Sunday marked the sixth straight year that churches participated in the “Get Back To Church” Sunday event where those who had walked away from the church were invited to “come home.”
Churches across the country reported significant upturns in attendance as a result of the event.
“We had a wonderful service in Yuba City, CA,” wrote Greg Mansur on the event’s Facebook page. “Very high attendance, several visitors, many returned we had not seen in a while, and there was a tremendous spirit of fellowship and unity … Just a tremendous day. Appreciate all the tools and support from the BTCS team!”
“Second Baptist Church in Barnwell, South Carolina had an amazing worship service today!! We had an overflow of attendance with several visiting friends and family … a jam packed weekend! Beautiful…awe inspiring,” another poster wrote.
Scott Evans, CEO of Outreach, Inc. which started the “Get Back To Church” initiative, says the event started with 600 churches in 2009 and now is the largest such event in the country.
“We believe in this day because we know it helps people invite others to church. Back to Church Sunday really got its start from research that showed 82% of people said they would attend church if someone they knew invited them, but only 2% of church members were inviting others to come with them,” said Evans in a statement.
The United States and Arab allies began a series of airstrikes on the terrorist group ISIS.
The strikes happened inside Syria near the town of Raqqa, the self-proclaimed “capital” for the terrorists.
“I can confirm that U.S. military and partner nation forces are undertaking military action against ISIS terrorists in Syria using a mix of fighter, bomber and Tomahawk Land Attack missiles,” Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby told reporters. “Given that these operations are ongoing, we are not in a position to provide additional details at this time.”
In addition to U.S. forces, aircraft from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
Intelligence reports say that most of the 30,000 ISIS terrorists are inside Syria and without strikes inside that country it would be impossible to break the ISIS command structure.
The strikes come just days after 60,000 Syrian Kurds fled to Turkey because of advances from the terrorists.
Islamic State issued a call to its members in the United States, France and other countries that are connected to the coalition against ISIS to commit attacks.
The call from Islamic State included direct attacks on world leaders, including President Obama.
“O mule of the Jews, you claimed today that America would not be drawn into a war on the ground. No, it will be drawn and dragged … to its death, grave and destruction,” ISIS leader Abu Muhammad al-Adnani said in the video.
ISIS leadership also dismissed the pending airstrikes from coalition countries and said they will have no impact on their reign of terror.
“It will be broken and defeated, just as all your previous campaigns were broken and defeated,” Adnani said.
The Air Force has announced that they will no longer require anyone to say “so help me God” when they enlist or renew their services to the armed forces.
The move comes in response to an atheist who said he would not say that part of the oath when re-enlisting.
“The Air Force will be updating the instructions for both enlisted and commissioned Airmen to reflect these changes in the coming weeks, but the policy change is effective now,” read an Air Force press release. “Airmen who choose to omit the words ‘So help me God’ from enlistment and officer appointment oaths may do so.”
The atheist threatened a lawsuit because he was told he could not re-enlist if he did not say the oath as written. He had scratched out the phrase from his enlistment papers and would not say it when given the oral oath.
The anti-Christian American Humanist Organization had offered to represent the airman in suing the Air Force.
“We take any instance in which airmen report concerns regarding religious freedom seriously,” Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James said. “We are making the appropriate adjustments to ensure our Airmen’s rights are protected.”
A New York man has been charged with actively supporting the Islamic terrorist group ISIS.
Mufid Elfgeeh, 30, is a Yemeni born man who had been living in New York City. Elfgeeh ran a halal food market in the city and used the profits to help fund terrorism activities for the group. He also was arranging for the purchase and shipment of weapons.
Reports say that Elfgeeh attempted to buy guns from undercover FBI agents and worked with another undercover agents to help them travel to Syria to take the weapons to ISIS. He even accompanied an undercover agent to Buffalo, New York to pick up a passport for the trip to Syria.
Most disturbing was plans to murder members of the U.S. military.
“Elfgeeh also plotted to shoot and kill members of the United States military who had returned from Iraq,” prosecutors state. “As part of the plan to kill soldiers, Elfgeeh purchased two handguns equipped with firearm silencers and ammunition from a confidential source.”
Attorney General Eric Holder said this is just one of many operations currently underway.
“We will remain aggressive in identifying and disrupting those who seek to provide support to ISIL and other terrorist groups that are bent on inflicting harm upon Americans,” stated Attorney General Eric Holder, according to USA Today. “We are focused on breaking up these activities on the front end, before supporters of ISIL can make good on plans to travel to the region or recruit sympathizers to this cause.”
The Islamic terrorist group ISIS announced plans to attack Israel and eventually the U.S. in a magazine they produced called “Dabiq”.
The terrorists say the conflict with Hamas has made Israel a target for their campaign of violence.
