A majority of U.S. Republicans would attend the same-sex wedding of a loved one, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Wednesday, highlighting the political risks for Republican presidential candidates who stake out positions against gay marriage.

Though some Republican White House hopefuls have tried to insert nuance into their positions on gay marriage – something that polling shows most Americans back – their opposition is clear.

Adamant opposition is popular with the party’s conservative wing, whose support is critical in the presidential nominating process.

 The question of whether or not a candidate would attend the gay wedding of a loved one has become an increasingly common litmus test for candidates on the issue.

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush said on Tuesday he would attend the same-sex wedding of someone he cared about. U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, also from Florida, told an interviewer he would do the same, though he opposes gay marriage.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker said he has been to a gay wedding reception but defines marriage as between a man and a woman. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, known for his appeal to the party’s right-leaning Tea Party wing, has said he has not. 

A Reuters/Ipsos poll showed most Republicans across the country would show up for same-sex nuptials.

The poll showed 56 percent of Republicans would attend the gay wedding of a loved one if invited. That compares with 80 percent of Democrats and 70 percent of independents, who said they would go.

Overall, 68 percent of Americans would attend, the poll showed, while 19 percent would not and 13 percent were unsure.

The poll’s results suggests Republicans who stake out strong opposition to gay marriage could be on shaky political ground if their ultimate goal is to win the White House.

Though a right-leaning, anti-marriage position may appeal to important conservative voters in states with early nominating contests such as Iowa and New Hampshire, that stand could hurt an eventual nominee in the general election, in which cross-party appeal and independents play a larger role.

The poll comes as the Supreme Court deliberates a legal challenge to laws prohibiting same-sex unions. Justices appeared sharply divided on Tuesday on whether the U.S. Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage.

The online poll was conducted between April 23-27 and included 1,752 adults aged 18 and older, among them 751 Democrats, 567 Republicans and 248 independents.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll is measured with a credibility interval. It has a credibility interval of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points for all adults, 4.7 percentage points for Republicans, 4.1 percentage points for Democrats, and 7.1 percentage points for independents.

© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. 

At the recent meeting at the United Nations highlighting the persecution of Christians, there was a surprisingly positive report from one presenter who said that the church is growing in Iran, in spite of or because of the persecution of Christians by Muslims.

As already reported, there is plenty of bad news from the region. Each year, 100 million Christians suffer persecution, imprisonment and even death for their sacred religious beliefs. According to The Voice of the Martyrs, a ministry dedicated to assisting the persecuted church worldwide, “more people have died for their faith in Christ in the last 100 years” than in the previous 19 centuries combined.

While it seems in some countries we are literally seeing watching the genocide of Jesus’ followers in the Middle East, the Iranian speaker who now lives in the United States says the church is growing largely because of Christian television being beamed into the country. There is a real spiritual vacuum; people long for a spiritual reality that Islam cannot provide.

Recently I interviewed Christian leaders from three different Muslim nations. One source explained to me that ISIS considers moderate Muslims as infidels, so they also have a “price to pay.” As Shia and Sunni Muslims fight each other, “a Shia mosque being destroyed (one day) and the next day a Sunni mosque being destroyed (isn’t uncommon),” he told me. “And in between, of course, Christians were being smashed especially when they are located under the region of ISIS. So, in general, the Christians are paying a very high price, but other Muslims are suffering too, especially those like the Yazidi people. They pay a very high price exactly like the Christians because they are considered as infidel from the ISIS groups.”  

But, now for some good news. For their security, I am giving no names and being ambiguous about locations. For authenticity, I’m quoting my sources as much as possible within the bullet points. Let the facts speak for themselves. To my knowledge, these stories have never before been reported.

