Idaho Pastors Face Jail, Thousands in Fines for Refusing to Officiate Gay Weddings

Idaho Pastors Face Jail, Thousands in Fines for Refusing to Officiate Gay Weddings

Amanda Casanova | Religion Today Contributing Writer | Monday, October 20, 2014
Two Christian pastors in Idaho have filed a lawsuit and asked the courts to temporarily restrain city officials from making them perform same-sex wedding ceremonies. Donald Knapp and wife, Evelyn, operate Hitching Post Wedding Chapel and have been required by city officials to perform same-sex marriages or else be jailed or fined.
The Christian Post reports that Knapp’s penalty could be up to 180 days in jail and fines up to $1,000 per day that they refuse to officiate the weddings. After one week, that would amount to three years in prison and $7,000 in fines.
The city of Coeur d’Alene says its non-discrimination ordinance requires the couple to perform the wedding ceremonies.
“The government should not force ordained ministers to act contrary to their faith under threat of jail time and criminal fines,” ADF Senior Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco said in a statement.
“Many have denied that pastors would ever be forced to perform ceremonies that are completely at odds with their faith, but that’s what is happening here — and it’s happened this quickly,” Tedesco added. “The city is on seriously flawed legal ground, and our lawsuit intends to ensure that this couple’s freedom to adhere to their own faith as pastors is protected just as the First Amendment intended.”
My response to this?
Stop doing drive-by weddings for money! In our congregation, I have stringent requirements  for anyone that I will marry. Marriage is an institution ordained of YHVH, and we want it to be built on a solid spiritual foundation, so that it will last. We don’t want to be a contributor to the epidemic of divorce statistics.
These are my requirements: You must be in our congregation for one year and attend every Shabbat service and all the feast days. You must go through an entire Torah cycle with us. You must be born again spiritually (including repenting of sin, which is Torahlessness, which includes the sin of homosexuality) with Yeshua as your Savior and Master. You must undergo three months of marriage counseling from a qualified Bible-believing marriage counselor. Boom. That’s it. After that, we’ll perform a nice Hebraic wedding for you with our congregational blessing on it.
Needless to say, I perform very few weddings. 
My word to the folks in Idaho who’ve turned marrying people into a business is the same message I have for pastors who’ve turned running a church into business: Stop your unbiblical, hireling and money-grubbing ways. Repent of your sin!
YHVH is using the State to judge the church for its ungodly ways.
 

The U.S. Govt. is lying to you about ebola!

Watchman on the Wall Report:
Ebola may be coming your way sooner than you think!

Yeshua predicted this would occur in the end times just before his return:

For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences [plagues], and earthquakes in various places. (Matt 24:7)

John echoed Yeshua’s warnings in the Book of Revelation:

When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come and see.” So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth. (Rev 6:7–8)

Before you read the article below, keep the words of our Almighty YHVH Elohim in mind — it’s our only hope!

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”  Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence. He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look, And see the reward of the wicked. Because you have made the LORD, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; for He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. (Psalm 91:1–11)

 

How is your faith? Do you really believe these promises of YHVH? The day is fast approaching when this will be our only hope — as this is already the case in some parts of the world for believers!

Now on to the article…

How many times have you read the US government’s reassuring babble about the impossibility of the ebola virus being transmitted through the air? Well the following article just came out today from http://www.infowars.com. (The actual article is at http://www.infowars.com/experts-ebola-could-be-transmitted-at-a-distance-from-infected-victims/.)

EXPERTS: EBOLA COULD BE TRANSMITTED “AT A DISTANCE” FROM. INFECTED VICTIMS

Professors say health workers being put at risk

 

Experts: Ebola Could be Transmitted "At a Distance" From Infected Victims

Professors at the University of Illinois in Chicago assert that the Ebola virus has the potential to be transmitted via “infectious aerosol particles both near and at a distance from infected patients,” suggesting that the current understanding of Ebola only being communicable via direct contact is inaccurate.

In a piece published by CIDRAP, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, authors Dr Lisa Brosseau and Dr Rachael Jones highlight how Ebola currently has “unclear modes of transmission.”

