Gary Stearman - Grace vs Law

BOMBSHELL: Is this the truth about Freddie Gray’s spinal injury?

Reblogged from http://allenbwest.com/2015/04/bombshell-is-this-the-truth-about-freddie-gray-spinal-injury/

via  servehiminthewaiting.com

Written by Michele Hickford, Editor-in-Chief on April 29, 2015

A “rush to judgment” happens quite often these days – not that the eventual truth changes any minds when it does finally emerge.
After all, “hands up, don’t shoot” has become a part of our culture, even though it was patently false in the case of Michael Brown.

In Baltimore, the untimely death of Freddie Gray has touched off a powder keg of unrest particularly because of the reported near-severing of Gray’s spinal cord which ultimately lead to his demise. What terrible violence on the part of police could have caused such a terrible injury?
Unless that injury was pre-existing.

From Rickwells.us

The media is leaving out much of the career criminal history of Freddie Gray in their reporting. It seems now that they may also be failing to discuss his very relevant medical history, one which may have included multiple surgeries for spinal injuries incurred in a car crash.
Health privacy laws limit the availability of medical information, but a public records search in the Howard Court Civil System website provides evidence that Gray had received a settlement and had engaged with Peachtree Funding to obtain a lump sum payment.
The media has been remiss in reporting this information, preferring to portray the career criminal as the victim of police misconduct. Other anonymous sources indicate that Gray may have had surgery as recently as ten days prior to the incident in which he was involved in a forty-five minute flee to evade the authorities. He could have easily re-injured himself in his reckless attempt to avoid capture.

Details of the case are still sketchy and other news sources are reporting the settlement had to do with lead paint rather than an auto injury, but no doubt there is more to this story than meets the eye.
Black lives matter, but so does the truth.
You can review the original documentation here for case number 13C14101574

No Longer Slaves // Jonathan David & Melissa Helser // We Will Not Be Shaken Official Lyric Video

Vernon Gray: “Another Look at the Rapture”

By STLloyd April 28, 2015 Bible prophecy The Rapture

Another Look at the Rapture – By Vernon Gray – grayworxx@gmail.co

Introduction
Can we agree that one hundred percent sincerity in what one believes does not make it right? Simply believing something does not make it true. Hindu’s, Moslems, and scores of other religions all “believe,” but that does not make what they believe the truth.
My wife and I have studied the Scriptures seriously for several years now. For instance we have spent hundreds of hours reading, studying and discussing the Book of Revelation.
At the end of it all I have to say this…It has not been given to us to understand everything that is written in the Scriptures at this time. 

We as the Body of Christ certainly know a lot more than we did years ago, but there are so many unanswered questions. One point worth mentioning is that the Word of God is not as yielding if one studies it on a purely intellectual level.
The Bible is a living entity that is “quickened” by the Holy Spirit to our spirits (Rhema) so that we can come to know Christ and our God through His Word. This is a spiritual process and not an intellectual one.
Likewise believing the gospel is not an intellectual process, it is a decision of the heart; it is the will.
2 Timothy 2:15 admonishes us, “Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
Taking the time to study the Bible does not necessarily mean that the Scriptures will open up to you and reveal all that there is to know. God imparts “nuggets” to whom He will; however God “approves” of the diligent Christians who take Him and His Word seriously.
Aside from God’s approval, you will be able to “rightly divide” or correctly understand what the Scriptures are saying. 

John 2:27 tells us…”But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.”
This does not mean that we cannot learn from each other. But we are responsible for our own relationship with God. We are to take the time to learn whatever we can from the Bible in order to serve our God in righteousness, truth, faith and love.
And by the way; we are ALL anointed. No one gets a SPECIAL anointing to be a miracle worker or to perform wonders. The least in the Kingdom of God has as much “anointing” as the highest ranking Christian.

Folklore Theology
Much of the Church today has what is called Folklore Theology. Their theology is based on traditions, myth and folklore. They uncritically and unreflectively construct a Bible View from what they have heard and not from what they have studied or researched. Very often unproved tradition plays a major role in their theology.
People who cling to this kind of theology tend to be most dogmatic because they cannot defend their position from the Scriptures. The elevated voice is a sure sign that they are guided by passion rather than by the truth. 

A simple example of Folklore Theology would be “What does Jesus look like?”
Anyone throughout the world if shown a picture of the Catholic “Jesus” would immediately recognize the picture as that of Jesus. But the real Jesus does not look like the Catholic Jesus.
The picture is embedded in our traditions and lore which almost anyone can recognize.
To have an uncritical acceptance of mans teaching is dangerous to spiritual growth.
Personally I come from a Pentecostal background (for which I am grateful), but now years later I realize that even in “Biblically solid” institutions there can be false theology.
When you invest so much time and energy into something that is in fact false, you are not willing to let it go. You become unwilling to reason and you would rather accept the comfort of the lie than embrace the harsh truth. The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.

