TWITTER CENSORS U.S. PRESIDENT’S WARNING TO VIOLENT PROTESTORS (Friday Church News Notes, July 3, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Again Twitter Censors President’s Tweet Calling for Law and Order,” Reformation Charlotte, June 23, 2020: “Twitter has once again censored the president of the United States by citing violations of the ‘Twitter Rules about abusive behavior.’ Earlier today, President Trump tweeted that violence, vandalism, and destruction would be met with the full force of the law if rioters came to Washington, D.C. to attempt their destructive behavior in the nation’s capital. ‘There will never be an ‘Autonomous Zone’ in Washington, D.C., as long as I’m your President. If they try they will be met with serious force!’ Who would have known that a warning to criminals against their criminal behavior would violate Twitter’s rules? Anyone in their right mind would agree with the president that it’s time to put a stop to this chaos that is wreaking havoc all over the nation--but especially in the city that would put the nation’s leader in physical danger. Twitter issued the following statement: ‘We’ve placed a public interest notice on this Tweet for violating our policy against abusive behavior, specifically, the presence of a threat of harm against an identifiable group.’ Last month, Twitter censored the president’s tweet when he warned that looters and criminals would be met with the full force of the law if city officials did not step up their game to stop the chaos in their cities. ... Twitter later acknowledged that the tweet did not violate any of the Twitter rules, but continued to censor him anyway.”

COMEDY WRITER BANNED FROM TWITTER FOR SAYING “MEN AREN’T WOMEN” (Friday Church News Notes, July 3, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Comedy Writer Banned,” Pulpit and Pen, June 28, 2020: “TV sitcom writer Graham Linehan has been permanently banned from Twitter after he tweeted ‘men aren’t women tho’ in response to a Women’s Institute post that wished a happy Pride Month to men who think they are women. Twitter said Linehan, who has hundreds of thousands of followers and wrote and created Father Ted and The IT Crowd ‘has been permanently suspended after repeated violations of our rules against hateful conduct and platform manipulation.’ This is not the first time Linehan has run afoul of Twitter, as he’s posted extensively about Trans issues in the past, with a particular focus on discussing children who transition and the parents that enable them. In 2018, during an interview with Resistance Radio, Linehan stated that the medical transition of children is functionally no different than Nazi experiments on children, saying: ‘If you were around the time of something terrible happening like Nazism, would you be one of the people who said, This is wrong, despite being opposed?’ Twitter has a long history of banning people who state scientific facts on sex and gender, with the social media giant recently taking a more aggressive approach to enforcing their nonsensical policies. Linehan is the most recent casualty, but he won’t be the last.”

PARLER A NON-CENSORED ALTERNATIVE TO TWITTER (Friday Church News Notes, July 3, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Parler surges,” Washington Times, June 25, 2020: “The aggressive crackdown on content by social media giants Twitter and Facebook have motivated droves of President Trump’s supporters to find an alternative. About 100,000 people joined Parler on Tuesday alone, said Parler CEO John Matze, bringing its total daily active users toward 1.5 million on Thursday. The surge in interest is an accomplishment, but it falls short of the hordes gathering on Twitter and Facebook. By comparison, Twitter reported having 166 million daily active users in the first quarter of 2020. Facebook boasted 1.73 billion daily active users during the same time frame. Mr. Matze called Twitter and Facebook ‘techno-fascists’ and vowed to dethrone them. The Parler platform is not strictly for conservatives and castaways from other platforms but for people who believe in the principles of free speech and data privacy, the company says. Mr. Matze describes the platform as ideological and not political.”

