Open Doors, the watchdog group born of an effort to smuggle Bibles into communist-occupied Poland, indicated in its latest annual report that one in seven Christians worldwide faces “high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith.” That amounts to over 365 million Christians with targets on their backs. Things appear to be getting progressively worse, granted five years ago, the statistic was one in nine.
Read more at: theblaze.com
A popular actor recently unleashed on the Bible, God, and religion, calling faith a figment of people’s imaginations and critiquing the impact of religion on society.
“Succession” star Brian Cox called the Bible “one of the worst books ever” and said those who believe the Adam and Eve narrative are “stupid” in a recent episode of “The Starting Line” podcast.
Read more at: faithwire.com
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — United Methodist delegates repealed their church’s longstanding ban on LGBTQ clergy with no debate on Wednesday, removing a rule forbidding “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” from being ordained or appointed as ministers.
Delegates voted 692-51 at their General Conference — the first such legislative gathering in five years. That overwhelming margin contrasts sharply with the decades of controversy around the issue. Past General Conferences of the United Methodist Church had steadily reinforced the ban and related penalties amid debate and protests, but many of the conservatives who had previously upheld the ban have left the denomination in recent years, and this General Conference has moved in a solidly progressive direction.
Read more at: apnews.com
The U.S.-based, Google-funded artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic is suggesting that its AI-powered large language model (LLM) Claude 3 Opus has shown evidence of sentience. If conclusively proven, Claude 3 Opus would be the first sentient AI being in human history. However, experts in the field remain relatively unconvinced by Anthropic’s insinuation.
Claude 3 Opus has impressed many AI experts, especially the LLM‘s ability to solve complex problems almost instantly. However, claims of sentience began to circulate after Anthropic’s prompt engineer Alex Albert showcased an incident where Claude 3 Opus seemingly determined that it was being “tested.”
Read more at: thenationalpulse.com
You know you are in the midst of a miserable news cycle when a story with a headline containing the words “Satanic Temple” looks like it might be a break from the grind.
Back when I was planning on becoming a priest, I went through a quarter of Clinical Pastoral Education, which was akin to being a chaplain intern at a Salt Lake Hospital. I did pray with patients and their families, but the majority of the discussions I had were not religious or even spiritual.
Read more at: pjmedia.com
The United States has issued a travel advisory to Germany over fears of terrorism.
On Wednesday, the Department of State upgraded Germany to Level 2 out of four — an edict to “exercise increased caution” — with the stark warning that “terrorist groups keep planning attacks in Germany.”
The US government added that tourist locations and transportation hubs are frequently targeted, along with hotels, restaurants, clubs, places of worship, parks, and both sporting and cultural events.
“Terrorists may attack with little or no warning,” the State Department noted.
In late March, Canada also advised travelers to “exercise a high degree of caution in Germany due to the threat of terrorism.”
Read more at: nypost.com
Israel is playing a different game than Joe Biden is used to. Israel is playing in the Middle East, where what you do matters a hell of a lot more than what you say.
Last night, Israel finally struck back against Iran.
Last weekend, Iran struck Israel with some 350 drones and missiles. Israel was expecting that it was going to have to fire back against Iran in some form or fashion.
There are a few different options that were tabled that had been considered. One was a full-scale attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, completely degrading their nuclear program. Another option would have been to do virtually nothing, which is what Joe Biden wanted to do.
Read more at: dailywire.com
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released a final rule on Monday including abortion in the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA).
The final rule dictates that, under the PWFA, employers with 15 or more employees must provide the same accommodations to workers who have abortions as those who have “limitations related to…pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.”
The PWFA passed with bipartisan support in 2022, and did not include language about abortion. Instead, the law was created to allow reasonable workplace accommodations for pregnant and postpartum mothers such as time off and flexible breaks, unless the accommodation would result in an undue hardship for the employer.
Read more at: breitbart.com
(LifeSiteNews) — Today, we have a unique problem in the Church: We’re getting poor direction from Rome, and both priests and laypeople don’t know what to do. How are we supposed to know what’s up and what’s down anymore?
Yet there are many ways God uses His voice to grant us spiritual insight and remind us of certain truths. One of those ways is through exorcisms.
My guest on today’s episode of The John-Henry Westen Show is Kyle Clement, assistant to well-known exorcist Father Chad Ripperger. […] Clement, who sat down for a previous interview with LifeSiteNews last month, reiterates that the blessing of homosexual “couples” affirms them in mortal sin and thus allows demons to be present to them.
Read more at: lifesitenews.com
