Hillsong head honcho Brian Houston has pleaded “not guilty” to charges of concealing the sexual abuse of a 7-year-old boy by his deceased father more than 30 years ago.
Houston, who did not appear in person at Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court, had his plea made through his lawyer. With the initial step taken, Houston’s trial will commence on November 23rd.
If convicted, he faced 5 years in prison.
In 2014, a Royal Commission confirmed that Pastor Frank Houston, who had a sexual interest in the Lord’s little ones, confessed to abusing the young boy in 1969 and 1970. Brian Houston was made aware of the allegations in 1999, five years before his father passed, but did not go to the police and turn his father in. About his father’s sexual proclivities, he would later lament:
“At that time I thought there was one (victim) and then 12 months later it became clear there were many more, mostly in New Zealand,…’It’s obvious he was a pedophile and that his behavior was repetitive and it seems like it was over a period of a decade in the late sixties and seventies.’
Im the last month, Houston, 67, has stepped down 18 of 19 Hillsong church boards that oversee the governance of the more than 150,000 people in 30 countries, doing so in order that “these boards can function to their fullest capacity during this season.”
(Breitbart)The Taliban is killing people in Afghanistan they find with copies of the Bible on their mobile phones, a Christian non-profit announced on Tuesday.
The Taliban, a radical Islamist terrorist organization, seized leadership of the country on Sunday after surrounding the nation’s capital, Kabul, prompting former President Ashraf Ghani to flee. The Taliban ruled Afghanistan until 2001, when the United States invaded the country, and established a brutal regime that regularly persecuted political dissidents, religious minorities, women, and anyone considered to be violating Islamic law, or sharia.
According to SAT-7, an organization that broadcasts Christian programs to churches and Christians in the Middle East and North Africa, the Taliban is using “spies and informants” to persecute the Christian minority in the country.
“We’re hearing from reliable sources that the Taliban demand people’s phones, and if they find a downloaded Bible on your device, they will kill you immediately,” said SAT-7 North America President Dr. Rex Rogers told Religion News Service. “It’s incredibly dangerous right now for Afghans to have anything Christian on their phones. The Taliban have spies and informants everywhere.”
Other Christian nonprofits and ministries that specialize in assisting persecuted Christians around the world have been sounding the alarm as well, emphasizing the ruthless nature of Taliban leadership. A Christian contact of one Release International partner described the situation as “dire” in a report published Monday. Release International is a Christian ministry that also assists persecuted Christians around the world.
“Our brothers and sisters in Christ are telling us how afraid they are..
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Edditor’s Note. This article was written by Katherine Hamilton and published at Breitbart
Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) President Michael Ramsden posted a video a few days ago apologizing for his own role and complicity in the Ravi Zacharias sex scandal.
In the video, which is unlisted and not available for public searching, Ramsden shares how he has been “stunned at the depth and duration of his (Zacharias) abuse and deception” and that “I completely trusted various deceptive narratives and accounts. And I was wrong. I realize that in passing on those false accounts to others, and in speaking in his defense, I have greatly multiplied the pain, the hurt, and the damage that’s been felt and experienced by many.”
He tells the victims of Zaharias that “I believe your testimonies about the horrific abuses that you suffered, and also the terrible consequences you’ve had to endure and live with” and apologizes to Lori Anne Thompson as well, confessing that in his pride he thought he knew Ravi better than she did, and believed he could perceive Ravi’s heart to know he would never do these things.
He also apologized for the lack of discernment and follow-up of accusations, explaining:
“…while at times I did question Ravi about his life on the road, and time away from family and the challenges that brings, I realize now that I fail to see beyond the superficial answers or to take his defensiveness as a potential sign of a more serious struggle. I consistently misinterpreted him. I also failed to consider the effects of my admiration for him, and the approval I sought from him. I allowed the good that I saw in him publicly and privately when we were together to dictate my conclusions as to whether he was innocent or guilty.”
In February of 2021, RZIM released the report detailing years of sexual abuse and secret sins that Ravi Zacharias was embroiled with, including sexting and repeatedly propositioning women for sex and sexual activities during and after his massages, effectively living a double life for decades.
While RZIM CEO Sarah Davis, daughter to Ravi Zacharias has released her own statement apologizing for the role she and her organization played in covering up the abuse, his son Nathan and wife Marge have not apologized, but rather have insisted that their father and husband is innocent of all charges and has been set up.
In a post on Twitter, Lori Anne Thompson responded to Ramsden’s video, telling him that she accepts his apology “unreservedly”
Thank you for taking a few moments to allow me to share a few things with you.
