Tag Archives: United States

Deadly Pig Virus Expected To Surge After Summer

A deadly virus that has already decimated the U.S. pig population is expected to see a major surge after the summer months.

Veterinarians are warning that the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus will skyrocket during the fall with a potential 2.5 million pigs likely to die in the next 12 months. The USDA has been downplaying the virus, with USDA secretary Tom Vilsack claiming the U.S. is “on the other side” of the disease of a vaccine available to farmers.

However, vets on the ground and dealing with the problem say that the prevalence of the virus could overcome any immunity developed within a herd.  Even the maker of the vaccine, Harrisvaccines of Iowa, said they do not know the vaccine’s effectiveness when the weather begins to turn cold.

The virus has already killed 10 percent of the U.S. pig population and pork prices have risen to an all-time high.  An economist for the USDA said the records will continue to be set and it’s likely prices will jump at least another 50 cents a pound by the end of the year.

A further outbreak of PEDv would cause an even more significant increase.

Complicating the problem for American hog farmers is that China, Russia and Japan have restricted the import of pigs because of the viral outbreak.

American Giving More To Charity; Less To Church

A new study has shown that giving to charity has been increasing among Americans but that overall giving to churches is in decline.

The Giving USA Foundation released their annual research report Tuesday and said that Americans gave about $335 billion to charity in 2013, a 3 percent increase after adjustments for inflation.  In the same time period, giving to churches was down 0.2 percent, 1.6 percent if adjusted for inflation.

Gregg Carlson, chair of the Giving USA Foundation, told The Christian Post that just 10 years ago giving to churches accounted for 57 percent of all giving.  Now that total is just 31 percent and falling.

“It continues to be a pattern trend of giving being a lower and lower percentage of the overall philanthropic pie,” Carlson said.  “It’s not that [churches] haven’t had some years of increases but it is to say that religion is a smaller and smaller percentage of the philanthropic pie.”

Carlson noted that overall, the giving by Americans was higher than the Gross Domestic Product of some entire nations like Denmark and Ireland.

Supreme Court Unanimously Sides With Pro-Life Group

The Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision in favor of a pro-life group that wanted to challenge an Ohio law that put them at risk for a lawsuit if someone felt their political ads were “false.”

The Susan B. Anthony List had sued a now-former Democratic U.S. Congressman who had claimed the group lied about him in a campaign ad that said he supported taxpayer funded abortion because of his support of the Affordable Care Act.  While the Congressman dropped his complaint against the group under the Ohio law, the group sued to say the law was unconstitutional.

The group said that the lawsuit by former Rep. Steve Driehaus also violated the group’s freedom of speech.  The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled the group had no standing to pursue a lawsuit because the suit against them had been dropped after the election was over.

The ACLU, a very anti-life legal group, surprised observers by backing SBA List in the case.

“Speech is rarely black and white,” an ACLU spokesman said.  “If the government silences one side of the debate, the public is less informed and others might be fearful of criticizing elected officials.  The answer to unpopular speech is not less, but more speech.”

Anti-life groups said the case is about the “right to lie” despite the fact the SBA List has shown the Affordable Care Act includes multiple abortion funding provisions.

Pastor Saeed Abedini, Hobby Lobby Owners Honored

The Southern Baptist Convention presented two awards for Americans standing up for their faith in Christ in life and business.

The SBC gave their “Richard Land Distinguished Service Award” to Pastor Saeed Abedini, who has been risking his life daily while wrongfully imprisoned by Iran’s Islamic government.  Abedini’s wife Naghmeh was on hand to accept the award on his behalf.

Russell Moore, president of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commision, said that Pastor Abedini is a “joyful Cross-bearer who has stirred the Church to stand up and speak out and will leave a legacy for generations to come.”

The SBC’s “John Leland Religious Liberty Award” was given to the owners of Hobby Lobby who are engaged in a battle with the Obama administration over parts of the health care law that require them to pay for abortion drugs.

“It would be really easy,” Moore said, “for the Green family to say, ‘lets just submit to that,’ but because of their strong faith in Jesus Christ, and because of their courage, the Greens have refused to comply with the Obama administration’s Department of Health and Human Services’ mandate under the Affordable Care Act that they provide employees with insurance coverage for what they believe to be abortion inducing drugs. Because they believe that God is the author of human life and that every human life from the moment of conception is sacred and they believe that the government is not the lord of their consciences.”

Clerk Adds “So Help Me God” To Oaths of Office

A recent Supreme Court ruling that Christian prayer was legal at government meetings is having a trickle-down effect in government operations.

Stanley Grot, clerk for Shelby Township, Michigan, has added the phrase “so help me God” to the end of all oaths of office for the township.  Grot said that while the phrase is officially included in the oath, an office holder can refuse to say the phrase if they wish to refuse.

“We are a nation built on Judeo-Christian values and political correctness should not play a role in invoking the Lord’s name,” Grot said.  “We should honor the nation’s traditions and never compromise on our principles.  America is, after all, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

The Detroit News reported the first person sworn in after the oath was changed had no problem saying the phrase.

“My faith in Jesus Christ and God is very important to me,” Laura White said.  “And as a public servant, I have no problem adding that onto my oath.”