“As for the massacres taking place in Gaza against the Muslim men, women and children, the Islamic State will do everything within its means to continue striking down every apostate who stands as an obstacle on its path toward Palestine,” one article states. “Our actions speak louder than its words and it is only a matter of time and patience before it reaches Palestine to fight the barbaric Jews and kill those of them hiding behind the gharqad trees — the trees of the Jews.”
The magazine was named for a town where the terrorists believe Muslims and Westerners will fight before the apocalypse.
The magazine ends with the group telling their followers that they wlll eventually conquer the entire Arabian Peninsula, Rome and then will defeat the anti-Christ.
“ISIS’s tactics span all media, with devoted Twitter accounts and YouTube channels, including ones that showed the horrifying — and slickly shot — execution of photojournalist James Foley,” Josh Kovensky of the New Republic writes. “… much of Dabiq’s content focuses on a coming apocalypse, while pulling out the same glossy stops that one would expect from an American magazine.”
A Princeton law professor is speaking out over the large number of Americans and residents of other western nations that are ignoring the systematic “cultural cleaning” of Christians from the Middle East.
Robert George says Christians in the west need to step up and spur their governments to action.
“It must be a kind of complacency that comes with power and affluence,” George said. “We are happy. We are content. We are not persecuted, or not very much. So, we do not see the persecution of our brothers and of our sisters on the other side of town.”
“Where is the voice being raised on behalf of Middle Eastern Christians by my fellow American Christians and Christians in Europe?” George continued. “Yes, some do raise their voices and they are to be congratulated. To often this persecution goes on and we hear nothing. No voices raised by Christians.”
George, the vice chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, spoke at a press conference announcing a gathering of Middle East Christians.
“The narrative has too often been internalized by Christians themselves so that they fear speaking out lest they be confronted with a claim that Christians have no right to complain about persecution because their history has been one of persecuting,” George said. “As the heads are being chopped off by ISIS and other criminals, as the tortures are occuring, people are being burried alive, women are being raped. As evil beyond imagineable, genicidal evil is being done, we in the West must not worry about being accused of special pleading.”
A Maryland community college is again facing a lawsuit for rejecting a student due to his Christian faith.
The American Center for Law and Justice has filed suit against Community College of Baltimore County on behalf of Dustin Buxton after they denied him permission to enter their radiation therapy program.
Buxton had cited his faith during his interview as an applicant.
“During that interview in 2013, Dustin was asked by the CCBC interview panel, ‘What do you base your morals on?’ Dustin replied, ‘My faith,’” ACLJ attorney Michelle Terry outlined in a report this week. “His faith was not mentioned again, yet, in a written review of his interview, the program director, Adrienne Dougherty, stated that Dustin had lost points because ‘[Dustin] also brought up religion a great deal during the interview. Yes, this is a field that involves death and dying; but religion cannot be brought up in the clinic by therapist or students.’”
The ACLJ had filed suit against the same school for denying Brandon Jenkins entry into the same program because of his Christian beliefs.
Doctors treating an American doctor who rushed to Liberia to assist after two previous American health workers were infected with Ebola say his condition is stable but it’s too early to say if he will recover.
Dr. Rick Sacra is in isolation at Nebraska Medical Center and is described as “very tired and stable.”
“We are encouraged by what we see, but it’s too early to say he has turned a corner,” Dr. Phil Smith told Fox News. Dr. Smith said that Sacra is being treated with an experimental drug that is different than the ZMapp given to two previous American victims of the virus.
Dr. Smith also said that Dr. Sacra, while still very sick, has been keenly observing his condition and vital signs and is giving tips on the best way to provide his treatment.
Dr. Sacra’s family was able to visit with him through a video link for almost half an hour.
“He asked for something to eat and had a little chicken soup,” Debbie Sacra said in a statement.
The doctor had been serving with the Christian missionary outfit SIM, the same organization that previous victim Nancy Writebol had been working with in Liberia.
Two Russian bombers carried out a series of practice cruise missile attacks on the United States last week during the NATO summit in Wales.
The bombers were identified as Russian Tu-95 Bear bombers. They flew over Iceland, Greenland and dipped over northeast Canada. The flights approached was is called a “launch box”, the optimum point for firing a nuclear weapon at the United States.
The test runs come as a Russian general is calling for the country to change their policies to make pre-emptive nuclear strikes on the United States and Europe the default position. Gen. Yuri Yakubov has been calling on Russia to classify the U.S. and NATO as “enemies” and that they need to “hash out conditions” where Russia could launch missiles.
The Russian aircraft stayed just outside of the North American Air Defense Identification Zone so the U.S. and Canadian Air Force did not send jets to intercept.
NATO officials held a summit last week to discuss Russia and their hostile actions toward Ukraine.