religion
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‘Three evangelical pastors, along with several Jewish congregations, have filed a joint lawsuit with the Australian Federal Government, seeking an injunction against the New South Wales and Victorian Government’s current COVID-19 lockdown measures.
The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in the Federal Court, argues the state governments have selectively discriminated against religious groups in denying citizens the ability to congregate in Houses of Worship by arbitrarily deeming them “non-essential,” while allowing the public to gather elsewhere, such as in supermarkets and liquor stores.
The lawsuit will argue that Houses of Worship provide significant spiritual, psychological, and emotional support for communities, especially those who are suffering financially and psychologically from the impacts of the state government’s lockdown policies.
Furthermore, it will be argued that the governments’ indiscriminate selection of “essential” and “non-essential” venues under the Public Health Order is not supported by robust scientific or medical evidence.
According to the complaint, neither the NSW nor Victorian Governments have the constitutional or common law power to deny citizens their religious freedom which includes their ability to fulfill particular religious obligations and practices in their designated House of Worship.
Internationally renowned COVID-19 expert, Jayanta Bhattacharya, Professor of Medicine at Stanford University in California has also provided an independent expert report in support of the action brought forward by the plaintiffs.
Lawyer Tony Nikolic said his clients were forced to appeal to the courts after the matter had been repeatedly ignored by the NSW state government, in particular.
“My clients have attempted to engage with the NSW and Victorian Premiers and their Ministers as well as various NSW, Victorian, and Federal Parliamentarians to have their grievances addressed in a diplomatic and respectful manner.
“Unfortunately, in the context of NSW, the NSW Government has been unwilling to engage with my clients in any meaningful dialogue. As a result, our only last venue for relief is the courts.”
Pastor Robert Ayoub, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said they have exhausted other options to no avail.
“Now we have. a legal option, where we take the matter to the courts and have it heard by a court,” Pastor Ayoub said in a recent interview. “We believe this is a respectful way to do things, and importantly, a legal way to do things.
“We’re not here to be vindictive, or dishonouring towards the government, we’re just seeking to be able to practice our religion freely, and we’re appealing to our government to allow. us to love our God and also love our neighbour, to love our community.”
The plaintiffs in the case have also backed The Moses Statement, an open letter to Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the State Premiers, urging a reopening of churches across the nation.
The Moses Statement can be read and signed here.
The case will be heard in court later today.’https://caldronpool.com/breaking-religious-leaders-file-huge-lawsuit-against-state-governments-to-restore-freedoms/
‘Few reports have shocked me like this one. In September 2020, it was reported that scientists from the University of Pittsburgh (US) had taken the scalps from 18–20 week aborted babies, grafted them onto the backs of live mice, and watched the human skin and hair grow.1 They also took some of the babies’ internal organs, and diced them small enough to inject into the rodents. Funded by US tax dollars via the National Institute for Health (NIH) the purpose of the ‘experiment’ was to investigate disease and immune responses in ‘humanised’2 mice and rats.
The scientists published their findings in the prestigious online journal, Scientific Reports (nature.com). The researchers gathered information on how the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus infects human skin. This was achieved by studying mice immune responses to human—rodent skin grafts. In the researchers’ own words:
“Full-thickness human fetal skin was processed via removal of excess fat tissues attached to the subcutaneous layer of the skin, then engrafted over the rib cage, where the mouse skin was previously excised.”3
To say that those with pro-life convictions (based upon the sanctity of human life) will find such a description extremely distasteful is a huge understatement. Sadly, there is more. Simultaneously, the mice were injected with the aborted babies’ lymphoid cells (derived from thymus and spleen) and hematopoietic stem cells (blood manufacturing cells) extracted from their livers. By doing this, the rodents (termed “models” for human biological study) were ‘humanized’ with organs and skin from the babies. Some of the rodents were then infected with Staphylococcus in the newly grafted human skin to study how the grafts and mouse internal organs responded.