The time has come when they do not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; wanting to soothe their consciences with sweet comforting words. They have turned their ears from the truth, and believe the fables of ministers who appear to be ministers of righteousness. This is the age of apostasy.
And so I would say to you the reader… “Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.” (2 Timothy 2:7)

Rapture – The common view
For the sake of time we will deal with the Pre-Tribulation Rapture only.
This as we understand it is an event that will take place before the Tribulation which will plunge the world into terrible chaos and God’s judgement will fall upon a wicked unbelieving and unrepentant world.
At some point in time we will hear a trumpet sounding and in the twinkling of an eye we will be “caught up” in the air to Christ.
The dead in Christ will be raised first and then we which are alive will join them in the air to be with our Saviour forever.
There are variations of this view such as Mid-Trib, Pre-Wrath etc., but the Pre-Trib Rapture is what we will be discussing here.

When will it be?
The timing of the Rapture has been the subject of many a book and numerous debates.
The Rapture, unlike the Second Coming is signless. Predicting the Rapture has inspired many a fertile mind with speculation and assumption. Date setting and wild supposition has done much harm within the Church because honest sincere people have believed (perhaps wanted to believe) that the Rapture would happen on a certain day. When nothing happened as set out by the “scholar,” they are disappointed and hurt because “God” did not show up as expected.

This attitude is immature and dangerous because God did not tell you that the Rapture would happen at such and such a time – the deceived “scholar” told you and you believed him or her. God had nothing to do with your own self-inflicted stupidity.
God has given you His word. Weigh everything and test everything against what God said, NOT what some deceived date setter has told you.

Rapture or Second Coming?
The biggest pitfall today when applying Bible verses to the Rapture Event is the misapplication of Scripture. There are verses in the Bible that refer to the Rapture of the Church AND there are verses that refer to the Second Coming of Christ. Often these verses are confused. One cannot muddle these two distinct events by applying the wrong Scripture to the wrong event.

Let us look at the verses and passages that are usually quoted as referring to the Rapture and those which refer to the Second Coming and compare them to what the Bible says.
Wise and foolish virgins
A good example of this would be the parable of the 10 virgins.
Many believe that five wise and five foolish virgins are the Church waiting for the groom (Jesus) who came at midnight. They incorrectly apply this parable to the Rapture of the Church. The fact is that these virgins are Tribulation Saints. They are not part of the Church which is no longer on the earth.

After the Rapture of the Bride of Christ many half-baked Christians will suddenly realize that they have missed it. Many will have been witnessed to and encouraged by friends and family. But they had rejected or ignored the warning signs all around them. Now they realize that everything these Christians were telling them was in fact true. Many will get saved because of the Rapture, but their salvation will cost them dearly.
(Perhaps this is the “Great Revival” expected by the Charismatic Movement. The great revival they speak of is not found in the Bible.)
As of right now salvation is a free gift from God.
To accept it is to have God living within you FOREVER. 

After the Rapture, “Church Age” salvation will come to an end and salvation will revert to the Old Testament style of salvation where you are not filled with the Holy Spirit.
Righteousness for the Christian right now is imputed to by Christ to all who believe in His death and resurrection. From the Tribulation onwards righteousness will have to be earned which is why the five foolish virgins had to “buy” oil. They did not have the infilling of the Holy Spirit as do Christians. They had to keep their garment clean by works. This is not so for the Christians today.

The hour or the day
People love to quote Mathew 24: 36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.”
The same idea is found in…
Matthew24: 42 “Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.”
Mathew 24: 44 “Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
Matthew25: 13 “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.”
Are any of these verses speaking of the Rapture? The answer is NO!
This verse is speaking of the Second Coming. How do we know?

Firstly the context of the entire passage is the return of Christ at the Second Coming.

Secondly if this were about the Rapture, how can we balance it with 1Thessalonians 5:1 – 4 “But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you.
2) For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. (Speaking of the Second Coming)
3) For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labour pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. (Speaking of the Second Coming)
4) But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.” (Which day?)

Ok, you might say, so if we are not in darkness when is the Rapture because I don’t know and the Bible says that I am not in darkness about it?
This is a fair question.
We know from study that we are without question in the last days. Even the atheist agree that the world is at a crossroad of sorts. We know for a certainty that 2000 years have passed since the Cross, Resurrection and Ascension.
Jesus is soon coming to rule as He promised. THIS IS FACT.
We certainly do not know the day of the Rapture, this is true. But if we are to believe what this verse says, we will be given notice of it beforehand. This verse suggests that like Noah and Lot we will be given notice that the Rapture Event is imminent.

What is the premise for such a statement?
Noah, a type of the Church was given notice before the rains came down.
* Enoch, a type of the Church knew that he was to be Raptured.
* Noah and his family (a type of the Church) was given seven days notice.
* Lot was given notice before Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed.
* Although not a type of the Church, Elijah was also given notice of his imminent Rapture.

I have not found anywhere in the Bible that we will be given notice or warning of the Rapture.
However, if the patterns are the same and if the types given to us in the Word of God are to clue, there is no reason that we might be given some form of notice before the actual rapture Event. It would not be “unscriptural” to consider the possibility that God will do the same now as He did in the past.

Where is the promise of His coming?
2 Peter 3: 4 “…and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.'”
Never before has this verse been as fulfilled as it is today. Waiting for Christ to return means getting your life right before God.
It means walking in righteousness and faith.
It means walking in the Spirit and not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh.
It means restraint and obedience to the Word of God.
During the Tribulation there will be no restraint. Men will do as they please.
They will not even believe that there is a Christ. In fact, if they do, they will probably believe that the “Man of Sin” is the Christ.

