Category Archives: Current Events

Current trends and social commentary

Trump administration starts campaign to end global criminalization of homosexuality

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Please pray that YHVH Elohim reveals to President Trump the biblical view on the issue of homosexuality, and that he acts righteously in this regard. To appear to be promoting homosexuality is not good and is shameful at the very least. —Natan

From NBC News at https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/trump-administration-launches-global-effort-end-criminalization-homosexuality-n973081

By Josh Lederman

BERLIN — The Trump administration is launching a global campaign to end the criminalization of homosexuality in dozens of nations where it’s still illegal to be gay, U.S. officials tell NBC News, a bid aimed in part at denouncing Iran over its human rights record.

U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, the highest-profile openly gay person in the Trump administration, is leading the effort, which kicks off Tuesday evening in Berlin. The U.S. embassy is flying in LGBT activists from across Europe for a strategy dinner to plan to push for decriminalization in places that still outlaw homosexuality — mostly concentrated in the Middle East, Africa and the Caribbean.

“It is concerning that, in the 21st century, some 70 countries continue to have laws that criminalize LGBTI status or conduct,” said a U.S. official involved in organizing the event.

U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell at a reception in Berlin on Jan. 14, 2019.
By Josh Lederman

FEB. 19, 201903:28

Narrowly focused on criminalization, rather than broader LGBT issues like same-sex marriage, the campaign was conceived partly in response to the recent reported execution by hanging of a young gay man in Iran, the Trump administration’s top geopolitical foe.

Grenell, as Trump’s envoy to Germany, has been an outspoken Iran critic and has aggressively pressed European nations to abandon the 2015 nuclear deal and re-impose sanctions. But while the Trump administration has had some success in pressuring Iran through stepped-up U.S. penalties, efforts to bring the Europeans along have thus far largely fallen flat.

Reframing the conversation on Iran around a human rights issue that enjoys broad support in Europe could help the United States and Europe reach a point of agreement on Iran. Grenell called the hanging “a wake-up call for anyone who supports basic human rights,” in Bild, a leading German newspaper, this month.

“This is not the first time the Iranian regime has put a gay man to death with the usual outrageous claims of prostitution, kidnapping, or even pedophilia. And it sadly won’t be the last time,” Grenell wrote. “Barbaric public executions are all too common in a country where consensual homosexual relationships are criminalized and punishable by flogging and death.”

He added that “politicians, the U.N., democratic governments, diplomats and good people everywhere should speak up — and loudly.”

Yet by using gay rights as a cudgel against Iran, the Trump administration risks exposing close U.S. allies who are also vulnerable on the issue and creating a new tension point with the one region where Trump has managed to strengthen U.S. ties: the Arab world.

In Saudi Arabia, whose monarchy Trump has staunchly defended in the face of human rights allegations, homosexuality can be punishable by death, according to a 2017 worldwide report from the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA). The report identified 72 nations that still criminalize homosexuality, including eight where it’s punishable by death.

That list includes the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and Afghanistan — all U.S. allies — although those countries aren’t known to have implemented the death penalty for same-sex acts. In Egypt, whose leader Trump has effusively praised, homosexual relations aren’t technically illegal but other morality laws are used aggressively to target LGBT people.

New U.S. pressure on those countries to change their laws comes as the Trump administration is working to use nascent ties between Arab nations and Israel to form a powerful axis against Iran, a strategy that dovetails with the administration’s planned rollout of an ambitious plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

 

Apparent Judgment on the Demonic Abortionist Doctor

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From the Operation Rescue website at https://www.operationrescue.org/archives/abortionist-that-hissed-and-threatened-pro-life-activist-with-scissors-has-died/

February 9, 2019 By Cheryl Sullenger

San Diego, CA – Operation Rescue has learned that Robert J. Santella, passed away unexpectedly last year at the age of 74.  Santella was a long-time abortionist for the Family Planning Associates (now FPA Women’s Health) abortion facility in San Diego County.  He also operated a private practice where abortions were sometimes done near the campus of San Diego State University.

