EX-CATHOLIC, MIKE GENDRON: The Lord Jesus May Divide Families

The Lord Jesus May Divide Families
BY MIKE GENDRON

SEE: http://WWW.PROCLAIMINGTHEGOSPEL.ORG

 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

Thirty-seven years ago, I went home for the holidays to tell my family I had become a born-again Christian and had left the Catholic Church. I remember being so excited to tell them the good news because I thought they would also want to receive God's gift of eternal life. Instead, they turned on me and refused to hear any more of my new life in Christ. My dear old dad, whose brother was a Catholic priest, got very angry because I had betrayed the Catholic family heritage. Our once close and harmonious relationship quickly became very distant to the point of me being ostracized. Later, when I told him I was enrolling in seminary, he told me I was throwing my life away.
Christians May Have to Forsake Their Families
Our Savior forewarned us this would happen in families. He said, “Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law” (Luke 12:51-53). Our Lord also said, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me" (Mat. 10:37). Jesus commands us to love God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind (Mat. 22:37).
Christians May Have to Count the Cost
There are some people who refuse to exchange their religion for a saving relationship with Jesus because of their passionate loyalty to parents and siblings. Family ties can be so strong that people stubbornly reject biblical truth for the sake of maintaining peace and harmony. I have a neighbor who told me that he will not leave the Catholic Church until his mother dies. In essence, they are saying they love their families more than they love God. As Christians, we must plead with them to consider the words of our Savior. He said, “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name’s sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life" (Mat. 19:29). There is no middle ground with the Lord Jesus. He warned us, “He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters" (Luke 11:23).
Christians May Have to Offend Their Parents
Six years ago, I was invited to preach a 2-day seminar at a church in Wisconsin. A woman in the church dragged her Catholic husband to the church for the first time to hear my message, Where Will You Spend Eternity? After the message, she introduced me to her husband Pete. I asked him, "Based on what you heard from God's Word tonight, what is keeping you from trusting the Lord Jesus Christ as your all-sufficient Savior?" After waiting nearly a minute for his response, his wife Megan finally blurted out, "It's your parents, you don't want to offend your parents." Pete agreed that she was right. We talked for a few more minutes and I gave Pete a couple of Gospel tracts: Which Jesus Will You Trust? and The Greatest Gift Ever Given. I asked him to read them and come back the next morning to hear my Sunday morning message.
Christians Must Acknowledge Jesus as Lord
The next morning Pete and Megan were the first ones in the church and couldn't wait to talk to us. Pete told us that after reading the Gospel tracts, he could not go to sleep. As he tossed and turned, he kept crying out to Jesus to save him. When Megan woke up, they sat on the side of the bed. Pete apologized to her for his angry outbursts whenever she invited him to church. Needless to say, we praised God with tears of joy for His amazing grace! Pete exhibited the mark of a true Christian by demonstrating loyalty to Jesus was greater than loyalty to his parents. He was willing to leave the Catholic religion for an eternal relationship with Jesus and suffer any consequences with his parents.
Christians Are Adopted Into a New Family
The Lord Jesus is the great divider who separates believers from unbelievers throughout all eternity. His followers may be cut off from their unbelieving families, but our heavenly Father adopts every born-again Christian into His eternal family (Eph. 1:5). Members of God's family not only enjoy the sweet fellowship of many more brothers and sisters, they also enjoy every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus and a peace that surpasses all understanding (Eph. 1:3; Phil. 4:7).

Ocasio-Cortez’s Jew-Hating Muslim staffer calls Israel a ‘racist European ethnostate’ that was built on ‘stolen land’

Ocasio-Cortez has previously called Israel an 'apartheid state'; hires Jew-hating Muslim

BY HOUSTON KEENE

SEE: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/aoc-staffer-israel-ethnostate-stolen-land;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

AND: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/12/muslim-staffer-for-aoc-calls-israel-racist-european-ethnostate-built-on-stolen-land

FIRST ON FOX: A staffer for "Squad" Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., referred to Israel as a "racist European ethnostate" on social media.

Hussain Altamimi joined Ocasio-Cortez’s office in November as a legislative assistant, posting shortly after a picture of him and the congresswoman on Instagram with the caption "New beginnings."

Then, last week, Altamimi targeted Israel in an Instagram story calling the U.S.’s key Middle Eastern ally a "racist European ethnostate."

OCASIO-CORTEZ WRONGLY SUGGESTS SHE REPRESENTS MORE PEOPLE IN CONGRESS THAN JOE MANCHIN

"Israel is a racist European ethnostate built on stolen land from its indigenous population!" Altamimi wrote on Christmas Eve, according to a screenshot obtained by Fox News Digital.

