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CP VOICES | SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2022
By Reagan Escudé Scott, Op-ed contributor

The following words might be tough to hear, but they need to be said:

A youth pastor’s job is not to disciple your children for you

I know that when you drop your teenagers off on Wednesday nights to enjoy pizza, games, and Bible study, your intention is not to pawn your responsibility as a parent off on the youth pastor.

But I ask you this in all love and sincerity: Are you effectively doing just that?

One way to know the answer to that question is how you answer any of the following questions:

• Are you spending more time talking to your kids about God at home than you are about how their school day went?
• Are you prioritizing worship as a family?
• Are you teaching Scripture to your children “when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deuteronomy 6:6-7)?
• Are you your child’s primary disciple?
• Are you the one to whom they come when they have questions about God?

If your answer to all or most of these questions is “no” or “sometimes” or “sort of,” then you need to admit that you are effectively outsourcing the most important job you’ve been given as a parent: discipling your child. Because as knowledgeable or likeable or inspiring as your youth pastor might appear to be, it is impossible for him — or anyone — to spend a few hours a week teaching your child about God and have it stick. And it is quite the risk to take (not to mention dereliction of duty) if you truly care about training up your child “in the way he should go” and expecting that “when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).

Scripture is filled with examples of how God uses the family unit to bring His children to a saving faith in Him, and it’s important that we recognize the good fruit produced by a parent’s commitment to teaching the Scriptures to and discipling our children at home.

Timothy is a great example of this. He was the Apostle Paul’s mentee who traveled alongside him as he spread the Gospel and planted churches on his missionary journeys. It’s clear by the way that Paul writes to Timothy in his letters that Paul thought very highly of him. They grew so close that it seems Paul thought of him as a son, his “true child in the faith” (1 Timothy 1:2). Paul was especially complimentary of Timothy’s concern for others’ welfare (Philippians 2:20) and his “sincere faith” (2 Timothy 1:5), which he attributed to Timothy’s family.

Paul reminds Timothy in his second letter to “continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:14-15).

Although we know very little about Timothy’s mother and grandmother, we do know that because of their commitment to teach him the Scriptures, Timothy was well equipped to travel, pastor, worship, learn, and pray alongside Paul. He was even entrusted to remain at Ephesus to ensure that heresies did not creep into the church.

It wasn’t Timothy’s intellect, status, talents, or wealth that suited him for such a ministry; rather, it was the privilege of being raised in a Christian home. And not just a Christian home in name, but a Christian home in practice. Timothy was raised in a Christian home in which his mother and grandmother labored daily to teach him the ways of the Lord.

This should be your goal, parents. It isn’t sufficient to bring your kids to church once or twice a week and neglect to disciple them at home. It is an unnecessary burden on your child’s youth pastor to rely on him to do the job that is yours. By God’s design, the primary responsibility for evangelism falls on you and your leadership.

How can a youth pastor encourage a teenager to read and study the Bible if he or she has never seen his or her parents do the same? How can a youth pastor equip a teenager for a healthy prayer life when prayers are said few and far between in his or her home?

The responsibility a youth pastor has is to reinforce the statutes, evangelism, and groundwork that has already been laid within the home. His job is to build on the Christ-centered home set up by you as the parent and to use the few hours a week that he has with your child to nourish their hearts and minds as another mature believer in the faith.

Moses’ sermon to Israel in Deuteronomy 6 might be one of the most explicit charges for Christian parents to be their child’s primary trainer in the faith:

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” – Deuteronomy 6:4-9

So what does this look like? Here are some practical applications you may consider:

1. Teaching them diligently may look like you reading the Scriptures to your children, one-on-one or together as a family. It may look like praying with your child and as a family. It may look like putting a Bible memory verse to music or studying the attributes of God.

2. Talking of the Scriptures may look like a discussion following a family Bible study or family worship. It may look like using the Proverbs for discipline and rebuke. It may look like reminding your children of God’s sovereignty in times of trial, of His grace in the everyday blessings you enjoy, or of His creativity and goodness as you observe the sunset.

3. Binding the Scriptures on your hand is akin to meditating on the Scriptures and letting His Word guide the response of your hands. It’s constantly thinking about God’s Word and growing in wisdom so that your actions operate in obedience to Him. When it comes to your children, this may look like memorizing Bible verses with them, copying those verses onto flashcards, and hanging them on the refrigerator or around the house. It’s reminding them of those passages whenever they come to mind and showing your children how to practically apply that wisdom in their day-to-day decision-making, whether through discipline or through encouragement.

