Friday Church News Notes
Volume 21, Issue 26 - June 26, 2020
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.
Two schools, named after George Washington and Thomas Jefferson in the Berkeley Unified School District ,will be renamed after a push from Black Lives Matter activists.
EDUCATORS IN BERKELEY SUBSTITUTE LEFTIST PROPAGANDA FOR EDUCATION (Friday Church News Notes, June 26, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The school board in Berkeley, California, has voted unanimously to rename elementary schools that bear the illustrious names of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson (“Two Berkeley Public Schools to be renamed in response to BLM movement,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 15, 2020). The shallow reason is that Washington and Jefferson “owned slaves.” This will do absolutely nothing to help black lives, of course. It is not surprising to see such insanity coming from Berkeley, which has been a leftist stronghold since well before the 1960s. The problem is that this insanity has spread widely throughout American society, and the anti-American propagandizing in the public schools is a major reason. America’s Founding Fathers established the most just, free nation on earth at the time. By far. From its founding, America has been a mixed multitude of people of varying principles, including religious principles, but America’s Founding Fathers were radical pioneers in human rights. They should be praised in America’s schools, not blacklisted. When I was in elementary school (1955-1961), we were taught the truth about history instead of Marxist disinformation. In 1789, when George Washington was inaugurated as America’s first president, there was no nation on earth that did not support slavery in some form. The concept that all men are created equal, which is enshrined in the 1776 U.S. Declaration of Independence (penned by Thomas Jefferson), was not perfectly enacted at America’s inception, but eventually it was. At the time, Native American nations practiced slavery. Black nations in Africa practiced it. The Muslim nations, including the Ottoman Empire, were major slavers. At America’s founding, England, the Portuguese, the Spanish, and the Dutch were heavily involved in the slave trade. It was the Spanish who brought the first black slaves to the Americas in the 16th century. But England and America led the way in the abolition of slavery, and it was a hard, long, expensive battle because of fallen human nature. The problem was not so much racism as it was covetousness. The Ottomans preferred white slaves and traded in millions of them. It was the Bible’s influence that produced the radical thinking of the anti-slavery movement. In 1807, England abolished the slave trade, though the owning of slaves was still legal in the colonies. In 1808, the U.S. government outlawed American participation in the African slave trade. In the 1830s, the Underground Railway was established by Americans to help runaway slaves escape to the northern states and Canada. In 1833, England abolished slavery. In 1833, the American Antislavery Society was organized and within five years it had more than 1,350 chapters and 250,000 members. In 1856, the Republican Party was formed in America as a coalition of various political groups opposing slavery. In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected the first Republican party president, and the U.S. fought a terrible civil war to liberate black slaves. In 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation abolishing slavery in the Confederate States. In 1865, the Civil War ended and the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery in all states. No Democrats voted in favor of this amendment. Berkeley’s school board needs to stop propagandizing and start educating.
THE U.S. SUPREME COURT AGAIN LEGISLATES INSTEAD OF JUDGES (Friday Church News Notes, June 26, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Activist judges have been creating laws for a very long time in America. They legislated a right to abortion. They legislated a separation of church and state. They legislated prayer and Bible reading out of the public schools. Now they have legislated new rights for homosexuals. On June 15, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 applies to homosexuals and “transgenders.” Title VII of the act says it is unlawful “for an employer to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual ... because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” The decision was 6-3, with two so-called “conservative justices” (John Roberts and Neil Gorsuch) siding with the “liberals.” Dissenting were Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Brett Kavanaugh. In his sharply-worded dissent, Alito wrote, “There is only one word for what the Court has done today: legislation. The document that the Court releases is in the form of a judicial opinion interpreting a statute, but that is deceptive ... A MORE BRAZEN ABUSE OF OUR AUTHORITY TO INTERPRET STATUTES IS HARD TO RECALL. ... Many will applaud today’s decision because they agree on policy grounds with the Court’s updating of Title VII. But the question in these cases is not whether discrimination because of sexual orientation or gender identity should be outlawed. The question is whether Congress did that in 1964. It indisputably did not. ... As the briefing in these cases has warned, the position that the Court now adopts will threaten freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and personal privacy and safety. No one should think that the Court’s decision represents an unalloyed victory for individual liberty. ... The Court’s brusque refusal to consider the consequences of its reasoning is irresponsible.”
