This Post Won't Go Viral - JESSILYN JUSTICE CHARISMA NEWS

The Islamic State martyred these Ethiopian Christians on Libyan soil. (Reuters)

This Post Won't Go Viral Because That Would Mean You'd Have To Do Something About Your Faith

11/16/2015 JESSILYN JUSTICE  charisma news

I put my heart on the line every day as I write about the Islamic State torture,crucifixions, beheadings, shootings and child abuse.  

I hold back the tears as I type out the words, pull horrific quotes and sort through photos to use with my articles to protect the innocent but draw attention to the violence.  

But readers don't care. Sometimes, even my co-workers don't care. I've spent nearly a year working at what I consider my dream job, writing stories that I think matter, hoping to raise awareness about the tragedy of what's happening to my brothers and sisters, only to realize people would rather talk about Paula White's Halloween costume.  

How do I know? My post about her Instagram photo garnered a whopping 28,000 shares and calls and comments from co-workers about my gifts.  

A week earlier, my story about "Christians" maliciously abusing child "witches" netted 546 shares. I'm not a math person, but my calculator tells me White dressed as Little Red Riding Hood was over 5,000 percent more successful for site traffic.

This is horrifying.  

We would rather gossip about a controversial evangelist than put our money where our faith should be and try to stop the evils of this world. More recently, our breaking news story about the heart-aching violence against Paris received just over 700 shares, which means White got 4,000 percent more shares.

My soul aches for the men and women involved, and yet some outrage creeps in. Outrage because believers care about Western attacks, but not the violence facing our brothers and sisters who endure persecution every day. Internationally, refugees are fleeing the very men who attacked Paris, but some are blaming the refugees for ushering in the violence. 

Social media-wise, few of us cared about the suicide bomber in Turkey who took out 90 last month. What about the 43 killed in Beirut the day before Paris? But when the city of love is attacked, we draw a line?

Just imagine how our world could change if we would breach our comfort zone and stand up to evil.

Though I'm throwing accusations, I am just as guilty of wanting to clear my mind of what burdens my heart and watch a fluffy Hallmark movie to avoid reality. I share funny Facebook memes before I share stories about Coptic Christians forgiving the men who slaughtered their husbands, fathers and brothers.  

As believers, we are called to be set apart (Deut. 14:2, Heb. 10:10-12), but we buy into what culture propagates as entertainment because it seems easier than letting our hearts do the talking.  

How often do we as Christians let the Holy Spirit guide our social media habits? How many people spent even 30 seconds praying before firing off some comment about Starbucks red cups (I'll raise my hand, as I opened my mouth before I considered what God would want from me).  

While your feed may have been filled with complaints about the complaints about Starbucks, comedian Bill Dixon tweeted, "If you're mad about Starbucks coffee cups, wait until you hear about sex trafficking!" 

I'm pretty sure he isn't a believer, but his comment highlights an unfortunate truth in the Christian community: We get up in arms about situations that don't actually impact the Kingdom. 

We complain about persecution but we largely ignore the devastation happening across the world. If we did, Real Housewives of Orange County's Vicki Gunderson's boyfriend's cancer scandal wouldn't be the one of the top stories of today.  

Thanksgiving's coming up. So I have a challenge for us: Take the next week and share a post about something that's happening in the Christian community outside the United States and think of reasons why they might be grateful. Share it on your platforms and use your social media standing to make a difference. 

Help us rebrand Christianity to be something Jesus would be proud of—as in something that would look like the Acts 2 church and not a quick hit for Internet traffic.

Jessilyn Justice is the assistant news editor for Charisma. Born and raised in a pastor's family in Alabama, she went to Lee University and the Washington Journalism Center. She's passionate about the church, jogging, news and cupcakes not necessarily in that order. Tell her what you think of this story on Twitter@jessilynjustice.

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Opinion: Palestinian Terrorists Aiming to Replace ISIS as 'Chief Butchers'? - Erick Stakelbeck, CBN News

Erick Stakelbeck -  CBN

Opinion: Palestinian Terrorists Aiming to Replace ISIS as 'Chief Butchers'?

By John Waage

CBN News Sr. Editor

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Both Arab and Israeli observers of the daily stabbing attacks by Palestinians in Jerusalem and other Israeli cities say the terrorists seem to be modeling their attacks after the beheadings conducted by ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

Palestinian cartoonists frequently celebrate the stabbings with cartoons on social media. One shows a woman wearing the Muslim hijab stabbing a pig dripping blood with a star of David on its back.

Last week in an interview with CBN News, Israeli Infrastructure Minister Yuval Steinitz warned that some of the attacks in Israel look as if they came from the ISIS playbook.

Are Palestinian terrorists adopting ISIS's tactics? CBN News Terrorism Erick Stakelbeck addressed that and more on Newswatch, Oct. 19.

Click here to watch the CBN News interview: Erick Stakelbeck

"The fact that they're waving knives, coming to people's necks, trying to cut them or behead them -- I'm confident that at least some of these terrorists were not just indoctrinated but inspired also from ISIS," Steinitz said.

