A group of Satanists want to hold a “black mass” aimed at mocking the rites of the Catholic Church at the Oklahoma City Civic Center.
Tickets are being sold at the Civic Center for what’s being described as a “sacrilegious” event to be a “blasphemous mockery of the Mass.”
Tickets for the “Black Mass of Oklahoma” are $15. The event is described by the Civic Center ticket office like this: “The Black Mass has been a feared ritual, and now it’s being brought into the light! This will not only be enlightening but educational as well. This Black Mass will be conducted for the public to attend with certain adaptations to allow for a legal celebration.”
Archbishop Paul Coakley of the Catholic archdiocese of Oklahoma City, is calling on the city’s leaders to step in and stop the event from being supported by taxpayer dollars which provide funds for the facility, security, employees and other services.
“We’re astonished and grieved that the Civic Center would promote as entertainment and sell tickets for an event that is very transparently a blasphemous mockery of the Mass,” he said. “The ‘Black Mass’ that is scheduled for the Civic Center in September is a satanic inversion and distortion of the most sacred beliefs not only of Catholics, but of all Christians.”
City spokesman say that as a public facility, they cannot deny the group the right to rent the space under the First Amendment.
Congressman Trey Gowdy, who is heading the House of Representatives’ select committee for the Benghazi terror attack, told a group of believers at Second Baptist Church Houston that they need to stop waiting for a political messiah and place their hope in the true messiah.
“If you want to change culture, don’t wait on the Supreme Court or anyone else,” said the South Carolina congressman. “The real hope in Christ is expressed through the lives of His followers. Changing the hearts and minds in this country is our job.”
Gowdy said that Christians must to step up and speak the truth in a way that is respectful to other people but unwavering in presenting the Gospel truth.
“You don’t insult people into changing their minds,” said Gowdy.
Gowdy said that it’s important for people to hold their elected officials accountable for more than just the votes they cast or actions they take in their office. He said leaders need to be held accountable for their actions in their private lives because everything we do is a reflection on the Lord and how He is working in our lives.
Gowdy said that Christians need to educate themselves because the answers to all things are in Scripture.
“Are you educated in the teachings of Christ?” Gowdy said. “The answers to all our political questions are in the Bible… But what good does that do unless you know the Bible?”
Dr. Ben Carson made a bold statement during a DoveTV interview where he compared abortion today with human sacrifice throughout history.
Dr. Carson said that Americans routinely criticize religions and cultures that in the past sacrificed their children to various “gods” but say nothing when women actively protest for the right to kill their babies for the god of self.
“It’s interesting,” Carson said in his interview with Perry Atkinson, “that we sit around and call other ancient civilizations heathens because of human sacrifice, but aren’t we actually guilty of the same thing?”
Carson also took the opportunity to explain why he was supporting a candidate for the senate in Oregon that says in campaign literature she is pro-choice. He said that GOP Senate candidate Monica Wehby said she’s personally pro-life but doesn’t feel that the government has any business interfering with the relationship between the mother, the doctor and God.
Carson said he feels differently because if abolitionists had taken a similar hands-off approach, a black man like himself likely still wouldn’t be able to write his thoughts on or maintain a website.
Carson said that if America could just end abortion “all of the other things that God would be interested in helping us with would fall into alignment.”
In what some people are calling a very dangerous stand against the mafia in Italy, Pope Francis made a bold declaration against drug use Friday.
“Drug addiction is an evil, and with evil there can be no yielding or compromise,” the Pope said in an address carried by Vatican radio. “Here I would reaffirm what I have stated on another occasion: No to every type of drug use. It is as simple as that.”
The Pope addressed the issue because he believes there is a rush toward more drug abuse and use in western nations, specifically in so-called “soft drugs” like marijuana. He focused on issues such as U.S. states that have approved use of marijuana.
“Attempts, however limited, to legalize so-called ‘recreational drugs’, are not only highly questionable from a legislative standpoint, but they fail to produce the desired effects,” the Pope stated. “The scourge of drug use continues to spread inexorably, fed by a deplorable commerce which transcends national and continental borders.”
The Pope said that youth should say “yes” to things much more important than drugs: life, love, education, job opportunities and serving others ahead of themselves.
One of the opening speakers at the 42nd PCA General Assembly told those in attendance that America is rapidly progressing to the point where declaring Jesus the only way to eternal life will be considered spreading hate.
“It will be difficult to say in this culture ‘Jesus is the only way’,” Pastor Bryan Chapell warned. “That will be interpreted as hate speech.”
Chapell said that sticking to truth will be a point of contention with the world.
“If you continue to stand ‘for Christ alone’ in a culture that calls that bigotry,” he said, “that will be the issue that presses us in the future.”
