Another N.C. Dem. Refuses to Endorse Obama

Another North Carolina Democrat is refusing to support President Obama's reelection effort. This time it's Rep. Larry Kissell.
"[H]e doesn’t plan to endorse Obama for re-election and isn’t sure he’ll attend his party’s national convention in Charlotte," McClatchy reports. "Kissell represents the 8th District, which runs from Mecklenburg County to Robeson County. Last year’s redistricting added heavily Republican areas of Rowan, Davidson and Randolph counties while removing thousands of Democratic voters in Charlotte and Fayetteville."
Matt Connelly, a regional spokesman for the Republican National Committee, remarks on Twitter: "Rep. Kissell's (D-NC) district ends 9 blocks away from Bank of America Stadium, but he isn't sure if he'll attend the DNC."
Kissell is also upset with Obama and Democrats over Obamacare. As McClatchy reports:

Last week, Kissell was one of 17 Democrats who voted with Republicans to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in criminal contempt of Congress. And next week, he plans to vote with them again to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care law.
“I’ve heard from hundreds and hundreds of people from my district about their opposition to the health care law,” Kissell told the Observer Monday. “I voted against it originally and I will vote to repeal it.”

The news of Kissell's refusal to back Obama follows up on a similar pronouncement by another North Carolina Democratic congressman, Rep.  Mike McIntyre.

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AMEC, Wycliffe join together in Great Commission focus

 USA (MNN) ― The African Methodist Episcopal Church has possibly been through more pain and growth than any other American church denomination in the past 200 years. And this year, they want to focus that all in on reaching the rest of the globe with the Gospel.
Today is day six of the 49th quadrennial General Conference for the 190-year old AMEC, the oldest African American church denomination in existence. This year's June 27-July 4 conference is host to 20,000 people, including U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama as a keynote speaker, in Nashville, Tennessee.
Wycliffe Bible Translators is honored to have been the only Christian mission organization invited to the Assembly to move participants toward a new goal.
"[AMEC's] motivation is to establish global mission as a primary goal for their denomination," explains Wycliffe's Don Erickson, who has been speaking at the conference.
Being able to focus globally is a significant milestone for a denomination that's come against so many obstacles. Erickson points out, "Through institutional racism over the past 2+ centuries, the African American church was prohibited from participating in global mission."

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Pro-Life Activist’s Home Vandalized by Abortion Backers

Following an profile news story in Newsweek detailing their work in the pro-life movement, Personhood USA leaders Keith and Jennifer Mason, who is pregnant, saw their home become the victim of the violent vandalism attack.
In the middle of the night, a large rock was heaved through the double-paned glass of their front door, scattering glass throughout their living room and across the front porch, covering their children’s toys and items for the new baby. The pro-abortion criminals also spray-painted coat hangers and vulgarity in large letters on the front and sides of their house.

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Obamacare: HHS Mandate Redefines Religion, Say Christian Legal Experts

While much of the objection to the Supreme Court's ruling to uphold Obamacare on Thursday included talk about the loss of individual liberty, Christian and conservative legal groups point out that religious freedom is still in jeopardy as well.

The court's ruling did not address the religious liberty issue regarding the constitutionality of the "HHS mandate," that requires religious employers to pay for contraception, abortifacients and sterilization despite holding religious objections.
"The HHS mandate is the first exception to our national commitment to protect religious conscience in the abortion context – a tradition that has been bipartisan for forty years," explained Kim Colby, senior counsel for the Christian Legal Society's Center for Law and Religious Freedom.
By adopting, in the HHS mandate, an extremely narrow definition of "religious employer," the Obama administration has unilaterally and unacceptably redefined religion, the Christian Legal Society argued Thursday.
"In the administration's view, religious institutions are only protected if they are entirely inwardly focused. Religious institutions that provide assistance to all persons, regardless of religion or creed, are penalized," the legal group continued. "Churches and charities that ease government's burden by providing food, shelter, education, and health care for society's most vulnerable lose their conscience rights because they are too inclusive."
Colby insisted, "It is wrong for the government to penalize religious groups because they help persons regardless of their religious traditions."

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Houston-area church hosts free wedding weekend

To help couples who can’t afford the rising costs of holding a wedding, one local congregation will foot the bill—providing an officiant, ceremony venue, invitations, flowers and photography—for eight Houston lovebirds ready to say “I do” this month.
Sugar Creek Baptist Church wants to alleviate the stress of costs and endless to-do lists that go along with today’s weddings, allowing the bride and groom to focus on the real meaning of their big day.
“One of the themes we emphasize in our Preparing for Marriage seminar is ‘Don’t forget to plan the marriage while planning the ceremony,’” said Garet Robinson, the church’s minister to young adults.

 “Too many couples are absolutely bogged down in details for their important wedding day and end up forgetting to pay attention to each other.”
Couples selected for the free wedding weekend will attend the church’s marriage prep course on July 21 and get married the following Saturday, July 28.
“Ultimately we hope to encourage them that their marriage is an amazing place to see love, hope, restoration, forgiveness, and acceptance displayed as they both grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ,” Robinson said.

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LA's Largest Emergency Homeless Shelter Seeks Funds to Survive

The largest emergency overnight shelter for the homeless in Los Angeles, housing up to 600 people per night, is struggling to survive because of cuts in federal funding and an increased number of poor in a downturned economy, said the shelter's president.

"We need to come up with payroll for this week. Without the payroll I don't know if we'll be able to go forward," said Brenda Wilson, who along with her twin sister, Lynda Moran, operates New Image Shelter for the Homeless.
"This year the need for services all across the board – in the shelter, in our programs that serve homeless families with children – there's an increase," Wilson told The Christian Post Friday. "We are seeing an increase with women, homeless runaway youth, families, and an increase in Asians."
In order to continue providing the existing services, Wilson has begun an online fundraising campaign (www.SavetheShelter.org) in hopes of raising enough money to accommodate the overflow of homeless people coming every night seeking a place to sleep.
Wilson said the shelter turns away up to 100 women and 40 men each night because of lack of funds. While a Los Angeles city and county program once paid for 600 beds (overnight accommodations), it now pays to shelter 436 (300 men and 136 women) people nightly. That doesn't stop Wilson from taking up to 600 people overnight.
"Because so many of them come in beat up and raped we just try to make room for them and we've always made room for them because at least they're safe," Wilson explains. "At least they are not on the street being sexually and physically abused."

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