The Mississippi legislature has passed the “Jesus Take The Wheel Act” which would allow drivers of mid-size church vans of up to 30 people to avoid having to obtain a commercial driver’s license.
The bill was designed to help smaller churches that have limited resources.
This just allows small churches, some don’t have people with commercial licenses at all, and they can pick a person to drive the bus,” Democrat Rep. Robert Johnson of Natchez told the Clarion-Ledger.
The church bus drivers will also not be required to have the state passenger transport endorsement, which is a requirement of most Mississippi bus drivers.
However, CDL drivers in the state are not happy about the law.
“I think this bill is trading the safety of everyone on the road for the convenience of those operating church vehicles,” CDL driver Troy Coll said. “Since the bill covers vehicles up to 30 passengers, we’re not just talking vans with extra rows of seats – these are buses, with long frames and much larger blind spots than passenger vehicles.”
“Obtaining a CDL is not especially difficult,” Coll added, “but the testing does increase the level of scrutiny on drivers, and the medical requirements prevent individuals with poor vision/hearing/motor control or untreated diabetes from driving large vehicles full of vulnerable passengers.”
A Maryland Episcopal Bishop Suffragan has been indicted on 13 counts connected to a fatal hit-and-run accident last year.
Heather Cook was indicted by a Baltimore-based grand jury on charges including “driving while under the influence of alcohol per se …, driving under the impairment of alcohol, texting while driving, reckless driving and negligent driving.”
“The original criminal charges included manslaughter by vehicle, criminal negligent manslaughter by vehicle, homicide by driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol per se and homicide by driving a motor vehicle while impaired by alcohol,” reported Mary Schjonberg of Episcopal News Service.
Cook is accused of killing 41-year-old Thomas Palermo after she hit the cyclist while driving drunk. She then fled the scene but was chased down by other cyclists and brought back to the crash site.
Witnesses say there’s no way Cook didn’t know she struck someone.
“The windshield was completely smashed in, with a hole on the passenger side, and from the damage of the car, there was no doubt in my mind that was the car,” said a witness to the AP.
Episcopal church officials have asked Cook to resign.
Muslims in Niger attacked Christians, burning their homes and churches over the weekend, in retaliation for the French magazine Charlie Hebdo publishing a cartoon of Muhammad.
The International Christian Concern reported missionaries in the capital city of Naimey said all of their churches have been burned to the ground along with the homes of every pastor in the city. Some of the missionaries’ homes are among those destroyed by the mobs.
However, the missionaries reported that while smoke is “around all of side our house”, they are going to remain in Niger to speak the truth of Christ.
The protests apparently began at the grand mosque in the city and the mob then began their attack on Christians.
“I just rushed and told my colleagues in the church to take away their families from the place,” Pastor Zakaria Jadi said. “I took my family to take them out from the place. When I came back I just discovered that everything has gone. There’s nothing in my house and also in the church.”
Boko Haram’s leader was born in Niger and is believed to continue to have strong contacts in the country.
The Supreme Court is going to hear arguments in the case of a lawsuit brought by a small church against the town of Gilbert, Arizona.
The city has a law that prohibits the church from posting roadside signs.
The Alliance Defending Freedom is representing the Good News Presbyterian Church in the case. ADF Senior Web Writer Marissa Poulson said Monday that the signs are important.
“By stating the church’s signs are less valuable than political and other speech, the town is ignoring the church’s free speech rights and claiming to have the power to handicap, and even eliminate, speech it deems unimportant,” wrote Poulson.
The suit focuses on the fact that church signs are given restrictions that are not placed on other form of speech.
- Political signs can be up to 32 square feet, displayed for many months, and unlimited in number.
- Ideological signs can be up to 20 square feet, displayed indefinitely, and unlimited in number.
- Religious signs can only be 6 square feet, may be displayed for no more than 14 hours, and are limited to 4 per property.
The ADF says that if the government can use this law to restrict religious speech, there’s nothing to stop them from restricting other speech.
The latest terror attack by Islamic extremists in Nigeria happened Thursday morning in the city of Gombe.
Local officials say a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the ECWA church.
“There was an explosion outside the ECWA church this morning. A suicide bomber who was restrained from getting into the church blew himself up,” Abubakar Yakubu, the head of the Nigeria Red Cross in Gombe, told the Christian Post. “Luckily no one was killed but some people were mildly injured.”
Witnesses say that the bomber arrived on a motorcycle and was furious when he was not permitted to drive past a security checkpoint that had been established by church members. The church had built the barricade as a defense against Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram.
The bomber had explosives strapped to his body that detonated while he was yelling at church members who had blocked his way.
The attack was the second bombing in Gombe on Thursday. A female bomber was blown up outside a military barracks when a soldier shot the explosives strapped to her body.
