Student files complaint with university's harassment office after altercation at law school dean's home, claiming she was targeted for wearing hijab; professor scoffs at mistreatment allegations

This year's "We Are One" ceremony reflected the organization's collective mourning and resilience.

The IDF is making progress in its offensive in Rafah, Hamas's last major stronghold in Gaza. Knowing that rooting out Hamas in Rafah is crucial to its goal of erasing ... Read MoreThe post Could Israel's Rafah Offensive End the War Soon? appeared first on The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry.

The James Webb Space Telescope is in the news again because it keeps finding things about galaxies that astronomers and astrophysicists did not expect.

President Joe Biden has faced criticism from Republicans and Democrats after he promised to withhold an arms shipment to Israel if the U.S. ally invaded Rafah in Gaza to launch an assault against a Hamas military stronghold.

A majority of American Protestants were raised by devout mothers, a study finds.The vast majority of American Christians were raised in the faith—and most can point to the influence of their moms.In a 2023 study, the American Bible Society found that a majority of believers remain in the same religious tradition as their mothers. This agrees with a large body of mainstream social science research dating back to the 1970s that says the active faith of mothers is a strong predictor of religious transmission.Some of this may be attributed to the natural bond children have with their mothers. But there is also research that shows that moms take a more active role in faith formation in America.A 2019 Barna Group survey found that Christian teenagers who say their faith is very important to them are 20 points more likely to talk to their moms about religion than their dads. More than 70 percent of Christian teenagers read the Bible, 70 percent talk about God, and 63 percent pray with their moms.Continue reading...

By Brandon Smith The concept of mass starvation has not been in the forefront of American society for a very long time. Even during the...Mass Starvation: Here's Why Most Of America Is Completely Unprepared

The James Webb Space Telescope is in the news again because it keeps finding things about galaxies that astronomers and astrophysicists did not expect.

The controversial iPad ad proves that technology can indeed flatten—or crush—what is real.A recent advertisement from Apple for the new iPad Pro has somehow managed to existentially disturb me. Titled “Crush!” it shows an ominous hydraulic press above a platform filled with symbols of humanity, creativity, and joy: a metronome, guitar, classical statue, piano, analog cameras, books, paint, and more.The metronome starts, and the press descends to Sonny & Cher’s “All I Need Is You,” slowly obliterating everything in high-def slow motion, before rising again to reveal only a “thinner than ever” iPad Pro. “Just imagine all the things it’ll be used to create,” Apple CEO Tim Cook posted on the social platform X.I am not alone in my revulsion. Actors Hugh Grant and Justine Bateman join me, as do apparently thousands of vocal people on the Internet and what appears to be the entire nation of Japan. The backlash, particularly from the “creatives” that Apple was courting for their product, was so pronounced that the company issued a rare apology, saying they had “missed the mark.”But what mark did they miss? More than missing just the tastes of their buyers, they missed the mark of reality—both of the creative process and of the goodness of the embodied nature that is essential to our humanity.I see why Apple produced the ad. There is tremendous economic incentive for tech corporations to replace previous, more embodied experiences and tools. Apple Music will never scratch like the fragile grooves of a vinyl record (also, it contains most of the recorded music in the world). GarageBand can’t go out of tune (and its digital “instruments” can mimic the entire orchestra). One can “paint” all day on ...Continue reading...

