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When a Vacaville woman tried to end her relationship with a former Baptist minister in late 2013, he told her that she'd created a monster. On Wednesday, Sarah Nottingham explained to a Solano County Superior Court judge that for a week, then-Pastor Mark Lewis showed her what a monster he could be. Nottingham's words came during the sentencing hearing for Lewis, who in January pleaded no contest to charges of arson and stalking. Judge Dwight C. Ely sentenced Lewis to eight years in prison Wednesday in connection with the case that proceeded to a jury trial earlier this year, only...

My dear Wormwood, These days I scarcely know where to turn next in the public prints, there's such an abundance of cheery news from the upper regions. Clearly you have things well in hand up there. War and the threat of war, aggression everywhere and suffering galore to go with it. Diplomats holding endless meetings that amount to a green light for more invasions and ever more power for those out to squelch freedom in the world. Congratulations and keep up the good work. It may be only a matter of time before our devilish friends in Teheran get their...

Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas. joined Father Gerald Murray of New York on Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor" Tuesday night to encourage Americans of all faiths to contact the White House and demand that the Obama administration call out radical Islam and take action to defeat the Islamic State terrorist organization. "This is part of a disturbing pattern," Jeffress said when asked by Bill O'Reilly what he made of Obama's initial refusal to call the ISIS beheading victims Coptic Christians [until he publicly acknowledged that the 21 Egyptian men were Christians and not just "citizens"...

Bishop Antonios Aziz Mina of Giza echoed Pope Francis by hailing the 21 Coptic Christians killed by ISIS as martyrsThe 21 Coptic Christians who were beheaded by ISIS militants died as martyrs, invoking the name of Jesus, said an Egyptian Catholic bishop. In line with Pope Francis’s assertion at morning Mass on February 17, Bishop Antonios Aziz Mina of Giza told the Fides news agency that the “diabolical” video of the Christians’ massacre, intended to “spread terror,” was a testament to their martyrdom in the faith. The video of their beheading, released on Sunday, shows that “in the moment of...

Full Title: Oprah Asked This Ex-Megachurch Pastor When Christianity Will Embrace Gay Relationships — and His Answer Seemed to Take Her By Surprise Former megachurch pastor Rob Bell told TV host Oprah Winfrey that he believes Christian churches will become even more irrelevant if they fail to embrace gay relationships and that he sees the Christian umbrella becoming more favorable of homosexuality in the very near future. When Winfrey asked when the church will come on board with same-sex relationships, Bell, the former pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan, said that he believes that the time is...

Ash Wednesday is upon us again! Here are 9 things you need to know and share . . . 1. What is Ash Wednesday? Ash Wednesday is the day that Lent begins (see: 9 things you need to know about Lent). The name comes from the fact that a particular rite is always celebrated on this Wednesday in which the faithful have ashes put on their foreheads. According to the Roman Missal: In the course of today’s Mass, ashes are blessed and distributed. These are made from the olive branches or branches of other trees that were blessed the previous...

NEW YORK, February 17, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- As if it wasn’t controversial enough that a homosexual activist group will be marching under its own banner in the New York St. Patrick’s Day parade led by New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the parade has refused a pro-life group’s request to participate. inclined, rather than advocates for sinful behaviour. The group, however, is an overt promoter of same-sex ‘marriage.’ The controversy heightened January 22, though, when the parade officially rejected a pro-life adoption advocacy group’s application to march this year. “It’s absolutely been a double-cross,” Dr. Elizabeth Rex, president of the Children...

In our Founding Father’s day, the practice of VIRTUE was a crown of honor, not a bigot’s badge of shame. My beloved, just look what we as a nation have become today! We are a nation of godless, narcissistic, self-gratifying, infanticidal murderers - pornographic, sexually deviant, perverse, callous, adulterous, drug addicts and drunks, using the First Amendment as a license to transgress natural laws and moral absolutes in the name of secular human rights. Our American families have been truly decimated and ravished beyond remedy! Our children are godless, desensitized, brain-washed and dumbed-down nimrods corrupted by Hollywood, the godless music...

What God can do through YOU Tomorrow it begins ... the next 40 Days for Life campaign, which kicks off in 252 cities across 19 countries around the world. If you haven’t done so already ... it’s time to find the location nearest you and sign up for the vigil!   God has provided many blessings through past 40 Days for Life campaigns: 9,699 babies saved from abortion 107 workers who have quit the abortion industry 60 closed abortion centers What results could be achieved during this campaign? That will be determined primarily by two things: 1.     God, who can do...