“Where is the promise of His coming” applies to the Laodicean Church who is bloated with excess’ and false doctrine to the point that they do not want there to be a Rapture event.
A Rapture event would expose them and their lies; people who have supported them will probably turn on these false teachers when they realize that these old fashion Believers were right all along.

When you are comfortable in your existence and have need of nothing, a rapture event would ruin everything. Many anti Rapture teachers who scoff at the Rapture do not want it to be true. 2 Peter 3: 3 “…knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts,”
2 Timothy 4: 3, 4 is another rather sobering passage which describes the present Laodicean Church perfectly… “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

Two men in a field – one taken the other left
Luke 17: 34 – 36 “I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed: the one will be taken and the other will be left. Two women will be grinding together: the one will be taken and the other left. Two men will be in the field: the one will be taken and the other left.”
Again here this passage is used a Rapture passage but this passage is speaking of the Second Coming.

The word “taken” in this verse is NOT the word harpazo which describes the Rapture.
Here the Greek word is paralambano. It is used which means “to take into close association, ‘take (to oneself), take with/along,’ ” not always in a positive sense.
The word “left,” Greek aphiemi, on the other hand, means “leave, depart from … abandon.”
Taken where? Left to what purpose? The context in Luke is pretty vague.

When we look at the parallel in Matthew 24 we get a hint of what Jesus might have meant.
“But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come…”
(Matthew 24:37 – 42)

In Matthew, Jesus has just talked about Noah entering the ark. We know that he took his family and a pair of every animal with him. Those who are taken along with him are saved from the catastrophe, but those who are left are destroyed by the impending judgment.
“And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” (Matthew 24:31)
“And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.” (Mark 13:27)
“Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed — in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)
“After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”
(1 Thessalonians 4:17)
“Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers….” (2 Thessalonians 2:1)

The Gates of Hell
Jesus said in Matthew 16: 18 “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
When Jesus said that the gates of Hades shall not prevail against the Church, it sounds like the Church is in a weak position with the gates of Hades getting an upper hand. If we read it correctly, it is the exact opposite that takes place. The Church is pounding the gates of Hades and it cannot stand against such a powerful force.

Now we read in Revelation13:7…”It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation.”
So which is it? Do the saints overcome or are they overcome?
Both are correct. The problem is in understanding the word “saints.” The Church is made up of “saints.” But there are others apart from the Church who are also called saints.

For example there are Old Testament saints and then there are Tribulation saints.
These saints spoken of here in Revelation 13: 7 are the Tribulation saints. They are NOT part of the Church which has been removed from the earth in the Rapture Event.
Old Testament verses relating to the Rapture

In particular I would like us to look at Isaiah 26:19 – 21 “But your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead.
20) Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed by.
21) See, the LORD is coming out of his dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The earth will disclose the bloodshed upon her; she will conceal her slain no longer.”
The flood had already passed and the next judgment in which God pours down His wrath on man concerning the whole earth is in the last days.
I believe Isaiah 26:19-21 fits right in line with the Pre – Tribulation Rapture theory.
There is a crown for those who love His appearing. Why? Because if you love the idea of Jesus coming back right now, you are probably trying to live for Him and are excited to see His return.

Zepheniah 2:3 “Seek the LORD, all you meek of the earth, Who have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the LORD’s anger.”
Isaiah 24 is talking about the Tribulation.
Verse 21 speaks of binding Satan and his hordes.
Verse 23 speaks of the moon being confounded and the sun ashamed.

Often the chapter and verse divisions in the Bible can obstruct the train of thought being conveyed by the Holy Spirit. If we ignore the chapter divisions, we carry on into Isaiah 25 with the same thought and context. The first five verses of Isaiah 25 are a song.
They are a celebration of the final over throw of Babylon that will never be rebuilt.
Isaiah 25: 8 says “He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.” 

Paul quotes this passage from Isaiah in 1 Corinthians 15: 52 – 54 “…in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53) For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54) So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.'”

Also we read in 1 Thessalonians 4:16
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.”
Let’s move onto verse 20 of Isaiah 26. It speaks about enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you. This could mean the Jewish people he is talking to could be hiding, possibly sealed, when the Lord displays His wrath. However, a verse that also comes to mind is this one.

John 14:2, 3 “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
Does this indicate that we will go to be in our rooms, or mansions, as the KJV states?
Then after the wrath, we come down with God at the end of the Tribulation?
At the rapture you receive your resurrected body, so one could enjoy his new heavenly dwelling with a new body.

It makes no sense if God raises the dead for a new glorious life in which they are rejoicing, and then have to shield or protect them during His wrath.
Zepheniah 2: 3 “Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD’S anger.”
Psalm 27: 5 “For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.”