4. Writing the Scriptures on your doorposts is equivalent to making your home a shade for your children. It means equipping your children to stand against the lies of the world and providing answers for them when confusion creeps in. It means reminding them of the truth found in God’s Word, shielding them from those who seek to devour them, and spending every day in prayer for them to grow in wisdom and discernment. It means making your home a place of worship, a place of thanksgiving, and a place of discipleship before the Lord.

You, parent, are the only one who can effectively accomplish these things. Your youth pastor can — and will — do a wonderful job at reinforcing your work at home, but it is your responsibility to prioritize the teaching, the talking, the binding, and the writing every single day. Nothing is more important than your discipleship of your child.

So remember God’s faithfulness in using Timothy’s mother to equip him, and be encouraged that He will provide you with the wisdom to do the same for your child so that you can be their mentor, their teacher, and their primary discipler.

And as you go through the challenges and the frustrations and the highs and the lows, remember to do it all to the glory of God.

Originally published at the Standing for Freedom Center.

Reagan Scott is a Louisiana-raised Christian conservative activist and influencer who gained national attention after she lost her job for speaking out about her biblical and conservative beliefs online. She jumped at the invitation to relocate to Phoenix, AZ to work as a media administrator for Turning Point USA.

https://www.christianpost.com/voices/your-childrens-youth-pastor-isnt-their-primary-discipler.html

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Tom Mayer, The News Courier, Athens, Ala.
August 16, 2022·4 min read

Aug. 16—Executing a valid search warrant, FBI agents arrived in the morning to search the office. The word "unprecedented" was on everyone's lips. They seized business records, computers and other documents related to possible crimes. An enraged Donald Trump denounced the FBI and the Justice Department, saying not that they had abided by the warrant issued by a federal judge, but rather that agents had "broken into" the office.

The year was 2018, and Trump was livid about the FBI's investigation into his longtime attorney/fixer, Michael Cohen.

At the time, many observers, including me, assumed that the investigation would yield bushels of incriminating documents about Trump. Cohen was his personal lawyer, after all, the guy who wrote the hush-money checks to porn stars and presumably had access to many of Trump's dodgy or downright illegal acts. It didn't turn out that way.

But what is not open to doubt is that the Republican Party, which seemed to be flirting with post-Trumpism just a few weeks ago, has now come roaring back as an authoritarian cult. Trump has not changed. But he has changed Republicans.

Consider 2018 again. When the FBI searched Cohen's office, Trump was Trump. He raged like a banshee. He declared that it was "an attack on our country" and a "disgraceful situation."

Some Fox News bobbleheads treated the story as more evidence of a conspiracy to hurt the Dear Leader, but most Republicans were subdued. The prevailing tone in Republican ranks was that the investigations, including Robert Mueller's, must be permitted to proceed according to the rules. Sens. Thom Tillis and Lindsey Graham, for example, teamed up with their Democratic colleagues, Sens. Chris Coons and Cory Booker, to propose the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act.

Four years later, the FBI has executed another warrant, this time to Trump's office, and the Trump forces have gone berserk. Rep. Paul Gosar tweeted, "I will support a complete dismantling and elimination of the democrat brown shirts known as the FBI. This is too much for our republic to withstand ... "

Anthony Sabatini, a Florida state representative and candidate for Congress, was prepared to dismantle the whole federalist structure: "It's time for us in the Florida Legislature to ... sever all ties with DOJ immediately. Any FBI agent conducting law enforcement functions outside the purview of our State should be arrested upon sight." That would go well.

Sen. Josh Hawley tweeted that "At a minimum, Garland must resign or be impeached. The search warrant must be published. (FBI Director) Christoper Wray must be removed. And the FBI reformed top to bottom."

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene chants, "Defund the FBI."

Newt Gingrich suggests that the feds might have planted evidence at Mar-a-Lago.

The party that backed the blue and disdained the defund-the-police crowd now flips. Gingrich is channeling Johnnie Cochran. Trump may be an ignoramus and a clod, but he has the capacity to turn people inside out.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the likely next speaker of the House, tweeted a threat to the attorney general, telling Garland to "preserve your documents and clear your calendar" because when/if Republicans take the majority, they're coming for him.

Now, as a substantive matter, McCarthy's tweet is meaningless. The House of Representatives, along with the Senate, already exercises oversight authority over the Justice Department. But the importance of the tweet is not its substance but its tone — the call for vengeance. McCarthy displays zero interest in whether Trump actually committed a crime. The clear message is, "You've gone after our leader, so we're coming for you." The merits of Garland's actions are irrelevant. The facts are irrelevant. It's war.