In February 2021, the RZIM board made a statement, acknowledging the pride and arrogance that led us to trust Ravi Zacharias, his account of his actions. I made this statement my own earlier this year, and would like to reiterate my wholehearted agreement with it.
In that statement, we recognize the need for us to listen, learn, confess, repent, and make restitution. Over the past few months, I have begun that journey. And while I know I have much left to learn, there was a great deal I am convicted of, and wish to openly share and repent of now. What I’m about to say is far from being complete, or comprehensive, there are so many things I still have yet to learn to see, recognize and process. And I realized it’s also taken a long time to get here.
In making this statement now, I do know that there is so much more yet to come. I look to Ravi Zacharias as a mentor and spiritual father, and have been stunned at the depth and duration of his abuse and deception. It has taken this time to even begin to process this. I’m sorry for my long silence, and recognize that my own processing pales in comparison to that of Ravi’s victims. Not only because of the agony that you have personally experienced but because I recognize with great sorrow, that for many of you, silence was not a choice.
I completely trusted various deceptive narratives and accounts. And I was wrong. I realize that in passing on those false accounts to others, and in speaking in his defense, I have greatly multiplied the pain, the hurt, and the damage that’s been felt and experienced by many.
To each and every one of you who has been abused by Ravi Zacharias. I believe your testimonies about the horrific abuses that you suffered, and also the terrible consequences you’ve had to endure and live with. During the course of the 2020 investigation, many of you decided to remain anonymous. But we know that you are real people with real names, and that real damage has been inflicted, both on you and your families. What happened here matters so much, because you matter. And I’m so sorry that I failed by not hearing you sooner.
I admired Ravi Zacharias as a person, and as a leader. I trusted him and thought I knew him. I was wrong. In 2017, I believe the false accounts that he gave, and came to the conclusion that he was a victim, when in fact, it was actually Lorie Anne Thompson, who had been victimized by him. I’ve come to recognize many failings during this time, which I need to confess now.
First, I failed to treat Lori Anne Thompson with the respect that she deserved, by not hearing her or understanding what she was saying. Many times increasing the hurt and pain that she had already suffered. And in doing this, I failed not only her but also her husband, Brad, her family, and those who spoke up for her and on her behalf. This failure also deeply impacted our team and donors, because in failing to hear and see her, I grossly misrepresented what she was communicating and who she was. I am sorry, and I can only ask for their forgiveness.
I also failed to recognize my own weaknesses, and need to learn. I was convinced that Ravi Zacharias was trustworthy when it came to the issues of his sexual conduct and behavior. As a matter of fact, I believed him to be very naive when it came to these areas. I now realize that I was the one who has being naive. I’ve never been more wrong in my convictions, convictions that hurt and demeaned all of these victims as well. The conviction I carried led many people both internally within the organization and externally, to believe that they could trust Ravi’s account. Because of my trust in Him, many now feel let down not because we now know, but because in 2017, we failed to discover what he had done.
I now realize that I was wrong to trust Ravi for so long. I was wrong to repeat his false narratives, and I was wrong to rush to his defense when his integrity was questioned. At the time, I assumed that the absence of other allegations added weight to the idea that Ravi was innocent. However, I now realize that my assumptions were based on ignorance of the chilling and silencing effect, that Ravi’s lawsuit and the NDA had on any other victims coming forward.
Not only did I think of Ravi more highly than I ought, I also thought of myself more highly than I ought. I thought I’d correctly discerned his weaknesses and struggles. I thought I knew him. In this, I must confess my pride. I mistook his defensiveness for tiredness. I thought this was due to his extensive travels, the pressure he put himself under and tried to speak so often and write so much. And while at times I did question Ravi about his life on the road, and time away from family and the challenges that brings, I realize now that I fail to see beyond the superficial answers, or to take his defensiveness as a potential sign of a more serious struggle. I consistently misinterpreted him.
I also failed to consider the effects of my admiration for him, and the approval I sought from him. I allowed the good that I saw in him publicly and privately when we were together to dictate my conclusions as to whether he was innocent or guilty. I categorically failed Ravi Zacharias and failed everyone affected by what he did. I commit myself to continuing to learn from this and to see the mistakes, errors, and sins that I have committed to do all that I can to ensure that restitution is made.
