Rifqa Bary: Reconciliation With Family Not Possible

 Click to read original article from The Chillicothe Gazette

COLUMBUS OHIO -- A teenage runaway who fled Columbus with the alleged help of Christian pastors, claiming she'd be harmed for converting from Islam to Christianity, said a reconciliation with her Muslim parents no longer is possible.
 Efforts by Ohio and Florida courts to reunify Rifqa Bary with her family have failed and she continues to fear being hurt by her parents, according to a court filing by Bary's attorneys.
"Bary continues to refuse any contact with her parents and has made clear that she does not foresee a time when she will agree to have any contact with her parents," Bary's attorneys said in the Monday filing in Franklin County Juvenile Court.
Bary, 17, wants Judge Elizabeth Gill to rule a reunion impossible and that it's not in Bary's best interest to be returned to her native Sri Lanka. A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
Bary's parents, Mohamed and Aysha Bary, pulled out of a deal in January that would have included counseling as part of a reunion effort. The parents alleged that the county child welfare agency, which now has custody of the girl and which developed the reconciliation plan, still was allowing her to talk to the Florida pastor and his wife who sheltered Rifqa there.
Police in Columbus are investigating whether anyone broke the law helping Bary leave home for Florida in July.
Bary's father alleges a Columbus minister drove Bary to a Greyhound station where she received a bus ticket and took a bus to Orlando, Fla. There, she stayed with the minister and his wife -- whom she met through Facebook -- for about two weeks before the state of Florida took custody of her.
Monday's filing also alleges Bary would be harmed or killed if she returns to Sri Lanka and raises questions about the girl's legal status in the United States.
The document notes that federal law allows "an undocumented immigrant minor" to receive permanent resident status when placed in long-term foster care by a judge.
Bary's legal status has not previously been an issue in her case. The attorneys who filed the document are under a gag order and can't comment.
The filing alleges Bary has been threatened by Muslim fundamentalists in Sri Lanka and that she could be killed for converting if she returns.
Because of "the death threats from extremists and third parties in Sri Lanka, Ms. Bary legitimately fears being forced to return to her home country," the filing said.
Police in Florida and Columbus found no evidence the girl faced harm in Ohio.

North Carolina Student Refuses to do homework assignment on Selling their Soul to the Devil

Click to Read Original Article From
ABC 11 Eye Witness News

FAYETTEVILLE, NC (WTVD) -- A Cumberland County high school student says a homework assignment violated her Christian beliefs, so she took a stand.

Tieanna Trough is an A-B honor roll student at Gray's Creek High School. The junior potentially sacrificed her good grades over her Christian faith.

Trough refused to write an essay on making a deal with the Devil.

"I believe you don't write about how to sell your soul to the Devil," she said.

Trough's English class was studying the Washington Irving short story "The Devil and Tom Walker" - a miser who makes a get rich deal with the devil, then later tries to back out of the deal.

Trough says when the teacher told students to write an essay on how they would sell their souls - or what trade they would make with the Devil - she refused, saying that compromised her Christian values and her parents agreed.

"We can't allow God into the classrooms, but yet they are going to allow the Devil in the classroom, that's the way I felt," Trough's mother Monice McLean said. "They were told if they didn't do it they would get a zero."

Monice McLean-Trough says an alternate assignment was also unacceptable, so they complained to school officials.

"I think we had a genuine complaint and we just got lip service instead of really getting attention to the subject," father Frank Trough said.

Trough says other classmates also objected to the assignment.

But the school's principal, John Gibbs, says the short story is text-book curriculum and he hasn't heard any other complaints.

"I don't think it's anything wrong," Gibbs said. "I mean parents are going to do what they think is correct and I respect that, we can sit down and talk about what we think is right."

Trough says what's right is not making a deal with the Devil.

Monday, the school gave Trough a third alternate subject, how and why money is important.

Trough and her parents say that is more agreeable - if not a harder subject to explain.

Trough's parents say they wanted to get their story out just to make sure other parents are aware of what - and how - some things are being taught.

