Friday Church News Notes
April 12, 2024 - Volume 25, Issue 15
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.
Lisa “Tiny” Gray-Garcia gave a two-hour long lecture entitled “Housing (In)justice in LA: Addressing Unhousing and Practicing Solidarity” at the medical school’s Geffen Hall last week. Facebook/Tiny Gray-Garcia
UCLA MED SCHOOL LECTURER DEMANDS STUDENTS PRAY FOR “MAMA EARTH” (Friday Church News Notes, April 12, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “UCLA Med School,” The Washington Free Beacon, Apr. 2, 2024: “In a mandatory course on "structural racism" for first-year medical students at the University of California Los Angeles, a guest speaker who has praised Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel led students in chants of ‘Free, Free Palestine’ and demanded that they bow down to ‘mama earth,’ according to students in the class and audio obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. Lisa ‘Tiny’ Gray-Garcia, who has referred to the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks as ‘justice,’ began the March 27 class by leading students in what she described as a ‘non-secular prayer’ to ‘the ancestors,’ instructing everyone to get on their knees and touch the floor—‘mama earth,’ as she described it—with their fists. ... So began a long and looney lecture that shocked some students at the elite medical school and has led to calls for an investigation. Wearing a keffiyeh that covered her entire face, Gray-Garcia, a self-described ‘poverty scholar,’ led the class in chants of ‘Free, Free Palestine’ as faculty and staff looked on in silence. ... The surreal spectacle is the latest controversy to envelop the ‘Structural Racism and Health Equity’ class, launched in the wake of George Floyd’s death as a part of the medical school’s ‘anti-racism roadmap.’ ... Beyond her anti-Israel posts, Gray-Garcia’s writings include a book called How to Not Call the Po’Lice Ever and a poem, ‘Dear KKKolumbus,’ dedicated to black people killed by law enforcement.”
FIRST SUCCESSFUL PIG KIDNEY TRANSPLANT (Friday Church News Notes, April 12, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “First Person to Undergo,” The Times of Israel, Apr. 4, 2024: “The first person to undergo a successful transplant using a genetically modified pig kidney has been released from the hospital, CNN reported on Thursday, two weeks after he underwent the surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. The patient, 62-year-old Rick Slayman, was found eligible for the first-of-its-kind experimental surgery after a kidney he received in a transplant in 2018 started showing signs of failure after five years and he had to go back on dialysis. ... The four-hour transplant surgery, performed on March 16, ‘marks a major milestone in the quest to provide more readily available organs to patients,’ the hospital said in an update about Slayman’s progress last week. ... The experiment marks the latest development in xenotransplantation, the term for efforts to try to heal human patients with cells, tissues or organs from animals. For decades, it didn’t work--the human immune system immediately destroyed foreign animal tissue. More recent attempts have involved pigs that have been modified so their organs are more humanlike--increasing hope that they might one day help fill a shortage of donated organs.”
SBC CONFERENCE SPEAKER PROMOTES HOMOSEXUAL IDEOLOGY (Friday Church News Notes, April 12, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “SBC Conference Speaker,” Disntr, Mar. 27, 2024: “Rachel Gilson, a self-described same-sex attracted woman who spoke at the Southern Baptist Convention’s women’s conference in 2023 has now appeared in a promo video released by Preston Sprinkle’s Center for Faith, Sexuality, and Gender. The video portrays God as perfectly accepting of homosexual and transgender lifestyles devoid of any true repentance. In the video appear multiple homosexuals, lesbians, and ‘transgender’ people who argue that one should be able to live out who they really are, including rebelling against the God who created them and feeling welcomed and accepted in the Church. In 2019, during a student conference, Gilson remarked during a sermon that gay married couples who come to Christ can stay together because God hates divorce. Speaking on the topic of homosexuals coming to Christ, after a bit of build-up, Gilson said, ‘It’s not like if someone in a same-sex marriage comes to know the Lord, it’s like, Okay, what we’ve got to deal with first is your same-sex marriage...’ ... Gilson has also been closely associated with Grant Hartley, another former Cru [previously known as Campus Crusade] leader who converted to Roman Catholicism a few years ago. [In 2022], Hartley boasted about his experience of dancing at a gay bar, stating that it felt like ‘heaven’ to him. In 2019, Hartley quote-tweeted a message from Rachel Gilson while she was preaching a sermon at Cru: ‘There is no command in scripture to be straight; there is a command to be faithfully single or faithfully married, and you can do either of those without being straight.’ ... In 2022, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, which is presided over by Danny Akin, [highlighted] Rachel Gilson’s paper on marriage.”