Aaron Renn outlines individual, institutional, and missional strategies for adapting to a hostile culture.Rarely does an essay cause such a stir as Aaron Renn’s “The Three Worlds of Evangelicalism.” Published in First Things in 2022, Renn’s framework for describing Christianity’s fall into cultural disfavor since the 1960s elicited a wide range of responses, from wholehearted agreement to sympathetic skepticism to vociferous disagreement, and seemingly everything in between.Renn’s essay categorizes the recent history of evangelicalism in the United States into three periods, or worlds. In the positive world, Christianity was in a position of cultural dominance; most Americans, even those who were not particularly religious, recognized the importance of Christianity to the country’s collective moral fabric. In the neutral world, the broader culture came to see Christianity not as uniquely good, but still as a belief system and worldview doing more good than harm.Since the early 2010s—the dates themselves, Renn admits, are not binding—evangelicalism has been in the negative world. Here, culture and its elites are inherently suspicious of evangelical Christianity, especially when it challenges or conflicts with emerging, more attractive ideologies. Christians in the negative world, according to Renn, will encounter resistance to previously acceptable beliefs and behaviors. This resistance could take many forms, from simple yet pronounced disagreement all the way to the dreaded C-word: cancellation.Less than two years after his essay, Renn’s book, Life in the Negative World: Confronting Challenges in an Anti-Christian Culture, updates and elaborates on his framework and provides tangible resources for Christians concerned about this cultural transformation. Renn’s ...Continue reading...

Drake and Kendrick Lamar's rivalry reveals our craving for controversy—and what's lost when community is based on shared hatred, not love.This piece was adapted from Russell Moore’s newsletter. Subscribe here.Not since Tupac died have we seen the country quite as fixated on a feud between rappers. Over the past several weeks, artists Drake and Kendrick Lamar kept the news cycle abuzz with their dueling diss tracks—ridiculing each other in trivial matters of height and weight and popularity before getting nastier with implications of secret love children and the possible grooming of minors.As the lyrics amped up, police even investigated whether the argument was related to a shooting of a security guard outside Drake’s home in Toronto. For most people, though, the feud didn’t seem dangerous; it just seemed fun. And that’s what worries me.I am far from qualified to judge who the better artist is between Drake and Lamar. My dogs were named Waylon and Willie, but, come to think of it, the Outlaws wrote a diss track or two themselves. Even so, if this were just a story about musicians’ egos battling, it could be quickly forgotten. The greater concern is not that these two artists have diss tracks, but that we are all living in one ourselves.Drake and Lamar obviously do have some genuine dislike of each other. I share sarcastic barbs with a good friend sometimes, but I’ve never accused him of being a pedophile or of neglecting his child support. And yet, it also seems that much of this feud is theatrical—meant to mutually benefit them both.After all, the question in the music industry press right now is not whether restraining orders will be sought but whose tracks are beating whose on the charts. The truth is, no matter who is “winning” or “losing” in that competition, both are winning. People ...Continue reading...

Aaron Renn outlines individual, institutional, and missional strategies for adapting to a hostile culture.

Under Biden's Title IX, Girls Uneasy Undressing in Front of Boys 'Will Be the Ones Prosecuted': Expert...

Long-shot campaign needs 15,000 signatures for the chance to get on the ballot.Eye-catching election placards are popping up across the European Union. They appear overnight in public squares and in front of train stations, along the Autobahn and the Champs-Élysées and many lesser-known rues, strassen, and calles.With bright colors and bold slogans, each promises to make a difference in the European Parliament, if only passersby will vote for their party in the upcoming election.“Make Europe strong,” says one.“Make it happen,” urges another.And there’s a new slogan for a new party in Spain: “United in values, guided by faith.”The sign asks people to vote for Fe, Infancia, Educación, y Libertad (Faith, Childhood, Education, and Liberty) or FIEL, a new, explicitly evangelical Christian party. The party’s candidate for the European Parliament may not actually appear on ballots in June, though. Before Juan José Cortés can stand for election, FIEL needs 15,000 signatures by May 12.“We are at a crucial moment,” party president Salvador Martí wrote in a recent campaign letter. “Your signature is essential so that we can continue in the battle, and so that together we can work for a better future for all.”Martí acknowledges this is an uphill battle. Many experts say it’s basically impossible to build a new party from scratch out of a tiny religious minority. Evangelicals make up about 2 percent of the Spanish population. There are fewer than 5,000 evangelical congregations in the whole country, even with the recent increase in evangelical immigrants.“We do not want to settle for the obstacles that say that it is not possible to build a party built by citizens like you and me ...Continue reading...