For some in the wooly precincts of the MAGA right, the call to arms was literal. As Vice reported, some Trumpists were explicit: "'Civil War 2.0 just kicked off,' one user wrote on Twitter, with another adding, 'One step closer to a kinetic civil war.' Others said they were ready to take part: 'I already bought my ammo.'" Steve Bannon, who was pardoned for bilking Trump supporters who thought they were building a wall, declared that "we're at war" and called the FBI the "Gestapo."

Trump is a sick soul who cannot imagine a world in which people act on principle or think about the welfare of others. While in power, Trump wanted to use the FBI to punish his political opponents ("Lock her up") and reward his friends ("Go easy on Michael Flynn"). He projects his own corrupt motives onto others and assumes that the FBI investigation is nothing but a Democratic power grab. It would be pathetic if he had not dragged an entire political party into the fever swamps with him.

This experiment in self-government requires a minimum amount of social trust to succeed. With every tweet that spreads cynicism and lies; with every call to arms that welcomes civil conflict; Trumpist Republicans are poisoning the nation they claim so ostentatiously to love.

Mona Charen is policy editor of The Bulwark and host of the "Beg to Differ" podcast. Find her at www.creators.com.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/tom-mayer-column-republicans-rooting-050700316.html

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The Intelligencer
Dick Newbert
Mon, September 12, 2022 at 5:33 AM·3 min read

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” — First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

Certain recent Supreme Court decisions have embraced high-priority political objectives of conservative — primarily Christian Right — activists; justifying their opinions on “originalism” and questionable interpretations of the First Amendment.

These range from empowering individuals and organizations to circumvent laws most Americans must obey (notably, Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission and Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania); providing religious schools access to public tax dollars (Carson v. Makin), and eliminating abortion rights protections (Dobbs v. Mississippi Department of Health).

Chillingly, more than one Associate Justice has openly signaled other unenumerated rights — currently enjoyed by and popular with millions of Americans, but which are in conflict with Christian Nationalist agendas — should be challenged…and would be warmly welcomed.

Christian Nationalists, together with the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and other domestic extremist groups that parade around in pseudo-uniforms waving American, MAGA, Trump and QAnon flags and chanting “USA! USA!” represent a dangerous, anti-democratic movement whose ideology abhors the separation of church and state and has no problem of undermining the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment or any other part of the Constitution, even through violence, if necessary.

Their goal is nothing less than assault on individual rights and democratic self-government and institutions leading to a new order of religious authoritarianism. Their America would be a white, autocratic theocracy based on fundamentalist principles which would rewrite history, reject science and institutionalize discrimination against religious minorities, women, people who identify as LGBTQ-plus, immigrants, people of color and others they see as different of a threat to their perceived security or societal status.

Sadly, some members of Congress, willing to ignore their oath to “support and defend the Constitution,” have given voice to such radical ideologies.

Republican Congresswoman and self-described Christian Rightist Lauren Boebert proclaimed, “I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk.” adding, “the church is supposed to direct the government.”

Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie-Taylor Green is arguing the Republican Party needs, “to be the party of nationalism and I’m a Christian, and I say it proudly, we should be Christian Nationalists.”

Boebert, Green and their fellow travelers reject the original intent of the First Amendment, government must not “impose a state religion on the public, or place undue restrictions on religious practice, but must recognize the right of the people to believe and worship, or not, as their conscience dictates.”

Rather than aggressively combating such un-American attitudes, former President Trump, who has frequently demonstrated his contempt for the rule of law, his oath and the Constitution, openly fans the flames of their anti-democratic rhetoric and actions.

Collectively, they have lost sight of the America our Founders envisioned and that Christianity is a religious faith, not a political movement or party.

Those using Christianity as a cover for conservative political agendas seem to have forgotten;

• Our nation’s Founding Fathers, not the Apostles, wrote the Constitution;
• They added a Bill of Rights, not the Ten Commandments;
• Despite most being Christians or deists, the Founders’ clear intent was freedom of religion not control by any religion;
• Nowhere in the Constitution is Christianity mentioned; and
• They created a pluralistic democracy, not a theocracy which many came to this country to escape.

Every American has the inalienable right to worship according to their personal beliefs.

However, they do not have any right to impose their beliefs on, discriminate against or interfere with the rights of others nor should they be immune from obeying the laws of our nation. To permit such actions can only lead to intolerance, oppression, lost liberties and the ultimate demise of our fragile constitutional republic.

