Terrorism investigators are looking closely at a trip taken to Jordan by Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez to see if he had contact with known terrorists or terrorist sympathizers.
FBI officials say that Abdulazeez spent seven months in Jordan last year, one of several trips he had made to the region over the last few years. He went to Jordan in the last weeks of 2005, in the summer of 2008, the summer of 2010 and during the spring of 2013. The trips lasted anywhere from two weeks to two months.
Despite the pattern of trips, the FBI admitted Abdulazeez was not on their watch list of possible terrorist sympathizers or operatives.
However, his father had been investigated years prior for giving money to an organization that had suspected connections to terrorists.
Abdulazeez’s attack on two Navy recruiting centers left four Marines dead. They have been identified as Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Sullivan, of Springfield, Mass., Lance Cpl. Skip “Squire” Wells, of Marietta, Ga., Sgt. Carson Holmquist, of Grantsburg Wisc., and Staff Sgt. David Wyatt, of Chattanooga.
Security experts say that the shooting shows an inherent weakness in recruiting stations for the military. The locations need to be easily accessible to the public.
“They’re supposed to be convenient; they’re supposed to be easily accessible,” Brian Michael Jenkins, a security expert who is senior adviser to the president of the RAND Corporation, told the New York Times. “They’re virtually no more protected than a shoe store in a shopping mall.”
A gunman opened fire on two military recruitment centers in Chattanooga, Tennessee on Thursday, leaving soldiers dead and wounded.
Officials in the Chattanooga area say the gunman has been shot and killed and that they believe he is the only one involved in the attacks.
Fox News reported that four Marines were killed at one of the two centers. FBI officials confirmed others were injured and are being treated at local hospitals but there was no information on their condition.
The U.S. Prosecutor for the region said at a press conference the investigation is being conducted “as a case of domestic terrorism.” He added there is a joint federal, state and local investigation which is why much of the information about the shooting is being withheld from the media and public.
The FBI, ATF and the Department of Homeland Security were on the scene within hours and leading the investigation.
Ed Reinhold, special agent in charge of the FBI at the same news conference praised the local police department for the response and for “neutralizing the threat to the community.”
The FBI confirmed the suspect carried “multiple weapons” but would not describe the weapons. They believe that the gunman was residing in the area before the attack. Reinhold also said that while it’s being investigated as domestic terrorism, it’s possible the attack was not related to terrorism and just an act of violence.
A Tennessee pastor is showing the true meaning of forgiveness and grace by forgiving the man who murdered his father 30 years ago.
Ron Hammer gunned down Wayne Robinson outside a Tennessee grocery store in 1986. On Sunday, Hammer joined pastor Philip Robinson via Skype to talk about his conversion to Christ. Hammer told New Vision Life Baptist Church that the forgiveness of Pastor Robinson “changed his life.”
“I gave my life to Christ in October of 1996, but I’ve never really received the full blessings that Christ wanted me to have until one day He whispered and told me, ‘Well, you haven’t confessed to the Robinson family.’ And I sat and wrote a letter to Mrs. Robinson (pastor’s mother) and it was 20 years after the crime had taken place. And I told [her] how I had taken your father’s life and how it was an accident and that I never meant to hurt anyone,” said Hammer to Robinson before his congregation on Sunday
Hammer had denied being the gunman for years.
Originally Robinson admitted he had trouble forgiving Hammer.
“I wanted them to pay the full price for their crime,” said Robinson. “A great deal of my life was hanging on their conviction. It felt that way. I figured they would do it again.”
When Hammer reached out 13 years later, Robinson found a path to forgiveness, sending a letter to Hammer that was life changing.
“That letter from you, Phillip, truly touched me,” Hammer told the pastor in front of his congregation. “The words of wisdom and what God had planted in your heart to tell me changed my life that day. I’m so blessed by the forgiveness that you have given me.”
Robinson and his mother even testified in favor of Hammer at a parole hearing that resulted in his release from prison in March.
