Month: November 2020

WASHINGTON (RNS) — A Democratic group dedicated to representing secular values unveiled a slate of recommendations for President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming administration on Monday (Nov. 30), outlining a sweeping agenda designed to roll back many of President Trump’s actions involving religion and to “restore a vision of constitutional secularism.”

The 28-page document, crafted by the Secular Democrats of America PAC, is being presented to the incoming administration by Democratic Representatives Jamie Raskin and Jared Huffman — both co-chairs of the Congressional Freethought Caucus.

The SDA’s agenda offers a wide range of policy recommendations to push back against the so-called “Christian nationalist movement,” which the the group describes as an “extraordinarily well-funded and well-organized” phenomenon whose “extreme and sectarian agenda (was) on constant display under the Trump-Pence administration.”

The group offered several recommendations to help “reframe” concepts of patriotism in ways that are more inclusive. Among them were encouraging politicians to avoid terms like “God and country”; promoting non-theistic and humanistic chaplains in the military; including nonreligious representatives at interfaith gatherings; and suggesting the use of the country’s onetime unofficial motto “E Pluribus Unum” — Latin for “out of many, one” — instead of the motto adopted in 1956, “In God We Trust,” which the the group argues excludes nontheists and polytheists.

These rhetorical shifts, they argue, could stymie the influence of Christian nationalists.

“They characterize the United States’ founding as a ‘Christian nation’ based in biblical principles, rather than as a secularist nation based in revolutionary democratic ideas,” the document reads.

The SDA
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A mob of Muslims attacked Coptic Christians in Egypt due to an alleged Facebook post from a man who said his account was hacked.

A young Christian man in Egpyt allegedly posted a comment on his Facebook account, causing Muslims in the governorate of Minya to get angry, the Independent Catholic News agency reported. The man was rumored to have posted an article that was deemed offensive to Islam and Mohammad.

Hundreds of local Muslim villagers, responding to the said post, gathered together and attacked the homes and properties of local Christians living in Barsha village on Nov. 25. They also attacked the church of Abou Sefin, where a congregation of Coptic Orthodox Christians were preparing to begin a fast.

The militants used stones and molotov cocktails during the attack, causing massive damage to all affected properties. Some Coptic houses and shops were ransacked. The mob also attacked a minibus that belonged to the church and burned it in the process.

While the UK-based NGO Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reported that no one got hurt in the incident, the ICN reported that an elderly Coptic Christian woman was hurt by the fires her home sustained in the attack and was taken to the hospital for treatment.

Police quickly responded to quell the chaos and restore calm to the situation. They also arrested some local Muslims and Christians who were involved in the clashes. Those arrested included 35 Copts.

General Osama Al Qadi, the Governor of the Minya Province, quickly called for a meeting
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Around the world, people are continuing to cope with economic challenges, a crushing pandemic, and political turmoil, but millions of weary souls are finding hope in our Heavenly Father. 

Evangelist Franklin Graham, the president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) and Samaritan’s Purse told The Christian Post that 1.7 million people have indicated that they made a decision for Christ through BGEA’s online ministries so far in 2020, compared to 1.3 million this time last year.

“I try to shy away from the questions on numbers,” Graham explained. “God’s the one who gives the increase. It’s not Franklin Graham and it’s not the institution.”

He added that people are stunned by the recent turn of events and they’re drawing towards Jesus Christ for discernment. 

“I think there’s nothing normal about 2020,” Graham said. “We’ve never gone through a pandemic in my lifetime. The world has never been locked down before. It’s God who touches people’s hearts and opens up people’s eyes. The pandemic hasn’t stopped it. If anything, it’s advanced it.” 

This pandemic has had many side effects, but it is also an opportunity for followers of Jesus Christ to share the reason for the hope that lies w/in us. His peace, strength, & love can see people through every storm of life—even a global pandemic.

— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) November 30, 2020

And this year marks the first time that BGEA has bought national television time with a targeted message
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GOLAN HEIGHTS, Israel, Nov. 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — As 2020 comes to a close, the world waits with bated breath. No one can tell if 2021 will bring relief when the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s, or if the stresses of the pandemic, politics, and apocalyptic rumors will only compound. How do we navigate such tumultuous days? What are redemptive ways we can serve our families, neighbors, and communities?

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Douglas Groothuis argues that it is possible for someone to be gay, happy, and committed to traditional sexual ethics.

Critics of Christianity sometimes argue that its sexual ethics are unlivable, especially regarding sexual orientation and activities outside of traditional marriage. Recently Philosophy Now ran an article to this effect by Rick Aaron [‘Christianity & Homosexuality’, Issue 138, Ed], who argued specifically that putting conservative, heterosexual, marriage strictures on Christian gay peoples’ sexual activity was not ‘practically feasible’, since most gay people could not find a happy and meaningful life without living out their sexuality. I want to consider briefly whether a gay but religiously-inclined person could find
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By Femi Aribisala

The Jews asked Jesus: “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” He said to them: “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent.” (John 6:28-29).

Jesus is the Saviour therefore, undoubtedly, belief in Jesus is fundamental to salvation. Often, when people came to Jesus for healing, he would ask: “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” (Matthew 9:28). When he visited his hometown, John notes: “He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” (Matthew 13:58).

Jesus did not tell Nicodemus to become more religious to obtain eternal life. He did not tell him to give more tithes and offerings to the synagogue. He simply told him to believe in him: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16).

Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to determine precisely what it means to believe in
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A British archaeologist thinks he has found the childhood home of Jesus in Nazareth.

Ken Dark began surveying the site about 14 years ago when he was studying the Israeli town’s history as a Byzantine Christian pilgrimage center, the Jerusalem Post reported.

“I didn’t go to Nazareth to find the house of Jesus…,” Dark, a professor at University of Reading, told the BBC. “Nobody could have been more surprised than me.”

Archaeologists in the 19th century were the first to suggest that Jesus and his parents, Mary and Joseph, had lived in the home, but researchers in the 1930s discredited the notion, the Post reported.

Dark found the dwelling, under the Byzantine-era Sisters Of Nazareth Convent in central Nazareth, by researching the archives and artifacts from earlier digs, and recording excavated evidence unearthed again during work on a 1950s concrete floor, he told the Post.

What his study showed was a house carved into a rocky hillside, built by a master stoneworker. In the Bible, Joseph is called a “tekton,” an ancient word for craftsman, the Post reported.

A decade ago, British-Israeli archaeologist Yardenna Alexandre excavated a site near the location that Dark examined. She uncovered ruins of a house that probably was in the village where Jesus grew up.

Now, Alexandre wants to go with Dark to the location he researched so she can fully understand how he reached his conclusion. But she told the Post scientists would have to carry out a new dig near
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