All 74 Teachers From one Road Island School To Receive Pink Slips

Click to read original Article from WPRI.com

CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. (WPRI) - All 74 teachers at Central Falls High School are expected to receive their pink slips on Tuesday.

Superintendent Fraces Gallo announced this month she would fire the teachers at the low-performing school for refusing an improvement plan. It includes an extra 25 minutes in the school day, required teachers to offer tutoring to students and forced teachers to get two weeks of summer training.

The teachers' union says it wants more pay for the additional work. Teachers, along with their supporters, are expected to hold a rally at 4 p.m. on Tuesday to protest the decision.

In the meantime, state Education Commissioner Deborah Gist announced Tuesday she has approved the turnaround model Gallo submitted to her office last week.

“I support doing whatever it takes to get the results we need and to do what’s best for the students in Central Falls High School,” Commissioner Gist said. “I know that there are many great teachers in Central Falls High School. Our goal is to ensure that we have highly effective teachers in every classroom in the school."

Under the intervention protocol , Central falls now has 120 days to develop a plan to improve the high school. Once she approves the plan, Gist said it will go into effect in the fall and will be implemented over a three-year span.

15 year old arrested in Connection With Church Shooting in Richmond California

Link to Video with Raw Footage from the church during the shooting

Click to Read Full Article From KTVU.com

RICHMOND, Calif. -- Richmond police Thursday arrested a 15-year-old boy in connection with a brazen shooting at a Richmond Church during a Sunday morning service.The boy is one of three suspects sought by Richmond police. The suspects -- all Richmond residents in their late teens or early 20s – have remained at large, and an intense search has been under way.At least three search warrants were served Thursday, but only one arrest was made around 7 a.m.The boy was charged with conspiracy to commit a crime, but police would not say if he was one of the shooters inside the church.Police said the shooting might be gang-related but no motive had been determined.A portion of the shooting was caught on camera by a church member who was taping the choir at the time of the attack. That chilling video was given to KTVU. The video shows the congregation, including a man with a young child in his lap, clapping their hands as the choir sings. Suddenly, there is gunfire."You just see a bunch of people... when they started running in, all I could do is tell the choir get down!” said choir member Pam Odom. “And we all fell to the floor. And that was it, it happened so fast."Meanwhile, outrage within the community has continued to mount."We have reached a new low in the city of Richmond," said Rev. Andre Shumake, a local anti-violence advocate."Until we start addressing the issues of these young people's pain, we're going to see more of this happening."The drama began Sunday when three male suspects entered the New Gethsemane Church of God In Christ at about 12:30 p.m. where about 100 people were inside attending the service. Witnesses have told police the three young men strolled down the aisles apparently searching for their victims as the services continued undisturbed.One of the suspects then began shooting at several members of the congregation, according to Richmond police Sgt. Bisa French.French said the teens struck by gunfire were believed to have been targeted, but the shooting does not appear to be gang or drug-related.There have been seven homicides in Richmond so far this year. Just last week a mother of two who was six months pregnant was killed as she sat in a car in front of her father’s home. The fatal shooting came on her son’s birthday.

School Cancels Dance Due to “freaking” Dancing

Click to read original Article at

Click On Detroit

BRIGHTON, Mich. -- Administrators at Brighton High School said they’re trying to stop a style of dancing they consider obscene on school grounds and recently canceled a popular winter event to make their point.

Watch: School's Winterfest Canceled Over 'Freaking'

The school’s Winterfest dance had been scheduled for Feb. 6, but with concerns that students would engage in “freaking," the school required anyone interested in attending the dance to sign a contract beforehand.

Principal Ken Hamman said the pledge contract was meant to curb students from engaging in sexually suggestive movements on the dance floor.

Hamman said they came up with the idea after seeing unacceptable dancing at October’s Homecoming dance.

Students protested the contract and ticket sales for the dance plummeted.

Hamman said more than 1,500 students were expected to attend the dance, but that only 67 students signed the contract.

