A Christian family in Hot Springs, Arkansas had their home invaded by police and their children taken from them because of a “miracle supplement.”
State police and Garland County officers were looking for MMS, or Miracle Mineral Solution. The product is completely illegal and can be legally purchased online but the FDA believes there could be health concerns related to the product.
The officers were claiming that the children were being placed at risk because of the MMS in drinking water.
Hal Stanley said that he is the only member of the family that takes MMS and that it’s mostly used as a water purifier for his garden.
The couple, who homeschools their children, were kept away from their children while they were questioned by officers. Michelle Stanley told KARZ-TV that an officer said the kids looked great and the situation would be ending soon.
Then fully armed sheriffs came into the home and took the children away from their parents.
The family considers themselves “self-reliant” and avoids contact with the government. Sources close to the family say this is the motivation behind the police harassment. A court hearing is being held on January 21st to determine if the state can continue to hold the family’s children.
The Garland County Sheriff’s Department issued a statement after the media heard of their actions, claiming that the MMS story is “false.” They claim two residents close to the family who are unnamed made claims of child abuse.
The U.S. Army has ordered a recruiting office to remove a sign because it says “God”.
The sign outside a Phoenix area recruiting station since last October read “on a mission for both God and Country.”
The sign was removed after complaints from anti-Christianists outside the Phoenix area who were incited by anti-Christian media outlets. The biggest opponent was noted bigot Mikey Weinstein, who called the picture a “poster of shame.”
“Long story short, the poster at the Phoenix armed forces recruitment hub is an absolutely abominable slap in the face of everyone who’s ever taken the time to digest, understand, and swear the service members’ sacred oath to protect and defend the United States Constitution, let alone those who made the ultimate sacrifice for the values, rights, and protections contained therein,” Weinstein wrote on the self-described left-wing website Daily Kos.
Army Recruiting Command spokesman Brian Lepley said the local office had produced the sign without prior approval.
Boko Haram terrorists attacked the city of Baga and its surrounding villages and over 2,000 are reportedly dead from the assault.
“I received a message of the Christians Association of Nigeria, the association of Christian churches in Nigeria, which states that in that area Boko Haram has burned several churches and caused numerous victims” said Fr. Patrick Tor Alumuku, director of social communications of the Archdiocese of Abuja.
The attack from the terrorists started with a full assault on the military base in Baga. Once the terrorists captured the base, they began to kill anyone who was fleeing the villages into the bush.
The slaughter was so significant that bodies are still laying in the streets because there are not enough people to bury them all.
“I escaped with my family in the car after seeing how Boko Haram was killing people … I saw bodies in the street. Children and women, some were crying for help,” Mohamed Bukar told Reuters.
Nigerian military officials say that jihadists from Libya and Mali have come to the country to reinforce the terrorist group.
A Christian man has been jailed in India because of “reasons of public order” despite the fact he has committed no crime.
Police arrested Arvind D’Souza on January 2nd after a group of radical Hindus in Uttar Pradesh began to riot, claiming that D’Souza had been “spreading Christianity.”
The group also said that D’Souza was committing the “forced conversion of women and children through the gift of Bibles.”
Superintendent of Police Amethi Hira Lal told Asia News that he had “found no evidence that D’Souza used force in converting anyone. However, since the fact could undermine public order, they took him into custody in accordance with Article 151 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and placed him under preventive detention for 14 days.”
The president of the Global Council of Indian Christians called the action a serious violation of human rights.
“This is a trend that is spreading more and more in India,” Sajan George said.
A group of anti-Christianists is attacking a Christian Good News Club being held at an elementary school in New York with what they call the “Better News Club.”
“The organization was created first as an alternative to the Good News Club, a Christian evangelical group who enters public schools to proselytize to children and, according to their own materials, declares them all sinners in need of salvation,” the website for the group outlines.
The anti-Christianists say the Good News Club is “a form of psychological abuse, akin to telling small children they’re flawed or evil, and must subscribe to a dogma in order to avoid eternal punishment.”
Child Evangelism Fellowship sponsors the Good News Club meeting at Fairbanks Elementary School in Churchville, New York. The children in the Club must have permission of their parents to attend meetings.
“Our ministry is dedicated to helping children in 150 countries around the world to know God and learn from the Bible,” the group says on their permission slip.
“Listen, the message of the gospel, the teaching of the core Christian tenets of the Christian faith that have been taught for 2,000 years in the Bible is what we’re teaching,” CEF Vice President of Ministries Moises Esteves told local television station KOIN. “There’s nothing new here.”
A cross that stood on a hill above Grand Haven, Michigan for over 50 years will now be removed after an anti-Christian man who does not live in the community threatened a lawsuit.
