BEWARE FEMALES - FACEBOOK STALKING (Friday Church News Notes, January 25, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - A missionary friend in a Latin American country wrote the following: “I have seen several young girls here with Facebook ‘friends’ who are men from other countries. I have counseled several and warned about this. They all replied that they get bombarded with ‘friend’ requests. I decided to do an experiment, and the results were very disturbing. I opened a fake Facebook account as a 17-year-old girl from this country. No photos, no likes, no friends, no links to anyone or anything. I used an unregistered new phone chip number (available here from cell phone companies for two dollars). Basically, it was a blank Facebook profile, so there was nothing that could ‘entice’ a stalker. I then waited with no activity on my part. After a month or so the account was bombarded by ‘friend’ requests. All were from Muslim men from Muslim countries. I found this highly disturbing because it shows that the algorithms of Facebook are programed to make a link between foreign Muslim men with young foolish girls in this country. And of course it is not difficult to see where that leads.”

PRESIDENT TRUMP CELEBRATES “RELIGIOUS FREEDOM DAY” (Friday Church News Notes, January 25, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Trump Celebrates,” DailyWire, Jan. 16, 2019: “President Trump reaffirmed his support for religious liberty on Wednesday in celebration of Religious Freedom Day. In his proclamation to honor the day, President Trump praised religious liberty as being ‘innate to the dignity of every human person.’ ‘On Religious Freedom Day, we celebrate our Nation’s long-standing commitment to freedom of conscience and the freedom to profess one’s own faith,’ Trump said, ‘The right to religious freedom is innate to the dignity of every human person and is foundational to the pursuit of truth.’ President Trump also highlighted America’s inherently religious founding, one in which many settlers ‘fled their home countries to escape religious persecution. Aware of this history, our Nation’s Founding Fathers readily understood that a just government must respect the deep yearning for truth and openness to the transcendent that are part of the human spirit. For this reason, from the beginning, our constitutional republic has endeavored to protect a robust understanding of religious freedom.’ ... In the same proclamation, President Trump emphasized that religious liberty is ‘under attack.’ ‘Unfortunately, the fundamental human right to religious freedom is under attack,’ he said. ‘Efforts to circumscribe religious freedom--or to separate it from adjoining civil liberties, like property rights or free speech--are on the rise.’”

GOOGLE CENSORING “ABORTION” RESULTS FOR YOUTUBE VIDEOS (Friday Church News Notes, January 25, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) -Google, which owns YouTube, censors the search results for “abortion” so that hard-hitting anti-abortion videos no longer appear in the top ten. “[A]n internal discussion thread leaked to Breitbart News reveals Google regularly intervenes in search results on its YouTube video platform--including a recent intervention that pushed pro-life videos out of the top ten search results for ‘abortion.’ The term ‘abortion’ was added to a ‘blacklist’ file for ‘controversial YouTube queries,’ which contains a list of search terms that the company considers sensitive” (“The Smoking Gun: Google manipulated search results,” Breitbart, Jan. 16, 2019). The videos were not removed, but they were made to appear lower in the list of results so that they would be seen by fewer people. A Google spokesperson admitted to the Daily Mail that this was done, but claimed that the videos in question contained “misinformation” or “graphic content.” “YouTube failed to explain how congressional testimony from Dr. Antony Levatino, a gynecologist and former abortion doctor--also disappeared from the top ten results--could be ‘misinformation.’ But perhaps the most obvious contradiction to YouTube’s comment is ‘Abortion: My Experience,’ a video that according to the Slate report, previously featured at around ninth in the search results. The video is a woman’s personal story of being pressured into an abortion by an allegedly abusive partner, and subsequently regretting the decision. The video doesn’t feature any graphic images. As it’s a personal story, it can’t be accused of ‘misinformation,’ either. It seems disappearing the stories of women who don’t have the correct abortion experience is now YouTube’s policy” (“YouTube admits it meddled with search results,” Breitbart, Jan. 17, 2019).

HERETICAL “EVANGELICALS” (Friday Church News Notes, January 25, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The sad state of “evangelicalism” in America was highlighted in a recent survey by Ligonier Ministries. Interviewers asked a series of questions to 3,000 Americans who identify as evangelical. 49% agreed with the statement, “God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.” 78% agreed that “most people are basically good by nature” and that “Jesus was the first being created by God” (“Christianity in Crisis,” BrownPublishings.com, Dec. 2018).

