As nearly 500 people prayed inside Olivet Lutheran Church on Sunday, a man in his pickup truck in the church parking lot took his life, ABC affiliate WDAY/WDAY TV reports.  

The incident occurred at the Fargo, North Dakota, church after police received a call regarding a suicidal man with a gun in the parking lot of the church.

“He was threatening to harm himself and at that point our officers set up a perimeter and tried to establish communication with him,” Fargo police Lt. Jason Nelson told WDAY/WDAY TV.

Out of concern for public safety, police closed off streets around the church and evacuated the area. Police made various attempts to dissuade the man, but he shot himself.

“We utilized as many of our resources as we could to have a different outcome, but unfortunately it didn’t have the outcome we wanted,” Nelson said.

In a statement posted on social media, church officials said the tragedy occurred as hundreds of people inside the church prayed for the unidentified man. Church officials said the man was not a member of the church.

“Our thoughts and prayers continue for his family and all affected,” church officials said. “Many thanks go out to local police, firefighters and first responders. We are fortunate to live in a community with first class service personnel. We gathered (Sunday) on All Saint’s Day, a time to remember all who have gone before us and trust in God’s promises. Please continue to pray for the family of the deceased, and trust he is in Almighty God’s eternal arms.”

In a follow-up comment posted Monday, Senior Pastor Jeff Sandgren thanked his congregation for their prayers for the man.

“God bless you and all of those touched by this tragedy,” Sandgren wrote. “Know that God’s grace is something that you, and everyone, can count on in the face of despair. Please continue to pray for peace for all who are struggling with the ramifications of this event. God’s blessings!”

A recent LifeWay Research poll found most Americans believe they are seeing an epidemic of suicide in the United States. The survey of 1,000 Americans found 36 percent have had a friend or relative commit suicide, and 56 percent describe suicide as an epidemic in the U.S.

“Americans are responding with compassion to a tragedy that touches many families,” LifeWay Research Vice President Scott McConnell said.

For many years, suicide and mental illness have been taboo topics in churches. But more pastors are speaking to their congregations today, including Pastor Rick Warren, who has spoken publicly about the suicide of his son Matthew, and church leader Frank Page, who released a book about his daughter Melissa’s suicide.

God’s shown up during powerful spiritual awakenings in America’s past centuries. Many believe without another such awakening, the country could slide into a long, dark decline. But Christians who want a national revival have to realize they have a part to play first.

Christian leaders and authors who’ve been speaking and writing about a possible Third Great Awakening say it can’t happen till believers one by one get desperate, get praying and get their own hearts revived first.

Charisma Magazine Senior Editor Jennifer LeClaire writes about all this in her book, The Next Great Move of God.

“Will we use our faith? Will we pray? What will we do? I believe God is watching and I think the decisions we are making in this period are just vital,” LeClaire told CBN News.

It’s not something she just writes about, but actively pursues.  She joins with a number of other Christians eager for revival in a Pompano Beach, Florida, prayer room several times a week.

Time to Get Desperate

LeClaire said she’s certain God wants to move, but says, “We know that He’s waiting on His people who are called by His name to humble themselves, repent, turn from their wicked ways.”

Eddie Hyatt, a historian and pastor, has written about what it takes to ignite a Third Great Awakening in his book, America’s Revival Heritage.

“This is a very critical time and God’s people in America need to fall on their knees, fall on their face and cry out to God,” Hyatt stated.

Popular preacher Dutch Sheets travels to all 50 states and told CBN News he finds these desperate believers everywhere he goes.

“There’s nowhere I go where I don’t find a core of believers that are passionate, serious, desperate, understanding our true condition,” he said. “You have to be blind not to know that America’s in real trouble. But they are going after this thing in prayer. And that’s where it always starts.”

LeClaire agreed, saying, “When you want to see a nation transformed, it does, it starts with us. So we ask the Lord, ‘Show us Your glory, show us Your power. Lord, if there’s something in us that is in Your way, help us to get it out of Your way. We want to go full-on for You. We want to make an impact in our generation for You.  We want to do this for You.  Help us.’ God loves those prayers.” 

Invasion from Heaven

Hyatt added, “We don’t need a religious meeting that’s been worked up from below.   We need an invasion from heaven where God comes down and heaven invades earth. And God comes down and touches people’s lives.”

In his book, An Appeal to Heaven, Sheets talks in-depth about God prodding him over the last two decades to pursue a Third Great Awakening.   While depravity is obviously rising in the nation, Sheets said as he prays for revival, he’s come to a certainty sin won’t stop God from moving.