“We believe there is scientific and epidemiologic evidence that Ebola virus has the potential to be transmitted via infectious aerosol particles both near and at a distance from infected patients, which means that healthcare workers should be wearing respirators, not facemasks,” states the article.

Making reference to “controversy about whether Ebola virus can be transmitted via aerosols,” the authors assert that the current understanding that Ebola can only be transmitted by by direct contact with virus-laden fluids is “incorrect and outmoded.”

The authors note that US health professionals currently tackling Ebola are being put at risk because of the failure to offer them proper “respiratory protection,” making reference to hundreds of fatalities of Ebola health workers in West Africa due to facemasks or surgical masks which offer “very minimal protection from infectious aerosol particles.”

“Being at first skeptical that Ebola virus could be an aerosol-transmissible disease, we are now persuaded by a review of experimental and epidemiologic data that this might be an important feature of disease transmission, particularly in healthcare settings,” states the article.

Earlier today, Anthony Banbury, the United Nations’ Ebola response chief warned of the “nightmare scenario” that Ebola could go airborne as a result of a mutation if it continues to infect new hosts.

“The longer it moves around in human hosts in the virulent melting pot that is West Africa, the more chances increase that it could mutate,” said Banbury, adding, “It is a nightmare scenario, and unlikely, but it can’t be ruled out.”

As we reported yesterday, the Public Health Agency of Canada deleted information from its official website which indicated that the “airborne spread” of Ebola was strongly suspected by health authorities.

Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, also acknowledged in a recent New York Times op-ed that virologists are “loath to discuss openly but are definitely considering in private” the possibility that Ebola has gone airborne.

Here is the the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy report to which the above article makes reference:

COMMENTARY: Health workers need optimal respiratory protection for Ebola

Editor’s Note: Today’s commentary was submitted to CIDRAP by the authors, who are national experts on respiratory protection and infectious disease transmission. In May they published a similar commentary on MERS-CoV. Dr Brosseau is a Professor and Dr Jones an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Health, Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Healthcare workers play a very important role in the successful containment of outbreaks of infectious diseases like Ebola. The correct type and level of personal protective equipment (PPE) ensures that healthcare workers remain healthy throughout an outbreak—and with the current rapidly expanding Ebola outbreak in West Africa, it’s imperative to favor more conservative measures.
The precautionary principle—that any action designed to reduce risk should not await scientific certainty—compels the use of respiratory protection for a pathogen like Ebola virus that has:
  • No proven pre- or post-exposure treatment modalities
  • A high case-fatality rate
  • Unclear modes of transmission

We believe there is scientific and epidemiologic evidence that Ebola virus has the potential to be (to continue reading http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2014/09/commentary-health-workers-need-optimal-respiratory-protection-ebola.)

 

VIDEO: U.S. MARINES CHANT, ‘THERE’S NO GOD LIKE JEHOVAH!’

From World Net Daily, Sept. 20, 2014

A video of U.S. Marines singing, dancing and worshiping God at Camp Pendleton in California is going viral on Facebook, prompting retired Lt. Col. Allen West to revel in the display he says will “drive the secular humanists INSANE.”

In the video a crowd of Marines sings “Days of Elijah,” a Christian worship song, while raising their hands in the air and shouting, “Oorah!” The troops were attending a Christian worship service at the military base in San Diego County, California.

Some of the lyrics include:

These are the days of Elijah
Declaring the word of the Lord, yeah
And these are the days of Your servant, Moses
Righteousness being restored

These are the days of great trials
Of famine and darkness and sword
Still we are the voice in the desert crying
Prepare ye the way of the Lord!

To continue http://www.wnd.com/2014/09/video-u-s-marines-chant-theres-no-god-like-jehovah/

 

Hmm? What do you think? Please tell us…

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“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” – Matthew 10:16

Christians are losing because of their lack of wisdom. Let me explain.

A lesbian couple sued and won a discrimination lawsuit against Christian farm owners Robert and Cynthia Gifford of New York after they refused to allow a same-sex wedding on their scenic property.

Despite the fact that the Christian business owners have hosted same-sex events and have even hired homosexuals, a New York judge ruled that they were in violation of that state’s anti-discrimination laws and fined them $13,000. As a result, the Giffords have now stopped hosting weddings altogether.

According to their attorney, “The couple has decided to stay true to their religious convictions, even though it will likely hurt their business.”

