Yet another research team has come out with a report against the use of antibacterial soaps. South Korean scientists discovered that antibacterial soaps only kill more bacteria than regular soaps do, if the antibacterial soaps are exposed to the bacteria for hours.

When the antibacterial soaps and the regular soaps were both used for 30 seconds, both killed the same amount of bacteria.

The active ingredient in antibacterial soaps is a product called triclosan. Current law forbids soap manufacturers from using more than 0.3 percent of it in antibacterial soaps. The South Korean researchers found that such a weak percentage of triclosan means it does not kill more bacteria than regular soap and water. They discovered the percentage of triclosan needs to be much greater than 0.3 percent to kill substantially more bacteria than regular soap.

However, don’t let that 0.3 percent of triclosan make you think it’s safe. As it turns out, it could be harmful in a number of ways, according to years of research that has even gotten the attention of the Food and Drug Administration.

In fact, the FDA is considering banning triclosan unless soap manufacturers can prove that it’s safe.

The FDA is concerned about reports that triclosan causes hormonal disruption. Equally concerning is the theory that triclosan contributes to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This is because when we use antibacterial soaps, the residue goes down the drain and ultimately into our water supply. So we end up drinking the stuff. Plus, the triclosan-tainted water is used to grow the foods we eat.

Remember, we only want to kill some bacteria. Much of the bacteria in our bodies, especially in our gut, are good, and we need them to maintain a healthy immune system. If we do away with all the bacteria in our gut we can suffer all kinds of bowel trouble and more.

So as cold and flu season approaches, remember the best way to prevent against getting sick is to wash your hands often. But just use regular soap and water. Ideally, use warm water and lather for at least 20 seconds, or about the time it takes to sing the “Happy Birthday” song twice.

Lorie Johnson is the medical reporter for CBN News. For the original article, visit .

Donald Trump sat down with The Brody File at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C., Friday and talked about whether he prays and what he prays for. Watch the answer below.

An avowed secular atheist and member of the Humanist Society stood in court recently and asked to have his group recognized as a religious organization, so he could serve as a Navy chaplain. What the court did not hear is that the Humanist Society is part of the American Humanist Association, an atheist organization that publicly mocks all religious beliefs.

For soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who need it, chaplains perform religious services, pray on the battlefield, ensure access to religious Scripture, and provide religious comfort to the men and women in the field and to their families back at home. These atheists cannot do that.

Military chaplains predate the founding of our country. As commander of the Continental Army, General George Washington ensured that chaplains were available to meet the religious needs of our nation’s soldiers. Just like today, service members were uprooted from their communities, and deployed to serve for months and years at a time. That is why our courts have confirmed that denying men and women in the military access to chaplains would violate both the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

It should not even be a matter of discussion that atheists cannot fulfill the spiritual needs of our troops. There are already limited spots for chaplains in the military.

Considering the broad diversity of America’s service members, not every soldier gets a chaplain of his own faith. That is why chaplains must be able to support and respect the value of religion generally and the rights of every religious believer individually.

In the end, a soldier dying on the battlefield deserves to know that the chaplain coming to his aid respects his religious beliefs, and does not mock or belittle them.

The Humanist Society is an atheist organization and cannot fill any religious role in the military without depriving our troops of a vital constitutional right.

For the original article, visit Eagle Forum.

Three people have been arrested in connection with the recent bombing of two churches in Nepal’s easternmost Jhapa district.

The bombings took place on September 14, hours after Nepal’s Constituent Assembly had rejected calls to revert the country to a Hindu state. Both churches suffered structural damage, but nobody was hurt.

Bombs were also planted at two other churches, but police successfully defused one, while another exploded, injuring two policemen, after it had been removed from the church.

Pamphlets promoting the radical Hindu organisation, Hindu Morcha Nepal, were reportedly found at each of the churches.

Those arrested were Ram Bhandari, 51, Krishna Chudal, 56, and Ramchandra Baniya, 45. Police said they were still hunting four further suspects, including the suspected ringleader, Madhav Bhandari, who is believed to have been behind the creation of the Hindu Morcha Nepal group, which was formed by merging six nationalist groups, including Nepal Shiv Sena.

