Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Officials Move to Take Christian Bakers Home After Couple Refuses to Pay $135,000 to Lesbians
Oct 10th, 2015
Daily NewsChristian News
Categories: Persecution

PORTLAND, Ore. — Officials in Oregon have moved to take the home and/or other assets of a Christian couple as they are refusing to pay $135,000 in emotional damages to two lesbian women that filed a complaint after the couple declined to make a cake at their bakery for their “wedding” ceremony.

As previously reported, in February, a judge with the Oregon BOLI declared Aaron and Melissa Klein of Sweet Cakes by Melissa guilty of discrimination for declining to make the cake because of their Christian convictions, thus moving the matter into the sentencing phase.

The two lesbian women, Rachel Cryer and Laurel Bowman, submitted individual lists of just under 100 aspects of suffering in order to receive damages. They included “acute loss of confidence,” “doubt,” “distrust of men,” “distrust of former friends,” “excessive sleep,” “discomfort,” “high blood pressure,” “impaired digestion,” “loss of appetite,” “migraine headaches,” “loss of pride,” “mental rape,” “resumption of smoking habit,” “shock” “stunned,” “surprise,” “uncertainty,” “weight gain” and “worry.”

But the Kleins told the court that they too had suffered because of the attacks that they received over their desire to live out their Christian faith in the workplace. They stated that they endured “mafia tactics” as their car was vandalized and broken into on two occasions, their vendors were harassed by homosexual advocates resulting in some businesses breaking ties with them, and they received threatening emails wishing rape, death and Hell upon the family. As a result, they had to close their business and move it into their private home.

In April, Alan McCullough, an administrative judge with the bureau, recommended a payment of $135,000, with one of the women receiving $75,000 and the other $60,000. Prosecutors had sought damages of $75,000 each.

In June, BOLI officially accepted McCollough’s recommendation and ordered the Kleins to pay the women $135,000 in light of the damages Cryer and Bowman listed.

“This case is not about a wedding cake or a marriage,” the final order, written by Commissioner Brad Avakian, read. “It is about a business’s refusal to serve someone because of their sexual orientation. Under Oregon law, that is illegal.”

The Kleins then asked for a stay of the order, but were denied. As they are refusing to pay the damages, officials have moved to docket the judgment and seek permission to place a property lien against the Kleins or collect the money in other ways.

“It’s difficult to understand the Kleins’ unwillingness to pay the debt when they have, very publicly, raised nearly a half million dollars,” Charlie Burr, communications director for BOLI, told reporters. “They are entitled to a full and fair review of the case, but do not have the right to disregard a legally binding order.”

But the Kleins’ state that the amount that Burr suggests the couple has raised from supporters is inflated, and regardless, the money will not be used to pay the women.

“[T]here are so many variables to where that money has to go, what has to happen with that money, that we’re not touching that money for any purpose because I don’t know what the future holds,” Aaron Klein told the Daily Signal.

He also pointed to statements the women made to Williamette Week earlier this year contending that the complaint they filed against the Kleins was not about money.

“We didn’t have a choice in how this was prosecuted,” Cryer told the outlet. “We didn’t have a choice in the fine. If we had been given the option, we probably would have said: ‘Just apologize. Just say you’re sorry and go away.’”

“[W]e’re not asking for anything. We’ve never asked for a penny from anybody,” Bowman added.

“When you have these girls come out and say we never wanted the money, it wasn’t about the money and we don’t need the money,” Klein told the Daily Signal, “I say this isn’t right. I shouldn’t have to pay this money, and the only person saying the money should exchange hands seems to be [BOLI Commissioner] Brad Avakian.”

As previously reported, some outlets had claimed this past summer that the Kleins were not ordered to pay damages for refusing to bake a cake for a lesbian’s same-sex ceremony, but were rather punished for inadvertently “publishing” the women’s addresses on Facebook by uploading the filed consumer complaint on their new personal page that only had 17 friends at the time. As the assertions were inaccurate since the Kleins were solely ordered to pay emotional damages surrounding the denial of the cake, the outlets retracted their claims and apologized for disseminating the information.