It was observed that healthy skin grafts lasted up to 10 weeks. Multiple layers of new human skin cells developed ‘keratinocytes’ (outer-skin cells) and ‘fibroblasts’ (structural-cells). The human skin also grew new blood vessels and immune cells. Infected skin patches were also monitored for bacterial growth and damage. The hair from the babies’ scalps continued to grow in the original colours. The photos from the research paper show the darker human hair contrasted against the fine white hair on the backs of the mice.
Human dignity vs animal rights
The published research and associated imagery should shock us to the core. Each little scalp belonged to a baby who should have been loved, cherished, and nurtured. Instead, these little ones were sacrificed on the altar of convenience, merely as medical products, ostensibly to benefit others. As we have stated before, “CMI would still oppose embryonic stem cell research, because the end of possibly saving human lives does not justify killing others, in the same way that Dr Mengele’s medical experimentation on Jews during the Holocaust were inexcusable, and would be even if it had produced numerous medical breakthroughs.”
At the end of the Scientific Reports paper, an “ethical approval” section outlines the researchers’ strict adherence to official protocols for—rodent care:
“All animal studies/experimental protocols were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at the University of Pittsburgh and were conducted following approved guidelines, which adheres to the NIH guidelines for housing and care of laboratory animals.”3
The question arises, was the same level of care offered to the unborn babies? Absolutely not. Their lives were snuffed out and exploited in abhorrent and macabre ways. After dismemberment at abortion clinics, they were administratively “de-identified” and referred to as “human fetal tissues”:
“De-identified human fetal tissues at the gestational age of 18 to 20 weeks were obtained from medically or elective indicated termination of pregnancy through Magee-Womens Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), with the University of Pittsburgh, Health Sciences Tissue Bank. Written informed consent of the maternal donors was obtained in all cases, under a protocol reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the University of Pittsburgh; approved guidelines and federal/state regulations were adhered to for all procedures. The use of de-identified human fetal tissues to construct humanized rodents was reviewed and approved by the University of Pittsburgh IRB Office.”3
Here, institutionalised human ethical ‘approval’ is emphasised—but it is certainly not God’s approval. He cannot condone such barbaric destruction of human life—for any cause. As Creator, God alone has the sovereign right to give or take life.
Imago dei defines humanity
The next sentence in the so-called ‘ethical approval’ section lays bare the philosophical and moral bankruptcy behind the thinking that approves such monstrous practices:
“The use of de-identified human fetal tissues did not constitute human subjects research as defined under federal regulations…” (emphasis added).2
This is the horror exposed. Unborn children are not being legally recognized as possessing human rights. Nevertheless, why, in the same sentence are fetal tissues labelled as being “human”? Which is it? Only when God’s Word is rejected as being foundational to correct moral thinking, are such contradictory and ethically repugnant statements contemplated. Such depraved reasoning inevitably leads to morally abhorrent, shocking practices, as in 2014 it was reported that some UK hospitals were being heated using incinerated aborted babies.
Unborn babies are people. They are made in God’s image and likeness (Latin: Imago dei; Genesis 1:30) and bequeathed by their Creator with the gift of life, dignity, and worth. They are also vulnerable, and should therefore be afforded special protection in law.
This kind of tax-funded research used to be banned under a succession of US administrations. The tragedy is, under recent and present governments, such restrictions were overturned,4 in which case, we can expect more horrors to come. History demonstrates that, if such ‘research’ can be done, it will be done. Tragically, the moral compass necessary for people to govern righteously in society is broken.
Conclusion
Not until people return in their thinking to the standards of God’s Word will the rights of the unborn be protected. Babies in the womb are fully human, made in God’s Image. The research described above should shock the conscience of people in every nation which practices abortion, and permits the insidious medical research that exploits it. However, the sad reality is that consciences will not be stirred unless people face up to the consequences of breaking God’s moral law. Evolutionary thinking sees humans and rodents merely as distant cousins, therefore the unborn have no inherent dignity or worth. Only Genesis provides the moral framework for protecting humans created in His Image.
References and notes
- News first reported in: Trasancos, S., How aborted children are used in medical research in 2020; ncregister.com/blog/how-aborted-children-are-used, December 15 2020. Return to text.
- Humanized mice carry functioning human genes, cells, tissues, and/or organs. They are commonly used as small animal models in biological and medical research for human therapeutics. Return to text.