(Instagram)

Altamimi’s comments were in response to a post he shared from an account with the handle "Let’s Talk Palestine,'' which claimed there is a "racial hierarchy" in Israel.

"This reveals the principle underpinning Israeli apartheid: It’s not about where you’re born," the shared post reads. "It’s about whether you’re Jewish or non-Jewish. Your ethnicity determines your rights [and] level in the racial hierarchy."

"Israel is an exclusive ethnostate, established to serve one ethnic group at the expense of another," the post continued.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., on Capitol Hill on Oct. 1, 2021.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., on Capitol Hill on Oct. 1, 2021. (REUTERS/Leah Millis)

Let’s Talk Palestine’s Instagram profile lists it as a "Nonprofit Organization," with the group making several anti-Israel posts.

One post by the account is titled "The Ethnic Cleansing of Jerusalem" and claims Israel has been engaging in the "ethnic cleansing" of Palestinians since taking control of East Jerusalem in the late 1960s.

TLAIB'S CAMPAIGN PAID OUT OVER $100K TO A FIRM FOUNDED BY DEFUND THE POLICE, ANTI-ISRAEL ACTIVIST

Another post presents "key Palestinian actors" as Pokémon cards — including the terrorist organizations Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Earlier this year, the New York Democrat called Israel an "Apartheid state" and said, "Apartheid states aren’t democracies." 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Ocasio-Cortez isn't the only member of the "Squad" who has had someone on their payroll attacking Israel. Rasha Mubarak, a Palestinian activist whose firm was sent $96,000 in payments between March 2020 and March 2021 for "fundraising consulting" from Rep. Rashida Tlaib's campaign, has repeatedly called Israel an "apartheid" state, which has been echoed by Tlaib herself.

Ocasio-Cortez’s office declined to comment.

Fox News' Cameron Cawthorne contributed to this report. 

___________________________________________________________

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/12/muslim-staffer-for-aoc-calls-israel-racist-european-ethnostate-built-on-stolen-land;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

AOC and her friends and allies won’t care about this. They believe the same thing. Get the truth in The Palestinian Delusion.

“Ocasio-Cortez staffer calls Israel a ‘racist European ethnostate’ that was built on ‘stolen land,'” by Houston Keene, Fox News, December 30, 2021 (thanks to Henry):

FIRST ON FOX: A staffer for “Squad” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., referred to Israel as a “racist European ethnostate” on social media.

Hussain Altamimi joined Ocasio-Cortez’s office in November as a legislative assistant, posting shortly after a picture of him and the congresswoman on Instagram with the caption “New beginnings.”

Then, last week, Altamimi targeted Israel in an Instagram story calling the U.S.’s key Middle Eastern ally a “racist European ethnostate.”

“Israel is a racist European ethnostate built on stolen land from its indigenous population!” Altamimi wrote on Christmas Eve, according to a screenshot obtained by Fox News Digital.

Altamimi’s comments were in response to a post he shared from an account with the handle “Let’s Talk Palestine,” which claimed there is a “racial hierarchy” in Israel.

“This reveals the principle underpinning Israeli apartheid: It’s not about where you’re born,” the shared post reads. “It’s about whether you’re Jewish or non-Jewish. Your ethnicity determines your rights [and] level in the racial hierarchy.”

“Israel is an exclusive ethnostate, established to serve one ethnic group at the expense of another,” the post continued….

 

 

County Sheriff Stands Up to Threat Over Bible Verse Displayed in Sheriff Department’s Building

County Sheriff Stands Up to Threat Over Bible Verse Displayed in Sheriff Department’s Building

Sheriff Jody Greene Rebuffs Atheists, Won't Remove Bible Verse from Office Wall. Columbus County, NC

A North Carolina sheriff is rejecting calls from an atheist organization to remove a Bible verse from a sheriff's office wall, saying in a new social media post, "We need more Jesus." At issue is a Bible verse featured prominently on an office wall of the Columbus County (N.C.) Sheriff's office. The verse Philippians 4:13, which says, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me," is displayed on the wall in black letters. The Freedom From Religion Foundation, in a December 6 letter to Sheriff Jody Greene, asked him to remove the verse, arguing that it violates the U.S. Constitution. Columbus County Sheriff 805 Washington Street Whiteville, NC 28472 Phone: 1-910-642-6551 Email: info@columbussheriff.com https://columbussheriff.com/

FFRF's 2021 National Convention Legal Report

BY BOB ADELMANN

SEE: https://thenewamerican.com/county-sheriff-stands-up-to-threat-over-bible-verse-displayed-in-sheriff-departments-building/;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

Columbus County (North Carolina) Sheriff Jody Greene has had a Bible verse displayed on a wall in the sheriff department’s building for years. No one complained, until three weeks before Christmas that is, when he received a complaint letter.

