This is Toby Sumpter with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Wednesday, January 6, 2021.
Today you will hear about the rally in DC, Georgia polls closing, an announcement on the Kenosha shooting of Jacob Blake, De Blasio on the vaccine, that infamous prayer in congress, and praying for our brothers in Ontario.
If you have a news story you think we might need to cover, please send articles and links to [email protected]
Hundreds Gathered in DC Tuesday Preparing for the Trump Rally Wednesday
https://twitter.com/VenturaReport/status/1346551243041353734?s=20
Georgia Polls Closed Thursday Evening Awaiting the Results of the Senate Run-Off
But while we wait, let’s consider why Georgia deserves to get the Democrats.
https://twitter.com/WokePreacherTV/status/1346180600064073728?s=20
This is from a few weeks back, but Lecrae, the former Christian hip hop artist appeared at a campaign rally for the Democrat Senate challengers:
I wonder why Lecrae thinks supporting politicians who support the mass murder of black babies has anything to do with being set free.
No Charges Will Be Brought Against Kenosha, WI Officers in Shooting of Jacob Blake
https://twitter.com/i/events/1346559566805286914?s=20
DA Michael Gravely cited the domestic abuse situation as the immediate context of the shooting as well as the history of abuse and criminal activity to defend his decision.
Mayor De Blasio Says 30% of Hospital Workers Decline Vaccine
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/live-updates/coronavirus/?id=75031267&cid=social_twitter_abcn
A third of health workers in the New York City public hospital system declined COVID-19 vaccines, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday, as he tried to explain the city-run hospitals’ lagging vaccination numbers.
“It’s a real issue and we’ve got to look it in the eye,” de Blasio said. “It’s understandable that after all the pain of 2020 a lot of people are worried and in general folks have been through so much. We’ve got to understand. We’ve got to win trust for the vaccine.”
Right. A vaccine rushed through trials. A vaccine that messes with your RNA. A vaccine that has been approved by the FDA – in so far as the manufacturers have been granted complete legal immunity for any side-effects.
Speaking of de Blasio, maybe you missed a drunk Andy Cohen with Anderson Cooper…
Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper on CNN New Years Eve
https://twitter.com/danielchaitin7/status/1344876873944334336?s=20
Do something with this city. Honestly, get it together. Maybe that should be a new stinger, Choc Knox.
117th Congress Opened with a Prayer to Brahma
https://twitter.com/ksorbs/status/1346195977963794437?s=20
Apparently Amen is Hebrew and A-Woman is Shebrew.
Douglas Wilson announced on Twitter: “The opening prayer for the 117th Congress concluded with “amen” and “awomen,” and I regret to inform you all that my patience with the 117th Congress, at the conclusion of their opening prayer, was exhausted.”
Another commenter was reminded of this clip from an old Monty Python sketch:
https://twitter.com/Mr_Zilla1/status/1345978382811586560?s=20
U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver said he was caught off guard by the negative response after he ended his opening prayer on the first day of the new Congress by saying, “Amen and A-woman.”
Cleaver, a United Methodist minister and former mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, is in his ninth term in Congress.
Cleaver said it was a pun intended as a tribute to his female colleagues and to Rear Adm. Margaret Grun Kibben, the new House chaplain and first woman to hold the role.
There are 144 women serving in the House and Senate. The previous high was 129.
Cleaver said he was “deeply disappointed that my prayer has been misinterpreted and misconstrued by some to fit a narrative that stokes resentment and greater division among portions of our population.”
