THE FREEDOM TO BE A CHRISTIAN COLLEGE

Biola Magazine  By Brett McCracken

As religious convictions are met with new legal challenges, what's at stake for schools like Biola?

 "What happens when the Christian conscience conflicts with the laws of the land? The U.S. Constitution protects the free exercise of religion, but what does “exercise” include? Does it encompass the expression of faith in a for-profit business? This was a question raised by Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, this summer’s landmark Supreme Court case that examined the scope of religion freedom for closely held for-profit corporations.

"What about religious nonprofits? Will relief organizations and Christian colleges maintain the freedom to define their Christian identity broadly – as a communal movement that calls us to live and serve the world for Christ, beyond a private home or a church’s walls? Religious freedom is increasingly a contested issue in our society, and it’s hitting close to home for communities like Biola University.

"Yet it’s less about politics than it is about principles. What’s at stake is the freedom to be who we are – to do life together in the manner we believe God has called us."     Read the full article

Digging deeper into the story of Nazi death camps.

Auschwitz staff enjoying life.

Video:  Rarely seen footage of Auschwitz death camp after its liberation by the Soviet Army.
Very moving. The video is claimed to show  the liberation of Auschwitz by the Russians, but the soldiers in the film are mostly American. Little issue here; this mere documents that every ally liberated camps, over and over.

Then there is this documentary:


Chilling: The only photo record of the process of annihilation

Auschwitz as seen through eyes of the SS there
"In January 2007, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received a donation of a photograph album. The inscription "Auschwitz 21.6.1944" on its first page signaled the uniqueness of the album—there are very few wartime photographs of the Auschwitz concentration camp complex, which included Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi killing center. Though his name does not appear anywhere in the album, the dates of the photographs and various decorations including adjutant cords on the uniform of the album's owner, indicate that the album almost certainly belonged to and was created by SS-Obersturmführer Karl Höcker, the adjutant to the commandant of Auschwitz, SS-Sturmbannführer Richard Baer. " .

Inmate forced to use makeshift
toilet

The album  "Karl Höcker's photograph album includes both documentation of official visits and ceremonies at Auschwitz as well as more personal photographs depicting the myriad of social activities that he and other members of the Auschwitz camp staff enjoyed." . . 
... "Perhaps the most extraordinary photograph depicts an accordionist leading a sing-along for approximately 70 SS men taken at this gathering. In the front row of the group are Höcker, SS-Hauptscharführer Otto Moll (the supervisor of the gas chambers), Höss, Baer, Kramer, Franz Hössler (commander of the female prisoner compound at Birkenau), and Mengele. These are some of the only known photographs of some of these men, including Mengele, taken while they were stationed at Auschwitz." ...

Unaware Jewish mothers and children selected to die within the hour.

Never again.....? Come quickly, Lord.

.

Bay Area About to Ban Barbeques Because...

Downtrend

. . . "The problem is, the people of California’s Bay Area, which includes San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, have too much damn freedom. Sure, they can’t express their 2nd Amendment rights, are banned from using plastic bags, and are forbidden to own butterflies but the liberals in charge still think the people’s freedoms are running rampant. With that in mind, a ban on backyard barbequing is being floated.

According to the AP:

The booming popularity of outdoor kitchens among homeowners in the San Francisco Bay Area has an increasing number of their neighbors coughing and hacking from the smoke, leading air-quality officials to consider tightening rules on wood-burning pizza ovens and smokers.

 Full article...

Hollywood actor Rob Lowe: Obama prefers fruit loops over Netanyahu

Between Netanyahu and Obama, which national leader has demonstrated to you the most courage over the years?
Which of these two men has dithered most in deciding critical issues?
Which of them do you most trust the character of?
Which of these two men do you feel has the most foreign policy wisdom in dealing with Muslims?

Jerusalem Post  "PM formally accepts invitation to address special joint session of Congress, but will do so as a part of two-fold trip to Washington."

"Rob Lowe can't believe that Obama won't meet with Netanyahu, but will meet with YouTube star

"How is it that a woman famous for eating cereal in a bathtub can get an audience with US President Barack Obama, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to do so? asked Rob Lowe on Twitter.

"Among the Hollywood actor’s famous roles, is that of Deputy White House Communications Director in the television show The West Wing.

