Showing posts with label CBN News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CBN News. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

'The Creator of the Universe Will Not Allow Us to Be Driven from This Land': This Is Life on the Gaza Border - CBN News Julie Stahl


'The Creator of the Universe Will Not Allow Us to Be Driven from This Land': This Is Life on the Gaza Border
08-16-2019
CBN News Julie Stahl
GAZA BORDER, Israel - Rockets, firebombs, and tunnels along the border. Those images are what most of the world know about the Gaza Strip.  But what’s it really like to live there? 
CBN’s Scott Ross met with Eliyahu McLean who lives and works in Israel along the border of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.  
McLean introduces visitors to this complicated situation by giving what he calls the “Gaza Border Reality Tour”.  He took Ross on the tour that provides a glimpse of the complexities of life from both sides of the border. 
Ross met with McLean at Moshav Yoshivia, where McLean lives with his wife and children. It’s just seven miles from the Gaza border, in the direct line of rocket fire.
“Three weeks ago on the Sabbath, I was just finishing prayers here and I just walked home at 10:00 am and we hear Red Alert, Tzeva Adom, from this siren, and as soon as we heard Red Alert in our houses we have to run to a safe room,” McLean explained.
Hamas launched some 700 rockets at southern Israel that weekend.  McLean said they have only 10-15 seconds to run to their safe rooms.
“Why do you choose to live in this sort of an environment, (and) with a family?” Ross asked.
“First of all, all of Israel is under rocket threat,” McLean answered. “Many Israelis have discovered that this part of the Holy Land is actually quality of life. A few rockets don’t scare us.  We have faith in God – that God is going to protect us and this is sovereign Israel. If we’re going to run from here, we might as well run from Tel Aviv. We might as well run from wherever we are in Israel. The word here is resilience.”
McLean took Ross to the synagogue where he prays, showed him the Torah scrolls and introduced him to the neighbors.  When the situation is tense, he said, they sing and dance.
Not far from there is a public overlook into the northern third of the Gaza Strip, and on beyond is the Mediterranean Sea.  From there, you can see Gaza City, a city of one million people.  There are two million people in all of Gaza.
“That is a lot of humanity,” McLean said.
“You see there’s a border fence here and you see Israeli army lookout posts and if you look slightly to the left you can see a mound of earth on the other side – you can see a Hamas lookout post.  By the way, wave to Hamas, as we’re looking at them they’re looking at us,” McLean told Ross. “The enemy is just that close.”
Standing along the international border, the Israeli town of Sderot is visible and just 45 miles up the coast is Israel’s second-largest city of Tel Aviv. It was also recently hit by rocket fire.
On the map of Gaza, McLean showed Ross the places where Israeli communities of Gush Katif were inside the Gaza Strip prior to the Disengagement.
“In 2005, then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon uprooted the 7,000 Israelis in about 23 communities,” McLean said.
“But the tragedy wasn’t just uprooting but they left behind all of the greenhouses that were top of the world and the Palestinians from Gaza who were working there, they could have maintained it but Hamas decided to destroy the greenhouses and use it as a launching pad to fire rockets. So, it’s a little bit of what you call shooting yourself in the foot,” he explained.
Hamas did the same thing with electricity. 
“One of the ironies is that in the 2014 Gaza war, Hamas was firing rockets that destroyed that power station, which in fact supplies over 30 percent of the electricity to the same people that they live among. Isn’t that ridiculous,” he said.
“Certain elements of the leadership don’t take into account the needs of the simple people (that) aren’t necessarily those involved in the conflict,” he added.
Last year, Gazans had only four hours of electricity each day during the summer, which also creates problems for Israel.
“Recently the Israeli government even allowed money from a government called Qatar to revive the power stations, so now there are 12 hours a day of electricity.
“Why is electricity important in Gaza? First of all, it’s very hard in the heat of the summer or the cold of the winter to have no heating or to have or air conditioning.  If there’s no electricity the water treatment plants like last year will start pouring untreated sewage into the Mediterranean,” he explained. 
Nearby in Ashkelon is one of Israel’s largest water desalination plants
“If untreated sewage from Gaza reaches there what would happen to our saltwater treatment plant? It’s pumping water from the Mediterranean,” he said.  The plant is meant to purify salt, not sewage, he added.  
Mclean says just fighting the terrorists isn’t enough.
“We have to be concerned about what’s happening. We can’t just throw away the key. You see the dilemma Israel has? These days, even Hamas as extreme radical Islamist as they are, comparatively are the moderates.  If we topple them who will replace them?” he asked.
“At the same time, (we have) to remember the people just on the other side. Israel says why should it be our responsibility? Egypt doesn’t want them; Syria doesn’t want them; and Jordan doesn’t want them. Nobody in the Arab world wants them. So in the end, Israel ends up with the responsibility.”
The most recent border attacks involve fire kites or balloons, with incendiary devices attached.  The idea is they’ll fly across the border and set fire to the agricultural fields and forests on the Israeli side.
“The unfortunate reality is that we’ve lost hundreds of thousands of dollars of agricultural produce.  We’ve had thousands and tens of thousands of acres of national parkland totally burned to the ground,” McLean said.
“Sometimes it’s in the form of balloons and you know it’s very hard to tell children, you see balloons in the sky, you want to run after it that there might be a warhead on the end of the balloon,” he said.
McLean said that he and others want to send kites back to Gaza with a message of peace. 
“We in Israel didn’t come to displace you from a country called Palestine.  We came back home to the Holy Land not to be in a constant war with our neighbors but to live in peace with our neighbors,” added.
“Good overcomes evil. Light overcomes darkness,” Ross commented.
The final stop on the Gaza Border Reality Tour was one of the fields burned by a kite or balloon just two weeks earlier.  Besides the agricultural losses, McLean said there’s a message.
“We’re (Palestinians) in essence going to burn what we can’t have for ourselves and also it’s a statement of desperation and that the people there are suffering under a leadership that’s squelching freedom on the other side of the border,” McLean said.
Despite all the attacks and challenges, McLean said he’s hopeful.
“Ultimately, out of the ashes comes another field. A new life comes out of the ashes,” he said. “A new spirit and that new spirit is the spirit of determination, a spirit of prayer, the spirit of hope in the midst of a campaign of fear. Peace and love will prevail.
McLean said he’s a religious Jew who prays for peace daily.
“The Creator of the universe, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will hear our prayer and not allow us to be driven from this land but to allow us to flourish in this land,” he said. “Our destiny is to live as neighbors, whether we like it or not we are neighbors.”