Last up, Keep the Faithful Canucks in Prayer
https://disrn.com/news/canadian-pastors-charged-for-holding-church-services
https://trinitybiblechapel.ca/press-release
December 31: Yesterday evening, all six of the elders of Trinity Bible Chapel were charged under Section 10.1 of the Reopening Ontario Act (ROA) for holding church services on Sunday, December 27. We are peaceful family men seeking to pastorally care for our families and our church in sincere obedience to God. We are not criminals. Officers from the Waterloo Region Police Service (WRPS) showed up at each of our homes last night at roughly 8pm and gave us each a summons to court. While other pastors in Ontario have faced similar charges under the ROA for holding church services, to our knowledge this is the first time that each and every member of an entire elders board has been charged for gathering a church to worship. Although we know of officers within the WRPS who personally disagree with these charges, it appears the WRPS is trying to make an example of us. For years we have taught our children to respect police, and now our children and grandchildren are witness to their fathers and grandfathers receiving charges from police for worshipping Christ with our church. It is a dark day for Waterloo Region and Ontario.
Since we decided to re-open the church in June, implementing various COVID protocols in our services, we have not had a single outbreak traced back to our church. We thank God for that. Instead, we have heard a plethora of stories from many of our congregants about how they were negatively affected spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and financially during the first lockdown. On December 3, we informed our governing authorities that we cannot shut down the church again in an open letter entitled, “Here we Stand: The Church Must Meet.”[1] Not one of our officials replied with an attempt to work with us. Our church community has become a vital refuge for hundreds of people during these times of despair. Our government is destroying our society to prevent the spread of a virus with a fraction of a fractional death rate.[2] This is evil. Nowhere does the Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantee freedom from risk or virus, but it does protect the freedom of conscience, religion, belief, and assembly.[3] These are unlawful laws, a violation of God given rights, a contravention of Section 176 of the Criminal Code, and an infringement of the Charter.
We have ancestors who fought in wars to protect us from state abuses of this nature, and many of our families fled police states that eerily resemble what we are being subjected to at the present. Our high school teachers, parents, and grandparents warned us against governments that act this way.
While we seek to honour and pray for our governing officials, we are also grieved over the apparent hypocrisy and arbitrary applications of law. Several politicians have been caught violating their own laws by visiting cottages, hosting gatherings, or jaunting to warmer climates. Our very own Chief of Police, Brian Larkin, publicly endorsed much larger public gatherings in June. While Ontarians were restricted to outdoor gatherings of 5 or less persons, the Chief of Police offered the “full support” to a protest in which the “crowd may have been between 12,000 and 20,000 strong.”[4] Chief Larkin explained to participants, even as they contravened lockdown orders, that police “will ensure you have the support needed to practice your democratic right and have your voice heard.”[5] The arbitrary rule of law is dangerous even as it is contrary to our inherited values.
https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=2112066
Our Saviour shed His blood to purchase the church, and therefore deeming the church “unessential” is tantamount to deeming the blood of Christ unessential, which is a public act of blasphemy. One day our elected officials, bureaucrats, and police will stand before the court of God’s justice for these acts. We earnestly pray that the Holy Spirit would draw them to his Son, Jesus Christ, who offers free grace and forgiveness to all who would repent and put their faith in him.
Jesus Christ is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and therefore we must honour and obey him above all earthly governments. We emphasize that our hope in Christ’s goodness is firmly anchored. Our Saviour is just, equitable, and loving towards his people. He has every hair on our heads numbered, and his eyes see all things. He will lead us through the valley of the shadow of death, and we will fear no evil. He has taught us to love our enemies, pray for those who persecute us, and to count our sufferings as pure joy. We embrace his will in humility by submitting to his heavy hand trusting that in the proper time he will exalt us because he cares.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience” – C.S. Lewis
This is Toby Sumpter with Crosspolitic News. You can find this and all of our shows at Crosspolitic.com or on our app, which you can download at your favorite app store, just search “Fight Laugh Feast”. Support Rowdy Christian media, and become a Fight Laugh Feast Club Member and get your very own Fight Laugh Feast t-shirt and access to all the talks at our first annual Fight Laugh Feast Conference as well as many exclusive behind the scenes interviews as well as our very own Worldview Shotgun Series. Go to FightLaughFeast.com.