Dick Newbert lives in Langhorne.

This article originally appeared on The Intelligencer: Guest Opinion: Christian

https://www.yahoo.com/news/guest-opinion-slippery-slope-toward-093313473.html

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BY ROB SCHWARZWALDER/THE WASHINGTON STAND AUGUST 09, 2022

When he ran for president in 2004, then-Senator John Kerry famously said of a vote to fund the Iraq war, "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it."

Verbal gymnastics aside, Kerry's embarrassing attempt to explain himself pales in comparison to the statements coming out of this week's annual Lambeth Conference in Great Britain. The conference is a once-a-decade meeting of the world's Anglican bishops, convened by Anglicanism's leader, Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The incoherence emanating from this gathering of Anglican leaders is not isolated to a single offhand remark by an obscure churchman. As one British news headline put it, "Anglican church still tying itself in knots over same-sex marriage."

First, the Archbishop of Canterbury has affirmed the "validity" of the Anglican Communion's 1998 statement on human sexuality, which states, "in view of the teaching of Scripture, (the Communion) upholds faithfulness in marriage between a man and a woman in
lifelong union, and believes that abstinence is right for those who are not called to marriage" and "(rejects) homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture."

The document says Anglican leaders "cannot advise the legitimizing or blessing of same sex unions nor ordaining those involved in same gender unions."

The Archbishop also notes that "for the large majority of the Anglican Communion," questioning the traditional understanding of marriage "is unthinkable."

So far, so good. But then Archbishop Welby, long associated as a committed evangelical, takes with one hand what the other just offered. Referring to his call to the bishops to come to the Lambeth event, Welby writes, "other (church) provinces have blessed and welcomed same sex union or marriage, after careful theological reflection and a process of reception."

He continues that these theological outliers "have not arrived lightly at their ideas that traditional teaching needs to change. They are not careless about scripture. They do not reject Christ. But they have come to a different view on sexuality after long prayer, deep study, and reflection on understandings of human nature."

And then, referring to the American and Canadian churches, Welby says, "For these churches not to change traditional teaching challenges their very existence."

First, if fidelity to Scripture means a loss of members or even ecclesiastical collapse, then "let God be true and every man a liar" (Romans 3:4). Is the survival of a denominational organization more important than obeying our Redeemer? Welby knows better.

Second, the "very existence" of the Episcopal Church in the United States already seems doomed. Researcher Ryan Burge, writing in 2019, reports that "The (median) age of an Episcopalian in 2019 was 69 years old. With life expectancy around 80, we can easily expect at least a third of the current membership of the denomination to be gone in the next 15 or 20 years."

The Episcopal Church itself notes that its membership is in rapid decline. As of 2019, there were about 1.8 million members -- down from 3.4 million members in the 1960s. "Average (Sunday) attendance fell to 518,411. ... Median attendance dropped from 53 worshippers to 51, while 61% of parishes saw attendance declines of 10% or more."

"The overall picture is dire -- not one of decline as much as demise within the next generation unless trends change significantly," according to Episcopal priest and denominational scholar Rev. Dwight Zscheile. "At this rate," he says, "there will be no one in worship by around 2050 in the entire denomination."

There is one overriding reason for this massive loss: People don't want to belong to a denomination that is Christian in name only. The American Episcopal Church, as a denomination, long ago abandoned steadfast allegiance to historic Christian orthodoxy. Rev. John Yates, for many years the rector of the large Falls Church Episcopal Church in Virginia left the denomination because of its failure to adhere to basic Christian doctrine.

So did the noted Christian scholar Os Guinness. In a 2007 Washington Post op-ed, they wrote, "The American Episcopal Church no longer believes the historic, orthodox Christian faith common to all believers. Some leaders expressly deny the central articles of the faith -- saying that traditional theism is 'dead,' the incarnation is 'nonsense,' the resurrection of Jesus is a fiction, the understanding of the cross (as an atonement for sin) is 'a barbarous idea,' the Bible is 'pure propaganda' and so on."

Is it any surprise, then, that traditional Anglicanism, which is evangelical in conviction, is thriving in the United States and around the world?

In his statement, Welby concludes, "We are deeply divided. That will not end soon. We are called by Christ himself both to truth and unity."

This is true, but Welby should know that unity flows from a common commitment to the truth. When that commitment is forsaken, unity becomes an idol and an end unto itself. This is not the scriptural understanding of what oneness in Christ truly means.

