WHOLE WOMAN'S HEALTH OUTRAGED ITS FORMER ABORTION FACILITY WAS BOUGHT BY A PRO-LIFE GROUP
from: LiveAction News

(18 Nov.) Abortion chain Whole Woman's Health closed its facility in the Rio Grande Valley, only to learn it was subsequently purchased by a pregnancy resource center. And because women's preborn children will be saved instead of killed, Whole Woman's Health is outraged.

In an interview with the Texas Tribune, Whole Woman's Health CEO Amy Hagstrom Miller cried foul. "To say we were duped is an understatement," she said. "It's been a bumpy couple of days. In a bumpy couple of months. Or, actually, when did it start? Before SB 8, even. Maybe the [executive order]?" The interview failed to acknowledge that Whole Woman's Health has a long history of failed health inspections and documented health and safety violations, with one of its Texas facilities racking up 17 pages of violations.

After Roe v. Wade was overturned, Whole Woman's Health was trying to get out of the lease for its McAllen location in Texas, and then the building went up for sale. South Texans for Reproductive Justice teamed up with Whole Woman's Health to try to fundraise for the building, but didn't come anywhere near the $400,000 they needed. A group of doctors operating under the name Peruvian Alliance, led by Luis Rosas, bought the building instead, and initially, Hagstrom Miller was excited.

"We were thinking how awesome it would be if it could be used for a family practice clinic, led by a bilingual doctor, serving people of color and whoever needed care in the community," she said. Then they found out it would be operating as the McAllen Pregnancy Center. [read more...]

COMMENTARY:My older brother Jim and his wife Peg lived in McAllen TX, located right on the Mexico border, after retiring from 40+ years as missionaries to Mexico. So this news is a special cause for rejoicing to me and my sisters.! It is amazing to see how God can turn evil into good.

SMELLING BLOOD IN THE WATER: TRIAL LAWYERS NIBBLE AT TRANSGENDER MEDICAL TREATMENTS
from: BioEdge.org

(15 Nov.) Outside of the United States, few people have probably heard that carcinogens have been found in the water at Camp Lejeune, a big Marine Corps base in North Carolina. But inside the United States, everyone probably has – thanks to wall-to-wall TV advertisements by class action law firms who promise compensation to victims of cancer. The sharks smell blood in the water. Will people harmed by transgender medical treatments eventually form a class action suit of their own?

As reported in BioEdge earlier this year, in the UK, Tom Goodhead, chief executive of the international law firm Pogust Goodhead, told The [London] Times that his firm is building up a case. "Children and young adolescents were rushed into treatment without the appropriate therapy and involvement of the right clinicians, meaning that they were misdiagnosed and started on a treatment pathway that was not right for them. These children have suffered life-changing and, in some cases, irreversible effects of the treatment they received . . . We anticipate that at least 1,000 clients will join this action."

In the United State, a young woman named Chloe Cole is suing doctors and the Kaiser Permanente health group in California for unspecified civil damages and punitive damages based on malice, oppression and fraud. Her lawyers say:

"She is devastated that she will never be able to breastfeed a baby. She now has a substantially increased risk of having long-term fertility issues, and it is unknown whether her fertility is permanently adversely affected. Her voice is now a lower pitch and is not as feminine, which greatly troubles her. Several of her female physical attributes were negatively affected, causing her extreme emotional distress. This includes the loss of her otherwise healthy breasts and the stunted development of the female curvature of her body and face. She is also at a substantial increased risk for future health issues because of the ill-conceived puberty blocker and hormone treatment she has received."

The matter remains to be litigated in the courts. But it must be sending shivers down the spines of the transgender medical industry. As bioethics writer Wesley J. Smith writes in the National Review:

"Yes, I know most trial lawyers are liberal and many will be reluctant to face accusations by their fellow travelers of "transphobia." But in my experience – as a once-practicing trial attorney and one who has written often about such practitioners – when the smell of money is in the water, ideology is generally not the first priority.

"Time will tell. But in the meantime, go Chloe! And please, do not accept a confidential settlement. If you strike paydirt, the country needs to know, because that will deter further such 'medical' interventions." [read more...]

COMMENTARY: People are finally beginning to wake up to the devastating life-long consequences of transgender treatments. Hormonal treatment as well as transgender surgery often lead to permanent infertility, sometimes to suicide (which is to 20x more likely than their peers) as the unwitting victims finally realized the consequences of what was done to their bodies. This isn't even considering the loss to society as our population shrinks because millions of young people can't have children.

