Statistics Say You Do Not Care About This - JESSILYN JUSTICE CHARISMA NEWS

Gammy, a baby born with Down syndrome (REUTERS/Damir Sagolj)

Statistics Say You Do Not Care About This

8/16/2017 JESSILYN JUSTICE  CHARISMA NEWS

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Iceland claims to have nearly eradicated Down's syndrome. But it's not because the country's leading scientists and doctors have discovered a cure or treatment. Rather, they opt to eliminate diagnosed babies in the womb.

"My understanding is that we have basically eradicated, almost, Down syndrome from our society—that there is hardly ever a child with Down syndrome in Iceland anymore," says geneticist Kari Stefansson, the founder of deCODE Genetics. "It reflects a relatively heavy-handed genetic counseling. And I don't think that heavy-handed genetic counseling is desirable. ... You're having impact on decisions that are not medical, in a way."

According to the National Review, prenatal testing is optional in Iceland, but the government mandates that doctors notify women of that option. About 85 percent of expectant mothers undergo the test, and close to 100 percent of those women choose to abort if their child is diagnosed with Down syndrome. Just two children with Down syndrome are born in Iceland each year, often as the result of faulty testing.

The idea of eradication through termination is spreading, though.

According to CBS:

Other countries aren't lagging too far behind in Down syndrome termination rates. According to the most recent data available, the United States has an estimated termination rate for Down syndrome of 67 percent (1995-2011); in France it's 77 percent (2015); and Denmark, 98 percent (2015). The law in Iceland permits abortion after 16 weeks if the fetus has a deformity—and Down syndrome is included in this category.

But abortion, one of the top issues in the 2016 election, doesn't necessarily make for a successful story.

In a letter to Charisma readers, cultural commentator Dr. Michael Brown asked: 

But when it comes to the subject of abortion, whether it's one of my articles that gets a lot of circulation on other conservative sites or whether it's someone else's article, there doesn't seem to be as much interest here.

I know you care about the justice.

I believe you care about the unborn.

Yet somehow articles on abortion do not seem to get your interest. Why is that?

Is it because we've been fighting this battle for decades and it seems old?

Is it because it doesn't relate to you as much on a daily basis?

Is it because the church as a whole remains insensitive to this life-and-death issue?

Or is it something else that I'm missing?

Articles about abortion on Charisma News, like this one, this one and this one failed to net even 1,200 views at the time of this writing. Meanwhile, stories about the solar eclipse, sex scandals and divorces sky rocket.

But there are some who still fight to protect the unborn.

Joni Eareckson Tada, a quadriplegic with a ministry to people who are disabled, says: 

Over 25 years ago when I served on the National Council on Disability, we responded vehemently against a report from the National Institutes of Health which listed abortion as a "disability prevention strategy." All 15 bipartisan council members strongly advised the NIH to remove any reference which used abortion as a tactic in eliminating disability.

Yet now, just over 25 years later, Europe is outpacing America in eradicating certain disabilities through abortion—a prime example is the recent CBS report highlighting Iceland's 100 percent abortion rate of unborn children with Down syndrome. To me, this is the ultimate form of discrimination against people with disabilities, and I join fellow disability advocates in denouncing abortion as a strategy to limit the numbers of people who have Downs.

Each individual, no matter how significantly impaired, is an image-bearer of our Creator God. And people with Down syndrome are arguably some of the most contented and happy people on the planet. From them, we learn unconditional love and joyful acceptance of others who appear different. Now, even that is in jeopardy of being eradicated.

Actress Patricia Heaton blasted the CBS report, as well.

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Patricia Heaton 

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Iceland isn't actually eliminating Down Syndrome. They're just killing everybody that has it. Big difference. #Downsyndrome#abortion https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/897254042178650113 …

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Jessilyn Justice is the director of online news for Charisma. Born and raised in a pastor's family in Alabama, she attended Lee University and the Washington Journalism Center. She's passionate about sharing God's goodness through storytelling. Tell her what you think of this story on Twitter @jessilynjustice.

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Seeds of a New Intifada? Rioting, Terror, Murder Spawned by Temple Mount Tensions - CBN News Chris Mitchell

Metal Detectors on the Temple Mount, Photo, CBN News, Jonathan Goff

Seeds of a New Intifada? Rioting, Terror, Murder Spawned by Temple Mount Tensions

Seeds of a New Intifada? Rioting, Terror, Murder Spawned by Temple Mount Tensions

07-24-2017

CBN News Chris Mitchell

JERUSALEM, Israel – U.S. envoy Jason Greenblatt arrived in Israel as part of an international effort to resolve the crisis between Israelis and the Palestinian Authority over the Temple Mount. The current conflict shows little signs of dying down and could hold the seeds of a new Palestinian intifada (armed uprising).