POLICE HARASS STREET PREACHERS AT A BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTEST (Friday Church News Notes, June 26, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - There has been increase in unlawful harassment of street preachers and churches by law enforcement in many parts of America. A recent example occurred at a Black Lives Matter protest in Clovis, New Mexico, where police threatened to arrest preachers for “inciting a riot” when all they were doing was preaching that Jesus Christ desires to save all men of all colors. The inciters are the BLM crowd, not preachers of the gospel! We have reported many cases like this, including actual arrests of law-abiding street preachers.
https://reformationcharlotte.org/2020/06/17/no-gospel-allowed-at-black-lives-matter-protest-cops-try-to-make-evangelists-leave/
HIDDEN CAMERAS SHOW FACEBOOK CONTRACTORS BRAGGING ABOUT REMOVING PRO-TRUMP CONTENT (Friday Church News Notes, July 3, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Project Veritas has published a video testimony of former Facebook contract worker Zach McElroy that proves aggressive censorship of politically conservative content. The following is excerpted from “Hidden Cameras,” PJMedia, June 23, 2020: “Hidden cameras show Facebook contractors bragging about deleting MAGA accounts or pro-Trump sentiment because of political bias. ‘It’s a very progressive company who’s very anti-MAGA,’ says Steve Grimmett, team lead for content review, on hidden camera. ‘I think they’re very biased with who they protect,’ adds Daniel Will, content moderator. ‘Facebook shadowbans and they say they don’t but it’s clear that people’s content don’t come up because it’s been de-filtered off the queue. They’re doing something but trying to pretend like they’re not,’ he said in what he thought was a private conversation. ‘To me censorship online is one of the biggest issues facing us in the lead up to the 2020 election,’ said whistleblower McElroy. The video follows McElroy around Facebook as he asks employees on content moderation teams about the bias. He asks Robert Miller, ‘You know that civic harassment queue that we’ve been in lately? Is it just me or is it all Republicans in there?’ Miller replies, ‘Yeah, it’s all Republicans. But a lot of it comes of Trump’s page specifically.’ Other hidden video shows other social media content moderators admitting to deleting anything pro-Trump. ‘If a Trump post was to come up and it was promoting Trump, then I can take that down,’ said Lara Kontakos. ‘Then I feel that would be really impactful.’ In a later clip, Kontakos was heard saying she deletes ‘all Republicans. If someone is wearing a MAGA hat I am going to delete them for terrorism.’ ... McElroy has started a GoFundMe for himself in the aftermath of this story to help with the difficulty he will surely face in legal battles after breaking the nondisclosure agreement he had to sign at Facebook.”
WILLING TO STAND ALONE (Friday Church News Notes, June 26, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “I have come, thank God, to where I believe I could stand up and vote my convictions if I were the one lonely man on my side of the question. I recall one instance when one man and one only stood up and voted with me. I confess that it is more pleasant to be with the majority than with the minority, but the joy of taking a conscientious stand and feeling that you are right is far greater than the thrill of multitudes who agree with you. ... Such are times when men need to know their own souls and to be fortified with a loyalty that is to God alone. If standing true and courageous amid the storms that now assail they can look up and go forward, it will matter little whether other men are their friends or their foes” (Evangelist Bob Schuler, cited from The Great Conservative Baptist Compromise by Richard Clearwaters)
CAN PLANTS SEE? (Friday Church News Notes, June 26, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from creationmoments.com, May 28, 2020: “If a plant could see, what would it look at? Amazed scientists have learned that plants can indeed see and react to their environments just as do animals! Plants need light for photosynthesis. They grow toward the light. However, this isn’t what scientists are referring to when they talk about plant sight. They have discovered that plants have an additional system that allows them to react to their surroundings. Plants have pores, called stomata. Stomata allow carbon dioxide into the plant, and oxygen out, as photosynthesis takes place. They remain closed when there is little light or when water must be conserved. The more the stomata open, the faster photosynthesis takes place, and the faster the plants grow. The plant also loses water faster when the stomata are open wide. While both blue and red light are used for photosynthesis, scientists have found that the cells that open and close the stomata respond only to blue light. The amount of blue light present turns on a pump in the cells that causes them to swell, and the stoma opens. This amazing process involves pumping protons to create electricity. In one experiment, scientists more than doubled the growth rate of orchids by providing extra blue light to open the stomata. In the plants’ ability to sense and react to their environment, we see another way that plants give glory to their Creator and show that they are not simple living things that just happened to develop. REF.: Miller, Julie Ann. 1985. ‘Plant sight from pores and pumps.’ Science News, Nov. 30. p. 341.”
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).
THE U.S. SUPREME COURT AGAIN LEGISLATES INSTEAD OF JUDGES (Friday Church News Notes, June 26, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Activist judges have been creating laws for a very long time in America. They legislated a right to abortion. They legislated a separation of church and state. They legislated prayer and Bible reading out of the public schools. Now they have legislated new rights for homosexuals. On June 15, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 applies to homosexuals and “transgenders.” Title VII of the act says it is unlawful “for an employer to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual ... because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” The decision was 6-3, with two so-called “conservative justices” (John Roberts and Neil Gorsuch) siding with the “liberals.” Dissenting were Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Brett Kavanaugh. In his sharply-worded dissent, Alito wrote, “There is only one word for what the Court has done today: legislation. The document that the Court releases is in the form of a judicial opinion interpreting a statute, but that is deceptive ... A MORE BRAZEN ABUSE OF OUR AUTHORITY TO INTERPRET STATUTES IS HARD TO RECALL. ... Many will applaud today’s decision because they agree on policy grounds with the Court’s updating of Title VII. But the question in these cases is not whether discrimination because of sexual orientation or gender identity should be outlawed. The question is whether Congress did that in 1964. It indisputably did not. ... As the briefing in these cases has warned, the position that the Court now adopts will threaten freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and personal privacy and safety. No one should think that the Court’s decision represents an unalloyed victory for individual liberty. ... The Court’s brusque refusal to consider the consequences of its reasoning is irresponsible.”