USING “HE/SHE” PRONOUNS BANNED DURING SENATE HEARINGS IN CALIFORNIA (Friday Church News Notes, January 25, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Democrat State Senator Announces Using ‘He/She’ Pronounces Will Be Banned,” The Daily Wire, Jan. 19, 2019: “California knows no bounds when it comes to radical LGBT activism. On Thursday, State Senator and Senate Judiciary Committee chair Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) announced that only ‘gender neutral’ pronouns will be permitted during committee hearings. ‘Our first order of business is to approve the committee rules. I'd like to note--in respecting the fact that we are now a state recognizing the non-binary designation as a gender--he and she--we are now merging them so we are using what my grammar teacher would have had a heart attack over: we are using the phrase “they” and replacing other designations so it’s a gender neutral designation’ ... ‘In the spirit of gender neutrality for the rules of this committee, we now designate the chair as “they,”’ Jackson corrected the record. ... As reported by The Daily Wire in 2017, California became the first state in the union to create a ‘non-binary’ option for legal documents and drivers licenses. ... The act allows California residents to select an ‘option x’ or ‘non-binary’ option on drivers licenses, birth certificates, marriage licenses, and other-state issued documents.”

GOOGLE EMPLOYEES PROTEST USE OF WORD “FAMILY” TO REFER TO CHILDREN (Friday Church News Notes, January 25, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The morally-perverted viewpoint of a large number of Google employees was evident in an event that occurred in March 2017 when the use of the term “family friendly” by a Google executive in a weekly company-wide presentation caused an uproar. The term “family” was used in the context of discussing a product aimed at children. A Google employee stormed out of the meeting in protest and later ranted in an internal communication thread that linking “family” to children is “offensive, inappropriate, homophobic, and wrong.” He said, “This is a diminishing and disrespectful way to speak. ... The use of ‘family’ as a synonym for ‘with children’ has a long-standing association with deeply homophobic organizations” (“Disrespectful: Google Employees Melt Down Over the Word ‘Family,’” The Daily Caller, Jan. 16, 2019). About 100 other Google employees agreed with this anti-traditional family diatribe. One said, “As a straight person in a relationship, I find the term ‘family’ offensive because it excludes me and my boyfriend, having no children of our own.” Another said, “My family consists of me and several other trans feminine folks, some of whom I’m dating. We’re all supportive of each other and eventually aspire to live together. Just because we aren’t a heterosexual couple with 2.5 kids, a white picket fence, and a dog doesn’t mean we’re not a family.” Another said that “using ‘family’ to mean ‘people with kids’ is also annoying to me as a straight-cis-woman who doesn’t have or want kids. My husband, my parents, and my pets are my family.” Google vice president Pavni Diwanji apologized for using “family” in the traditional way and asked for help from employees on how the company could use language more inclusively and less offensively. He pleaded with his liberal-minded employees, “Please help us get to a better state. Teach us how to talk about it in inclusive way, if you feel like we are not doing it well.” It is sad and frightful that the great power of the world’s premier search engine is in the hands of such people.

YETI CRABS (Friday Church News Notes, January 25, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, Dec. 19, 2018: “The Encyclopedia Britannica has a startling article about yeti crabs--their habitat and their breeding patterns. Remarkably, these creatures live in hydrothermal vents in the south Pacific Ocean – in the vicinity of Easter Island. The pressure of sea water above the vents and the geothermal energy from below allows temperatures to reach 720°F (380°C). While this would be well hot enough to cook a crab in the kitchen, these strange creatures thrive in the conditions. The yeti crab has unusually long claws for an animal of its size. These claws are covered with feathery hairs or setae, which, in turn, are covered with filamentous bacteria. Some scientists have suspected that these bacteria might, in fact, be the crab’s fuel source. These bacteria thrive in the high-sulfur content of the vents. The animal is well adapted to living in these hostile conditions, but, strangely, the crab’s eggs cannot survive in the hydrothermal vents because of the high sulfur content. So female crabs have to leave their super-warm homes and swim to colder waters in order to lay their eggs. This change in climate is too great for most females to survive, and they tend to die after laying the eggs. After hatching, the larvae must make their way back into the super-heated conditions of the adults. As always, we are startled and amazed by the diversity and complexity of God’s creation. Why did He make such unusual creatures? We do not yet know, but they have some part to play in the strange ecosystem that is the hydrothermal vent. Ref: https://www.mbari.org/discovery-of-yeti-crab/”

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).