Palestinian journalist Bassam Tawil confirms the suspicion in a powerful article for the Gatestone Institute.

"They (the Palestinian terrorists) are trying to replace Islamic State jihadis as the chief "butchers" of humans in the Middle East," Tawil wrote.

"How can our leaders in Ramallah accuse Jews of 'contaminating' the Al Aqsa Mosque with their 'filthy feet' at a time when our youths burn a religious site such as Joseph's Tomb?" Tawil asked.

"The attacks are an attempt to erase history so that Jews will not be able to claim any religious ties to the land. This is exactly what the Islamic State is doing in Syria and Iraq," he added.

ISIS confirmed its support for the Palestinian attacks with the release of a video on social media Monday. A masked spokesman praised the Palestinian attackers as "lone wolves who refuse to be subdued and spread fear among the sons of Zion."

The ISIS media campaign, unprecdented in scope, calls for Palestinians to continue the attacks on soldiers and civilians, using "every means at their disposal, including knives, vehicles, poison and explosives."

With this as a backdrop, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet Thursday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Germany.

White House and State Department responses to the wave of violence have been tepid and laced with the usual moral equivalence between Israel and the Palestinian leaders, who have in large measure sparked the violence as well as applauded it.

A more appropriate response would be to condemn without qualification the spread of terror throughout the Palestinian territories and the ISIS connection, including the incitement to violence and the celebration of it in the Palestinian media.

Democratic presidential candidates might also help by demanding a more robust response from their president.

Republicans in Congress could help by tracking the flow of hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars to the Palestinian Authority and forcing a public account of where our tax dollars are being spent.

Get with it, Washington, or your approval ratings will drop even further.

Oklahoma Beheading Brings Behemoth Spirit to America

Oklahoma Beheading Brings Behemoth Spirit to America

Steve Strang and Pastor Steven Earp stand by the memorial at Vaughan Foods in Moore, Oklahoma, the site of a recent tragic beheading.

During my lifetime, I have heard of only a few incidents involving the beheadings of people. They have always taken place in foreign countries, and they have usually been executed by radical Muslims. That has changed drastically in recent months as the beheadings of Americans by the terrorist group ISIS has become well known.

On Sept. 21, the head of ISIS called on Muslims around the world to randomly behead innocent people. Tragically only a week later, a 54-year-old woman was beheaded at Vaughan Foods in Moore, Oklahoma. This horrible tragedy shows us that the genuine threat of radical Muslims in this country is imminent. It is not something that only people in Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan need to be concerned with. If it can happen in quiet Moore, Oklahoma, it can happen anywhere.

It's incredible to me that some in the politically correct crowd refer to this as workplace violence. The man charged with this horrific crime, Alton Nolen, 30—a recent convert to Islam who had been yelling Islamic slogans and posting tirades on his website—evoked the idea of more than a simple scene of workplace violence.

On a recent business trip to Oklahoma City, I visited my friend Steven Earp, a pastor in Moore, Oklahoma, and asked if it would be possible to drive by Vaughan Foods. It was quiet that day, and everything looked like a normal workday. But to think that the beheading of the woman took place only eight days prior—a incident that caused a firestorm among the national media—made it seem very surreal. The photo accompanying this story shows me posing with Steven by the street where a small memorial had been placed by well wishers. You can click here to hear Steven's thoughts on the tragic incident.

In the next issue of Charisma, we focus on spiritual warfare. An article by John Eckhardt talks about the "behemoth spirit." Eckhardt, overseer of Crusaders Ministries in Chicago, explains that behemoths are spiritual strongholds that must be broken in order to see millions of people released from darkness and come into the glorious light of the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

A behemoth is any system large enough in size or power to oppress multitudes of people," Eckhardt explains. "It can be a religious, political, cultural or economic system—and even a blend of those, as in the case with communism. Behemoths are erected by the enemy to keep the gospel out and multitudes of people in darkness."

As Jennifer LeClaire, our news editor, wrote in a recent column, it's abundantly clear that the behemoth of Islam is rising.

"Iraqi Christians are facing extinction as leaders of this demonic movement gain momentum in a holy war that aims to establish a caliphate (an Islamic-ruled state) led by a religious and political leader (caliph) who is a successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad," she writes. "Whether you call it ISIS, ISIL or the Islamic State, the behemoth of Islam and its radical jihadist adherents are releasing heart-gripping fear through propaganda and beheadings of men, women and children in a quest to dominate the nations of the Earth."

Examples of this are the spiritual forces of evil—in the form of radical Islam—that have been unleashed mainly in the Middle East but also have invaded our country.

We need believers everywhere to pray that God will overcome this spirit before there are similar tragedies.

Steve Strang is the founding editor and publisher of Charisma. Follow him on Twitter @sstrang or Facebook (stephenestrang).

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Video report from Steven Earp, a pastor in Moore, OK: Beheading in Oklahoma