• “The good part of the story, is that God is using this to change the perspective of Christians in front of many Muslims. God is using this to open the eyes and ears of many Muslims to see the reality of who God is. God is not the God of violence. God should be the God of love—should be the good God, the God that the gospel is preached so many of them are coming, seeking and asking about the things of Christianity.  
• “While the Christians under the persecution, they were very giving, very loving, blessing. Every time they were interviewed after such a massacre, they spoke positively toward the country, toward Muslims, forgiving their persecutors, praying for them, asking forgiveness for them which is unheard of.
• “Every time Muslims were killed, their families, their parents asked for revenge. Here, every time they asked for forgiveness so many people started to compare. What is this? What spirit do you have? This is completely out of the box, out of their expectations. So God is using this in a mighty way to bring glory to Himself and to bring people to reconciliation with Him, with themselves and with their community.
• “More than that, now in Egypt, the government is trying to do their best to pay back what the Christians did to save the country. It could have been a civil war between the Christians and Muslims, but because the Christians reacted in a loving and forgiving way, (Christians) saved Egypt. The Muslim community came to us and said, Because of you, God saved Egypt. God saved us because of the church. For the first time, the Muslim community is changing their perspective about the church and Christians.
• “Systematically, the radical Muslim, they are doing something to wipe out, if possible, you know, the Christian community, the radical Muslim. But the moderate Muslim actually is good. They are a friend of Christians. But this radical, they are like terrorists, so they keep attacking.

I’ll close with an incredible story from Indonesia, where Christians showed love to the Muslims who persecuted them. Outside of Afghanistan, Indonesia, is considered the second largest base of the radical, like al-Qaida, even ISIS. Yet the church is growing at a rate of 2 million converts a year. If you missed my report on this, click here.

Persecution in Indonesia is less in the big cities, where most of the problems where laws are passed to keep churches from renting public buildings. But in some of the outlying islands, there is real persecution. One story of Christian love and forgiveness shows why the church is growing. Again, I’m quoting my source, edited only for space and clarity.

• “So there was a village in the east side of Indonesia. One day radical Muslims used this opportunity to that village. The village is mostly Christian, so they burned their houses, killed them, and they came with 500 soldiers with all the weapons. But then the Christians were cornered into a church building inside, so they killed 211 of them in one day and injured about 140 people. And then, the church, you know, next day they buried the dead and it was so sad. And so they made a monument there. (After this the Christians ministered to the Muslims) and because of the love of the Christian many were born again. They accepted Christ; there was a revival.  
• “(So the Christians) began to pray, ‘Lord, we don’t have any building on Sunday to worship You. Can you give us money to rebuild it?’ So when they prayed, God spoke to them, you know, ‘I don’t want you to use the money to rebuild your church first. I want you to collect the first offering and give it to the Muslims who killed you, who persecuted you. Give it to them so they can renovate their mosque also.’ So they obeyed. Very hard for them, you know, because they were the enemy of them. But anyway, after they prayed, they were convinced by God and then they said, ‘OK, God. We want to obey.’ So they took that first offering, which is huge for them, $5,000 U.S. dollars. And then, they brought that money with praise and worship. I think about 2,000 people marched to the next village, you know, with joy, came to them and said, ‘God told us to give you this money to rebuild your village and your facilities.’ The Muslim leader wept. They said, ‘Why you love us? We attacked you. We destroyed your building. Why you love us?’
• “The Christians said, ‘Because Jesus told us to do this.’ They all wept and one of them stood up and said, ‘Hey, Muslim people, we need to do something. Go to the jungle and cut all the bamboo tree and donate it to the church.’ So they took all the bamboo trees and brought it to the church and donated it. So the government was so moved because of this, what the Christians did to the Muslims, so the government decided to give $15,000 U.S. dollars to rebuild the church building and by the help of many churches, you know, the church was able to rebuild and very beautiful, not only the church building but the people now experience tremendous revival. Now they are born again and almost 100 percent of that village become Christian.”

An Oregon judge has ruled that the owners of a Portland-area bakery who refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple should pay the couple $135,000 in damages, state officials said Tuesday.

 Administrative Law Judge Alan McCullough issued a proposed order last week that could mean Sweet Cakes by Melissa bakery owners Aaron and Melissa Klein will have to pay $60,000 in damages to Laurel Bowman-Cryer, and $75,000 in damages to Rachel Bowman-Cryer, for emotional suffering.