Let the Headlines Speak
Oct 10th, 2015
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines

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Ankara explosion: 30 dead at rally in Turkish capital
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Israel struggles to contain wave of stabbing attacks
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Israel Struggles to Contain Wave of Stabbing Attacks
Oct 10th, 2015
Daily NewsAP - FARES AKRAM and IAN DEITCH
Categories: The Nation Of Israel

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Unrest that erupted several weeks ago at Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site spread Friday to Gaza in the form of deadly border clashes with Palestinian protesters, as Israeli security forces struggled to contain a wave of Palestinian stabbing attacks against civilians and soldiers.

For the first time since the current violence began, clashes broke out along the Gaza border after Palestinians in the territory ruled by the Islamic militant group Hamas rolled burning tires and threw rocks at Israeli troops on the frontier. Six Palestinians were killed and a dozen were wounded, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

The Israeli military said "More than a thousand rioters infiltrated the buffer zone engaging the forces at the security fence. Rioters reached the security fence- hurled a grenade, rocks and rolled burning tires at Israeli forces ... threatening to breach the fence and storm the adjacent communities." It said troops fired warning shots and then fired at main instigators to prevent their advance.

Recent days have seen a series of attacks by young Palestinians wielding household items like kitchen knives, screwdrivers and even a vegetable peeler. The youths had no known links to armed groups who have targeted Israeli soldiers and civilians at random, complicating security efforts.

The violence, including the first apparent revenge attack by an Israeli, raised fears of the unrest spiraling further out of control.

The unpredictability and brutality of the assaults, coupled with the young age of some of the attackers, have shocked Israelis and raised fears a new Palestinian intifada — or uprising — could be underway.

In Jerusalem, a Palestinian stabbed and wounded a 14-year-old Israeli with a vegetable peeler Friday before being arrested. In another attack near the entrance of Kiryat Arba, a West Bank settlement, a Palestinian was shot dead by a police officer after he attacked him with a knife and tried to seize his weapon, police said.

In northern Israel, a 29-year-old Arab-Israeli woman was shot and wounded while trying to stab people at a bus station in the town of Afula, where another stabbing had taken place the day before, police said.

Gaza-based Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh applauded the recent Palestinian stabbing attacks across Israel at a speech at Friday prayers, labeling it as an intifada.

Israeli officials have said the violence is not on that scale for now, but rather is of the kind unleashed periodically over the decades.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called it a "terror wave." He and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas have tried to lower tensions in recent days but both appear unable to contain the unrest.

Veteran commentator Ben Caspit told Channel 10 that Israel is on the "seam line" between the violence spreading and containment. One of the challenges is that there is no clear identifiable enemy, with about half of "the lone-wolf" attackers coming from east Jerusalem and the rest from the West Bank.

The acts are independent, spontaneous moments of rage, he said, noting the stabbings with the vegetable peeler and one involving a screwdriver the day before.

Household items are used as weapons because guns can be harder to get for Palestinians unaffiliated with militant groups.

Not much can be done from an intelligence agency point of view to prevent spontaneous attacks by an individual who "decides to take a screwdriver and stab the first Jew that passes by," said Yuval Diskin, Israel's former internal security chief, in an interview with Channel 2 TV.

Video on social media Friday showed the moments when Israeli security forces shot and wounded an Arab woman at the Afula bus station. Police said the woman, who wore a long robe and Islamic headscarf, had pulled a knife to stab a soldier and posed an "immediate threat."

The video showed the woman surrounded by several members of the security forces with their guns drawn. Israeli media said security personnel called to her in Arabic and Hebrew multiple times to put the weapon down and that she had waved it while yelling, "Death to police." The police later released video of a long-bladed kitchen knife they said she had used.

The woman was shot in her lower body and treated at a hospital.

A Palestinian stabbing attack had occurred in the same city a day before.

Protests spread late Friday to northern Israel where scores of people from the country's Arab minority clashed with officers in protests linked to the unrest with the Palestinians.

Arab citizens make up some 20 percent of Israel's population. They enjoy full citizenship rights but have long complained of discrimination in housing, jobs and other areas of society. They often identify with Palestinian nationalism.

