The Front Page Cover
The Events of the Week -- Featuring:
Who Are the Real Bible-Quoting Hypocrites?
by Minister Michael Brown
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Top Headlines
Trump to dismantle Dodd-Frank Wall Street rules through executive orders. (USA Today)
Budget chief pick approved by Senate committee. (The Hill)
Economy adds 227,000 new jobs in January. (Market Watch)
Senate panel approves Trump EPA chief pick over Democrats' boycott. (Reuters)
Senate votes to block liar-nObama's onerous coal waste removal rule. (The Hill)
GOP unveils bill to allow political activity by churches after Trump vows to "destroy" Johnson Amendment. (The Hill)
House votes to undo liar-nObama gun control rule. (Washington Examiner)
liar-nObama's last money shower for the UN: $9.2 billion. (Fox News)
U.S. to issue new Iran sanctions, opening shot in get-tough strategy. (Reuters)
Under Leftmedia pressure, corporations cautious about Trump business advisory council. (Washington Post)
Policy: Americans shouldn't have to subsidize campus lawlessness. (The Daily Signal)
Policy: Make all federal employees fireable. (National Review) ~The Patriot Post
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Left Freaks that Congress Just Repealed
an liar-nObama-Era Gun Regulation
by Cortney O'Brien
{townhall.com} ~ Leftists on social media were horrified by news that Congress had just voted to repeal a gun regulation that had been enforced by the liar-nObama administration to supposedly keep firearms out of the hands of the "severely mentally ill."... Except, like many headlines lately, it could be filed under fake news. Last May, Katie reported on how the liar-nObama White House tried to strip gun rights from people who receive financial help managing Social Security benefits. Under the gun control measure, those individuals could be deemed mentally unfit and placed into the NICS background check system as ineligible to purchase a firearm without due process. It is this anti-gun effort that Congress decided to do away with on Thursday... http://townhall.com/tipsheet/cortneyobrien/2017/02/02/left-freaks-that-congress-just-scaled-back-gun-background-checks-n2280678
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Iran, Yemen Tensions Rise – U.S.S. Cole
Now Patrolling Off Yemen Coast
by Rick Wells
{rickwells.us} ~ The USS Cole has been dispatched to patrol off the coast of Yemen in order to protect the waterways from Houthi militia forces allied with Iran... The vessel is the same one which was attacked in 2000 by al Qaeda while in the Yemini port of Aden. A terrorists’ boat laden with large amounts of explosives was used to blast a hole in the side of the Cole, killing 17 sailors and injuring dozens more. The ship is now in the area of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, off southwestern Yemen. It will be conducting patrols and providing escort. The Houthis on the Yemeni coast are allied with Iran and have become increasingly belligerent since the lifting of Iran sanctions by the liar-nObama regime and the associated financial windfalls were granted as rewards. Recent ballistic missile tests by Iran have elevated tensions in the region and between the US and Iran in particular. On Thursday President Trump stated “nothing is off the table” in dealing with Iran, one day after Gen Michael Flynn, his National Security Adviser put Iran “on notice” over their illegal missile tests... http://rickwells.us/iran-yemen-tensions-rise-u-s-s-cole-now-patrolling-yemen-coast/
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UN Whistleblower: UN Gave Names of
Dissidents to Communist China
by Alex Newman
{thenewamerican.com} ~ The United Nations “human rights” apparatus is being accused of, among other abuses, handing to the Communist Chinese dictatorship the names of activists who were set to expose the regime's crimes at a UN review of China's record... One of the dissidents in question ultimately died in detention. At least several other Chinese dissidents whose identities were reportedly provided to the regime by UN officials were also detained ahead of their trips to Geneva, according to reports. And then, making matters worse, the UN “human rights” leadership appears to have retaliated against the UN whistleblower who finally exposed and stopped the whole sordid affair. This is the third known scandal surrounding retaliation against whistleblowers from the UN “human rights” bureaucracy to rock the controversial organization in recent years... http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/europe/item/25294-un-whistleblower-un-gave-names-of-dissidents-to-communist-china?utm_source=iContactPro&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=TNA+Top+Daily+Headlines&
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Washington Finally Designates
Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps
by Raymond Tanter and Edward Stafford
by Raymond Tanter and Edward Stafford