After a day of rioting Friday, three brutal murders Friday night and a terror attack at the Israeli Embassy in Jordan on Sunday, the controversy over security measures at the Temple Mount entered its second week.

Fifty years ago, Israeli paratroopers came through the Lion's Gate to capture Jerusalem for the first time in more than 2,000 years. Now it's the epicenter of the current crisis.

On Friday, July 14, three Israeli Arabs went up on the Temple Mount and got automatic weapons stored in the al-Aksa Mosque. Then they came back and murdered two Israeli policemen not far from there. To protect this from happening again, Israel installed metal detectors at the Lion's Gate entrance to the Temple Mount.

Israeli officials point out that security measures are standard practice all over the world, even in Mecca in Saudi Arabia. But Islamic officials who administer the Temple Mount protested and P.A. officials called for escalation.

"We are moving toward an escalation. The Israelis are moving toward an escalation, and we have no problem on our part that there will also be an escalation from the Palestinian side," one P.A. official said.  

"Historically, the Palestinian Authority has used any Israeli activity at the al-Aksa Mosque as a trigger to promote violence," Itamar Marcus with the Palestinian Media Watch told CBN News. "They've done this twice in the past few years. Yasser Arafat did this in the year 2000 and started four years of a terror campaign, and that's what we're seeing here today."  

Marcus says the Palestinian objection to the metal detectors isn't about security.

"The metal detectors are an issue of who is the person in charge of the Temple Mount, and the Palestinians aren't willing to accept that Israel is in charge of the Temple Mount so this is really about power here," Marcus explained.

At Friday prayers, Palestinians charged, "We will redeem the al-Aksa Mosque with our blood."

Friday night, 19-year-old Omar al-Abed took up that call. On his Facebook page, he posted, "They are desecrating the Aksa Mosque and we are sleeping. It is an embarrassment that we sit and do nothing…All I have is a sharpened knife, and it will answer the call of al-Aksa."

Abed then entered the home of 70-year-old Yosef Salomon in the Jewish community of Halamish and killed him and his two grown children.

Miri Maoz-Ovadia, spokesperson for the Binyamin Regional Council, said, "No event of any sort in al-Aqsa or any other place is a justification for murdering three people, a father and three children in their homes while they were busy celebrating the birth of a new grandson. There is no difference between a terrorist who is trying to kill me in my home over here or any other place in the world, in London or in the United States."

Marcus sees a direct link to P.A. incitement.

"So one day after the leadership of the Palestinian Authority calls for an escalation in activities, which Palestinians understand means we have a murder," he said. "I'm holding the Palestinian Authority leadership directly responsible for those murders and any subsequent terror that we have because the Palestinian Authority population gets their cues from their leadership."      

Five decades after Israeli Col. Motta Gur announced, "The Temple Mount is in our hands," many believe the issue of the Temple Mount is the most contentious in the Middle East.

The annual Muslim holiday of murder the media will never tell you about - ISRAEL VIDEO NETWORK

The annual Muslim holiday of murder the media will never tell you about

Al Quds Day is an annual day chosen by the late Ayatollah Khomeini to call for Israel to be destroyed. Al Quds Day marches have seen displays of support for Hezbollah, an illegal, prescribed, anti-semitic terrorist organization. This year the "celebrations" are already scheduled worldwide for June 23rd. Click here to forward this email to your friends.

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Click here to watch: When Arabs beat their wives they blame Israel. Hillel Neuer had the perfect response. U.N. Human Rights Council releases pathetically false report on violence against women.

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Click here to watch: What does God think of women? This week's Torah portion reveals the truth.

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Widow's Joy: He Didn't Deny Christ When Beheaded

By Gary Lane

CBN News Chief International Correspondent

Sunday, June 14, 2015

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CAIRO, Egypt -- Imagine ISIS kidnapped a relative of yours and then you see their brutal beheading on television. Many different emotions can take over, including anger, grief, and depression.

CBN News found a group of Egyptian Christians, however, who responded much differently. They are happy their family members stood firm in their faith.

Widow Mariam Farhat told us she, "was very proud" that her husband "stood firm in his faith and that he didn't deny Jesus."

That surprising reaction is happening 150 miles south of Cairo, in the village of Al Aour.

Residents there honor the sacrifice of 21 Egyptians brutally murdered last February by ISIS. Their pictures are prominently displayed in the sanctuary of Virgin Mary Church.

Thirteen attended the church. The martyrs left behind family members like 23-year-old Farhat. She became a widow when the militants beheaded her husband Malak Ibrahim in Libya.

She first learned of his murder when she saw the now infamous video on local television.

