Calls Escalate for Government, Schools, Media to Back Biblical Marriage as Rates Plummet - CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE

Marriage rates have fallen to their lowest ever, prompting calls for the media, government and schools to support the institution. (Eliezer002/Pixabay/Public Domain)

Calls Escalate for Government, Schools, Media to Back Biblical Marriage as Rates Plummet

3/6/2018 CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE

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Marriage rates have fallen to their lowest ever, prompting calls for the media, government and schools to support the institution.

Official figures for England and Wales show 239,020 weddings between opposite-sex couples took place in 2015—and that the marriage rate was at its lowest since 1862.

The Christian Institute, the Coalition for Marriage and the Marriage Foundation expressed sadness at the figures, highlighting marriage's unique status compared to other relationships.

Strong Foundation

Colin Hart, Director of The Christian Institute, said: "Marriage provides the strong foundation that families need to raise children, but is suffering from being maligned over many years.

"Instead of undermining marriage, we need politicians, the media and our schools to promote it as best for couples and best for children."

Thomas Pascoe, who leads the Coalition for Marriage group, said the government must stop "pandering to a minority who say all relationships are equal" and instead lend its support in the education and tax systems.

And Harry Benson of the Marriage Foundation said: "Future generations will not thank us for our foolish disregard for commitment and stability."

Religious Settings

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According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the number of marriages between a man and a woman in 2015 dropped by 3.4 per cent from the previous year.

Records on marriage rates began in the 1860s, but the 2015 figures of 21.7 marriages per thousand unmarried men and 19.8 marriages per thousand unmarried women is the lowest.

The statistics also show an eight per cent drop in religious ceremonies between 2014 and 2015.

Same-Sex Marriage

The ONS's Nicola Haines noted that opposite-sex marriage rates have generally declined since the 1970s.

She also said: "This is the first full year for which marriages were available for same-sex couples and they accounted for 2.6 percent of all marriages." 

This article originally appeared on The Christian Institute.

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Steve Martin - Arms of Love video message "Light in the World" (and a look around my "studio"!)

Steve Martin

"Light in the World"

Arms of Love 

- video message

Aug. 22, 2017

Greetings my friends, 

Yesterday on Monday, August 21, between 2 pm - 2:45 pm in Charlotte, North Carolina where I live and work, I experienced the "Great American Eclipse" as it was called here. We were not directly under the path of the moon as it crossed between earth and the sun, but we did see over 97% of the sun blocked by the moon during this time. The 95F temperature cooled at least 5 degrees during the peak of the eclipse.  But what impressed me the most was that even with less than 10% of its rays reaching our portion of this planet during this time, it still seemed like full daylight! As I told Laurie later, if you didn't know an eclipse was occurring, you may have thought just a cloud was passing overhead.

As I looked through my Canon PowerShot camera while using the special glasses for the event, the Lord kept impressing upon me that yet when only a small portion of His light gets through the darkness, He still fully lights up the world! His immense glory cannot be hidden or kept from bringing the word of salvation and life to those He loves; these that are in all the nations.

As He continues to call the people to repentance, my heart is that many will "see" and hear His calling forth their names to come to Him. We, as part of His body, are called to be an extension of His arms of love. We are also to be the lights in the darkness around us, which will draw all men and women unto Him.

Be encouraged on the job today, as you are a light, just by your presence and the aroma of the Holy Spirit working through you. People are watching, listening and will respond in due time.

Ahava and shalom, 

Steve Martin

Founder

Love For His People

Charlotte, North Carolina

USA

Want to see my "studio"??!!! (Only after you watch my message first though.)

Look here: "Arms of Love" studio!!! (born again garage...)

Plus you'll hear Laurie and I leading the All Nations Church worship team, 

back in the day. Yeah!

"Arms of Love" message - YouTube video: Published on Aug 22, 2017

Steve Martin - Arms of Love video message "Light in the World"

The Great American Eclipse, a sign to America about its need for God, still gave off much sunlight even as 90% of the sun was blocked by the moon over Charlotte, North Carolina at 2:40 pm on Aug. 21, 2017.

This is an example of the same for believers, working in the darkness among those on the job or in their schools.

#3 Aug. 22, 2017

Videos filmed and shared by Steve Martin - to give appreciation to and love for those we support, through Love For His People, Inc.

