Permit Required to host a home Bible Study?

Allie Martin
OneNewsNow

A San Diego pastor says county officials have told him he needs a permit to host a weekly Bible study in his home.

Pastor David Jones and his wife, Mary, were hosting the weekly study near their church, when they say they were visited by a county code enforcement officer. According to Dean Broyles, an attorney for the Joneses, the county official asked the pastor if they hosted a regular weekly meeting in their home, and if they prayed and said “Amen” and “Praise the Lord” at those meetings.
 
After replying in the affirmative to those inquiries, a subsequent citation notified the couple they were in violation of county regulations, should stop “religious assembly,” and needed to apply for a “major use” permit to continue the gatherings — a process that could cost several thousands dollars.
 
Jones, his wife, and their attorney, Dean Broyles, were interviewed on the Fox News Channel. Broyles says the couple’s rights have been violated.
 
“The government may not prohibit the free exercise of religion,” says the attorney. “And I believe that our Founding Fathers would roll over in their graves if they saw that here in the year 2009 that a pastor and his wife are being told that they can’t have a simple Bible study in their own home.”
 
The American Family Association has launched an online petition drive related to the incident, asking the San Diego County Board of Supervisors to immediately stop interfering with the rights of individuals to hold Bible studies in their homes.
 
Jones and his wife say they will continue to challenge the county’s policy. About 15 people attend the weekly meetings. 

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Church gives fresh meaning to ‘offering’ plate

(CNN) — The pastor of a non-denominational church in Argyle, Texas, passed around the collection plate to his congregants earlier this year — and asked them to take money from it.

Donations at the Cross Timbers Community Church had slumped because of the economic downturn. Pastor Toby Slough thought that his congregants had to be hurting, too.

His gesture, instead, was met with an unexpected response: The church had its highest offering ever.

It was a eureka moment for Slough: Give away money to those who need it, knowing his church members will help fill the need.

“In these economic times, we can’t be so into church business that we forget what our business is, and that is to help people,” Slough told CNN television affiliate KDAF in Dallas-Forth Worth.

In the past two months, the 9-year-old church has done just that: handed out a half-million dollars to members and non-members who are struggling.

“We’ve taken $200,000 and spread it out to organizations — four local, two missions that are feeding and clothing people in these tough times,” Slough said. “We’ve paid utility bills for members of our church that are unemployed or under-employed.”

Full Story Here

Teen homeschooler jailed under Patriot Act

FBI holds 10th-grader for months with little contact from family

© 2009 WorldNetDaily

A 16-year-old homeschooled boy from North Carolina was taken away from his home in handcuffs two months ago and has been held by the FBI in Indiana ever since, a victim, his mother claims, of the Patriot Act spun out of control.

According to Annette Lundeby of Oxford, N.C., armed FBI agents and local police stormed her home around 10 p.m. on March 5, looking for her son, Ashton. The officers presented a federal search warrant and seized the 10th-grader’s computer, cell phone and bank statements.

Ashton was then taken to a juvenile facility in South Bend, Ind., charged with making a bomb threat in Indiana from his home computer.

His mother, however, told Raleigh’s WRAL-TV that she argued with the authorities, claiming someone must have hacked into her son’s IP address and used it to make crank calls. The agents’ search, she claims, also failed to uncover any trace of bomb-making materials.

“Undoubtedly, they were given false information,” Lundeby told the station, “or they would not have had 12 agents in my house with a widow and two children and three cats.”

Allowed little access to see her son during the last two months, facing a court date that keeps being pushed back and given no information by FBI agents sitting behind a gag order on the case, Lundeby now says the USA Patriot Act has unjustly imprisoned an innocent boy and stripped her son of due process.

Full Story Here

Famous Pastor Arrested for Gun at Airport

Here is another story that belongs in the bizarre category. John Maxwell was recently arested for trying to take a gun through airport security. The author and speaker is famous for his advice on leadership. He has spoke in churches all over the nation including a few Apostolic churches.

WEST PALM BEACH, FL — For those who know Dr. John Maxwell, his mug shot is both a shock and a contradiction to his character.

 “He has been a tremendous national leader, adding value throughout the world whether it’s Africa or right here in Palm Beach County,” said Bill Hobbs from Urban Youth Impact.

The author and speaker is famous for his advice on leadership. He’s a teaching pastor at Christ Fellowship Church… The man with a long resume of being a stand up guy was arrested, fingerprinted and photographed for taking a concealed handgun through security at Palm Beach International Airport.

Maxwell blogged about the incident. “What I did was wrong, and it was my fault.  I certainly didn’t intend to break the law, but I will face up to the consequences,” Maxwell wrote.