"We were very sad for the first two days, but we hadn't seen the video," she recalled. "When we saw them in the video calling to Jesus we were very comforted."

And that's why Mariam and other families say they are now joyful, not sad.

Bebawy Al Ham's brother Samuel was among those killed.

"We were always praying that God would make them steadfast in their faith," Bebawy told CBN News. "We were very happy with what they said on the video: 'Jesus Christ have mercy on us.' When we found out they had been killed for being Christian, we were very comforted, because these were God's children and he took them."

Although Samuel's wife and children now live without a husband and father, his family told CBN News their faith is stronger; they forgive the jihadists, and even pray for ISIS.

"I pray for them that God may open their hearts, and they may know the truth and know that what they do is wrong and then do the right thing," Bebawy said.

"Jesus told us to forgive every sin and we forgive them and we hope that they can come to know Jesus," he said.

Egyptian Christians are encouraged to know they are not alone. In the United States there's a growing movement among Christians to demonstrate unity and solidarity with those who are suffering for Christ in the Middle East.

Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, explained.

"What we thought was how could we identify and stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Christ who are being brutalized around the world for their Christian faith?" he said. "What tangible thing could we do, what practical thing could we do?"

Immediately, orange jumpsuits came to mind. Mahoney and others launched the #orangejumpsuitcampaign. The movement has expanded to orange scarves, sweaters, and ribbons.

"It's to remind our brothers and sisters that we love them, and we're standing with them and to remind decision makers here in America and across the globe--the free nations of the world--we cannot be silent on this issue," Mahoney said.

He said the response has been amazing. Non-Christians have joined in as well.

"A Jewish rabbi, to stand in solidarity with persecuted Christians is dying his beard orange, which I think is incredible and I can't wait to see that," Mahoney said.

Mariam was encouraged after she viewed cell phone photos of Americans wearing orange.

"May the Lord make their love grow and grow. We are very happy with their love and we don't deserve their love," she told CBN News.

Mahoney said every five minutes around the world a Christian is killed for his faith.

"People don't understand the kind of barbarism and brutality they are going through," he said. "And you know when I visit persecuted Christians in the Middle East there is one thing that they always ask--it doesn't matter if it is Iraq, Syria, wherever it might be-- it's this: 'Please remember us!'"

And wearing orange on the job or at church helps people remember them.

"I think people need to understand that if we do not act quickly, the public expression of Christianity may be extinguished in the Middle East. As Elie Weisel, Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner, says, "we must always take sides. Silence only helps the oppressor, never the oppressed,'" Mahoney said.

Mariam also has a message for others who have suffered or still face danger from ISIS.

"Don't be sad or cry. God will support us all," he said. "And he will fulfill his promise that he is the father of the orphans and the widows."

Watch video: Joy in Jesus

Kenya university attack: Christian student hostages shot on spot

• AP
• APRIL 03, 2015
• 
  

Al-Shabaab Claims Attack on Kenyan College

The Islamic extremists who slaughtered 147 people in a Kenyan school appeared to have planned extensively, even targeting a site where Christians had gone to pray, a survivor has claimed.

The masked attackers — strapped with explosives and armed with AK-47s — singled out non-Muslim students at Garissa University College and then gunned them down without mercy, survivors said. Others ran for their lives with bullets whistling through the air.

Amid the massacre, the men took dozens of hostages in a dormitory as they battled troops and police before the operation ended after about 13 hours, witnesses said.

One of the first things that the al-Shabab gunmen did, survivor Helen Titus said, was to head for a lecture hall where Christians were in early morning prayer.

“They investigated our area. They knew everything,” Titus told The Associated Press at a hospital in Garissa where she was being treated for a bullet wound to the wrist. Titus, a 21-year-old English literature student, said she covered her face and hair with the blood of classmates and lay still at one point during the attack, in the hope the Islamic extremist gunmen would think she was dead.

The gunmen also told students hiding in dormitories to come out, assuring them that they would not be killed, said Titus.

“We just wondered whether to come out or not,” she said. Many students did, whereupon the gunmen started shooting men, saying they would not kill “ladies,” Titus said. But they also shot women and targeted Christians, said Titus, who is a Christian.

Four militants were slain by security forces to end the siege just after dusk.

Police were today at the campus of Garissa University College, taking fingerprints from the bodies of the four assailants and of the students and security officials who died.

When gunfire from the Kenyan security forces struck the attackers, the militants exploded “like bombs,” Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery said, adding that the shrapnel wounded some of the officers.

Al-Shabab spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage said fighters from the Somalia-based extremist group were responsible. The al-Qa’ida-linked group has been blamed for a series of attacks in Kenya, including the siege at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi in 2013 that killed 67 people, as well as other violence in the north. The group has vowed to retaliate against Kenya for sending troops to Somalia in 2011 to fight the militants staging cross-border attacks.