"On Friday, Lowe entered a real-life diplomatic drama, when he weighed in on one of the mostserious crises in the often infamous series of political battles that have raged between Obama and Netanyahu in the last six years.
"A GloZell video that garnered 9.7 million hits on YouTube showed her eating fruit loops in a milk filled bathtub for what she called the cereal challenge." ...

. . .

“For those who aren't up to speed, here is the woman who had an official meeting with POTUS yesterday,” Lowe wrote." 

70 years ago: the extermination camp Auschwitz liberated

70 years after Auschwitz liberation, a survivor remembers

A picture taken just after the liberation by the Soviet army in January,1945, shows a group of children wearing concentration camp uniforms behind barbed wire fencing in the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp. 

The theme music from "Schindler's List"

Aerial Photography of Auschwitz Concentration Camp : The Archival Research Catalog (ARC) is the online catalog of NARA's nationwide holdings in the Washington, DC area, Regional Archives and Presidential Libraries. ARC replaces its prototype, the NARA Archival Information Locator (NAIL).

"Nearly 100 hundred aerial photographs of the Auschwitz death camp are available from the NAIL datatabase. Search NAIl and type in "NWDNC-263-AUSCHWITZ" or "NWDNC-373-AERIALFILM" in the ditigal copies box."

NY Times: How Auschwitz Is Misunderstood  AUSCHWITZ was liberated 70 years ago, on Jan. 27, 1945, and news of its existence shocked the world. With its principal killing center at one of its main camps, Auschwitz-Birkenau, becoming fully operational in 1942, it was Germany’s largest and the most notorious extermination site. There the Germans slaughtered approximately 1.1 million people, a million of whom were Jews. Its mention evokes notions of evil and instant horror. Auschwitz was a death factory, an oxymoron that would have made no sense before the Holocaust, but that now is effortlessly comprehensible.

Below: the iconic image of Auschwitz:

"Shoah" 'Oskar Schindler's List' AUSCHWITZ-Speilberg-Williams-Stafford,Piano Rendition Theme 

The "Shoah", or "the Holocaust" "The Holocaust (from tthe Greek ὁλόκαυστος holókaustos: hólos, "whole" and kaustós, "burnt"), also known as theShoah (Hebrew: השואה, HaShoah, "the catastrophe"), was a genocide in which approximately six million Jews were killed by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. An additional five million non-Jewish victims of Nazi mass murders are included by some historians bringing the total to approximately eleven million. Killings took place throughout Nazi Germany and German-occupied territories".

Yad Vashem; The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority

"And to them will I give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name (a "yad vashem")... that shall not be cut off."

(Isaiah, chapter 56, verse 5)

More  on this coming...

the Oxford Union debate with the subject, is America racist?

The debate will be taped and aired on David Webb’s SiriusXM Patriot radio show Monday, January 26 at 9PM Eastern time. Additional coverage by Breitbart News, Fox News Network, and worldwide media is expected. The Oxford Union YouTube channel will have the full debate following its conclusion.  Breitbart

US Racism Debate : Al Sharpton   Description

Instead of the Emergency Debate prior to the US Racism Debate this evening, there will be an individual address by Rev Al Sharpton as a precursor to the main Debate. 

A prominent civil rights activist,  Barack Obama referred to Rev Sharpton as "the voice of the voiceless and a champion for the downtrodden".  Rev Sharpton hosts NBC's PoliticsNation and a radio talk show called 'Keepin' It Real', and makes regular guest appearances on Fox News.

Trust the Rev. Al Sharpton to go for the old bait-and-switch when he thinks he might have to answer for his positions.

Sharpton Speaks at Oxford, Addresses Whether America’s ‘Institutionally Racist’

“The America under Barack Obama is not the same America that it was under James Madison or Thomas Jefferson, and it will not be the same 100 years from now, if we keep on fighting. So as you wrestle with this question of ‘Is American institutionally racist?’ my answer is: America is in transition. And that transition will occur, and continue to occur.”

From the Canada Free Press

Are neither this President nor his supporters capable of embarrassment?

'Fruit Loop' Obama's Peculiar Priorities  . . . "Speaking of “really sad,” that’s pretty much how Barack Obama has made America look on the world stage." . . .