Hosea 6: 2 “After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.”
The above scripture needs a little explanation. A day is as a thousand years to God.
2 Peter 3:8 “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

After the Jews rejected their Messiah 2000 years ago, God has put them aside while (they are temporary blinded) He deals directly with the Church.
(The Church and Israel are mutually exclusive.)
“After two days (2000 years) will He revive us: in the third day (the 1000 years of the millennium) He will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.”
Isaiah 57:1 “The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.”
Zepheniah 2:3 “Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his
judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD’S anger.”

grayworxx@gmail.com

Mid-East Prophecy Udpate - Pastor J.D. Farag

The Class of 2015: Book Burners Afraid of Matches - Bill Whittle

Labour would outlaw Islamophobia, says Miliband in an exclusive interview

Rebloogged from: www.muslimnews.co.uk

24th Apr 2015

Hamed Chapman

A future Labour Government is committed to outlaw the scourge of Islamophobia by changing the law and making it an aggravated crime, according to the Party’s Leader Ed Miliband.
“We are going to make it an aggravated crime. We are going to make sure it is marked on people’s records with the police to make sure they root out Islamophobia as a hate crime,” Miliband told the Editor of The Muslim News, Ahmed J Versi in a wide ranging exclusive interview.
“We are going to change the law on this so we make it absolutely clear of our abhorrence of hate crime and Islamophobia. It will be the first time that the police will record Islamophobic attacks right across the country,” he said.

Labour Party Manifesto pledged to take a “zero-tolerance approach to hate crime” regarding the growth of Islamophobia as well as anti-Semitism. “We will challenge prejudice before it grows, whether in schools, universities or on social media. And we will strengthen the law on disability, homophobic, and transphobic hate crime,” it said.

Despite voting for the new Counter Terrorism Act last month, Labour was also critical of the way the Government has cut funding and narrowed the focus of the controversial Prevent extremism programme, saying that much of the work to “engage Muslim communities has been lost.”
“I want to overhaul Prevent programme,” Miliband told The Muslim News. The Muslim community is as an “incredibly important, incredibly rich, incredible asset to our country” and so it was really important to put on record.

“The reality is that the people I talk to in the Muslim community are absolutely full square with the idea that we’ve got to make sure that we work with our young people to stop them being dragged into this perverted (terrorist) ideology.”
“The way to do it is the Prevent programme working with communities. You got to do the things that once this ideology takes hold you try to disrupt it. For me that is the answer. We want to see how the Prevent programme is community focused.”

Challenged about the way particularly Muslim charities have been targeted by banks and discredited by the media, Miliband said in his wide ranging interview that he was “not in favour of demonising anyone (and) that is the wrong thing to do.”
“What I am in favour is the Charity Commission working without fear or favour. We got to build right across the Muslim community. There is absolutely shared purpose and shared desire to deal with a small minority in our country who get tempted to violent extremism. That is what we got to build on and it is about working with them.”

On the so-called Trojan Horse scandal that failed to find virtually any evidence of extremism or radicalisation, the Labour leader said the reality is that the “root of this problem lies in proper accountability in our schools.”
“We are going to have high standards locally. That will make sure that every school has proper oversight. When there is no proper oversight things can go wrong in schools. The best way to stop that happening is proper oversight in our schools.
“You need proper accountability. The answer to this is not to run thousands of schools from the centre of the Government but to have local accountability in schools.”

With regard to foreign policy, Miliband confirmed that Labour would have supported the recognition of a Palestinian State in last year’s UN vote. His Party’s support was why Parliament backed the principle, he said.
“We would do everything we can to work for a two state solution which is a viable Palestinian state alongside security for Israel,” he added but also pointed out that he personally was “not in favour of sanctions” against Israel.
To find a solution, he argued engagement was needed with both sides but the “reality is that we had a British Government for the last five years who had disengaged from this issue, had washed its hands off this issue.”www.muslimnews.co.uk
“I’m not going to wash my hands off this issue. I will speak out about the settlements. I spoke out about Israel’s incursion into Gaza. Some people didn’t like that I spoke out. I did speak out and I will continue to speak out and engaging with the issue. We have the American Administration who also wants to engage and wants to push forward two-state solution. We are going to partner with them to do that.”

He was dismissive that Labour’s manifesto commitment to arrest and act against those returning from fighting in Syria would be hypocritical by targeting only Muslims as it is happening now. “When I am Prime Minister there will be one law for everybody. Full treatment for everybody,” he insisted.
Likewise Miliband was adamant that Muslims should not face racial and religious discrimination when it comes to employment or suffer the most because of the austerity cuts “It is part of the law that that is prohibited. We are going to have racial equality across the Government. We will enforce it.”

“We will tackle deprivation. We will build homes, get rid of bedroom tax, raise minimum wages, build better jobs for people, have a fairer social security system,” he also insisted.
Throughout his interview, Miliband insisted that he took “extreme care” in what he said but it still did not stop him in using the generic term of “Islamist terrorism” and inferring the cause was religious rather than political when suggesting more than once it was based on “perverted ideology.”
The last Labour Government stopped engaging with many Muslim organisations at the end of its tenor and the boycott has been continued by the Conservative-led Government. Questioned about it, he assertively said he would engage.
“I will always engage with people. I really value my relationship with the Muslim community and it is a relationship I would nurture as a Prime Minister.”

In the past, the majority of Muslims in Britain have often tended to vote more for Labour. It is a party that has always tended to have the most Muslim MPs, a trend that is expected to continue with the number expected to grow to 11.
“It is very important that people vote in the general elections. Stakes are incredibly high in this elections,” the Opposition Leader said.
“If you look at what I have done as Leader of the Labour Party I have learnt the lesson of Iraq war, I said no to military action in Syria in summer of 2013 when it was controversial. I have moved forward in the position to causes of Palestinian people.”
“Our Government will be absolutely committed to equality not just in law but in fact too. We are committed to race equality strategy. That is why we are committed to breaking down barriers of discrimination,” he further said.

