A campaign is being waged to get President Obama to finally take firm action on the pastor of an American pastor who is wrongfully imprisoned in Iran.
A series of prepared postcards has a message telling the President that the American people want to see him demand the release of Saeed Abedini as part of the nuclear negotiations with Iran.
“A man in your position has been given great power and responsibility to represent every American, whether on domestic or foreign soil. Please hold to your own words, that no one is left behind. We, the American people, ask you to do everything within your power to bring U.S. citizen, pastor, husband & father, Saeed Abedini, home to his family from his time of incarceration in Iran,” the card reads.
The American Center for Law and Justice, who is representing Pastor Abedini and his family, says that the President and his administration ignored the opportunity to work for Abedini’s release in previous negotiations.
At least 80,000 postcards have already been requested by those who will send them to the White House.
A series of rallies and strikes took place across the United States Wednesday as nurses spoke out about what they feel are insufficient measures taken for their protection when dealing with Ebola.
National Nurses United, a California-based union, said that hospitals do not have enough hazardous materials outfits that leave no skin exposed to bodily fluids along with air purifying respirators to avoid accidental inhalation of particles.
“Inadequate preparedness for Ebola symbolizes the erosion of patient care standards generally,” National Nurses United spokesman Charles Idelson told Reuters on Tuesday.
Strikes began early in California on Tuesday with over 20,000 nurses taking part in the protests.
Over 100,000 joined the protests on Wednesday including a group that held a vigil outside the White House.
Two nurses who attended to Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas became infected with the virus and hospital workers told media outlets there were times the nurses did not have adequate protection.
A Christian teenager has sued his school after he was prohibited from praying, singing and discussing religious topics with classmates during the school’s “free period.”
Chase Windebank, a senior at Pine Creek High School, has been leading a group for the last three years that meets during what the school calls the “seminar” period. On Mondays and Wednesdays students can participate in a variety of activities and students with passing grades may also do so on Fridays.
“During the free time, students are permitted to engage in a virtually unlimited variety of activities, including gathering with other students inside or outside; reading; sending text messages to their friends; playing games on their phone; visiting the bathrooms; getting a snack; visiting teachers; and conducting official meetings of school clubs,” states Alliance Defending Freedom.
The school claims that because the “Seminar” is considered class time, they’re now banning Christian students from meeting. The school has not backed down despite it being shown that their actions are violations of the Constitution.
“Public schools should encourage the free exchange of ideas. Instead, this school implemented an ill-conceived ban that singles out religious speech for censorship during free time,” remarked ADF Senior Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco.
Bill Nye, the atheist scientist who attacked Pastor Ken Ham and his beliefs as “bad for humankind” has published a book that mocks Christianity and had stated he has a goal to keep children from being taught the truth of creation from the Bible.
Nye has written a book called “Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation” where he claims to outline “scientific proofs” for the theory of evolution.
He even mocks Christianity by saying evolution is “the most meaningful creation story that humans have ever found.”
Nye even told the New York Times that he wants to get his book into the hands of young children to keep them from being brainwashed by Chrsitians.
“My biggest concern about creationist kids is that they’re compelled to suppress their common sense, to suppress their critical thinking skills at a time in human history when we need them more than ever,” he asserted. “By the time you’re 18, you’ve made up your mind. … But if you’re 7 or 8, we got a shot.”
Creationist Ken Ham reviewed Nye’s book and says Nye dismisses anything that does not agree with him.
“I want to point out that the public would understand science a lot better if evolutionary scientists would stop treating their humanistic, God-denying, worldview-based interpretations of our origins—which no scientist has ever observed or tested—as if they were as reliable as the conclusions drawn from the testable, repeatable processes of observational science,” he stated.
A group dedicated to lives of unborn children has taken over the space of the abortionist group Planned Parenthood.
40 Days For Life says that over 6,400 children died in the building they are taking over in Bryan/College Station, Texas. The building is the same location where the group first began their program of 40 days of prayer, fasting and peaceful vigil outside abortionists.
“More than 6,400 children lost their lives in this building, but God is making ‘all things new.’ What was once a place of death and despair is now going to be a place of life and hope. We are excited to start using this location to aid the rapid worldwide growth of 40 Days for Life, and to help other cities become abortion-free,” said the movement’s campaign director, Shawn Carney, in a release Thursday. “This news shows what God can accomplish when His people pray.”
Part of the renovation of the building will be a crisis pregnancy center to help women who will chose to give life to their unborn children.
Carney said that 40 Days of Life is committed to working with life-saving pregnancy resource centers.
Mergers and closures are coming to New York’s Catholic churches.
Archbishop Timothy Dolan said that 112 parishes will be marged into 55 parishes this year and as many as 33 churches will be closed.