“I don’t think it is (sexually suggestive). I think it’s just dancing,” said senior Phil Laquinto.

“If I had started dancing that way, then I would have been punished,” added senior Mark Bellinger. “But that’s what everybody does, dance that way.”

“If you open the door for that, what else comes after?” said Lois Lenaghan, whose grandchild attends the high school. “It’s like opening a can of worms.”

Area floral businesses said the dance cancellation has affected them.

Corsages were ordered without prepayment.

“We were all, all four florists in town, stuck with product,” said Bonnie Sanberg of Four Seasons Florist.

Hamman said the school is worried about the same conflict arising for prom, which is scheduled in May, but is working with student government to come up with a new document.

3 Men Shoot 2 People During Church Service

Link To SF GATE Original Article

(02-14) 20:05 PST RICHMOND -- Three young men with black sweatshirt hoods pulled over their heads walked into a packed church service in Richmond on Sunday, where one of them opened fire and wounded two teenagers sitting in the pews, police said.

The three suspects - who may have been juveniles - fled after the brash 12:30 p.m. attack at New Gethsemane Church of God in Christ, as the singing of the choir was replaced by frightened screams, said Richmond police Sgt. Bisa French.

The two victims, a 14-year-old boy and a 19-year-old man, were hospitalized and were expected to survive. However, French said, they were not willing to help investigators try to track down their assailants.

"The key people aren't being cooperative," she said.

A church deacon who was present during the shooting, Charles Miller, said one of the victims was struck in the leg and the other in the shoulder. It was not clear, both he and French said, whether they were intended targets.

Miller said some of the more than 120 church members who witnessed the shooting told him the suspects had paced up and down an aisle - apparently looking for one or more targets - before shooting the victims near the back of the church.

Church members "were going to ask them to remove their hoods" before the shooting, he said.

"I was listening to the choir and all of a sudden there was a 'pop pop pop pop pop,' " Miller said. "Everyone hit the floor. I didn't know the shooting was inside the church at first, until I heard all of the hollering and screaming."

The shooting, at 2100 Roosevelt Ave., comes amid a violent beginning to the year in Richmond, which has already recorded seven homicides. The city is still recovering from a violent gang rape outside a high school homecoming dance last year that made national headlines.

"Obviously it was a very brazen attack - in broad daylight during a church service," French said. "It's very unusual. You'd think a church is a safe place that people can go no matter what circumstances they have in their life or where they are in their life. After today, obviously not."

French said investigators were talking to witnesses and believe some of them can identify the suspects. But French said the congregants - apparently scared to get involved - were unwilling to look at photo lineups.

"I don't understand," French said. "Where do you draw the line?"

Highlights From Radicalis 2010

Radicalis is really twelve conferences in one that makes it possible to bring your entire church team for individual learning experiences.
Radicalis is a unique hands-on, comprehensive experience that will enhance each member of your team’s role in your church and build and inspire them to serve God in your community and the world. Rick Warren, the Saddleback Team and leading national pastors will challenge, develop, and expand your vision to be moving force for God in today’s world.
They’ll help you understand the paradigm, learn the process and build relationships for expanding your ministry. They’ll enlarge your understanding of what “church” and “ministry” mean to enable you to affect positive, purposeful change for God. Imagine what would happen in your community, in your church and in our world if your church team collectively shared a Radical experience guided by the Spirit of God in which we saw His calling and His will for your ministry.
RADICALIS WEBSITE
_____________________________________
Here are some of the highlights from this year’s Radicalis 2010 via Twitter posts! #rad10