NAIA BANS TRANSGENDER ATHLETES FROM COMPETING IN WOMEN’S SPORTS (Friday Church News Notes, April 12, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - We believe these type of victories, which confound and push back the Mystery of Iniquity, are an answer to prayer by a merciful God. The following is excerpted from “NCAA faces calls to ban,” Fox News, Apr. 8, 2024: “The NCAA [National Collegiate Athletic Association] was called upon to follow the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) after the collegiate organization for small colleges and universities banned transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports. ... The NAIA’s Council of Presidents voted in favor of the policy change, 20-0, according to CBS Sports. ... The NAIA said its decision was rooted in ‘fair and safe competition for all student-athletes’ and that ‘Title IX ensures there are separate and equal opportunities for female athletes.’ The organization said only athletes whose biological sex is female may participate in ‘NAIA-sponsored female sports.’ The policy goes into effect on Aug. 1. ... Virginia’s Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears said: ‘Common sense prevails today. It’s more than time for the @ncaa to do the same.’”
COMEDIANS: COURT JESTERS FOR THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION (Friday Church News Notes, April 12, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Court Jesters,” TheBridgehead.ca, Apr. 2, 2024: “The bulk of the comedian class serves as court jesters for the sexual revolution, targeting anyone who dares question its dogmas and, revealingly, scorning the very idea of virtue as impossible. Consider how America’s late-night hosts deal with the issue of pornography. Jimmy Fallon spent an entire segment mocking Oklahoma state senator Dusty Deevers, who recently put forward legislation banning pornography and sexting. To uncomfortable laughter, Fallon read out fake texts from Deevers ... It wasn’t funny, but the point wasn’t humor--it was to mock someone for opposing porn and for advocating public morality. Despite the growing consensus that pornography is addictive, toxic, and ruins relationships (porn is a factor in at least 56% of marriage breakdowns), opposing it is portrayed as a joke. ... Speaker of the House Mike Johnson got similar treatment. When it was reported that Johnson and his family use the accountability software Covenant Eyes, which monitors digital devices in order to break and prevent porn addictions, the media promptly melted down. Sarah Silverman made vile, crude jokes about the names of Johnson’s children ... According to Silverman, the new Speaker ‘just keeps getting weirder and weirder’—not because he’s looking at porn, but because he isn’t. What does that tell you about the comedian class? Jimmy Kimmel concurred and dedicated an entire monologue to making fun of the Speaker...” Isaiah 5:20-21 - “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!”
NAVY VET WHO DESTROYED SATANIC STATUE CHARGED WITH HATE CRIME (Friday Church News Notes, April 12, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from American Military News, Jan. 31, 2024: “Michael Cassidy, a Christian U.S. Navy veteran and former congressional candidate, has been charged with a hate crime after tearing down and beheading the controversial Satanic Temple statue that was displayed in the rotunda of the Iowa Statehouse in December. According to court documents reviewed by the Des Moines Register, Polk County prosecutors have charged the Christian Navy veteran with felony third-degree criminal mischief, claiming that Cassidy’s beheading of The Satanic Temple statue was ‘in violation of individual rights’ under the state’s hate crime laws. Cassidy is scheduled to be arraigned on February 15. ... In December, Cassidy told The Sentinel ... ‘I saw this blasphemous statue and was outraged. My conscience is held captive to the word of God, not to bureaucratic decree. And so I acted.’ As the legal battle between Cassidy and Polk County prosecutors continues, Cassidy has raised over $98,00 on his GiveSendGo website to cover rising legal costs.” CONCLUDING COMMENT: We don’t agree with Cassidy’s actions, because we don’t see any example of this in the churches in Acts and the Epistles. Paul did not break any of the idols in Athens. He preached Christ and the true and living God (Acts 17). At the same time, Cassidy committed no hate crime. He should simply be required to pay the damages.
