ETERNAL FLAME NEWS

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Rapture Preacher Harold Camping Sent To Nursing Facility After Having Stroke

Harold Camping, known for his failed May 21 rapture prediction, has been moved to a nursing facility after he was hospitalized earlier this month for a stroke, Family Radio Network said Tuesday.

"Mr. Camping has been moved to a Skilled Nursing Facility, where he is undergoing rehabilitation to regain his strength," Family Radio, where Camping serves as general manager and president, said in a special announcement posted Tuesday on its website.

"Mr. and Mrs. Camping greatly appreciate all the cards, letters and flowers they have received, as well as your continuing thoughts and prayers. God has been very merciful," the announcement stated.

Camping, 89, had suffered from a mild stroke on the evening of June 9 and was admitted into a hospital in the Oakland, Calif., area. The stroke reportedly affected his speech, causing it to slur.

Ever since his hospitalization, Family Radio has been airing old broadcasts of the Open Forum program, where Camping takes Bible-related questions live from radio listeners each weeknight. Family Radio programs are broadcast on over 100 stations throughout the U.S.

Indiana Amish Man Charged With Soliciting A Minor Via Sexting

An Amish man from Milford, Ind., who pulled into a police sting operation in a horse and buggy has been charged with soliciting a 12-year-old girl via sexting.

Willard Yoder, 21, allegedly sent more than 600 text, picture and video messages to the local girl that he didn't know, including solicitations for sex and naked images of himself.

She is not Amish.

"[Yoder] told me several times that he just randomly chose that [telephone] number," Det. Craig Pennington of the Connersville Police Department said. "He just punched a number, hoping for a reply. If that is true, that's kind of scary because I'm sure that's not the first time that ever happened."

Alarmed by the disturbing messages, the girl told her mother, who later informed the police.

The Connersville Police Department set up a sting operation at a local restaurant in Milford Wednesday, with an undercover cop posing as the girl. According to police reports, Yoder sent five messages intended for the victim asking, "Are you ready for tonight?"

He pulled up to the sting in a basic, black, two-person horse and buggy.

"I could hear it coming. It's a distinctive sound," Pennington said. "It was the only horse and buggy on the road at that point."

Once police confirmed via exchanged text messages that Yoder was the alleged perpetrator, they arrested him, securing his cellphone and his horse and buggy.

"It was a shock. We have plenty years of experience on the scene and we had never seen anything like that," Pennington said.

Yoder admitted to sending all the messages to the child via his cellphone and was charged with four counts of soliciting a minor, police said.

While the victim's family seemed relieved after the arrest, the child's father, who asked for anonymity, was outraged by the initial messages.

"When the pictures started coming in, and they got more graphic, I was like, 'Oh, my gosh, this is unbelievable," he told ABC's Indiana affiliate, WRTV6.

Milford residents told the station they are accustomed to seeing Amish people with cellphones, even though their community usually shuns technology.

Incidents involving sexual assault have popped up among the Amish in recent years.

Atheists Want Sign Honoring 9/11 Firefighters Removed

A group of New York City atheists is demanding that the city remove a street sign honoring seven firefighters killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks because they said the sign violates the separation of church and state.

The street, “Seven in Heaven Way,” was officially dedicated last weekend in Brooklyn outside the firehouse where the firefighters once served. The ceremony was attended by dozens of firefighters, city leaders and widows of the fallen men.

“There should be no signage or displays of religious nature in the public domain,” said Ken Bronstein, president of New York City Atheists. “It’s really insulting to us.”

Bronstein told Fox News Radio that his organization was especially concerned with the use of the word “heaven.”

“We’ve concluded as atheists there is no heaven and there’s no hell,” he said. “And it’s a totally religious statement. It’s a question of separation of church and state.”

He was nonplussed over how his opposition to the street sign might be perceived – especially since the sign is honoring fallen heroes.

“It’s irrelevant who it’s for,” Bronstein said. “We think this is a very bad thing.”

David Silverman, president of American Atheists, agreed and called on the city to remove the sign.

“It implies that heaven actually exists,” Silverman told Fox News Radio. “People died in 9-11 but they were all people who died, not just Christians. Heaven is a specifically Christian place. For the city to come up and say all those heroes are in heaven now, it’s not appropriate.”

“All memorials for fallen heroes should celebrate the diversity of our country and should be secular in nature. These heroes might have been Jews, they might have been atheists, I don’t know but either way it’s wrong for the city to say they’re in heaven. It’s preachy.”

City leaders seemed dumbfounded by the atheists’ outrage because no one complained about the sign as it was going through a public approval process.

“It’s unfortunate that they didn’t raise this as an issue while it was undergoing its public review either at the community board level or when it came before the city council on their public agenda,” said Craig Hammerman, the district manager for Brooklyn Community Board Six.

Hammerman told Fox News Radio that the community was “solidly behind this proposal. Not a single person stood up to speak out against it. I think it’s a little late in the process for someone to be bringing this up now.”

Prisoners Get Better Health Care, So Man Robs Bank To Get Medical Care In Jail

Some people who need medical care but can't afford it go to the emergency room. Others just hope they'll get better. James Richard Verone robbed a bank.