“This time of transition in the history of the archdiocese will undoubtedly be difficult for people who live in parishes that will merge,” stated Dolan. “There will be many who are hurt and upset as they experience what will be a change in their spiritual lives, and I will be one of them.”
The steps are part of a 2010 plan implemented by the church called “Making All Things New.” The plan was to encourage long term pastoral planning.
The New York Times reported that many congregants at churches slated to be closed were not happy about the move.
“There were gasps and tears at Holy Rosary Church in East Harlem. At Sacred Heart in Mount Vernon, congregants shared mournful embraces,” the Times’ Sharon Otterman wrote. “And at Our Lady of Peace on the East Side, parishioners pledged a fight … From Staten Island to the Catskills, there was anguish for congregations that learned that their churches would be effectively shuttered and relief among those whose parishes were spared.”
The closures are attributed to low regular attendance and fewer ordinations of Priests.
On the heels of the United Nations saying it lacked the resources necessary to stop the Ebola outbreak in west Africa, President Obama is asking Congress for billions in aid to fight the killer virus.
The President wants $6.18 billion to fund efforts both within the U.S. and in Africa to combat the virus.
“The funding is needed immediately to strengthen and sustain our whole-of-government response to strengthen preparedness in the U.S. and to help end the Ebola epidemic at its source in West Africa, and to prevent disease outbreaks, detect them early, and swiftly respond before they become epidemics that threaten the American people,” the administration said. “It’s in situations like this one, when activities surpass the current level of funding, that the request is deemed an emergency.”
The World Health Organization reported Wednesday that the death toll is at least 4,818 people out of 13,042 confirmed cases.
The head of the U.N. mission fighting the virus said there are still villages in the impacted countries that have received no aid or help from outside their nation.
“It’s not here yet,” Tony Banbury said about the needed resources. “There are still people, villages, towns [and] areas that [are] not getting any type of help right now and we definitely don’t have the response capability on the ground now from the international community.”
A report on election polling shows that many of the major victories by pro-life and pro-Christian candidates on Tuesday were a result of an increased turnout by evangelical voters.
Public Opinion Strategies found that nearly 1/3 of the total voters on election day said they were conservative Christians.
Ralph Reed of the Faith & Freedom Coalition said at a press conference it was no accident the turnout of people of faith made a difference at the polls in key races.
“The [evangelical] vote was critical in 2010, it was critical in 2012 and it was critical in 2014. If you look at where the Republican Party was on election night 2008 and you look at where it is today, without a muscular turnout of evangelical voters in these kinds of margins, it just simply does not happen,” Reed said. “Joni Ernst just does not beat Bruce Braley. David Perdue does not avoid a runoff in Georgia yesterday.”
Reed said that the election results from Tuesday should show conservative Christians that their vote matters on election day.
“Conservative voters of faith were the largest constituency in the electorate in 2014,” Reed said. “Their share of the electorate exceeded that of the African-American vote, Hispanic vote, and union vote combined. Religious conservative voters and the issues they care about are here to stay. They will be equally vital in 2016. Politicians of both parties ignore this constituency at their peril.”
In what officials are calling “an abundance of caution,” 357 New Yorkers are under active monitoring for possible signs of the Ebola virus.
The New York Department of Health said the majority are people who entered the U.S. from Ebola impacted nations.
“The vast majority of these individuals are travelers arriving in New York City within the past 21 days from the three Ebola-affected countries who are being monitored post-arrival, as well as Bellevue Hospital staff caring for Dr. Spencer,” said a joint statement from the New York City Department of Health and the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation Wednesday.
“The list also includes FDNY EMS staff who transported Dr. Spencer to Bellevue and the lab workers who conducted Dr. Spencer’s blood test. All of these individuals are being monitored out of an abundance of caution, and none are showing any symptoms. The number of individuals who will be actively monitored will continue to fluctuate as people arrive or depart New York City, we learn more about people’s exposures, and 21 days of monitoring has passed.”
The NYC Department of Health also said that Dr. Spencer was “stable” and beginning to show improvement in his fight with the virus.
Officials stressed that no one under monitoring is showing any signs of Ebola.
Every day for eight years, the President of the United States spent time reading, studying and meditating on the Word of God.
That’s the message that President George W. Bush told a group of 200 civic and business leaders in Dallas on Sunday.
“I read the Bible every day during my presidency,” said Bush. “The easiest time to be faithful is during a time of crisis. The hardest time for faith is when all is well. Faith informed my principles and decisions, but not my tactics. It would give me strength, but I didn’t use my faith to make decisions. Freedom is a faith informed principle.”
The President spoke with Hobby Lobby president Steve Green at an event to raise funds for the Museum of the Bible that is scheduled to open in Washington, D.C. in 2017.
President Bush praised the museum.
“The museum is a great idea. It’s very important that the Museum of the Bible invites and makes people of all faiths feel comfortable. It will be an important part of our capital,” he said.