John Kerry, in his losing presidential campaign, found out that you can't have things both ways. We can pray that Justin Welby and his senior advisors will come to acknowledge the same thing. There is no middle ground between truth and error. Good feeling is not unity, and turning from the Bible's teaching for the sake of even a cherished denomination is far too high a cost when it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Originally published at The Washington Stand
https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5514

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BY MICHAEL SNYDER/ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG SEPTEMBER 12, 2022

This thing in Europe is rapidly becoming rather serious. Vladimir Putin's decision to end the flow of gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline has caused an enormous derivatives crisis to erupt in Europe, and it is going to take a giant mountain of money to fix it.

Some are already referring to this as a "Lehman Brothers moment" for the European financial system, and authorities all over the EU are really starting to freak out.

We haven't seen anything like this since 2008, and if the Europeans are not able to contain the damage we could soon see a tsunami of financial panic sweep across the entire globe.

It is being reported that energy trading in Europe "is being strained by margin calls of at least $1.5 trillion"...

European energy trading is being strained by margin calls of at least $1.5 trillion, putting pressure on governments to provide more liquidity buffers, according to Norway's Equinor ASA.

Aside from fanning inflation, the biggest energy crisis in decades is sucking up capital to guarantee trades amid wild price swings. That's pushing European Union officials to intervene to prevent energy markets from stalling, while governments across the region are stepping in to backstop struggling utilities. Finland has warned of a "Lehman Brothers" moment, with power companies facing sudden cash shortages. We aren't talking about 1.5 million dollars.

We aren't even talking about 1.5 billion dollars. 1.5 trillion dollars is a colossal amount of cash. To put this in perspective, if you were able to create a stack of one trillion dollar bills it would be 67,866 miles high. So a stack of 1.5 trillion dollars would be over 100,000 miles high. We often use the phrase "a mountain of money" rather flippantly, but this really would be a colossal mountain of money.

The problem is not with the physical markets. Rather, we are being told that 1.5 trillion dollars in "liquidity support" will be needed because derivatives trading has gone completely haywire...

"Liquidity support is going to be needed," Helge Haugane, Equinor's senior vice president for gas and power, said in an interview. The issue is focused on derivatives trading, while the physical market is functioning, he said, adding that the energy company's estimate for $1.5 trillion to prop up so-called paper trading is "conservative."

1.5 trillion dollars is the "conservative" estimate that we are being given right now. That means that the final bill will likely be in the "trillions". Where is all of that money going to come from?

Over the years, I have done so many articles about the dangers of derivatives. Is the inevitable global derivatives meltdown finally upon us? At this point, one option that the European Commission is considering is the "temporary suspensions of derivatives markets"...

The European Commission is also examining measures to help with liquidity. These could include credit lines from the European Central Bank, new products as margin collateral, and temporary suspensions of derivatives markets, according to a policy background paper seen by Bloomberg News.

If they actually decided to temporarily suspend the trading of derivatives, that would actually create even more panic. This entire crisis could be solved if the war in Ukraine ends and Russian gas starts flowing back into Europe.

But that isn't going to happen. Neither side is going to back down, and there will not be peace any time soon. And so this is going to be a very bitter and very cold winter for Europeans, and the Russians are openly taunting them...

Russia's state-controlled energy giant Gazprom has taunted Europe with a sinister video warning about a long winter with snow and ice sweeping across the continent.

The two-minute clip titled Winter will be Long shows how Europe will freeze amid the exorbitant energy prices caused by Vladimir Putin's savage invasion of Ukraine.

The footage shows a worker turning off the supplies, sending the gas pressure needle to zero, as icy clouds ominously creep across the screen, interspersed with aerial shots of Brussels, Berlin, Paris and London.

This winter, we are likely to see shortages, mandatory rationing and insanely high energy bills all over Europe. According to Zero Hedge, it is now being projected that energy bills in Europe will increase by a total of 2 trillion euros and will ultimately reach 20 percent of all disposable income.

Needless to say, we are now in unprecedented territory.

We have already started to see absolutely massive protests in major European cities, and Italian politician Matteo Salvini is openly admitting that this crisis has brought Europeans to "their knees"...

On Sunday Salvini urged an end to Russia energy sanctions which are only leaving Europeans "on their knees" due to higher energy bills and lack of supply. "Several months have passed and people are paying two, three, even four times more for their bills," he said in an interview RTL radio. "And after seven months, the war continues and Russian Federation coffers are filling with money."

He explained that not only are the sanctions not working, but they hit Italy harder. While saying he stands in solidarity with Ukraine, he's not willing to stick with something obviously counterproductive where the blowback is felt more in Europe, Italy in particular with its soaring energy import prices, and not the intended target of the Putin government.