Tennessee lawmakers are considering the option of legalizing assisted suicide.
The state Senate Health Committee held a meeting on June 10th to consider a bill that would allow physician assisted suicide in the state.
Senate Bill 1362 was presented by Sen. Reginald Tate (D-Memphis) and House Bill 1040 by Rep. Craig Fitzhugh (D-Ripley). The bill would allow doctors to prescribe a massive overdose of drugs for a person 18 years of age or older to end their life; the option for a patient to immediately die after receiving a diagnosis of “terminal” and even allowing health care providers to turn down more expensive life saving treatments when cheaper assisted suicide options are available.
“We think it’s humane to euthanize an animal when they get to the point they can’t take care of themselves. Why can’t we do the same for people?” asked Dr. Douglas Essinger. “What about the patients rights to die with dignity? I think that should be the paramount issue here.”
Pro-life groups were vocal in their opposition.
“If doctor-prescribed suicide is legalized in Tennessee, it could become the only ‘medical treatment’ to which many people have equal access. If the government or insurance companies decide they no longer wish to pay for legitimate care and medical treatments, there will be a pressure upon the elderly, ill and disabled to end their lives. Being coerced into ending their lives does not offer death with dignity, it only offers a frightening and dangerous future for elderly and ill Tennesseans,” Brian Harris, president of Tennessee Right to Life, said.
A Nashville club that allows adults to come in and commit acts of adultery and other sexual sins claims it’s going to be using a new facility as a church to try and avoid city zoning laws that prohibit adult-oriented businesses within 1,000 feet of schools and churches.
The group, called The Social Club, recently purchased a former medical office next to the Goodpasture Christian School. The leaders of the school and parents of the students who attend protested at a Metro Nashville Council meeting where an amendment to the bill was made that prohibits the club from opening.
The Christian school is less than 1,000 feet from the building as are two other churches.
The Club then submitted new paperwork to the city calling themselves the United Fellowship Center. A former dance room is now called the “sanctuary.” Other rooms that had sexually oriented names now are being called the “handbell rooms” or “prayer rooms.”
“They can sue us and say they want an injunction to stop us from operating, and we can say we have some tenets of the church sort of like the Ten Commandments,” club attorney Larry Roberts told Washington Post.
Roberts also claims the head of the organization has become an ordained minister.
“As of right now, a church is a use that is allowed by right at this location under the zoning classification, and if it has passed all relevant codes then we will have to issue the use and occupancy letter,” city Zoning Administrator Bill Herbert told the Christian Post.
If the club is found not to be operating as a church after it is allowed to open, the Council would then have to take action to close the club.
Presentations in a Tennessee school district from a character called “Bible Man” have been banned thanks to a complaint from a virulent anti-religion organization.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) made one of their usual claims that a parent they would not identify contacted them about the voluntary assemblies put on by Horace Turner as “Bible Man.” The assemblies, which have been going on for 40 years, are not required of any student.
“It is deeply troubling that the district allows these assemblies to take place. It is well settled that public schools may not advance or promote religion,” the letter, which pertained to a presentation at Coalmont Elementary School, stated. “Allowing anyone access to public school students to proselytize, and including the events in the school’s calendar, is illegal district endorsement of the speaker’s religious message, in this case a Christian message.”
The letter when on to say that the children need to be protected from “predators” like Turner.
The school wanted to make it clear that while the “Bible Man” presentations are banned, Turner himself is not banned from being at the schools or working with children.
“I believe the perception was that we’re trying to get rid of him, and that was not the perception we wanted to present,” Dr. Willie Childers stated. “We are trying to make sure that the procedures that we do are legal and constitutional for every citizen.”
The school is looking into starting after-school clubs where students can come and participate in events hosted by Turner.
A Tennessee lawmaker is proposing that the Bible become the official state book.
Rep. Jerry Sexton introduced HB 615 that would amend the Tennessee code to make the acknowledgement.
