Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson Says He Won't Share a Restroom With Women Under Houston's Equal Rights Ordinance

Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson declared Sunday night that he has no plans to share a restroom with Texas women under Houston's controversial Equal Rights Ordinance.

Robertson, who was one of several speakers at the "I Stand Sunday" event hosted by the Family Research Council and others at Grace Community Church in Houston, Texas, opened his speech with the declaration.

"For all you ladies in Texas, trust me when I tell you this, when you're seated in your restroom putting on your Maybelline, when I need to take a leak I'm not going there," Robertson said to wild applause.

The event focused of Christians having the freedom to live out their faith without government intrusion or monitoring. The event was a direct response to the sermons of five local pastors being subpoenaed in a legal dispute over the ordinance, which some say will allow men to use women's restrooms in the city. Houston's first openly gay mayor, Annise Parker, asked the city's legal department to drop the subpoenas last week.

Robertson in his speech argued that America's politicians appeared to have forgotten the tenets of the nation's founding fathers.
"America, America, it cannot be said too strongly or too often that this great nation was not founded by religionists, but by Christians — not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Patrick Henry, great orator, one of our founding fathers said that," noted Robertson.

"The Apostle Paul said the Gospel has divine power to demolish strongholds. The reason the political pundits argue ad hominem, ad infinitum on television night after night … they call each other left,  right, liberal, right wing, left wing, but there's never any Gospel there, ever," he continued.

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Why Blacks Vote Overwhelmingly for Democrats: Pastor of Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church Rev. Raphael Warnock Explains

In the state of Georgia, black churches are on track to play a huge role in the tight Senate race between Democratic candidate Michelle Nunn and Republican David Perdue. And Rev. Raphael Warnock of Atlanta's historic Ebenezer Baptist Church has emerged as a major player in the battle for the hearts of Georgia voters.

Last Friday, Warnock suggested that the Republican Party in Georgia will likely pay for neglecting the interests of black voters and attempting to suppress voting rights — by requiring a valid ID before voting — in mid-term elections culminating next Tuesday.

Continuing in the footsteps of the Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who served as pastors of the church founded in 1886, Warnock actively works to get minorities registered to vote in what he sees as a complex mix of spiritual and civic obligation.

"Voting for us (blacks) is not only a civic responsibility, it's is a sacred obligation. I often remind my parishioners that in a real sense our ballot is a blood-stained ballot. It's a right won and redeemed literally through the shedding of the blood of martyrs," said Warnock in an interview with The Christian Post on Friday.

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New Quantum Theory is Out of This Parallel World

Griffith University academics are challenging the foundations of quantum science with a radical new theory based on interactions between parallel universes.

In a paper published in the prestigious journal Physical Review X, Professor Howard Wiseman and Dr Michael Hall from Griffith’s Centre for Quantum Dynamics, and Dr Dirk-Andre Deckert from the University of California, take interacting parallel worlds out of the realm of science fiction and into that of hard science.

The team proposes that parallel universes really exist, and that they interact. That is, rather than evolving independently, nearby worlds influence one another by a subtle force of repulsion. They show that such an interaction could explain everything that is bizarre about quantum mechanics.

Quantum theory is needed to explain how the universe works at the microscopic scale, and is believed to apply to all matter. But it is notoriously difficult to fathom, exhibiting weird phenomena which seem to violate the laws of cause and effect.
As the eminent American theoretical physicist Richard Feynman once noted: “I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.”

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Pope Francis: Evolution is Real, God Did not Wave a 'Magic Wand'

Pope Francis says the theories of evolution and the Big Bang are real, and God did not wave a “magic wand” to create the universe.

The head of the Roman Catholic Church said Tuesday that current scientific theories concerning the start of the universe and the development of life are compatible with church doctrines – a landmark declaration for a religion fraught with conflict over literal translations of the Bible.

Speaking at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in Vatican City on Tuesday, Pope Francis urged Roman Catholics to embrace current scientific theories as “required” methods to understand existence. The pope’s suggestions fly in the face of more traditional views that read the Bible as a literal record of the creation and development of the world.

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Australians Captured Fighting for ISIS in Iraq Could Face Death by Hanging

AUSTRALIANS captured fighting for the Islamic State in Iraq will be dealt with under Iraqi law, where the penalty for terrorism offences is death by hanging. 
 
Major General Craig Orme, who is leading the Joint Task Force that has joined the fight against ISIL in Iraq, said that any Australians captured in battle would go into Iraqi hands.
“We’re supporting the Iraqi Security Forces, so if someone was detained on the battlefield, the Iraqis are managing that process,” he said.
The Major General said the Australia military’s Rules of Engagement for the Iraq theatre related only to use the use of lethal force, not the taking of prisoners.

He said detainee management was a separate issue that would be overseen by Iraq, which last year sent a message to insurgents by hanging 42 convicted terrorists over two days and 26 on one day of January this year.
It is highly probable that some of the estimated 60 Australians fighting in Iraq and Syria will either be killed or captured on the battlefield.