In 2017, in my role as International Director based in the UK, my responsibility was to look after the leaders of our speaking teams around the world. As I look back, I wish I had used the influence I had to more deeply question the investigative processes that looked into Ravi’s behavior. I regret the weight that I placed on these processes that were examining him, especially those which were conducted by third parties. And I further regret that I didn’t question the rigorousness and efficacy of the outcomes of those investigative processes. I should have sought to assure myself of the nature of the processes and the strength of their outcomes, rather than accepting things at face value, and reassuring the team.
I realize my strong encouragement to others to put trust in these things as well, had a quelling effect on questions both internally and externally, and people felt silenced as a result. I also want to take this opportunity to apologize to our team. I did sometimes react with frustration and disappointment at the length of the investigative process. And I recognize that this will have been deeply distressing. And I’m so sorry for this.
I want to learn how to listen better and leave space for questions more. We are currently in the midst of a further external investigation into our processes and into our policies, as well as into our culture, how we conducted ourselves and how we acted. My commitment is that we will have the humility to recognize further failings as we see them and to continue on a path of repentance and confession, as we seek not only to learn from our mistakes but also to bring what we are learning into the future.
The only hope that we have in a situation comes from the hope that we do have in Jesus Christ, hope that is undeserved and cannot be earned. It is the only means of hope that I can see that could carry anyone who has suffered through what Ravi Zacharias has done into the future.
Thank you so much in being so gracious and giving me a few moments of your time.
(Christianity Today) More than 100 students at a Christian boarding school in Nigeria’s northern state of Kaduna were kidnapped early Monday morning.
Shooting wildly, armed assailants breached the walls of Bethel Baptist High School in Maraban Rido on the outskirts of the state capital, Kaduna, at about 2 a.m. on July 5 and took students in the school hostel away at gunpoint, area residents told Morning Star News (MSN).
Efforts were still underway to determine exactly how many students were abducted. A Bethel teacher told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that 140 students were kidnapped while 25 students escaped, but area residents living close to the school told MSN that 179 children were abducted of which only 15 escaped.
Established by Bethel Baptist Church in Kaduna, a member church of the Nigerian Baptist Convention (NBC), the boarding school was attacked after kidnappers overcame security personnel, sources said.
The attack was the fourth mass school kidnapping in Kaduna state since December….
(Faithwire) Prosecutors in Germany have busted one of the world’s largest darknet platforms for child pornography, used by more than 400,000 registered members.
Frankfurt authorities said in a statement Monday that, alongside the Federal Criminal Police Office, they arrested three German suspects in mid-April believed to be the administrators for the website, according to the Associated Press.
One of the three suspects was arrested in Paraguay and Germany has since requested his extradition. The three men, whose names have not been released, are ages 40, 49, and 58, the Evening Standard reported.
The three men allegedly gave site members advice on how to evade law enforcement when using the platform to view, upload, or download illegal child pornography. A fourth suspect, a 64-year-old man, has also been arrested, accused of being one of the platform’s most prolific users, having allegedly uploaded more than 3,500 posts. Much of the content, prosecutors say, contained “images of [the] most severe sexual abuse of toddlers.
(PremiereChristian) One person was killed, another injured and four women kidnapped, after heavily armed men, of Fulani ethnicity, attacked a church service in Chikun Local Government Area (LGA) in southern Kaduna state.
According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide’s (CSW) sources, Zacharia Dogon Yaro, a community extension health worker at the Kaduna State Ministry of Health, was killed in Sunday’s attack at Haske Baptist Church in Manini village. The gunmen also abducted Charity Musa, Rose Zacharia, Alheri Bala and Liatu Zakka, a widow whose husband was murdered in an earlier attack.
Kaduna is increasingly becoming the epicentre of kidnapping and banditry activity in Nigeria. Despite being the headquarters of 11 military installations, Kaduna state has become an epicentre of kidnapping, with levels of insecurity almost matching those in the north east, according to CSW.
A CSW source said: “The kidnappers are expanding their activities, particularly in the rural areas. We are like prisoners. We can hardly step out of the city. Once you’re on the road your heart is in your mouth until you reach your…
Pope Francis has called for the creation of a “new world order” in order to properly navigate and survive a post-pandemic world, according to his new book released today.
Titled God and the World to Come, the Pontiff sat down with Italian journalist Domenico Agasso and made his plea for the “great reset.” The book hits on all the progressive papal platitudes we’ve come to expect from the unusually feisty Francis, including ragging on fossil fuels, capitalism, and military buildup.
Instead of these things, he says we must create an inclusive future that promotes radical environmental and economic policies.