KAZAKHSTAN: "INCOMPREHENSIBLE" BANK ACCOUNT BLOCKING
from: Forum 18 News Service

(18 Nov.) Kazakhstan maintains public lists of individuals and organisations allegedly connected to "terrorism or extremism" list, and secret "high-risk" or "suspicious" organisation lists circulated to banks. Both lists lead to blocking and denial of bank accounts and numerous other problems. "We've written more than 10 letters to various state agencies," Protestant Pastor Pyotr Shelepanov of New Life Church in Talgar told Forum 18. "But we've had no real answer." His Church describes the denial of a bank account as "incomprehensible."

A legally-registered Protestant Church in Talgar in the southern Almaty Region has been battling since 2017 to regain access to banking services. Apart from a brief period in 2020-21, all its accounts have been frozen and closed down. Banks claim that the Church's activity is "suspicious." Without a bank account, Talgar's New Life Church cannot pay taxes and has had to lay off its accountant without pay.

In April 2017 New Life Pentecostal Church in Talgar in Almaty Region received a donation from abroad to help it buy a church building. However, Kaspi Bank regarded the transaction as suspicious and referred it to the Finance Ministry's then Financial Monitoring Committee on 17 April 2017. The Committee froze these transactions while they investigated them.

On 2 May 2017, Almaly District Court in Almaty blocked the accounts at Kaspi Bank of New Life Church in Talgar, due to a criminal case against New Life Church in Almaty, a legally separate religious organisation. The Churches complaints to the National Bank of Kazakhstan central bank did not lead to the account being unfrozen, but in July 2020 a court accepted a suit to unblock the accounts.

The Talgar New Life Church wrote to Kaspi Bank with a copy of the court decision, and Kaspi Bank's Talgar branch unfroze the account and gave the Church three days to clear the funds. The funds were cleared and Kaspi's Talgar branch then unilaterally closed the account.

The July 2020 court decision was not the end of the Talgar New Life Church's banking problems, as another branch of Kaspi Bank wrote to New Life Church cancelling its bank accounts there. This appears to be related to the Church being placed on a Financial Monitoring Agency secret list of "high-risk" or "suspicious" organisations, which are circulated to banks for them to block the accounts of these organisations.

"We've written more than 10 letters to various state agencies, including the Prosecutor's Office and the Financial Monitoring Agency," New Life's Pastor Pyotr Shelepanov told Forum 18 from Talgar on 8 November. "But we've had no real answer." The Church described the blocks on its bank accounts and subsequent denials of banking services as "incomprehensible." [read more...]

COMMENTARY: This tactic is being used worldwide to harass and hobble individuals and organizations that don't conform to the state's ideology, even if that ideology is contrary to the laws and constitution of the country.

BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS GROUP VOTES TO OPPOSE ELECTRIC SHOCK TREATMENT
from: Disability Scoop

(18 Nov.) After years of tacitly endorsing the only facility in the country known to use electric shocks to address behavior in those with developmental disabilities, a major behavior analysis organization is coming out against the practice. The Association for Behavior Analysis International, or ABAI, voted this week to adopt a position statement indicating that "we strongly oppose the use of contingent electric skin shock (CESS) under any condition."

The move was favored by 65% of the organization’s members even though an ABAI task force created to assess the use of electric skin shock treatment had recommended that the practice be opposed "except under extraordinary circumstances." ABAI is a big player in the world of behavior analysis, accrediting graduate degree programs and serving as a membership organization for practitioners, so the group’s position on what’s considered acceptable practice holds significant sway.

At issue is the use of special devices to administer skin shocks in order to condition people not to engage in self-injurious or aggressive behaviors. Currently, the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center in Canton, Mass. – which serves children and adults with developmental disabilities as well as those with behavioral and emotional problems – is the only place known to use such devices.

Disability advocates have pressed for years to end the practice and the Food and Drug Administration finalized a ban on the devices in 2020 saying that they pose an "unreasonable and substantial risk of illness or injury." The agency pointed to evidence of psychological and physical risks including burns, tissue damage, worsening of underlying symptoms, depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. [read more...]

COMMENTARY: When I was a teen, I had had a family member who received electric shock treatment for a psychological illness, so I can testify to the lack of cure and the harmfulness of the procedure. Electric shock treatment is an archaic, discredited theory that belongs in the same category as phrenology – the notion that one's psychological well-being can be determined by the shape of one's skull: nonsense!