The longer the gas stays off, the worse things are going to get.

So what happens if the Russians never turn the gas back on? Already, companies are shutting down facilities all over Europe because energy costs have made it unprofitable for them to continue operating. This includes the second biggest steel producer in the entire world...

The second-largest steel producer in the world, ArcelorMittal, is the most recent business name to announce the closure of a factory in Europe as a result of rising gas and energy costs.

Due to the outrageously high surge in energy prices, ArcelorMittal is shutting down one of the two existing blast furnaces at its steelworks plant in Bremen of Germany, starting by the end of September until any further updates.

Many have warned that Europe is plunging into a "recession", but the truth is that what the Europeans are facing is much more serious than that. This is going to be bad.

And things are going to stay bad until there is peace with the Russians, and the truth is that peace with the Russians may not happen at all.

Months ago, western leaders were openly bragging that they were going to crush the Russian economy. It turns out that Europe is the one being crushed instead.

Summer is almost over, winter is coming, and the Europeans are completely and utterly unprepared for what is coming next.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo has warned that Europe needs to act immediately to address the energy crisis or risk the kind of fundamental economic shutdown that the bloc would struggle to recover from.

"A few weeks like this and the European economy will just go into a full stop. Recovering from that is going to be much more complicated than intervening in gas markets today," he said Thursday in an interview with Bloomberg News. "The risk of that is de-industrialization and severe risk of fundamental social unrest."

Originally published at The Economic Collapse Blog - reposted with permission. https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5581

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BY JONATHON VAN MAREN/BRIDGEHEAD.CA SEPTEMBER 09, 2022

A couple of months back, I was told that in an Ontario public school (which I will not name), there was a student identifying as a cat--and the teachers were going along with it. At the time, I thought it must be a joke.

Sure, there's been the occasional story of people identifying as aliens or animals or whatever--but they don't get taken very seriously, and the practicality of affirming a students' feline identity seems untenable (litter boxes?). But apparently I have yet to learn the primary principle of our post-Christian age: Things can always get stupider.

According to the Daily Mail, in Melbourne, Australia, there is a teenage girl who identifies as cat. The private school she attends is affirming the girl's "animal behavior," and apparently the staff even cooperates with her refusal to speak during her day at school.

An Australian newspaper described her as "phenomenally bright," and a source who knows the family told the Herald Sun that: "No one seems to have a protocol for students identifying as animals, but the approach has been that if it doesn't disrupt the school, everyone is being supportive."

This stuff actually makes one's brain hurt. Are we so detached from reality that we need protocols to deal with a teenager who says she's a cat? We can't simply just say "seriously, smarten up" and call a psychiatrist if they appear genuinely believe what they're saying? To give credence to a teenage girl's demand that people recognize her as a cat renders the very English language devoid of all discernible meaning.

The school, meanwhile, declined to affirm whether Cat Girl existed, but did say that their "support staff was dealing with a range of psychological issues...from mental health, anxiety, or identity issues." The girl identifying as a cat is allegedly "phenomenally bright," and the school has apparently also dealt with a boy who identified as a dog but reverted back after treatment by a psychologist. According to the Australian press, this behavior is spreading:

In March it was reported that female students at an elite Brisbane private school were walking on all fours and cutting holes into their uniforms for tails because they identify as cats or foxes. 'When a girl went to sit at a spare desk, another girl screamed at her and said she was sitting on her tail; there's a slit in this child's uniform where the tail apparently is,' a concerned parent told the Courier Mail.

There are other unconfirmed rumors of girls identifying as cats, although no reports on how the staff is dealing with it.

Reading stories like this, I wonder how much pressure our collective psyche can handle. There has been an immensely encouraging backlash to transgender "treatments" for children over the past year, and some indication that the evidence of the trauma we are inflicting on a bewildered generation is breaking into public consciousness.

But how far will we as a culture accept these increasingly wild identity claims? Transgender is now a post-Christian dogma that we cannot question, so where will the line be drawn? Trans-racial? Trans-age? Or will it take girls identifying as cats--trans-speciesism (yes, there's already a word for it)-- before we finally notice that the Emperor is naked and not a cat?

I wonder. I can quite easily see ridiculous men like Justin Trudeau and Joe Biden stating, with the utmost solemnity, that it is our duty to affirm people's beliefs about their identity; that people can "be who they want to be"; that only a cruel and hateful person would tell Cat Girl that she is a girl and not a cat. Once we unharnessed ourselves from objective reality, it was inevitable that we would be swept away.