Santella was best known for an incident captured on video in June 2016, which showed him in a demonic rant against a pro-life activist outside the FPA abortion clinic office where he was working.  Santella was seen in surgical scrubs hissing and growling in a demonic voice as he held scissors to a pro-life activist’s throat while professing that he loved killing babies.

“I never listen to Christ,” Santella snarled.  “I do have a darkened heart.  I do, I do. Very much so.”

As a result of the video, which went viral and gained media attention, Santella was later dropped by the Sharp Healthcare, a group of hospitals where Santella held privileges, and fired from the FPA abortion chain.  The clinic where the incident took place closed in November 2017, but later resurfaced in the East County community of El Cajon.

Santella’s firing from FPA ended a relationship with the California abortion chain that dated back nearly 30 years. Early in their business relationship, Santella provided emergency hospital care for FPA abortion patients who suffered serious complications from their procedures.

Santella was hired on full time by the abortion chain in the early 2000s after two previous abortionists quit or refused to work any longer at the San Diego office due to pro-life activism that exposed their misdeeds.

On December 31, 2017, Santella surrendered his California medical license to avoid license revocation based on allegations brought by the medical board that included wrongly prescribing controlled substances to six patients, while failing to perform a physical examination or document reasons for the prescriptions in medical records. He also ignored test results and symptoms of other serious conditions.

When asked why he prescribed opioids to one patient with a history of substance abuse, he callously replied, “[I]n desperation I would refill her medications somehow just to get rid of her.”

Santella was also charged with repeated negligent acts in his treatment of a woman who suffered a botched second trimester abortion at FPA Women’s Health in San Diego on September 5, 2015, which was first reported by Operation Rescue.

During that abortion, the woman lost over a half gallon of blood when Santella’s efforts to halt the hemorrhaging failed. Despite her deteriorating condition, Santella refused to transport her for emergency care. The woman’s mother, who had accompanied her to the abortion facility, feared her daughter might die and called for an ambulance.  That call saved her daughter’s life.

The woman suffered hemorrhagic shock from bleeding that resulted from an incomplete abortion, perforated uterus, and other internal injuries. She underwent an emergency hysterectomy to save her life, according to the medical board’s accusations.

Santella’s unexpected death occurred on January 17, 2018.   Less than five months later, on June 3, 2018, his wife, France L. Santella also “passed away unexpectedly.”  The couple left no children.

“We want to express our condolences to the surviving family members of Robert and France Santella,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue, which frequently protested Santella’s abortion business in the 1990s though the early 2000s.  “I hope that Robert Santella sought repentance before God prior to his passing.  God can forgive every sin, no matter how bad, if one confesses, repents, and puts his faith in Jesus Christ for salvation.”

 

Mexico’s West Coast—Enjoying the Exquisite Beauty of YHVH’s Creation

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Here are several more photos from Natan and Sandi’s recent anniversary trip to western Mexico.

The famous arch of Cabo San Lucas

Riding camels in Mexico. Imagine that!

Natan grew up on a farm with many types of animals. He still has a soft place in his heart for our furry earthly coinhabitants.

In Baja California Sur, one finds the largest species of cactus on earth—the cardon or elephant cactus that can grow over 60 feet tall and more than three feet in diameter. Natan, a tree lover, exulted at hanging out briefly with these exotic, ancient giants.

Sunrises and sunsets at sea are incredibly inspiring. Natan and Sandi would rather spend their time relishing the brush strokes of heaven’s 3-D artistic masterpieces than just about any other activity a cruise ship has to offer.

On several occasions, Natan rose early in the morning to greet the sunrise with praise to and worship of our Father in heaven. Sunrise at sea makes you feel so minuscule and YHVH so awesomely great that it’s difficult to explain.

Enjoying the beach walk at Puerto Vallarta. After a short while, the street vendors, like mosquitos looking for a meal, were plaguing us so badly that we fled back to the peaceful refuge of our ship’s stateroom cabin.

