FRANCE PASSES LAW IMPOSING UP TO TWO YEARS PRISON FOR RUNNING PRO-LIFE WEBSITES
from: Lifesite News

(17 Feb.) The French National Assembly has adopted legislation to make what it calls “spreading misleading information” about abortion punishable with up to a two-year prison sentence and a fine.

The law specifically targets “electronic” and “online” means of spreading information with the intention of dissuading women from ending their pregnancy, but its wording is not restrictive. By and large, any person or group aiming to call public attention to the dangers and risks of abortion will be potentially at risk of prosecution.

Thursday’s vote was the final stage of a lawmaking process that saw various versions of the text come alternately before the Assembly and the Senate. The upper house repeatedly tried to impose less severe wording without trying to scrap the law entirely. In the absence of an agreement between the two governing bodies, the National Assembly has the last word and so it achieved its aim of virtually outlawing pro-life speech.

The law was adopted by a show of hands – an indication that few lawmakers were present in the Chamber – during which all left-wing representatives present as well as a majority of the centrists voted for the measure. It is the latest in a series of pro-abortion laws that have made “voluntary interruption of pregnancy,” as the French euphemism goes, a purely elective and 100 percent publicly-funded “fundamental right” since socialist François Hollande came into power five years ago. [read more...]

VICTORY FOR CHRISTIANS: GEORGIA STATE EMPLOYEE FIRED FOR WEEKEND SERMONS PREVAILS
from The Stream

(10 Feb.) Dr. Eric Walsh’s lawsuit against the State of Georgia came to an end when the state agreed to pay the Seventh-Day Adventist and former state employee $225,000. First Liberty Institute, the non-profit law firm representing Walsh, announced the victory Thursday. The settlement comes after a nearly three-year legal battle in which Walsh, a lay-minister for his church, accused Georgia of religious discrimination.

Dr. Walsh, a member of former President Barack Obama’s Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS and holder of multiple advanced degrees, was hired as a district health director with Georgia’s Department of Public Health in 2014. But officials abruptly fired him after reviewing YouTube videos of sermons he had preached on the weekends. First Liberty Institute, a national non-profit law firm based in Texas, helped Walsh file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEOC).

As The Stream reported last April, Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits the discrimination of employers based on their religion. “No one should be fired from their job for something they said in a sermon," First Liberty Senior Counsel Jeremy Dys told The Stream at the time. Otherwise, “It will be fair game to examine the notes you took in church or the Sunday School lesson you prepared during your annual review.” [read more...]

ORTHODOX PRIEST MAY BECOME A VOICE OF THE COUNTRY
from: Religious Information Service of Ukraine

(13 Feb.) Archpriest Oleksandr Klimenko of the UOC impressed all four judges of the contest “Voice of the country 7” with his singing. During the blind auditions Fr. Oleksandr Klimenko has performed a song by Mykola Mozhovyi “Mother's Love” and by the power of his voice has made all the four coaches rotate their chairs to see him.

Answering Jamala’s question about the attitude of the Church to his participation in this show Fr Oleksandr said: “If the image of a priest on stage will inspire someone to pray – it is great. Chesterton, a famous writer of the twentieth century, said that entertainment is in human power, but the real joy is in the power of God. I will try to participate in things that bring authentic joy and withhold where there is just entertainment.”

Behind the scenes of the “Voice of the country 7,” Archpriest of the UOC, Fr Oleksandr Klimenko told why he actually came to the singing show and why it was important for him that only one coach rotates to see him. According to the priest, every song is a small sermon for him. “I was afraid that already two will turn faces on him. I would like only one to turn around. It would be a little easier for my pride,” says the priest. [read more...]

UZBEKISTAN: RELIGIOUS LITERATURE FINES AND CONFISCATIONS CONTINUE
by Mushfig Bayram: Forum 18 News Service

(10 Feb.) Bailiffs in Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent in January confiscated a car from Seventh-day Adventist pastor Andrei Ten because he did not pay an August 2016 fine for giving religious books away. The books had originally been approved by the Religious Affairs Committee, which then apparently changed it mind so as to fine the Pastor. He was denied the chance to appeal against the fine, and an extra fine was imposed for not paying the first fine. The confiscated could be worth more than three times the value of the fines.