“If you want the Government to stand up for working people it will be a Labour Government. So I urge people to vote in the elections because it is going to be a close election and if people don’t turn out to vote the danger is that you end up with Conservatives in power. So I will ask people to go out and vote.”

• Clegg pledges early review of new Prevent legislation in an exclusive interview

Worthy is the Lamb - Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir

Jonathan Cahn - The Altar of the Dark Angel on the Temple Mount

Media blitz to 'normalize' transgenderism

Reblogged from http://www.wnd.com/2015/04/media-blitz-to-normalize-transgenderism/

WND Exclusive

Target: Your children

Published: 12 hours ago

image: http://www.wnd.com/files/2014/06/lhohmann_avatar.jpg
Leo Hohmann About | Email | Archive

Leo Hohmann is a news editor for WND. He has been a reporter and editor at several suburban newspapers in the Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina, areas and also served as managing editor of Triangle Business Journal in Raleigh, North Carolina.

image: http://www.wnd.com/files/2015/04/I-am-Jazz.jpg

Jazz Jennings, a transgender teenager, wrote a book about having a “girl’s brain in a boy’s body.” It is now being used in schools.

The establishment media has suddenly gone ga-ga over transgenders.
Whether it’s Bruce Jenner’s prime-time interview with Diane Sawyer to discuss his “journey” from a 1976 Olympic decathlon stud to surgery- and drug-induced womanhood, or teary-eyed parents waxing softly about their child’s difficult but rewarding transformation from one sex to another, the American public is about to be inundated with journalistic stories, TV shows, books, movies and ads promoting transgenderism.

Sound off in today’s WND Poll: What’s your take on Bruce Jenner?
Like all good propaganda campaigns, it starts in the schools.
Parents of children at a middle school in Maine were outraged when they found out a guidance counselor read “I Am Jazz” to a class of 7-year-olds. The autobiographical picture book is based on the life of Jazz Jennings, a transgender teenager who talks of having a “girl’s brain in a boy’s body.”

“From the time she was 2 years old, Jazz knew that she had a girl’s brain in a boy’s body. She loved pink and dressing up as a mermaid and didn’t feel like herself in boys’ clothing,” reads the description on Amazon. But her family was confused because they always thought of Jazz as a boy.

The book describes how Jazz “flourished once she was allowed to be herself,” said one reviewer, E.M. Kokie, in a review for ThePirateTree.com, a site that focuses on “social justice and children’s literature.”
The children’s book has won myriad awards.
NBC reported this week a story about how California Congressman Mike Honda’s “transgender daughter makes him proud.”
The boy (now girl)’s father says he just wants his child to “be happy,” as a tear forms in his eye.

Read Michael L. Brown’s sensational exposé of the perversion revolution – ‘A Queer Thing Happened to America’ – ½ price today only! 

The NBC Today Show presented the stories of several sets of parents last week who have “struggled” with their young children’s gender confusion. Most decided to support their boys’ desire to be girls, and vise versa.

Not to be outdone, CBS did a story on a family celebrating their “5-year-old son’s transgender journey.”
This is the way CBS Boston reporter Ken McCleod began his story:

“A Massachusetts couple knew their child wasn’t happy. So they made the courageous and difficult decision to raise their daughter as a boy at his own request.”

The rest is predictable.
Then there is the new TV series “Transparent,” a comedy-drama television series produced for Amazon Studios Video that debuted last year. The series, created and directed by Jill Soloway, presents the story of a Los Angeles family and their lives following the discovery that the person they knew as their father Mort (Jeffrey Tambor) is transgender.
At the Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 11, the show won the award for best television series.
Former model Tyra Banks has also produced a transgender TV series for VH1 called TransAmerica, starring transgender model/activist Carmen Carrera.

image: http://www.wnd.com/files/2015/04/carmen-carrera.jpg

Transgender model Carmen Carrera stars in a new TV series produced by Tyra Banks.

According to Hollywood Reporter, “the eight-episode docuseries will chronicle a group of Chicago women united by the shared experience of being transgender. The series is described as an earnest look at a group of millennial women — who happen to be transgender — living, loving and building their careers. The series will explore how their sexuality impacts their lives.”

Susan Levison, executive vice president of programming for VH1, told Hollywood Reporter: “This is a show about a group of compelling, gorgeous young friends who are on a unique journey while staying true to their authentic selves. We believe that message resonates.”

Summer camps for the gender confused
And the movement isn’t limited to a media blitz.
The transgender movement now offers transgender-friendly summer camps for children of all ages.

Camp Aranu’tiq is one such venture. Launched in 2010, the program seeks to offer an overnight camp experience designed specifically for “transgender and gender variant youth.”
Aranu’tiq is a chugach (Indigenous people of Alaska) word for “a person who was thought to embody both the male and female spirit,” according to the camp’s website. “Aranu’tiq people were often revered and thought to be very lucky because their existence transcended traditional boundaries.”

