player Markel Owens, who had been murdered in a January home invasion along with equipment manager Barry Weyer who died in a car accident this year.
“My job is to support our players and our coaches in their expression of any type of grief, and that’s what I was doing,” athletics director Terry Mohajir told USA Today Sports. “It is unfortunate, and I am disappointed. However, we’re also going to uphold whatever legal advice we got, and that’s what we did based on the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. That’s what we were told we needed to do. So that’s what we did.”
Jonesboro, Arkansas attorney Louis Nisenbaum is the man who wanted to prohibit the players from honoring their fallen classmates and make sure that the Christian emblem was removed from being seen in public.
The virulent anti-Christian group Freedom From Religion Foundation, which strives to remove Christians from society, called the move “great news.”
An Arkansas pizza parlor owned by a strong Christian who offered a discount on Sundays to anyone who brought in a church bulletin has been dealing with harassment and threats for his refusal to cave to anti-Christianist demands.
Bailey’s Pizza even received a bomb threat delivered through their Facebook page.
“Better get the bomb squad out,” one of the comments read. “Stand fast and get blown up quicker,” it also read. Police are investigating the comment as a legitimate threat.
Shop owner Steven Rose said that despite the threats from the anti-Christian organization Freedom From Religion Foundation saying he was violating the Civil Rights Act by offering the discount, there’s no discrimination.
The church bulletin discount is just one of many offered to the community. The discount does not require anyone to be a part of the church whose bulletin is brought in.
Advocates for Faith and Freedom, who is representing the pizza parlor in any legal actions, says the attack of the anti-Christianists is backfiring.
“The majority of the responses to the promotion have been positive,” it stated. “Bailey’s Pizza has received enthusiastic support from the local community and around the country. Some people have come from other states to dine at Bailey’s Pizza and show their support. One Pennsylvania gentleman purchased 150 dollars’ worth of pizza each day for a week, for delivery to different organizations, such as the police and fire departments.”
A Christian owner of a pizza business is the latest believer to be targeted by the virulent anti-Christian group Freedom From Religion Foundation.
The Wisconsin-based group is threatening Steven Rose, owner of Bailey’s Pizza in Searcy, Arkansas. The business offers what he calls an “old school country atmosphere” and on Sundays offers a 10% off if you bring in a church bulletin.
The anti-Christianists claim that making such an offer violates the 1964 Civil Rights Act which states “all persons shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, and privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation, … without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin.”
The FFRF claims that they’re discriminating against people who aren’t Christians.
Rose says that the offer is just one of many other offers including discounts for police, fire departments or the Boy Scouts. Rose also says the deal does not specifically state “for Christians” but that you need a bulletin. He said that anyone can bring in a bulletin regardless of their beliefs.
Morningside was shaken by 2.7 magnitude earthquake Wednesday night.
The quake, which struck around 10:15 p.m., was centered near Yellville, Arkansas, about 30 miles from Morningside. Friends and partners of the show who were on social media reported feeling their homes shake for a brief moment but there were no reports of damage.
Several witnesses said they could hear the rumbling outside of their homes similar to a truck on the highway or passing train.
The quake was the second to strike Arkansas in the last month. A magnitude 3.8 quake struck near Fairfield Bay, Arkansas on June 4th causing minor damage. The epicenter of that quake was about 50 miles from the Yellville quake.
Arkansas megachurch pastor Ronnie Floyd has been elected the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Floyd received over 51 percent of the votes in a three-way race for the position, besting Maryland pastor Dennis Manpoong Kim and Pastor Jared Moore from Kentucky. Over 3,000 members of the Convention elected Floyd on the first ballot.
Dr. Albert Mohler, Jr., the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, praised Floyd as a “dependable and faithful man” who will “lead all Southern Baptists and lead them well.”
Floyd indicated he wants to focus on church growth and international mission work.
Floyd’s church, the multi-site Cross Church, has baptized over 17,000 people in the 27 years he has been senior pastor. The church also contributed over $700,000 to the SBC’s missions fund in 2013 alone.
Floyd succeeds Pastor Fred Luter, the first African-American to be elected president of the SBC.
Ronnie Floyd, one of three men in the running for the presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention, said that the denomination has seen a decline in baptisms because of “cool pastors” who are more concerned with fitting into the world’s way of life than having a focus on glorifying God.
“Some of us have a heart to be so real with people that we just think if we’re cool enough, we’re going to get [the numbers],” said Floyd. “We’re never going to be cool enough to win our towns, our rural settings, to win our cities, to win the nation, to win the world, to win the nations. We’re never going to be cool enough; the only thing that’s going to bring that is a binding movement of the spirit of God that comes only when we are going up to be with God.”
Floyd, senior pastor of Cross Church in northwest Arkansas, cited statistics that showed 60 percent of SBC churches did not have a single baptism of anyone between 12 and 17 years old. A full 25 percent of churches overall reported that no one had accepted Christ and was baptized in their churches in the last year.
Floyd told the pastors in attendance at the 2014 SBC Pastor’s Conference that it was more important to spend time with God and to be right with Him than it was to be pleasing to the people and to “fit in” with society.
“The future of our leadership, the future of our church and the future of the Southern Baptist Convention will be discovered by one thing and one thing alone – us going up to be with God,” Floyd said.
A series of major tornadoes broke out across the south and Midwest Sunday night leaving at least 18 dead.
Officials in Arkansas say a tornado that at one point had a base half a mile wide ripped through Little Rock suburbs Vilonia and Mayflower. The mayor of Vilonia told FoxNews that the tornado essentially obliterated his town’s downtown business district.
Authorities say the tornado first touched down around 7 p.m. and caused destruction along an 80-mile path. A brand new intermediate school built with $14 million in taxpayer dollars and scheduled to open in the fall was destroyed.
“We’re probably going to have to start all over again,” Vilonia Schools Superintendent Frank Mitchell said.
Arkansas officials said that a tornado struck on Interstate 40 destroying cars and leaving tractor trailers in twisted heaps.
Another twister destroyed most of Quapaw, Oklahoma and left one person dead before turning into Kansas and destroying over 70 homes in Baxter Springs.
The National Weather Service has confirmed at least three tornadoes as part of a massive storm system that hit the Midwest on Thursday.
At least one injury was reported when a home was struck in west of Oden, Arkansas. Arkansas Emergency Management reported having trouble reaching the location because of the number of trees blocking on the road. Property damage and power lines are down across the region. Continue reading →
Arkansas is being called “ground zero” in the fight to protect the lives of unborn babies.
Last week, lawmakers overrode a veto by Governor Mike Beebe to put in place a law that would prohibit most abortions after the 12th week of pregnancy. The law, called the Arkansas Human Heartbeat Protection Act, mandates that an abortion is no longer legal if a heartbeat is detected during an ultrasound at the 12th week of pregnancy. Continue reading →
Blizzard conditions again descended on the midsection of the country Monday, bringing hurricane-force winds to the Texas Panhandle, closing highways in Texas and Oklahoma and putting already snow-covered parts of Kansas on high alert as the day progressed. Continue reading →