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
_______________________________
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

New Report Shows Sex trafficking in Ohio Reaches Over 1,000 Youth Last Year

The Columbus Dispatch:New report documents extent of scourge in state

Sex traffickers ensnared more than 1,000 youths in Ohio last year
New report documents extent of scourge in state
Wednesday, February 10, 2010 3:00 PM
By Alan Johnson
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Read the report

* Click here for the full text of today's report on human trafficking (PDF).



More than 1,000 youngsters under the age of 18 were sex-trafficking victims in Ohio during the past year, according to the first-ever statewide report on the subject by the Ohio Trafficking in Persons Study Commission.

A preliminary report released this afternoon by Attorney General Richard Cordray concluded that another 2,879 youth were at risk of being trafficked.

An additional 783 foreign-born persons were trafficked for sex or forced labor in Ohio in the past year, with another 3,437 at risk, the report said.

At the same time, the research subcommittee that prepared the report acknowledged that human trafficking is a largely invisible crime, making it "virtually impossible to determine the exact number of victims in Ohio at any given time and with any degree of certainty."

California Man Arrested in Mall By Guard for Having Conversation About God

Man Sues California Mall After Guard Arrests Him for Having Conversation About God - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com

Wednesday, February 10, 2010
By Diane Macedo


Justin Smith

Westfield Galleria shopping mall in Roseville, CA.

Imagine getting arrested for just striking up a conversation about religion in public.

That’s what happened to California resident Matthew Snatchko in 2006 when the youth pastor initiated a conversation about God with three shoppers at the Roseville Galleria mall.

The women gave Snatchko permission to broach the subject, but a nearby store employee said they "looked nervous," so he ordered the evangelist to leave. After Snatchko refused, mall security arrested him.

"He was put in handcuffs and hauled down to the mall’s security station and later booked at the local jail," said Snatchko’s attorney Matthew McReynolds of the Pacific Justice Institute, a legal defense organization specializing in the defense of religious freedom.

Snatchko was later released and never charged with a crime, but he and the Justice Institute decided to challenge the constitutionality of Roseville Galleria's restrictions on conversations about topics such as religion and politics.

"He wanted to make sure that neither he nor anybody else got harassed again at this mall or the 55 other malls this company owns throughout the United States," said McReynolds.

Pro-Life Teen BANNED From Receiving Honor by Ohio House Speaker

 LifeSiteNews original article
COLUMBUS, Ohio, February 9, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In what critics are calling an unprecedented act of bias, pro-abortion Ohio House Speaker Armond Budish (D-Beechwood) has denied Shelby County teen Elisabeth Trisler a routine legislative honor, evidently because he objects to Trisler's pro-life values. Budish is refusing to allow Trisler on the House floor to accept a legislative resolution, authored by Rep. John Adams (R-Sidney), which honors Trisler's accomplishment as the National Right to Life Oratory Contest winner. 
Alongside local pro-life leaders, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Ohio has criticized the move, indicating the refusal amounted to "teaching young people that the answer is to silence those who disagree with us."
Honorary resolutions such as the one given to Trisler are routinely presented at the start of Ohio House legislative sessions to constituents, including those who win athletic championships or academic contests.  In this case, however, Trisler will receive the resolution in the mail, according to Ohio Right to Life.
 
"Surely Speaker Budish can put aside his partisanship for 10 minutes to honor the accomplishments of a talented and optimistic teenage girl," said Ohio Right to Life Executive Director Mike Gonidakis.  "Perhaps his real message to Ohio's teens is that excelling in public speaking isn't worth being honored if their views are different than his." 
State Rep. John Adams called the Speaker's denial "an outrage."
 
Trisler won the National Right to Life Oratory Contest held at the NRLC Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina in June, 2009. During the second half of 2009, Rep. Adams's office worked to schedule the presentation of Trisler's proclamation on the House floor, as is typical of such awards. The presentation was scheduled for Wednesday, February 3, 2010.
 