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More Christian Groups Line Up Against Obama Administration's Transgender Mandate for Schools - BOB ESCHLIMAN CHARISMA NEWS

The U.S. Supreme Court will have to decide if religious schools should have an opportunity to weigh in on government rules that could affect their ability to operate in accordance with their religious beliefs in the future. (Reuters photo)

More Christian Groups Line Up Against Obama Administration's Transgender Mandate for Schools

1/12/2017 BOB ESCHLIMAN  CHARISMA NEWS

With the U.S. Supreme Court about to consider the Obama administration's "interpretation" that the Title IX sexual discrimination laws related to education also include protections for "gender identity," the legal opinions are piling up on both sides of the issue.

On behalf of the appellant in the case, the Gloucester County (Va.) School Board, Liberty Counsel filed an amicus brief Wednesday with the high court. In part, the brief states:

Advancements in biotechnology have demonstrated what society has intuitively understood for millennia, i.e., that human beings are conceived as either male or female and there is no scientific basis for a claim that individuals have a separate "gender identity" that can differ from their biological sex. The Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights ignored this inconvenient truth when they announced that the term "sex" in Title IX now includes "gender identity" so that sex-separate private facilities must be turned into unisex social laboratories. This Court should reject the Department's attempt to infuse Title IX with a sociopolitical agenda wholly lacking in evidentiary foundation.

As has been previously reported, the student who brought the original lawsuit against the school district, alleging that her civil rights were violated for not being allowed to use opposite-sex facilities is 17-year-old "Gavin" Grimm. The high school senior is a girl who suffers from gender dysphoria, which makes her believe she is a boy; she has not had gender reassignment surgery.

When Grimm requested to use the boys' restroom, some parents complained, prompting the school board to adopt a policy that she must use girls' restrooms and locker facilities or a single-stall restroom in the nurse's office. A Virginia federal court ruled in the district's favor, but that decision was overturned by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

When it agreed to take up the case, the Supreme Court placed a stay on the 4th Circuit decision until it could render a superseding decision. Liberty Counsel is arguing the lower court lacks the legal authority to render a decision, particularly one that goes against the clear meaning of the word "sex" used in the decades-old law.

"Liberty Counsel stands with the Gloucester School Board, as its responsibility is to protect the safety of students from harmful situations," Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said. "It is absurd that the Supreme Court has to address whether a girl with gender dysphoria should be treated as a boy. The federal law does not allow persons to subjectively think, and therefore be treated, as the opposite of their biological sex. It is very obvious how the Supreme Court should rule in this case."

First Liberty Institute has also weighed in on the case, filing its own amicus brief on behalf of 22 religious educational institutions and educators. Among those represented by First Liberty is the Association of Christian Schools International, the largest Protestant educational organization in the world.

"The public has paid a lot of attention to how this case affects public schools, but one very important category of educational institutions has been overlooked—private, religious schools," First Liberty CEO and President Kelly Shackelford said. "Do we really want to legalize a policy that could cause faith-based schools to be stripped of their Title IX federal funding, without giving them any voice in the matter?"

In its brief, First Liberty argues that the First Amendment requires faith-based schools and educators to be able to voice their concerns about policies before the government enacts them. That process was not followed with the Obama Administration's transgender mandate, which has prompted the Christian schools to ask the high court to reverse the lower court's opinion.

"There is one important question the Supreme Court must answer—will they protect the rights of religious schools and colleges to have a voice in a critical rulemaking process that will affect their ability to operate according to the teachings of their faith?" Shackelford concluded. "Their answer to this question will determine the future of religious freedom for faith-based schools and colleges nationwide." 

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Anti-Religion Group Warns Schools to Stay Away from Ark Encounter - CBN News

Anti-Religion Group Warns Schools to Stay Away from Ark Encounter

CBN News 07-13-2016

A securalist foundation has contacted thousands of schools in the Midwest warning them that taking a field trip to the Ark Encounter in Kentucky might get them sued.

The new amusement park in Williamston features a 500-foot replica of Noah's Ark. More than 30,000 people have visited the site in the last week.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is trying to keep school children from visiting the park as part of their schooling.

Officials with the organization say ark field trips would expose children to religious proselytizing, the Lexington-Herald Leader reported.

Foundation co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor said the group sent letters to more than 1,000 school districts in Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, and West Virginia.

"That would be completely inappropriate," Gaylor told the Kentucky publication. "This is an attempt to proselytize children. The public school is to educate, not indoctrinate."