ARCHBISHOP BORYS GUDZIAK BLASTS LAWMAKERS WHO HAVE SUGGESTED REDUCING AID TO UKRAINE
from: Religious Information Service of Ukraine

(18 Nov.) Ukrainian Catholic Archbishop Borys Gudziak, who oversees the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, detailed the horrific devastation wrought by Russia’s invasion, telling personal stories and showing images of the destruction. After Gudziak finished, Cardinal Roberty McElroy went to the microphone on the assembly floor. Nonviolence is important regarding issues of war and peace, he said, but the situation in Ukraine "is an instance where justice requires resistance."

He then warned that some incoming members of Congress have stoked "rumblings of cutting support to Ukraine from the United States. That could be very ominous in terms of the continuity, the flow of weapons and support, that is essential to convincing the Russians that they cannot succeed," McElroy said. "I would urge the conference to make it a very high priority to move quickly to preempt, in all the ways available to us, any moves in our national policy in that direction." As he finished, his fellow bishops burst into applause.

His remarks were directed at lawmakers who have called for cutting aid to Ukraine – particularly Republicans such as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, who has signaled the possibility of cutting Ukraine aid should the GOP retake control of the House, an increasingly likely scenario as votes continue to roll in from last week's midterm elections. The sentiment has been echoed by Republicans such as J.D. Vance, an Ohio Catholic who just won election to the U.S. Senate.

In an interview after the session ended, McElroy suggested an all-of-the-above approach that could include public statements as well as directly pressuring House leadership. "My hope is the conference will advocate very strongly with the leadership in the House – and with specific members – to communicate to that diminishment of the aid to Ukraine, or even the perception that there might be a diminishment in aid to the Ukraine, is a lifeline to the Kremlin," McElroy, who wrote his doctoral dissertation on morality and American foreign policy, told Religion News Service.

Reducing the flow of resources to Ukrainians, he warned, "will result in a longer war, more profound suffering overall, and threaten the whole European community that borders Russia." Gudziak expressed gratitude for the proposal, saying he wished he'd said it himself. "I think it’s very important to speak to the extremes of our political spectrum that tend to be very naive about President Putin, and to be tempted by kind of an isolationist view," he told RNS. [read more...]

COMMENTARY: Some political figures are either short-sighted and ignorant of history, or they are in general ignorant of how bullies operate. Those who propose reducing aid to Ukraine are remeniscent of Britain's PM Neville Chamberlain who sat down with Adolph Hitler in mid-1939 to negotiate giving away Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany in exchange for a promise of peace. Chamberlain, at the end of the negotiations, proclaimed – "We have achieved peace in our time!" That time lasted only a few months before Hitler attacked Poland and started World War Two. Saying that Russia is only protecting its sphere of influence is nonsense: have such people ever considered asking the Ukrainians their opinion of being in the "warm embrace" of Russia's sphere of interest?

CHURCHES MUST DIVERSIFY USAGE OR PERISH
from: Disabled World

(15 Nov.) With the continuous departure from religion, an audit finds the future of rural churches lies in their significance as assets for the wider community. Evaluating the success of the church in terms of the amount of funds it raises and the size of its congregation undervalues the contribution that churches and church buildings make to a community. There are options for churches that struggle with financial sustainability, the least preferred of which is to close the church.

The Cambridge Judge Business School (CJBS) report and the Diocese of Ely says that churches will need to be useful to communities and find innovative ways to remain financially sustainable if their future is to be secured.

Researchers surveyed all 334 churches in the Diocese of Ely in Britain, receiving responses from 73%. They found that churches played a significant role in communities, with three-quarters of respondents noting that the closure of their local church would have a "devastating impact." Church buildings were most valued for providing rites of passage services (78%), being a place for religious worship (72%), and offering a quiet space for reflection, thinking, and meditation (69%).

"Evaluating the success of the church in terms of the amount of funds it raises and the size of its congregation undervalues the contribution that churches and church buildings make to a community," said lead author Helen Haugh, Associate Professor in Community Enterprise at Cambridge Judge Business School and Research Director at the Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation at Cambridge Judge.

"There are options for churches that struggle with financial sustainability, the least preferred of which is to close the church. Our research is about finding ways to keep churches open."

The audit assessed the wider community use of church buildings and the contribution that churches made to the common good. They found that three-quarters of church buildings held community activities in 2019, an increase of 27% since 2012. "These ranged from blood donation to debt counseling and coffee mornings to concerts," said Dr. Timur Alexandrov, Postdoctoral Research Associate of the project. [read more...]