Earlier this month, Verone (pictured), a 59-year-old convenience store clerk, walked into a Gastonia, N.C., bank and handed the cashier a note demanding $1 and medical attention. Then he waited calmly for police to show up.

He's now in jail and has an appointment with a doctor this week.

Verone's problems started when he lost the job he'd held for 17 years as a Coca Cola deliveryman, amid the economic downturn. He found new work driving a truck, but it didn't last. Eventually, he took a part-time position at the convenience store.

But Verone's body wasn't up to it. The bending and lifting made his back ache. He had problems with his left foot, making him limp. He also suffered from carpal tunnel syndrome and arthritis.

Then he noticed a protrusion on his chest. "The pain was beyond the tolerance that I could accept," Verone told the Gaston Gazette. "I kind of hit a brick wall with everything."

Verone knew he needed help--and he didn't want to be a burden on his sister and brothers. He applied for food stamps, but they weren't enough either.

So he hatched a plan. On June 9, he woke up, showered, ironed his shirt. He mailed a letter to the Gazette, listing the return address as the Gaston County Jail.

"When you receive this a bank robbery will have been committed by me," Verone wrote in the letter. "This robbery is being committed by me for one dollar. I am of sound mind but not so much sound body."

Then Verone hailed a cab to take him to the RBC Bank. Inside, he handed the teller his $1 robbery demand.

"I didn't have any fears," said Verone. "I told the teller that I would sit over here and wait for police."

The teller was so frightened that she had to be taken to the hospital to be checked out. Verone, meanwhile, was taken to jail, just as he'd planned it.

Because he only asked for $1, Verone was charged with larceny, not bank robbery. But he said that if his punishment isn't severe enough, he plans to tell the judge that he'll do it again. His $100,000 bond has been reduced to $2,000, but he says he doesn't plan to pay it.

In jail, Verone said he skips dinner to avoid too much contact with the other inmates. He's already seen some nurses and is scheduled to see a doctor on Friday. He said he's hoping to receive back and foot surgery, and get the protrusion on his chest treated. Then he plans to spend a few years in jail, before getting out in time to collect Social Security and move to the beach.

Verone also presented the view that if the United States had a health-care system which offered people more government support, he wouldn't have had to make the choice he did.

"If you don't have your health you don't have anything," Verone said.

The Affordable Care Act, President Obama's health-care overhaul passed by Congress last year, was designed to make it easier for Americans in situations like Verone's to get health insurance. But most of its provisions don't go into effect until 2014.

As it is, Verone said he thinks he chose the best of a bunch of bad options. "I picked jail."

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

New Documentary Covers The Topic of Indoctrination Of Students In Public Schools

(One News Now)A filmmaker and home-schooling father explains the problems with public education in a new documentary to be released this summer.

In IndoctriNation: Public Schools and the Decline of Christianity in America, Scottish-born producer Colin Gunn gives an answer to the education woes: Christ. Now living in Texas with his wife and children, Gunn tells OneNewsNow the only solution is found in the Bible.

"'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom' (Proverbs 1:7), and if we want education, it has to be grounded in God's Word," he contends. "And that is certainly not what we have in the public schools."

Gunn believes parents need to take responsibility for their children's education and put an end to an addiction that he calls "educational welfare, which is this free government-offered education system."

"We see it's time to get it off that welfare and to take responsibility to home school your child or private school your child," the filmmaker suggests. "Certainly, your obligation scripturally is that you're responsible for that, so we encourage parents to really deal with this big issue."

He says home schooling is very doable for many parents, and it protects children from the harm they would likely experience in public schools.

"We cover that in the movie. We cover many of the consequences of peer pressure and some of the violent actions that have gone on in public schools, including the Columbine story," Gunn notes.

Boston Mayor Tells NIKE Store To Take Down T-Shirt Display

BOSTON (CBS) – Mayor Tom Menino doesn’t like Niketown’s new window display at its Newbury Street store and he wants it taken down.

Menino said he was walking in the Back Bay with his wife recently and noticed T-shirts in the window with the expressions “Dope,” “Get High,” and “F**k Gravity” on them.

He believes the shirts promote drug use.

“Why would a national organization do that? Except to try stoop to the lowest common denominator to get people to buy their t-shirts,” the mayor told WBZ NewsRadio 1030 Tuesday.

“They should be out educating our young people about the damage drugs do to you. But in their windows on Newbury Street, they’re promoting the issue of drugs.”

The mayor wrote a letter to the store’s general manager, asking her to remove the shirts from the window.

“Your window display of T-shirts with drug and profanity wordplay are out of keeping with the character of Boston’s Back Bay,” the letter read. “We urge you to remove them.

“Should your company decide to take more seriously the issue of drug abuse, Boston has several nation-leading programs that may be of interest.”

In a statement to WBZ-TV, Nike said:

“These t-shirts are part of an action sports campaign, featuring marquee athletes using commonly used and accepted expressions for performance at the highest level of their sport, be it surfing, skateboarding or BMX. Nike does not condone the use of banned or illegal substances.”

Menino said the money spent on the campaign should be put it into drug prevention programs instead.