A disturbing belief is spreading within the hearts of many around the world and within America: that a person is better off dead than disabled.
But a leading advocate for people with disabilities is fighting that notion and looking to educate the world and the church about the precious lives and rights of "those who seem to be weaker."
The Christian Post spoke to Joni Eareckson Tada on Thursday, the founder and CEO of Joni and Friends International Disability Center, about her countless achievements for the disabled community, unwavering faith in God, battle with breast cancer, and her latest recognition by Breakpoint and The Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview.
The 62-year-old evangelical author, who became a quadriplegic at the age of 17 due to a diving accident, just recently learned that she would be honored with the prestigious Wilberforce Award – named after the British parliamentarian who fought for 26 years to abolish slavery in Great Britain – during the annual Wilberforce Weekend held at the end of March.
WASHINGTON (AP/The Blaze) — Last week, The Blaze reported that the USDA bought 7 million pounds “lean finely textured beef,“ also known as ”pink slime,” for school lunches.
News of the purchase quickly circulated via social networking sites and there was a national outcry. In response to the backlash, school districts soon will be able to opt out of a common ammonia-treated ground beef filler.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Thursday that starting in the fall schools involved in the national school lunch program will have the option of avoiding the product.
The latest fight between atheists and religious groups leaves one asking who really crossed the line.
Polk County, Florida, sits smack in the middle of the Sunshine State containing several highways drivers travel through to make their way between major cities in the state. Last year, area religious leaders formed a group, Polk Under Prayer (PUP), that decided to bless the Pasco-Polk county line along Highway 98. PUP’s director said the act was done so that “God would protect us from evildoers, mainly the drug crowd, that they would be dissuaded to come in to the county.”
This gesture has apparently offended area atheists deeply enough that they felt the need to organize an event Saturday to symbolically scrub away the holy oils used by PUP to bless the county line. Bay News 9 reports that the atheists, organized by Humanists of Florida, used “unholy water” to remove the blessing and wash the road because it made them feel uncomfortable:
“But Humanists of Florida members don’t see it that way. They say it makes them feel unwelcome.
‘It sends a very bad signal to everyone in Polk County, and (anyone) who travels through Polk county who doesn’t happen to be Christian,’ Palmer said, ‘This event is not about atheist rights; this is about welcoming everybody into Polk county.’
So they took their ‘unholy water’ and washed the road.
It’s been an ongoing feud between the groups in the county: the atheists are also unhappy with prayer bricks PUP members buried along I-4 and various other roadway leading in to the county, engraved with Psalm 37.
‘For the wicked shall be destroyed, but those who trust the Lord shall be given every blessing,’ Geringswald (PUP director) said, reading the psalm from his Bible.
Geringswald said PUP is trying to do something positive – to keep crime out and encourage faith. He says they also plan to run TV ads later this year that will say they are trying to send a positive message about criminals turning their lives around.
The humanists say they don’t plan on stopping their protests any time soon.”
“’This anointment ritual was to call out the angels to check each car that entered the county, to make sure they were Christian, and if they weren’t Christian, they would either follow Christian beliefs or get put in jail,’ Wachs told ABC News.
Wachs said the eight members of the Humanists of Florida Association who brought buckets of water to the roadway today did so in jest.
‘They understand that a year later, there’s no oil left on the roadway. It’s just a symbolic gesture to show that we can poke a little bit of fun at the Polk Under Prayer gesture. We’re not going to tolerate their bigotry,’ Wachs said.”
Religious freedom is coming back to the U.S. Military! If and only if this bill " H.R. 3828, the Military Religious Freedom Protection Act" is passed. It is currently in a House committee with several cosponsors.
“Whether it is expressing the tenets of one’s faith on the issue of marriage or abortion or contraception, it is a violation of the most fundamental of rights – the free exercise of religion – to coerce a chaplain to act in contravention of the tenets of his faith.”
The bill states “A military chaplain shall not be directed, ordered, or required to perform any duty, rite, ritual, ceremony, service, or function that is contrary to the conscience, moral principles, or religious beliefs of the chaplain or contrary to the moral principles or religious beliefs of the chaplain’s faith group.”
A Global March to Jerusalem on the occasion of Land Day will take place on March 30. Convoys from Jordan, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority are scheduled to arrive at Israel's borders at 11am at the end of Friday prayers.
Organizers are claiming that more than 700 institutions from 64 countries support the initiative, directly or indirectly. Protests will also be held outside Israeli embassies in various European and Arab countries. It appears no marches will be leaving Egypt and Syria due to the volatile political climate in those countries.
Organizers are using social networks to attract Arabs to take part in the event. In one Facebook page it was claimed that the goal was to reach Jerusalem "or the nearest point to it."
Click here for the Global March to Jerusalem's official site
Said Yakin, one of the organizers of the event at the Palestinian Authority said they do not intend to use violence and added that the protest will be attended by parliament members, citizens and clerics from around the world, including Jews. "The protest will not be violent," Yakin told Ynet. "We don't expect the IDF to fire at the protesters just as it didn’t fire at the million Israeli social protesters last summer."
