Tag Archives: United States

House Speaker Threatens To Withdraw Military Authorization To Fight ISIS

House Speaker John Boehner is threatening to have the House of Representatives stop the President from receiving military authorization to continue the air campaign against the Islamic terrorist group ISIS.

“The president’s request for an authorization of the use of military force calls for less authority than he has today. I just think, given the fight that we’re in, it’s irresponsible. This is why the president, frankly, should withdraw the authorization of use of military force and start over,” Boehner told reporters.

The announcement by Boehner comes after the Islamic terrorist group overran the Iraqi city of Ramadi, leading to major criticism of the administration’s plan to not use any ground troops to stop the terrorist advance.

Other members of Congress, however, are not ready to withdraw the authorization to continue the fight against the terrorists.

“I think we’re at risk of losing our institutional power to authorize and conduct war, so the stakes here constitutionally are much greater than the issue itself,” Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., told CBS.  “I’m not critical of the speaker and I would like a different kind of resolution, but I think the best way to get there is to simply start acting.”

The White House was critical in their response to the news Congress may not reauthorize their efforts against ISIS.

“At some point, it has to be the responsibility of the speaker of the House to do his job and for members of Congress to do their job. And we have not seen members of Congress, and we certainly have not seen the speaker of the House do his job when it comes to this specific matter,” Earnest said, according to Voice of America.

Prominent Atheist Attacking “In God We Trust” on Currency

An atheist who has shown vehement zeal in his quest to remove Christianity from the public square is again making a challenge against the national motto of “In God We Trust” on American currency.

Michael Newdow, who has filed multiple lawsuits in his campaign against God, first submitted his complaint in 2013 stating that the motto violates the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.  However, in September of that year, a federal judge ruled against him.

He also lost an appeal to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

Now Newdow is seeking people to join him with suits in seven of the 12 circuits based on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).

“[C]hallenges to this practice under the Establishment Clause have, so far, failed,” he wrote in a recent guest post on Patheos. “Challenges under RFRA, however, are not as susceptible to misapplication. This is because every Supreme Court justice involved in the three RFRA cases heard to date has agreed that, under RFRA, religious activity may not be substantially burdened without a compelling governmental interest and laws narrowly tailored to serve that interest.”

“There is obviously no compelling government interest in having ‘In God We Trust’ on our money,” Newdow continued. “Accordingly, for those who feel that being forced by the government to carry a message that violates their religious ideals is substantially burdensome, lawsuits are now being prepared…”

Newdow is focusing on finding children because he believes children will have more of an impact on justices than adults.

North Dakota Schools Reverse Action; Will Recognize Pro-Life Student Groups

Good news for students of two North Dakota school districts; they will be able to join and operate pro-life groups this fall.

Fargo North High School and Davies High School, both in the Fargo Public School District Number 1, will allow and formally recognize Students For Life Club groups.

The school district initially refused the clubs, although they told the Christian Post in a statement it had nothing to do with content but rather incomplete paperwork.

“Administration at Davies High School has not received an application for students to form a Davies Teens for Life group at Davies High School. Students did approach administration in September 2014 regarding the possibility of starting the club,” read the statement.

“In February, administration at North High School received an incomplete application for students to form a Spartans for Life group. … Included in the ‘potential advisor of the club’ area of the application were names of two staff members that serve as paraprofessionals at North High School. Paraprofessionals cannot serve as coaches or advisors of student groups due to the Fair Labor Standards Act.”

However, the school’s claim was undermined with an assistant principal was found to have sent emails to other faculty saying the students could be connected with a church and that because of their connection to a church they couldn’t meet.

The Thomas More Society stepped in to help the students.

“Public schools are required by law to treat all student groups equally,” said Jocelyn Floyd, associate counsel of Thomas More Society, in a statement.

“Fargo North and Davies High Schools are treating pro-life students as second class citizens, forcing them to abide by a policy that was designed to protect students from exploitation by businesses, not to censor the students’ own free speech.”

Students expressed joy at the news they will be able to meet next school year.

“We are thankful to the attorneys at Thomas More Society and to Students for Life of America for supporting all our efforts,” said Fargo North sophomore Brigid O’Keefe.  “We look forward to educating our fellow students on the beauty of life at all stages and offering assistance to those in need in our community.”

Nebraska Declares State of Emergency Due To Bird Flu

Nebraska’s governor has declared a state of emergency because of a bird flu strain that has contributed to the termination of 33 million birds in 16 states.

Governor Pete Ricketts declared the state of emergency on Thursday after federal officials said a second farm in the state had tested positive for the avian flu virus.  The declaration is the fourth by governors after Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota.