In August 2016 police and National Security Service (NSS) secret police arrested four men riding in a taxi in Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent. They then confiscated copies of a religious book which the Religious Affairs Committee had in writing stated that, after "expert analysis,” was allowed to be imported and distributed in Uzbekistan. One of the men, Pastor Andrei Ten of the registered Seventh-day Adventist Church, was summoned to a police station and asked to write a statement that he gave out copies of the book. He was only then shown a second "expert analysis” in which the Religious Affairs Committee contradicted itself banning the book. Pastor Ten was on 19 August fined 100 times the minimum monthly wage, the other three men being each fined five times the minimum monthly wage. On 19 January Bailiff Tuychiyev with five colleagues broke into the grounds of Ten's home. They waited for Ten, and when he returned home at 8 p.m. illegally confiscated his car.

In Nukus, police are pressuring a local Protestant to sign a record officers want to dictate admitting to the "offence” of having religious literature in his home. Nine police officers, only one of whom was in uniform, broke into Bakhbergen Abdikarimov's flat in Nukus in the afternoon of 27 November 2016. The police did not have a search warrant, so both their breaking into his home and subsequent search were illegal. Police confiscated one Christian book, three CD and DVD discs - one of which contained a video of Abdikarimov's wedding - and one memory chip, local Protestants who wish to remain unnamed for fear of state reprisals told Forum 18 on 2 February.

Police then took Abdikarimov to Nukus Police Station and questioned him for three hours. The unnamed officers demanded that he write a statement they would dictate, in which he would claim to be illegally storing Christian books in his home. Abdikarimov refused to do this and the police then released him. Since then Nukus Police have been "constantly making phone calls to summoning him to Nukus Police Station”, Protestants stated. [read more...]

MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE WELCOMES MEASURES ON BANNING STATE FUNDING OF ABORTIONS IN THE USA
from: Interfax-Religion

(14 Feb.) The Russian Orthodox Church stressed the importance of anti-abortion measures recently adopted in the USA. "These actions aimed at strengthening traditional family values and supported by the United States Conference of Bishops, cause respect and solidarity," Vladimir Legoyda, head of the Russian Orthodox Church's Department for Church, Society and Media Relations, said in his statement quoted by his press service.

As was reported, the House of Representatives in the USA Congress approved of a bill banning to use money of tax-payers to abortions and President Donald Trump prohibited state funding of international NGOs that carry out or spread information about abortions. Thus, he abolished Barack Obama's decision which eliminated this ban in 2009. According to Legoyda, the American bill that bans to allot budget money for funding abortions "witnesses to Christian views on holiness and integrity of a human life from the moment of conception, which was also reflected in suggestions of the Russian Orthodox Church on excluding abortions from the mandatory health insurance, supported by 100,000 people throught Internet vote."

"Efforts of the Russian Orthodox Church aimed at excluding abortions from the mandatory health insurance are backed up by representatives of American conservative circles. For example, Brian Stephen Brown, president of the World Congress of Families and American co-founder of the National Organization for Marriage, spoke about it at our recent meeting," the church official said. [read more...]

THE POPE AND THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX PATRIARCH MET A YEAR AGO. HERE'S WHAT'S NEXT.
from: Catholic News Agency

(12 Feb.) One year ago marked a historic first meeting between a Pope and a Russian Orthodox Patriarch. Now, the Vatican and the Moscow Patriarchate will celebrate the meeting’s anniversary with a conference at Switzerland’s Freibourg University. The conference will take place Feb. 12, exactly one year after the meeting between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill at the St. Marti airport at the Havana.

Christian brotherhood and unity were the focus of the 2016 meeting. “We spoke as brothers,” Pope Francis said of the meeting last year. “We have the same baptism. We are bishops. We spoke of our Churches.” Patriarch Kirill said their private discussion was conducted “with full awareness of the responsibility of our Churches, for the future of Christianity, and for the future of human civilization” and provided a chance to understand each other. He said the two Churches will work against war.

