Month: August 2016

10,126: Administration Hits Syria Refugee Target; 0.5% Are Christians

(CNSNews.com) – The Obama administration is expected on Monday – a month ahead of schedule – to achieve its goal of admitting 10,000 Syrian refugees this fiscal year.

As of late Sunday, 9,902 had been resettled in the United States, but more than 200 more are expected to arrive from Jordan and surrounding areas over the next day. U.S. Ambassador to Jordan Alice Wells told reporters the 10,000 target announced by President Obama last September will be reached on Monday.

Barring an unlikely last-minute shift, the number of Christians among the 10,000 will be less than half of one percent.

Of the 9,902 before Monday’s arrivals, just 47 (0.47 percent) are Christians, according to State Department Refugee Processing Center data.

The vast majority of the Syrian refugees permitted to resettle in the United States are Sunni Muslims – 9,726 of the 9,902, or 98.2 percent. Another 20 are Shi’a Muslims, and a further 85 are identified in the data simply as Muslims.

The 47 Christians comprise seven Catholics, four Protestants, six Orthodox, one Greek Orthodox and 29 refugees self-reported simply as “Christian.”

Apart from the Muslims and Christians, others admitted during FY 2016 are 14 Yazidis, four Jehovah’s Witnesses, five refugees identified as “other religion,” and one as having “no religion.”

The drawn-out and complex Syrian civil war, which began with a crackdown on dissent in March 2011, has seen numerous act of terror and evident war crimes committed by the Assad regime and its allies, Islamist extremists and other combatants. Millions of Syrians have fled their homeland.

Obama announced last fall that the U.S. would admit 10,000 refugees from Syria during the fiscal year – a six-fold increase from the total 1,682 admissions in FY 2015, which in turn was up from a mere 105 in FY 2014 and 36 in FY 2013.

The initiative took off slowly: By the end of January – one-third of the way through FY 2016 – only 841 Syrian refugees had been admitted.

Then in February the State Department set up a refugee resettlement “surge” center in Amman, Jordan, drastically reducing application processing times.

Between February and April, Department of Homeland Security officers carried out interviews in Jordan with around 12,000 Syrian refugee applicants referred by the U.N. refugee agency, Assistant Secretary of State Anne Richard told a briefing earlier this month. She described the screening as “rigorous and exhaustive.”  Original Publication

A dramatic spiritual paradigm shift is taking place in the western world. At the end of last week, I discussed the fact that more Americans than ever before appear to be turning away from the Christian faith, and this is particularly true among our young people. And while it is undeniable that atheism and agnosticism are both growing rapidly, it is also important to point out that other faiths are on the rise in the western world at the exact same time that Christianity is shrinking. If you are a Christian, what you are about to read should concern you greatly.

Let’s start with witchcraft. It has been estimated that Wicca (one very popular form of witchcraft) is now the fastest growing faith in America. Books and movies featuring Harry Potter and others that use “magic” for good have fueled a tremendous amount of interest in the dark arts these days. Just consider the following excerpt from a Salon article that was published earlier this month…

Stores specializing in metaphysical sundries (think ritual candles, blended oils, sacred herbs) like Spellbound Sky and House of Intuition in Los Angeles, while not brand-new, are suddenly crowded. In Brooklyn, Witches of Bushwick has evolved from a venue on the underground party circuit to a social collective that celebrates witchcraft as a feminist art and collaborates with fashion companies like Chromat. Of course, for those who prefer whipping up potions at home, several new witch- and occult-themed subscription boxes deliver the magical arts to the doorstep.

And social media has enabled young people interested in magic to connect with one another in a way that we have never seen before. Here is more from Salon…

Check social media: A search for #witch on Instagram yields about 2,375,000 posts — whereas one for #kardashian scores only 1,630,000. Search next time at a boutique: Tarot decks are coming back in high style, thanks to retailers like the Wild Unknown — its artful cards are in stores across the country, from upscale meccas like ABC Home in New York City to indie hot spots like Skylark in Venice Beach, California. K-Hole was right, “mysticore” is the new norm.

Yes, there are still many more Christians than witches in America.  Original Publication

“He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them “Mankind” when they were created. (Genesis 5:2 NIV)

Poor God. He, or maybe I should say, “It,” was so behind the times. If the deity had only gone to Princeton University and had its consciousness raised…

Princeton, that once great school whose purpose at its founding in 1746 was to train ministers and whose motto remains Dei Sub Numine Viget (Under God’s Power She Flourishes), has, like other schools of “higher” learning, jumped into the deep end of the pool of political correctness.

Just in time for the fall semester, Princeton has issued “Guidelines for Using Gender Inclusive Language.” The guidelines, approved by the university’s Office of Human Resources and Office of Communications and endorsed by the Orwellian-like Institutional Equity Planning Group as a preferred University practice, show you where this is headed.

“Gender-inclusive language is writing and speaking about people in a manner that does not use gender-based words,” says the guidelines. “Gender binary is the traditional view on human gender, which does not take into consideration individuals who identify as otherwise, including and not limited to transgender, genderqueer, gender nonconforming, and/or intersex.”

Gone are references to men and women, male and female. It’s what’s in your head, not your genitalia, that defines you and me.

Though Princeton insists this is not policy, merely guidelines, and no words are banned, it encourages the use of a vocabulary that is more gender neutral. So, instead of man and wife use spouses or partners. Instead of man made, use artificial, handmade, manufactured, synthetic. Gone is the verb to man, as in to work something, instead use to operate or to staff. Throw out workmanlike and replace it with skillful.

No more actresses, only actors. Coed? Out. Replaced by student. Forefathers? Gone. Ancestors is the preferred word. Forget freshman. It’s now first-year student or frosh.

If students play Scrabble on campus, this could be a problem. A search of WordFind.com turns up scores of words with man in them. They include manifest. How will history students be able to study Manifest Destiny, a philosophy central to the creation and sustaining of America? What about the manna from Heaven eaten by the ancient Israelites? OK, that’s easy. It can be called bread. Will they no longer serve a Manwich in the Princeton cafeteria?

Original Publication