The action by the governor would allow emergency funds to be release to the Nebraska Department of Agriculture and other state agencies tasked with stopping the spread of the flu virus.

Experts say the H5 strains post little threat to human health but are on the verge of record levels in the U.S.

“Having a second farm in Nebraska confirmed to have HPAI (highly pathogenic avian influenza) is unfortunate but not completely unexpected,” said Nebraska Department of Agriculture Director Greg Ibach.  “This follows the pattern we’ve seen in other states when it comes to the spread of the virus.”

Ibach said that 1.8 million birds will be destroyed.  The state’s first case resulted in the destruction of 1.7 million.

Fewer Americans Claim To Be Christians

A new poll from the Pew Research Center shows a decline in the number of Americans who identify themselves as Christians.

The survey showed the percentage of Americans who identify as Christians fell almost 8 percent, from 78.4% to 70.6%.

The survey showed that the decrease is because of millennials leaving the church.  Since 2007,  the number of millennials who say they are unaffiliated with any faith has increased 10 percentage points.  More than one-third of millennials say that they have no faith.

However, the number of those who say they have no faith does not mean there has been an increase in atheism; the poll showed only a ride from 1.5% to 3%.  A Pew researcher noted that many who said they have no faith were just choosing to not identify as religious.

“It’s not as if young people today are being raised in a way completely different from Christianity,” said Greg Smith, Pew’s associate director of religion research and the lead researcher on the new study. “But as adults they are simply dropping that part of their identity.”

Gregory Jones, senior strategist for leadership education at Duke University, cited a different survey that showed 70% of youth pastors have no theological education and said perhaps the problem is that students are not being engaged intellectually by leaders on issues that matter to them. Jones said it leaves the youth bored with church.

“If it is the case that millennials are less ‘atheists’ than they are ‘bored,’ then serious engagements with Christian social innovation, and with deep intellectual reflection (and these two things are connected), would offer promising signs of hope,” Jones said.

Over 900 Students Commit To Christ At RUSH Event

Over 900 youths are now spending eternity with Christ after the RUSH event in Meansville, Georgia.

RUSH, which stands for Reaching Unchurched Students for Him, hosted the conference featuring speaker Sadie Robertson from Duck Dynasty & Dancing With The Stars along with music from Christian rapper Lecrae.

Up to 7,000 people attended the event with 925 accepting Christ according to staffers.

“The nature of [the] event, whether it be concerts, celebrities, games, or other things that we do, are all aimed at getting those kids in the community, or in the world if you will, not in the church necessarily, but to get the church friends to bring the students that may never walk into a church,” RUSH Ministries’ co-founder Marc Pritchett explained to The Christian Post.

2015 is the 11th year that Thomaston, Georgia based RUSH Ministries has hosted events.

“They realize not only is being a Christian fun, not only is it cool, but also, eternal hope is sandwiched within all that stuff,” said Pritchett. “I think that’s probably the reason why we see so many kids come to Christ rather than at a Christian festival — we reach them first, if that makes sense. Then we present the Gospel. They let their guard down a little bit, and when the Gospel is preached, it does what it does. No one can take credit for that except certainly Jesus. We speak that out and it goes out and is received.”

Senator Says U.S. Vulnerable To ISIS

The chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said that the United States is “certainly vulnerable” to the Islamic terrorist group ISIS.

Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) said those who support ISIS see them as a “winning organization” so the U.S. has no other choice but to completely defeat the group.

“The best strategy the U.S. can employ to defeat this is actually defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria so that the reality is conveyed that this is not a winning organization, it is a losing organization,” Johnson said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.

Johnson cited the recent failed attack on a cartoon contest in Texas as an example of ISIS supporters seeing them as “winning” despite the attack failing in its goal.  Johnson said it’s also difficult because they can’t easily deal with those who are activity promoting ISIS.

“The problem is, what do you do with the not-guilty-yet? We do have laws, we have a Constitution, and it’s extremely difficult for law enforcement officials when you might have tens of thousands of sympathizers — how do you track them all?” Johnson asked.

Johnson said that up to 90,000 twitter accounts in the United States were promoting ISIS although Twitter has begun to delete them.

FBI Director James Comey said Thursday that the terrorists are trying to recruit “hundreds, maybe thousands” of potential terrorists in the U.S.  Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said the U.S. is in “more serious circumstances today than we were after 9/11.”

“Remember, back then we thought about al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan and a few other places? Well, we’ve seen al-Qaeda metastasize,” Ridge told CNN. “It is now a global scourge. And you have the ascendancy of ISIL. The combination of those two groups — their appeal to the lone wolfs and we see them acting in Belgium and in France and in Canada and the United States, so the threat factors and the nature of the threats are far more complicated and far more serious today than on Sept. 12, 2001.”