In 2013, when the two women were planning their nuptials, the Kleins, citing their religious beliefs, refused to bake the cake. The gay couple married in 2014 after a federal judge struck down the state’s same-sex marriage ban.

The state’s Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) contends the bakery owners violated the state’s anti-discrimination laws because the shop is not a registered religious institution.

 Both sides of the civil rights case have 10 days to either file an exception to the order, or ask for more time to respond, BOLI spokesman Charlie Burr said.

The order will not be final until Commissioner Brad Avakian issues a final decision on the damages, which could include lowering or raising the amount. His decision is expected by summer.

“Our agency is committed to the fair and thorough enforcement of all Oregon civil rights laws including the equality act of 2007,” Burr said.

Under Oregon law, businesses cannot discriminate or refuse service based on sexual orientation.

“The facts of this case clearly demonstrate that the Kleins unlawfully discriminated against the Complainants,” BOLI officials said in a statement.

An attorney for the couple, Paul Thompson, said he could not comment on the case because it is still pending. An attorney for the bakery owners could not immediately be reached for comment.

In response to the proposed order, the bakery owners started a GoFundMe campaign, but it was shut down over the weekend by the crowdfunding website, the bakery’s Facebook page said.

North Carolina-based religious organization Samaritan’s Purse is raising money for the couple in a post on their website entitled: “Help persecuted Christian couple in Oregon fined for refusing to serve lesbians.”

The judge’s ruling was less than the $150,000 sought by administrative prosecutors and did not propose awarding damages for alleged harm from media coverage of the case. 

© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. 

Certain foods can help bring down high cholesterol levels naturally, without the potentially dangerous side effects of statin medications.

“By increasing your intake of soluble fiber you can significantly lower your blood cholesterol levels,” Gabe Mirkin, M.D., author of The Healthy Heart Miracle, tells Newsmax Health.

In fact, some people are able to reduce or eliminate statins by changing their diet.

Here are six super foods that can drive down blood cholesterol:

1. Oats. Start your day with a bowl of oatmeal or cold oat-based cereal like Cheerios. Look for oat cereals with 1-2 grams of soluble fiber per serving.

Add a sliced banana for even more heart-healthy fiber.

“Soluble fiber passes into your colon where bacteria break it down to form short chain fatty acids that help block the formation of LDL, or low-density lipoprotein, the ‘bad’ cholesterol which can cause arterial damage,” says Dr. Mirkin.

2. Beans. They are also rich in soluble fiber and take long to digest so you feel fuller, longer. So they’re an excellent choice if you’re looking to lose weight. There are many choices—from navy, garbanzo, lentils, black-eyed peas and beyond.

3. Nuts. Studies have shown that eating just 2 ounces of nuts daily can lower LDL. Although 80 percent of the calories in nuts come from fat, it’s unsaturated fat, which helps lower LDL levels, decreases risk of blood clots and improves the lining of your arteries. Walnuts, almonds and hazelnuts are three excellent choices.

4. Foods fortified with sterols. Sterols and stanols are plant extracts that help prevent the body from absorbing cholesterol from food. Foods commonly supplemented with serols include granola bars and yogurt.

5. Fatty fish. Eating at least two servings of salmon, trout, mackerel or other cold water fish has many heart-healthy benefits.

Fish contains omega-3 fatty acids that drive LDL down and boost the HDL or high-density lipoprotein often referred to as “good” cholesterol.

Omega-3 fatty acids also help prevent inflammation that can lead to dangerous plaque buildup in arteries.

6. Garlic. UCLA cardiologist Dr. Matthew Budoff has conducted exhaustive research on the heart-boosting benefits of garlic.

“My studies have shown that garlic lowers cholesterol, reduces the risk of blood clotting, reduces the buildup of plaque, and, in some cases, even reverses plaque buildup,” he says.

Budoff recommends taking aged garlic extract supplements.

For the original article, visit .