Long-shot campaign needs 15,000 signatures for the chance to get on the ballot.Eye-catching election placards are popping up across the European Union. They appear overnight in public squares and in front of train stations, along the Autobahn and the Champs-Élysées and many lesser-known rues, strassen, and calles.With bright colors and bold slogans, each promises to make a difference in the European Parliament, if only passersby will vote for their party in the upcoming election.“Make Europe strong,” says one.“Make it happen,” urges another.And there’s a new slogan for a new party in Spain: “United in values, guided by faith.”The sign asks people to vote for Fe, Infancia, Educación, y Libertad (Faith, Childhood, Education, and Liberty) or FIEL, a new, explicitly evangelical Christian party. The party’s candidate for the European Parliament may not actually appear on ballots in June, though. Before Juan José Cortés can stand for election, FIEL needs 15,000 signatures by May 12.“We are at a crucial moment,” party president Salvador Martí wrote in a recent campaign letter. “Your signature is essential so that we can continue in the battle, and so that together we can work for a better future for all.”Martí acknowledges this is an uphill battle. Many experts say it’s basically impossible to build a new party from scratch out of a tiny religious minority. Evangelicals make up about 2 percent of the Spanish population. There are fewer than 5,000 evangelical congregations in the whole country, even with the recent increase in evangelical immigrants.“We do not want to settle for the obstacles that say that it is not possible to build a party built by citizens like you and me ...Continue reading...