Hindu Morcha Nepal has published a press statement, calling for Christian leaders to leave Nepal and for converts to Christianity to return to Hinduism. The group says the “Christianization” of Nepal is the main cause of disruption to Nepal’s religious unity and that it wants Nepal to return to its former status as a Hindu Kingdom.

“From today, the Morcha declares Nepal a Christian-free Hindu nation. We warn all the Christian religious leaders to leave Nepal, and appeal to all those who converted to Christianity to return home [convert back to Hinduism],” says the statement.

The group also demands serious discussions about amending the constitution, threatening strikes if no action is taken by authorities.

Hindu Morcha Nepal says the authorities did not take into account the will of the Nepali people, and instead only considered the opinion of 2 percent of the population, which roughly equates to the Christian population of Nepal.

Nepal became a secular state in 2007, after the abolition of the monarchy a year before, but the country has witnessed a rise in Hindu nationalism, led by the Rastirya Prajatantra Party Nepal (RPP-N).

Christians feared that removing the term secularism from the constitution would embolden nationalists, as World Watch Monitor reported in August.

Although Nepal stayed secular, Christians remain fearful following the adoption on September 20 of a constitution which included controversial amendments to Article 31(3), which now states: “Any act to convert another person from one religion to another, or any act or behaviour to undermine or jeopardise the religion of another [will be] punishable by law”.

Attempting to convert someone to another religion was already prohibited in Nepal, but the amendments mean that anything perceived as “evangelistic” is now punishable by law. Christians fear this could eventually render all Christian activity illegal.

Background

One of the groups subsumed by Hindu Morcha Nepal was the Nepal Defence Army (NDA), the former head of which, Ram Prasad Mainali, was recently released from prison.

World Watch Monitor interviewed him in 2009, while he was serving a prison sentence for the bombing of a Catholic church in Kathmandu.

Two people were killed and a dozen others injured in the 2009 blast at the parish of Our Lady of the Assumption. Mainali told World Watch Monitor he regretted his actions and had repented of his crime, since becoming interested in Christianity.

However, Nepali investigators later claimed he had only pretended to repent in order to disguise the terrorist activities he was still engaged in from prison. In March 2011, six suspected colleagues of Mainali were arrested while in possession of powerful “socket bombs”.

Mainali had earlier told World Watch Monitor that he formed the NDA in 2007 with the support of Hindu nationalists in India to re-establish the Hindu monarchy.

The NDA was believed to be responsible for several bombings of mosques and churches, killing Muslims and Christians, including the Rev. John Prakash Moyalan, a Catholic priest, in 2008.

I was in prayer and thinking about our nation. I was discerning how to pray for a nation that is going away from God and the principles we were supposedly founded upon.

I thought, “how do people pray who aren’t passionate about our country? How do people pray who don’t support what is going on in the government? How do people pray when they are not passionate about intercession and praying for our government and country?  How do people pray when they don’t know if their prayers will produce the change they desire?”

We pray and we pray in faith. We cannot stop praying for our country and government whether we support it or not.  I have heard people say they are not passionate about praying for our country, but shouldn’t we be? Our government has control over things that affects us, therefore we should be praying for our government, country and leaders, but how do we pray?

Here are some prayer points I hope will assist you in praying for your nation!