BLACK LIVES MATTER FOUNDERS ARE TRAINED MARXISTS (Friday Church News Notes, July 3, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In a 2015 interview with Real News Network, Patrisse Khan-Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matters, said, “We actually do have an ideological frame. Myself and Alicia in particular are trained organizers. We are trained Marxists. We are super-versed on sort of ideological theories” (“‘We are trained Marxists,’” The Washington Times, June 25, 2020). Cullors was referring to herself and Alicia Garza. In an interview with Martha MacCallum on Fox News, Hawk Newsome, president of Greater New York Black Lives Matter, said, “If this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it. All right? And I could be speaking figuratively. I could be speaking literally. It's a matter of interpretation. ... I don’t condone nor do I condemn rioting” (Fox News, June 24, 2020). This is nonsense, of course. If you don’t condemn rioting, you condone it. These people cannot call for burning down the system and then stand back while others do exactly, literally that, and claim no guilt. Antifa has been conducting violent demonstrations in Portland, Oregon, for four weeks, vandalizing, looting, and destroying property (@MrAndyNgo, June 26, 2020). They have been trying to establish an occupied area like the one in Seattle, unsuccessfully so far, though police have allowed the crowds to rampage unhindered at times. A large banner reads, “Every city, every town, burn the precinct to the ground.” They chanted, “No good cops in a racist system!” Graffiti calls for the murder of police. Protesters were allowed to tear down the American flag at the Justice Center, burn it, and replace it with a BLM sign. In 2014, BLM protesters in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, chanted, “What do we want? Dead cops. When do we want it? Now” (“Black Lives Matter,” Snopes.com, Jul. 18, 2016). In 2015, Black Lives Matter activists in Minneapolis chanted, ‘Pigs in a blanket, fry ‘em like bacon,” referring to the bodies of dead police officers in body bags (Townhall, Sep. 2, 2015). At a BLM protest in Dallas in July 2016, 12 police officers were shot and five died. Black Lives Matters is in open rebellion to the Bible’s teaching about morality. The following is from the BLM website under “What We Believe:” “We make space for transgender ... to dismantle cisgender privilege and uplift ... trans folk, especially ... trans women ... We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement ... We foster a queer‐affirming network ... with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual (unless s/he or they disclose otherwise).”

MAJOR CORPORATIONS BOYCOTTING TO FORCE FACEBOOK TO EMPLOY EVEN MORE EXTREME CENSORING OF CONSERVATIVE VIEWS (Friday Church News Notes, July 3, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “In growing boycott, Coca-Cola, Hershey, Honda pledge to hit pause on Facebook advertising,” Just the News, June 27, 2020: “Coca-Cola, Hershey and Honda have agreed to roll back advertising on Facebook through July, part of a coordinated campaign to force the tech giant to enact stricter content-moderation policies on its platform. The ‘Stop Hate for Profit’ campaign argues that Facebook has ‘turned  a  blind  eye  to  blatant  voter  suppression,’ ‘allowed  incitement  to  violence  against  protesters  fighting  for racial justice in America,’ partnered with conservative news outlets with ‘records of working with known white nationalists,’ and in general promoted ‘hate, bigotry, racism, antisemitism and violence.’ Dozens of businesses have also agreed to the boycott including Mozilla, North Face, REI and Verizon. The boycott, a project of the Anti-Defamation League, offers several tips it argues will help Facebook ‘provide more support to people who are targets of racism, antisemitism and hate.’”

GOD LAUGHS AT MAN’S REBELLION (Friday Church News Notes, July 3, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Bible prophesies an unprecedented rebellion in the last days and says God laughs at it. A 3,000-year-old prophecy describes exactly what is happening today. There is a global frenzy at the highest levels of society to reject God and His moral rule. The prophet described rulers taking counsel against the Lord and calling for the breaking of his “bands,” referring to His laws about marriage, the distinction of the sexes, etc. We can see this part of the prophecy fulfilled before our eyes on this earth, but the prophecy goes much farther and higher and tells us what God does in response. God laughs at puny man’s ridiculous rebellion against his Almighty Creator, man who enters this world as a helpless infant, lives a few years, then tumbles out into eternity by means of a death that he cannot control. God loves man and has provided his salvation at great cost, but He laughs at man’s conspiracy against the Almighty. Christ will return to judge sin and to establish God’s kingdom on earth, and nothing can stop it. The prophecy ends with a call for men to put their trust in Christ before it is too late and with the promise of salvation for those who trust Him. Here is the prophecy: “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him” (Psalm 2:1-12).

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).