Friday Church News Notes
Volume 21, Issue 38 - Sept. 18, 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.
“UNCONSCIOUS BIAS” MUMBO JUMBO AT LIBERTY UNIVERSITY (Friday Church News Notes, September 18, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “Unconscious bias,” also called “implicit bias,” is a principle of humanistic psychology that is used widely in education and the workplace and government to break down barriers that might exist to politically correct social issues such as same sex marriage and transsexuality. It is used in “diversity awareness” programs, and racial sensitivity training. In the U.K., it is required for all civil service employees, including magistrates and police. It is used by Google, Facebook, and a great many other major corporations. To refuse the training is to endanger one’s job and marks one as a potential racist or homophobe, etc. Unconscious biases are “underlying attitudes and stereotypes that people unconsciously attribute to another person or group of people that affect how they understand and engage with a person or group.” Examples are gender bias and race bias. Unconscious bias is foundational to the idea that America is “systemically racist.” A Courageous Conversation program in Montgomery County, Maryland, schools teaches that America is systemically racist and defines “racism” as “any act that even unwittingly tolerates, accepts or reinforces racially unequal opportunities” (@jackmurphylive, Sep. 8, 2020). So this “racism” or “sexism,” etc., allegedly exists at an “unconscious” or “unwitting” level even though there is no objective evidence of it. On the “racist” side, the claim is that all white people are unconsciously biased against “people of color” even if they have no consciousness of racial bias. Thus, the “unconscious bias” experts claim to have the power to analyze attitudes that are so secret that they are unknown to the individual himself! It would be ridiculous if it were not treated so seriously. It is brainwashing. It is mind control. It is social engineering. A report in The Spectator entitled “The dangers of unconscious bias training,” Aug. 15, 2020, concluded, “We should be very worried about a corporate culture which encourages employers to tinker with their employees’ psyches in whatever manner they see fit, particularly when driven by pseudoscience they barely understand.” Liberty University, founded by Jerry Falwell and led until recently by his son, Jerry Jr., promoted unconscious bias at a program for staff and faculty in March 10 led by Dr. Nanette Lacuesta and at a workshop entitled “Unconscious Bias: A Current Conversion” on September 4 .
BLACK LIVES MATTER CROWD SHOUTS “WE HOPE THEY DIE” OUTSIDE HOSPITAL WHERE DEPUTIES LIE IN CRITICAL CONDITION AFTER BEING AMBUSHED (Friday Church News Notes, September 18, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “BLM Protesters Celebrate Shooting of Two LA County Deputies,” PJ Media, Sept. 13, 2020: “Late Saturday night, news broke that an unidentified gunman ambushed and shot two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies while they sat in their patrol vehicle. The deputies were taken to a nearby hospital. Late Saturday night they were reportedly ‘fighting for their lives,’ each having been shot [multiple times in the head and elsewhere]. Overnight, things took an even darker turn. Black Lives Matter protesters made it clear that to them the deputies’ lives do not matter, nor do the lives of anyone in the hospital where the deputies are being cared for. They aligned with the cowardly gunman, celebrating the shooting. The BLM protesters gathered at the hospital and chanted ‘We hope they die!’ They also blocked entrances to the hospital emergency room, according to the LA County Sheriffs’ social media. As they blocked the hospital emergency room, the protesters screamed profanities at law enforcement officers and told them they would be killed one by one.” Update: LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said on Sept. 14 that the fact that the deputies survived is a “miracle.” One is a 31-year-old mother of a little boy. She was able to get out of the vehicle and apply a tourniquet to the other deputy, which possibly saved his life.
