Friday, June 05, 2015

New Round of Christian Persecution in Iran; People Who Cut Off Their Own Limbs; Emotions Of Pixar...more


Emotions Of Pixar from Lindsay McCutcheon on Vimeo.
(Go full screen if you can)

New Round of Christian Persecution in Iran ...But in the midst of these major political issues, a number of media reports in recent days have confirmed that Iran’s revolutionary courts have sentenced at least 18 Christian converts to prison for their faith in a new crackdown on Christian believers. The charges include evangelism, “propaganda” against the regime, and creating house churches. Due to the lack of transparency in Iran’s judicial system, the Christians were sentenced to a total of 24 years, but it is unclear how many years of prison was received by each Christian. However, it is important to note that in the past, initial prison sentences have been extended indefinitely. This group of Christians, many of whom were arrested in 2013, were sentenced to prison based upon Article 500 of the Islamic Penal Code, which provides, “Anyone who engages in any type of propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran or in support of opposition groups and associations, shall be sentence to three months to one year of imprisonment.” Obviously, this provision is quite vague and a bit of a catch-all...

Iran Sentences 18 Christians to Prison for Faith in Christianity Crackdown

Kenya: Almost 100 schools forced to close as Christian teachers fear al-Shabaab attacks  ...Jacob Kaimenyi, cabinet secretary for Kenya's Ministry of Education, said that at least 95 public schools have closed indefinitely, and almost another 500 could face the same fate as more than 2,000 teachers have refused to go back to work.

Although the public schools have had to close, Alessandro said the church schools are trying to stay open, even though they have fewer students and teachers...

Suspected Chinese Hackers Stole Data of Millions of US Federal Workers  U.S. officials said hackers in China launched a massive cyberattack on the federal agency responsible for collecting background information on, and issuing security clearances for millions of government employees...

4 million fed workers victimized by hack  ...Administration officials held a conference call Thursday night with federal employee unions to discuss the breach, a few hours after they initially notified the unions of the incident.

“It is vital to know as soon as possible the extent to which, if any, personal information may have been obtained so that affected employees can be notified promptly and encouraged to take all possible steps to protect themselves from financial or other risks,” said Colleen Kelley, national president of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represent 150,000 employees across 31 federal agencies and departments.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, called the cyberattack "among the most shocking" of the recent digital intrusions that have felled government networks.

In the last year, hackers have compromised the White House, State Department, the U.S. weather system and the U.S. Postal Service...
 
Federal Judge Orders Expungement of Teen's Record Who Evangelized in School   ...Michael Leal, a senior at Cascade High School, was suspended in 2014 for sharing his faith with other students. He gave out biblical literature and sometimes preached at school events.

In early September 2014, Leal gave out copies of “How to Know God” during the lunch period. He was taken to the principal’s office and warned that his actions could be offensive.

The next month, Leal handed out tracts during the school’s “bonfire bash.” He also preached until the principal asked him to stop. He did not and the next day he was suspended...

Vatican and Pat Robertson Agree: Don’t Play ‘Charlie, Charlie’
...In April and May, American teens embraced the game and spread it quickly through social media and online video, receiving millions of views on YouTube. It has also gone viral through the hashtag #CharlieCharlieChallenge, receiving more than 1.6 million tweets in recent weeks. This prompted religious leaders from the Vatican, the Bahamas to the Virginia Beach studios of 700 Club televangelist Pat Robertson to condemn the game as a “demonic” summoning of spirits.

“Demons are real. They are not playthings and they are certainly not parlor games. For any little kids to begin to play these games and think it’s cool, it’s not,” Robertson said. “I know what the Bible says about it, but I am just telling you what I am saying about it—they are real. They desire to destroy human beings.”...

People Who Cut Off Their Own Limbs (and Their Enablers) This phenomenon — known in the medical literature as Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID) — is well documented, if not well understood. Some researchers believe the causes are primarily psychological (e.g. the inexplicable idealization, as a child, of an amputee); others blame physiology (a failure of the brain’s body-mapping function to develop properly, causing a limb to seem as if it is not part of the body)...

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