Kentucky Education Commissioner Stephen Pruitt notified school districts that neither outside groups nor Kentucky Department of Education should determine field trip selection but added that outside trips should directly correlate to school curriculum.

"It is important to remind educators that at all times and under all circumstances, field trips should be a direct extension of classroom learning," he wrote. "As a result, all off-site trips should be directly related to the school curriculum and should seek to maximize student learning by enhancing the classroom experience."

YEAR IN REVIEW: Schools Now Pushing Soft Porn for Tweens, Islam for All Kids - BETHANY BLANKLEY CHARISMA NEWS

A school classroom. Common Core now mandates that children be taught Islam. (Flickr/Creative Commons)

YEAR IN REVIEW: Schools Now Pushing Soft Porn for Tweens, Islam for All Kids

 9/11/2015 BETHANY BLANKLEY  charisma news

Editor's Note: 2015 was a big year in the church—and in the world. This week we're looking at some of the biggest stories of the year, selected based on feedback from our readers. Thanks for reading Charisma News this year and stay tuned as we continue expanding our coverage in 2016 to include more spiritual insights on the stories that matter most to you.

This article was published September 11th.

This new school year under expansive Common Core curriculum and standards testing, children will have data collected by the government about behavioral and mental aptitude, not their test scores. No matter what a governor or state school board might claim, if the state receives federal money in any form, it is participating in data collection without parental consent. Parents have the constitutional right to opt out their child by filling out this form.

And the Exodus Mandate is encouraging and providing resources for Christian parents to do more than opt out, but to exit the public school system altogether. Two excellent videos explain why.

When it comes to "sex education," minors are taught the benefits of nontraditional sex, beginning in the fifth grade, to the normalcy of their own "sexual fluidity" in the seventh grade and higher. Additionally, the U.S. Dept. of Education no longer defines parents as mothers or fathers, but as Parent 1, Parent 2 on student aid forms.

In New York City, teens via a tax funded smartphone app can locate free condoms within walking and free clinics where they can receive prescriptions and medication, and abortions and IUD implants—without parental consent. The Plan B pill is also distributed at public schools, again without parental knowledge.

Parents are protesting school board policies that require their heterosexual children to share a bathroom or locker room to accommodate another child's experimentation with "gender fluidity." 

Incredibly disturbing, is a book on the fourth-grade reading list, It's Perfectly Normal, which illustrates in words and pictures soft-porn to 10-year-olds. Parents are not told which books are on the reading list and are not given an option to reject or pull their child out prior to being taught such perversion. 

When it comes to parental rights, educators have expressed: children don't belong to their parents. In response, parents are now legally fighting the government over school choice, data collection and curriculum.

Most problematic about Common Core curriculum is its emphasis on teaching Islam, or rather a false version of it.

Yet—no Bible or prayer is allowed—but learning to pray in the direction of Mecca is. Children can't say or write the name of Jesus or talk about God, but they are taught the five pillars of Islam in addition to over 120 pages on Islam in the seventh grade alone. Parents have provided numerous examples, from vocabulary tests, to textbook language and pictures, to actual testimony of children feeling uncomfortable having to attend a school trip to a mosque and to kneeling and praying to something they reject. Once parents object and try to opt out, they are told their child would receive a failing grade and they as parents would not be allowed to enter their child's public school at a particular time.

Most important, Islam is not being taught within the context of world religions, but within the context of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) indoctrination. The Constitution isn't taught. The Bible isn't taught. But Muhammad is taught as an astute businessman—and that all Christians, Jews, and Muslims believe in the same God, they just call God by a different name.

What's essential for every parent and citizen to understand is that teaching Islam violates the First and 14th Amendments. The Common Core curriculum tests were created by Pearson Education, which has offices the in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and funded by the Bill Gates Foundation as part of a global effort to indoctrinate children.

The question remains: Why does American education seem like it's being directed by largely Sunni Islamists and communist/marxist/fascists? And why are Americans putting up with it?

Bethany Blankley worked in politics for over 10 years, on Capitol Hill for four U.S. Senators and one U.S. Congressman, and in New York for a former governor. She also previously taught at the New York School of the Bible and worked with several nonprofits. She earned her master's degree in theology from The University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and her bachelor's degree in politics from the University of Maryland. She is a political analyst for Fox News Radio, and she has appeared on television and radio programs nationwide. Follow her: @BethanyBlankley, bethanyblankley.com.

Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed are solely the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of Charisma Media.

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