However, on January 29th, the House Clerk informed Rep. Adams's office the presentation would not take place because the Speaker "had a problem with the subject matter." The clerk advised the representative's staff to take the matter up with the Speaker. Speaker Budish supports abortion.
 
"The Ohio House chamber is a monument to the importance of oratory and persuasion on the great issues facing our state," said Gonidakis. "Silencing someone because you disagree is a terrible lesson to teach teens. The Speaker should reconsider his unfortunately petty decision."
ACLU of Ohio Executive Director Christine Link also criticized the move, which she says created a "troubling precedent."
"Instead of teaching young people that the answer is to silence those who disagree with us, legislators should be modeling how to address difficult issues thoughtfully and listen respectfully to others," said Link.
"Ohio has a diverse political and social landscape that includes a broad spectrum of views that may be controversial to some," she continued.  "If we limit whose achievements may be honored, we are only contributing to the notion that these issues are divisive and cannot reasonably be discussed."
Keary McCarthy, the communications director at Speaker Budish's office, said that the Speaker's decision was consistent with precedent that such a presentation should not be used as a platform for a specific political agenda.
"The Speaker believes it's important to avoid having political interests on either side of the aisle abuse this brief opportunity for celebration and recognition," McCarthy told LifeSiteNews.com.
However, he said, "the Speaker will gladly reconsider the request of Representative Adams if appropriate discretion is used in a way that does not contradict the history of the House" for not using the reception as a forum for advocacy.

Contact information:
Armond Budish
Speaker of the House, Ohio House of Representatives
77 S. High St
14th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215-6111
Phone: (614) 466-5441
Fax: (614) 719-0008
Email: district08@ohr.state.oh.us

Liverpool schools to offer pregnancy testing to kids

Plans to provide pregnancy testing to thousands of secondary school girls in Liverpool have been condemned by family values campaigners.
Liverpool NHS Primary Care Trust (PCT) has confirmed that plans are afoot to establish sexual health drop-in clinics in five of the city’s secondary schools.
The controversial scheme, which is already operating in secondary schools in neighbouring Wirral, gives pupils on-site access to pregnancy testing, contraceptives, the morning-after pill and advice on sexually transmitted infections.
However, critics have warned that the scheme will normalise underage sex and increase promiscuity.
Norman Wells of the Family Education Trust said: “Sexual health clinics on school premises send out the message that it is normal for schoolchildren to engage in sexual activity.
“In the past, natural inhibitions combined with fear of pregnancy, legal proceedings and being found out by parents offered a powerful disincentive to under age sex.
“Confidential health clinics in schools are part of a mix that is removing the restraints which previously limited under age sexual activity.”
However, a spokesman for Liverpool PCT said: “National and international research evidences that if we are to improve young people’s sexual health and reduce the number of unplanned conceptions in young people under the age of 18, we must provide high quality sexual health education, and easy access to sexual health services for information and support.”
But Dr Adrian Rogers, founder of the Family Focus campaign, said: “There is already free, confidential testing and advice available at every GP’s surgery and family planning clinic.
“Offering this kind of service in the school setting is going to promote promiscuity. It is a complete waste of time and money and will prove counter-productive.”
The drop-in clinics are currently operating in 13 of Wirral’s 29 secondary schools and the five clinics in Liverpool are due to be opened later this year.
Last September the Scottish Government called for every Scottish secondary school to have a sex clinic.
And in 2008 it was revealed that one third of secondary schools provide on-site access to contraception, abortion advice and pregnancy tests.
A survey of over 2,000 secondary schools in England found that one in six schools are giving out the morning-after pill.

Click to read original article from Christian.Org

Child Hood Pregnancy Is it becoming A World Wide Epidemic?

A few days ago we found a startling article about a 9 year old little girl in China giving birth! And found out through this article that this is not the youngest child to ever give birth. In 1939 Peru Reported that a 5 year old little girl gave birth.

