Is Yoga Controversial?

Secular Talk

Miracles usually bring Christians together, but a Las Vegas church was recently divided by one because some members didn’t agree with the source of the miracle. The Church Abundant Living Las Vegas recently saw a miracle when Mike Persi, who had been unable to walk without assistance for 33 years, was finally able to take his first steps.

How did he do it? He claims Yoga was the answer.

While many members of the Abundant Living Las Vegas congregation, including Pastor Bob Perry, are thrilled and feel that this is a miracle, others are not so sure, and have left the church as a result, writes Buzzfeed.

The story of one man’s healing brings to light a national controversy that exists among Christians as to whether yoga is something that Christian’s should partake in, writes Buzzfeed.

Many believers are at best skeptical of yoga, based on yoga’s roots in Eastern religion. As Mike Persi is beginning to walk again, many feel this miracle is not of God, but rather of a different, potentially evil, source.

Pastor Bob Perry continues to support Mike and his path to recovery. When Mike came to him with questions about yoga, Perry says “I told Mike to pray, to hear from God, and to be led by peace.”

Perry says he’s been very impressed with how Mike has handled this controversy and not let him sway him from his goals.

(Updated article)

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/fear-the-dark-art-of-yoga-why-conservative-christians-are-freaking-out-after-yoga-miracle/

http://www.buzzfeed.com/CountingmySpoons/las-vegas-mans-miracle-recovery-questioned-by-his-1j6wl

Radio Host Claims American Pastors Will Be Locked Up And Tortured

Secular Talk

Some Americans have a limitless capacity for exaggeration. Right-wing Conservative Christian radio commentator Rick Wiles compared America to East Germany and said he feared pastors would be locked up into captivity, tortured, and “taken away in the middle of the night.”

He said all of this freely while on the radio.

(Updated post)

Are Some Christians Democrats?

Secular Talk

Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh discussed the liberal outrage over Indiana and surmised that Democrats not only “hate Christianity,” but think that it’s “evil” and they’re waging a war on it right now.

Here, Secular Talk makes the point that some Democrats are Christians.

Suicide bombers Kill 14 Outside Pakistani Churches

According to the Associated Press, Pakistani Taliban suicide bombers blew themselves up near two churches in the eastern city of Lahore on Sunday as worshippers were inside. 14 people were killed, officials said, and it was the latest attack against religious minorities in the increasingly fractured country. Zee News of India reports that more than 80 people were injured.

In the tense aftermath, angry mobs lashed out at people they suspected were behind the attacks, and one person was burned to death, according to the Associated Press.

Christian crowds set fire to cars in a show of defiance in the country’s second largest city and the prime minister’s seat of power.

Life in Pakistan is increasingly riddled with danger for religious minorities, especially Christians. They have been targeted by extremist Sunni Muslim militants who object to their faith.

They are also discriminated against in the wider society where they can often only get menial jobs like garbage collection, and are frequently targets of blasphemy accusations, claims the Associated Press.

Militants appear to be targeting minorities more intensively recently, states the AP. There have been attacks on a string of mosques belonging to members of the Shiite Muslim minority sect. In 2013, twin blasts at a church in Peshawar killed 85 people.

“There will be more of such attacks,” warned Ahsanullah Ahsan, a spokesman for the Taliban faction that claimed responsibility for the assault, in a statement emailed to reporters.

Pat Robertson Recommended For A Woman Working With Buddhists To Quit Her Job

Secular Talk

Wikipedia states that Marion Gordon “Pat” Robertson is an American media mogul, executive chairman, and a former Southern Baptist minister.

He supports conservative Christian ideals, and he presently serves as chancellor and CEO of Regent University and chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network.

Robertson recommended recently that a Christian woman working with Buddhists quit her job.

He told viewers on Monday that Buddhism was like a “disease” and that Christians could get “infected” if their coworkers practiced it.

Presidential Contender Scott Walker Not Sure Of Obama’s Religion

Not only does Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) not know whether President Barack Obama loves America, he also appears to be unaware that the president is a Christian.

