A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – Same-sex marriage advocates see Christian baker Jack Phillips’ actions as discrimination. People of faith say his case is a matter of freedom of conscience.

How will the U.S. Supreme Court view the Colorado cake artist’s decision to decline making a wedding cake for a gay couple? Oral arguments begin Tuesday.

“The Supreme Court is gonna pursue based on the way the argument is framed by the petitioners,” Lynne Marie Kohm, a professor at the Regent University School of Law, told CBN News. [ Source: CBN News (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – What would you say if you found out your tax dollars were indirectly going to pay Palestinian Arab terrorists to murder Israeli Jews and others? A new bill passed in the House now makes that impossible.

On Tuesday, the U.S. House unanimously approved the Taylor Force Act (H.R. 1164) which pressures the Palestinian Authority (P.A.) to stop the practice of paying convicted terrorists and their families by eliminating U.S. funding to the P.A. unless it stops these types of payments.

The bill was authored by Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo. and Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y. The bipartisan legislation passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Nov. 15 in a unanimous vote. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – After waiting more than two decades, churches in Egypt finally are allowed to rebuild their houses of worship, according to World Watch Monitor.

In the southern rural part of the country, in an area known as the Minya governorate, the governor gave 21 churches the green light to rebuild and expand.

Some analysts point to the fact that the permits came before several visits by international delegations of evangelicals to Cairo. [ Source: CBN News (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Palestinians burned pictures of US President Donald Trump in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Tuesday night, as anger ramped up over an expected announcement by Trump Wednesday of US recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Israeli troops girded for the possibility of violence.

The picture-burning protest came hours after Trump told the leaders of the Palestinian Authority and Jordan in phone calls that he intends to move the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, despite intense Arab and Muslim opposition to a move that would alter decades of US policy and risk potentially violent protests. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Illegal border crossing tumbled to a 45-year low and interior arrests of illegal immigrants soared in 2017, according to data released Tuesday that showed President Trump’s enforcement crackdown netted tangible results during his first year on the job.

The numbers, released by the Department of Homeland Security, reflected a stunning turnaround from the nearly nonexistent interior enforcement of immigration laws under President Obama.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 310,531 apprehensions nationwide in fiscal 2017, which ended Sept. 30, a decline of 25 percent from a year earlier and the lowest level since 1971. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – From the moment Donald Trump secured the Republican nomination and then the presidency, national security officials under President Obama have shown themselves to be intense adversaries in public and behind the scenes.

In the latest development, special counsel Robert Mueller’s top-gun prosecutor, Andrew Weissmann, praised acting Attorney General Sally Yates, a Trump nemesis, for refusing a White House order to defend the president’s travel ban on Muslim-majority countries, according to internal emails.

Mr. Weissmann made it clear whose side he was on.

“I am so proud,” Mr. Weissmann wrote to Ms. Yates when he was the head of the Obama Justice Department’s criminal fraud division. “And in awe. Thank you so much. All my deepest respect.” [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Facing a surge of pressure from his fellow Democrats, Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) stepped down from Congress on Tuesday over mounting allegations of sexual harassment, marking an extraordinary fall for the longest-serving member.

Speaking to a Michigan radio station, the 88-year-old Conyers was defiant in both maintaining his innocence and defending a legacy he insisted “can’t be compromised or diminished.”

“This too shall pass,” Conyers, speaking from a hospital, told host Mildred Gaddis. “And I want you to know that my legacy will continue through my children.” [ Source: The Hill (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The destructive Thomas fire finally met a fire line it could not jump: the Pacific Ocean.

The fast-moving, wind-driven wildfire continued to rage through the city of Ventura on Tuesday evening, jumping Highway 33 and burning through oil fields before crossing the 101 Freeway into Solimar Beach, authorities said.

The blaze has consumed 50,500 acres on its journey to the ocean. The 101 remains open, but authorities warned drivers to be cautious traveling through the area.

Thousands of homes were still threatened by flames, 27,000 people were forced to flee, a firefighter was injured and Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency, as some 1,100 personnel continued to battle the blaze. [ Source: LA Times (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in the major religious freedom case of Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission which began when Colorado Christian baker Jack Phillips refused to create a wedding cake for a gay couple’s wedding because he disagrees with same-sex marriage.

Phillips is the owner of the Masterpiece Cakeshop in Denver. He informed Charlie Craig and David Mullins in 2012 that he wouldn’t make a cake for their same-sex wedding due to his religious beliefs. They complained to the Colorado Civil Rights Commission who agreed that Phillips was violating the state’s anti-discrimination law. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case in June.

Phillips is arguing that the Colorado ruling violates the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment. He argues that, as an artist, he cannot be forced to make a cake in opposition to his views. [ Source: Townhall (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his aides have been “active partners” working in “total coordination” with US President Donald Trump and his administration in the lead-up to the president’s anticipated speech Wednesday recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and declaring his intended relocation of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Israel’s Hadashot TV said Tuesday evening.

Trump’s phone call to Netanyahu on Tuesday updating him on his scheduled Wednesday speech was not their first recent conversation on the highly sensitive subject, Hadashot news reported. Netanyahu’s team has been “encouraging, supporting, [and] reassuring” the Trump team over the likely fallout, the TV report said, “and this total coordination came while the Palestinians knew nothing about this move” until very recently. “They’d heard nothing about it.”

Channel 10, meanwhile, said Netanyahu and Israel’s Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer have been privy to the details of what Trump is planning, and had played a key role. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]