A video released this weekend by action movie hero Chuck Norris claims that America faces “1,000 years of darkness” if President Barack Obama is reelected.

“If we look to history, our great country and freedom are under attack,” Norris warns, standing next to his wife. “We’re at a tipping point and, quite possibly, our country as we know it may be lost forever if we don’t change the course in which our country is headed.”

The pair go on to explain that Obama won in 2008 because more than 30 million evangelical Christians stayed home on Election Day. “We know you love your family and your freedom as much as Gena and I do, and it is because of that we can no longer sit quietly or stand on the sidelines and watch our country go the way of socialism or something much worse,” Norris explains.

Quoting President Ronald Reagan, Norris’s wife Gina adds that defeating Obama “will preserve for our children this last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into 1,000 years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children’s children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/09/03/chuck-norris-threatens-1000-years-of-darkness-if-obama-wins/

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has signed into law a bill that allows the establishing of elective classes that focus on the Bible and its influence on western civilization. Sponsored by State Representative Terri Proud, House Bill 2563 was passed by a 21 to 9 vote in the state Senate last Thursday and signed by Brewer on Tuesday. According to HB 2563, "A school district or charter school may offer an elective course pertaining to how the Bible has influenced western culture for pupils in grades nine through twelve." "A teacher who instructs a course offered under this section in its appropriate historical context and in good faith shall be immune from civil liability and disciplinary action," reads the bill.

The Bible class elective would teach students, among other things, "the contents of the Old Testament and the New Testament," "the history recorded by the Old Testament and the New Testament," and the "influence of the Old Testament and the New Testament on laws, history, government, literature, art, music, customs, morals, values and culture."

--snip--

"This bill is not about improving academic achievement; it's about introducing religious indoctrination into the schools and currying favor with conservative religious voters," said Conn. "I think most public schools will decide not to offer Bible courses. They are already strapped for funds, so I doubt if they'll want to use scarce resources to intervene in such a controversial topic."

While Conn believes that the "Bible obviously played an important role in history," he also felt that having a social studies class about it would be difficult given the many Bible translations and interpretations. "Many…denominations use different versions of the Bible and come to dramatically different theological understandings about what it means," said Conn.

"It is very difficult for a public school to teach about the Bible without wandering into constitutional and religious difficulties."

Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/ariz-governor-signs-bill-to-allow-bible-classes-in-public-schools-73485/#wrCZDrJpTZdBdGso.99

Republicans Pray to Satan at the GOP Convention as Romney and His Surrogates Lie to Make Mainstream the Mormon Cult


ST PETERSBURG, Fla., Aug. 131, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- Bill Keller, the world's leading Internet Evangelist and the founder of LivePrayer.com, with over 2.4 million subscribers worldwide reading the Daily Devotional he has written every morning for 13 years on the issues of the day from a Biblical worldview, was horrified as he watched a Mormon cult member lead mostly Biblical Christians at the Republican Convention last night in a prayer to Satan, since Mormons do not pray to the God of the Bible, but to a mythical "god" they believe who was once a man!

Keller stated, "The founder of the Mormon cult, Joseph Smith was a documented convicted con artist, polygamist, pedophile, racist, and murderer, and in his greatest scam claimed to be visited by an 'angel' who led him to gold tablets in the Catskills. Mormons like Romney believe the Bible is a flawed and an incomplete book, superseded by Smith's writings, the Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, and Doctrines and Covenants."

Keller goes on, "Mitt Romney, Glenn Beck, and all Mormons LIE that they are Christians, when their beliefs are in 100% contradiction to Biblical Christianity. They love to tout their charity and good works as Romney and his surrogates did at the GOP convention to influence people, but good works and charity do NOT make you a Christian, only faith in the Jesus of the Bible make you a Christian!"

He continues, "Those in the Mormon cult use the words 'god' and 'jesus,' yet the 'god' and 'jesus' of the Mormon cult are NOT the God and Jesus of the Bible! Mormons believe their 'god' used to be a human who rose to god-like status, just like Romney, Beck, and all Mormons believe they will too after their death. The 'jesus' of the Mormon cult is the natural offspring of their 'god' Elohim who had sex with Mary, meaning their jesus is a created being and NOT a deity as the Bible teaches, and is also the brother of Lucifer!"


http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/8390620512.html

In the national spotlight Thursday night introducing Mitt Romney as the GOP nominee for president, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) showed all of America why the country’s national motto – In God We Trust – must be abandoned. Exhibiting stunning insensitivity to the millions of Americans who do not profess a belief in any deities, Rubio declared: “Our national motto is In God we Trust, reminding us that faith in our Creator is the most important American value of all.”

Thus, Rubio was brazenly shouting out what many proponents of the religious motto have pubicly denied: the religious wording of the motto validates the idea that only believers are first-class citizens. Nonbelievers, while tolerated by the true believers (sometimes begrudgingly), clearly hold a second-class status.

--snip--

In the fervor of the Republican convention – perhaps thinking he was speaking only to friends and forgetting that the entire nation was watching – Rubio let down his guard. (That is, he spoke honestly about the motto.) He admitted that the motto is understood as a validation of theistic beliefs and a slap in the face to nonbelievers, and he even added that God-belief is what unites Americans as a people. Where do nonbelievers stand in this vision of America?

With such unambiguous anti-secular sentiment in the open, clearly it's time for America to have an honest conversation about it.

Millions of Americans – including over 90 percent of the National Academy of Sciences – do not affirm a belief in divinities. These nonbelievers are contributors to society, as patriotic as anyone else, and they are tired of being pushed to the margins by outlandish statements by men such as Rubio. Ironically, Rubio’s honesty helps demonstrate what America’s seculars have known for a long time: In God We Trust has to go. What was wrong with E Pluribus Unum?