The statement that would be added is simple: “The Holy Bible is hereby designated as the official state book.”
Tennessee has created a number of state symbols in recent years, naming the tomato the state fruit in 2003 and the Eastern boxing turtle the state reptile in 1995. The state also has several “state songs” including “Tennessee Waltz” and “Rocky Top.”
Another Representative, Jame VanHuss, has submitted a resolution to add text to the state Constitution that would acknowledge the rights of citizens come from God.
“We recognize that our liberties do not come from governments, but from Almighty God, our Creator and Savior” House Joint Resolution 71 reads.
As usual when the Bible is going to be acknowledged by a public official, anti-Christianists have been launching complaints.
Rob Boston of the anti-Christian group Americans United for Separation of Church and State also wrote a blog post about the matter saying “I doubt the Bible played a major role in how any of them became a part of the United States.”
Gregory Hale, a self-proclaimed Satanist will spend the rest of his life behind bars after pleading guilty in the decapitation and cannibalism death of a Tennessee woman.
‘He told investigators that he fulfilled an obsession in wanting to kill a person and dismembering them,’ Coffee County District Attorney Craig Northcott told Circuit Court Judge Craig Johnson Thursday.
Hale said that he found the victim, Lisa Marie Hyder, at a liquor store and killed her after having sex with her. Hyder reportedly had struggled with alcoholism for years and had called family members and her ex-husband for help earlier that day because she was inebriated.
Police discovered human remains at Hale’s home and then found the body of Hyder in various buckets around Hale’s home.
Hale has a track record of bizarre behavior connected to his worship of Satan. His Facebook page has images of him in satanic worship including dismemberment using a large steel blade. He had been fired from a job at a meat packing plant for stealing animal’s body parts.
Hyder’s ex-husband says their 6-year-old and 4-year-old really don’t understand what happened and so he told them their mother “got sick and has gone home to live with God.”sa
A group of Tennessee high school cheerleaders is refusing to allow out of state anti-Christian groups to take away a tradition of pre-game prayer before football games.
Oneida High School had been offering prayers over the loudspeaker before the start of football games since 1930. Two years ago, the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association told schools to stop doing the prayers because of threats of lawsuits from those wanting to remove Christians from society.
The school continued but began to get threats from outside anti-Christianist groups because of the prayers. So the school replaced the prayers with a moment of silence. The team, coaches and fans said they could feel a difference in the atmosphere at the games when the prayers stopped.
And that’s when the cheerleaders stepped in.
Cheerleader Asia Canada stood during the moment of silence and began to say the Lord’s Prayer out loud. The rest of the squad joined her. Soon, the entire stadium was saying the prayer.
And because it’s student led, the anti-Christianists can do nothing about it.
“The removal of prayer before football games wasn’t an option in my opinion,” cheerleader Kayla King told the Independent Herald. “It’s your option what you do during that moment of silence, whether you say a prayer or not, but ‘as for me and my house, we will worship the Lord.’ I’m thankful for the community I live in and hope to represent it well.”
An idea to reach people who were illegally cutting through a church’s parking lot to avoid an intersection is causing a stir in a Tennessee town.
Aldersgate United Methodist Church of Jackson, Tennessee set up a “drive thru prayer box” where drivers who were cutting through their parking lot could stop and write a prayer request on a 3 by 5 note card. The church was hoping it could be a way to advertise the church to those in the area and also to pray for their community.
Now, the church is receiving attention from the entire community and churches around the country.
“Now that [an] article has been published in the local newspaper, the number [of prayer requests] has grown substantially,” Barry Matthews of the church told the Christian Post. “We’re seeing requests that just grab your heart.”
Matthews says the church has also been flooded with calls from other churches facing the same problem of drivers cutting through their parking lots wanting to know how to set up their own “drive thru prayer station” ministries.
“They’re telling us this is an answer to their prayers,” Matthews said.