As we were getting ready to report on this topic of child hood pregnancy today when we found that a 11 yr old girl in the U.S has given birth! Below we have shared the Article about the 9 year old in China and also the Newest article of the 11 year old girl from the U.S as well as a picture of the 5 year old with her baby from 1939.

This is an outrage that anyone would allow their 11 year old daughter to be placed in a situation where they could get pregnant but in the article there is no mention that the police are getting involved to arrest the boy or man who got the little girl pregnant or that the parents are in trouble for allowing this to happen to their daughter.

In the China incident the police are involved because it is a crime to have sex with anyone under the age of 14. Here in the U.S we are to represent the moral standard that most look up to.  How have we fallen so far? Why aren’t parents, schools and even communities protecting the children? What kind of a life will not only the little baby have but the 11 year old as well?

From Fox News

An 11-year-old girl in the Northeast recently gave birth to a baby boy, according to the girl’s family.

"My daughter and baby are fine, and the baby is absolutely beautiful," stated the girl’s mother.

The girl and her family are not being named in order to protect the girl’s privacy.

According to Dr. Manny Alvarez, managing health editor of FoxNews.com, the girl’s age places her in significant dangers

"A very comprehensive approach to her care needs to be instituted early in her pregnancy," Alvarez said.

A recent report by the Guttmacher Institute said U.S. teen pregnancies were up 3 percent in 2006.

But of course, this case is not about a teenager, Dr. Abdulla Al-Khan, a leading high-risk obstetrician noted; it’s about a pre-teen, or child, who’s body is not built to carry a child yet.

"Her body is clearly not defined for pregnancy with its short stature," Al-Khan said. "Her chest is not extensively developed for breast tissue, her bones aren’t quite fused, and once you expose a child this young to high amounts of progesterone and especially estrogen, there is controversy that it could halt her growth."

Click to read full article from Fox News

From “Daily Mail” in the UK

A nine-year-old Chinese schoolgirl has become one of the world's youngest mothers after giving birth to a healthy boy.

The unnamed girl was brought to a hospital in Changchun, which lies in the north-east of the country, when she was eight and a half months pregnant.

Two days later, she gave birth to the 6lb boy by Caesarean section, a Chinese newspaper has reported. 

The child comes from the nearby town of Songyuan. Her family refused to discuss the pregnancy, but confirmed they had reported it to the police.

Last night police were reportedly trying to establish who the father is.

In the province, sex with a child under the age of 14 brings an automatic rape conviction and a lengthy jail sentence.

A legal expert told the paper that women under the age of 14 do not have sexual rights  - 'so any argument of being consensual as a defence is completely untenable,' he said.

He added: 'Anyone who had sexual relations with a girl under 14 means they have committed rape and is to be punished severely.'

A  hospital in China's largest city, Shanghai, recently said that about 30 per cent of abortions were on school-aged girls.

The youngest reported mother in the world - and the most bizarre of all young pregnancy cases - is five-year-old Lina Medina of Peru, who gave birth to a 6lb son named Gerardo in a Caesarean operation in 1939.

Her father was arrested on suspicion of sexual abuse but was later released because of lack of evidence.

In 1957 another Peruvian girl, aged nine, gave birth to a girl weighing just over 6lb and, curiously, it was in 2006 that yet another Peruvian girl, aged eight, gave birth to a 4lb 4oz girl.

Several other girls aged nine, from Thailand, Singapore, Rwanda and Brazil, have also given birth.

Mothers aged as young as 10 and 11 have also become an increasing occurrence.

The youngest mother in Britain is believed to have been 11 when she got pregnant and 12 years old when she gave birth.

Lina Medina, accompanied by her 11-month-old-son Gerardo, and Dr Lozada who helped with the birth. The picture was taken in 1939 in a hospital in Lima, Peru's capital

Click to read original article from Daily Mail