Displaying items by tag: North America

Six Jewish parents and two Jewish schools are suing the California Department of Education over their refusal to allow families whose children have special needs to use federal and state funds designated for such students to attend private religious schools. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing the plaintiffs, said that California’s campaign against Jewish children with disabilities and the schools they want to attend is shameful and unconstitutional; adding, ‘We argued in court that the government cannot exclude religious people and schools from a public benefit simply because they are religious.’ Plaintiffs Chaya and Yoni Loffman said, ‘We want to educate our son in a safe, supportive learning environment that meets his unique needs and upholds our shared religious beliefs.’ The court is expected to issue a ruling in the case of Loffman v. California Department of Education in the coming months.

An intense heatwave continues to swelter large swathes of the USA, with temperature records forecast to be broken from coast to coast. Millions of Americans have been urged to avoid going outside. It has been an extreme-weather summer across the continent: brutal heat, a barrage of tornadoes, flooding in the USA and unprecedented wildfires in Canada. Now the Biden administration has introduced an ‘all-of-society response’ to help manage a challenge that is only getting worse. Canada’s government has a strategy geared towards helping the most vulnerable, including older people, indigenous communities, inner-city residents and people who work outside. The US plans new research centres to help underserved communities prepare for future heatwaves, as well as work on a national strategy focused on equity and environmental justice. The administration also plans to gather mayors and indigenous leaders from across the country to meet emergency response officials to discuss what additional tools they may need. Please continue praying for over 140 million people still sizzling under heat alerts which will extend into August.

An event inspired by the Jesus Revolution film depicting  a time in the 60s and 70s when young people turned to Christ in droves was recreated on 2 July. Thousands of people lined the stony pathways leading to California’s Pirates Cove beach to be baptised. Then the queue slowed down as an older gentleman took longer to descend the stairs to publicly express his commitment to the Lord. It was a moment the 85-year-old atheist’s family thought would never happen. Yet his eternal decision was confirmed as he joined a massive baptism of 4,166 people, and may this older man’s story remind us to never stop praying for the lost.

Concerns about the inhumane treatment of migrants along the border with Mexico were made in an email from an unnamed Texas trooper to the state department of public safety. In the email the trooper said they were given orders by Border Security agents to push the Mexicans back into the Rio Grande River and ordered not to give them water despite the extreme heat. Officials in the Lone Star State have been criticised for deploying barrels wrapped in razor wire on the river, which the trooper described as traps, because the wire has increased the risk of drowning by forcing migrants into deeper parts of the river. The email detailed several incidents on the border in Eagle Pass last month, including a pregnant woman being trapped in wire and having a miscarriage and a four-year-old girl fainting from heat exhaustion after soldiers pushed the group she was in back towards Mexico.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, uses the Bible to train its artificial intelligence (AI) speech tool. The project includes recordings of Bible stories, evangelistic messages, Scripture, and songs in more than 6,255 languages and dialects. In a sense, the Bible is helping AI learn other languages. Wycliffe USA Bible Translators have been using machine-assisted drafting for two decades, changing and modifying it as time goes on. Using technology to accelerate Bible translation is a priority. AI is notably beneficial in sign language Bible translation. Less than 2% of the world’s deaf population can access the Gospel in a known sign language, but that is about to change for deaf people in sensitive countries. Putting a deaf believer on camera is too risky in some countries. That’s where the Chameleon avatar project comes in. AI is not perfect yet, but the problems are being corrected to make the avatar smoother and more accurate.

Lorie Smith, who runs a design agency, took Colorado state to court so that she could refuse working on anything promoting gay marriage without being prosecuted. She won her case against an act that includes sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes. We can praise God for the First Amendment that gives everyone the freedom to think and speak as they wish without coercion. The Supreme Court ruling was disappointing for LGBTQ people - but for those who’ve left the LGBTQ lifestyle to follow Jesus, it was marked by a night of worship and prayer hosted by a Spirit-filled church in Georgia. The service was livestreamed across the nation as people humbly cried out to God for the salvation and transformation of 100,000 men and women out of LGBTQ lifestyles and into Christ’s purposes for their lives.

The US Secret Service is investigating how cocaine was found at the White House, with visitor logs and footage combed for clues. The discovery in the West Wing, which contains the Oval Office and other working areas for presidential aides and staff, led to a brief evacuation. Secret Service agents found the powder in a storage facility routinely used by White House staff and guests to store mobile phones. White House staff are permitted to give tours of some parts of the West Wing to friends and family. Visitors who are not accredited staff must store mobile phones and other personal belongings in cubicles.

Intimacy with God Church in Houston believes a personal relationship with God will positively affect generations and return entire families to God’s original design. Recently they decided to spread God’s love in a creative way. They put up posters saying ‘Drive-thru Prayer’ and stood in the street and waited. Many came: more and more were blessed by the love they offered. After praying they made sure to share Christ and handed out tracts and Bibles. Many who experienced their outreach praised the church for a job well done: comments included ‘This is awesome’ and ‘This should be international’.

On 16 June Harvard Medical School (HMS) expressed 'sadness and distress' that their morgue manager Cedric Lodge had sold bodies donated for research on the black market. A federal grand jury charged him and four others with conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods. The son of a woman whose body was donated to HMS for scientific research filed a class-action lawsuit in the Suffolk Superior Court in Boston. It could include the families of 400 people who donated corpses. Lodge allegedly allowed some prospective customers to come to the morgue in person, to select which remains they wished to buy, and took home other body parts or posted them through the mail. Bodies donated to the medical school should only be reserved for research or teaching purposes. Once they are used, the remains are often cremated and returned to their families for burial.

On 22 June, Rear Admiral Mauger of the US coastguard service confirmed that five parts of the Titan submersible vessel had been found. The debris indicated that the Titan had suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’. It had gone missing on 18 June after setting off to explore the wreck of the Titanic. Despite great rescue efforts, hope had been fading of finding it and its five occupants, who had each paid $250,000 for the trip. Earlier, the vessel operator OceanGate said: ‘Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time.’ However, some commentators queried the wisdom of using an unlicensed vessel for such a dangerous trip.