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/our-humanity-naturally/201208/rubio-shows-why-in-god-we-trust-must-go

Written by the Rev Eva McIntyre on behalf of the Church’s Archbishops’ Council and the Time to Change mental health campaign, it suggests John the Baptist, St Paul, St Francis and other figures from the Bible may all have been mentally ill. It even asks followers to consider accusations made in the New Testament that Jesus "had lost his mind".

It reads: "Many of the people we read about in Bible stories might today be considered as having mental health issues.

"For example, ‘Would Jesus’ family maybe on occasion have said, ‘Cousin John is a bit odd, bless him!’ when John the Baptist took to his eccentric style of life?

"It has long been thought that King Saul, in the books of Samuel, was displaying mood swings that suggest he had bi-polar disorder and some think that St Paul’s Damascus Road experience was the result of some sort of breakdown or psychotic episode. Even Jesus was not immune to accusations about his mental health: there is a story in the gospel that tells of his mother and siblings attempting to take him home because they are afraid that he has lost his mind. Many of the stories of the Saints, too, have led people to discuss their mental health. "For example was St Francis suffering from a mental health title?"

Acknowledging how shocking these ideas might be, Ms McIntyre, a member of the General Synod, adds: "Some may find these suggestions disturbing or offensive even.

"Perhaps we need to ask why it would be so terrible to think that some of our most inspirational forebears might have experienced mental health illness.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/341926

Amid the conflicting claims, this much is certain: As many as 600 Christians have fled their colony bordering the capital, fearing for their lives, officials said, after a mob last week called for the child to be burned to death as a blasphemer.

The girl, who authorities have described as mentally challenged, sits in jail in Rawalpindi, charged by police with blasphemy, while her family has been put in federal protective custody. The evidence against her is muddled at best, but police said they arrested her in part to assuage the mob and also because they knew she would be safer in jail.

--snip--

Liberal-to-moderate Pakistanis see the rise in blasphemy allegations as a reflection of a dangerous ascent of extremism and anti-Western sentiment throughout society.

“Most of the people consider the Christians here to represent the West,” said Paul Bhatti, who heads the Ministry of National Harmony — a post created after his younger brother, Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic and minority affairs minister, was assassinated last year by the Pakistani Taliban for advocating reform of the blasphemy laws.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/pakistani-christians-fearing-backlash-flee-community-after-girl-accused-of-blasphemy/2012/08/20/d3b23c9a-eae3-11e1-866f-60a00f604425_story.html

So North Carolina is reporting their first death (of the year, I presume) from pertussis, or whooping cough. A 2-month-old infant has died of the disease.

Whooping cough is highly contagious and spread usually by coughing or sneezing in close contact. It can be serious at any age, but it is life-threatening in newborns and infants who are too young to be fully vaccinated, state health officials said. Many infants who get whooping cough are infected by caregivers who may not know they have the disease.

This is a kid who was too young to have yet obtained the full range of vaccines, and was dependent on herd immunity…and someone carrying the disease infected them, and ultimately killed them. It’s remarkable that deaths from pertussis are now so rare that one of them will make the news—but the way we’ve made the disease rare is by preventive vaccinations. Every person who neglects to vaccinate is contributing to a deadly disease renaissance.

http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/08/20/anti-vaxers-kill-another-child/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

Being Proud of your skin color, your gender, your nationality, your tribe, your sexual orientation seems to me so stupid. If you want to be proud, do something beneficial to mankind and stop bragging about things you had by mere chance.


It’s no doubt to me that there is nothing wrong with being white/male/heterosexual/Iraqi as I am, but really? Did I choose any of those? Was it given to me as a result of any achievement? Was it given to me as a prize? Do any of these characteristics contribute to me being a good person or a bad person? Or better/worse than anybody else who may have different characteristics as me? No, I don’t think so. And that’s the reason why I am writing this article.

I am pretty sure many reading this article have encountered some other people saying or signs somewhere that read, “I am proud of being a MAN,” “I am proud of being a WOMAN,” “I am proud of being a GAY,” “I am proud of being a STRAIGHT,” “I am proud of being a AMERICAN,” “I am proud of being a INDIAN,” “I am proud of being a BLACK,” “I am proud of being a WHITE,” etc. etc.
Can you notice how stupid these statements look like when using different examples?

Using my little Oxford Dictionary:
pride
■ noun
a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from achievements, qualities, or possessions that do one credit.

What have any of us done to achieve, possess, or qualify for being a man or a woman?
Did we choose the sperm of our dads and the egg of our moms? Did we choose when? And where? And which skin color the parents were? Did we even choose to be born in the first place? The characteristics that I have talked about “gender/skin color/ sexual orientation” have nothing to do with your achievements. They are genetic; they are out of your control.

I understand some of the arguments used against what I am saying, that in the example of “I am proud of being a WOMAN,” that it is used by some feminists and doesn’t mean pride in the literal sense, it simply means “I am not ashamed of being a woman” which is a response to some misogynist crackpots who look at women as inferior human beings, but would it be smart to fight stupidity with other stupidity?

--snip--

An example of that is one of my life inspires: “Marie Curie.” The reason why I have so much admiration for Marie Curie is not because she was a ‘white polish woman’; I respect her because she was one of the greatest scientists in the 20th century, and her wonderful discoveries led to huge development in science and opened to many new gates in scientific research and inquiry. If Marie Curie ever said “I am proud of what I have done,” YES, she is using the term correctly! Because what she had is really compatible with the actual definition of pride!
I hope that one day people would use pride and respect where they should be, and not something that they can delude themselves and others about.

http://www.faisalalmutar.com/2012/08/21/proud-proud-of-what-exactly/