POLICE HARASS STREET PREACHERS AT A BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTEST (Friday Church News Notes, June 26, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - There has been increase in unlawful harassment of street preachers and churches by law enforcement in many parts of America. A recent example occurred at a Black Lives Matter protest in Clovis, New Mexico, where police threatened to arrest preachers for “inciting a riot” when all they were doing was preaching that Jesus Christ desires to save all men of all colors. The inciters are the BLM crowd, not preachers of the gospel! We have reported many cases like this, including actual arrests of law-abiding street preachers.
https://reformationcharlotte.org/2020/06/17/no-gospel-allowed-at-black-lives-matter-protest-cops-try-to-make-evangelists-leave/
HIDDEN CAMERAS SHOW FACEBOOK CONTRACTORS BRAGGING ABOUT REMOVING PRO-TRUMP CONTENT (Friday Church News Notes, July 3, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Project Veritas has published a video testimony of former Facebook contract worker Zach McElroy that proves aggressive censorship of politically conservative content. The following is excerpted from “Hidden Cameras,” PJMedia, June 23, 2020: “Hidden cameras show Facebook contractors bragging about deleting MAGA accounts or pro-Trump sentiment because of political bias. ‘It’s a very progressive company who’s very anti-MAGA,’ says Steve Grimmett, team lead for content review, on hidden camera. ‘I think they’re very biased with who they protect,’ adds Daniel Will, content moderator. ‘Facebook shadowbans and they say they don’t but it’s clear that people’s content don’t come up because it’s been de-filtered off the queue. They’re doing something but trying to pretend like they’re not,’ he said in what he thought was a private conversation. ‘To me censorship online is one of the biggest issues facing us in the lead up to the 2020 election,’ said whistleblower McElroy. The video follows McElroy around Facebook as he asks employees on content moderation teams about the bias. He asks Robert Miller, ‘You know that civic harassment queue that we’ve been in lately? Is it just me or is it all Republicans in there?’ Miller replies, ‘Yeah, it’s all Republicans. But a lot of it comes of Trump’s page specifically.’ Other hidden video shows other social media content moderators admitting to deleting anything pro-Trump. ‘If a Trump post was to come up and it was promoting Trump, then I can take that down,’ said Lara Kontakos. ‘Then I feel that would be really impactful.’ In a later clip, Kontakos was heard saying she deletes ‘all Republicans. If someone is wearing a MAGA hat I am going to delete them for terrorism.’ ... McElroy has started a GoFundMe for himself in the aftermath of this story to help with the difficulty he will surely face in legal battles after breaking the nondisclosure agreement he had to sign at Facebook.”
WILLING TO STAND ALONE (Friday Church News Notes, June 26, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “I have come, thank God, to where I believe I could stand up and vote my convictions if I were the one lonely man on my side of the question. I recall one instance when one man and one only stood up and voted with me. I confess that it is more pleasant to be with the majority than with the minority, but the joy of taking a conscientious stand and feeling that you are right is far greater than the thrill of multitudes who agree with you. ... Such are times when men need to know their own souls and to be fortified with a loyalty that is to God alone. If standing true and courageous amid the storms that now assail they can look up and go forward, it will matter little whether other men are their friends or their foes” (Evangelist Bob Schuler, cited from The Great Conservative Baptist Compromise by Richard Clearwaters)
CAN PLANTS SEE? (Friday Church News Notes, June 26, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from creationmoments.com, May 28, 2020: “If a plant could see, what would it look at? Amazed scientists have learned that plants can indeed see and react to their environments just as do animals! Plants need light for photosynthesis. They grow toward the light. However, this isn’t what scientists are referring to when they talk about plant sight. They have discovered that plants have an additional system that allows them to react to their surroundings. Plants have pores, called stomata. Stomata allow carbon dioxide into the plant, and oxygen out, as photosynthesis takes place. They remain closed when there is little light or when water must be conserved. The more the stomata open, the faster photosynthesis takes place, and the faster the plants grow. The plant also loses water faster when the stomata are open wide. While both blue and red light are used for photosynthesis, scientists have found that the cells that open and close the stomata respond only to blue light. The amount of blue light present turns on a pump in the cells that causes them to swell, and the stoma opens. This amazing process involves pumping protons to create electricity. In one experiment, scientists more than doubled the growth rate of orchids by providing extra blue light to open the stomata. In the plants’ ability to sense and react to their environment, we see another way that plants give glory to their Creator and show that they are not simple living things that just happened to develop. REF.: Miller, Julie Ann. 1985. ‘Plant sight from pores and pumps.’ Science News, Nov. 30. p. 341.”
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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