Sunday, August 18, 2019

Every Abortion Clinic in US to Receive 'Unplanned' Movie DVD: Find Out How to Get Your Copy - CBN News

Unplanned
Every Abortion Clinic in US to Receive 'Unplanned' Movie DVD: Find Out How to Get Your Copy
08-13-2019
The pro-life motion picture "Unplanned" will be released on DVD, Blu-ray and in digital formats on Tuesday, and Abby Johnson, the woman whose true transformational story is the subject of the movie, is taking advantage of the event by sending a DVD to every abortion clinic in the nation.
"Unplanned" is the true story of former Planned Parenthood clinic director Johnson, which debuted in United States theaters on March 29. The movie is currently screening in theaters around the world.  
The film is the dramatic account of Johnson's rise in the abortion provider's organization. In eight years, she rose from college volunteer to one of the youngest clinic directors, to Employee of the Year - then she assisted with an abortion. The inspiring film traces Johnson's journey from staunch abortion advocate to standing side-by-side with the people who prayed for her spiritual transformation and facing the full, head-on attack of one of the most powerful organizations on Earth.
According to And Then There Were None, Johnson's ministry which helped more than 525 abortion workers to leave their jobs, 800 abortion clinics across the country will each receive a copy of the film.
"When former abortion workers who came through And Then There Were None first saw the movie, they overwhelmingly said how much the story reflected their own experiences. These former workers stated that they felt validated in what they had experienced and seen inside the abortion industry," Johnson said in a press release. "While the film isn't easy to watch, I want everyone working in the abortion industry to see it and to know there is a lifeline to get out."
The "Unplanned" DVD and Blu-ray includes interviews with Johnson, a making-of featurette, deleted scenes and trailers, and Matthew West's "Unplanned's" official music video. 
"Anyone who has had an abortion, is contemplating an abortion or works in the abortion industry, I encourage you to see "Unplanned," Johnson said. "Supporters of abortion who watch this movie cannot walk away without explicitly knowing what they support." 

Lauren Daigle's Sold Out Crowd Joins Her for Beautiful Spontaneous Moment of Worship - CBN News Will Maule, Faithwire