Denzel Washington Tells Graduates To “Put God First”

Oscar-winner Denzel Washington told graduates at Dillard University in New Orleans they need to “put God first” just like he has done in his own life because he knows that everything in his life has come through the grace of God.

Washington’s eleven minute speech often focused on faith.

He said that his wake up call to the way God has blessed him came through his mother.  He said that he had been talking to his mother about how big he had become in the entertainment world when he mother stopped him dead in his tracks.

“She said, ‘Boy, stop it right there,’” he recalled. “If you only knew how many people have been praying for you.”

He said that he was flunking college with a 1.7 grade point average when a woman in his mother’s beauty salon stood up and said that he would travel the world.   He said God was in control then as he is right now.

“Put God first,” he declared emphatically, evoking applause. “Everything you think you see in me, everything that I’ve accomplished, everything that you think I have—and I have a few things—everything I have is by the grace of God. Understand that. It’s a gift.”

He also remarked on the importance of not focusing on material things.

“You’ll never see a U-Haul behind a hearse,” he stated. “I don’t care how much money you make. You can’t take it with you.”

“I pray that you put your slippers way under the bed tonight, so that when you get up in the morning, and you have to get on your knees to reach them,” Washington said. “And while you’re down there, say thank you. Thank you for grace, thank you for mercy, thank you for understanding, thank you for wisdom, thank you for parents, thank you for love, thank you for kindness, thank you for humility, thank you for peace, thank you for prosperity. Say thank you in advance for what’s already yours.”

“We Know God’s Law Can’t Be Undone By Man’s Law”

Texas Governor Greg Abbott made bold declarations about the Lord in an address to the 11th annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast.

Abbott, 57, who became paralyzed after a tree fell on his back in 1984, said he is one of many proofs that God answers prayers.

“Let me just start by making a very simple point. My very being here today is proof that prayers do work,” Abbott told those in attendance at the Marriott Marquis hotel.

“Looking back, I can tell that if you have seen all that I have seen, if you have gone through all that I have gone through, you would never again question the Lord,” Abbott continued. “You would never fear the valley of the shadow of death because you knew that you could palpably feel God’s presence with you and you would pray with gratefulness with the connection established with God that comes through prayer.”

Abbott quoted Pope Francis saying that prayer opens the door for God to do something miraculous in our lives and the lives of those around us.

“Have you all ever noticed how prayers increase in times of great need?” Abbott asked. “In America today, we are in a time of great need and there is an urgent need to pray now, more than ever, especially the need to pray for our religious liberties. I have heard it said that ‘America did not create religious liberty but religious liberty created America.’ That religious liberty is being tested by some who want to silence the faithful and purge God from the public square.”

Abbott mentioned several court victories where the rights of Christians were upheld.

“We see these assaults on faith continue to expand across the entire country,” Abbott said. “We see this in the never-ending battle to defend the unborn and we see this with the legal assault on marriage defined by God, but we know that God’s law cannot be undone by man’s law.”

Abbott mentioned Proverbs 29:2 and said that the world needs righteous leaders in place.  He called on Christians to pray for righteous leaders.

Threat Condition Raised At Military Bases

Security conditions at U.S. military bases were raised overnight because of potential threats of a jihadist attack.

The official move from U.S. Northern Command comes hours after FBI Director James Comey said there are thousands of ISIS followers in the United States.

“We have a general concern, obviously, that ISIL is focusing on the uniformed military and law enforcement,” Comey told reporters Thursday.  “It’s like the devil sitting on their shoulders, saying ‘kill, kill, kill.”

“We have the same concern about the potential threat posed by violent homegrown extremists,” said Captain Jeff Davis, spokesman for the U.S. Northern Command which oversees all U.S. military installations in the continental U.S.

CNN reported that an official confirmed “Force Protection Bravo” status, defined as an “increased and predictable threat of terrorism.”  The last time military bases in the homeland had this condition for any significant length of time was the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

“We are doing this as a prudent measure due to a lot of things in the news lately,” Davis said. “While this change is not tied to a specific credible threat, recent events have led us to recognize the need to take prudent steps to ensure that our security measures can be increased quickly.”

FBI director Comey said the biggest problem is that these people “go dark” like Elton Simpson, one of the two terrorists who attempted the Texas Mohammed Cartoon contest attack.

“The haystack is the entire country,” Comey said. “We are looking for the needles, but increasingly the needles are unavailable to us. … This is the ‘going dark’ problem in living color. There are Elton Simpsons out there that I have not found and I cannot see.”