That’s unfortunate. Too many Christians lack real wisdom when dealing with evil; and as a result, they are losing their livelihoods and suffering unnecessarily.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Consider this …

What if, instead of closing their businesses, the Christians agreed to allow the same-sex union ceremonies on their property, but told the lesbian couple upfront that they would take their money and donate it to a conservative Christian law firm to fight against same-sex marriage? In other words, what if they took the sinners’ money and used it for good?

To continue reading http://www.wnd.com/2014/09/christians-heres-solution-to-gays-suing-your-businesses/

 

 

Christians Lose Another Battle

The marginalization of Bible believers continues in the U.S. and elsewhere. Little-by-little, the church is being driven out of the mainstream. Only when the church repents of its Torahlessness and for preaching a watered down, easy-believism gospel will YHVH begin to fight for his people against their enemies.

NY Christian Farm Owners Will No Longer Host Any Wedding Ceremonies After Fined $13K for Refusing Lesbian Ceremony

BY ANUGRAH KUMAR , CHRISTIAN POST CONTRIBUTOR
August 31, 2014|8:16 am
The owners of a New York farm, who were fined $13,000 for “discriminating” against same-sex couples by refusing a wedding service to a lesbian couple due to their religious convictions, have now decided not to hold any marriage ceremonies even though it will likely hurt their business.

A month after a judge ruled that the farm owned by Cynthia and Robert Gifford is a public accommodation and therefore (Continue reading http://www.christianpost.com/news/ny-christian-farm-owners-will-no-longer-host-any-wedding-ceremonies-after-fined-13k-for-refusing-lesbian-ceremony-125643/)

 

Recent Events in Israel and the US Affect and YOU

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From Jerry Golden in Israel

August 22, 2014

Just the Truth

We know what is happening here in Israel, or at least we think we do. By ‘we’ I mean the average Israeli.  But the average Israeli is much like the average American. Our thoughts are being manipulated by the information we are being fed by the Media. And our Government has, by force or other means, controlled the Media and only theirpropaganda flows from the newsrooms, by introducing distractions or simply by refusing to cover the truth.

Here in Israel we have taken our eyes off Hezbollah in the north while concentrating mainly on Hamas in Gaza.  Hezbollah is controlled by Iran and like most of our Muslim neighbors have said time and time again, they will destroy us and kill all the Jews.  They control Hezbollah and have armed them with over a hundred thousand missiles with the capability to hit every Israeli city. Iran, however, has not allowed them to join in the fight with Hamas for a reason.  That reason is (in my opinion) not because they wouldn’t like to, but the timing is not yet right for them.  What they are hoping is that Israel will be weakened and possibly deplete much of their ability to fight off incoming missiles before they begin their assault on Israel.

Israel, like the rest of the world, depends on the one superpower, the USA, to maintain some level of sanity and (to continue reading http://thegoldenreport.net/?p=1549)

 

The Muslim Menace – The “New” Nazis

This is a long read, but I perused it in about an hour and got the gist of it pretty quickly. It’s important that we stay well informed on these issues, since fundamental Islamist terrorists have vowed to take their jihad to western, Christian countries and everywhere else. We’re in a spiritual battle between the forces of light and darkness, good and evil and YHVH Elohim/Messiah Yeshua and Satan and his forces. As believers in Yeshua, we’re in the front lines whether we admit it or not. Take a moment to become more familiar with one aspect of the enemy’s attack against us by reading this well-documented article.

The Muslim Menace —The “New” Nazis 

© Russ Hills, PhD;  6/10/13; Revised 8/11/14

Introduction

Lengthy quotes are used by permission or statements indicating a desire for mass distribution. I do not have any kind of corporation (profit or non-profit) status. I do not sell books or engage in any business activities regarding what I write at this time. My copyright is for the purpose of preserving my right to publish and edit my materials.

Islam 3-5747968

 

I have known and been a fellow employee with Muslims. The Muslims I have known personally in America are peaceful, law-abiding citizens. Their version/brand of Islam is very different than that of the violent militants. A comparison could be made regarding the once highly active Irish Republican Army. They claimed to be Christians. But, most Christians in the world would not recognize them as true followers of Y’shua.