 RedState

3 YouTube stars interviewed Obama, because at this point, why not?

... "Of course, I saw this news at the same time I was seeing reports of Yemen burning to the ground, so maybe I was a little irritated that this was taking up space on my wire. I didn’t care. I was worried about real issues.  As it turns out, so were Hank, GloZell, and Bethany." 

People Magazine: That Time YouTube Stars Interviewed President Obama and Things Got Weird

Michael Barone: A Substance-free State of the Union  "Six years later, Obama still hasn’t come up with policy proposals that can withstand serious scrutiny." 
                                                                  

King Abdullah “Could not Stand President Obama”  . . . "Obama has made an utter mess of the Middle East. He focused on withdrawing the United States from the region, supporting “protestors” – no matter who the protestors actually were – and focused on helping John Kerry get a Nobel Peace Prize by making peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Meanwhile, the whole place fell to pieces.

"And that had much more of an effect on Abdullah than the aura of Obama."

Obama, Biden Will Skip Auschwitz Commemoration – Because They’re VERY Busy

"Because he’s a very, very busy man, President Obama will not join other world dignitaries at the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on Tuesday.

"And because he’s very busy too, Vice President Biden won’t be there as well.

"Instead, to what will likely be the last event of its kind, the United States of America will berepresented by the Treasury Secretary.

"A list obtained by the New York Times showed several other world leaders would be there:

The President's schedule for that day

Vice President Biden's schedule for that day here.

Put America, her allies, and our foreign policy in the hands of a petulant juvenile president and this is what we get.

“Every nation has the government it deserves.” Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821)

Obama’s Policies Put the U.S. on an Irreversible Path to Impotence – Videos

. . . "There is no sign that the policies will change because the ideology to which our leaders adhere is written in stone and the president operates without the other branches of government to guide him. His advisors are only those who will tell him what he wants to hear." . . .

... "Eventually, we will have no place from which to launch an offensive.

"Yemen was an important base and we are going to lose it.

"It is going to get much worse and the U.S. will have far less influence. Mr. Obama does not count Iran’s takeover as meaningful. It’s still a “tiny country” to him.

"Mr. Obama thinks we are in a better position when every country is equally powerful and the U.S. grovels from a point of weakness like other non-terror nations.

"Lands currently under Iranian influence:

Remember in 2010?  Obama snubbed Netanyahu for dinner with Michelle and the girls, Israelis claim  . . . "As he left, Mr Netanyahu was told to consider the error of his ways. "I'm still around," Mr Obama is quoted by Israel's Yediot Ahronot newspaper as having said. "Let me know if there is anything new.' "

Mr. Obama may have had a good reason -I can't say- but no other president would have handled it this way. Well, maybe President Belafonte would.

The next president should get out that reset button and re-label it in Hebrew.

Iran’s emerging empire and Obama's foreign policy; beware, Israel!

Charles Krauthammer  "While Iran’s march toward a nuclear bomb has provoked a major clashbetween the White House and Congress, Iran’s march toward conventional domination of the Arab world has been largely overlooked. In Washington, that is. The Arabs have noticed. And the pro-American ones, the Gulf Arabs in particular, are deeply worried." . . .

"Why should we care about the coup? First, because we depend on Yemen’s government to support our drone war against another local menace, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). It’s not clear if we can even maintain our embassy in Yemen, let alone conduct operations against AQAP. And second, because growing Iranian hegemony is a mortal threat to our allies and interests in the entire Middle East."

And if you take nothing else away from this article, at least heed these words:

"Iran’s domination of Syria was further illustrated by a strange occurrence last Sunday in the Golan Heights. An Israeli helicopter attacked a convoy on the Syrian side of the armistice line. Those killed were not Syrian, however, but five Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon and several Iranian officials, including a brigadier general.

"What were they doing in the Syrian Golan Heights? Giving “crucial advice,” announced the Iranian government. On what? Well, three days earlier, Hezbollah’s leader had threatened an attack on Israel’s Galilee. Tehran appears to be using its control of Syria and Hezbollah to create its very own front against Israel."

Related: Charles Krauthammer’s remarks on The Kelly File Friday evening.

... "Obama has less sympathy for Israel than any president in our history, Krauthammer said.

"He had Netanyahu leave the White House through the rear entrance the first time he visited because they disagreed. Obama immediately makes it personal."  

Have I not used the word "petulant" often in articles about Obama?.