FORMER CHRISTIANITY TODAY EDITOR CONVERTS TO ROMAN CATHOLICISM (Friday Church News Notes, September 18, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - On September 13, Mark Galli, former Presbyterian pastor and Editor-in-Chief of Christianity Today for seven years, was received into the Roman Catholic Church. In an interview with Tod Worner, editor of the Roman Catholic Word on Fire Institute, Galli explained some of the reasons for his conversion. Among other things, it involved reading the writings of Francis of Assisi, Henry John Newman, Robert Barton, John Paul II, St. Teresa of Avila, etc., practicing Roman Catholic contemplative prayer, and studying the church fathers. It also involved messing around with liberal theologians such as Karl Barth. Galli said, “Among the many key turning points, one occurred when I was editing an issue of a magazine called Christian History, and the subject of the issue was Francis of Assisi. Naturally, his life of heroic self-denial and absolute infatuation with Jesus deeply impressed me. At the same time, in the evenings, I was reading John Paul II’s encyclical The Splendor of Truth. ... I dabbled in Christian mysticism for a while, then Eastern Orthodoxy, and then a theology of radical grace as expressed in certain Lutheran writers and the theologian Karl Barth. ... Certainly the tradition of Catholic mysticism is most impressive, especially as seen in St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross, among many others. ... As things were becoming more and more clear, I listened to an audio version of [Robert Barron’s] book Catholicism, not once but twice. ... I found myself sobbing. I was driving as I was listening, but had to pull off the road because I couldn’t see straight. That was the point I had become converted in heart, and knew I had to figure out the logistics of getting confirmed” (“Why Mark Galli Decided to Become Catholic,” Word on Fire Institute, Sept. 10, 2020). Galli’s “dabbling” with error is a loud warning to those who have an ear to hear. “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners” (1 Corinthians 15:33).
CONSERVATIVE CLERGY OF COLOR DEMAND THAT NIKE STOP SUPPORTING BLACK LIVES MATTER (Friday Church News Notes, September 18, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - On September 3, Conservative Clergy of Color sent a letter to Nike President John Donahoe demanding that his company drop its support for Black Lives Matter and condemning the company’s silence in the face of China’s oppression of Uighurs. Conservative Clergy of Color was founded in June 2020 by Aubrey Shines, Derek McCoy, M.J. Reid, and Francisco Vega, and had about 500 members in August. The letter to Nike stated, “We the leaders of Conservative Clergy of Color have watched with sadness and frustration as the country we love has been torn apart by violence and looting. This civil terror, perpetrated and lead by the Black Lives Matter movement, has turned American against American and possibly set race relations back decades. Black Lives Matter, a movement run by anti-Christian, self-proclaimed Marxists, hijacked legitimate calls for police reform and turned it to their own ends. This is not a group interested in constructive change; through their vicious campaign to defund police and silence anyone who disagrees with them, they have destroyed livelihoods and gotten innocent children killed. It is antithetical to the nonviolence that Dr. King and the Civil Rights movement stood for. ... [Nike has] willfully ignored real suffering and oppression abroad. At this very moment, millions of ethnic Uighurs are languishing in ‘reeducation’ camps in western China. They are rounded up for being a minority and forbidden from practicing their faith while being forced to work as slaves in factories. These factories make products for your company that are worn and promoted by dozens of players in various athletic leagues. Yet while this atrocity plays out at the hands of the Communist Chinese government, you have been silent. You have been happy to play into the hands of anarchists at home and ignore slavery abroad. ... We ask you take a hard look at real injustice in the world and to remember that change comes through forgiveness and compassion, not violence.”
NEW INJUNCTION AGAINST MACARTHUR AND GRACE COMMUNITY CHURCH (Friday Church News Notes, September 18, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “John MacArthur Vows to Continue Church Service,” Reformation Charlotte, Sept. 10, 2020: “The Los Angeles Superior Court issued a preliminary injunction September 10 against Grace Community Church and Pastor John MacArthur, refusing to follow the U.S. and California State constitutional protections for churches. The ruling fails to apply the appropriate constitutional standard of review. The order prohibits the church from ‘conducting, participating in, or attending any indoor worship services’ and also bans outdoor worship unless onerous restrictions are followed in a heavy-handed move against the internationally known preacher and his congregation. MacArthur and Grace Community Church’s attorneys from the Thomas More Society said the judge refused to consider their important separation of powers arguments ‘in any meaningful fashion’ and essentially ‘ducked the issue.’ ... Special Counsel Jenna Ellis said, ‘Although this is a temporary setback, we will continue to fight for Pastor MacArthur and Grace Community Church’s constitutionally protected right to hold church.’ ... Grace Community Church held a packed Sunday morning service on September 13. MacArthur began the service by listing the county’s requirements, which if obeyed would make it impossible for the church to assemble. They include no singing, no hugging, temperature checks, no communion, shortening sermons, and maintaining six feet of social distance at all times everywhere.