Most of the 147 dead were students, but two security guards, one policeman and one soldier also were killed in the attack, Nkaissery said.

At least 79 people were wounded at the campus 145 kilometres from the Somali border, he said. Some of the more seriously wounded were flown to Nairobi for treatment.

Officials at the Australian High Commission in Kenya’s capital Nairobi are working to determine whether any Australians have been hurt in a university massacre.

A dusk-to-dawn curfew was ordered in Garissa and three nearby counties.

One suspected extremist was arrested as he tried to flee, Nkaissery told a news conference in Nairobi.

Police identified a possible mastermind of the attack as Mohammed Mohamud, who is alleged to lead al-Shabab’s cross-border raids into Kenya, and they posted a $220,000 bounty for him. Also known by the names Dulyadin and Gamadhere, he was a teacher at an Islamic religious school, or madrasah, and claimed responsibility for a bus attack in Makka, Kenya, in November that killed 28 people.

One of the survivors of Thursday’s attack, Collins Wetangula, told The Associated Press he was preparing to take a shower when he heard gunshots coming from Tana dorm, which hosts both men and women, 150 meters away. The campus has six dorms and at least 887 students, he said.

When he heard the gunshots, he locked himself and three roommates in their room, said Wetangula, who is vice chairman of the university’s student union.

“All I could hear were footsteps and gunshots. Nobody was screaming because they thought this would lead the gunmen to know where they are,” he said.

He added: “The gunmen were saying, ‘Sisi ni al-Shabab,"’ - Swahili for “We are al-Shabab.”

He heard the attackers arrive at his dormitory, open the doors and ask if the people who had hidden inside were Muslims or Christians.

“If you were a Christian, you were shot on the spot,” he said. “With each blast of the gun, I thought I was going to die.”

The gunmen then started shooting rapidly, as if exchanging fire, Wetangula said.

“The next thing, we saw people in military uniform through the window of the back of our rooms who identified themselves as the Kenyan military,” he said. The soldiers took him and around 20 others to safety.

The attack began about 5:30am, as morning prayers were underway at the university mosque, where worshippers were not attacked, said Augustine Alanga, a 21-year-old student.

At least five heavily armed, masked gunmen opened fire outside his dormitory, turning intense almost immediately and setting off panic, he told the AP by telephone.

The shooting kept some students indoors but scores of others fled through barbed-wire fencing around the campus, with the gunmen firing at them, he said.

“I am just now recovering from the pain as I injured myself while trying to escape, Alanga said. I was running barefoot,” Alanga said.

As terrified students streamed out of buildings, arriving police officers took cover. Kenya’s National Police Service said a “fierce shootout” ensued as police guarded the dorms.

Three dorms were evacuated as the gunmen holed up in a fourth, and Kenyan Defense Forces surrounded the campus.

“I am saddened to inform the nation that early today, terrorists attacked Garissa University College, killed and wounded several people, and have taken others hostage,” President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a speech to the nation while the siege was underway.

After the militants took hostages, fears arose over the fate of some of the students, but the National Disaster Operations Center said all were eventually accounted for.

The U.S. condemned the attack, with White House spokesman Josh Earnest saying Washington was standing with the people of Kenya, “who will not be intimidated by such cowardly attacks.” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also condemned it, reiterating his solidarity with the Kenyans “to prevent and counter terrorism and violent extremism,” his office said.

Wetangula, who was rescued by troops, said one soldier instructed a group of students to run and to dive for cover at their command as they ran to safety.

“We started running and bullets were whizzing past our heads, and the soldiers told us to dive,” Wetangula said. The soldier told students later that al-Shabab snipers were perched on a three-storey dormitory called the Elgon, he said.

Kenyatta has been under pressure to deal with insecurity caused by a string of attacks by al-Shabab.

In his speech to the country, he said he had directed the police chief to speed up the training of 10,000 police recruits because Kenya has “suffered unnecessarily due to shortage of security personnel.”

Kenya’s northern and eastern regions near the Somali border have seen many attacks blamed on al-Shabab.

Last month, al-Shabab claimed responsibility for attacks in Mandera county on the Somali border in which 12 people died.

Police said 312 people have been killed in al-Shabab attacks in Kenya from 2012 to 2014.

Last week, al-Shabab claimed responsibility for a siege at a Mogadishu hotel that left 24 people dead, including six attackers.

AP

Medics help an injured person at Kenyatta national Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, after he was airlifted from Garissa after an attack by gunmen.

A male student hostage is escorted out of Garissa University after Kenya Defence Forces ended a siege by terrorist gunmen.