A screen shot from a video released by Islamic State militants on Feb. 15. “They were killed simply for the fact that they were Christians. … The blood of our Christian brothers and sisters is a testimony which cries out to be heard.” Pope Francis responded today to the news that 21 Egyptian Christians have been beheaded by Islamic State militants. “Their blood confesses Christ,” the Holy Father said to a visiting delegation representing the Church of Scotland. “The martyrs belong to all Christians.” On Sunday, ISIS released a graphic video showing the beheading of 21 Coptic Christians on...

VATICAN CITY — “African values are not on sale,” the new Chairman of Communications for the African bishops has said. But Bishop Emmanuel Badejo of Oyo, Nigeria, is convinced they are under threat from what Pope Francis has called an “ideological colonization” that is seeking to destroy the family. It's so bad, he says, that the United States has made clear it will not help Nigeria fight the Boko Haram terror group unless the country modify its laws regarding homosexuality, family planning and birth-control.

Amber Hewson has a curious way of deciding where she's going to live next: looking at the gas gauge in her car. Every so often, when she's feeling fidgety, she'll just pack up her stuff, hit the open road and drive until the needle points at empty. That tells her when to coast into whatever anonymous burgh she's near and start the next chapter of her life. It's a pattern that's already propelled her across 14 states. [My note: See also: Another PluggedIn review, of "50 Shades of Grey," as well as a thread here dealing with the controversy over...

Graeme Wood writes the best analysis and description of the horror of ISIS here at The Atlantic. He goes into detail about the roots of ISIS, its relationship to mainstream Islam and the ambitions of the Caliphate. He explains how ISIS combines not only a horribly literalistic interpretation of the Koran, but also how it is interlaced with radical Muslim apocalyptic visions.He sums up the whole article pretty well with this paragraph The Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), follows a distinctive variety of Islam whose beliefs about the path to the Day of Judgment matter...

Evolution makes atheists out of people! By Jonathan Sarfati Out on ministry at churches, our speakers often encounter anguished parents (and grandparents) lamenting that their children now reject the faith in which they were raised. If you too are a parent with this same angst, I remind you that Adam and Eve failed even with the best possible raising from God Himself, as well as enjoying perfect health and living in paradise. And Judas Iscariot remained unsaved despite three years with the best teacher ever: Jesus Himself. Evolution undermines basic Christian doctrines Having said that, there is a common pattern...

A prominent Southern Baptist leader who raised concerns last year after he advised that Christians should support the rights of other religions and also traveled to the Vatican for an interfaith conference on marriage is now stating that probate judges in Alabama should either follow the recent federal ruling in favor of “gay marriage” or resign. Russell Moore, the president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, made the statement recently to the Baptist Press when asked about his prediction on which way the U.S. Supreme Court might rule on the issue of same-sex “marriage.” He opined that...

The recently-released findings from an in-depth study of nearly 10,000 young adults show that Millennials who were homeschooled are less likely to leave the faith than individuals who attended private or public schools. Late last month, Generations with Vision and the National Home Education Research Institute published the results of their Gen2 Survey. The study explores the correlations between different educational methods and the spiritual decisions of Millennials who were raised in the church. “The purpose of the study is to examine these adults who were churched growing up and to understand the key influences which either encouraged or deterred...

Christians across the country are expressing concern as Focus on the Family’s “Plugged In” movie staff has released its review of the pornographic film “Fifty Shades of Grey”—especially that a critic at the professing Christian ministry watched the porn just to tell other Christians that they shouldn’t watch it. Plugged In said that it received an email from a follower who asked them not to review the film, and thus penned an blog post about the matter to explain its decision to watch and critique the material. “Fifty Shades of Grey is, without question, one of the most ‘popular’ elements...

Along with Pope Francis and so many others, I was deeply saddened to learn of the latest violence by fanatics who see anybody who disagrees with them as their enemy.These attacks threaten civilization itself.Whether it’s a massacre in Paris, Indonesia, Nigeria, Syria, Iraq, Iran, India or now in Libya and Egypt, we keep saying, “How much worse can it get?”And then we woke up Monday morning to see that it did get worse, with this brutal massacre of these young Egyptian Christians in Libya.They were beheaded for nothing less than their religious convictions. It moves me to prayers. It moves...

The apostolic vicar of Tripoli, Libya, has promised to remain with the faithful there, at a time when most foreigners are rushing to leave the embattled country. Bishop Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli told Vatican Radio that Islamic militants have entered Tripoli, and prospects for the country’s small Christian minority are bleak. But speaking for those Christians, he said: “We are ready to bear witness to whom we are and to what we do according to the words of Christ.”

February 15, 2015: Islam claims to be the fastest growing religion in the world. That is true, but it’s mainly because Moslems are concentrated in countries with much higher birth rates (largely brought on by corruption and bad government). When you adjust for that and then look at just conversions you’ll note that Christianity and most other religions are converting Moslems at a much higher rate than the other way around...