The Jim Bakker Show

Tropical Storm Erika Death Toll Climbs

The death toll from Tropical Storm Erika has risen to 12.

Roosevelt Skerrit, the Prime Minister of Dominica, said on Twitter that 12 people are now confirmed dead on the tiny island nation and “the number may be higher.”

The path of the storm now has it tracking squarely over the state of Florida, although forecasters no longer believe the storm is going to reach hurricane status. Florida officials are warning residents to prepare for the storm despite the weakened predictions.

“We’ve got concerns all across the state now because it’s going to be coming clear across the state,” Gov. Rick Scott told reporters. He called the storm “a serious threat.”

Scott noted that it’s been years since Florida has experienced a hurricane or tropical storm of any significance in his call for people to prepare.

“Think of how many people have moved to our state and never even experienced a hurricane,” Scott told reporters.

The U.S. Coast Guard sent a warning to ports along South Florida to prepare.

“Mariners are reminded that there are no safe havens in these facilities and that ports are safest when the inventory of vessels is at a minimum,” a Coast Guard statement said. “All oceangoing commercial vessels and oceangoing barges greater than 500 gross tons should make plans for departing the port.”

Minor Quake Strikes Oakland Area

Some residents of the Easy Bay area didn’t need their alarm clocks to start the week as a magnitude 4.0 earthquake struck the area early Monday morning.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reported the quake struck at 6:49 a.m., three miles away from Oakland, California. The quake was felt throughout the Oakland/San Francisco area.

Oakland police Lt. Chris Bolton reported on the department’s official Twitter feed that they had no reports of injuries or damage from the quake.

The quake struck along the Hayward fault, a major fault that remains a concern for geologists in the area. The scientists believe that the fault could produce a potentially catastrophic quake that could kill tens of thousands. The Hayward fault is part of the San Andreas fault system.

The fault runs for more than 60 miles through the region from Fremont to Hayward. The fault runs under hospitals, freeways and reservoirs. It even runs from end zone to end zone at the football stadium for the University of California Berkeley.

The quake was followed by six aftershocks.

NBC Cameraman Free Of Ebola

Ashoka Mukpo, the NBC freelance cameraman who contracted Ebola while working with NBC’s medical reporter in Africa, has been declared free of the virus.

Mukpo announced the news via Twitter.

“Just got my results. 3 consecutive days negative. Ebola free and feeling so blessed. I fought and won, with lots of help. Amazing feeling,” Mukpo tweeted. “Recovering from Ebola is a truly humbling feeling. Too many are not as fortunate and lucky as I’ve been. I’m very happy to be alive.”

Mukpo spent two weeks in a biocontainment unit. He said despite his ordeal he had no regrets about covering the outbreak in Liberia.

“For the record – no idea how I got it. It was something fluky. My best guess is I touched a surface and didn’t chlorinate fast enough,” he tweeted. “I was around a lot of sick people the week before I got sick. Thought I was keeping a good distance, wish I knew exactly what went wrong.”

Two other Americans with the virus are still fighting the disease. The National Institutes of Health is treating nurse Nina Pham and upgraded her condition from fair to good.

Anti-Semitic Teacher Loses Job Offer; Critics Cry Foul

A college professor who posted hate speech toward Israel on his Twitter account is now being backed by free speech advocates furious the hate speech cost him a job.

Steven Salaita, a Palestinian-American who had taught at Virginia Tech University, had been initially offered a tenured position in the American Indian Studies department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After his hate filled tweets about Israel, the university rescinded the offer to him.

Some of Salaita’s anti-Semitic tweets stated:

“At this point, if Netanyahu appeared on TV with a necklace made from the teeth of Palestinian children, would anybody be surprised?”

“Zionists, take responsibility: if your dream of an ethnocratic Israel is worth the murder of children, just [profanity deleted] own it already.”

“You may be too refined to say it, but I’m not: I wish all the [profanity deleted] West Bank settlers would go missing.”

“Hamas” is the biggest red herring in American political discourse since Saddam’s “weapons of mass destruction.”

The moment Salaita revealed the offer to him was rescinded; outcry came from major media outlets and international activists.

Glenn Greenwald, who has been working with wanted fugitive Edward Snowden to release classified information, said “there were a lot of atrocious causalities from the Israeli attack on Gaza, but one of them was academic freedom at Univ. of Illinois.”

Inside Higher Ed author John Wilson said pro-Israel sentiment is on par with “Mazism, terrorism, racism, sexism and homophobia.” Michael Hiltzik of the L.A. Times said it was “clear-cut infringement of academic freedom.”

The Huffington Post had a story saying that the “University of Illinois Repeals The First Amendment for Its Faculty.”

Israeli Defense Forces Launch Website For Operation Protective Edge

The Israeli Defense Forces have launched a website for those around the world to stay informed about the ongoing conflict with the Hamas terrorists.

The website, called “Special Report Operation Protective Edge”, shows a history of the conflict, tactics used by Hamas and other information regarding the IDF, their operation and the impact the terror attacks are having on Israeli citizens.

IDF Spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner announced the site on Twitter Wednesday when he updated the daily total of rockets fired into Israel in the last 24 hours. (137 rockets launched, only 24 intercepted by Iron Dome.)

The site provides photo and video proof of Hamas using different terror tactics and “cowardly defensive actions” such as using women and children as human shields to protect their male terrorists or weapons.

The site also outlines how Hamas violates international law on a consistent basis and their flaunting of ceasefires.

The site is available at http://www.idfblog.com/operationgaza2014

Bayless Conley Preaches Again After Near Fatal Accident

(Note: This is an update of a story we brought you in January.)

Pastor Bayless Conley, almost killed in a boating accident in January, made a successful return to the pulpit.

The pastor sent a message on Twitter that read “Well, I did it. Preached 1^st time since the accident. Thanks be to God, I had enough vocal strength to get through the entire message.”

Conley had returned to the church in a supervisory role earlier but Sunday marked the first time he attempted to deliver a sermon since the near-fatal accident.

Conley was riding in a boat at the end of January that collided head-on with cliffs on the north side of Catalina Island off the Southern California coast. Conley suffered severe head and neck trauma including serious wounds to his throat. He was in critical condition for weeks from the accident.

Doctors said that Conley would need 18 months of healing and rehab before he could return to the pulpit. Instead, it took 6 months.

Staff at Cottonwood Church said that Conley had some trouble pronouncing certain words but that everyone in attendance could understand the message.

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