“I’m not asking based on our merits. I’m asking based on the fact that God loves to save,” he said. “While evil increases, so does the grace of God. And there can be both happening at the same time.”

Hyatt has studied how Colonial-era Christians, like Preacher Jonathan Edwards, were moved mightily by the Holy Spirit to pray long and hard for revival before the First Great Awakening swept over the colonies in the mid-1700s.

Hyatt quoted Edwards, saying, “‘When God purposes to do a thing in the earth, He first sets His people praying for the very thing that He intends to do.'”

“Give Me New England or Let Me Die”

And Edwards himself was the perfect example.

“I read that before he presented his message, ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,’ he had been praying for 18 hours,” Hyatt said. “And he’d been crying out to God, ‘God, give me New England or let me die.'”

But Hyatt and Sheets pointed out that America, before and during its birth, was much more aware that God is real and active.

The nation went into the Revolutionary War flying a flag that said “Appeal to Heaven,” a phrase popular political philosopher John Locke used.

“What Locke said was ‘When there is no other way, there’s nothing you can do humanly speaking, you still can appeal to heaven,'” Sheets explained. “And George Washington grabbed this, put it on a flag.”

It was a nation in which even a doubter in organized religion like Ben Franklin stood up during the deadlocked Constitutional Convention of 1787 and declared the need to humbly ask God to move.

Hyatt describes the moment in his latest book, The Faith and Vision of Benjamin Franklin.

“He stands up and exhorts them and calls them to prayer,” Hyatt said of Franklin challenging the delegates. “And he quotes from Scripture.”

Sheets picked up the story from there, describing what Franklin said. “‘Look, I’ve been around a long time. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that there’s a God in heaven who rules over the affairs of men and nations. And if a sparrow can’t fall to the ground without Him knowing about it, how can a nation be born without God being a part of it? And I suggest we call upon Him.'”

Hyatt said, “According to those who were present, there was a spirit of reconciliation that seemed to come upon the gathering. They went back together and they hammered out the American Constitution.”

God Can Do It Again

All three authors believe it’s important for Christians to recall and retell such stories so all realize the God who powerfully moved in earlier awakenings can do it again now.

“When we testify to what God has done in the past, it not only builds our faith, but I believe it causes Him to move on that again,” LeClaire explained. “We’re putting Him in remembrance of what He did. We’re giving Him glory. And it shows that we have faith that He can do it again.”

Hyatt said, “At particular times in this nation’s history when it’s faced great crises, God has preserved this nation by visiting us with great spiritual awakenings.”

And LeClaire said every Christian can be a catalyst to keep this great American story going.

“Begin by looking around and seeing where God would have you,” she advised. “He’ll show you if you’ll pray. Inserting yourself in the story gives you ownership of it. It causes you to grab hold and be determined to do your part to see this Awakening come full bore.”

Hyatt’s hopeful because he sees God moving.

“He is now stirring His people and putting that desire in their hearts for the very thing that He intends to do,” he said.

Don’t Cripple Your Own Awakening

But LeClaire insisted every concerned believer must first throw off the sins and entanglements that cripple their own awakening.

“What are you thinking about the most? What are you talking about the most?” she asked.  “How do you spend your time?  How do you spend your money?  Are you sitting in front of the TV for 140 hours a month like the rest of America, according to one study?”

“Are you in your church?” she continued. “Are you evangelizing? Are you making an impact in your sphere of influence? What’s most important to you? If God doesn’t fit somewhere in those questions and answers, then you need revival.”

LeClaire read CBN News a prayer featured in her book, The Next Great Move of God, and written by Voice of Destiny radio host Larry Sparks.

She quoted, “‘Holy Spirit, come. I want to experience Your Presence and power like never before. I don’t want just a touch or a visitation or a season of revival. I want to live like Jesus said I could live. Open my eyes. Show me areas in my church, my life and my family that need to be transformed.'”

LeClaire also pointed out it’s important for Christians not to inadvertently derail a national revival by criticizing it to death.

“Every move of God looks different, so this next great move of God that’s emerging even now is going to look different than the charismatic movement or the Jesus movement,” LeClaire explained. 

“We need to discern, but we also need to not attack and criticize and judge,” she continued. “We need to all just be very in tune with the Holy Spirit.  And if we stay in tune with Him, we’ll recognize it when it’s really Him.”

LeClaire encouraged believers not to sit on the sidelines, waiting for and hoping there will be a Third Great Awakening, but to remember a core truth: Revival begins with you.