The death toll from the devastating earthquake in Nepal four days ago passed 5,000 on Wednesday as officials conceded they had made mistakes in their initial response, leaving survivors stranded in remote villages waiting for aid and relief.

Over 200 Nepalis protested outside parliament in the capital Kathmandu, demanding the government increase the number of buses going to the interior hills and improve distribution of aid.

“I haven’t been able to contact my family members in the village,” said Kayant Panday, one of the protesters, who said he woke up at 4 a.m. to get a bus to a badly hit area but was not able to get one. “There is no way I can get information whether they are dead or alive.”

The government has yet to fully assess the devastation wrought by Saturday’s 7.8 magnitude quake, unable to reach many mountainous areas despite aid supplies and personnel pouring in from around the world. 

Anger and frustration were mounting, with many Nepalis sleeping out in the open under makeshift tents for a fourth night since the country’s worst quake in more than 80 years.

 “This is a disaster on an unprecedented scale. There have been some weaknesses in managing the relief operation,” Nepal’s Communication Minister Minendra Rijal said late on Tuesday.

“We will improve this from Wednesday.”

Prime Minister Sushil Koirala has told Reuters the death toll could reach 10,000, with information on casualties and damage from far-flung villages and towns yet to come in. 

That would surpass the 8,500 who died in a 1934 earthquake, the last disaster on this scale to hit the Himalayan nation of 28 million people located between India and China.

HILLSIDES COLLAPSE

Rescue helicopters have been unable to land in some remote mountainous areas. Shambhu Khatri, a technician on board one of the helicopters, said entire hillsides had collapsed in parts of the worst-hit Gorkha district, burying settlements, and access was almost impossible.

A health official in Laprak, a village in the district best known as the home of Gurkha soldiers, estimated that 1,600 of the 1,700 houses in the village had been razed.

An official from Nepal’s home ministry said the number of confirmed deaths had risen to 5,006. Almost 10,000 were injured in Nepal, and more than 80 were also killed in India and Tibet.

In Kathmandu and other cities, hospitals quickly overflowed with injured soon after the quake, with many being treated out in the open or not at all.

Foreign Secretary Shanker Das Bairagi appealed for specialist doctors from overseas, as well as for search-and-rescue teams despite earlier suggestions from officials that Nepal did not need more such assistance.

“Our top priority is for relief and rescue teams. We need neurologists, orthopedic surgeons and trauma surgeons,” Bairagi said. Experts from a Polish NGO that has an 87-strong team in Nepal have said the chances of finding people alive in the ruins five days after the quake were “next to zero”.

RARE HOPE

Nevertheless, a Nepali-French rescue team pulled a 28-year-old man, Rishi Khanal, from a collapsed apartment block in Kathmandu on Tuesday after he had spent around 80 hours trapped in a room with three dead bodies.

Doctors plan to amputate one of his legs later on Wednesday because it has been damaged by internal bleeding.

“We are trying to make contact with his parents and family members because we are going to perform a serious surgery on him,” said one of the doctors, Akhilesh Shrestha.

In one of the first signs that normal life was returning, some street vendors started selling fruit in Kathmandu, but others said they were too scared to open shops because buildings had been so badly damaged.

“I want to start selling, I have children at home, but how can I open a shop where it is risky for me to sit inside?” said Arjun Rai, a 54-year-old who runs a general store.

Tensions between foreigners and Nepalis desperate for relief surfaced, rescuers said, as fresh avalanches were reported in several areas.

Members of Israeli search-and-rescue group Magnus said hundreds of tourists, including about 100 Israelis, were being airlifted out of Langtang in Rasuwa district, a popular trekking area north of Kathmandu hit by a fresh avalanche on Tuesday.

Fights had broken out there because of food shortages, Magnus team member Amit Rubin said. One of the trekkers said there had also been scuffles over places on the rescue helicopters.

In other remote areas where rescue helicopters were unable to land, soldiers had started to make their way overland, first by bus, then by foot.

In Sindhupalchowk, about 3-1/2 hours by road northeast of Kathmandu, the earthquake was followed by landslides, killing 1,206 people and seriously injuring close to 400.