In an interview with the Milwaukie Journal-Sentinel, Walker was asked, “Do you think the president loves America?” This was in reference to former mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani’s comments.

The possible 2016 White House candidate said he’s never asked the president about it.

“I assume most people in this country love America. And to me I don’t think it’s worth getting into the battle over whether he does or he doesn’t,” Walker told the Journal Sentinel. “He can handle that himself. I know I do. And I know there are great people in this country who love this country and who … feel this country’s exceptional and it doesn’t necessarily align by party. I think there are Republicans and Democrats and plenty of people in between. I’ve never asked the president so I don’t really know what his opinions are on that one way or another.”

Walker told The Associated Press: “You should ask the president what he thinks about America.”

Recently, the Washington Post asked Walker if he thought the president is a Christian.

“I don’t know,” the potential 2016 candidate told The Washington Post at the winter meeting of the National Governors Association in Washington, D.C.

“I’ve actually never talked about it or I haven’t read about that,” Walker said of Obama’s faith. “I’ve never asked him that. You’ve asked me to make statements about people that I haven’t had a conversation with about that. How [could] I say if I know either of you are a Christian?”

“First and foremost, my Christian faith gives me a perspective and security that I don’t think I would have otherwise: that I am loved. That, at the end of the day, God is in control,” Obama said in a 2012 interview according to The Huffington Post.

According to an AP survey, 18 percent of Americans thought Obama is Muslim in 2012. In 2010, 17 percent of Americans believed he is Muslim.

Click to access AP_Racial_Attitudes_Topline_09182012.pdf

Matthew Hagee Calls For ‘Army Of The Living God’

The John Hagee ministries website says that Pastor Matthew Hagee is the sixth generation in the Hagee family to do Gospel ministry.

“He serves as the Executive Pastor of the 20,000 member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas where he partners with his father, founder Pastor John Hagee. Pastor Matthew Hagee’s teachings are telecast over world-wide television through John Hagee Ministries. He is fervently committed to preaching all the Gospel to all the world and to every generation.”

He is a graduate of Oral Roberts University School of Business and is the author of “Shaken, Not Shattered” and recently released “Response-Able” both published by Strang Communications.

On yesterday’s “Hagee Hotline,” Matthew Hagee announced the creation of something called “The Sanctuary of Hope,” which will be a “training ground for the next generation of the the soldiers in the army of the of the living God that are going to do great things for his kingdom.”

Secular Talk video.

Jerry Boykin

Who is Jerry Boykin?

Sources state that William G. “Jerry” Boykin was the United States Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence under President George W. Bush from 2002 to 2007 and is a conservative Christian political activist.

He is currently executive vice president at the Family Research Council.

During his 36-year career in the U.S. Army, he spent 13 years in the Delta Force, including two years as its commander, and was involved in numerous high-profile missions, including the 1980 Iran hostage rescue attempt and the Black Hawk Down incident in Mogadishu, Somalia.

The Family Research Council was designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2010.

Recently, Boykin said “Thank God For ISIS” for bringing attention to the “Destruction Of The Military,” and he claimed the military will “never get out of” the Middle East.

Video by Right Wing Watch.

Terrorist Gets Little Notice

According to Bill Morlin of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Larry Steve McQuilliams, the man who went on a shooting spree in downtown Austin last weekend, was a member of a Christian Identity movement known as the Phineas Priesthood.

Why did this act of terrorism get so little media attention?

Secular Talk video.

Pastor Steven Anderson

Baptist pastor Steven Anderson in Tempe, Arizona called for the mass extermination of LGBT people on Sunday in a sermon entitled “AIDS: The Judgement of God.”

In the sermon, which was uploaded to YouTube on Monday from Faithful Word Baptist Church, Pastor Anderson said that God stated in the scriptures that gays should be killed, and humanity could have an “AIDS-free world by Christmas” if that is what’s done.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/03/arizona-pastor-steven-anderson-gay-men-_n_6263720.html