Christians in Plano, Texas are no longer breaking the law when they gather to praise God.
The Agape Resource and Assistance Center had been holding Bible studies in the homes of members before the city told them they violated an ordinance that you cannot have more than 8 people inside a home at any one time.
The ministry contacted the Liberty Institute who informed the city they were in violation of the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
“It is unlawful and unjust for the City of Plano to ban the ministry of Agape Resources and Assistance from fulfilling its calling to serve local women and children in crisis,” Hiram Sasser, Liberty Institute’s director of litigation, stated. “We are hopeful that the City of Plano will lift its unlawful ban, and no further legal action will be necessary. This is an outrageous violation of our client’s religious freedom.”
The city of Plano responded June 12th with a letter apologizing for an error.
“It has come to the [city’s] attention that the aforementioned Notice was issued in error and should therefore be disregarded,” Cynthia O’Banner from the city wrote in the response letter. “As previously conveyed, the City of Plano appreciates Agape Resource & Assistance Center for services rendered to citizens in need. Please accept our apology for the misunderstanding.”
Scientists investigating the rapid increase in movement of Antarctic glaciers have found that underwater volcanoes are heating water and increasing ice melt.
The segment of ice in danger has six major glaciers that are facing major collapse. If the area completely melts, the entire global sea level will rise at least four feet. (A collapse is considered the point when a glacier starts an unstoppable retreat that would drop millions of tons of ice into the sea.)
Dustin Schroeder of the University of Texas at Austin says that volcanoes and “other geothermal hotspots” are driving the melting of the glaciers and recent studies are showing there is no way to stop the eventual collapse of the glaciers. The challenge to scientists is to accurately estimate if it will take hundreds of years or thousands for the glaciers to be completely destroyed.
The problem with predicting the outcome is that computer models cannot accurate anticipate the volcanic activity taking place under the ice sheet. Much of the area is unexplored and unmapped, as a new under-ice volcano was discovered in 2013.
One of the hottest points is around Mount Takahe, a volcano that actually has broken through the ice sheet. There are smaller volcanoes and vents that increase the temperature of the water as much as three times the level of sea water under other parts of the continent.
Schroeder said the scientists believe the extra melt from the volcanoes lubricates the ice sheets from beneath and accelerates their slide toward the open water.
A number of residents and students protested at the offices of the Ector County (Texas) Independent School District after officials said they would be making prayer in the graduation ceremony optional.
High school students in the district had voted to have prayer as part of the ceremony but the administrators completely ignored their wishes in scheduling an “opening” and “closing” delivered by students instead of an invocation and benediction. The students would not be chosen by the graduating seniors or by academic achievement but entirely by random selection.
The move came because the anti-Christian group Americans United for the Separation of Church and State threatened to sue the school if they allowed the students to follow through on their vote to have a prayer included in the event.
Students held up signs saying “We are a democracy; we voted to pray” and “As Americans, we have the freedom to pray.”
School board member Doyle Woodall said that the board did not want to take the action they did but that it was forced upon them by anti-Christianists using the courts to force their will on the majority.
The Centers for Disease Control has confirmed the death of a Texas patient who contracted a disease connected to Mad Cow Disease.
The patient died from Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. The disease is a rare, degenerative and fatal brain disorder that is caused by the consumption of meat and other products from cows suffering from bovine spongiform encephalopathy or “Mad Cow Disease.”
The CDC said this is the fourth time Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease has been found in the United States. The first three cases were confirmed to have contracted the virus outside the USA where the variant is more prevalent and the most recent patient had extensively traveled to Europe and the Middle East. Most of the world’s cases have been in the United Kingdom and France.
Classic CJD is not caused by the Mad Cow Disease related agent. In the United States, classic CJD is found in one person per 1 million residents each year.
An abortion clinic in Dallas has closed after the abortionist was unable to secure admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.
The closure marks the 20th abortion clinic in the state to close since the passage of stronger legislation regarding the cleanliness and safety of abortion clinics. The law also increased the conditions for welfare of women who choose to end their child’s lives in those clinics.
The closed clinic was associated with abortionist Douglas Karpen, who has been accused of killing babies born alive during late-term abortions similar to convicted murder Kermit Gosnell in Pennsylvania.
A spokesman for Operation Rescue said that part of the problem for the clinics is that operators are considered liabilities for hospitals and that is why they’re having trouble obtaining privileges.