Maxwell explained that is was a mistake.  The gun had been given to him as a gift after a speaking engagement out of state, to which he traveled on a private plane.  He said he forgot to take the gun out of his bag before traveling through PBIA days later.

“If you’re not paying attention and you do something stupid, it’s going to hurt you.  In the end, I just hope my mistake isn’t going to hurt anybody but me,” wrote Maxwell.

His supporters say Maxwell’s reaction and admittance to his error is what makes him the “real deal.”

“That’s rare in today’s culture with leadership.  People want to side step it.  They want to blame someone else and John faced the issue head on, took responsibility and he learned from it,” said Hobbs.

Maxwell bonded out of jail for three thousand dollars.  He does not have a court date scheduled.  He continues to travel and speak on leadership throughout the country. 

Full Story

Small Town Terror

A New Hampshire pastor’s decision to invite a convicted child killer to live with him and his family has created outrage within his small community.

March 26, 2009 — Every week, David Pinckney preaches to his congregation about being like Jesus. Now the small-town New Hampshire pastor is discovering not everyone wants to follow through with that challenge-especially when it comes to forgiveness.

Last week Pinckney did the unthinkable for many of the 2,000-plus residents of Chichester, N.H., by inviting a convicted child killer to live with him and his family for at least two months. After officials couldn’t find anyone else willing to take in 60-year-old Raymond Guay, who spent the last 35 years behind bars on charges of abducting and murdering a 12-year-old boy in 1973, Pinckney opened up his home-where his wife and four teenage children also live. Unfortunately, most of his neighbors believe his kindness is now making a once tranquil town unsafe for everyone.

Pinckney, who leads River of Grace Church in nearby Concord, has received several angry phone calls, endured a protest outside his home and even heard someone threaten to burn his house down. In a recent town meeting, more than 200 people gathered to appeal Guay’s relocation to Chichester, and local police have publicly stated they understand people’s fear because of their meager numbers (the town employs only four full-time officers).

Full Story Here

House narrowly passes bill to allow guns in church

LITTLE ROCK — The state House on Wednesday narrowly passed a bill to allow concealed weapons permit holders to bring their guns to church. Its fate will now rest with the Senate.

The Senate Wednesday approved measures that would prohibit drivers from texting, ban cell phone use by drivers under 18, and require drivers 18 to 20 to use only a hands-free cell phone while driving.

House Bill 1237, the church-guns bill, won approval on a 57-42 vote. The bill by Rep. Beverly Pyle, R-Cedarville, would amend state law to remove churches and other places of worship from the list of places where people with permits are not allowed to carry guns.

“Due to many shootings that have happened in our churches across our nation, it is time we changed our concealed handgun law to allow law-abiding citizens of the state of Arkansas the right to defend themselves and others should a situation happen in one of our churches,” Pyle told House members.

If the bill becomes law, churches could decide whether to allow guns, Pyle said.

Full Story Here

Jesus’ Birth Place is a Danger Zone for Christians

Controlled by militant Muslims, the place of Jesus’ birth is a danager zone for Christians today. But Arab believers say the gospel continues to be preached there.

[12.24.08] Rami Ayyad was closing up at the Bible Society in Gaza where he worked when armed men whisked him into a car and sped away. For hours, Ayyad’s whereabouts were unknown. Pauline, his wife and the mother of their three children-the last still in utero-finally got through to him on his cell phone.

He wasn’t able to say much, and she could tell something was wrong. It turned out to be the couple’s last conversation.

The next day, October 7, 2007, Ayyad’s body was found marred by signs of torture and riddled with the gunshot wounds that killed him.

Hanna Massad, pastor of the Gaza Baptist Church-the only evangelical church in the Gaza Strip-said Ayyad was the first known martyr in Gaza and most likely was killed for refusing to convert to Islam.

Full Story Here

Man says God ordered him to ram vehicle at 100 mph

SAN ANTONIO – A man who rammed his truck into a woman’s vehicle on a highway early Friday told authorities he crashed into her while going more than 100 mph because God told him “she needed to be taken off the road.”

The truck rear-ended the car on U.S. Highway 281, both vehicles spun across a median then came to a stop along a barrier in the opposite lanes. Both drivers suffered only minor injuries.

“He just said God said she wasn’t driving right, and she needed to be taken off the road,” Bexar County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Kyle Coleman said in the online edition of the San Antonio Express-News. “God must have been with them, ’cause any other time, the severity of this crash, it would have been a fatal.”

The pickup driver did not tell police how the woman was driving. Police could not find alcohol or drugs in either driver.

A psychiatric evaluation has been ordered for a man.

Original Story

Christian college to allow students to carry guns?