The quake also triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest that killed at least 18 climbers and guides, including four foreigners, the worst disaster on the world’s highest peak.

© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. 

“We will not obey.”

That’s the blunt warning a group of prominent religious leaders is sending to the Supreme Court of the United States as they consider same-sex marriage.

“We respectfully warn the Supreme Court not to cross that line,” read a document titled, Pledge in Solidarity to Defend Marriage. “We stand united together in defense of marriage. Make no mistake about our resolve.” 

“While there are many things we can endure, redefining marriage is so fundamental to the natural order and the common good that this is the line we must draw and one we cannot and will not cross,” the pledge states.

The signees are a who’s who of religious leaders including former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, National Religious Broadcasters president Jerry Johnson, Pastor John Hagee, and Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse. 

The pledge was co-drafted by Deacon Keith Fournier, a Catholic deacon, and Mat Staver, the founder of Liberty Counsel. Also involved in the document were Rick Scarborough, the president of Vision America Action and James Dobson, the founder of Family Talk Radio. 

“We’re sending a warning to the Supreme Court and frankly any court that crosses the line on the issue of marriage,” Staver told me.

He said that once same-sex marriage is elevated to the level of protected status—it will transform the face of society and will result in the “beginning of the end of Western Civilization.”

“You are essentially saying that boys and girls don’t need moms and dads—that moms and dads are irrelevant,” Staver said. “Gender becomes pointless when government adopts same-sex marriage. It creates a genderless relationship out of a very gender-specific relationship. It says that it doesn’t matter and that two moms or two dads are absolutely equivalent to a mom and a dad.”

Dobson said the legalization of same-sex marriage could fracture the nation.

“The institution of marriage is fundamental and it must be defended,” he told me. “It’s the foundation for the entire culture. It’s been in existence for 5,000 years. If you weaken it or if you undermine it—the entire superstructure can come down. We see it as that important.”

And that means the possibility of Christians—people of faith—engaging in acts of civil disobedience.

“Yes, I’m talking about civil disobedience,” Staver said. “I’m talking about resistance and I’m talking about peaceful resistance against unjust laws and unjust rulings.”

That’s quite a shocking statement. So I asked Mr. Staver to clarify his remarks.

“I’m calling for people to not recognize the legitimacy of that ruling because it’s not grounded in the Rule of Law,” he told me. “They need to resist that ruling in every way possible. In a peaceful way—they need to resist it as much as Martin Luther King Jr. resisted unjust laws in his time.”

Scarborough said the pledge was meant to be forthright and clear.

“We’re facing a real Constitutional crisis if the Supreme Court rules adversely from our perspective on same-sex marriage,” he told me. For me there’s no option. I’m going to choose to serve the Lord. And I think that thousands of other pastors will take that position and hundreds of thousands—if not millions of Christians.”

Scarborough is urging pastors across the nation to sign the pledge. 

He referenced the “outrageous penalties” being assessed against people of faith simply because they don’t want to participate in a same-sex union.

An Oregon bakery is facing a $135,000 fine for refusing to make a cake for a lesbian wedding and a Washington State florist faces fines for refusing to participate in a gay wedding.

“Christians are being declared the lawbreakers when we are simply living by what we have always believed, and by a set of laws that the culture historically has agreed to,” he said. “Right now the courts are changing the playing field and declaring that what the natural eye can see and natural law reveals is not truth. … What will we do, and how will we respond?”

Dobson said there’s no doubt that LGBT activists are targeting Christian business owners.

“For about 50 years the homosexual community has had as its goal to change the culture, to change the ideology and if necessary—to force people who don’t agree by use of the courts,” Dobson told me. “I think there’s a collision here and we can all see it, and where it’s going to go is anybody’s guess—but it is serious.”

To be clear—the men and women who courageously signed this pledge did so knowing the hell storm that is about to be unleashed on them—and their families.

“We have no choice,” Staver told me. “We cannot compromise our clear biblical convictions, our religious convictions.

