Friday Church News Notes
Volume 19, Issue 34 - August 24, 2018
Graphical Edition
The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, though this does not imply an endorsement.
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Pope Francis

GRAND JURY REPORT IDENTIFIES MORE THAN 1,000 VICTIMS OF PRIEST ABUSE IN PENNSYLVANIA (Friday Church News Notes, August 24, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - A grand jury has concluded that more than 1,000 children were abused by Roman Catholic priests in six Pennsylvania dioceses alone over the last several decades. The report, the product of a two-year investigation, identified 300 abusing priests and lay “brothers” and found evidence of a systematic cover-up by senior church leaders in Pennsylvania and at the Vatican in Rome (“Report Identifies More Than 1,000,” Associated Press, Aug. 14, 2018). At a news conference, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said, “The cover-up was sophisticated. And all the while, shockingly, church leadership kept records of the abuse and the cover-up. These documents, from the dioceses’ own ‘Secret Archives,’ formed the backbone of this investigation.” The six dioceses represent only half of the Catholic churches in Pennsylvania. Most of the victims were boys. The Roman Catholic Church in America has paid over $2 billion to settle lawsuits against immoral priests. The Bishop Accountability organization said that more than 4,000 priests have been accused of abusing children (“US Church to Pay 12.6 Million,” AFP, Aug. 11, 2008). A conservative Catholic organization documented this wretched business in the fall/winter 2002 issue of the magazine Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, observing: “… the overwhelming majority of sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church--about 90%--involve homosexual priests preying on teenage boys. The major media and the U.S. culture at large want to deny or spin the homosexual factor out of the scandal.” In a recent interview, Cardinal Raymond Burke said, “I believe that there needs to be an open recognition that we have a very grave problem of a homosexual culture in the Church, especially among the clergy and the hierarchy...” (“Cardinal Burke Addresses the Clergy Scandal,” Catholic Action for Faith and Family, Aug. 16, 2018). This is not a problem limited to America. In 2003, the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland agreed to pay $110 million to avoid further sex scandal litigation. In 2013, Pope Francis acknowledged that a “gay lobby” exists in the highest levels of Catholicism. “In the Curia, there are holy people. But there is also a stream of corruption. The ‘gay lobby’ is mentioned, and it is true, it is there. We need to see what we can do” (“Pope Francis,” CNN Belief Blog, June 11, 2013). The pope was referring to reports that appeared in Italian newspapers in 2012 based on leaks to journalists from Vatican insiders. La Repubblica said there are “high-level Vatican clergy involved in homosexual affairs.” Rome’s doctrine of “celibacy” is defiance to God’s Word and is a terrible farce.

WHAT CHINA DOES TO PEOPLE WHO SPEAK OUT AGAINST THEM (Friday Church News Notes, August 24, 2018, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Barging into Your Home,” Business Insider, Aug. 19, 2018: “The Chinese Communist Party has long sought to suppress ideas that could undermine the sweeping authority it has over its 1.4 billion citizens--and the state can go to extreme lengths to maintain its grip. In just the past few years, the government has attempted to muzzle critics by making them disappear without a trace, ordering people to physically barge into their houses, or locking up those close to critics as a kind of blackmail. Even leaving China isn't always enough. The state has continued to clamp down on dissent by harassing and threatening family members who remain in the country. [Consider] what China can do to people who criticize it: 1. Make you disappear. Wang Quanzhang, a human rights lawyer who defended political activists in the past, has not been seen since he was taken into detention three years ago. ... 2. Physically drag you away so you can’t speak to the media. ... 3. Put your family under house arrest, even if they haven’t been accused of a crime. ... 4. Threaten to kill your family and forbid them from leaving China. Even when dissidents leave China, they are not safe. Many Chinese expats and exiles have seen family members who remained in China pay the price for their protest. One example is Chinese-Canadian actress Anastasia Lin, who repeatedly speaks out to criticise China's human rights record. ... 5. Take down your social media posts. ... 6. Remove your posts from the Internet--and reportedly throw you in a psychiatric ward. ... In July, Dong Yaoqiong live-streamed herself pouring black ink over a poster of Xi Jinping in Shanghai, while criticizing the Communist Party's ‘oppressive brain control’ over the country. Hours later, she reported seeing police officers at her door and the video--which can still be seen here--was removed from her social media account. She has not been seen in public since, although Voice of America and Radio Free Asia reported that she was being held at a psychiatric hospital in her home province of Hunan, citing local activists. 7. Barge into your house to force you off the airwaves. Sun Wenguang, a prominent critic of the Chinese government, was forced off air during a live phone interview with Voice of America in early August. The 83-year-old former economics professor had been arguing that Xi Jinping had his economic priorities wrong, when up to eight policemen barged into his home, and forced him off the line. ... 8. Trap you in your house, and detain people who come to see you. ... 9. Forbid you from leaving the country. ... 10. Intercept your protests before they even begin.”

CALIFORNIA CHURCH TO MEET IN A BREWERY (Friday Church News Notes, August 24, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Greater Purpose Community Church of Santa Cruz, California, is building a beer brewery that will also serve as its meeting place. Pastor Chris VanHall says, “I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be great if a church could figure out a way to make a product where they split the profits with local community service organizations, we were like ‘hey, we love beer, we love making beer, why not do a brewery?’” He said that drinking a couple of beers “improves the sermon.” The church’s web site says, “[We] will embrace you regardless of your faith, personal life choices, race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, political preference, social status, or economic standing.” The profit from the church’s brewery will go to abortion provider Planned Parenthood. This is “The Shack” Christianity which is void of conviction of sin, repentance, and life-changing regeneration. Such things are labeled “bigotry and hate-filled theology” by The Greater Purpose Community Church.