The verse: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Philippians 4:13,”

The complaint letter was from Chris Line, an attorney with the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), an advocacy group for atheists, agnostics, and non-theists. the letter stated;

The Supreme Court has said time and again that the “First Amendment mandates government neutrality between religion and religion, and between religion and nonreligion.”

And:

The court has also ruled “the Establishment Clause, at the very least, prohibits government from appearing to take a position on questions of religious belief.”… [T]his Bible verse display promoting Christianity in a sheriff’s office building is correctly viewed by a reasonable observer as an endorsement of religion, and is therefore unconstitutional.”

Sheriff Greene ignored the letter and kept the Bible verse on the wall.

When the FFRF didn’t get a response from him, on December 14 FFRF’s co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor issued a public statement: “The Columbus County Sheriff’s Office must serve all citizens equally, whether Christian or non-Christian. A blatantly Christian message in a law enforcement division sends a message of exclusion.”

Still, Sheriff Greene remained silent. And then a local TV station learned about the complaint letter and ran a story about it. Only then did he decide to respond,  via his Facebook page:

Good afternoon, Columbus County citizens. I would like to address the recent news article WECT TV6 ran on me concerning a Bible verse that is posted on the wall at the Sheriff’s Office. The verse is “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Philippians 4:13” 

First, the Bible verse was placed on the wall after I took office. It was paid for with private funds, not with county funding. The verse is one of my favorite Bible verses, and it seemed fitting for all the adversity I have had to endure. It is very motivational to me and my staff.

Here at the Sheriff’s Office we work hard in everything that we do. Before we execute a search warrant, or any service that puts our people in immediate harm’s way, we ALWAYS go to the Lord with a group prayer. ALWAYS!

The complaint was politically motivated, said Greene:

I have taken many pictures with that Bible verse in the back[ground] with not a single issue, but now that we are going into an election year, it is an issue.

He said nothing about removing the verse. Instead, he doubled down:

Currently, in Columbus County, we are at 180 [drug] overdoses. Drugs and violence are killing our youth.

We need more Jesus and less politics.

He then challenged FFRF to bring it on:

It is time, past time, to stand up. So let me be clear: I will not waiver on my stance and Christian beliefs.

Merry Christmas and God bless you ALL!

As of this writing, the FFRF remains silent in face of his challenge. But his Facebook page lit up. Within hours he had 45 responses, and all but three were supportive:

• “Stay strong, Sheriff. You and your staff are appreciated.”

• “Thank you, Sheriff Greene. Prayers for you & all your staff as they protect us.”

• “Thank you Sheriff Greene and the entire department for all you do. Merry Christmas.”

• “I am inspired by your bold courage in standing for Christian values.”

• “You have my full support to keep Christian beliefs and standards in our sheriff’s office. We must take a stand and defend our rights. Thank you for taking a stand.”

And so on.

Even Franklin Graham, of Samaritan’s Purse, went to his own Facebook page to support Greene:

I’m thankful this Sheriff knows where the true solution to life’s problems and challenges comes from, and he is standing his ground.

Will you pray for Sheriff Greene and his staff? And leave an encouraging note?

More support for the sheriff poured in:

• “God bless you Sheriff and your department!!!! We are praying for all of you.”

• “STAND FIRM!! You have our support 100%.”

• “Christianity is not a religion … it is a relationship with Christ!”

• “STAND! Sheriff, I’m glad to know the leader of our law enforcement has heart, faith & a backbone. You don’t stand alone.”

• “You’re doing a great job! Please don’t take it down. Christians must stand for their faith and for each other. You have my support!”

And so on.

If the atheist FFRF (which claims that it has 800 members in North Carolina, a state with more than 10 million residents) decides to take on Sheriff Greene in a court of law, there is no doubt that pro-bono law firms such as the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) or Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) would relish the opportunity to defend him.

Fauci Set to Receive Biggest Federal Retirement Package in History

BY LUIS MIGUEL

SEE: https://thenewamerican.com/fauci-set-to-receive-biggest-federal-retirement-package-in-history/;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the chief medical advisor to Joe Biden, is reportedly eligible for the largest federal retirement package in U.S. history. 