From the outside, the intensely charged Arab-Israeli conflict can be baffling. He said, she said, they said, we said. But we often don’t ask—we assume. And based on our media outlets of choice or the friends in our Facebook feed, we see only one side to the violent and deadly conflict that has been roiling Israel for the past month.

These are the facts on the ground: From Oct. 1-25, 11 innocent Israeli Jews were killed and 126 were wounded (13 seriously), according to Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency response organization. This includes 54 stabbings, five shootings, and five car-rammings in what has become known as the Palestinian “stabbing intifada.” Continuously compiled unofficial statistics paint an even grimmer picture.

“The recent series of attacks against Israelis is the direct result of incitement by radical Islamist and terrorist elements, calling on Palestinian youth to murder Jews,” writes the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

What’s next?

 reached out to three Israeli scholars—a self-proclaimed “left-wing” Jewish academic, self-proclaimed “right-wing” Jewish academic, and self-proclaimed “centrist” Israeli-Arab academic—and asked each of them the same questions. Their responses indicate that sometimes, those three camps have more in common than one might think.

The scholars:

Dr. As’ad Ghanem (centrist Israeli Arab), Department of Government and Political Philosophy, School of Political Science, University of Haifa

Eli Pollak (right-wing Israeli Jew) Department of Chemical Physics, The Weizmann Institute of Science, vice chairman of Israel’s Media Watch 

Prof. Sammy Smooha (left-wing Israeli Jews), Sociology Department, University of Haifa

: Why is genuine dialogue and finding a resolution to this conflict so elusive?

Ghanem: We are farther from finding a solution to this conflict than we were in 1993 … because of some major developments in the conflict over the past 20 years: 

1. The collapse of the Palestinian National Movement—there is no Palestinian National Movement. Abu Mazen (Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas) is doing his best, but he is not the right person to solve this conflict on the Palestinian side … There is no genuine representation on the Palestinian side.

2. Since [former prime minister Ariel] Sharon came into power, there has been a historical move to the right in Israel—not just the right, the extreme right. Not just to the political right, but demographic shifts in Israel that cannot be solved through politics. 

I am pessimist. Right now there is a very protracted/complicated situation that makes the possibility of going back to the peace process very difficult. There is a hope that international powers will use some of their power to push the sides. But, I don’t think the world is ready to invest in us right now. 

Pollak: There is no interest on the Palestinian/Arab side to generate dialogue, so there is no dialogue.

Smooha: Both sides are not prepared to make the necessary concessions, despite the fact that they agree on an overall solution. They disagree on the details and the details are important. The core issues of dispute:

Borders: The Palestinians demand pre-67 borders with land swaps, the Israeli government does not accept this.

Settlements: The Palestinian Authority demands the dismantling of Jewish settlements; Israelis disagree.

Refugees: Can they return to the pre-67 borders? Israel rejects this demand altogether.

Jerusalem: The Israelis want a united Jerusalem. The Palestinians want a divided Jerusalem.

The nature of a Palestinian state: The Palestinians want a sovereign state with few restrictions. Israel demands that it have its army positioned on the Jordan River, that it have the right to search for terrorists, etc. Israel wants closed borders.

JNS: Is the two-state solution still viable?

Ghanem: Many thought that U.S. President Barack Obama would choose to use his political power to push for peace, now we know this was not real and the hope for two states is a lot less promising. We have two options: One is to continue this conflict, and it seems right now that we are going to face this situation for many years coming. The other option is one democratic state for both peoples. If we could set up a state where we have an equal share political entity with equal citizenship for both peoples—for members of both communities—and we preserve the right for both sides to self-determination, why not?

Pollak: It will never be because there is no interest from the other side to make real peace. It is clear this is a religious war the other side’s goal is to have a single state on the land of Israel, without Jews. Speeches by Arab political leaders document this.

Smooha: It is not viable now because the right wing is in power and now Bibi (Benjamin) Netanyahu is not interested in any in this country are post-traumatic, they are frightened and Netanyahu is using their post-trauma to reinforce an iron wall mentality and get support.

JNS: How do you balance religion and democracy? Can we maintain a Jewish state?

Ghanem: I know many politicians believe there should be separation of religion and state. I don’t agree with this. It is okay to have some kind of religious elements in politics, including in more secular states such as the U.S. or France. There is a connection between religion and state and it is not anti-Democratic. The question is what is superior to the other. Politics needs to be superior to religion, this is democracy. The will of the people should rule, not the rule of God.