Another glorious sunset at sea, and another end to a day of life that YHVH Elohim has given to each of us his heavenly gift to his human children. Yah, help us to thankfully and profitably use each day for your glory and for the expansion of your heavenly kingdom. Amein.

 

Baby Murder Goes to a New Low

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From the Christian Post at https://www.christianpost.com/news/trump-democrats-becoming-the-party-of-late-term-abortion-willing-to-rip-the-baby-out-of-the-womb.html

Trump: Democrats ‘becoming the Party of late-term abortion,’ ‘willing to rip the baby out of the womb’

By Brandon Showalter, CP Reporter
President Donald J. Trump walks across the South Lawn of the White House Sunday, March 25, 2018, returning home from his trip to New York. | (Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks)

President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are blasting the Democratic Party for its support of late-term abortion amid a national outcry over statements in support of a proposed Virginia late-term abortion bill.

“Democrats are becoming the Party of late-term abortion, high taxes, Open Borders and Crime!” the president tweeted Thursday morning.

His words come on the heels of Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, who in a WTOP radio interview Wednesday defended a proposed bill from state delegate Kathy Tran, also a Democrat, that would have allowed abortions to be performed until the moment of birth.

In video footage of a discussion among legislators that rocketed around the Internet earlier this week, Virginia House of Delegates majority leader Todd Gilbert, a Republican, asked Tran if a woman could ask for an abortion as she was going into labor, delivering a full-term baby. To the horror of many, Tran responded that such a request would be allowed under her bill.

“I thought it was terrible,” Trump said of Tran’s statements in an interview with the Daily Caller Wednesday.

“Do you remember when I said Hillary Clinton was willing to rip the baby out of the womb? That’s what it is, that’s what they’re doing, it’s terrible,” he added, referencing his words in the third presidential debate prior to the 2016 election.

Gilbert’s office said Wednesday that the bill will not move out of subcommittee and no action will be taken on it.

Responding to the fallout, Northam said that when speaking about third-trimester abortions, “these are done with the consent of obviously the mother, with the consent of the physician — more than one physician, by the way — and it’s done in cases where there may be severe deformities. There may be a fetus that’s non-viable.”

“If a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen,” the Virginia governor said. “The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.”

Like the video of Tran’s admission that her legislation permitted abortion until moments before birth, Northam’s comments went viral as conservative and pro-life advocates accused him of promoting a form of infanticide.

“I have devoted my life to caring for children and any insinuation otherwise is shameful and disgusting,” Northam, who is trained as a pediatrician, saidWednesday, responding to the fallout.

Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring stated Wednesday that President Trump and Virginia Republicans were “trying to spread shameful lies” about Tran and the governor.

Pro-life legislators and advocates around the world were not moved, given the video tape of his comments and many were quoting him verbatim.

“What’s shameful is that you’re too cowardly to say point blank that it’s wrong to leave babies to die after birth,” said U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Nebraska, in a statement Thursday.

“You could have said that yesterday. But because you’re terrified of an extremist pro-abortion lobby that now defends even infanticide, you’re still ducking.”

Pro-life senators Marco Rubio, R-Florida, Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, all decried the Virginia bill.

Nigerian pro-life activist Obianuju Ekeocha, author of Target Africa and founder of Culture of Life Africa, did not withhold her disgust.

“Everyone that voted for this man @GovernorVA should wear sackcloth and remorsefully cover their heads in ashes, they should weep for putting power into the hands of a man that defends infanticide,” she said Wednesday, tweeting his radio interview.

In a Thursday National Review opinion piece, Vice President Pence weighed in, noting that the proposed Virginia bill follows similar legislation that was signed into law in New York, something that was celebrated with cheers in the state Senate chamber in Albany and illuminated pink lights atop One World Trade Center in New York City and other landmarks.