- Agarwal, Y., et al., Development of humanized mouse and rat models with full‑thickness human skin and autologous immune cells, Scientific Reports, 10:14598; September 2020 | doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-71548-z. Return to text.
- Servick, K., Biden administration scraps human fetal tissue research restrictions, Science, April 16, 2021 | doi:10.1126/science.abj0479. Return to text.’https://creation.com/scientific-research-depraved-barbarity?utm_campaign=infobytes_au&utm_content=Just+how+complicated+is+a+2%2C000-year-old+computer%3F&utm_medium=email&utm_source=mailing.creation.com&utm_term=Fortnightly+Digest+-+2021.09.03
Sleepy ‘Old Joe Biden has become notorious for only answering scripted questions from preselected reporters, as he did again Thursday when the feeble and weary president said, “Ladies and gentlemen, they gave me a list here,” and then referred to “the first person I was instructed to call on.” Likewise notorious has been his consistent practice, particularly at press conferences regarding Afghanistan, of turning his back and leaving a roomful of reporters shouting questions. And so it was no great surprise Friday when Biden said during his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett: “I’m not gonna take any questions, because of the prime minister being here, on, uh, Afghanistan now, but I’ll be available at another time.” When?
After all, this is the president who on July 2 said this in response to questions about Afghanistan: “I want to talk about happy things, man. Look, it’s Fourth of July. I’m concerned that you’re asking me questions that I will answer next week, but it’s the holiday weekend. I’m going to celebrate it. There’s great things happening.”
Nearly two months and several massive disasters in Afghanistan later, the Biden administration still seems to want to focus on happy things and avoid unpleasant questions. On Saturday, as Bryan Preston has noted, Biden’s handlers refused to release the names of the two “high-profile” Islamic State jihadis who were supposedly killed in the recent American drone strike. Why would the administration withhold such information from the public? This kind of unnecessary secrecy has only invited speculation that there was no drone strike at all, or that it failed, and that Biden’s handlers concocted the whole thing in order to give the appearance of decisiveness in the wake of the catastrophe in Kabul.
Amid all this stonewalling, Biden’s handlers released a statement in the president’s name Saturday, depicting Biden as saying: “This morning, I met with my national security team in Washington and my commanders in the field. We discussed the strike that U.S. forces took last night against the terrorist group ISIS-K in Afghanistan. I said we would go after the group responsible for the attack on our troops and innocent civilians in Kabul, and we have. This strike was not the last. We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay. Whenever anyone seeks to harm the United States or attack our troops, we will respond. That will never be in doubt. I thanked General McKenzie for his leadership of that mission, and for his commitment to the safety of our troops in Afghanistan.”
Well, great, Joe. Now: Who were those ISIS guys your strike took out?’https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/08/biden-ducks-questions-on-afghanistan-yet-again
“For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.” (Zechariah 2:8)
‘This common phrase is often used to identify an object of one’s special favor or affection. The apple of the eye, of course, is not a fruit but the pupil of the eye, so essential for sight that it becomes a peculiarly apt symbol for a prized possession. It is used five times in the Bible as a translation of three different Hebrew nouns, none of which refer to the actual apple fruit. In each case, however, it speaks of something highly valuable to the owner.
Three of these (Deuteronomy 32:10; Lamentations 2:18; and our text above) are in reference to the chosen people, Israel, as the “apple of the eye” of God Himself. God has often punished Israel for her sins and has allowed other nations to be His rod of judgment, but woe to that nation that touches the apple of His eye in this way!
That individual believers can also be so regarded by the Lord is evident from one of David’s prayers: “Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness….Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings” (Psalm 17:7-8).
To be kept by God as He would keep the very apple of His own eye requires an implicit trust in Him and His Word. In fact, His Word must become the apple of our eye! “My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye” (Proverbs 7:1-2).
There are many beautiful and appropriate figures used for God’s Word (“light,” “hammer,” “sword,” “milk,” etc.) but none more personally meaningful than this. May the holy Scriptures, the indispensable Word of God, truly be the apple of the eye for each of us. ‘https://www.icr.org/article/12917/?utm_source=phplist9524&utm_medium=email&utm_content=HTML&utm_campaign=August+28+-+The+Apple+of+the+Eye
When so-called ‘Christian’ schools promote transgenderism there is not much hope with the public system.