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More Americans Say Boots Are Needed on the Ground to Fight ISIS

Many believe the air campaign is not enough, a poll finds

More and more Americans say combat ground troops need to be deployed to take the fight to the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), according to a recent poll conducted by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal.
Approximately 41% of Americans surveyed said the military campaign against ISIS should include “air strikes and combat troops,” compared with the 35% who said the offensive should be constrained to aerial bombardments. Of the individuals polled, just 15% said they believed no military action should be taken against the radical Islamist group.
The findings represent a reversal in public opinion since a similar poll was taken in September, when 40% of those surveyed only backed air strikes and 34% were in favor of the use of aerial assaults and combat troops together.
Coalition bombers and fighter jets continued to batter ISIS positions across Iraq and Syria this week. U.S. Central Command confirmed that American aircraft and those from partner nations launched 22 strikes in Syria and at least one aerial assault in Iraq on Tuesday.

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Edmonton Polyamory Group Seeking Non-Profit Status, Wants to Extol the Benefits of Multiple Romantic Partners

EDMONTON – An unusual Edmonton group is seeking to raise awareness about their unique formula for blissful romance. Polyamory Edmonton is a group of people that practise consensual, non-monogamous relationships. They are in the process of becoming a non-profit organization and want to educate Edmontonians about their unconventional take on romantic partnerships.

Founder Alyson Sidra, who is married and dating outside that relationship, gives a crash course on polyamory and explains why it can be a recipe for relationship success.

What is polyamory?

 

If someone identifies as polyamorous, they are open to having more than one romantic partner with the openness, consent and honesty of everyone involved. There wouldn’t be any cheating or anything secretive. Everyone knows who the other is dating or involved with.

John Lucas / Postmedia NewsAlyson Sildra, founder of Polyamory Edmonton, pictured last week.

What makes polyamory any different from polygamy or polyandry?

Polyamory can take on many different structures. People may have heard of swinging, for example, which is an open relationship, but strictly sexual. But polyamorous relationships are open to romantic partnerships rather than just sexual ones. Some couples might date other people separately, outside of their relationship. Others go into it wanting to mutually date the same person, where everyone is equally involved with each other. There are triads with three people, and other relationship groupings with four or more. How interactive those people are with each other can definitely vary.

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Lord, It’s Hard to Be Humble When You're Discontented in Every Way

We live in a society built around perpetual dissatisfaction. As I write these words on my two-year-old MacBook Pro, I cannot help but to think about how much better my life would be if I went out and bought one of Apple's latest computers. Honestly, there is nothing wrong with my present computer; in fact, it is the best computer I've ever owned and still works as good as the day I bought it, maybe even better. The truth is, I don't need a new computer, but I've been preconditioned by the culture around me and the genius marketers at Apple to believe that every time a new, updated MacBook Pro comes out, I need to run out and buy one.

The Apple computer bug may not have bitten you, but I am certain there is someplace in your life where you've learned to be perpetually discontented. For some people it is cars, for others it is houses, or clothes, or books, or watches, or fishing boats. The list could go on and on. We have been conditioned to think that something will bring ultimate satisfaction to our lives, and we spend our lives on a never-ending quest to find the thing.

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Alberta Tory leadership candidates attend Gay Pride, avoid abortion

Update Sept. 5: In the dying days of the Alberta Tory leadership race the pro-life Wilberforce Project has endorsed candidate Ric McIver. Wilberforce's Rosenke told members she had come away from meetings with two of three candidates "with a good idea as to who would be the best leader with regard to pro-life issues. Candidate Ric McIver has given TWP a lot of reason to believe he will listen to us and to our concerns in the future."

Being leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta sure isn’t what it used to be. Before Alison Redford, the party’s recently disgraced leader and therefore the province’s recently disgraced premier, no leader dared march in Calgary’s Gay Pride Parade. Now it is virtually de rigueur. All three candidates to succeed Redford attended this year’s event on Sunday and two actually marched.

On the other hand, the third, Ric McIver is said to have ruined his chances for the leadership before the race began by marching in the city’s Jesus Parade. That is why McIver, a Catholic, is rumoured to be sympathetic to pro-life policies, but unwilling to come out of the closet.

The front-runner, former federal Conservative cabinet minister Jim Prentice, is openly pro-abortion. The third contender, Thomas Lukaszuk, is Roman Catholic and a third degree Knight of Columbus, but his views on abortion are unknown.

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New Iraqi Christian: ISIS Brutality a Turn off to Islam

ZAKHO, Iraq -- Northern Iraq is facing a refugee crisis, with an estimated 182,000 Yazidis fleeing to Kurdistan to escape the brutal Islamic State (ISIS) army. Many have sought refuge in Kurdish cities, dwelling in abandoned office buildings.

Just behind the northern Iraqi city of Zakho are the mountains that lead to Turkey, which is very close, just several kilometers away. Many of the Yazidis who have come to Zakho say they prefer to go to Turkey. That's because they can no longer live with Muslim Arabs.

One Yazidi leader told CBN News hundreds of Muslim neighbors turned against his people when Islamic State fighters arrived in Sinjar.

"These Arabic tribes, they joined them," Faris Elias Kholo told CBN News.

"They took away our females, children, old men, everything," he continued. "Even if we get back our homes, we cannot live with the Arabs because they usually try to persecute us."

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