Students at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., have successfully petitioned the college  to consider lifting a ban on carrying guns on campus.

Members of Liberty’s Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, or SCCC, brought the matter before the school’s chancellor, Jerry Falwell, Jr.

“We just have a group on campus that’s been promoting that idea, and I really don’t have a good feel for whether our community would support it or not,” Falwell told The Lynchburg News & Advance. “So I just decided to take it to the board.”

Full Story Here

U.S. Justice Department Sues D.C. Transit Over Religious Discrimination Against Apostolic Woman

Gloria Jones, an Apostolic Pentecostal from Washington D.C., applied to be a Metro bus driver in 2005 and was denied because her religious beliefs included not wearing slacks, part of the standard uniform for the Metro. 

In response, the United States Justice Department is suing Metro, alleging religious discrimination and seeks to compel Metro to reform its uniform policy and offer jobs and back pay to Jones, as well as any other employees affected by the agency’s alleged discrimination. 

Click here to read the full story.

‘Spiritologist’ Credits UPC with Spiritualist Development

Spirit Fest recently concluded at the Memorial Auditorium in Pittsburg, Kansas.  The event brings together New Agers from spiritualists to numerologists to astrologists.

Genia Rodgers, who practices dowsing, or the practice of using rods to discover knowledge, among other pratices attended the event.  She says that she grew up Apostolic and makes the incredible claim that she “learned all her practices through the United Pentecostal Church.” 

The United Pentecostal Church International is strongly opposed to the New Age Movement and all practice of superstition or magic.

Click here to read the full story.

Man sentenced to die for having 86 wives

Nigeria: Bello Abubakar challenged Muslim scholars two weeks ago.

According to a story on BBC News, Nigeria’s Islamic authority has told the man, who has 86 wives, to choose only four and repent within three days or else he will be sentenced to death.

The Jamatu Nasril Islam (JNI) passed their verdict on Mohammed Bello Abubakar, 84, according to Sharia law.

This comes two weeks after the Nigerian press and the BBC reported on the case.

The former teacher and Muslim preacher lives in Niger State with his wives and at least 170 children, and says he is able to cope only with the help of God.

“A man with 10 wives would collapse and die, but my own power is given by Allah. That is why I have been able to control 86 of them,” he told the BBC.

“Prophet” Resigns in Disgrace

Todd Bentley, a Canadian “prophet” who attracted thousands nightly to his healing crusades, has resigned in disgrace from ministerial leadership after entering into “an unhealthy relationship on an emotional level” with a female staff member of Fresh Fire Ministries. 

Bentley has agreed to “receive counsel in his personal life” and is receiving support from some of his followers.  Bentley has been controversial since bursting on to the American scene with tattoos and body piercings.

Fresh Fire Ministries plans to continue their work, but crusades have been canceled.

Click here to read the full story.  Click here to visit Fresh Fire’s website.

Jesus Cheeto brings woman national attention

Editor’s Note: This story is a couple weeks old already, but I just couldn’t pass it up. We needed some more stories in the ‘bizarre’ category…

The fact that Kelly Ramey discovered a Cheeto shaped like Jesus on the cross has brought her at least 15 minutes of fame.

That she has found herself the subject of news reports across the nation has shocked her and is the reason for this story.

Here are the basics. On July 22, Ramey, 50, who lives in unincorporated northern Jefferson County, was driving home after riding horses. She stopped for a snack at an area convenience store and chose a small bag of Cheetos.”I was eating while I was driving,” she recalled. “I don’t know why I didn’t just eat it.

“When I took the Cheeto out, it felt different. So, I looked at it and it immediately came to mind it was Jesus on the cross.”

She sought verification from others that the Cheeto, indeed, resembles Jesus on the cross.

Click HERE to read the full story.

Click HERE to see the YouTube video.

New TV Program: Make me a Christian

A new television program broadcast this month follows a group of 13 non-Christian volunteers, who, on camera, attempt to “live by the teachings of the Bible for three weeks.”

“Make Me a Christian,” broadcast in a three-part series, asks the participants to be mentored by four pastors from a variety of backgrounds – Anglican, Catholic, Evangelical, and Pentecostal – as they attempt to live like Christians, an effort that runs in stark contrast to many of the participants’ backgrounds.

The 13 volunteers who will make the effort include a tattooed militant atheist biker, a man who converted from Christianity to Islam, a lesbian schoolteacher, a lap-dancing witch with a lust for expensive shoes, a middle-class yuppie couple that can’t find time to spend with their children and a party animal who claims he’s slept with over 150 women.

Whether people can be made into Christians by a three-week crash course in discipleship, however, remains a matter of debate.

FULL STORY at WorldNetDaily