The 81-year-old has said he does not plan to retire soon. “There’s no way I’m going to walk away from this until we get this under control,” Fauci told ABC’s Johnathan Karl earlier this month. “I mean, that’s the purpose of what we do. That’s — that’s our mission in life. In the middle of it, I’m not going to walk away.” However, if he did retire, Forbes auditors at OpenTheBooks.com say that Fauci’s 55 years of service in the federal government qualify him for an annual retirement package of $350,000, which would go up through annual cost-of-living adjustments.

Moreover, Fauci is currently the federal government’s highest-paid employee, earning $434,321 in 2020 — a sum higher than that of the president, the military’s highest-ranking commanders, and the rest of the federal government’s 4.3 million employees.

The NIAID chief recently made headlines by suggesting that mandatory masks on airlines should continue into the indefinite future and voiced support for a vaccine requirement on domestic flights.

During his exchange with Karl, Fauci said, “We want to make sure people keep their masks on. I think the idea of taking masks off, in my mind, is really not something we should even be considering.”

He added, “Even though you have a good filtration system, I still believe that masks are a prudent thing to do and we should be doing it.”

Fauci went on to say that “A vaccine requirement for a person getting on the plane is just another level of getting people to have a mechanism that would spur them to get vaccinated; namely, you can’t get on a plane unless you’re vaccinated, which is just another one of the ways of getting requirements, whatever that might be. So I mean, anything that could get people more vaccinated would be welcome.”

Fauci has also been a proponent on Joe Biden’s vaccine employer mandate for companies. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently initially blocked the mandate, but the Sixth Circuit overruled that in a consolidated appeal.

As a result, a group of 47 Republican senators and 136 House members is asking the Supreme Court to block enforcement of the mandate

The brief by Republican lawmakers argues that under Biden, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is acting outside the limits of its authority. They assert OSHA was created to protect workers from specific workplace hazards but never from viruses like COVID-19.

“The ETS provision of the OSH Act allows OSHA to address only ‘grave danger’ in the workplace, which includes any ‘toxic or physically harmful’ agent,” the brief reads. “In the statutory scheme established by Congress, these conditions are a meaningful restraint on the agency. OSHA, however, aggressively reads the restrictions as an opportunity for the agency to branch out into public healthcare policy.”

The New American recently reported that Fauci and the National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins colluded to conduct a “quick and devastating” take-down of a document advocating for a lockdown-free COVID-19 response strategy.

Emails released last week by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis revealed retiring NIH Director Collins telling Fauci in October 2020 to discredit the Great Barrington Declaration (GBD) — an international document signed by nearly 900,000 physicians that warns against “the damaging physical and mental health impacts” of lockdowns and other forceful measures while calling for achieving herd immunity through “focused protection” of the most vulnerable.

In addition, reports have surfaced about Fauci doling out millions of dollars in National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, from which COVID-19 escaped into the general Chinese public, starting the pandemic.

Per a report from Fox’s The Next Revolution With Steve Hilton, Fauci continued gain-of-function research even after an Obama administration ban, ultimately funding a China-based study that “unlocked a highly specific doorway into the human body.” That’s the same pathway used by COVID-19. According to the January 24 report, Fauci argued in a Washington Post article that “important information and insight can come from generating a potentially dangerous virus in the laboratory.”

Biden Cuts Off Successful COVID Monoclonal Antibody Treatments to States Because They’re Not Fauci Shots

EXCLUSIVE: January 6th 2021 Prisoner Says, ‘I Literally Have Nothing Left But Food and My Bible’

Jake Lang is a January 6 political prisoner who has been held in DC Jail for ten months. Jake Lang is a 26-year-old entrepreneur and is the founder of a free speech social media network, LibertyCentric.com. Jake is a man of deep faith in God and loves our Constitutional liberties. He stood up for our Country & Freedoms on January 6 At the Capitol building west terrace. The police started viciously brutalizing unarmed protestors, and Jake moved to protect innocent lives like Philip Anderson. In Philips's own words, signed in a Federal Court Declaration," I recall Jake telling the crowd, including officers, 'there are people down here!" Jake proceeded to save my life by pulling me out of the pile of people. If Jake were not present to help me, I would have died on January 6, 2021. I would have been killed because of the actions that the police took on January 6, 2021. Jake has started a live daily Podcast from DC Jail called ' Jake Lang Political Prisoner ' available on Spotify, Anchor FM, and Apple Podcasts, exposing the truth of January 6 and the patriot's perspective on the news.

