03/28/2023
Presented by World Vision
Curated for you byCP Editors
Good afternoon! It's Tuesday, March 28, and today's headlines include an increase in anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S., an update on the shooting at a Christian school in Nashville, Tenn., and details on a suspect who was arrested in connection with the vandalism of a New York pro-life pregnancy center.
The Anti-Defamation League reports that the U.S. saw a record 3,697 anti-Semitic incidents in 2022, marking a 36% increase from last year. The Jewish advocacy group, which tracks anti-Semitic violence and harassment against Jews, revealed the findings in its annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, which it released on Wednesday. The audit tracks "criminal and non-criminal incidents of harassment, vandalism and assault against individuals and groups as reported to ADL by victims, law enforcement, the media and partner organizations." The report showed that cases of anti-Semitic harassment increased by 29% (2,298), vandalism increased by 51% (1,288) and anti-Semitic assaults increased by 26% (111). Orthodox Jews were the target of 53% of anti-Semitic assault incidents nationally. The report found that no assaults resulted in mass casualties, however, there was at least one fatality.
Serene Hudson, vice president of advocacy at Passages, an organization that facilitates trips for Christian students to the Holy Land, cited a January ADL report which found beliefs in anti-Jewish tropes have grown and basic knowledge about the Holocaust has declined. In a statement to The Christian Post, Hudson said, "Passages is committed to continue standing by the Jewish people. This is an alarming moment for American Jews, who must think about increasing security for Jewish institutions or the safety of wearing a kippah or the Star of David in public." She also urged Christians and others to "advocate boldly for the well-being and safety of the Jewish community." Continue reading.
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Churches and pastors within the Presbyterian Church of America lifted up The Covenant School in Nashville, Tenn., in prayer after a 28-year-old shooter shot and killed three children and three adults at the elementary school affiliated with the denomination on Monday morning. Police have identified Audrey Hale, who self-identified as transgender, as the shooter. Hale, a former student at the school, was armed with "at least" two assault rifles and a handgun during the attacks. Authorities identified the three child victims as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all 9 years old, and the adults as Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and Mike Hill, 61. The Nashville police chief, John Drake, said that the attack was targeted and that police had found writings and detailed maps of the school and its security protocols. Ken Klett, senior pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Holland, Mich., was among those to voice his devastation at the tragic event and said his congregation was praying for those impacted. "[W]e carry your burden as our own and mourn with those who are mourning. We pray that the grace of God will abound to the students and faculty of the school, the church, and all the families," he said on Facebook. Scott Sauls, senior pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville offered a reminder of the hope found in Christ amid tragedy in a blog post, writing, "Even as we wait in grief, the text of Scripture whispers hope. 'We grieve…with hope' (1 Thessalonians 4:13)." Read more.
Also of Interest...
The Amherst Police Department in Amherst, New York, has arrested Hannah Kamke, 39, in connection with the March 16 vandalism of CompassCare, a pro-life pregnancy center in the Buffalo area. The department noted that Kamke's arrest on charges of criminal mischief in the third degree "is the result of an investigation by the Amherst Police Department with the assistance of the FBI." The attack marks the second act of vandalism at the pro-life pregnancy center in the last year. On March 16, CompassCare's sign was spray-painted with the word "liars." Last June, the facility was firebombed in the wake of Politico publishing a draft of a U.S. Supreme Court decision indicating that a majority of the justices were inclined to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. The perpetrators of that attack remain at large. Read more.
Hope Carrasquilla, the principal of Tallahassee Classical School in Florida, says she was forced to resign last week after some parents complained about a sixth-grade lesson on Renaissance art that featured Michelangelo's "David" sculpture, which at least one parent says exposed students to pornographic material. However, the charter school's board chair says that the board has had issues with the principal over the last year and that she was forced to step down over her failure to adhere to parental notification policies and not due to the lesson itself. The art lesson included Michelangelo's "David" statue, which depicts the Old Testament figure David fully exposed without any clothes. Other pieces featured in the lesson included Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam" and Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" paintings. Parents complained that they were not notified before such a lesson was given to their children; a school rule reportedly requires that parents be notified two weeks ahead of teaching "potentially controversial" curricula. Carrasquilla maintains the school failed to notify parents due to a communication breakdown. Board Chair Barney Bishop clarified the school's position during an interview with CNN, saying, "Every year we show that picture in the Renaissance Art class taught to our sixth graders. We aren't trying to ban the picture. We think it's beautiful, but we are going to make sure the concept of parental rights is supreme in Florida and at our charter school." Read more.
