Friday Church News and Notes

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.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD’S BLACK GENOCIDE (Friday Church News Notes, April 22, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following is from “I Don’t Stand with Planned Parenthood,” Ryan Bomberger, theRadianceFoundation.org, Feb. 3, 2021: “A burglar can’t denounce theft. A pimp can’t denounce sex trafficking. And Planned Parenthood can’t denounce violence. They killed 345,672 defenseless humans according to their own latest annual report. Abortion, which rips apart a human being, is violent. And sometimes, as in the case of Tonya Reaves, Planned Parenthood prefers to protect its own daily violence over the life of a woman. Tonya Reaves died inside a Chicago Planned Parenthood abortion biz. She bled to death for 5.5 hours because Planned Parenthood refused to call 911. Her life, and that of her unborn child, had no value to them. Abortion is violence … against the unborn and their mothers, regardless of race or ethnicity. Planned Parenthood now calls itself an ‘anti-racist organization.’ If abortion weren’t so heinous their claim would be hilarious. It would be like cigarette companies calling themselves ‘anti-cancer.’ Nope. Sorry. Doesn’t work. In New York City, where the nation’s largest chain of abortion violence is headquartered, more black babies have been aborted than born alive for decades! Planned Parenthood calls this ‘reproductive justice.’ They kill 318 black lives every single day (calculated by multiplying Planned Parenthood’s 345,672 abortions in latest report by the CDC’s 33.6% of abortions on black babies.) Fannie Lou Hamer, famed anti-poverty and voting rights activist, called abortion a ‘genocide’ among blacks. We echo her sentiments. For the nation’s largest abortion and baby-parts-trafficking chain, only some black lives matter. You can’t denounce violence and racism when you are violence and racism. … So don’t be fooled by Big Abortion. They may have a billion-dollar budget, but we have the Truth. Don’t let an industry rooted in human destruction fool you into thinking it cares about violence. … They are who they are: violence wrapped up in pink banners and ludicrous hashtags. There is real healthcare at over 13,000 (taxpayer-funded) federally qualified health centers and community health centers that don’t commit the violence of abortion.”

OKLAHOMA GOVERNOR SIGNS LAW BANNING MOST ABORTIONS (Friday Church News Notes, April 22, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following is excerpted from “Gov. Stitt Signs Law,” The Christian Post, Apr. 12, 2022: “The governor of Oklahoma has signed a bill into law banning nearly all abortions in the state except when a mother’s life is at risk in a medical emergency. Those who violate the law could face up to $100,000 in fines and 10 years in prison. Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed Senate Bill 612 into law Tuesday, saying he aims to make the Sooner State ‘the most pro-life state in the country.’ … The bill passed the state’s House of Representatives in a 70-14 vote last week, more than a year after it passed the state Senate. … In both chambers, one Republican joined Democrats in opposing the measure. … ‘As governor, I represent all 4 million Oklahomans,’ Stitt said at the signing ceremony. ‘They overwhelmingly support protecting life in the state of Oklahoma. We want Oklahoma to be the most pro-life state in the country. We want to outlaw abortion in the state of Oklahoma.’”

ALABAMA SIGNS TWO TRANSGENDER BILLS (Friday Church News Notes, April 22, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following is excerpted from Christian Headlines, Apr. 12, 2022: “Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has signed a pair of bills she says will protect children and promote common sense throughout the state by banning transgender treatments for minors and requiring restrooms and locker rooms to be divided by biological sex. ‘There are very real challenges facing our young people, especially with today’s societal pressures and modern culture,’ Ivey said in a statement. ‘I believe very strongly that if the Good Lord made you a boy, you are a boy, and if he made you a girl, you are a girl.’ … One bill, SB184, makes it a crime for doctors to prescribe puberty blockers and hormones to children and to perform sex-change surgeries. Among the surgeries prohibited on minors are castrations, vasectomies and hysterectomies. ‘We should … protect our children from these radical, life-altering drugs and surgeries when they are at such a vulnerable stage in life,’ Ivey said. A second bill, HB322, requires public schools to divide restrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms and shower rooms by biological sex.”