Chapell, the former chancellor of the Covenant Theological Seminary, said that pluralism is becoming a major enemy of God’s church and that people of faith need to join together on issues so they can fight that enemy together.
Ron Taylor, the stated clerk of the PCA GA, agreed with Chapell’s assessment. He said we cannot forget the true enemies of the church are the world, the flesh and the devil.
The members of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Charleston, South Carolina received a shocking awakening on Sunday morning when a man decapitated a statue of Jesus.
Witnesses say that a man with a Kobalt sledgehammer approached the statue outside the church around 5:45 a.m. and then lopped off Jesus’ head. The witnesses called police who found Charles Jeffrey Short, 38, walking near the church a short time later and he admitted to committing the crime.
Police found the sledgehammer covered in dust and residue in the man’s backpack.
Short told police that he did so because of the Ten Commandments.
“I think I used a sledgehammer to strike that statue about six or seven times, because the first or second commandment states to not make an image of a male or female to be on display to the public,” Short told officers.
Police are investigating if Short was behind a similar attack on statues last week at a different church. The head and hands of a statue of Jesus and a child were broken off and missing.
A group of nuns says it’s hard to focus on their worship of God when loud music is thumping through the walls.
The Sisters of St. Charles Booromeo have filed a lawsuit against the Club Allure strip club, claiming the thumping music is disruptive. In addition, the nuns claim the establishment is in violation of state zoning laws that require adult oriented businesses to be more than 1,000 feet from a place of worship.
The nuns have been in their Stone Park, Illinois convent for 70 years.
The nuns also say that an abundance of immoral behavior has descended on the area since the opening of the club.
“Public violence, drunkenness and litter, including empty whiskey and beer bottles, discarded contraceptive packages and products and even used condoms evidencing illicit sexual misbehavior either in the club or about its environs,” the nuns claim in their lawsuit.
The nuns also say they are praying daily for God’s intervention in the case.
Ronnie Floyd, one of three men in the running for the presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention, said that the denomination has seen a decline in baptisms because of “cool pastors” who are more concerned with fitting into the world’s way of life than having a focus on glorifying God.
“Some of us have a heart to be so real with people that we just think if we’re cool enough, we’re going to get [the numbers],” said Floyd. “We’re never going to be cool enough to win our towns, our rural settings, to win our cities, to win the nation, to win the world, to win the nations. We’re never going to be cool enough; the only thing that’s going to bring that is a binding movement of the spirit of God that comes only when we are going up to be with God.”
Floyd, senior pastor of Cross Church in northwest Arkansas, cited statistics that showed 60 percent of SBC churches did not have a single baptism of anyone between 12 and 17 years old. A full 25 percent of churches overall reported that no one had accepted Christ and was baptized in their churches in the last year.
Floyd told the pastors in attendance at the 2014 SBC Pastor’s Conference that it was more important to spend time with God and to be right with Him than it was to be pleasing to the people and to “fit in” with society.
“The future of our leadership, the future of our church and the future of the Southern Baptist Convention will be discovered by one thing and one thing alone – us going up to be with God,” Floyd said.
An Oregon school district said children as young as 11-years-old will now be able to obtain condoms from the school with no questions asked.
The Gervais School District said the move comes after a survey of students said that 7 percent of high school girls had gotten pregnant and that 42 percent of the students said they “never” or “sometimes” used protection during sex.
“Over the past few decades, teen pregnancy in our community has remained somewhat constant, but higher than the board felt comfortable with,” Superintendent Rick Hensel posted online. He said the board voted to include middle school students because of the closeness of the high school and middle school plus the fact some middle school girls have gotten pregnant.
Amita Vyas, a professor at George Washington University who directs the school’s Maternal and Child Health Program said that 6th grede is “incredibly young” to be giving out condoms. However, she said that educating students and keeping them interacting with parents and teachers is a way to decrease teen pregnancy.
A teacher for the drama program at Bellingham Washington High School has issued a formal apology after the awards ceremony for the program included profanity, a box of sex toys and even jokes about pedophile priests.
Teri Grimes, a teacher of over 30 years who is scheduled to retire at the end of this school year, reportedly used profanity and told a joke about a priest wanting sex with children.
A parent in the audience sent an e-mail to KOMO television about the events that occurred at the ceremony in the school’s auditorium. The woman was there with her 17-year-old daughter who will graduate on June 6th. The television station kept the parent and child’s names secret until after graduation.
The event featured sexually oriented awards, including giving a sex toy to the boy who voted as the “horniest stud.”
“I deeply apologize for some very inappropriate comments and actions made during our drama students’ end-of-the-year awards ceremony,” Grimes wrote in her apology. “This is not representative of our students who take such great pride in their school and respect one another. Much of the evening was a great celebration of their work. However, as a teacher and the club’s leader, I take full responsibility and am extremely sorry.”