Now, one year later, Catholic and Russian Orthodox leaders will gather in Switzerland for a conference. The event is held by Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, and Metropolitan Hilarion, president of the department of the external ecclesiastical relations of the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate. Cardinal Koch and Metropolitan Hilarion both led the negotiations that led to Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill’s joint statement in Havana. At the Switzerland conference they will talk about progress and rapprochement between the two Churches. [read more...]

UKRAINIAN CHAPLAINS DO PUSH-UPs TOGETHER TO SUPPORT UKRAINIAN MILITARY
from Religious Information Service of Ukraine

ROMANIA: A NATION IN PROTEST, A CHURCH IN PRAYER
from Mission Network News

CROSS MISSING AT THE MOLDAVIAN FLAG DURING ITS PRESIDENT'S VISIT TO IRAN RESULTED IN A SCANDAL
from Interfax-Religion

RUSSIAN ORTHODOX ACTIVISTS THREATEN VIOLENCE AGAINST MOVIE THEATRES
from Russia Religion News

HUNGARIAN GOVERNMENT GIVES A GRANT FOR RESTORATION AND CONSTRUCTION OF ORTHODOX CHURCHES
from Russian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate

MEATFARE SUNDAY: THE LAST JUDGMENT
from Pravoslavie.ru

CHINA: 36 SOUTH KOREAN CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES KICKED OUT
from Eurasia Review

IMAGINING UNITY WITH THE CHURCHES OF THE EAST
from Jappers and Janglers

Feb. 17, 2017 - Here’s a Preview of Where Transanity Is Leading Us

Feb. 17, 2017 - Is the Left Playing With Fire?

Feb. 16, 2017 - Leftwing Intolerance and Rightwing Hypocrisy

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There are many people, even some who call themselves Christians, who think Christianity Is a Sanitized Fairy Tale. They prefer to believe that if everybody would just love each other, if we would all simply "go along to get along," if those politicians would just operate according to Robert's Rules of Order, then everything will be just lovey-dovey and hunky-dorey. Wishful thinking!

But this is not a fairy tale world or a Christian Paradise that we live in, if it ever was. This is the real world, folks, where there really are mean and nasty people out there who are trying to destroy our tolerant, democratic Western civilization, and massacre anyone who dares to resist. Toleration only works if all parties agree to practice it. The above headlines FRANCE PASSES LAW IMPOSING UP TO TWO YEARS PRISON FOR RUNNING PRO-LIFE WEBSITES and VICTORY FOR CHRISTIANS: GEORGIA STATE EMPLOYEE FIRED FOR WEEKEND SERMONS PREVAILS should tell us that anti-Christian political and cultural forces are at work in Europe and the U.S. to radically change our culture. Socialism is now showing the teeth in its ugly face right here in the West.

Judicial Watch, a non-partisan (but conservative-leaning) legal organization, and several other sources have just this week broached the topic that a "soft coup" against the current U.S. Administration is underway. The recent upsurge in divisiveness by Main-Stream Media news reporting seems to indicate a broad move by the Leftist secular humanists who sense their control over society is slipping away. They are putting on a full-court press to use whatever levers of power - the press, judiciary, intelligence as well as political circles - to chip away at the Administration's authority.

A "soft coup" is a non-violent attempt to delegitimize a government and cause it to collapse, as the video and transcript explain (the problem is, the latest street riots indicate that it might not be very "soft"). The recent resignation of the newly-confirmed National Security Advisor for violating the Logan Act of 1799 is merely a pretext. Nobody has ever been prosecuted under that Act, because the Logan Act contradicts the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. How many former U.S. Presidents, other former politicians, actors, actresses, war protesters, etc. have visited foreign countries and have conducted "unofficial diplomacy" with those countries' leaders?

Just in case you hadn't noticed it at the top of this newsletter, the reminder below is to remind you (doubly redundant!) about our next free online course. Please, don't skip over it thinking, "I'll just let someone else do it." You are that someone: DO IT!

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