? Temple Baptist Church - 5-8-2024John 14:15-19; 15:26-16:7? Introduction:? John 14:15-19 If ye love me, keep my commandments. (16) And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; (17) Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. (18) I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. (19) Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.? John 15:26-27 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: (27) And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.? John 16:1-7 These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. (2) They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. (3) And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. (4) But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you. (5) But now I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? (6) But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. (7) Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.? A. As we continue to look at the prophecy of? Christ's work on earth ending, it has caused great consternation to His disciples.? 1. The Lord has said that He is going away and they cannot go with Him but promises that they can come to where He is later.? John 13:36 Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterwards.? 2. The Lord has foretold that His disciples will be hated for His name's sake as they hated Him first.? John 15:18-20 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. (19) If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. (20) Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.? 3. The Lord has foretold that His disciples will be persecuted and put out of the synagogues and ultimately will die for the cause of Christ.? John 16:2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.? 4. Sorrow has “filled” their hearts. “Filled:” A sorrow that consumed them at this time.? John 16:6 But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart.? B. The Lord is now telling His disciples that it is “expedient” that He go away.? 1. “Expedient” – a means of attaining an end. Something good and profitable. In their best interest! Oft times, troubles, and trials in the child of God's life are expedient. They are necessary in the short term to bring about something good in the long run.? 1 Peter 1:6-7 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: (7) That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:? 2. They did not understand now but, when the fulness of the Person of the Holy Ghost will come, they will realize the expedience of Christ's going away.? C. Why expedient?? 1. Because the price for sin had to be paid, the resurrection of the dead had to be accomplished, and the two ascensions had to occur. The first ascension to place the blood of Christ upon the Mercy Seat in heaven and the second ascension so as to produce our High Priest, Advocate, and Mediator.? 2. Because God dwelling with man was not sufficient as God dwelling in each man individually. Christ in the flesh was limited because He became flesh and flesh cannot be everywhere at one. The Holy Spirit of God could indwell each individual man.? 3. Because of the empowering of each believer to bring about boldness in witness.? D. I do not want to preach a series on Pneumatology, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, but do want to do justice to what is said in these verses. In verse 7, we find that the Lord will send the “Comforter” to them. “Comforter” –? παράκλητος? paraklētos? par-ak'-lay-tos? – Summoned or called to one's side, especially called to one's aid. An intercessor, succorer, assistant.? 1. The Promise of the Comforter.? John 14:16-19 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; (17) Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. (18) I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. (19) Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.? a. Verse 16. The Promise of His Coming. “I will pray the Father, and He shall give”? b. Verse 16. The Promise of His Comforting. “Another Comforter” To take the place that Christ had before His death, burial, and resurrection.? c. Verse 16. The Promise of His Continuing. “abide with you for ever” He will never leave nor forsake the child of God. “I have Somebody with me, to bear my heavy load!”? d. Verse 17. The Promise of His Counsel. “The Spirit of truth”? e. Verse 17. The Predicament of His Presence. “whom the world cannot receive”? f. John 15:26. The Purpose of His Work. “He shall testify of me” A lot of religionists speak much of the work of the Holy Ghost, but the work is not His entire purpose. The Holy Spirit, in His Person, and the Holy Ghost, in His Word, ALWAYS POINT THE BELIEVER TO CHRIST AND NOT TO HIMSELF!? 2. The Person of the Comforter. He is God! At this point, I want to look at a theological statement that shows the Equality of God the Holy Spirit..? “God is one God, manifesting Himself in three Persons—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. These Three are all co-equal in all power and attributes.”? a. He is One with God. “God is one God, manifesting Himself in three Persons—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.”? b. God is one God! “One God” shows the absolute truth of the unity of the Godhead or Trinity. The word “Trinity,” like the word “Rapture,” is not found in your Bible but the truth of the Trinity is all through your Bible.? 1) The word “Godhead” is used three times in the Bible with the number three speaking of perfect unity. “Godhead” speaks of divinity and comes from a root word meaning “perpetual.” The word “perpetual” means unending or continuing forever.? Acts 17:29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the? Godhead? is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.? Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and? Godhead; so that they are without excuse:? Colossians 2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the? Godhead? bodily.? 2) In the Old Testament, we find the unity of God established. the First Mention of God is found in Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God” with the word “God” being plural. This Hebrew name for the Trinity was used in the plural form:? 'ĕlôhı̂ym? el-o-heem'? 3) In Genesis 1:26 and 11:7, we fine the? phrase? “let us”? used when speaking of the Godhead or Trinity.? 4) In the New Testament, we find the three-fold work of the Godhead? separated? and explained.? 1a)? God the Father sent? His Son to die for the? sin of the world;? 2a) God the Son gave His life for the payment of the sins of the whole world;? 3a) God the Father sent? the Comforter (Holy Spirit)? to indwell and teach the believer.? c. In the New Testament, we find the separation of offices.? 1) As the United states has three branches of government, the Godhead has three Persons with distinct works.? 2) The Holy Spirit has every attribute (Omniscience, Omnipotence, and Omnipresence) of God the Father and God the Son making Him also Almighty God.? 3) “These Three are all co-equal in all power and attributes.”? 3. The Purpose of the Comforter.? a. He was to be their Comforter! I thank God every day for the amazing grace that He has extended to us in salvation and given to us in our earthly sorrows. My beloved sister, Sharon, who has cancer has been one of the greatest examples of God's grace that I have ever seen. We love and may miss her for a little while here but will spend eternity with her there. We then comfort others with the comfort that we have comforted of God.? 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; (4) Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. (5) For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.? b. He was to be their Teacher. “Spirit of Truth.”? 1) The world cannot discern the Truth of the Word of God.? John 14:17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.? 1 Corinthians 2:12-14 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. (13) Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. (14) But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.? 2) The Believer can know the Truth of the Word of God.? John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Hezekiah's rule is one which has been associated with significant chronological controversy, specifically a claimed 12-year gap.