The latest unrest began about three weeks ago, when Palestinians repeatedly barricaded themselves inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City, hurling stones, firebombs and fireworks at police.

It was fueled by Palestinian allegations that Israel plans to change the delicate arrangement at the hilltop compound, sacred to both Muslims and Jews. Israel has adamantly denied the allegations and accused Palestinian leaders of inciting the violence and spreading lies over the shrines in east Jerusalem. Abbas gave a hard-line speech at the U.N. last month, saying Israelis desecrate the holy site with their "dirty feet."

Non-Muslim visitors are only allowed to enter the site at specific hours and are banned by police from praying there. Many Muslims view these visits as a provocation and accuse Jewish extremists of plotting to take over the site. Israel has promised to ensure the delicate arrangement at the site and insists it will not allow the status quo to be changed.

The fate of the hilltop site is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is revered to Jews as the Temple Mount, site of the two biblical Jewish temples, and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, where they believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.

The attacks initially were confined to east Jerusalem and the West Bank — both territories captured by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 war and claimed by the Palestinians for a future state — but spread to Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities this week.

What began as Palestinians throwing rocks and firebombs at passing cars and police has morphed into a deadly shooting and knife attacks by Palestinians on Israeli civilians and soldiers.

In what appeared to be the first revenge attack amid the violence, an Israeli man stabbed and wounded four Arabs in the southern Israeli city of Dimona, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said. After his arrest, the assailant said he acted in retaliation for the numerous Palestinian attacks, Israeli media reported.

The attacker is a "mentally ill man," said Dimona Mayor Beni Bitton, telling Channel 10 that two of the victims worked for City Hall, and that passers-by quickly provided first aid to the wounded Arabs.

Five Palestinians have been killed while carrying out attacks against Israelis over the past week, while another three Palestinians were killed in protests and clashes in the West Bank. The Red Crescent medical service says over 500 Palestinians have been wounded in violent protests in the West Bank since the weekend, including about 100 from live fire.

Last week, Palestinians shot two Israelis to death in front of their children in the West Bank. In a separate incident, Palestinians killed two Israeli men and wounded a mother and toddler in Jerusalem.

A Bit of the Old Nature Pt.1
Oct 10th, 2015
Morning MeditationF.B. Meyer
Categories: Meditation;Exhortation;Book Study

"Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? and what have I offended thee, and thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin?" Genesis 20:9.

For long years an evil may lurk in our hearts, permitted and unjudged, breeding failure and sorrow in our lives, as some unnoticed and forgotten sewer may secretly undermine the health of an entire household. In the twilight we overlook many a thing which we should not allow for a single moment if we saw it in its true character; and which, amid the all-revealing light of the perfect day, we should be the first to fling away in horror. But that which escapes our ken is patent in all its naked deformity to the eye of God. "The darkness and the light are both alike to Him." And He will so direct the discipline of our lives as to set in clear prominence the deadly evil which He hates; so that, when He has laid bare the cancerous growth, He may bring us to long for and invite the knife which shall set us free from it for ever.

These words have been suggested by the thirteenth verse of this chapter, which indicates an evil compact, into which Abraham had entered with Sarah some thirty years before the time of which we write. Addressing the king of the Philistines, the patriarch let fall a hint which sheds a startling light upon his failure, when first he entered the Land of Promise, and, under stress of famine, went down into Egypt; and upon that repetition of his failure which we must now consider. Here is what he said: "And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said unto my wife, This is thy kindness which thou shalt show unto me; at every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother."

In a certain sense, no doubt, Sarah was his sister. She was the daughter of his father, though not the daughter of his mother. But she was much more his wife than his sister; and to withhold that fact was to withhold the one fact that was essential to the maintenance of his honor, and the protection of her virtue. We are not bound to tell the whole truth to gratify an idle curiosity; but we are bound not to withhold the one item, which another should know before completing a bargain, if the knowledge of it would materially alter the result. A lie consists in the motive quite as much as in the actual words. We may unwittingly say that which is actually false, meaning above all things to speak the truth, and, though a lie in form, there is no lie in fact. On the other hand, like Abraham, we may utter true words, meaning them to convey a deliberate and shameful falsehood.   F. B. Meyer