NORTH VALLEY BAPTIST CHURCH CEASES TO HOLD INDOOR SERVICES (Friday Church News Notes, September 18, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “After threat of injunction, Santa Clara church backs away from indoor services,” The Mercury News, Sept. 13, 2020: “A South Bay church has stopped hosting illegal indoor services after the threat of an injunction from the county, ending a weeks-long standoff that captured national attention and ultimately cost the church more than $100,000 in fines. North Valley Baptist Church in Santa Clara, which has racked up $112,750 for defying the local public health order with indoor gatherings, brought its Wednesday church service outside this week once Santa Clara County officials said they planned to file a temporary restraining order against the church, confirmed county counsel James Williams. ... ‘I don’t see how you can justify the complete closure of churches in California,’ said Liberty Counsel’s founder Mat Staver. ‘To suggest that a pandemic can simply erase constitutional rights is frankly a very frightening proposition.’”
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).
BLACK LIVES MATTER CROWD SHOUTS “WE HOPE THEY DIE” OUTSIDE HOSPITAL WHERE DEPUTIES LIE IN CRITICAL CONDITION AFTER BEING AMBUSHED (Friday Church News Notes, September 18, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “BLM Protesters Celebrate Shooting of Two LA County Deputies,” PJ Media, Sept. 13, 2020: “Late Saturday night, news broke that an unidentified gunman ambushed and shot two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies while they sat in their patrol vehicle. The deputies were taken to a nearby hospital. Late Saturday night they were reportedly ‘fighting for their lives,’ each having been shot [multiple times in the head and elsewhere]. Overnight, things took an even darker turn. Black Lives Matter protesters made it clear that to them the deputies’ lives do not matter, nor do the lives of anyone in the hospital where the deputies are being cared for. They aligned with the cowardly gunman, celebrating the shooting. The BLM protesters gathered at the hospital and chanted ‘We hope they die!’ They also blocked entrances to the hospital emergency room, according to the LA County Sheriffs’ social media. As they blocked the hospital emergency room, the protesters screamed profanities at law enforcement officers and told them they would be killed one by one.” Update: LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said on Sept. 14 that the fact that the deputies survived is a “miracle.” One is a 31-year-old mother of a little boy. She was able to get out of the vehicle and apply a tourniquet to the other deputy, which possibly saved his life.
FORMER CHRISTIANITY TODAY EDITOR CONVERTS TO ROMAN CATHOLICISM (Friday Church News Notes, September 18, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - On September 13, Mark Galli, former Presbyterian pastor and Editor-in-Chief of Christianity Today for seven years, was received into the Roman Catholic Church. In an interview with Tod Worner, editor of the Roman Catholic Word on Fire Institute, Galli explained some of the reasons for his conversion. Among other things, it involved reading the writings of Francis of Assisi, Henry John Newman, Robert Barton, John Paul II, St. Teresa of Avila, etc., practicing Roman Catholic contemplative prayer, and studying the church fathers. It also involved messing around with liberal theologians such as Karl Barth. Galli said, “Among the many key turning points, one occurred when I was editing an issue of a magazine called Christian History, and the subject of the issue was Francis of Assisi. Naturally, his life of heroic self-denial and absolute infatuation with Jesus deeply impressed me. At the same time, in the evenings, I was reading John Paul II’s encyclical The Splendor of Truth. ... I dabbled in Christian mysticism for a while, then Eastern Orthodoxy, and then a theology of radical grace as expressed in certain Lutheran writers and the theologian Karl Barth. ... Certainly the tradition of Catholic mysticism is most impressive, especially as seen in St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross, among many others. ... As things were becoming more and more clear, I listened to an audio version of [Robert Barron’s] book Catholicism, not once but twice. ... I found myself sobbing. I was driving as I was listening, but had to pull off the road because I couldn’t see straight. That was the point I had become converted in heart, and knew I had to figure out the logistics of getting confirmed” (“Why Mark Galli Decided to Become Catholic,” Word on Fire Institute, Sept. 10, 2020). Galli’s “dabbling” with error is a loud warning to those who have an ear to hear. “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners” (1 Corinthians 15:33).