• Pray the Word of God. Search your Bible and pray for conviction for people to change their ways and come to know the Lord Jesus Christ.
• That God’s salvation may reach to the ends of the earth (Is. 49:6).
• That creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Rom. 8:21).
• “Repent, turn away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your abominations” (Ez. 14:6).
• “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!” (Joel 3:14).
• God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ (Col. 4:3).
• “The gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the world” (Matt. 24:14).
• “Every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Phil. 2:11).
• Humble yourself with prayer and fasting on behalf of your country. Jesus instructed us to fast and pray. He modeled a life of fasting and prayer. We too can fast and pray for our nation and government leaders.
• “If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chr. 7:14).
• Pray during your prayer time that the Holy Spirit would convict our leaders to make righteous decisions, according to the Word of God. Pray for people to hold their congressmen and government officials accountable to their promises. Pray for people to appoint godly officials with conservative beliefs. Pray for leaders with conservative Christian beliefs to come into offices. Pray for the conviction of wrong decisions and beliefs, that the Holy Spirit would convict them and they would act on the conviction they receive.
• “When He comes, He will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment” (John 16:8).
• Declare and decree out for change to come and call forth the goodness of God to manifest in the lives of all people.
• Penetrate this country, God, with the magnificence of your presence and power. Show your people by demonstration of your greatness!
• His goodness and power shall prevail and the gates of heaven shall be opened on behalf of this land.
• Conviction come upon the leaders to work together in unity and harmony for the country and the kingdom of God.
• Call the backslidden to come back to God.
• Call forth the love of God to saturate this country and the people.
• Ask God for this country as His inheritance and possession. “Ask of Me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession” (Ps. 2:8).
• Speak that favor will surround us.  “For You, LORD, will bless the righteous; You surround him with favor like a shield” (Ps. 5:12).

We cannot step aside and say it is not my responsibility or passion to pray for my country or government. We shouldn’t complain about what the government is doing and talk idle chatter about the decisions being made if we are not actively praying for the change we desire to happen. We have to be active participants in praying to bring change and revival, and not merely spectators.

The truth is you may be upset and not agree with the decisions of the government and country in which you are living, but with God all things are possible through the power of prayer. Pray for your country and call forth the goodness of God to saturate His people! 

Kathy DeGraw is the founder of DeGraw Ministries, a ministry releasing the love and power of God.  She travels hosting conferences, teaching schools and evangelistic love tours.  She has led prayer and healing services for over 15 years. She travels to Washington, D.C. once a year to pray for her nation and currently stops at state capitols all over the U.S. on her love tours. Connect with Kathy at .

Republican U.S. Representative Kevin McCarthy, the leading candidate to be the next House speaker, voiced sharp disagreement with President Barack Obama’s foreign policy on Monday with calls for a tougher response to Islamic State and Russian aggression in Ukraine.

McCarthy was strongly critical of the Democratic president in a speech that could increase his appeal to hard-line conservatives who sought to oust the current speaker, John Boehner. Boehner abruptly announced his resignation on Friday.

“The absence of leadership over the past six years has had horrific consequences all across the globe, and it is getting worse day by day,” McCarthy said in a speech to the John Hay Initiative, an organization of Republican foreign policy veterans.

McCarthy, 50, who as majority leader is the No. 2 House Republican, has emerged as the most likely candidate to be elected to succeed Boehner as speaker. The California congressman formally announced later on Monday that he had decided to run.

In his speech, McCarthy provided a list of foreign policy suggestions that largely conflicted with Obama administration policies.

There has been little common ground between congressional Republicans and Obama on foreign policy during Obama’s time in office, and McCarthy’s comments made clear that was unlikely to change if he were to become speaker.

He spoke on the same day that Obama gave a major foreign policy speech at the annual U.N. General Assembly. 

McCarthy said the United States should provide lethal aid to Ukraine as it faces Russian aggression and target Russia’s Gazprom energy company. He also spelled out strong opposition to the nuclear deal with Iran, calling for tougher sanctions.

McCarthy backed measures to deal with the crisis in Syria, including a no-fly zone in northern Syria and tougher measures against Islamic State militants. And he said the United States should consider putting U.S. Special Forces troops on the ground to help call in air strikes and provide more support for the Iraqi army and Kurds fighting the group, which has conquered wide swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq.

“We must wage this war against radical Islam as if our life depended on it, because it does,” McCarthy said. {eoa}

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Bernard Orr and Jonathan Oatis)

© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.

The saturation of sexual immorality, sexual perversion, glorification of gender confusion, extreme violence, profanity, and substance abuse paints a terrible picture of America in 2015, making us wonder again if entertainment influences culture, reflects culture, or is a combination of both. 

Watch this video for a clear picture of the shift and read the original article for more details.

God help us. Here’s what America’s newly homosexualized, “values neutral” military looks like.