Todd Starnes is host of “Fox News & Commentary,” heard on hundreds of radio stations. Sign up for his American Dispatch newsletter, be sure to join his Facebook page, and follow him on Twitter. His latest book is God Less America.

Remember when Oprah Winfrey created a firestorm among believers by suggesting that Jesus is not the only way? Apparently, her drift away from the Way, the Truth and the Life started decades ago when her Baptist pastor referred to God as a jealous God (see Ex. 20:4-5).

“I looked around and thought, ‘Why would God be jealous? What does that even mean?’ And I’m looking at the people in the church, and everybody’s up, shouting,” Winfrey told O magazine readers of the experience, which happened when she was in her 20s. “And I started wondering how many of these people—including myself—would be led to do whatever this preacher said. That’s when I started exploring taking God out of the box, out of the pew.”

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I agree that we don’t need to do whatever a preacher says or put God in a box, but Oprah took God into the New Age with her Oprah’s Lifeclass: the Tour in 2012 in which she partnered with New Age guru Deepak Chopra on a broadcast about “Spiritual Solutions.” It was against that backdrop that she claimed she was a Christian, which set off another huge debate about the entertainment and media icon’s faith.

“I am not talking about religion. I am a Christian. That is my faith,” Winfrey told her Radio City Music Hall audience. “I’m not asking you to be a Christian. If you want to be one I can show you how. But it is not required. I have respect for all faiths. All faiths. But what I’m talking about is not faith or religion. I’m talking about spirituality.”

New Age Meditation

This “spirituality” made its way to Stanford University’s Memorial Church last week. Oprah led over 1,000 members of Stanford in some sort of New Age meditation exercise.

“Close your eyes for a moment, will you please, and breathe with me,” she told them. “And if you will, put your thumb to your middle finger and gather your other fingers around, and let’s feel the vibration and pulse of your personal energy as you take three deep breaths with me.”

Oprah went on to share with them a secret to prayer, or at least her version of prayer.

“Open your heart and quietly to yourself say the only prayer that’s ever needed: Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she said. “You’re still here. You get another chance this day to do better and be better, another chance to become more of who you were created and what you’re created to fulfill. Thank you. Amen.”

In fact, Winfrey said she started a gratitude journal in the 1980s and suggested her listeners take up the practice.

“Gratitude journaling has become a spiritual practice that leads to a more enhanced and meaningful life, and you can start it today,” she said. “I guarantee if you did it for a week you would see a difference, because every day—and I’ll do it when I go home—I write down five things that I am grateful for, or that brought me joy or opened my heart space.”

A New Age Take on Prayer

I’m all for gratitude journals. I’m all for prayers of thanksgiving. But this New Age take on prayer is simply not biblical. “Thank you, thank you, thank you” is not the only prayer that’s ever needed. This is so far from the truth that I have to call it what it is: deception. The Bible commands us to pray for very specific things beyond thanks.

Consider 1 Timothy 2:1-4: “Therefore I exhort first of all that you make supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings for everyone, for kings and for all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

What about Psalm 122:6, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”

Oh, and let’s not forget the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13: “Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come; Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

I appreciate the encouragement that Oprah has given many over the years, but her alignment with New Agers like Chopra, the graphic depiction of sexual perversion on her television network, and her open door for heretics like Rob Bell to trash the Bible on her program trouble me. These are not the moves of a woman who knows how to pray and tap into the wisdom of God.

My Prayer for Oprah

Oprah claims to be a Christian and I will not judge her salvation, but clearly she’s wielding her great influence in a way that’s conflicting with Christian values and biblical teachings. The Bible tells us to give thanks when we pray, but “thank you, thank you, thank you” is not “the only prayer that’s ever needed.”

My prayer for Oprah comes out of Ephesians 1:17-21: “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give Oprah the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, that the eyes of her understanding may be enlightened, that she may know what is the hope of His calling and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance among the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward those who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He performed in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principalities, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.” Amen.