THE MARVELOUS BAT (Friday Church News Notes, April 12, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, Feb. 13, 2024: “Bats are among the most under-appreciated creatures in the entire world. Yet, they are most worthy of our appreciation. Nearly all bats eat only insects or fruit. Only one tropical species feeds on blood--usually the blood of cattle. There are thousands of bat species. Incredibly, bats make up one-fourth of all mammal species on Earth. One-half of all mammal species found in the tropics are bats. The smallest bat in the world is the Kitti’s hog-nosed bat, which is no larger than a bumblebee and weighs less than a penny. The largest bats are fruit bats. These completely harmless bats may have a wingspan of several feet. Most bats live in colonies, and some colonies have up to 20 million members. Bats are beneficial to both humans and nature. Many of the bats found in North America, as well as other parts of the world, are responsible for consuming thousands of tons of insects every night. Other bats pollinate flowers. Bats are also an essential link in the ecosystem that makes the rainforest possible. The earliest bats found in the fossil record are like bats today. They are fully formed with fully developed wings for flight. This means that there is not one scrap of fossil evidence to support the claim that bats evolved from some other creature. We can conclude that the scientific evidence says that bats were created pretty much in their present form by God. Ref: ‘Silent screamers.’ Science Digest, May 1984. p. 57.”
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).
FIRST SUCCESSFUL PIG KIDNEY TRANSPLANT (Friday Church News Notes, April 12, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “First Person to Undergo,” The Times of Israel, Apr. 4, 2024: “The first person to undergo a successful transplant using a genetically modified pig kidney has been released from the hospital, CNN reported on Thursday, two weeks after he underwent the surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. The patient, 62-year-old Rick Slayman, was found eligible for the first-of-its-kind experimental surgery after a kidney he received in a transplant in 2018 started showing signs of failure after five years and he had to go back on dialysis. ... The four-hour transplant surgery, performed on March 16, ‘marks a major milestone in the quest to provide more readily available organs to patients,’ the hospital said in an update about Slayman’s progress last week. ... The experiment marks the latest development in xenotransplantation, the term for efforts to try to heal human patients with cells, tissues or organs from animals. For decades, it didn’t work--the human immune system immediately destroyed foreign animal tissue. More recent attempts have involved pigs that have been modified so their organs are more humanlike--increasing hope that they might one day help fill a shortage of donated organs.”
SBC CONFERENCE SPEAKER PROMOTES HOMOSEXUAL IDEOLOGY (Friday Church News Notes, April 12, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “SBC Conference Speaker,” Disntr, Mar. 27, 2024: “Rachel Gilson, a self-described same-sex attracted woman who spoke at the Southern Baptist Convention’s women’s conference in 2023 has now appeared in a promo video released by Preston Sprinkle’s Center for Faith, Sexuality, and Gender. The video portrays God as perfectly accepting of homosexual and transgender lifestyles devoid of any true repentance. In the video appear multiple homosexuals, lesbians, and ‘transgender’ people who argue that one should be able to live out who they really are, including rebelling against the God who created them and feeling welcomed and accepted in the Church. In 2019, during a student conference, Gilson remarked during a sermon that gay married couples who come to Christ can stay together because God hates divorce. Speaking on the topic of homosexuals coming to Christ, after a bit of build-up, Gilson said, ‘It’s not like if someone in a same-sex marriage comes to know the Lord, it’s like, Okay, what we’ve got to deal with first is your same-sex marriage...’ ... Gilson has also been closely associated with Grant Hartley, another former Cru [previously known as Campus Crusade] leader who converted to Roman Catholicism a few years ago. [In 2022], Hartley boasted about his experience of dancing at a gay bar, stating that it felt like ‘heaven’ to him. In 2019, Hartley quote-tweeted a message from Rachel Gilson while she was preaching a sermon at Cru: ‘There is no command in scripture to be straight; there is a command to be faithfully single or faithfully married, and you can do either of those without being straight.’ ... In 2022, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, which is presided over by Danny Akin, [highlighted] Rachel Gilson’s paper on marriage.”
NAIA BANS TRANSGENDER ATHLETES FROM COMPETING IN WOMEN’S SPORTS (Friday Church News Notes, April 12, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - We believe these type of victories, which confound and push back the Mystery of Iniquity, are an answer to prayer by a merciful God. The following is excerpted from “NCAA faces calls to ban,” Fox News, Apr. 8, 2024: “The NCAA [National Collegiate Athletic Association] was called upon to follow the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) after the collegiate organization for small colleges and universities banned transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports. ... The NAIA’s Council of Presidents voted in favor of the policy change, 20-0, according to CBS Sports. ... The NAIA said its decision was rooted in ‘fair and safe competition for all student-athletes’ and that ‘Title IX ensures there are separate and equal opportunities for female athletes.’ The organization said only athletes whose biological sex is female may participate in ‘NAIA-sponsored female sports.’ The policy goes into effect on Aug. 1. ... Virginia’s Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears said: ‘Common sense prevails today. It’s more than time for the @ncaa to do the same.’”