COMMENTARY: Church leaders must reconsider the concept of "parish" – the center of community life and caring for people, especially those in need. With neighborhoods changing, many churches realize that their members no longer live in the community, the local "parish." The biggest expense of a local church is often the maintenance of its building. But what if the the church building were to be redesigned in order to be a self-sustaining asset to the community, providing services to the needy and accesible housing to the disabled? This is what Agape Restoration Society has been working on for several years now: see our proposed Agape Restoration Communities.

(← click) How did Christianity start and spread? Many in the West, especially in the United States, believe that Christianity went into a dormant state with the death of the 12 Apostles or when it became allied with the state in 325 A.D. under Constantine the Great, Emperor of the Greco-Roman Empire, and only with Gutenberg's invention of the printing press in the 15th century and the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century did Christianity arouse itself from its slumber. But that is a vast oversimplification of Church history.

For the first 2 or 3 centuries, what we now call Christianity was then considered first as a branch of Judaism like the Essenes or Zealots, then as a spin-off sect of Judaism that most Jews had rejected. And yet, this new belief in Yeshua as the Messiah not only of the Jews but also of all nations persisted and expanded, even under severe persecution by the pagan state and society, as the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham that in him all nations of the earth would be blessed (Gen. 12).

It was only after 325 A.D. when this new "fulfilled Judaism" was tolerated by society and the state, that followers of "the Messiah" in Aramaic, or "the Khristos" in Greek (both titles mean "the Annointed One") began to assemble the various writings of the Apostles and other early believers, then decide which writings taught the true faith and which were doubtful or even fake, "pseudo-"gospels and letters. Early in his life as a churchman, St. Athanasius of Alexandria defended the true faith against the heresy of Arianism at the First Ecumenical Council at Nicea in 325 and then compiled the list of 27 gospels and letters that 50 years later was officially accepted as the New Testament canon.

So for about 360 years, this new faith was mainly spread orally by its evangelists and Apostolic bishops ("missionaries" is the English meaning of "Apostles"). The bishops meeting together in councils decided what was the correct interpretation of these Scriptures – holy writings – and how to orally teach the people, because copying these writings by hand was very tedious, time-consuming, and expensive. Only with the invention of the printing press in the 16th century did it become possible for the average believer to possess a copy of the Scriptures.

By Luther's time a century later, people had become accustomed to think that having a Bible was the way things always were, just as today's teenagers think that there have always been smartphones and people have always been able to communicate electronically over the Internet. They have never experienced life in any other way. This is called "anachronistic" thinking. An "anachronism" is projecting today's culture and its technology back into the past when they didn't exist.

An example of this in churches is to see icons or stained glass windows of the 12 Apostles each holding the Bible as a bound book... but the "codex" – the bound book with pages and covers – hadn't been invented until the 6th century. Up until then, hand-written or "manu-script" copies of the Scriptures consisted of several scrolls of parchment – specially-cured animal skins. The four Gospels would be hand-copied on one scroll, several Apostolic letters hand-copied on another scroll, etc., just like in the Jewish synagogues.

Thus, as the our quote above "Brethern [sic], what shall we do? There won't be an 'authorized' Bible until 1611" illustrates, it's a big mistake to assume that the Bible we have today could have possibly been the sole authority for faith and practice. For 1500 years, very few people had ever seen a Bible or the scrolls that it consisted of. Much was handed down orally: "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books which were written" (John 20:21 NASB).

So the only things they could rely on often were icons depicting Bible scenes and oral tradition – the correct interpretation of the Scriptures by Apostolic bishops and the priests under their authority: "So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us" (2 Thes. 2:15 NASB).

As St. Peter wrote – "Knowing this first, that no prophecy [telling forth] of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy [telling forth] came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" (2 Peter 1:20-21 KJV). The connecting word "For" indicates there is a logical connection between the inspiration of the "holy men of God" who wrote the Scriptues and holy men of God – the Church Fathers – who interpret the Scriptures, not private intertpretation by any "common plowboy or milkmaid" – as one of the Protestant Reformers once said.

St. Athanasius of Alexandria wrote the manuscript essay "On the Incarnation of the Word" on a scroll in the early 300s A.D. That's why in our printed version there are no page numbers, only chapter numbers and paragraph numbers! We'll be teaching this online course right up to "the Incarnation" – Christmas – starting on Nov. 28 and ending on Dec. 23. So click on the above "On the Incarnation" photo to get all the links to this essay as a printed booklet, an e-book, and this course! See you there on Nov. 28!

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