An ominous connection with the above: Will Hezbollah attempt to capture Metula?

"After several senior Hezbollah military leaders and an Iranian General were killed in the Syrian portion of the Golan Heights, presumably by Israel, there is plenty of speculation as to when and how Hezbollah and Iran will react.

"An article in The Times of Israel suggests that capturing an Israeli town or sections of northern Israel could be in store, as Hezbollah has threatened to do so in the next conflict:" . . .

(Hezbollah fortifications overlooking Metula, Israel)(photo Hadar Sela 2013)

... "So would Hezbollah try to capture Metula in response to the attack on the Hezbollah and Iranian commanders?

"My guess is not as part of a tit-for-tat. More likely rocket firings and attempted kidnappings, or attacks on Jewish and Israeli targets abroad.

"Because an attempt to capture an Israeli town like Metula would be the start of, or result in, all-out war."

Sadly, the way it all works

Obviously not judged by the content of his character.

http://terrellaftermath.com/

Reading list: Netanyahu ‘spat in our face,’ White House officials said to say.

It isn't just that this seems to be a diss of our president, but given Obama's petulance, Israel has hopefully counted the cost of all this and is prepared to pay it.
Basically I see this as a vote of "no confidence" in the Obama foreign policy.

THE TIMES OF ISRAEL  "PM ‘will pay price’ for spat over Congress address; Obama said 

to have asked him to tone down pro-sanctions rhetoric; Wash. Post: Kerry’s enthusiasm for

 defending Israel may wane"

“There are things you simply don’t do. He spat in our face publicly and that’s no way to behave. Netanyahu ought to remember that President Obama has a year and a half left to his presidency, and that there will be a price,” he said.

"Officials in Washington said that the “chickens--t” epithet — with which an anonymous administration official branded Netanyahu several months ago — was mild compared to the language used in the White House when news of Netanyahu’s planned speech came in." ..

American Thinker: Obama fuming at Netanyahu invitation to Congress, plans retaliation  . . . "There is obviously no principle, only political convenience behind this demand, since Obama stood by as British PM Cameron announced to the world that he was lobbying U.S. senators on the same bill, only in the opposite direction."

Caroline Glick of Israel has this opinion:  . . . "As a small, isolated nation, Israel has no choice, they say, other than to follow the lead of the West, and particularly of the White House, on all issues, even when the US president is wrong. All resistance to White House policies is dangerous and irresponsible, leaders like Herzog and Tzipi Livni continuously warn.

"Boehner’s invitation to Netanyahu exposes the Left’s dogma as dangerous nonsense.

"The role of an Israeli leader is to adopt the policies that protect Israel, even when they are unpopular at the White House. Far from being ostracized for those policies, such an Israeli leader will be supported, respected, and relied upon by those who share with him a concern for what truly matters."                                 Caroline Glick served from 1994-1996, as an IDF captain, and Coordinator of Negotiations with the PLO in the office of Government Activities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. In this capacity Ms. Glick was a core member of Israel’s negotiating team with the Palestinians.

Boehner didn't clear it with President Obama — kind of like the way the president doesn't clear with Boehner his repeated unilateral, unconstitutional executive actions that go over Congress's head.  . . . "Now the Israeli leader's message in March will attract much more attention than it would have — because Bibi dares to say what President Obama does not want to hear."

"From the administration that called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “chickens**t” comes more gems"
"In other words, the principles of support for Israel that the administration has long contended it holds dear are merely conditional on the White House feeling that it has the position of power in this special relationship."

White House Pressures Disney To Make Global Warming Sequel To Frozen

Downtrend

. . . "Why stop at forcing Disney to make a climate change Frozen? Obama should push all of his whacko leftist ideas on the animation studio. Cinderfella could be wonderful tale of transgender triumph. The Trigger Movie would show the need to disarm all civilians. Hybrid Cars could help reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. Snow Black And The Seven Dwarves would empower women of color everywhere. And finally The Lyin’ King would be animated Obama biopic (Pinocchio II or A Goofy Move II would also suffice).

"I don’t know if the government pressuring a private company into pushing its agenda is illegal, but it should be. At the very least, it’s unethical as hell. But hey, when has the law or ethics ever stopped Obama from imposing his will?"       By Brian Anderson,

According to this very movie, Women are Princesses and Men are all Clowns and Idiots