Baptists Spent Too Much Time “Talking To The Wrong People”

Members in attendance at the Southern Baptist Convention’s Annual Meeting were taken to task by a Texas pastor who said they have been spending too much time talking to the wrong community of people.

Pastor John Meador said Christians need to stop talking about the gospel with others who are soaked in the gospel and start spending our time taking the gospel to the people who are starved for its good news.

“We’re not getting the gospel into the fields of America, we’re abandoning them and the reason for that is because our army has fled. We have no heart for the captives,” Meador said.

Meador said Americans need to stop thinking that evangelization and witnessing are for missionaries in far away parts of the world.

“The soul next door is as equal as the soul on the other side of the world,” he said.

Meador said that Christians need to realize a passion for everyone.

“What’s it going to take for the concept of your unreached neighbor to become totally intolerable for you?” Meador asked.  “I don’t even know sometimes if we’re capable of that kind of anger or if we’re so tempered by the complacent apathy of our culture that we don’t feel this anymore. You and I have to come to the point where we spread the Gospel because we can’t take it anymore.”

Religious Freedom Is The New Civil Rights Issue

Pastor Rick Warren and Rev. Samuel Rodriguez said that religious freedom in America is the new civil rights issue.

Rev. Rodriguez, the president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, said Christians need to fight for their religious freedom or be silenced.

“While ending racial inequality emerged as the civil rights issue of the 20th century … religious liberty will be the civil rights issue of the next decade,” Rodriguez said.  “Today’s complacency is tomorrow’s captivity.”

The two spoke as part of a panel discussion at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting titled “Hobby Lobby and the Future of Religious Liberty.”

A big theme of the meeting was the push by many groups to say that people of faith must proclaim that every religious faith is equally valid and all worship the same God.  That misconception is driving the definition of “tolerance” to mean something other than what tolerance truly means according to the panelists.

“The “definition of tolerance has changed from I treat you with respect and dignity even when we disagree to all ideas are equally valid,” Warren said.

The panel said ultimately even if those who want to strip Christians of their rights to worship and be a part of society, the world can do nothing to stop Jesus.

“If the United States crumbles away, the Gospel is not lost,” Russell Moore said.

Outgoing SBC President Challenges Churches To Go Outside The Walls

The outgoing president of the Southern Baptist Convention told those in attendance at the 2014 Southern Baptist Convention’s Annual Meeting that it’s time for members to get out of the pews and go outside the church walls.

Fred Luter, Jr., the first African-American pastor to be elected SBC president, said that the days of so-called “open door evangelism” have ended.

“There was a time when you just open the church door and people would come from the neighborhood,” Luter said. “There was a time you just open the church door and people would come from different families. There was a time you could just open the church door and people were expected to go to church.”

He said today fewer parents and grandparents are attending church with their children and grandchildren because the younger generation sees no place for the Gospel in their lives.  Thus, Luter says, we must go to them.

“If they are not coming to us, we must, we must, we must go to them. That’s what Jesus meant when He gave us the Great Commission. Jesus said go, don’t stay. Go, don’t think about it. Go, don’t debate it. Go, don’t study it. Go, don’t blog about it. Go, go, go and make disciples,” Luter shouted.

Luter finished his comments by saying that like Israel in Psalm 80, America has sinned against God and that American is rapidly turning into a pagan nation.  He said the church needs to spend time fervently in prayer to try and turn around the trend of the nation away from God.

Gates Foundation Refuses To Fund Abortion

Melinda Gates, wife of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, wrote that the Gates Foundation had decided not to fund abortions anywhere in the world.

“I understand why there is so much emotion,” Gates wrote, “Conflating these issues will slow down progress for tens of millions of women.  That is why I when I get asked [about] my views on abortion I say that like everyone, I struggle with the issue, but I’ve decided not to engage on it publicly and the Gates Foundation has decided not to fund abortion.”

Gates also reiterated her position during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper when journalists focused on the abortion issue.  Canada’s wide-open abortion policy has virtually no limits on how a woman may end her child’s life via abortion.

Pro-abortion groups attacked Gates, saying that her actions were “stigmatizing abortion.”  The groups also attacked Gates saying that because she and the Foundation do not support abortion, it causes women around the world to die when it wouldn’t happen if they funded abortion services.

The Gates Foundation includes a Global Health Initiative aimed at advancing health and sciences in developing nations.

Court Grants Health Care Injunction For Catholic Groups

A federal judge has granted a temporary health care mandate injunction to close to 200 Catholic employers.

The preliminary injunction says the employers do not have to provide coverage for contraceptives, especially those that cause abortions, and will not be subject to all fines and penalties for not providing those items.

The Catholic Benefits Association filed the lawsuit against the Obama Administration’s “Affordable Care Act” in March claiming it violated their religious freedom.

“The harm posed to these plaintiffs absent relief is quite tangible-they will either face severe monetary penalties or be required to violate their religious beliefs,” U.S. District judge David Russell wrote in his ruling.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs were very pleased with the ruling.

“This ruling is especially gratifying because this lawsuit, alone among the HHS contraceptive mandate cases, includes three groups of Catholic employers-“houses of worship” that are, by regulation, exempt; non-exempt ministries like colleges, Catholic Charities, and healthcare institutions; and Catholic-owned for profit businesses,” Martin Nussbaum, CBA General Counsel, told CNS News.