It wasn't inevitable that so many would buy in so quickly, mind you. But here we are.

Originally published at The Bridgehead
https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5576

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CP U.S. | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2022
By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor

A former postal worker who has sued the U.S. Postal Service for forcing him to work on Sundays despite his religious beliefs has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

First Liberty Institute, Baker Botts LLP, the Church State Council, and the Independence Law Center filed the appeal Tuesday on behalf of Gerald Groff of Pennsylvania.

The appeal cited federal civil rights law, namely Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employers from discriminating based on religious belief.

"In affirming summary judgment for USPS, the court of appeals held that an employer may establish undue hardship merely by showing that an accommodation burdens or inconveniences the plaintiff's co-workers," reads the appeal.

"Because religious expression is a vital part of 'a pluralistic society,' it should be met with tolerance and accommodation, not silenced by a 'heckler's veto.'"

Stephanie Taub, senior counsel at First Liberty, said in a statement that she believes no one "should be forced to choose between their religion and their job."

"We are asking the Court to overturn a poorly-reasoned case from the 1970s that tips the balance in favor of corporations and the government over the religious rights of employees," she stated.

An Evangelical Christian, Groff began working for the Quarryville Post Office in Lancaster County for the USPS in 2012 and later transferred to the Paradise Post Office to work as a rural carrier associate.

In 2015, when the Quarryville Post Office began delivering Amazon packages on Sundays, Groff asked to be given an exemption from working on Sundays in return for covering shifts on other days of the week.

He was later transferred to the Holtwood office. When that office began to deliver packages on Sundays in 2017, management accommodated Groff by having others work on Sundays.

However, while working for the Holtwood office, management discontinued his accommodation in July 2018 and increasingly disciplined Groff for his refusal to work Sundays.

In response to the disciplining, Groff resigned from his position and filed a lawsuit. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl dismissed Groff's case in April 2021.

Schmehl, an Obama appointee, had argued that the plaintiff failed to show that he was "treated differently with regards to Sundays because he was a Christian."

In May, a three-judge panel for the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 against Groff, concluding that the postal service could force him to work on Sundays.

Circuit Judge Patty Shwartz, another Obama appointee, wrote in the majority opinion that exempting Groff from Sunday work "would cause an undue hardship" for the postal service.

"Exempting Groff from working on Sundays caused more than a de minimis cost on USPS because it actually imposed on his coworkers, disrupted the workplace and workflow, and diminished employee morale," ruled Shwartz.

Circuit Judge Thomas Hardiman, a George W. Bush appointee, argued in dissent that "a conflict had to be totally eliminated to result in reasonable accommodation under Title VII."

"Inconvenience to Groff's coworkers alone doesn't constitute undue hardship," wrote Hardiman. "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stayed Gerald Groff from the completion of his appointed rounds."

https://www.christianpost.com/news/mailman-punished-for-not-working-sundays-appeals-to-supreme-court.html

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CP VOICES | SATURDAY, JULY 30, 2022
By Jason Yates and My Faith Votes

Jason Yates, CEO of My Faith Votes, sat down with Lucas Miles, host of The Lucas Miles Show and The Church Boys Podcast, to talk about his newest book, “The Christian Left: How Liberal Thought has Hijacked the Church.”

How do you see the Christian Left hijacking the Church?

We’re seeing a hydra of involvements between progressives, Leftists, and deconstructionists. I define the Christian Left as this growing constituency of left-leaning Christians (at times, Christians in name only) who willingly embrace a downgraded view of the Bible in favor of a held belief about socialism and Marxism.

We hear statements like “Jesus was a socialist,” trying to paint Jesus as a Palestinian refugee to support open borders or a diminished view of Israel. We are also seeing a rise in acceptance of the world’s definitions of sexuality and gender.

Search the term “progressive Christianity” on social media platforms like TikTok. You’ll find thousands of videos of so-called Christians attempting to justify alternative lifestyles and immoral practices using Scripture.

Historically, where two philosophical viewpoints oppose one another, the world tends to enter an age of skepticism. We see this with Plato and Aristotle and Augustine and Thomas Aquinas.

The current divide between red and blue in America has ushered in an age of skepticism, especially in the church. The Left knows they cannot win elections unless they divide the family in the church. So they’re spending a lot of marketing dollars to perform the same revisionist history on Scripture that they’ve tried on the Constitution for years.

Is this belief system originating from a political source invading the Church, or is this stemming from faulty theology in the Church?