“THEYBIES” (Friday Church News Notes, August 24, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Boy or girl? Parents raising ‘theybies’ let kids decide,” NBCNews.com, Jul. 19, 2018: “Three-year-old twins Zyler and Kadyn Sharpe scurried around the boys and girls clothing racks of a narrow consignment store filled with toys. Zyler, wearing rainbow leggings, scrutinized a pair of hot-pink-and-purple sneakers. Kadyn, in a T-Rex shirt, fixated on a musical cube that flashed colorful lights. At a glance, the only discernible difference between these fraternal twins is their hair—Zyler’s is brown and Kadyn’s is blond. Is Zyler a boy or a girl? How about Kadyn? That’s a question their parents, Nate and Julia Sharpe, say only the twins can decide. The Cambridge, Mass., couple represent a small group of parents raising ‘theybies’—children being brought up without gender designation from birth. A Facebook community for these parents currently claims about 220 members across the U.S. … Parents in the U.S. are increasingly raising children outside traditional gender norms—allowing boys and girls to play with the same toys and wear the same clothes—though experts say this is happening mostly in progressive, well-to-do enclaves. But what makes this ‘gender-open’ style of parenting stand out, and even controversial in some circles, is that the parents do not reveal the sex of their children to anyone. Even the children, who are aware of their own body parts and how they may differ from others, are not taught to associate those body parts with being a boy or girl. If no one knows a child’s sex, these parents theorize, the child can’t be pigeonholed into gender stereotypes.”

ROBOTIC TRACTOR COMING IN OCTOBER (Friday Church News Notes, August 24, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Yanmar’s robotic tractors,” New Atlas, Jul. 22, 2018: “On October 1, 2018, the company is releasing its 2-series tractors equipped with the Smartpilot autonomous operating system and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) that allow them to operate in autonomous and semi-autonomous modes. … According to Yanmar, its unmanned Robot Tractors and semi-autonomous Auto Tractors are designed to not only decrease the need for manual labor, but also the need for trained drivers to perform high-precision field work—a particularly important factor in a country like Japan with large farms that are facing an aging agricultural workforce. In addition, the robotic technology can be retrofitted to more conventional Yanmar tractors. … If a human operator is needed, they don’t have to be in the cab. Instead, there’s a weatherproof 10-inch tablet that allows one person to control two tractors at the same time. In addition, the tablet can program driving routes and track the machines independently.”

THE PLANT’S PHOTOCELL (Friday Church News Notes, August 24, 2018, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, July 24, 2018: “Green plants are green, mostly because of a green pigment called chlorophyll. Many of us learned in high school that this green pigment is what causes photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is that key process by which a plant can manufacture useful high energy molecules such as sugars. In the photosynthetic process, the plant absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and water transpiring from its roots to create sugar molecules. The byproduct, oxygen, is released into the atmosphere. At first sight, this seems pretty straightforward. But there is, of course, a lot more to it. The process becomes especially difficult to understand if one wants to assume that this is a process which came into existence by evolution. Our first problem is that the reaction requires an input of energy—chemists call this an endothermic reaction. Such reactions are not unusual, though reactions requiring the input of light energy are less common than those inputting heat energy. However, if you fill a jar with water and carbon dioxide, and shine a light into it, you will not make sugar molecules. Therefore, chlorophyll is not just a catalyst for the reaction—it is an essential intermediary without which the reaction cannot happen. In fact, a whole book can be written on the complexity of this whole process, and the inter-dependability of every step. And then we go further to see how animals get their energy from plants, so every energy chain comes back to photosynthesis. It is a process that looks like it was designed by God for a purpose—which is exactly what the Bible says. Ref: Swindell, R., Shining light on the evolution of photosynthesis, Journal of Creation 17(3):74–84 December 2003.”

CONCLUSION: The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this obviously does not imply an endorsement. We trust that our readers will not be discouraged. It is God’s will that we know the times (1 Ch. 12:32; Mat. 16:3) and that we be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. The News Notes remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the Lord’s coming. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ? “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Rom. 13:11-14).

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Distributed by Way of Life Literature., publisher of Bible Study Materials and reports for Fundamental Baptists and other fundamentalist, Bible-believing Christians. Established in 1974, Way of Life Literature is a fundamental Baptist preaching and publishing ministry based in Bethel Baptist Church, London, Ontario, of which Wilbert Unger is the founding Pastor. Brother Cloud lives in South Asia where he has been a church planting missionary since 1979. OUR GOAL IN THIS PARTICULAR ASPECT OF OUR MINISTRY (REPORTS AND FRIDAY NEWS) IS NOT DEVOTIONAL. IS TO PROVIDE INFORMATION TO ASSIST PREACHERS IN THE PROTECTION OF THE CHURCHES IN THIS APOSTATE HOUR.

David Cloud, Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org

The Way of Life Literature preaching and publishing ministry is based at Bethel Baptist Church, London, Ontario, of which Wilbert Unger is the founding Pastor. A mail stop is maintained in Port Huron, Michigan.

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