Last week, in a strange fit of actual news reporting, the New York Times published an exposé revealing that, under this Obama administration, the Department of Defense (DOD) is not only permitting the homosexual abuse of little boys at the hands of Muslim allies in Afghanistan, but is effectively facilitating it. A handful of U.S. servicemen have had enough and are courageously blowing the whistle on this unimaginably evil policy. Naturally, they’re being punished and drummed out of the service for doing so.

“Rampant sexual abuse of children has long been a problem in Afghanistan, particularly among armed commanders who dominate much of the rural landscape and can bully the population,” reports the Times. “The practice is called bacha bazi, literally ‘boy play,’ and American soldiers and Marines have been instructed not to intervene—in some cases, not even when their Afghan allies have abused boys on military bases, according to interviews and court records. …”

“At night we can hear them screaming, but we’re not allowed to do anything about it,” Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr. told his father, Gregory Buckley Sr., who recounted his conversation with the Times. “My son said that his officers told him to look the other way because it’s their culture,” Buckley added.

Isn’t multiculturalism peachy?

I sat down with Dr. Judith Reisman, research law professor and director of the Liberty Center for Child Protection, to discuss this shocking development. “Unfortunately, this has been going on for years, with the knowledge of our American government,” she told me. “I just received an email from one of my German child-protection colleagues. She included several links to violent torture films and photos of hundreds of real children being brutalized by animals in horrific scenes. There is no way the FBI, CIA, Interpol and all other policing agencies do not know about this, which is readily accessible.

“Alfred Kinsey’s claim he proved ‘children are sexual from birth’ has been supplemented by slow, devious conditioning of future generations through child pornography in Playboy. Can people be so brainwashed that they really believe we have always been so demonic?” she asks.

Even today, most are completely unaware that during his tenure at Indiana University, Kinsey facilitated, with stopwatches and ledgers, the systematic sexual abuse of hundreds, if not thousands, of children and infants—all in the name of science.

Disturbing though this may be, what’s equally disturbing is that nearly all of today’s liberal “comprehensive sex education” curricula—such as that pushed by extremist groups like the National Education Association (NEA), Planned Parenthood and the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) – is derived entirely from the criminally fraudulent, pro-pedophile “research” of Alfred Kinsey.

What’s even more disturbing is that, in addition to the DOD, Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has likewise embraced the debunked Kinsey sex-education model and has long pushed curricula based upon it.

You may recall, for instance, that during his first term, the Obama administration provided on the HHS “Questions and Answers About Sex” website, a “Quick Guide to Healthy Living” section which, like Kinsey, outrageously claimed that “Children are human beings and therefore sexual beings … which is healthy and normal.”

And what do “sexual beings” do? Well, they have sex, of course. “It’s hard for parents to acknowledge this,” admitted the page.

You think?

So we shouldn’t be surprised in the least that, since Obama repealed the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy a few years back, not only have we seen a massive spike in male-on-male homosexual assaults in the armed services, we now discover that this administration is looking the other way as similar homosexual assaults are being perpetrated against children.

Awhile back, I received this desperate text from a hurting friend. She had discovered that some ministry leaders she greatly admired and who had played a significant role in her spiritual growth had been leading a double life—teaching one thing while covering a blatantly ungodly lifestyle.

“Sleepless night. I am angry; I am hurt; I am scared; I am in unbelief and a host of other things. Been thinking all night how everything I believed was a lie and how I am a fool and realizing how the last fourteen years of my life has been built around two people who today I don’t even know. I hate it all.”

My friend was experiencing the piercing bitterness of betrayal. If you have ever been through something similar, you know it’s natural to feel hurt, sick to your stomach, like your world has been rocked. But while those feelings are natural, they’re not a healthy place to live for an extended period. I trust my response to my friend will bring you comfort, hope, and some practical ideas for how to move on and find healing.

This will not be an easy journey. But He will walk through it with you. He will hold you when you cannot hold yourself. I haven’t been quite where you are. But I have been through intense disillusionment where my faith was deeply shaken. I can tell you that He is faithful and true.