“[A]t the base of the same One World Trade Center that was bathed in pink last week to mark the passage of New York’s law, is the September 11th memorial,” Pence noted Thursday. “There, the names of all who died in the horrific terrorist attacks 18 years ago are etched in stone — including the eleven unborn children we lost along with their expectant mothers.”

“This shameless embrace of a culture of death is startling to every American who cherishes life. Not too long ago, the Democratic party’s stated position was that abortion should be ‘safe, legal, and rare.’ It was this widespread rejection of late-term abortion that led a large bipartisan majority in Congress to pass the partial-birth-abortion ban in 2003. But now look at how far the Democratic party has fallen.”

The pushback to the Virginia bill led one Democratic lawmaker to withdraw her support for it, saying she had not read the proposed legislation’s content closely enough.

“Had I researched each line of removed language, I would have seen that, and known that there was more research to be done. None of this changes that I believe women must have safe legal options for abortion; but I also would have seen the utility of language that provides guidelines for how to ensure this,” wrote state delegate Dawn Adams, a Democrat who represents a suburban district outside Richmond, in a letter to her constituents Wednesday.

“I made a mistake, and all I know to do is to admit it, tell the truth, and let the chips fall where they may.”

Adams is a first-term delegate who won a close victory in 2017 and may face a competitive re-election campaign this year.

The mainstream media, however, framed the events as an unkind attack on Tran.

A Thursday headline in the Washington Post read: “Until this week, Del. Kathy Tran was known for nursing her daughter on the House floor. Now Republicans are calling her a baby killer.”

Tran deactivated her Twitter account soon after she was seen on tape talking about her bills allowance for abortions up until birth, but then reactivated it Thursday sayingthat misinformation had been spread, arguing that her bill does nothing to change the fact that women can request abortions under certain circumstances as long as medical doctors approve it.

 

Good for them!

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House Democrats change course, vote to keep ‘God’ in committee oath

By Michael Gryboski, Christian Post Reporter
The United States House Committee on Natural Resources voted on Wednesday, January 31, 2019, to keep the phrase “so help you God” in the oath. | Twitter/Jason Calvi

The Democrat-controlled House Natural Resources Committee will not remove “so help you God” from the oath taken, reversing course on a proposed rules draft that would have done so.

Fox News reported earlier this week on a draft of proposed rules for the Democrat-controlled committee that showed the phrase “so help you God” being deleted from the oath. However, on Wednesday both Democrat and Republican members of the House committee agreed to keep the phrase in the oath.

Democrat Representative Jefferson Van Drew of New Jersey, a member of the committee, said in a statement that it would be “hurtful and harmful” for the committee “to go out of our way to take it out.”

However, Democrat Representative Jared Huffman of California argued against the inclusion of God in the oath, saying that it violated the separation of church and state.

“All of these trappings of religion and God in these oaths certainly have not kept an awful lot of people from lying under oath,” stated Rep. Huffman, as reported by EWTN.

Headed by Democratic Congressman Raul Grijalva of Arizona, the Committee on Natural Resources seeks to help preserve the environment and defend the rights of indigenous populations.

When news broke about the proposed removal of God from the oath, many, including Representative Liz Cheney of Wisconsin, a Republican committee member, denounced it.

“They really have become the party of Karl Marx,” said Rep. Cheney to Fox News. “It is incredible, but not surprising, that the Democrats would try to remove God from committee proceedings in one of their first acts in the majority.”

In his “Washington Update” on Wednesday, Family Research President Tony Perkins referred to the oath controversy as proof that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other elected Democrats have a “God problem.”

“In a nation whose motto is ‘In God We Trust,’ it is a sad commentary on the mindset of House Democratic leadership that removing God would even be considered,” stated Perkins.

“Although the House committee has reversed course, I believe it’s important that Speaker Pelosi be put on notice that as Americans, we want and need the presence of God in our government.”

Many federal oaths reference God. However, the oath of office for the president of the United States does not include the phrase; instead, figures taking the oath have added it by tradition.