{investigativeproject.org} ~ The U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions Friday on a host of Iranian companies and individuals as terrorists. It is a welcome development, which hopefully sends a signal to Tehran... to rein in its global terror support, ballistic missile testing, and oppression of its people. The action targets people and entities involved in procuring technology and/or materials to support Iran's ballistic missile program, as well acting for or on behalf of, or providing support to, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-Qods Force. The Iranian entities operate like a network out of Lebanon. It is the base of Hizballah (Party of God), an IRGC proxy, which was designated in 1997, but the IRGC was not designated... http://www.investigativeproject.org/5774/guest-column-washington-finally-designates-iran
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Get Out, Americans – UC Not Sparing Liberals
From Replacement By Foreigners
by Rick Wells
{rickwells.us} ~ The liberals, most visibly those in California and the bay area, think diversity and importing foreigners are great things that enable them to construct the United States into the utopia they envision... That is until it impacts them personally, until a foreign import gets their job and they have to train them to do it. This is far from the first time it’s happened, with Disney, Southern California Edison and Toys-R-Us being infamous for forcing their employees to train their foreign replacements. But as the report says, the incident involving the UC San Francisco, and open-borders former DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, is the first time a public entity has used taxpayer money to fire Americans and hire foreign replacements. It is important to remember that this is illegal, what they are doing is expressly forbidden in the visa regulations. The video shows Napolitano from her confirmation hearing for Homeland Security Secretary in January of 2009. In it she responded to a question from Sen. Durbin as to whether she had any opinions on the H1-B visa program...
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The French Inquisition
by Yves Mamou
by Yves Mamou
Georges Bensoussan, a highly regarded Jewish
historian of Moroccan extraction
{gatestoneinstitute.org} ~ An important red line in France has just been crossed. In true dhimmi fashion, in a move reminiscent of both the Inquisition and the Dreyfus Trial, all of France's so-called "anti-racist" organizations have joined a jihad against free speech and against truth... On January 25, 2017, France's "anti-racist" organizations -- all of them, even the Jewish LICRA (International League against Racism and anti-Semitism) -- joined the Islamist CCIF (Collective against Islamophobia) in court against Georges Bensoussan, a highly regarded Jewish historian of Moroccan extraction, and an expert on the history of Jews in Arab countries. Not only did the Islamist CCIF and the Jewish LICRA unite against him, but also the French Human Rights League, SOS Racism and MRAP (Movement against Racism and for Friendship with People)... https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9885/france-bensoussan-trial
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Who Are the Real Bible-Quoting Hypocrites?
by Minister Michael Brown
{townhall.com} ~ One of the sharpest criticisms that comes against Bible-quoting, conservative Christians is that we are hypocrites, failing to live by the very book that we so zealously quote.
Sadly, that criticism is often true.
To give just one example and as I’ve said countless times, no-fault, heterosexual divorce in the evangelical church has done more to undermine marriage than all gay activists combined.
But we conservative believers hardly have a monopoly on hypocrisy. To the contrary, the Bible-quoting hypocrisy of the liberal left is far more galling than our conservative Christian hypocrisy. We, for our part, truly believe the Bible to be God’s Word and seek to live by it even though failingly so at times, whereas the liberal left often despises the authority of Scripture except for a few select passages that it misuses for its purposes.
This has come into glaring clarity in light of the president’s executive order concerning refugees. Suddenly, Hollywood elites and their liberal colleagues are quoting the same book that they openly mock, especially when it comes to moral and spiritual standards.
They can’t have it both ways.
Either God’s Word has authority or it does not, and you cannot accept its moral imperative in one place and reject its moral imperative in another place. It simply does not work.
A critic might say, “But you do the exact same thing. You pick and choose what verses you follow.”
Actually, that’s not the case. We have a grid through which we read the Bible – a grid given us by the Bible itself – and we use the Scriptures to interpret the Scriptures.
For example, we learn that God gave Israel certain laws to keep them separate from the nations, even though the laws were not based on moral absolutes. A good example would be, “Don’t wear garments with mixed fabric” (Leviticus 19:19; Deuteronomy 22:11), even though there is nothing morally wrong about doing so. It was simply wrong for Israel because God was teaching them to be separate from the other nations.