Here are a few thoughts and suggestions as you walk through this painful process:

• Be honest with God about what you are feeling. He can handle it.
• Get some sleep. You have been incredibly depleted by this whole situation. When we are physically depleted, we are more vulnerable to believing things about God that just aren’t true.
• Listen to music that speaks strong biblical truth to your heart. Listen to “Hidden in My Heart” lullaby CDs! Keep them playing; listen over and over and over.
• Park in the Psalms for a while. Read slowly. See how the psalmists cried out to the Lord in their pain and how in time He lifted their heads. Keep reading, even when you don’t believe it or feel it.
• Find a few verses that speak to where you are right now; memorize them and keep reciting them over and over again. I have been doing that recently with Psalm 18:1–3.
• Take walks. Listen to sermons or music as you do. Being sedentary fuels depression and unreliable emotions.
• Don’t draw conclusions based on what you think or feel during the night hours. The enemy seems to create greater fear, doubt, and unbelief during the darkness.
• Meditate on Jeremiah 17:5–10 and Psalm 118:8–9. How does the Lord want to transfer your trust from “men” to Christ?
• These feelings you are experiencing will take time to deal with. That’s OK. It took me eighteen months to walk through my “darkest night of the soul.” The night will not last forever.
• Guard against bitterness. I believe my journey would not have had to be as long as it was if I had not given in to bitterness.
• Be careful about becoming isolated. When you are struggling, reach out to Him and to others. You can’t fight this battle alone. If you try, it will be easier for the enemy to take you under.
• “Don’t doubt in the darkness what you have seen in the light.”

You will come through this, but not because you are strong—”We are weak . . . but He is strong.” In time, you will come to know and believe and love Him in even deeper ways than you ever imagined possible.

Be still before the Lord. Wait patiently for Him. He will not forsake you. He will deliver you. And He will make you an even stronger instrument in His hand. {eoa}

Taken from Nancy Leigh DeMoss‘s blog post “How to Move On When You’ve Been Betrayed.” . Used with permission.

The Senate voted 77-19 Monday to advance a short-term government spending bill, narrowing the chances of a federal shutdown days before Wednesday’s deadline.

The Senate’s continuing resolution leaves intact taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood, shelving a fight that conservatives wanted Republican leadership to wage with President Barack Obama. Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion provider, is under scrutiny following a series of undercover videos.

With the Senate’s vote Monday, Congress now has two days to finalize a spending agreement for Obama to avoid a shutdown.

The spending measure, which funds the government through Dec. 11, is likely to sail through the Senate on final passage Tuesday. It still must be approved by the Republican-led House. The White House has indicated that Obama would sign the “clean” resolution.

Conservatives criticized the Senate’s vote as a missed opportunity to take action against Planned Parenthood.

“Mitch McConnell is protecting government funding for an organization that has been accused of manipulating abortion procedures to secure higher prices for the sale of baby parts from aborted children,” said Russ Vought, vice president of grassroots outreach for Heritage Action, in an email to conservative activists.

House Speaker John Boehner, who announced his resignation Friday, was asked about a potential shutdown on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday. Boehner vowed that the chamber would take up the Senate’s bill despite heated Republican division over its inclusion of federal funds for Planned Parenthood.

Boehner, who shocked his colleagues last week upon announcing he was stepping down in October, added that he would pursue an investigation into Planned Parenthood following the string of undercover videos showing top officials from the group discussing the sale of aborted babies.

“We will also take up a select committee to investigate these horrific videos that we have seen from abortion clinics in several states that really raise questions about the use of federal funds and raise questions about aborted fetuses that are born alive,” he said.

Last week, Senate Democrats blocked a continuing resolution that would have stripped the organization of its $500 million in federal grants. Eight Republican senators split with their party to vote against the measure, leaving the legislation short of the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster and advance.

Though Congress will likely avert a government shutdown this week, the fight over funding for Planned Parenthood is likely only delayed until mid-December as House and Senate Republicans have promised to reignite the defund effort. {eoa}

Natalie Johnson is a news reporter for The Daily Signal and graduate of The Heritage Foundation’s Young Leaders Program.

For the original article, visit The Daily Signal.