Jennifer LeClaire is senior editor of Charisma. She is also director of Awakening House of Prayer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and author of several books, including The Next Great Move of God: An Appeal to Heaven for Spiritual Awakening; Mornings With the Holy Spirit, Listening Daily to the Still, Small Voice of God; The Making of a Prophet and Satan’s Deadly Trio: Defeating the Deceptions of Jezebel, Religion and Witchcraft. You can visit her website here. You can also join Jennifer on Facebook or follow her on Twitter.

The Jezebel spirit has been making its mark on our airwaves—and in our movie theaters—long enough. Television and film producers have made billions of dollars selling sex on the small screen and the big screen but intercession over the entertainment industry is starting to bear fruit.

Before we go further, let me clarify how the Jezebel spirit is working. I go into greater detail about this in my book, The Spiritual Warrior’s Guide to Defeating Jezebel, but let Revelation 2:20 open your eyes to what the Jezebel spirit is and what are its motives: “But I have a few things against you,” Jesus told the church at Thyatira, “You permit that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat food sacrificed to idols.”

Jezebel is a seducing spirit. This spirit has been working overtime in our media for decades, with wardrobe malfunctions, illicit homosexual sex scenes on shows like How to Get Away With Murder, and the ever-popular and scandalous Scandal. But intercessors have been coming against the perversion in the entertainment industry and it’s working.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is fining WDBJ Television $325,000 for broadcasting graphic and sexually explicit material during the station’s evening newscast. Keep in mind that this never would have happened if people like you hadn’t lifted their voices.

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Indeed, the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau investigated viewer complaints that WDBJ aired a news report that included graphic sexual images taken from an adult film website in the report. This enforcement action would be the highest fine the Commission has ever taken for a single indecent broadcast on one station.

“Our action here sends a clear signal that there are severe consequences for TV stations that air sexually explicit images when children are likely to be watching,” says Travis LeBlanc, Chief of the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau.

Glory to God!

Here’s the backstory: The FCC investigation found that station staff obtained a sexually explicit video clip from an adult film website and broadcast those explicit images in the news report that aired at about 6 p.m. on July 12, 2012. That, of course, violated federal laws prohibiting the broadcast of indecent programming.

That’s just one recent example of viewers rejecting Jezebelic content. Earlier this week, I wrote about how Sex Box, which featured real-life couples having sex for a national television audience, was cancelled. In the show, participants entered a soundproof box on stage, had sex and then discussed their “intimacy issues” with a panel of so-called experts, including a minister! WE tv, which hosted the show, called it a “groundbreaking, unprecedented and life-changing way for couples in crisis to heal their sexual and emotional issues.” Prayer broke through. Meanwhile, Bayer pulled a sexually inappropriate Lotrimin ad less than 24 hours after the Americans cried out.

Although there’s still plenty of work to do—and still plenty of intercession to make—these and other victories are evidence that the combination of prayer and action work. Of course, some people still don’t get it. Jezebel has already blinded them. WDBJ, for example, is at a loss for why the FCC would fine it $325,000.

“We are surprised and disappointed that the FCC has decided to propose to fine WDBJ7 for a fleeting image on the very edge of some television screens during a news broadcast,” said WDBJ7 President Jeffrey Marks. “The story had gone through a review before it aired. Inclusion of the image was purely unintentional. The picture in question was small and outside the viewing area of the video-editing screen.”

Likely story. Let’s keep praying—and keep lifting our voices.

Jennifer LeClaire is senior editor of Charisma. She is also director of Awakening House of Prayer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and author of several books, including The Next Great Move of God: An Appeal to Heaven for Spiritual Awakening; Mornings With the Holy Spirit, Listening Daily to the Still, Small Voice of God; The Making of a Prophet and Satan’s Deadly Trio: Defeating the Deceptions of Jezebel, Religion and Witchcraft. You can visit her website here. You can also join Jennifer on Facebook or follow her on Twitter.

Well, here we are again. Another wonderful community caught in the cycle of haters, liars and those who want power without responsibility. I’ve been in Baltimore for the past 31 years. We have seen the good, the bad and the ugly. 