Grand Haven City Council voted 3 to 2 for the removal of the cross from Dewey Hill despite massive opposition from the community for the move.
Grand Haven resident Brandon Hall, who writes for West Michigan Politics, says that the community is united against a man they see as a bully.
“One thing I want to make clear: Grand Haven is not divided. It is very united in support of the cross,” Hall said. “All my atheist friends hate what is going on here. It’s very surprising that one guy can come from out of state and start all this. It is very shocking and disappointing.”
Mitch Kayle, who is openly bigoted against Christians, has bragged on social media of his actions attacking anything that might be Christian in public. He has conducted similar hate campaigns in Hawaii.
“He is an atheist extremist who targets Christians and gives atheists a bad name,” Hall said.
A group of residents is raising funds to purchase the land the cross sits upon to keep it standing above the city.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says a public school district in New Jersey broke the law when it fired a substitute teacher who gave a middle school student a Bible.
The federal agency said that Walt Tutka was illegally fired in 2013 after he gave a Bible to a student who approached him privately and asked where “the first will be last and the last will be first” was written.
Tutke told Fox News the situation began in October 2012 when he held the door open for students rushing to be first for lunch. He told the last student in line “just remember, the first will be last and the last will be first.”
The student then approached Tutke several times asking where that phrase was written. Tutke looked it up and told the student where in the Bible it was located but the student wanted to find it for themselves.
“I thought that was going to be the end of it, but it wasn’t,” Tutka said. “He continued to speak with me until one day I happened to have my Bible with me right during lunch. It hit me when he stopped me and I said, ‘Look, here it is right here. Here you go.
“It was a gift,” Tutka added. “[He] said [he] didn’t have one; [he] wanted one.”
The EEOC said “there is reasonable cause to believe that respondent has discriminated against [the] charging party on the basis of religion and retaliation.”
A Christian persecution watchdog group announced that the level of Christian persecution last year was the highest worldwide since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Open Doors USA said that 2014 was far more violent than 2013 and that it was the worst year of persecution since the group started tracking violence against Christians 24 years ago.
“Perhaps most chilling is the fact that all the factors, all of the issues that made this a violent year for Christian persecution are still in place,” said David Curry, president and CEO of Open Doors, at the press conference.
“During the past reporting period we can confirm that 4,344 people were executed or murdered for their faith in Jesus Christ. Over twice that of the previous reporting period.”
The comments from Curry came as Open Doors USA released their annual list of the countries where Christian persecution is the highest.
North Korea maintains the number one spot for the thirteenth year in a row.
Somalia, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, Iran, Pakistan, Eritrea, and Nigeria round out the top 10.
Africa had the most countries on the list and Islamic terrorism was the driving force in 40 of 50 nations.
A Missouri middle school student has been banned from reading his Bible during free class time.
Loyal Grandstaff, 12, attends Bueker Middle School in Marshall, Missouri. Last month, he was reading his Bible quietly to himself during free time in class when his teacher confronted him.
“I was just reading,” he told local television station WDAF. “I was reading because I had free time. I had time to do what I wanted to, so I just broke it out and read. … I like to read my Bible because it’s a good book.”
“He doesn’t want me reading it in his class because he doesn’t believe in it,” Grandstaff said.
The boy’s father said that the teacher is violating his child’s rights.
“I feel like it violated his freedom of religion but also his freedom of speech,” Justin Grandstaff told reporters. “There’s kids walking around disrespecting their teachers, kids walking around cussing and everything else, and they’re practically getting into no trouble at all.”
Principal Lance Tobin said that he will be investigating the matter because “Bibles are not banned on campus.”
The Supreme Court is going to hear arguments in the case of a lawsuit brought by a small church against the town of Gilbert, Arizona.
The city has a law that prohibits the church from posting roadside signs.
The Alliance Defending Freedom is representing the Good News Presbyterian Church in the case. ADF Senior Web Writer Marissa Poulson said Monday that the signs are important.
“By stating the church’s signs are less valuable than political and other speech, the town is ignoring the church’s free speech rights and claiming to have the power to handicap, and even eliminate, speech it deems unimportant,” wrote Poulson.
The suit focuses on the fact that church signs are given restrictions that are not placed on other form of speech.
- Political signs can be up to 32 square feet, displayed for many months, and unlimited in number.
- Ideological signs can be up to 20 square feet, displayed indefinitely, and unlimited in number.
- Religious signs can only be 6 square feet, may be displayed for no more than 14 hours, and are limited to 4 per property.
The ADF says that if the government can use this law to restrict religious speech, there’s nothing to stop them from restricting other speech.