‘When a six-year-old boy in their son’s class started to come to school sometimes dressed as a girl, Nigel and Sally Rowe, who live on the Isle of Wight, raised concerns with the Church of England school. They say that their son, also six years old, came home from school upset and saying that he was “confused” by the situation.
Nigel and Sally met with the headteacher and class teacher, and followed up with a letter setting out some of the questions that they had. But the school’s formal response was “cold”, they say, and didn’t address their concerns.
In the letter, the school suggested that an “inability to believe a transgender person is actually a ‘real’ female or male” and the refusal to “acknowledge a transgendered person’s true gender e.g. by failing to use their adopted name or using gender inappropriate pronouns,” was “transphobic behaviour”.
Nigel and Sally now home educate both their children and are challenging the school’s policies.’https://christianconcern.com/cccases/nigel-and-sally-rowe/
Unbelievable or is it? ‘A UK Islamic Sharia Council scholar has claimed that the Taliban have ‘grown up’ and British Muslims are ‘celebrating’ the return of the jihadi group to power.
Since taking over Afghanistan, the jihadi group has claimed it will not carry out violence against women, and will not ‘seek vengeance’ on those who stood against them during the brutal 20-year war in the region.
Sharia Council scholar Khola Hasan today told BBC Radio 4 that the Islamist group’s recent posturing on women’s rights was a ‘good start’, and ‘every single person that I know, as a Muslim’ was ‘celebrating’ their return.
She added: ‘They have been ruled by foreigners for 40 years, let the people of Afghanistan rule their own country and determine their own fate for a change.’
Fears over reprisal attacks and a return to the brutal rule of the jihadis have brought about deep unrest, with Western nations struggle to cope with the thousands of foreign nationals and locals trying to leave the country in the week since the Taliban retook power.
When asked about reports of women and children being beaten and whipped as they pass through checkpoints in Afghanistan, Ms Hasan said Afghanistan is a ‘tribal society with tribal loyalties’, with ‘a lot of violence within the communities’ amid decades of ‘occupation’.
Ms Hasan said: ‘We have to be very careful not to take small, minor incidents and make them into something huge.’
She added that ‘western media loves misrepresenting Muslims’, telling Sunday morning listeners: ‘The kind of language that came out from Western media when the Taliban took over – civil war, monsters, they’re going to slaughter people, it’s going to be awful, poor women, oh blah blah blah we’re going to cry our eyes out, poor women are going back into Medieval times, and all the rest of it.
‘It’s been misrepresented for so long that I’ve got used to it, I don’t even blink an eyelid anymore.’
Ms Hasan was told the world had ‘seen this movie before’, referring to promises to be compassionate and merciful following the sack of Kabul 25 years ago.
She replied: ‘No we haven’t because the Taliban have grown up, they were not exposed to the modern world, so what they were saying 20 years ago this was a myopic, insulated, small organisation, living in the mountains, very illiterate, very uneducated, not just about the world but about Islam itself…
‘They’re learning. That’s not an easy thing to do, to come from hundreds of years of one way practising your faith, and then suddenly exposed to different ways to think oh maybe we got it wrong. The problem is we don’t give them a chance.’
Her comments come after the United States and Germany told their citizens in Afghanistan to avoid travelling to Kabul airport, citing security risks as thousands of desperate people gathered trying to flee.
At least 12 people have been killed in and around the single-runway airfield since last Sunday, NATO and Taliban officials said. Some were shot and others died in stampedes, witnesses have said.
Britain’s Ministry of Defence said seven Afghans have been killed in the chaos around the airport. ‘Conditions on the ground remain extremely challenging but we are doing everything we can to manage the situation as safely and securely as possible,’ the ministry said in a statement.
The Taliban’s swift takeover of Afghanistan has sparked fear of reprisals and a return to a harsh version of Islamic law the Sunni Muslim group exercised when it was in power two decades ago.