In the desire to be salt and light, we’ve been working with hundreds of pastors, politicians and police. We started a group of pastors working together called “Peace for the City” back in the early ’90s. We have seen city blocks transformed by the power of God, through faithful men and women of God who were willing to make a sacrifice to make a difference. 

We’ve seen people’s needs met at every level. We are currently giving away for free our 13th house to a family that’s never owned a home before. And this year, we give the house to a veteran. We move more than 3.5 million pounds of food to feed between 24 and 27 thousand people every month. We’ve adopted two local high schools so we can give their top academic students a generous financial gift for their future college pursuits. 

The church in Baltimore has some great leaders, but there are way too many who want to live in the past, who love their race more than the whole human race. The inner city, which so many of my church families live in, has many challenges. One is the absentee fathers in the homes. You have so many young males with no father figure (fathers give identity), so it’s easy for the gangs to recruit them and make them feel like they belong. Then, you have some of the pastors stuck in their own fatherless prison, both spiritually and naturally. So they spew out their old messages of hate and blame. 

It’s always someone else’s fault. I grew up without a mother or father influence and was in gangs and on drugs from the time I was 13 years old. I was in and out of jails and thrown out of school in the 5th grade, 8th grade, etc. But thank God I went into a church that preached the love of God. Not the hate of the past failure of a lost culture of racism, or mistakes made by many. 

The church in America’s inner cities, needs to change its message, now! It’s not the police’s fault that inner city black, or Spanish, or white kids are being killed at an alarming rate! In Baltimore City, 90 percent of the homicides are happening with black teens killing black teens. We need to demand that our pulpits, in the inner city churches, stand up and tell the truth, no matter how it affects the offering! 

We need healing in our homes, and in our relationships with those in our community called to protect us! I have police officers (men and women) in my church and they are superheroes to our kids. We need to elect righteous men and women to the offices of mayor and City Council. When the righteous rule, the people rejoice! But when the wicked rule, the people mourn. 

Our inner cities, like Baltimore and many other cities in America, are hurting. Yes, they need jobs, better economic opportunities and much better educational systems. But we have to stop and fix the core problems before we can build bigger buildings and new malls. We have to build strong morals, strong faith and strong love into strong young people, who are the future of these cities.

Bishop Bart Pierce serves as the senior pastor of Rock City Church in Maryland. 

God is moving through Hispanics—not only in Latin American nations like Brazil but right here in the United States. Indeed, Hispanics are poised to play a pivotal role in Christianity in the days—and even hours—ahead.

Nearly 1-in-4 Hispanic adults (24 percent) are now former Catholics, according to a major, nationwide survey of more than 5,000 Hispanics by the Pew Research Center. About 22 percent of America’s 35.4 million Latino adults are Protestant—and many identify as Pentecostal or charismatic Protestants. 

TIME magazine is penning an article about “The Latino Reformation.” The Washington Post is writing about “How Latinos Are Changing American Christianity.” And Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Evangelical Association, says we’re at a tipping point, as most of Christians around the world are now Latinos.

“Even here in America, the majority of Christ’s followers by the year 2030 will be of Latino descent. This is our reformation. We’ve had arguably 30 years, 40 years, 50 years of reformation. Seventy years ago, we were all Catholics or the majority of us were Catholics in Latin America. We haven’t had 500 years of Martin Luther’s thesis on the door. This is not Wittenberg. This is our reformation,” Rodriguez tells Charisma News.

“We’re giddy about Christianity. We’re like little kids super excited about this new thing … what do you mean we don’t have to go to the priest and confess and we don’t have to take penance and do 10 Hail Marys? We can speak to Jesus directly and by the way, He can fill us with His Spirit and we have a prayer language. And by the way, there are signs and wonders and miracles. And by the way, He can equip us to change the world by being light if we walk in righteousness. This is really cool.”

Pockets of true revival are breaking out across America. Want to know more about the next great move of God? Click here to see Jennifer LeClaire’s new book, featuring Dutch Sheets, Reinhard Bonnke, Jonathan Cahn, Billy Graham and others.