Month: February 2022

Israel Strongly Condemns Russia Attacks Against Ukraine

Knowing firsthand how it feels to have their exitance as a people and country threatened to be annihilated, Israel has strongly condemned the action of Russia and president Putin against Ukraine. “The Russian attack on Ukraine is a serious violation of the international order,” Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said. “Israel condemns the attack, and is ready and prepared to provide humanitarian assistance to the citizens of Ukraine.” Lapid added that “Israel is a country that has experienced wars, and war is not the way to resolve conflicts. The first hours and days of any war are also the last time you can still stop and return to the negotiating table, mediated by world powers, to settle disputes peacefully.” Read more about Israel’s stand here. 

New California Law Forces Doctors To Participate In Assisted Suicide

A new California law known as SB380, has doctors worried that they will be forced to go against their religious beliefs and participate in assisted suicide. now some concerned are suing the state for violating their religious liberty rights. Although the text of the law says physicians who object to assisted suicide “shall not be required to participate,” the law actually requires all doctors to participate at the beginning of the process, according to the suit. That’s because a doctor who opposes the law must still write the date of an individual’s request for end-of-life drugs “in the medical record” and then transfer the record “with documentation” to a “new health care provider or health care entity,” according to the law’s text. Read more about the lawsuit here.

New Poll Shows Less Than Half Of Americans Trust Pastors

According to new data from Barna Research Group, less than half of American adults, including non-Christians, find pastors to be “very reliable” sources of wisdom when it comes to spiritual matters. The research, which asked whether pastors are seen as trustworthy sources of wisdom, found that 57 percent of Americans generally agreed that pastors were “somewhat” reliable and 23 percent of American adults agreed that pastors are “definitely” a “trustworthy source of wisdom.” Thirty-one percent of Christians said pastors are “definitely” trustworthy, while just four percent of non-Christians said the same thing. Less than half of Christians (44 percent) considered pastors to be “very reliable” when addressing spiritual matters, while another 39 percent found them “somewhat reliable.” Read more about the research here.

Research Shows Mental Speed Of Brain Slows Down Much Later Than Thought

Mental speed of our brain as we age slows down much later than previously thought. Psychologists at Heidelberg University have come to this conclusion. Under the leadership of Dr Mischa von Krause and Dr Stefan Radev, they evaluated data from a large-scale online experiment with over a million participants. The findings of the new study suggest that the speed of cognitive information processing remains largely stable between the ages of 20 and 60, and only deteriorates at higher ages. The Heidelberg researchers have hereby called into question the assumption to date that mental speed starts to decline already in early adulthood. Another finding of the study was that average information processing speed only progressively declined with participants over the age of 60. Read more about the findings here. 

Franklin Graham Under Fire For Asking People To Prayer For Vladimir Putin 

Evangelist Franklin Graham has been criticized after he urged Christians to pray for Russian president Vladimir Putin amid rising tensions in the Ukrainian-Russian border. “Pray for President Putin today. This may sound like a strange request, but we need to pray that God would work in his heart so that war – and the loss of thousands of lives – could be avoided at all cost,” Graham wrote on his social media. But request sparked criticism from some. The pastor’s critics immediately went to work expressing outrage at the idea that he would pray for Russian President Vladimir Putin rather than President Biden or Ukraine even if it was to call for peace. Read more about the complaints here.

Texas Attorney general Sues Christian Influencer For Scamming Clients

Brittany Dawn Davis, a fitness and Christianity influencer from Fort Worth, is being sued by the state of Texas for promising her followers personalized exercise and nutrition plans that never materialized. Davis’s website promised clients that her Brittany Dawn Fitness (BDF) crew would be with them “every step of the way”, but instead her followers received a generic diet and workout plan not unique to them. The state believes this amounts to “deceptive trade practices” and is seeking damages from $250,000 up to $1m. Davis has since pivoted to lifestyle and religious content. She now hosts Christian retreats in different cities across Texas and charges $125 for admission. Read more about the lawsuit here.

Discovery Plus Releasing Documentary About Hillsong Church Abuses

The interim global senior pastor of the embattled Hillsong group of churches is accusing producers of an upcoming docuseries of aiming “simply to hurt the church.” Speaking in a global simulcast this past Sunday, Pastor Phil Dooley claimed the docuseries, premiering March 24 on Discovery Plus, paints a picture “far removed from . . . the truth of who we are.” He added, “There are also producers behind this documentary and their purpose is not the healing of people, but simply to hurt the church.” Discovery Plus on Thursday released the trailer for its upcoming original three-part documentary series about Hillsong church, saying it will “explore the high-profile, star-studded church’s alleged exploitation, abuse and cover-ups” of the global movement. Read more about the documentary here.

Huge Black Diamond With Unknown Origin Sells For $4.3 Million

With a final closing bid of $4.28 million, an anonymous buyer just became the new owner of the 555.55-carat black diamond known as the Enigma. The sale of this bizarre stone has reignited a long-simmering debate about where it came from, stoked by the controversial theory that it may have arrived from outer space. “The Enigma” is a carbonado diamond, which is found in deposits close to, or on, the Earth’s surface, indicating that it could have come from space. “It is thought that this specific type of black diamond was created either from meteoric impacts producing natural chemical vapor deposition or an extraterrestrial origin — from supernovae explosions that formed diamond-bearing asteroids which ultimately collided with the Earth,” Sotheby’s explained. Read more about the diamond here.