On the flip side, when the Ten Commandments say, “Do not murder,” it is based on an absolute moral prohibition, one that is binding for all people everywhere.
So, while Christians today are not obligated to keep these specific laws of separation which include the dietary laws, they are obligated to keep the universal moral prohibitions of the Bible, which include prohibitions against adultery and stealing and murder.
The left-wing, hypocritical Bible-quoters, have no such grid. Instead, they learn a few verses or, snippets of verses and quote them with smug self-assurance, not realizing that the book they are selectively quoting actually condemns the lives they are living.
For a number of years, their favorite verse has been, “Jesus said ‘Don’t judge,’ but you’re guilty of judging me!” – and they say this as they harshly judge us.
What they fail to realize is that Jesus was teaching us not to judge superficially or hypocritically and not to condemn so that we could judge righteously rather than by superficial appearances (see Matthew 7:1-6; John 7:24).
And this same Jesus often warned about hell fire, taught that the path to God was narrow and straight, stated that He was the only way to the heavenly Father, and made clear that those who rejected Him would die in their sins – among many other exclusionary and flesh-offending statements. As for the moral standards of the Law – including sexual standards – He took them to a higher level.
To the Bible-citing Hollywood elites and your ultra-liberal colleagues, are you sure you want to be quoting the words of Jesus?
But the hypocrisy has gotten worse after President Trump’s executive order putting a temporary halt on incoming refugees from seven Middle Eastern countries. These one-time Bible-mockers are now quoting the words of the Torah in the Old Testament – yes, those supposedly antiquated, misogynist, bigoted words – reminding us of Israel’s calling to care for the refugee and the foreigner in their midst.
Of course, I totally affirm this ethic and call, and since we are a nation of immigrants, it applies all the more to us, just as it applied especially to the people of Israel, who themselves had been mistreated when they lived in Egypt: Don’t do to the foreigners what Egypt did to you!
But let’s put this compassionate command in context. The ancient Israelites were first commanded to exterminate the Canaanites who lived in the land they were about to inherit – including men, women, and children – because the spiritual and moral wickedness of the Canaanites was so great that it would pollute and destroy the Israelites should any survive.
That’s what I call extreme, yet it was a one-time command for ancient Israel, only after God waited 400 years until the wickedness of the Canaanites reached horrific proportions (see Genesis 15:16).
So then, the same God who called for compassion on the non-hostile foreigner seeking refuge among the people of Israel also called for the elimination of hostile foreigners similar to candidate Trump’s call to “bomb the h-ll out of ISIS”.
Not only so, but the non-hostile foreigners who took refuge in Israel were required to assimilate into Israel’s culture and were expected to live by Israel’s laws (see, e.g., Numbers 15:29). Is that a standard we’re ready to apply here as well?
More galling still is the liberal left’s quotation of Torah law pertaining to care for the refugee while ignoring the Torah’s strict moral code, which universally forbade homosexual practice and adultery under penalty of death.
For the record, these prohibitions are upheld by the New Testament both by Jesus and Paul, the difference being that instead of a physical death penalty there is a penalty of spiritual death, which in many ways is far worse.
The bottom line, then, is simple: By all means, keep quoting the Scriptures and calling America to live by the morality of the Bible. Just don’t do it selectively.
And the next time conservative Christians do the same, don’t yell back at us, “Separation of church and state!”
Fair enough?
Sadly, that criticism is often true.
To give just one example and as I’ve said countless times, no-fault, heterosexual divorce in the evangelical church has done more to undermine marriage than all gay activists combined.
But we conservative believers hardly have a monopoly on hypocrisy. To the contrary, the Bible-quoting hypocrisy of the liberal left is far more galling than our conservative Christian hypocrisy. We, for our part, truly believe the Bible to be God’s Word and seek to live by it even though failingly so at times, whereas the liberal left often despises the authority of Scripture except for a few select passages that it misuses for its purposes.
This has come into glaring clarity in light of the president’s executive order concerning refugees. Suddenly, Hollywood elites and their liberal colleagues are quoting the same book that they openly mock, especially when it comes to moral and spiritual standards.