The last time Turkey allowed a new church to be built, Time Magazine was publishing its first issue, Warner Brothers established their movie studio and President Warren Harding was succeeded by Calvin Coolidge.
The Syriac Christian church will be built not far from Greek Orthodox, Armenian and Catholic churches in a suburb of Istanbul. Until this new construction was approved, the only construction allowed by the government was refurbishing established church buildings.
Only about 100,000 of the 80 million people in Turkey are Christian.
The move is seen as mainly political. Turkey has been under fire from the European Union after an ancient Byzantine church was converted into a mosque and all traces of Christian history wiped from the building.
The ruling party in Turkey has been working to align themselves with other Muslim-majority nations in the Middle East.
Officials with a New York town are targeting a church for an outreach to their community.
A code enforcement officer for the city told First Presbyterian Church that a “glee camp” they hosted at a building they own. A cease-and-desist order was issued in July saying that the church’s camp was a violation of zoning because they were operating a commercial action in a residential zone.
“Cease operating a summer glee camp @100/camper in a residential district. This is not an allowable use here,” the order said.
“I believe this action is a misguided and discriminatory act on the city’s part that not only harms the church’s ability to carry out its religious mission in the community, but also threatens a chilling effect upon other faith organizations similarly situated in residential areas throughout the city,” Pastor Eileen Winter said in a deposition.
The church charges $100 per camper but the money goes entirely to offset the church’s costs to put on the camp. The church makes no money on the camp and some years even loses money.
Hiram Sasser of the Liberty Institute says that the city is in violation of the Religious Land Use Act.
Christmas Eve became a little more joyful for over 12,000 residents and workers in the area of Liquid Church in New Jersey.
The pastors arranged for what they called a “Spiritual Flash Mob” after services on Christmas eve where members gave bags of cookies and vouchers for meals at local restaurants as a way to show love to their community.
“It’s exciting to see the enthusiasm to go out and share God’s love after each service,” said Liquid Church Pastor Tim Lucas. “And we just heard from some police officers in Times Square sharing that they just received a bag from a Liquid Church family. It made their day to know that they matter, especially on a day like today. Now that’s what we call putting our faith into action.”
“People who work on Christmas Eve, they’re the shepherds keeping us safe – police, firefighters, EMS, nurses and doctors. And there are plenty others who have no choice but to work today,” Lucas told the Christian Post. “So we are commissioning our families to go and spread good news before they do anything else today. We need to let the people they will meet today that they matter to God and to us.”
The church said it was a way for the members of the church to reflect in a way the herald of good news that brought the good news of Christ on Christmas eve.
Officer Rafael Ramos, murdered at the hands of a madman on Saturday, was remembered as a man with a deep commitment to the church and a passion for ministry.
Ramos, 40, had been working to become a chaplain and was just hours away from completing the New York State Chaplain Task Force at the time of his death.
“Ralph Ramos was a long-standing member of 14 years at Christ Tabernacle. When he was not working, he was highly involved in our church. He served as an usher, was part of our marriage ministry and life group ministry. He and his family are well loved throughout the congregation,” said Rev. Adam Durso of Christ Tabernacle Church.
“Ralph was definitely a family man. He always talked about his kids and how well they were doing athletically and academically. He loved his church and family. He leaves behind his wife, Maritza, and two sons, Justin and Jayden, plus a host of family and friends. This is a tragic loss for us as a church, but we are committed to Maritza, Jayden and Justin to give them what Ralph gave us week in and week out.”
The daughter of Eric Garner, the man who died after a chokehold incident with the NYPD, reached out to the son of Ramos after Jayden Ramos posted a tribute to his father on Facebook.
“It hit my heart because I know what it feels like with this upcoming season and you don’t have your father around,” Emerald Garner wrote to Ramos. “I know firsthand what you’re feeling.”
A British publication has conducted an undercover investigation that shows terrorist group ISIS is selling artifacts from Christian churches on the black market as a way to fund their actions.
Oliver Moody of The Times published an article showing ISIS taking antiquities worth millions of dollars and selling them to western buyers.
“Willy Bruggeman, a former deputy director of Europol who is now president of the Belgian federal police council, said that some of the artefacts had almost certainly been sold illegally to buyers in the UK, although none had yet been traced to Britain,” Moody wrote.
“Iraqi Intelligence Service confirmed earlier this year that ISIS was able to collect 23 million pounds from the sale of artifacts from the Syrian city of Nabaq, which is full with Christian Collectibles.”
In addition to selling the artifacts, the group has been using a bulldozer to destroy Christian churches so they can sell the gypsum inside the walls.
The United Nations has stated in multiple hearings that the cultural heritage of Iraq is in danger from the terrorist group.