COMEDIANS: COURT JESTERS FOR THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION (Friday Church News Notes, April 12, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Court Jesters,” TheBridgehead.ca, Apr. 2, 2024: “The bulk of the comedian class serves as court jesters for the sexual revolution, targeting anyone who dares question its dogmas and, revealingly, scorning the very idea of virtue as impossible. Consider how America’s late-night hosts deal with the issue of pornography. Jimmy Fallon spent an entire segment mocking Oklahoma state senator Dusty Deevers, who recently put forward legislation banning pornography and sexting. To uncomfortable laughter, Fallon read out fake texts from Deevers ... It wasn’t funny, but the point wasn’t humor--it was to mock someone for opposing porn and for advocating public morality. Despite the growing consensus that pornography is addictive, toxic, and ruins relationships (porn is a factor in at least 56% of marriage breakdowns), opposing it is portrayed as a joke. ... Speaker of the House Mike Johnson got similar treatment. When it was reported that Johnson and his family use the accountability software Covenant Eyes, which monitors digital devices in order to break and prevent porn addictions, the media promptly melted down. Sarah Silverman made vile, crude jokes about the names of Johnson’s children ... According to Silverman, the new Speaker ‘just keeps getting weirder and weirder’—not because he’s looking at porn, but because he isn’t. What does that tell you about the comedian class? Jimmy Kimmel concurred and dedicated an entire monologue to making fun of the Speaker...” Isaiah 5:20-21 - “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!”
NAVY VET WHO DESTROYED SATANIC STATUE CHARGED WITH HATE CRIME (Friday Church News Notes, April 12, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from American Military News, Jan. 31, 2024: “Michael Cassidy, a Christian U.S. Navy veteran and former congressional candidate, has been charged with a hate crime after tearing down and beheading the controversial Satanic Temple statue that was displayed in the rotunda of the Iowa Statehouse in December. According to court documents reviewed by the Des Moines Register, Polk County prosecutors have charged the Christian Navy veteran with felony third-degree criminal mischief, claiming that Cassidy’s beheading of The Satanic Temple statue was ‘in violation of individual rights’ under the state’s hate crime laws. Cassidy is scheduled to be arraigned on February 15. ... In December, Cassidy told The Sentinel ... ‘I saw this blasphemous statue and was outraged. My conscience is held captive to the word of God, not to bureaucratic decree. And so I acted.’ As the legal battle between Cassidy and Polk County prosecutors continues, Cassidy has raised over $98,00 on his GiveSendGo website to cover rising legal costs.” CONCLUDING COMMENT: We don’t agree with Cassidy’s actions, because we don’t see any example of this in the churches in Acts and the Epistles. Paul did not break any of the idols in Athens. He preached Christ and the true and living God (Acts 17). At the same time, Cassidy committed no hate crime. He should simply be required to pay the damages.
THE MARVELOUS BAT (Friday Church News Notes, April 12, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, Feb. 13, 2024: “Bats are among the most under-appreciated creatures in the entire world. Yet, they are most worthy of our appreciation. Nearly all bats eat only insects or fruit. Only one tropical species feeds on blood--usually the blood of cattle. There are thousands of bat species. Incredibly, bats make up one-fourth of all mammal species on Earth. One-half of all mammal species found in the tropics are bats. The smallest bat in the world is the Kitti’s hog-nosed bat, which is no larger than a bumblebee and weighs less than a penny. The largest bats are fruit bats. These completely harmless bats may have a wingspan of several feet. Most bats live in colonies, and some colonies have up to 20 million members. Bats are beneficial to both humans and nature. Many of the bats found in North America, as well as other parts of the world, are responsible for consuming thousands of tons of insects every night. Other bats pollinate flowers. Bats are also an essential link in the ecosystem that makes the rainforest possible. The earliest bats found in the fossil record are like bats today. They are fully formed with fully developed wings for flight. This means that there is not one scrap of fossil evidence to support the claim that bats evolved from some other creature. We can conclude that the scientific evidence says that bats were created pretty much in their present form by God. Ref: ‘Silent screamers.’ Science Digest, May 1984. p. 57.”
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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