The next phase of the law goes into effect on September 1st that requires all abortion clinics to have the same safety and cleanliness standards as ambulatory surgical centers. The requirements include having equipment to properly sterilize equipment and ensuring the doors to the facility are wide enough to accommodate stretchers in the event of an emergency.
Representative Jason Villalba of Dallas said the law is a pro-woman law that aims to make sure any woman undergoing a surgical procedure is having it in a sanitary environment.
The Texas Department of Transportation is telling a Hemphill, Texas woman that she cannot have a sign displaying the Ten Commandments on her land.
TXDOT contacted Jeannette Golden and said that her sign showing the Ten Commandments with a web address on it where people could learn about Jesus could be classified as commercial advertising and was a violation of law. Golden then painted over the website address, leaving only God’s word and the phrase “With God all things are possible.”
TXDOT contacted the woman again, demanding the sign be removed because it was still “outdoor advertising” and she had not paid for a permit. When she tried to apply for a permit, TXDOT told her there was no permit possible and to remove the sign or face fines as high as $1,000 a day.
TXDOT wants to claim the sign is a violation of the Highway Beautification Act.
“I wasn’t advertising because that’s my freedom of religion and that’s what I believe,” Golden said. “It was just something that I stood for.”
The Liberty Institute has agreed to represent Golden against the state. Attorney Michael Berry said the state’s actions are in violation of the Federal Religious Land Use Act along with the U.S. and Texas Constitution.
A group of cheerleaders at a school in Kountze, Texas were told by a court they can continue to display Bible verses at football games, but their attorney may still appeal the decision.
Attorney Hiram Sasser says the ruling doesn’t clearly protect the rights of the students to continue using the verses in the future.
“I don’t think it provides any protection for the religious liberties of Kountze cheerleaders in the future,” Sasser said.
The court dismissed the suit saying it was now moot because the school district had changed their policies and because the ban was repealed the cheerleaders no longer had standing to advance their case.
The suit began in 2012 when the anti-Christian Freedom From Religion Foundation threatening the school because cheerleaders would hold up banners for the football team to run through that contained Bible verses.
A wildfire in the Texas panhandle has destroyed at least 100 homes and caused hundreds to flee the flames.
Fire officials say the fire began around 4 p.m. near Fritch, Texas.
The fire raged through the night and destroyed the homes despite the fact firefighters had the flames over 75% contained. The fire has not hit the main part of Fritch but has left many homes in the area without power as the flames took out power lines.
The Texas Forestry Service has been flying aircraft over the site dropping flame retardant chemicals in an attempt to keep containing the fire.
Over 1,500 acres were confirmed to have been burned in the blaze whose origin is still not known by fire officials. A spokesman with the Hutchinson County emergency services said that it could be days before people can return to their homes or check to see if their home survived the fire.
The Texas panhandle has been in emergency drought conditions for months.
Dallas police say almost 120 people in the last five days have overdosed on the synthetic marijuana K2.
Police sources say that the drug likely originated from a Dallas supplier.
The director of prevention programs for the Council on Alcohol & Drug Abuse in Dallas said that while K2 use on the whole is not rising, addicts are always looking for new suppliers who might carry tainted forms of the drug.
K2, which is supposed to mimic the effects of natural marijuana, can have multiple toxic impacts on the body. The recent overdose victims in Dallas suffered comas and some had to be sedated because of uncontrolled tremors and seizures.
Police say the drug is difficult to regulate because the makers keep changing the ingredients, which technically make it a new drug. Lawmakers would have to pass laws to make every single version of the drug illegal before police can take action to stop the drug’s use.
Texas Governor Rick Perry was baptized in a private ceremony last month.
The announcement of the governor’s baptism was released after the ceremony as a way to keep the event for members of his family and his church.
“Governor Perry has a deep and abiding faith in God,” Perry spokesman Felix Browne said in a statement. “Like many people of faith, the governor wished to reaffirm his commitment in a way that holds great personal meaning.”
The governor had previously told reporters that he was baptized as a child in the Methodist church where they only sprinkle water on infants. He had never been baptized through immersion as Christ had been baptized.
Perry was baptized in Little Rock Creek near Independence, Texas. The spot was the same location where Sam Houston, the first president of the Republic of Texas, had been baptized.
The Texas governor has been outspoken in his faith in Christ during his time in office and has repeatedly mentioned Jesus in speeches around the state and nation.