To some degree, you have the chicken and the egg. There are groups bent on infiltrating Christian colleges, Christian organizations, non-
profits and the Church in general, pushing this agenda.

At the same time, people have bought into these ideas so that they’re coming from within the Church. For instance, the message of social justice has become an unpacked Trojan horse in our churches.

The Church has become convinced that the Gospel is a social justice gospel. But typically, social justice is just a ruse for critical theory in various forms. That has distracted us from the central message of Jesus Christ.

My Faith Votes has noticed quite a void of organizations reaching out to Christian colleges with the truth, so we developed a program to reach students on Christian campuses to equip them to vote. On campuses, we find great apathy toward this idea of involvement in political issues, even civic issues such as voting.

Is that an outcome of this cultural battle?

There’s a general message that, as Christians, we should be above politics. We shouldn’t get involved in politics.

From what we see in Scripture, Jesus spent much time talking to the Pharisees and Sadducees. These were the political figures creating rules and laws. Often, we see Jesus actively pushing back against them.

I don’t want to make Jesus a lobbyist by taking this beyond what we see in Scripture because that’s the same mistake we’re seeing on the Left. But Jesus wasn’t afraid to engage in politics, and he wasn’t scared to express the opinion of his Father.

As Christians, we must recognize the influence we hold. If the state grants us the ability to vote and use our voices to make a difference, we commit a disservice by not stepping up and using that to the best of our ability.

When I was in my early 20s, I was captivated by this idea of Christian socialism, and I determined at one point in my life that I would never vote.

Since then, I have been convinced that my voice as a believer matters and that my faith needs to vote for the sake of this nation and the church.

The Left talks about the separation of church and state, but they want a church subservient to the state. One practical way to combat this is using our vote.

Jason Yates is CEO of My Faith Votes, a nonpartisan movement that motivates, equips and activates Christians in America to vote in every election, transforming our communities and influencing our nation with biblical truth. By partnering with national faith leaders, My Faith Votes provides resources to help Christians Pray, Think, and Act to create an America where God is honored in the public square.

https://www.christianpost.com/voices/bad-theology-is-hijacking-the-church.html

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2:00PM EDT 8/23/2022 JAMES LASHER

On May 17, 1954, the evil that was segregation officially came to an end in the United States.

This does not mean the battle was over, or that racism and bigotry had also been legislated out of the country. Satan does all he can to ensure racial hatred and animosity carries on in every corner of the earth. But on May 17, God declared He was against all of these hateful beliefs that run contrary to His Word.

Now, in 2022, twisted ideologues are openly trying to segregate people, frequently students of all ages. When the devil develops a good strategy at tearing people apart, he does not let go of it easily.

A fourth-grade teacher at William Penn Elementary outside of Salt Lake City, Utah, is trying to divide her students by race. The teacher is intentionally not representing any white children in her classroom. Diversity, like all things in society, can be weaponized by those with an agenda.

With the 560 students at William Penn Elementary being 85% white, she knows exactly what she is doing, and it is not to expose children innocently to different cultures. It is to isolate them for the color of their skin.

Upon learning of this teacher's actions, the school principal launched an investigation, saying it is, "inappropriate for any employee to make students feel unwelcome in any way, shape or form."

Learning about different ethnicities, cultures and races is a pillar of a good education, and there is great benefit to representing children of different races and cultures. But this is a deceptive tool used by the enemy to wrap "inclusion and diversity" in a sinister blanket of guilt, judgement, discrimination and the old hatred that fueled segregation in earlier years of U.S. history.

Utah is not the only place this renewed attempt at segregation is occurring either. Recently, an off-campus co-op that houses UC Berkeley students banned white people from using the common spaces of the house. Their reasoning? To avoid "white violence and presence." They also require students who have guests to announce it in the Guest Chat, and to make mention if they are white.

Let's not forget the recent endorsement that Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, gave the Minneapolis school district's policy of laying off white teachers first, instead of a seniority-based policy. The announcement garnered outrage, and rightfully so.

These few examples are only the tip of the iceberg that Satan wants to use to drive a wedge further between God's people.

There is a song written long ago called "Jesus Loves the Little Children," and within that song are the lyrics:

"Red and yellow, black and white

They are precious in His sight

Jesus loves the little children of the world."

Jesus did not stop loving those children once they became adults. He continued to love them and hoped they would love Him in return. He does not want them hating one another for any reason, much less the color of their skin.

James Lasher is a Copy Editor for Charisma Media.

https://www.charismanews.com/us/89967-satan-rebuilds-segregation-after-god-tore-it-down