A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – A number of senior church leaders in Perth are coming together to launch Australian Christians for Marriage Equality in support of the ‘yes’ vote in the country’s postal survey on gay marriage.

Anglican, Catholic, Quaker and free church leaders united to join the national campaign in a sign of how the poll is fracturing Australian Christians.

‘Primarily it’s about making Australia a fairer and more just society,’ said the Dean of St George’s Cathedral Perth, Richard Pengelley, who headed the move. [ Source: Christian Today (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – They are being dubbed the ‘footprints of God’ – large sandal-shaped formations in the earth that archaeologists think date back to the time the Israelites entered the Promised Land.

The possible dates of the mysterious formations are causing excitement among Israeli archaeologists because they think they may even be linked to Joshua, who led the Israelites through the desert to the Promised Land after the death of Moses.

Despite the nickname, archaeologists have established that they are in fact manmade, not natural, so they are not God’s literal footprint.

Yet, given the possible timing and their location, they may be His figurative footprint as archaeologists are asking the serious question of whether they were indeed erected by Joshua and his followers. [ Source: Christian Today (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Relying on an automatic translation, Israeli police mistakenly arrested a Palestinian man last week because they thought he had published a Facebook post saying “Hurt them” when what he had really written was “Good morning.”

A spokeswoman for the Israel Police’s West Bank district confirmed to The Times of Israel on Sunday that the man, a construction worker, was arrested “on suspicion of incitement” and released shortly thereafter when the assumption turned out to have been false.

The post that led to the arrest on October 15 was a picture of the man smiling and holding a cup of coffee and a cigarette while standing alongside a bulldozer at a construction site in the Beitar Illit settlement.

Police combined the false translation with the image of the bulldozer — a vehicle that has been used in terror attacks in the past — and assumed the man was intending to do the same. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Hamas is “begging Iran” for help in its armed resistance against Israel, a senior Trump administration official said on Monday, addressing the visit of several Hamas leaders to Tehran over the weekend.

Their visit comes amid talk of Palestinian reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, which have split rule over the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank, respectively, for nearly a decade.

Hamas, which has only brought ruin and misery to Palestinians, now begs Iran for help and again vows to destroy Israel. 1/2

— Jason D. Greenblatt (@jdgreenblatt45) October 23, 2017

Palestinians deserve so much better than this. We must find a better path forward toward peace and prosperity. 2/2

— Jason D. Greenblatt (@jdgreenblatt45) October 23, 2017

“Hamas, which has only brought ruin and misery to Palestinians, now begs Iran for help and again vows to destroy Israel,” wrote Jason Greenblatt, the US’ special representative for international negotiations, on Twitter. “Palestinians deserve so much better than this. We must find a better path forward toward peace and prosperity.” [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Ordinary Iranians reportedly took their grievances against the Tehran regime today to the country’s parliament as a result of what they say are the regime’s plundering of their savings and its corrupt policies.

According to a report and video from an Iranian opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), there were more than 2,000 people protesting outside the country’s parliament, known as the Majlis.

According to various reports, protests started over a financial scandal where thousands of people trusted their lifesavings with government institutions only to lose it or not be allowed to collect on it. The protests started in 2016 but have become increasingly political this year. [ Source: Fox News (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan signed an executive order Monday blocking the state from awarding contracts to companies that support boycotts of Israel.

Hogan said requests for future bids on state contracts will include language certifying that a company has not engaged in a boycott of Israel. The governor, speaking with Jewish leaders by his side at a news conference, also said he is asking the state pension system to divest itself of companies who have participated in the movement known as Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.

BDS was founded in 2005 to protest Israel’s actions toward Palestinians by boycotting Israeli products and companies. Hogan said BDS runs counter to an economic relationship Maryland has sustained for decades with Israel. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – A leading member of the Senate Armed Services Committee has warned that the danger posed by Iran towards Israel is only increasing as the Tehran regime extends its political influence and military footprint across the Middle East.

“It’s a very dangerous advance that Iran is making through northern Iraq and southern Syria,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) told a conference on counterterrorism organized by the Washington, DC-based Hudson Institute on Monday.

Cotton highlighted that Iran’s “aggression against Israel has become much more widespread.”

“For instance, Iran is now providing not just rockets, it’s helping to build precision-guided munitions factories in Syria, on the border with Lebanon, where Hezbollah can manufacture its own precision-guided munitions to use against Israel,” Cotton said. [ Source: Algemeiner (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – A leading member of the Senate Armed Services Committee has warned that the danger posed by Iran towards Israel is only increasing as the Tehran regime extends its political influence and military footprint across the Middle East.

“It’s a very dangerous advance that Iran is making through northern Iraq and southern Syria,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) told a conference on counterterrorism organized by the Washington, DC-based Hudson Institute on Monday.

Cotton highlighted that Iran’s “aggression against Israel has become much more widespread.”

“For instance, Iran is now providing not just rockets, it’s helping to build precision-guided munitions factories in Syria, on the border with Lebanon, where Hezbollah can manufacture its own precision-guided munitions to use against Israel,” Cotton said. [ Source: Algemeiner (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – A Christian magistrate who was fired from his job after he voiced belief that adopted children are better off with hetrosexual couples instead of same-sex couples has lost a court appeal against his former employer.

An employment tribunal in the United Kingdom has ruled that the Kent and Medway National Health Service Trust was justified for refusing to reinstate Richard Page, a 71-year-old non-executive director, after he was suspended for suggesting on national television that children do best when placed with a mom and dad rather than when they are adopted by a same-sex couple.

The U.K. Christian news outlet Premier reports that Page worked for the NHS for two decades but that all changed after the Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT) requested that the NHS Trust Development Authority suspend Page over comments made on BBC defending his views on parenting. [ Source: Christian Post (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – About a quarter of congregations belonging to the Church of England did not have any children for their worship services, according to recently released figures.

In an analysis of church attendance among their congregations during the month of October 2016, the Church of England found that the smallest 25 percent of churches reported 0 children attended on average.

Released last week, the figures also noted that the median or middle church averaged three children per worship service, while the largest 5 percent of churches averaged 35. [ Source: Christian Post (Read More…) ]