lasting ministry RT @dbeckner Being a Christian w/o a church is like being a soldier w/o a platoon. Believing w/o belonging is like being an orphan. #rad10
AlexMurashko RT @radicalsonly: Preventative Steps to Affair-proofing your marriage: #3 Maintain Your Mind - Don't Resist...ReFocus! @RickWarren #rad10
workwithyouth RT @radicalsonly: If you know the power of the sin, you will do whatever it takes to remove it from your life! #rad10
JonPfeiffer "A TRAP: something that catches you off your guard. Satan doesn't warn you when he is about to ruin your life."@RickWarren #rad10 #fb
powdertraitor RT @ReporterHaley: If you're a Pastor and are not following the people you're ministering to, then youre not a pastor but a self-proclaimed celebrity. #rad10
AlexMurashko That's just for the last 50 tweets! RT@OutreachNuMedia Tweets about #rad10 have reached 57,799 people - http://bit.ly/9yFJP4
Juventya If you're not growing TOGETHER as a couple, you're growing APART. @RickWarren #rad10
brandonacox RT @Komanapalli: The truth will set you free, but first it may make you miserable. #rad10
ANGELLARA RT @nickcarnes: Satan uses Internet & TV to lower standard of sin by (4 Ways) #3 Fail to Show Consequences #4 Get You to Laugh at It... #rad10 @RickWarren
ANGELLARA RT @nickcarnes: "Date your mate" "If more marriages courted, there would be less marriages in court" @RickWarren#rad10
jonathon_welch RT @ReporterHaley: If schools taught 'drug ed' the way they teach 'sex ed' it'd b handing out free needles & telling them 2 shoot-up. #rad10
radicalsonly You need to become your own mental police. No one else can control the thoughts going on inside your head.@rickwarren #rad10
danbrubacher "Every time you give, it breaks the grip of materialism in your life." (@RickWarren) #Radicalis #rad10
JulieP820 RT @ReporterHaley: The word "retirement" is not in the Bible. You're going to serve God for the rest of your life!@RickWarren #rad10
ReporterHaley The prupose of influence is to speak up for those who have no influence. @RickWarren #rad10
ReporterHaley Take some time to ask God, what do you want me to do with what you've put in my hand? #rad10
nickcarnes God instructs Moses to lay down his Identity, income & influence & it came alive, but if Moses picked back up, it died@RickWarren #rad10
radicalsonly RT @ReporterHaley: Your enemy is not your neighbor, brother, or sister, it's Satan. @KerryShook #rad10
RT @srivera: Instead of fantasizing the Affair, Fantasize the Consequences #rad10
joecook given the right circumstances, ANYone can fail. Don't be self-deceived. #rad10 @kaywarren
ReporterHaley If you don't talk out your feelings with your spouse, you are going to take them out the door with someone else. #rad10
andydisher RT @ReporterHaley: Whenever you fire arrows back at someone else who hurts you, you're firing arrows at Jesus@KerryShook #rad10
thomasriffey RT @edstetzer: The Church's imperfections does not discount or discourage how God can use it. #rad10
MarketerMikeE If Jesus can forgive you, why can't you forgive yourself? @PastorMark #rad10 @karlameachem
mwhyde RT @nickcarnes: 2 Thoughts from @edstetzer "You CANNOT go wrong following Christ's Mission" & "We CANNOT allow money to determine church planting" #rad10
bigmikelewis RT @ReporterHaley: #1 mistake in missions: throwing money to fix a spiritual problem. #rad10
hayleybarnard RT @leigh_barnard: Radical Mission is slaying the giants of spiritual emptiness, corrupt leadership, extreme poverty, pandemic disease and illiteracy. #rad10
joecook Don't see church plants as "competition" see them as "compliments" to your ministry. #rad10
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I hope you enjoyed some of the life changing quotes from Radicalis 2010!

JMC LIVE will be interviewing Alex Murashko Jr, the Co-leader for the  Social Media Ministry Team at Saddleback Church.
This Tuesday at 8PM EST come hear Alex share about this outstanding ministry experience!

JMC LIVE WEBSITE

Ohio Minister Fatally Shot While Shoveling Snow

Police say robbery may have been a motive for the shooting of Billy Howard.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Neighbors thought a minister found dead outside his home was hurt while shoveling snow, but police said Wednesday that he was shot.

A neighbor saw Billy Howard outside his home on Bulen Avenue on the city's east side and said he did not realize it would be the last time, 10TV's Tanisha Mallett reported.