CONSERVATIVE CLERGY OF COLOR DEMAND THAT NIKE STOP SUPPORTING BLACK LIVES MATTER (Friday Church News Notes, September 18, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - On September 3, Conservative Clergy of Color sent a letter to Nike President John Donahoe demanding that his company drop its support for Black Lives Matter and condemning the company’s silence in the face of China’s oppression of Uighurs. Conservative Clergy of Color was founded in June 2020 by Aubrey Shines, Derek McCoy, M.J. Reid, and Francisco Vega, and had about 500 members in August. The letter to Nike stated, “We the leaders of Conservative Clergy of Color have watched with sadness and frustration as the country we love has been torn apart by violence and looting. This civil terror, perpetrated and lead by the Black Lives Matter movement, has turned American against American and possibly set race relations back decades. Black Lives Matter, a movement run by anti-Christian, self-proclaimed Marxists, hijacked legitimate calls for police reform and turned it to their own ends. This is not a group interested in constructive change; through their vicious campaign to defund police and silence anyone who disagrees with them, they have destroyed livelihoods and gotten innocent children killed. It is antithetical to the nonviolence that Dr. King and the Civil Rights movement stood for. ... [Nike has] willfully ignored real suffering and oppression abroad. At this very moment, millions of ethnic Uighurs are languishing in ‘reeducation’ camps in western China. They are rounded up for being a minority and forbidden from practicing their faith while being forced to work as slaves in factories. These factories make products for your company that are worn and promoted by dozens of players in various athletic leagues. Yet while this atrocity plays out at the hands of the Communist Chinese government, you have been silent. You have been happy to play into the hands of anarchists at home and ignore slavery abroad. ... We ask you take a hard look at real injustice in the world and to remember that change comes through forgiveness and compassion, not violence.”
NEW INJUNCTION AGAINST MACARTHUR AND GRACE COMMUNITY CHURCH (Friday Church News Notes, September 18, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “John MacArthur Vows to Continue Church Service,” Reformation Charlotte, Sept. 10, 2020: “The Los Angeles Superior Court issued a preliminary injunction September 10 against Grace Community Church and Pastor John MacArthur, refusing to follow the U.S. and California State constitutional protections for churches. The ruling fails to apply the appropriate constitutional standard of review. The order prohibits the church from ‘conducting, participating in, or attending any indoor worship services’ and also bans outdoor worship unless onerous restrictions are followed in a heavy-handed move against the internationally known preacher and his congregation. MacArthur and Grace Community Church’s attorneys from the Thomas More Society said the judge refused to consider their important separation of powers arguments ‘in any meaningful fashion’ and essentially ‘ducked the issue.’ ... Special Counsel Jenna Ellis said, ‘Although this is a temporary setback, we will continue to fight for Pastor MacArthur and Grace Community Church’s constitutionally protected right to hold church.’ ... Grace Community Church held a packed Sunday morning service on September 13. MacArthur began the service by listing the county’s requirements, which if obeyed would make it impossible for the church to assemble. They include no singing, no hugging, temperature checks, no communion, shortening sermons, and maintaining six feet of social distance at all times everywhere.
NORTH VALLEY BAPTIST CHURCH CEASES TO HOLD INDOOR SERVICES (Friday Church News Notes, September 18, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “After threat of injunction, Santa Clara church backs away from indoor services,” The Mercury News, Sept. 13, 2020: “A South Bay church has stopped hosting illegal indoor services after the threat of an injunction from the county, ending a weeks-long standoff that captured national attention and ultimately cost the church more than $100,000 in fines. North Valley Baptist Church in Santa Clara, which has racked up $112,750 for defying the local public health order with indoor gatherings, brought its Wednesday church service outside this week once Santa Clara County officials said they planned to file a temporary restraining order against the church, confirmed county counsel James Williams. ... ‘I don’t see how you can justify the complete closure of churches in California,’ said Liberty Counsel’s founder Mat Staver. ‘To suggest that a pandemic can simply erase constitutional rights is frankly a very frightening proposition.’”
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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