OHIO PUBLIC UNIVERSITY TO PAY $400,000 IN DAMAGES AFTER PUNISHING PROFESSOR OVER PREFERRED PRONOUNS (Friday Church News Notes, April 22, 2022, www.wayoflife.orgfbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following is excerpted from “Ohio Public University,” Fox News, Apr. 16, 2022: “A public university in Ohio will pay $400,000 in damages and attorney fees after punishing a professor for declining a male student’s demand to be referred to as a female. Nick Meriwether, a philosophy professor at Shawnee State University, responded to a male student’s question during a January 2018 political philosophy class by saying ‘Yes, sir.’ When the class ended, the student identified to the professor as transgender, and demanded to be referred to as a woman in the future, along with ‘feminine titles and pronouns,’ according to the Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented the professor in court. Doing so, Meriwether maintained, would have violated his convictions as a Christian. Meriwether didn’t agree to the student’s request, and court documents state that the student became belligerent and told the professor that he would be fired. The student filed a complaint with the university, launching an investigation which eventually determined that Meriwether ‘effectively created a hostile environment’ for the student because he would not use the preferred pronouns. Meriwether did offer to call the student by any name requested, but the student did not accept the offer. Shawnee State University would then place a written warning in Meriwether’s personnel file, which stated that ‘further corrective actions’ would be taken if a similar incident occurred. The professor sued Shawnee State University, claiming that it violated his ‘right to free exercise of religion under the First Amendment.’ In March 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled in favor of Meriwether, reversing a district court’s prior dismissal of the lawsuit and allowing the professor to continue his lawsuit against the university. Alliance Defending Freedom announced on Thursday that it reached a $400,000 settlement with Shawnee State University, which will cover damages and attorney fees. Shawnee State University will also rescind the written warning to Meriwether in June 2018.”

DUTCH DOCTORS CAN EUTHANIZE ELDERLY WITHOUT THEIR AGREEMENT PERTAINING TO TIME AND MANNER (Friday Church News Notes, April 22, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following is excerpted from “Dutch Doctors Can Now Secretly Place Sedatives in Food,” Christian Headlines, Nov. 25, 2020: “[A] Netherlands medical committee has changed its code of practice to allow doctors to slip sedatives into the food or drink of patients with dementia before they are euthanized so as to prevent them from becoming ‘disturbed, agitated or aggressive.’ The change in rules by the Netherlands review committee for euthanasia comes after the country’s Supreme Court ruled in April that a doctor who carried out assisted suicide on a 74-year-old patient with Alzheimer’s did not commit murder by placing a sedative into the patient’s coffee. The patient woke up and had to be held down by her daughter and husband, the BBC reported. The patient previously had written a statement saying she ‘wanted to be euthanized before entering a care home,’ but adding that she wanted to decide ‘while still in my senses and when I think the time is right,’ the BBC said. The new rules say it ‘is not necessary for the doctor to agree with the patient [about] the time or manner in which euthanasia will be given,’ according to The Guardian. … Ethicist Wesley J. Smith criticized the new rule, saying a doctor should not be able to decide ‘why and when’ a patient dies. ‘Once a society accepts killing as an acceptable response to human suffering,’ Smith wrote, ‘there are no outer boundaries limiting where the killing will ultimately go. Those with eyes to see, let them see.’”

CHRIST IN YOU, WHAT A WONDER! (Friday Church News Notes, April 22, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following is from John Phillip’s commentary on 2 Corinthians: “In the New Covenant (Jer. 31:31-34) there are both eschatological clauses and soteriological clauses. The eschatological clauses are exclusively for the nation of Israel. The soteriological clauses are for the nation of Israel as well but, inclusively, they are also for us–as Jesus Himself taught (Mt. 26:27-29). With us the wondrous truth has already come to pass. The living God dwells in us. He is our God. We are His people. We occupy higher and holier ground than Israel ever knew. The God who said He would dwell with His ancient people Israel now says He will dwell in us. Think what it means. The heaven of heavens cannot contain Him. One word from Him and a hundred million galaxies burst into being and hurl themselves toward the ever-retreating boundaries of space, traveling at inconceivable velocities and on prodigious orbits and with mathematical precision. Yet He dwells in us! One word from Him and countless angel hosts, who surround His throne on high and sing His praise and hang upon His words, leap into instant obedience to do His will. And He dwells in us! As for us, well might the psalmist say. ‘What is man that Thou art mindful of him?’ We dwell on a microscopic planet chasing around a moderate star located some thirty thousand light years from the galactic center, one among a hundred billion stars in a far-flung galaxy in near infinite space. And we, ourselves, but the dust of the earth. He dwells in us! Moreover, He proclaims Himself to a wondering universe, to be our God! ‘I will be their God,’ He says, ‘and they shall be my people’! What amazing grace! Saved to the uttermost! Wonder of wonders! Of course, He demands separation from a world which spat in the face of His Son and which took Him out to a skull-shaped hill and nailed Him to a cross of wood! How could He demand, or we deliver, anything less?”

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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