They can’t have it both ways.
Either God’s Word has authority or it does not, and you cannot accept its moral imperative in one place and reject its moral imperative in another place. It simply does not work.
A critic might say, “But you do the exact same thing. You pick and choose what verses you follow.”
Actually, that’s not the case. We have a grid through which we read the Bible – a grid given us by the Bible itself – and we use the Scriptures to interpret the Scriptures.
For example, we learn that God gave Israel certain laws to keep them separate from the nations, even though the laws were not based on moral absolutes. A good example would be, “Don’t wear garments with mixed fabric” (Leviticus 19:19; Deuteronomy 22:11), even though there is nothing morally wrong about doing so. It was simply wrong for Israel because God was teaching them to be separate from the other nations.
On the flip side, when the Ten Commandments say, “Do not murder,” it is based on an absolute moral prohibition, one that is binding for all people everywhere.
So, while Christians today are not obligated to keep these specific laws of separation which include the dietary laws, they are obligated to keep the universal moral prohibitions of the Bible, which include prohibitions against adultery and stealing and murder.
The left-wing, hypocritical Bible-quoters, have no such grid. Instead, they learn a few verses or, snippets of verses and quote them with smug self-assurance, not realizing that the book they are selectively quoting actually condemns the lives they are living.
For a number of years, their favorite verse has been, “Jesus said ‘Don’t judge,’ but you’re guilty of judging me!” – and they say this as they harshly judge us.
What they fail to realize is that Jesus was teaching us not to judge superficially or hypocritically and not to condemn so that we could judge righteously rather than by superficial appearances (see Matthew 7:1-6; John 7:24).
And this same Jesus often warned about hell fire, taught that the path to God was narrow and straight, stated that He was the only way to the heavenly Father, and made clear that those who rejected Him would die in their sins – among many other exclusionary and flesh-offending statements. As for the moral standards of the Law – including sexual standards – He took them to a higher level.
To the Bible-citing Hollywood elites and your ultra-liberal colleagues, are you sure you want to be quoting the words of Jesus?
But the hypocrisy has gotten worse after President Trump’s executive order putting a temporary halt on incoming refugees from seven Middle Eastern countries. These one-time Bible-mockers are now quoting the words of the Torah in the Old Testament – yes, those supposedly antiquated, misogynist, bigoted words – reminding us of Israel’s calling to care for the refugee and the foreigner in their midst.
Of course, I totally affirm this ethic and call, and since we are a nation of immigrants, it applies all the more to us, just as it applied especially to the people of Israel, who themselves had been mistreated when they lived in Egypt: Don’t do to the foreigners what Egypt did to you!
But let’s put this compassionate command in context. The ancient Israelites were first commanded to exterminate the Canaanites who lived in the land they were about to inherit – including men, women, and children – because the spiritual and moral wickedness of the Canaanites was so great that it would pollute and destroy the Israelites should any survive.
That’s what I call extreme, yet it was a one-time command for ancient Israel, only after God waited 400 years until the wickedness of the Canaanites reached horrific proportions (see Genesis 15:16).
So then, the same God who called for compassion on the non-hostile foreigner seeking refuge among the people of Israel also called for the elimination of hostile foreigners similar to candidate Trump’s call to “bomb the h-ll out of ISIS”.
Not only so, but the non-hostile foreigners who took refuge in Israel were required to assimilate into Israel’s culture and were expected to live by Israel’s laws (see, e.g., Numbers 15:29). Is that a standard we’re ready to apply here as well?
More galling still is the liberal left’s quotation of Torah law pertaining to care for the refugee while ignoring the Torah’s strict moral code, which universally forbade homosexual practice and adultery under penalty of death.
For the record, these prohibitions are upheld by the New Testament both by Jesus and Paul, the difference being that instead of a physical death penalty there is a penalty of spiritual death, which in many ways is far worse.
The bottom line, then, is simple: By all means, keep quoting the Scriptures and calling America to live by the morality of the Bible. Just don’t do it selectively.
And the next time conservative Christians do the same, don’t yell back at us, “Separation of church and state!”
Fair enough?
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