This writing is focused primarily on Violent Militant Muslim Fundamentalists (millions of people in the Middle East – many more than the IRA mentioned above) and totalitarian Muslim governments. My “religious” identification is one of being a “Hebrew” (“one who has crossed over”) to being a follower of the Torah living and Torah expanding Y’shua The Messiah.

Terrorist actions in recent years have prompted me to do some revision of a previous writing I composed regarding the obvious connection of Violent Militant Islam with human slavery, brutality and sex trafficking of women and children. It should not come as a surprise that people who have such disrespect for other human beings would be those most responsible for terrorism in the world today. In every generation satan will find organizations to do his bidding on a large scale. In some cases they are destroyed. In other cases, such as Islam, satan was preparing them for “the post Nazi world.”

Many Western Muslims claim that it is wrong to rejoice over someone’s death. Apparently they are not of the same denomination as the Palestinians who were dancing with joy over the death of over 3,000 multinational civilians working in the Twin Towers 9/11/2001.

Chapter 1: Dark Ages “Christianity” & The IRA 

Some will point to “Christianity” of the Irish Republican Army’s Northern Ireland revolution (1969-2005) and the Dark Ages (c.500-1500 C.E.) and ask, “What is the difference between modern Islam and Christianity?”

1.) The IRA revolution was a political war staged by criminals. It was not a religious war. That is clearly evidenced by Protestants and Catholics around the world opposing the revolution. The IRA was partially sponsored by a small number of politically motivated anti-British Americans and by Muslims in Lybia. Once America and other Western nations got serious about addressing the issue, the revolution came to an end.

2.) One major difference is that “Dark Ages Christianity” was in the “Dark Ages” (about 500-1500 A.D.) That was then. This is now. Human institutional “Christianity” was plagued with factional wars similar to the war of Sunnis against Shiites.

Many of the smaller Christian groups (like the modern day Amish) fled to places like Switzerland, then America. Among the larger groups (Catholic, Lutheran & Presbyterian), through many years of fighting, no one group was able to dominate.

This in combination with the advent of the time period known as the enlightenment (light coming to ages of darkness) generated a standoff or stalemate. This allowed for the formation of a better way – the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution. American Christian leaders, such as William Bradford urgently petitioned for the separation of the government from any official religion.

3.) A matter of Character: While Y’shua taught protection for children, Mohammed exploited children, even marrying an 8-year-old child!  Many of his modern followers do the same. Reuters news (9/10/13) reported the death of an 8 year old bride who experienced uterine rupture and fatal internal bleeding after her “husband” had intercourse with her in Yemen.

Y’shua taught moral integrity and honesty. Mohammed started empire building through attacking caravans – stealing their goods while killing anyone who got in his way. He made peace treaties with cities, violated them and murdered every man, woman and child in them (see Numbers 9 & 2 Timothy 3:3 in KJV). Y’shua taught change as a matter of the heart and peace in living. Mohammed taught and lived conversion through violence and war.

“Christian” religious wars came about because people did not follow the teachings and example of the one they claimed to follow (Y’shua). Muslim wars come about because people are following his teachings and example.

If you are a Muslim, you may not like to face the truth of archaeology and history.  Reality/truth didn’t change because the lies I believed didn’t agree with it. Reality/truth will not change to fit lies you choose to believe either.

At this early time in the 21st century, we see hypocrites and cowards hiding in caves who do not even put themselves in harm’s way, sending ignorant gullible young people to their deaths through murderous-homicide-suicide bombings with a promise of a paradise in which they can indulge their lustful appetites for sexually exploiting a harem of women. So, women not only get to be property and sex slaves in this life, they get the same in the next. Now there’s something for women to look forward to!

Do people who make this comparison (between “Christianity” & Islam) suggest that we tolerate the satanically energized behavior of violent Islam because they are going through a stage of development?!

With “Christianity”: enough righteous people came together to force the Institutional “Christian” Church to cease its barbaric practices. There is no less an obligation on the part of righteous people today to force Islam to accept some basic principles of civility and respect for human life and rights.

Chapter 2: Six Reason Islam Is The World’s Fastest Growing Religion

1.) Propagation – Muslim families simply have more children than other religions. One Continue reading