Camps are held for pre-teens and teens at undisclosed sites.
The camp was founded by Boston native Nick Teich, a PhD candidate at Brandeis University and author of the book “Transgendered 101: A Simple Guide to a Complex Issue. He has a “deep personal interest in helping transgender youth to be themselves,” according to the camp’s website.

The assistant camp director is Morgan Darby, a former teacher and girls’ basketball coach who relocated from Oakland, California, to Boston. She is an active member of MassEquality, an LGBT statewide grassroots advocacy organization and holds and master of arts degree in gender and cultural studies from Simmons College.

The camp also has psychologists and therapists who collaborate with parents and support groups, “supporting families through transition.”
One such professional is Bob Ditter, a family therapist in Boston who, according to his bio, “is a nationally recognized trainer and consultant for organizations that work with young people. He has visited over 600 summer camps in the United States.”
Under a section “Who can attend Camp Aranutiq’s programs,” the camp’s website states:

“Camp Aranu’tiq is for those who feel that they do not fit into the norms our society has prescribed for gender. This includes those who have “transitioned,” those who happen to express their gender differently than others, and those who may experience teasing or bullying because of their gender.”

The camp says of its staff:

“About half to two-thirds of our counselors at each program are trans-identified. We feel it is important to have role models who are of all gender identities and expressions. We seek a diverse group of staff and volunteers.”

Camp Aranu’tiq was winner of the Eleanor Eells Award in 2012. This award recognizes program excellence as well as research in practice at camps, according the Eleanor Eells website.
Camp Aranu’tiq is just one example. There are dozens of similar camps easily found online.

‘Christian’ camps for transgenders?
Some even claim to be “faith-based.”
“The Naming Project” touts itself as a “faith-based organization that aims to provide a haven for LGBTQ and allies alike.”

image: http://www.wnd.com/files/2015/04/the_naming_project.jpg_0.jpg

The logo for The Naming Project, which claims to be a Christian ministry.

It is holding a camp session from July 26-31 at Bay Lake Camp in Deerwood, Minnesota. “Youth ages 14-18 of all sexual and gender identities who are interested in talking and learning about sexuality and gender in the context of their own spiritual understanding are encouraged to attend,” according to the website glaad.org.

The Naming Project promotes a documentary called “Camping Out.”
The Naming Project says it is “a Christian ministry that walks with youth wherever they are on their own faith journey. Youth from around the country attend our summer camp, and we communicate with youth, parents, pastors, youth workers, and others who care for LGBTQ youth.”

The Naming Project is just one example of how the LGBT movement is spilling over into the Christian church.
The LGBT Humanist Council promotes a program called “Sharing Our Stories,” which celebrates the lives of LGBTQ people.

A group in Gastonia, N.C., called Gaston Has Heart is one of many to pick up on the theme, offering a “Sharing Our Stories” program at a local church, All Saints Episcopal, last month.
“The day will consist of three wonderful keynote speakers, Joshua Burford; The Dr. Rev. Gary Butterworth; and Matthew Morrell Comer. Also, we will offer ten educational workshops, on a wide-variety of topics related to the LGBTQ Community, over the span of three concurrent sessions,” the group’s Facebook site says. “Finally, we will hold a ’round table’ discussion on collaboration in the Community.”

The site further explains that, “‘Sharing Our Stories’ is appropriate for anyone in the LGBTQ Community, its allies and advocates, educators, those in the human services field, parents, families, friends, members of the faith community and many more.”
But not all scientists are on board with the transgender movement’s basic hypothesis, that gender confusion is a genetic, permanent condition.

Top psychologist throws water on LGBT ‘science’
There is a solid body of research that indicates gender confusion is best understood as a mental disorder, often temporary in nature.
Former psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Paul R. McHugh, M.D., concluded it is “biologically impossible” for a person to change the sex they were born with, and those who advocate “sexual reassignment surgery” are thus promoting mental illness.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, McHugh, who is Hopkins’ Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry, cites a long-term Swedish study that followed transgendered persons for up to 30 years, and revealed that “beginning about 10 years after having the surgery, the transgendered began to experience increasing mental difficulties. Most shockingly, their suicide mortality rose almost 20-fold above the comparable non-transgender population.”
McHugh’s research further concluded: “When children who reported transgender feelings were tracked without medical or surgical treatment at both Vanderbilt University and London’s Portman Clinic, 70%-80% of them spontaneously lost those feelings.”

Yet, the push to normalize transgenderism rushes forward.
It’s no coincidence that the transgender movement should follow on the heels of a very successful same-sex marriage movement, says David Usher, president of the Center for Marriage Policy.

It comes in the wake of a late 2014 ABC News poll showing 58 percent of American adults now approve of same-sex marriage, up from just 32 percent nine years ago. So the media machine is moving on to the next stop on its family-destroying agenda, says Usher.
He believes the movement will result in tragedy for hundreds of young people who are being sold a lie.
“I’m just wondering what planet I’m living on now, but this is all basically straight out of (Alfred) Kinsey (the famous sexologist). The whole concept is that one’s biological sex is completely immaterial,” he said. “That’s just the next phase of the sexual liberation movement, to make it so physical sex means absolutely nothing.”
Inherent in this “junk science” is the idea that the mind is all powerful and the mind prevails over reality.
“And basically we live in an age when reality just doesn’t matter anymore. What is, isn’t. This is basically liberals trying to bring in the last stage of cultural destruction laid out by Herbert Marcuse,” Usher said.