Jan 6 inmate's phone call gets "terminated by facility" during Newsmax interview

BY MEGAN FOX

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/megan-fox/2021/12/31/exclusive-j6-prisoner-says-i-literally-have-nothing-left-but-food-and-my-bible-n1545694;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

Jacob Lang has been awaiting trial without bail in the D.C. jail for his involvement in the January 6 riot at the Capitol for almost a year, along with many others who have been charged with crimes connected to that day. With no trial date in sight, he and his fellow inmates languish in a jail they say is inhumane. The J6 prisoners’ complaints about filthy conditions and inhumane treatment resulted in a surprise inspection that found everything they were saying was true. As a result, over 400 prisoners were moved to different facilities—none of them J6 prisoners.

Lang has been in contact with PJ Media and several other media sources and was recently giving an interview on Newsmax TV when the jail cut off his phone access. Afterward, Lang reported to PJ Media that the jail took away all access to the internet and cut off phone privileges for all the detainees. They are now on lockdown and Lang says he’s not even able to call his lawyer.

Regardless of what crimes these people are charged with, there is a protocol for how prisoners are supposed to be treated, especially pre-trial detainees who have the presumption of innocence. None of that seems to have been followed in the cases involving the J6 arrestees.

RELATED VIP: The Fringe with Megan Fox, Episode 78: Insurrectionist or Hero? Exclusive Interview with J6 Detainee Jacob Lang

In a text sent to PJ Media by Lang’s family, Lang wrote, “I am being held in true solitary confinement, locked in my cell 22 hours a day. In response to my viral Newsmax interview yesterday, where the D.C. jail cut my interview mid-sentence, and the automated message rung [sic] out on live national TV, ‘this call is being terminated by the jail.’ I have now been completely cut off from the outside world! They have suspended my phone and tablet access. I cannot talk to my family or my attorney. I literally have nothing left but food and my Bible.”

Lang says he has “no lawyer access, no visitation, no calls, no haircuts, and no religious services.”

Lang is charged with assaulting a police officer and was seen on video wielding a baseball bat. He claims it was in self-defense and in the defense of others who were suffocating to death and being trampled. Lang also claims he did not bring the bat but found it on the ground. Lang says that police were attacking people, including Roseanne Boyland, who died after being pulled out from the bottom of a pile of people Lang says police created.

On December 27, a few days before the Newsmax interview, Lang spoke to PJ Media and said that the solitary confinement began before Christmas in response to alleged covid outbreaks. Lang says he doesn’t know anyone who is sick in his jail pod. “We are literally being mentally tortured in here,” he said. “Solitary confinement over 10 days was ruled by the Geneva convention to be cruel and unusual punishment and I’ve lived like that the first 200 days I got to this jail.” After that, the prisoners were given five hours a day out of their cells, which Lang says is a little better. But that all changed before Christmas. “Now we’re back to this 22-hour lockdown and two hours out a day.”

“They let out two or three people at a time so we get minor human interaction,” he said. “There are some people in here who have really been drained by this.”

Lang says they are treated like animals. “We are considered innocent until proven guilty and we are supposed to have all of our rights afforded to us except our freedom of movement,” he said. “Our privacy rights are supposed to be maintained. Our freedom of speech rights is supposed to be maintained. How could I have my freedom of speech rights if I’m locked in a cell away from my lawyer, away from my family, away from doing interviews?”

Lang is growing increasingly frustrated as no trial date has been set and there is no end in sight for how long he will be held without a trial. “I’ve lived [for] a year like this…they blame everything on covid. Where is it in the Constitution that during a bad flu season you can suspend everyone’s rights?”

The Washington Post reported on the massive lockdowns at the D.C. jail related to Covid in April and no one did anything about it.

“It is a very dangerous situation that you describe,” said Craig Haney, a psychology professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz who has studied the effects of solitary confinement. Haney said a year of “23 and 1” lockdown would ordinarily be reserved for those who commit extraordinary breaches of prison rules, most likely involving acts of violence.

The psychological and physical harms that such prolonged isolation can cause are legion, he added: depression, anxiety, heart disease, erosion of a sense of self and exacerbation of any existing mental illness, diabetes or hypertension. Those problems can last well after an inmate’s release.

“I understand that prisons and jails have been confronted with an extraordinary problem,” Haney said. “But this is not the solution.”

In Lang’s last communication after the Newsmax event, he sounded despondent. “I feel utterly abandoned by my country,” he said.

PJ Media reached out to the public information officer for the Department of Corrections, Dr. Keena Blackmon, for comment on solitary confinement protocols but was unable to reach her in time for publishing. If she does respond, the article will be updated.