"My oldest son saw Bill outside shoveling," neighbor Karl Thomson said. "The next thing I know, maybe 15 or 20 minutes later, he said a squad was in front of the house."

Thomson said medics worked on Howard for 20 minutes before taking him to the Ohio State University Medical Center East where police said he was pronounced dead.

Investigators said that is when they realized Howard had been shot once in the chest, Mallett reported.

Howard's death has been ruled a homicide, and investigators were still trying to determine a motive. They said robbery may have been a motive, Mallett reported.

"There is no was to make sense of it, there is no way to make sense," said friend Mary Jenkins.

Family and friends said Howard was a minister at Columbus Christian Center Church and a friend to everyone in the community.

"He was an incredible example of a good man, a good father, a good husband, a business man and all of those things," Jenkins said.

Friends said Howard was the type of person who devoted his life to helping people turn from a life of crime.

"He was definitely a God-fearing man who understood what is means to love God first and he loved his family he was truly a provider," Jenkins said.

Family and friends hope someone will come forward with information, Mallett reported.

"It is beyond sad, it's just senseless," Thomson said.

Click to read original Article from 10 TV News

Marijuana Found inside Pictures of Jesus

(CNN0 -- A marijuana bust along the U.S.-Mexico border revealed 30 pounds of the drug stuffed into framed pictures of Jesus Christ, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said Wednesday.

"This is not the first time we have seen smugglers attempt to use religious figures and articles of faith to further their criminal enterprise," said William Molaski, port director of the agency's office in El Paso, Texas, in a statement.

"What some might find offensive or sacrilegious has unfortunately become a standard operating procedure for drug smugglers. This would include using religious symbols, children and senior citizens in their attempts to defeat the CBP inspection process."

Authorities said a 22-year-old woman in a Jeep from Juarez, Mexico, told federal border patrol officers that she had nothing to declare besides the framed art. The officers checked out the vehicle with Cesar, a federal drug-sniffing dog, who alerted them to three framed pictures of Jesus in the vehicle.

The officers pulled the backing off the pictures and found numerous bundles, authorities said. The woman was arrested.

The bust was one of three marijuana seizures made Tuesday at the El Paso point of entry. Officers said they seized 214 pounds of marijuana in the two other busts.

Click to read original Article from CNN.com

More Churches In East Texas Set Ablaze By Arsonists

February 11, 2010 - 10:32 AM | by: Maggie Kerkman

Fire investigators are in a desperate race against time. They’re trying to catch the arsonist, or arsonists, who are setting fire to churches in East Texas. So far, there have been nine since just the first of this year. So far, no one has been hurt, but law enforcement officials are worried that as the fires continue, it’s only a matter of time.

Today we’re live in front of the Dover Baptist Church, which is one of two churches that burned Monday night. We talked to the woman who lives right next to the church. She had no idea there was a fire until she heard the frantic knocks from two people who happened to be driving by and saw smoke.

Minutes later, she watched helplessly as flames consumed the small church her great grandfather helped build. While firefighters were trying to save Dover Baptist, another fire started, just a few miles down the road at the Clear Spring Missionary Baptist Church. Both churches are a total loss.

These two churches were not the arsonists' only target Monday night. We talked with an elder at Clearview Church, which is just a few miles from both Dover and Clear Spring. On the night of the fire, someone tried to get in to Clearview. Says Monty Nations, the elder, says “I can’t imagine someone wanting to do that.” The person or persons broke the front glass doors of the church but apparently got spooked when they realized the church had an alarm system. The church had just installed the system the week before because they worried their church might be next. Other churches are now taking similar actions, installing security systems or having members guard their churches in shifts.

Why is someone targeting churches? Investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives say that’s what they’re trying to figure out. They have a national response team investigating the fires. So far, many of the churches have been located in rural areas, but not all of them. The targets aren’t racially motivated and they’re not aimed at any particular faith. In Clear Spring, the last church to be targeted, the fire was started in the pulpit, something that sends chills up the spine of Pastor Brandon.

Click to read original Article at Fox News