Building a new social order
Marcuse was a German-American philosopher, sociologist and political theorist associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory. This school taught that it was necessary to advance the theories of Karl Marx beyond economics into the realm of sociology and culture. It was the crossing of Marx with Freud.
“Just as classical economic Marxism argued that under capitalism the working class was oppressed, so the Frankfurt school used Freud to argue that under Western culture everyone lived in a constant state of psychological repression,” said William Lind in a documentary produced by the Free Congress Foundation.

The idea was to end sexual alienation, which cultural Marxists argued was just as significant as economic alienation.
Just as economic Marxism had to destroy capitalism before it could rebuild a society under socialist principles, cultural Marxists work to destroy the family and religious institutions so they can usher in a new order based on secularism and brute materialism.
Some have called it “cultural terrorism.”
“This is the socialist mindset. If you can destroy the meaning of what it means to be a woman or a man, then the whole country is up for grabs,” Usher said.

The American Psychological Association decided in 1974 that homosexuality was no longer a mental health issue. Transgengerism is the next phase of that metamorphosis.
School counselors in some school districts are already being directed to “new research” that suggests they must “advocate” for gender-confused students in elementary and middle schools.
“So what the APA has done is create a lot of people who are very malleable and they get sick, get depressed, and they need resources, which of course is always presented in another government program, because you create people with mental problems who need constant counseling,” Usher said.

These kind of strange approaches to mental health issues, and the blurring of the lines between men and women were common in the Soviet Union, Usher said. But even the Soviets and the Nazis were not as extreme in embracing transgenderism as those who make the rounds in America’s left-of-center political circles.
“If only a few people believed it, it wouldn’t be so frightening,” he said.

 

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/04/media-blitz-to-normalize-transgenderism/#ELTjetkYIXgOJwOu.99

The new government’s greatest tasks

Reblogged from http://carolineglick.com/

Friday, April 24th, 2015

In testimony last week before the House committee in charge of State Department funding, US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power acknowledged that the Obama administration intends to abandon the US’s 50 year policy of supporting Israel at the United Nations.
After going through the tired motions of pledging support for Israel, “when it matters,” Power refused to rule out the possibility that the US would support anti-Israel resolutions in the UN Security Council to limit Israeli sovereignty and control to the lands within the 1949 armistice lines – lines that are indefensible.

Such a move will be taken, she indicated, in order to midwife the establishment of a terrorist-supporting Palestinian state whose supposedly moderate leadership does not recognize Israel’s right to exist, calls daily for its destruction, and uses the UN to delegitimize the Jewish state.
In other words, the Obama administration intends to pin Israel into indefensible borders while establishing a state committed to its destruction.


In about a week, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s new government will be sworn in. The new government will have no grace period before it will be called upon to forge and implement policies to lead Israel through perhaps the most trying time in its history.
Clearly, developing the means to cope with our deteriorating relations with the US is one of the most urgent issues on the agenda. But it is not the only issue requiring the attention of our leaders.

Israel must quickly determine clear strategies for contending with the consequence of US’s strategic shift away from its allies: Iran’s nuclear project. It must also determine the principles that will guide its moves in contending with the regional instability engulfing or threatening to engulf our Arab neighbors.
As tempting as it may be to believe that all we need to do is wait out Obama, the fact is that we have no way of knowing how the US will behave once he has left office.
The Democratic Party has become far more radical under Obama’s leadership than it was before he came into office. Hillary Clinton may very well become the next president, particularly if Jeb Bush is the Republican nominee. And she has evinced no significant interest in moving the party back to the center.

As secretary of state during Obama’s first term in office, Clinton was a full partner in his foreign policy. Although she appears less ideologically driven than Obama, there are many indications that her basic world view is the same as his.
Moreover, the world has changed since 2009. The Middle East is far more volatile and lethal. The US military is far less capable than it was before Obama slashed its budgets, removed its most successful commanders and subjected its troops to morale-destroying mantras of diversity and apologetics for Islamic terrorism.

In light of these changed circumstances, there are in essence two major principles that should guide our leaders today. First, we need to reduce our strategic dependence on the US. Second, we need to expand our policy of openly and unapologetically making the case for our positions to the American public.

On the first score, the need to limit our dependence on US security guarantees became painfully obvious during Operation Protective Edge last summer.

Obama’s interference in military-to-military cooperation between the Defense Ministry and the Pentagon, and his decision to implement an unofficial arms embargo on Israel in the middle of a war, was a shocking rebuke to the powerful voices inside the IDF General Staff and in policy circles that Israel can and must continue to trust the US to back it up in crises.
Our need to limit our dependence on the US to the greatest practicable degree will have consequences on everything from our domestic military production and development industries to intelligence and operational cooperation with the US and other governments.

It is imperative as well that we develop a plan to wean ourselves off of US military aid within the next three-five years.

