ERUSALEM (Christian Examiner) – A spokesman for the Palestinian terror group Hamas, which claims in its charter its desire to annihilate Israel, said Hamas militants are ready to commit "martyrdom" operations to defend the Al Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount, the Iranian News Agency has reported. Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri said the mosque needed to be defended from the "occupiers," or the Jews, after Israeli police and soldiers raided the Temple Mount Sunday, Sept. 13, while Muslim worshippers were inside the mosque. “Any more provocation in Jerusalem will affect the relationship between Jordan and Israel.” - King Abdullah II of Jordan The police took action after Palestinian youths tried to disrupt the visit to the Temple Mount of both Jews and foreign tourists on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, which began at sunset. Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year.] To read more, go to the Christian Examiner website. … [Read more...]
Carson, not Trump leading among highly and moderately religious
By Gregory Tomlin, Christian Examiner NEW YORK (Christian Examiner) – Polling giant Gallup is debunking the myth of high levels of evangelical support for presidential candidate Donald Trump. In fact, more in-depth analysis of evangelicals suggests Trump's favorability among extremely religious Republican campaign watchers is significantly lower than has been reported. Gallup's Frank Newport reports "assumptions about Trump's level of support among evangelicals appear to be based on trial heat polls wherein Republicans are forced to choose one and only one candidate for whom they would, in theory, vote." "A better view of Trump's image among this group comes from our Gallup data in which Republicans are asked about their views of each candidate individually. This provides a more comprehensive view of the candidates," Newport writes. To read more, visit the Christian Examiner website. … [Read more...]
9/11 Survivor: ‘Ground Zero is now my community’
By Kelly Ledbetter, Christian Examiner NEW YORK CITY (Christian Examiner) – When Sujo John went to work on the 81st floor of Tower 1 that Tuesday, he could never have imagined his life would be spared from an inconceivable tragedy—and that telling his story would take him into international ministry. He and his wife Mary, pregnant at the time, had lived in New York less than a year when terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Centers. "When we looked back toward the towers," John said, "we saw only a pile of smoking ash and rubble. God, in his mercy, had spared our lives." To this day, John doesn't know why he and Mary lived when others died, but he knows he is called to share the gospel because this life is fragile but eternity is real. To read more, go to the Christian Examiner website. … [Read more...]
Out of 9/11 ashes came Billy Graham Rapid Response Teams to mobilize volunteers to offer comfort, hope
By Kelly Ledbetter, Christian Examiner CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Christian Examiner) – Chad Hammond, a director at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), had only recently become an employee when he was deployed to Ground Zero just a few days after Sept. 11 to minister to those affected by the national tragedy. When he reached the ruined towers, the destruction was more extensive than he imagined, and people's bodies were still being recovered. "It was very humbling," Hammond said. "I remember not wanting to disturb or touch anything. You treated that place as a kind of holy site." In what would form the foundation of the BGEA's Rapid Response Team, Hammond worked with local churches to help pastors, to establish a crisis phone center, to offer grief counseling for walk-ins, and mobilize volunteers to come and serve in the area. "As Christians, we felt that we had a mission to bring the hope of Christ to the people of New York City," Hammond said in a BGEA article on the ministry's history. To read more, go to the Christian Examiner website. … [Read more...]
IMB announces voluntary retirement incentive details
By Anne Harman, International Mission Board RICHMOND, Va. — In the first phase of the International Mission Board’s plan to address revenue shortfalls, leadership announced details of a voluntary retirement incentive (VRI) during town hall meetings with personnel Sept. 10. The goal of the plan, IMB leaders shared, is to offer as generous a voluntary retirement incentive as possible, while honoring the years of service of those eligible and providing a smooth transition from personnel’s current role. IMB will offer the voluntary retirement incentive to all eligible staff and active, career missionaries age 50 and older with five or more years of service (as of Dec. 31, 2015). For a missionary couple to be eligible for the VRI, only one spouse is required to meet the qualifications. “Our desire in all of this is to be as generous as possible to as many people as possible,” IMB President David Platt said. “Since we are asking everyone in the organization to pray and discern if the Lord is leading them to a new place of involvement in mission, we know that 50-year-olds, for example, are going to be doing exactly that. And if the Lord leads them to make a transition, we want to provide for them as generously as … [Read more...]
Twitter tantrum: Iran’s supreme leader says Israel has 25 years to exist
By Gregory Tomlin, Christian Examiner NEW YORK (Christian Examiner) – Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has issued another dire warning for Israel – the clock is winding down on the Jewish state. The religious leader said via his Twitter feed Sept. 9 that Israel "will not see the next 25 years," even after nuclear negotiations with the world powers are supposed to have curtailed Iran's ambition for nuclear weapons. "God willing, there will be no such thing as a Zionist regime in 25 years," Khamenei wrote on the social media site. According to Khamenei, until Iran is able to complete its goal of the complete annihilation of Israel, "the struggling, heroic and jihadi morale will leave no moment of security for Zionists." The quote, according to the Times of Israel, was taken from a speech the Ayatollah had given earlier in the day. The speech was also reported in Iranian media. In the speech, Khamenei blasted the United States, which he said had been "hypocritical" in its approach toward Iran as U.S. negotiators smiled while Congress sought to derail the plan. He also claimed the U.S. – still "the Great Satan" – was using the negotiations as a means to influence and "infiltrate" Iran. To read more, visit the Christian … [Read more...]