Iranian involvement
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met on Sunday with participants of the Global March to Jerusalem where he said it was no longer legitimate for Israel to occupy any part of Palestine. "The Palestinians should be running the field and God willing that will happen soon."
It's not something you might expect to hear from a school principal, but Jeffrey Wick of Bowling Green, Virginia, says the public school system is helping to destroy the country's foundation.
"I think we're at a state in our country where we are on that precipice, as a lot of us believe, and part of the reason we're in this problem is what the public schools do," says Wick. "It's not necessarily what the teachers are doing, but it's the philosophy that's guiding the system."
Wick's desire is to encourage the nation to return to its greatness -- "which is its Christian foundation, freedom that we were founded upon, sacrifice, hard work, rugged individualism and all those traits that our founders based our Constitution and our nation upon," he explains.
Wick says in order for the U.S. to be transformed from the great country that it is into a socialistic type of nation where people are dependent on government, the family, the Christian faith, and patriotism have to be attacked.
"As the first two are destroyed, that creates a void," the principal says, "and I think the government steps in and tries to take that role. They try to become parent, the school system is encouraged to be the center of the community, to provide all of these services." READ MORE
With the The Art of Marriage Ops blog app we all can help the men and women who have defended our country strengthen their marriages! http://vimeo.com/37508153
A Muslim leader in Saudi Arabia is calling for the destruction of all Christian churches in Kuwait because he believes that is what Islam demands, according to a report.
In an article published by the Middle East Forum, Raymond Ibrahim, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an associate fellow at the Middle East Forum, cites several Arabic languageweb publications that quoted Sheik Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, declaring it is “necessary to destroy all the churches of the region.”
Ibrahim reported the Muslim leader’s comment was in response to a question by a delegation from Kuwait, where a member of parliament recently also called for churches to be removed.
“Accordingly, the grand mufti ‘stressed that Kuwait was a part of the Arabian Peninsula, and therefore it is necessary to destroy all churches in it,’” Ibrahim reported.
“As with many grand muftis before him, the sheik based his proclamation on the famous tradition, or hadith, wherein the prophet of Islam declared on his deathbed that, ‘There are not to be two religions in the [Arabian] Peninsula,’ which has always been interpreted to mean that only Islam can be practiced in the region,” Ibrahim wrote.
The significance of the reports on the statement should not be underestimated, Ibrahim contended.
“Sheik Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah is not just some random Muslim hating on churches. He is the grand mufti of the nation that brought Islam to the world. Moreover, he is the president of the Supreme Council of Ulema [Islamic scholars] and chairman of the Standing Committee for Scientific Research and Issuing of Fatwas. Accordingly, when it comes to what Islam teaches, his words are immensely authoritative,” he wrote.
In the Middle East, Christians already are facing increased persecution, including death, in countries where militant Islamic factions have stepped into the vacuum of power created by “Arab Spring” revolutions.
Iran (MNN) ― Middle East Open Doors staff members recently reported that church growth is "explosive' in Iran; they even speak of a revival.
Iran is the fifth country in the world on Open Doors' World Watch List for the persecution of believers. The president and the supreme leader of the country openly speak against the growth of house churches, and persecution against Christian converts is highly prevalent.
Interestingly, though, these two government leaders are nearly alone in their disdain for Christianity as a "Western religion," says one Open Doors staff member. "In the past, Christianity wasn't popular; it was seen as a Western religion. Now only the government sees it as a Western product, or better: a Western political system," says the staff member.
Iranians have seen the corruption of the Islamic Revolution in their own country and are looking for something more. This yearning combined with a bold Christian presence is causing church growth like never before.
"Iranians are very outgoing and want to speak about their faith," a staff member states. "That is why discipleship training (with elements of outreach and communications) for Iranian believers is successful. If you tell them that a Christian should share, the Iranian Christian shares."
Offering discipleship training is one of the ways Open Doors works to strengthen the Iranian church. It is estimated that about half of the new Christians are open about their new faith while others are keeping their conversion a secret.
As a result of this willingness to take risks, there are hundreds of thousands of believers in Iran. About 40 years ago, approximately 200 Christians from a Muslim background were living in Iran. Today some estimate that there are as many as 370,000 Christian converts. Besides these new believers, Iran also has a traditional Armenian and Assyrian church with about 80,000 members.
These Christians face daily harassment for their faith. The government's abhorrence of house churches has caused house churches to cut membership down from around 15 members to more like 5 or 6.
Despite warnings to tone down his faith, "American Idol" Top 10 contestant Colton Dixon says he will continue speaking out about his Christian beliefs.
The 20-year-old singer from Murfreesboro, Tenn., revealed to TODAY.com that producers from the hit reality show told him that religious and political tweets and posts on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter could alienate some viewers and potentially cost him some votes.
"When we first started the Twitter and Facebook stuff, they said beware of political and religious tweets," he shared. "Just because it can turn off voters or whatever. But ... being a Christian is who I am. It is a part of me musically. It is what I want to do after the show – go into Christian music."