Lauren Daigle performs "You Say" at the Billboard Music Awards on May 1, 2019. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
Lauren Daigle's Sold Out Crowd Joins Her for Beautiful Spontaneous Moment of Worship
08-17-2019
“We’re gonna change things a little bit,” Lauren Daigle announced to the crowd during a show in Vancouver on Sunday.
The “You Say” singer, was diverging from her planned set list to worship, asking the crowd if they knew the popular hymn, “I Exalt Thee,” before breaking into a beautiful, harmony-riddled version of the track.
Daigle, known for writing music that is heavily influenced by her Christian faith, had no trouble getting her fans to sing along. The sell-out crowd began belting out the lyrics, “I exalt thee, O’ Lord,” over and over again.
You can see the awesome moment in a video posted to Daigle’s Instagram page, with the caption, “Spontaneous Worship Moment in Vancouver.”
As Daigle begins to get the crowd involved, he band steps in an incredible few moments of worship break out. It’s hard not getting chills watching it all come together.
“Well, that wasn’t the plan,” Daigle jokes as the song comes to an end.
Many have been commenting on the post to show their appreciation for Daigle and boldness to leading the large crowd in worship.
“This is my favorite moment, when the Spirit moves in the room and the band just stops the concert to worship!” one person noted.
“One of my favorite worship songs of all time,” another added. “I can feel the spirit through the video. I can’t imagine the feel in the room.”
The Gospel Music Association has nominated Daigle for six Dove Awards ahead of the 2019 ceremony, due to take place in Nashville on October 15.

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Friday, August 16, 2019

Ex-Google Employee Alleges Hundreds of Conservative Sites Blacklisted, Delivers Evidence to DOJ - CBN News Heather Sells,Steve Warren


Ex-Google Employee Alleges Hundreds of Conservative Sites Blacklisted, Delivers Evidence to DOJ
08-15-2019
CBN News Heather Sells,

Did the tech giant Google blacklist hundreds of conservative websites to push forward a progressive agenda? That's what a former Google employee is alleging – and he's taking his case to the Department of Justice.
Zachary Vorhies told the investigative organization Project Veritas that he has delivered close to 1,000 pages of documents from Google, his former employer, to the anti-trust division at the Justice Department. 
Vorhies says he worked at Google for eight years and that his documents show that the tech giant manipulated its algorithms so its search engine was biased against conservative and Christian media.
"The reason why I collected these documents is because I saw something dark and nefarious going on with the company," Vorhies explained. "I felt that our entire election system was going to be compromised forever by this company that told the American public that it was not going to do any evil. And I saw they were making really quick moves, not only in the documents but also in the internal speeches that the executives were giving to the company. 
"They were intending to sculpt the information landscape so that they could create their own version of what was objectively true," he said.
The Vorhies documents show the black-listed websites include prominent conservatives voices like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Michelle Malkin. They include the Daily Caller and RedState as well as Christian websites such as The Christian PostPatheosand Christian Today
As far as we know, CBN News was not blacklisted.
Just last December, the CEO of Google went before Congress and testified that the company was politically neutral. Speaking about the company's search algorithms, he said: "Our algorithms have no notion of political sentiment."
But Vorhies says the documents show otherwise. Some of the documents are available to view online.
"They're telling people they don't have any blacklists. They don't have any political ideology. They don't have any political bias," he said. "But it's really clear that they do. And if Google wants to have political bias and they want to say they've got political bias, that's their right as a company. But for them to go under oath and say that these blacklists don't exist, well, employees like me are able to search through the internal search engine of the company and see that they do is hypocritical at the least. And it's perjury at the worst." 
Vorhies told Project Veritas that he was making $260,000 a year at Google but that he stepped away because he wanted to do the right thing.
He said he's feared for his life after coming forward in recent weeks. The former Google employee told the investigative website that he has set up a "Dead Man's Switch" to release all of the information to the public in the event of his death. Vorhies said he notified Google about his plan. 
CBN News is reaching out to the Department of Justice for more information on this case.
Glenn Beck, CEO of The Blaze website appeared on Thursday's edition of CBN's Newswatch program to discuss the allegation that his company's websites are being blacklisted by Google.
Glenn Beck, CEO of The Blaze website told CBN News on Thursday he's not surprised if the blacklisting is happening. 
"This is something we've been warning about and we've been talking about for a while," Beck explained. "We know they are outwardly banning and I think it's really more than a de-personizing people."
"It's very reminiscent of China. We know that it is happening openly to people," Beck said. "And they are getting more and more subtle with their algorithms. This poses a great, great danger to our republic."
When asked about Google's CEO's testimony to Congress last year, Beck urged viewers to look at the Harvard study that was done by Professor Epstein, a Hillary Clinton supporter, but started to track Google and what they were doing and how they were manipulating search results.
"He said that just by changing the first five search results, you can take somebody that is undecided and you can move them into one camp or the other," Beck noted. "And he has evidence that they did that during the 2016 election, and he is ringing the warning bell as hard as he can that democracy or our republic may be on its last legs this election because of manipulation of algorithms. And just search items from Google and he has the evidence to back it up." 
Asked how his organization would respond to the alleged Google blacklisting, Beck responded, "I'm kind of to the point now to where I know what's coming. Our job is to alert people that this is happening. You don't realize you're being manipulated. And to gather all of the voices together under The Blaze and join hands and arms and support each other, because we're being run out of the public square in the cover of darkness."