September 11: Al Qaeda makes overture to black community in America, stokes racial strife
NEW YORK (Christian Examiner) – Al Qaeda's newest edition of Inspire, a jihadist magazine aimed at recruiting terrorists from among the English-speaking world, encourages black Americans to rise up against their own government, the Middle East Media Research Institute has reported. In the Inspire article titled, "The Blacks in America," a writer calling himself Abu Abdiliah Al-Moravid claims the recent killings of blacks such as Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Md., and nine black parishioners at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., are unlike anything found in Islam. Islam, Al-Moravid writes, "does not allow even the smallest kind of injustice, be it by words or having contempt for a particular race. We the Mujahedeen are a portion of the Muslim Ummah (nation), we do not accept any type of oppression against our Muslim brothers among the Afro-Americans, or even the non-Muslims. And the opposite of oppression is Justice, and this was we have been commanded by our religion." Al-Moravid also claims the American media is helping white power structures in the country conceal the truth of what happened to Brown, Gray and others. In particular, he targets FOX News, the tool of the "Anglo-Saxon … [Read more...]
Pioneer missionary doctor Wana Ann Fort dies at 91
By Staff, Baptist Press RICHMOND, Va. (BP) –Missionary doctor Wana Ann Gibson Fort, 91, died Aug. 31 in Baton Rouge. Fort and her husband, the late Milton “Giles” Fort Jr., served with the then-called Foreign Mission Board as pioneer missionary doctors at Sanyati Baptist Hospital in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). At this hospital, Fort and her husband helped launch a spiritual awakening through medical missions. The Forts, appointed as missionaries in 1952, led countless patients to Christ. “We were committed to being God’s hands of mercy and healing to souls and bodies,” she once said. She and her husband raised five sons in Zimbabwe. Three have served or continue to serve as missionaries with the International Mission Board. Two of the Forts’ sons are medical doctors. “Mom lived out the reality of her faith,” said Gordon Fort, one of Wana Ann’s sons and IMB senior ambassador. “As wife, momma, teacher, doctor, women’s worker, and serving missions support functions, she demonstrated what it means to live a life of obedience to the Master. It has been our incredible privilege to have been a part of her life’s journey.” During the Forts’ missionary service in Africa, the Shona people named Fort “Mai … [Read more...]
Rare action by federal judges emphasizes need for Supreme Court review of HHS Mandate
By Staff, GuideStone Financial Resources DALLAS — Today, five judges on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals sharply criticized the court decision that ruled against GuideStone earlier this summer. A three judge panel ruled against GuideStone and GuideStone participants Truett-McConnell College and Reaching Souls International in July. In a rare move, the entire Tenth Circuit, on its own initiative, took a vote on whether to reconsider the panel decision. When the vote narrowly fell short, the five judges issued a dissenting opinion. Their opinion explains why the panel decision was “a dangerous approach to religious liberty” that is so “clearly and gravely wrong” that it “will not long survive.” The HHS mandate requires ministries that are not churches or integrated auxiliaries of churches to provide abortion-causing drugs and devices in their health plans or to face crippling fines. The parties in the case have argued that a false “accommodation” offered by the government still forces the ministries to violate their faith. GuideStone, along with churches and a very narrow class of other ministries, are exempt from the mandate and its penalties. But hundreds of evangelical Christian ministries that rely on GuideStone … [Read more...]
Platt: IMB reducing workforce by 600-800, overspent $210 million since 2010
By Will Hall, Message Editor ALEXANDRIA – David Platt, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board, shared that the overseas missions group had overspent its budget by $210 million since 2010, including $39 million in 2014, alone, dropping operating reserves to 4 months of funding, below the minimum 6 months amount advised by the SBC Executive Committee. Consequently, he said, the IMB plans to reduce its workforce – field missionaries and staff – by 600-800 people. PRESENT REALITIES During a conference call with reporters August 27 Platt laid out the situation in terms of a crisis of IMB’s own making. “The challenge we’re addressing is that despite increased giving to the IMB over the last four years, for example, we have consistently spent more money than has been given to us each year,” Platt explained. “What we realized,” he said, “is as we got into the budgeting process this year – even since the SBC—that not only did we have that $21 million shortfall in 2014, but we were also using global property sales to cover some of our expenses in 2014 that was to the tune of $18 million. “So when you add those two numbers together you realize in total, in 2014, we were spending $39 … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 281
- 282
- 283
- 284
- 285
- …
- 296
- Next Page »