Netanyahu’s critics continue to attack him for his decision to abandon the longstanding policy of settling disputes with the US administration through quiet diplomacy. They blame Netanyahu’s decision to publicly air Israel’s opposition to Obama’s nuclear diplomacy for the crisis in relations. But they are confusing cause and effect. Netanyahu had no choice.
Obama has made clear through both word and deed that he is completely committed to a policy of reaching a détente with Iran by enabling Iran to join the nuclear club. He will not voluntarily abandon this policy, which his closest aides have acknowledged is the signature policy of his second term.

Under these circumstances, it has long been clear that quiet diplomacy gets Israel nowhere. Open confrontation with the administration is the only way that Israel can hope to limit the damage the administration’s policies can cause. By publicly laying out its positions on issues in dispute, Israel can provide administration critics with legitimacy and maneuver room in their own critiques of Obama’s policies.

The public debate in the US regarding Obama’s policy of appeasing Iran was transformed by Netanyahu’s speech before the joint houses of Congress last month. Before he came to town, most of the voices in the US warning against Obama’s nuclear diplomacy were dismissed as alarmist. Netanyahu’s speech changed the discourse in the US in a fundamental way. Today, Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran is highly controversial and unpopular.
And this brings us to the second burning issue the next government will need to contend with immediately upon entering office: Iran.

Since word of Iran’s nuclear weapons program got out more than a decade ago, Israel has operated under the assumption that a sufficient number of members of the policy community in Washington were committed to a policy of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons to make the abandonment of that policy politically impossible. Netanyahu’s strategy for dealing with Iran’s nuclear program has centered on convincing those policy-makers to take action, whether through sanctions on Iran or through other means that would make it impossible for Obama to conclude a deal with Iran that would give the nuclear program an American seal of approval.

In recent weeks, we have seen the collapse of that assumption. The Senate’s feckless handling of Obama’s nuclear accommodation of the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism exposed Israel’s operating assumption as overly optimistic. So the policy must be updated.

An updated policy must be based on two understandings. First, the US will not stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Second, due to Obama’s commitment to nuclear accommodation of Iran, at this point unless Iran’s nuclear installations are destroyed through military force, it will become a nuclear power. Israel’s survival will be compromised and a nuclear arms race throughout the region will ensue.

Given this reality, Israel’s public diplomacy should no longer be viewed as a means to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power. Rather, Israel should view it as a means to empower American lawmakers and others to stand with Israel in the event that it carries out military strikes against Iran’s nuclear weapons.
Open support for Israel by the US public and by politicians and media organs will make it more difficult for the administration to harm Israel in retribution for such action.
As for the strike itself, both the operational and diplomatic aspects of a military action must be calculated to make the most of the changing regional dynamics.

Last summer, in fighting Hamas in Gaza, Israel found itself acting in alliance with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates against Hamas, Qatar, Turkey and the US. The Arab states served as Israel’s blocking backs. They enabled Israel to withstand massive pressure from the administration that sought to coerce Israel into ending the fighting on Hamas’s terms.

In recent weeks, the media in Egypt and Saudi Arabia have expressed support for an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear installations. This support will be helpful in the aftermath of any such strike as well, and will again make it difficult for Obama to take revenge on Israel. Moreover, Israel must capitalize on these states’ opposition to Iran’s nuclear weapons program in order to convince them to provide operational support for Israeli forces attacking Iran.
This of course brings us to the third major issue on the next government’s agenda: formulating principles to govern our relations with the Arab world.

One thing is obvious. The goal that informed all previous governments in the past – that Israel’s top goal should be to sign peace deals with our neighbors – is irrelevant.
Our neighbors are all engulfed in wars or crises spurred by domestic opponents. These opponents have embraced al-Qaida and Islamic State and consequently, their domestic disputes with their leaders have been transformed into existential struggles between Islamic totalitarianism and regular authoritarianism.

Israel’s policy to date for handling these affairs has been to support the Egyptian military government and the Jordanians and to prevent Iranian proxies in Syria from directly attacking Israel. This policy is correct and should remain in place. But Israel also needs to adopt policies that will enable it to protect itself in the absence of friendly regimes in Amman and Cairo.

To this end, Israel must stabilize the situation with the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria. Israel must ensure that it has complete military control over these areas to prevent a spillover from Syria and to withstand the effect of a potential rise of jihadist forces in Jordan. As for Gaza, Israel must stop viewing Gaza, which behaves as a separate body politic from Judea and Samaria, as related to Judea and Samaria.
Gaza is a base for the global jihad and is a threat to Israel and Egypt alike. It has to be understood and treated as such.

In short, under the current circumstances, just as the notion of sitting down and signing a peace deal with Syria or Saudi Arabia is absurd, so the notion of reaching a peace deal with the Palestinians is a throwback to an entirely different time. Today the only way to keep the Palestinians of Judea and Samaria separated from the chaos and jihad in neighboring states is to make them part of Israel. As a preparatory step toward that goal, the next government must act to more fully integrate Arab Israelis into Israeli society.

To this end, Netanyahu would do well to appoint a Muslim Arab minister to his government charged with integrating the Arabs more fully into Israeli society.

The world has changed since 2009. America has changed. The Middle East has changed. Israel faces an array of challenges and threats it has never faced before. The next government must understand the dynamics of the situation and quickly forge policies based on the world as it is, not as it was or as we would like for it to be.

Originally published in The Jerusalem Post.