We can no longer blithely accept inequalities and disruptions to the environment.Thepath to humanity’s salvation passes through the creation of a new model of development, which unquestionably focuses on coexistence among peoples in harmony with Creation…There is also an awareness among young people, particularly within ecological movements. If we don’t roll up our sleeves and immediately take care of the Earth, with radical personal and political choices, with an economic ‘green’ turn by directing technological developments in this direction, sooner or later our common home will throw us out the window. We cannot waste any more time.
Then, echoing what Rham Emmanuel said during the 2018 financial crisis (“You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”) Francis explains:
The world will never be the same again. But it is precisely within this calamity that we must grasp those signs which may prove to be the cornerstones of reconstruction…Let us all keep in mind that there is something worse than this crisis: the drama of wasting it. We cannot emerge from a crisis the same as before: we either come out better or we come out worse…What is happening can awaken everyone. It is time to remove social injustice and marginalization. If we seize the current trial as an opportunity, we can prepare for tomorrow under the banner of human fraternity.
It is this utopia that we ought to pursue, and must not waste it by “closing in on ourselves.” This will how we obtain a new world order.
Instead, we can heal injustice by building a new world order based on solidarity, studying innovative methods to eradicate bullying, poverty and corruption, all working together, each for their own part, without delegating and passing the buck. Also by working to provide healthcare for all. In this way, by practicing and demonstrating social cohesion, we will be able to rise again.
(Reuters ) Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt Jr., the self-described “smut peddler” who used his pornography empire and flair for the outrageous to push the limits of free speech and good taste, died on Wednesday at the age of 78, his publicist said.
Flynt, suffering from a variety of health problems since a 1978 assassination attempt that left him a paraplegic, died “from the recent onset of a sudden illness,” according to Minda Gowen, spokeswoman for Larry Flynt Publications, which runs the adult entertainment business he founded.
Flynt died in his sleep at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, with his wife, Liz, and daughter, Theresa, at his bedside, Gowen said in a statement.
Celebrated by some as a free-speech provocateur and reviled by others as a profiteer of sexual exploitation and misogyny, Flynt was renowned for taunting critics with such outlandish stunts as appearing in court wearing a diaper made from an American flag.
In the most famous of numerous legal battles in which he was embroiled, the U.S. Supreme Court rendered a landmark ruling in favor of Flynt in a libel lawsuit brought against him by evangelist Jerry Falwell…
A Romanian Orthodox priest sinks a child during a baptism at a church in Bucharest in May 2014.
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A six-week-old child has died after suffering a heart attack during a baptism ceremony in an Orthodox Church in Romania, according to reports.
The incident happened in the city of Suceava at the “Church” of St. Constantin and Elena, where according to Orthodox ordinances, the baby was completely submerged three times for the ceremony.
Emerging unresponsive, he was rushed to the hospital where he was resuscitated and put on a ventilator, then succumbed to his injuries.
According to the child’s father, during the autopsy doctors found 110 mm of liquid in the baby’s lungs.
He told local paper Monitorul de Suceava that he was outraged at the priest’s behavior, particularly because his child was born premature and was “fragile” (Note: We’re using Google Translate for the translation).
The boy was crying, but the priest immersed him three times in water and he inhaled water…
The baby had blood on his nose. I put him face down to get the water out. He didn’t recover.
The priest who performed the baptism, Alexandru Mazarache, was ordained in 2007 and was experienced in the task, having overseeing baptisms for nearly 15 years, according to his Archbishop Doru Budeanu.
Despite the outcry and a petition to cease the practice, he said that the method of baptism will not change, but that “more attention will probably be needed to keep the nose and mouth above the water.”
The baptism was filmed and Police say the priest may be charged with manslaughter.
The Oscar-nominated star of “Juno” and Netflix’s “The Umbrella Academy,” Ellen Page, has announced he she is transgender and that her new name is Elliot. She took to social media explaining how this all came about, writing “Hi friends, I want to share with you that I am trans, my pronouns are he/they and my name is Elliot.”
The 33-year-old actress, who previously came out as gay in 2014, describes herself as transgender and non-binary, believing her gender identity is neither man nor woman. By all accounts, she has not transitioned and still retains her feminine features.
The Star of Juno, Inception, and the Umbrella Academy has been an emotional, aggressive activist for LGBT issues for years, famously calling out Actor Chris Pratt for going to a church that is anti-gay and generally harping anyone who she views as anti-gay or “homophobic.”
If you are a famous actor and you belong to an organization that hates a certain group of people, don’t be surprised if someone simply wonders why it’s not addressed. Being anti LGBTQ is wrong, there aren’t two sides. The damage it causes is severe. Full stop. Sending love to all