By Richard M. Reinsch II A unification of forces has produced the array of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) policies that have fervently emerged across...Stakeholder Statism is Coming

By Richard M. Reinsch II A unification of forces has produced the array of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) policies that have fervently emerged across...Stakeholder Statism is Coming

By Matthew Guariglia Axon—the makers of widely-used police body cameras and tasers (and that also keeps trying to arm drones)—has a new product: AI that...What Can Go Wrong When Police Use AI to Write Reports?

By Matthew Guariglia Axon—the makers of widely-used police body cameras and tasers (and that also keeps trying to arm drones)—has a new product: AI that...What Can Go Wrong When Police Use AI to Write Reports?

Once you are forgiven by God, your sins are gone. They are cast away. They are never able to come back and haunt you, accuse you, nor condemn you.

By Patricia Burke? of? Safe Tech International Smart meter battles have been underway across the U.S. since the Obama administration, and many who were on the front...Smart Meters: Medscape Removes Courses Funded by Philip Morris, Time for Utility Commissions and Legislatures to Bow Too

Amid the continued declines, Southern Baptists are celebrating back-to-back years of growth in worship attendance and baptism.Despite years of record-setting declines shrinking the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) to its lowest membership in nearly half a century, Southern Baptists have begun to see some signs of life within their 46,906 churches.Worship attendance, small group attendance, and baptisms were up last year in the SBC’s annual statistical report, released Tuesday, while membership fell below 13 million.2023 marks 17 straight years of decline for the country’s biggest Protestant denomination. It’s down 3.3 million from its peak, with the steepest drops coming during the pandemic. The SBC lost 1.3 million members between 2020 and 2022 alone.Beyond COVID-19 disruptions, Southern Baptists have recently confronted some contentious issues within their convention, responding to sexual abuse and clamping down on female preachers, which have led some congregations to leave the SBC (including prominent megachurch Saddleback Church).But statistics indicate that church departures aren’t a significant driver of membership decline; the SBC was down 292 churches last year, just 0.63 percent of its total.In 2023, membership fell by 241,000, its smallest decrease since 2018. Yet attendance at SBC churches increased 6.5 percent, reaching above 4 million a week for the first time since the pandemic.Attendance at small groups and Bible studies ticked up 4 percent to 2.4 million.With fewer Americans than ever attending church and religious disaffiliation on the rise, leaders see even small increases in engagement and discipleship as worth celebrating.It’s the first time in over a decade that SBC worship attendance has grown two years in a row, though it still lags behind pre-pandemic numbers. Back in ...Continue reading...

Churches are combating syncretism among millennials and Gen Z amid a rise of social media healers who call on ancestral spirits.Millions of Black South Africans seek guidance from sangomas, traditional healers or so-called witch doctors who use their spiritual gifts to connect with ancestors, prescribe herbs to heal illnesses, and throw dry bones to predict the future.It’s a centuries-old tradition that has continued in the majority-Christian country and has adapted for the internet age: A new breed of influencer sangomas are positioning themselves on social media as digital-entrepreneurial-spiritual seers.Church leaders across several major denominations in South Africa have long decried the practice as involving “evil, devilish, and unclean spirits.” But as the online sagomas draw in a mass audience of millennial Christians—a generation eager to “decolonize” their lives and reconnect to indigenous African roots—church leaders have new concerns around syncretism as well as internet scams.Condemnation of sangomas and African ancestral worship is the strongest cog uniting European-legacy churches like Anglicans, Baptists, and Catholics as well as African-initiated churches like the Zion Christian Church (ZCC), said Tendai Muchatuta, a cleric with the Apostolic of All Nations Church in Johannesburg.Both kinds of churches say the practice, despite its popularity, is not compatible with Christianity.The ZCC is the largest African-initiated church in Southern Africa, with about 12 million churchgoers, including some 9 million in South Africa. Bauleni Moloi, a ZCC pastor in Johannesburg, called sangomas “dubious agents of darkness out to sway Christians from the true focus on the gospel of the cross.”But younger Christians are more likely to disagree. Many millennial and Gen Z South Africans embrace ...Continue reading...