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In this op-ed, John Stonestreet and Jared Eckert of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview discuss the challenges parents face when allowing their kids online versus the social stigma of kids who are not allowed online. In discussing the propaganda pushed on social media platforms such as TikTok, the authors explain how these platforms influence mental health and shape young people's ideas and practices. To combat the myths of the alternative online world, they call on parents to train their children to critically think about and biblically examine the content they encounter online and cultivate better "habits of heart and mind," including social media fasts. Read more.
Living Waters founder and CEO Ray Comfort reminds believers that they are not called to convert gay to straight but to share the Gospel. Comfort reflects on 1 Timothy 1:8-10 and explains that it is essential believers witness to homosexual individuals by taking them "through the moral Law to show them they need God’s mercy," adding, "I don't mention their sexual preference … until after they have heard that the gift of God is eternal life and that this unspeakable gift is offered to all people, including homosexuals. Then I show them 1 Corinthians 6:8-10. It’s then that they can receive it because they now understand the Gospel and that God's standards are infinitely higher than ours." Comfort also reflects on the importance of showing homosexuals love, recognizing Jesus' words: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven" (Matthew 5:16). Read more.
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Russian artist Andrei Molodkin is creating a sculpture that will "drench St. Paul's Cathedral in the blood of Afghani people" in response to Prince Harry touting that he shot and killed 25 Taliban fighters during his military service. The blood used in the sculpture has been donated by Afghan refugees. The artist told Sky News that Prince Harry's discussion of the killings in his memoir, Spare, inspired Molodkin's protest art. When writing about the number of people he killed in Afghanistan, Prince Harry admitted that he did not think of them as "people" but as "chess pieces" that had to be removed from the board. Molodkin was quoted as saying that Prince Harry's remarks made him "very, very angry." The artist previously created a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin filled with Ukrainian blood as a protest against the invasion of Ukraine. Read more.
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Hope City Church founder Jeremy Foster recently said that he apologized to his ex-wife and children for an affair that destroyed his marriage and ministry. However, Foster's estranged oldest daughter took to Instagram to assert that her father remains unrepentant for his actions. In what she titled a "spicy q&a," Jayden Foster fielded questions about her relationship with her father after finding out about his affair, which led to his resignation from the church last January. She stated that she received an email from her father around a month after her parents' divorce was finalized where he told her he'd remarried. "It like gutted me. Like, it really, really wrecked me," she explained. She also said that her father was living with his "affair partner" after the affair became public and while he was still married to her mother. "In an email he sent to me, he said they were getting married because he wanted my younger siblings to have a correct biblical view of marriage. That is a little ironic," Jayden added. She also pushed back on some of her dad's claims about the challenges in her parents' marriage and asserted that there is a "big difference between apology and repentance" and "grace and enabling." Read more.
Also of Interest...
Washington State megachurch Churchome has been slapped with a class action lawsuit for allegedly imposing a tithing policy on employees, in violation of state law, that requires them to give back no less than 10% of their gross earnings to the church. Failure to do so can result in disciplinary action, including termination. The 44-page complaint, which was filed last Tuesday in the King County Superior Court of Washington, was filed on behalf of Churchome employee Rachel Kellogg and at least 100 other employees affected by the policy during the last three years. Judah Smith, the church's lead communicator, his wife Chelsea, the church's lead theologian, and Chief Executive Officer David Kroll are named as defendants. After Kellogg was injured in a serious car accident in Aug. 2020 that resulted in multiple expenses and medical bills, she was unable to have the church withdraw the required 10% from her twice-monthly paychecks. She was later warned via telephone that she needed to resume the tithing requirement, and Churchome's content director, Joe Goods, informed her that he chose to sell his home to meet the requirement during a period of financial struggle. Goods later informed Kellogg that the church was increasing its tithing audits to every six months to ensure that employees were compliant and suggested that if she didn't start paying up, she could be "removed from staff." Read more.
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