Crowds have grown at the airport in the heat and dust of the day over the past week, hindering operations as the United States and other nations attempt to evacuate thousands of their diplomats and civilians as well as numerous Afghans. Mothers, fathers and children have pushed up against concrete blast walls in the crush as they seek to get a flight out.
The Taliban follow an ultra-hardline version of Islam. They have sought to present a more moderate face since returning to power, saying they want peace and will respect the rights of women within the framework of Islamic law.
When in power from 1996 to 2001, also guided by Islamic law, the Taliban stopped women from working or going out without wearing an all-enveloping burqa and stopped girls from going to school.’https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9916147/We-chance-UK-Sharia-Council-scholar-insists-Taliban-grown-up.html
“And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.” (Acts 4:33)
‘There are multitudes today who believe that Christ’s resurrection was a “spiritual” resurrection, insisting that the idea of a dead body returning to life after three days in the grave is completely unscientific and impossible.
This was not what the apostles preached with great grace and great power, however. They would hardly have been excited about any kind of spiritual resurrection, since everyone— both Jews and the pagan Gentiles—believed in life after death. If that was their message, no one would have doubted, and no one would have cared. Even when the disciples saw the resurrected Christ, they first “supposed that they had seen a spirit” (Luke 24:37). Christ even had to urge them to “handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have” (Luke 24:39).
When the disciples finally became convinced of His bodily resurrection, they were quickly transformed into courageous evangelists, willing even to die in support of their glorious message of salvation. The resurrection was, indeed, contrary to scientific law and all human experience, and this very fact proved to them that their Lord was Himself the divine lawgiver and author of all human experience. All other founders and leaders of human religions, ancient or modern, are themselves subject to death, but He alone has triumphed over death. Only the Creator of life can conquer death, and the resurrection proves that Jesus Christ is Creator as well as Savior.
Therefore, when we today, like the apostles of old, proclaim the resurrection of Christ, we know that His name is above every name, and this enables us also to witness with great power, in great grace.’https://www.icr.org/article/12914/?utm_source=phplist9521&utm_medium=email&utm_content=HTML&utm_campaign=August+25+-+Preaching+the+Resurrection
“He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.” (Deuteronomy 32:4)
‘Here in the song of Moses, which God instructed him to write for the children of Israel as they were about to enter the Promised Land (note Deuteronomy 31:19), is the first of at least 40 references in the Bible to God as the Rock. There are four others just in this song. In verse 15, He is the “Rock of [Israel’s] salvation.” In verse 18, He is “the Rock that begat thee.” See also verses 30 and 31.
Note some of the other wonderful metaphors picturing God as our great foundation stone. He is “my strong rock” in Psalm 31:2 and “the rock that is higher than I” in Psalm 61:2. In Psalm 62:7, He is “the rock of my strength” and “the rock of my refuge” in Psalm 94:22. Isaiah calls Him “a great rock in a weary land” and “the rock whence ye are hewn” (Isaiah 32:2; 51:1).
During the wilderness wanderings, the Israelites were supplied continually with water from the rock, and the apostle Paul tells us “that spiritual Rock that followed them…was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4). And, of course, Christ told His disciples that Peter’s confession of Himself as the “Son of the living God” was the Rock upon which He would build His church (Matthew 16:16, 18).
But to unbelievers He is “the stone which the builders rejected” (Matthew 21:42), “a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word” (1 Peter 2:8). “Therefore,” said Jesus, “whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock” (Matthew 7:24-25).’https://www.icr.org/article/12913/?utm_source=phplist9520&utm_medium=email&utm_content=HTML&utm_campaign=August+24+-+Our+Rock+of+Salvation
Socialist Left leaning ‘New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has attracted international criticism after her government announced $3 million in humanitarian aid for Afghanistan.
The money has been promised to the Red Cross and the United Nations Refugee Agency in Afghanistan. Shortly after, the Taliban went on social media to praise Ardern and the New Zealand government for sending them the money.’https://www.rebelnews.com/taliban_thank_new_zealand_for_3_million_in_aid?utm_campaign=rb_8_24_21&utm_medium=email&utm_source=therebel