Pollak: Judaism is a set of values. Democracy is a system by which a nation rules itself. They are very different and they go parallel to each other. What does it mean that we are a Jewish state? That the day of rest is Saturday and not Sunday. Is that against democracy?

Smooha: We need to privatize religion and strengthen Israeli citizenship to be the basis of our commonality. To find balance, we must find a way to respect democracy and religion.

JNS: Do you (Pollak and Smooha) trust Israeli Arabs? Do you (Ghanem) trust Israeli Jews?

Ghanem: I trust many Jews—the people, I trust them. Many Israeli leaders, them I don’t trust. I don’t trust Abu Mazen either.

Pollak: In principle, yes. You have more than 1.5 million Israeli Arabs and obviously some of them are anti-Israel and want to throw us into the sea. I believe most of them don’t want that. Most of them are actually happy to live within the Jewish state because they know the situation here is better than in any Arab state.

Smooha: I do try to trust Israeli Arabs. There is always some suspicion because of the situation. One cannot be 100-percent trustworthy of every Arab, but without some trust, we will never resolve the conflict.

JNS: Is there equality in Israel?

Ghanem: There is no equality, except the right to vote. 

Pollak: In practice, no. One of the big errors that we, the Jewish majority, have made is that although the non-Jewish minorities have equal rights, we have not treated them equally, the way they should be treated. So many times, I have walked around Arab towns and seen the sewage in the streets, the lack of police presence, how poor they are. Israel has made mistakes and it is still not doing enough to correct those errors.

Smooha: There is no equality between man and woman, rich and poor, or Arab and Jew.

JNS: Can we stop the violence?

Ghanem: I don’t have a recipe. Only if the leaders will be ready to make real steps toward peace will we be able to reduce the terror and violence.

Pollak: We have to ask ourselves what is the root of the violence and treat the root of the problem is the religious war of Islam against any other religion in the world.

Smooha: We have to give the people hope. Otherwise, the situation will start cooling down, but it will start again in a couple of months or years.

* The scholars’ opinions are their own and not represent the academic establishments at which they work.

For the original article, visit .

The bold campaign had plans to comment on Christianity and Islam, but the advertising agency shut it down, claiming the ads intended to incite hatred. 

One of the billboards took shots at the Messiah: “Jesus Christ — who, as it turns out, was born of a virgin, cheated death, and rose bodily into the heavens — can now be eaten in the form of a cracker.”  

Another aimed for Islam: “We are now in the 21st century. All books, including the Qur’an, should be fair game for flushing down the toilet without fear of violent reprisal.” 

The white lettering on black background were quotes from author Sam Harris, who plans to tour Australia next year.  

“The one about Muslims is really offensive and that is the intention of it,” Faith Communities council secretary the Rev Ian Smith tells the Sun Herald. “And the one about Jesus, 90 percent of the church would be offended, it is belittling, cheapening and shallow. “I am all for freedom of speech, but not when it is designed to have a violent or negative reaction.” 

Best-selling author Harris is perhaps most known for his works The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation and The Moral Landscape. 

On his Facebook page, Harris called the decision to reject the billboards “interesting.” 

Think Inc., Harris’ tour sponsor, released a statement online regarding the rejection: 

“As many know, central to Sam Harris’ work is the critical examination of religion,” reads a portion of the statement. “The quotes on these billboards are taken verbatim from Sam Harris himself, who has consistently asserted that it is necessary to bring under scrutiny socially detrimental ideas, and the sources from which they are derived: in this case, the focus is on religious texts and ideologies which may pose opposition to peaceful coexistence with socially progressive ideals. A necessary distinction needs to be made between the critique of ideas, and the critique of individuals/groups. Just as it is important not to conflate one with the other, it is important not to conflate promotion of criticism with the promotion of vilification (the grounds on which APN has rejected these posters).”

Late Monday, Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis filed a consolidated opening brief asking the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to hear oral argument of her case “due to the weighty constitutional and statutory issues at stake in this case.”

The Rowan County Clerk, who was sued by the American Civil Liberties Union because she refused to issue marriage licenses and was later sentenced to jail for following her conscience, is asking the Appeals Court to reverse the following district court rulings and orders:

• Preliminary injunction against Davis on August 12, 2015;
• District court’s denying a preliminary injunction against the State Defendants on August 12, 2015;
• Expanded injunction against Davis on September 3, 2015; and
• Contempt order against Davis on September 3, 2015.

From the outset of this case, Davis has consistently requested a reasonable accommodation for her deeply held religious convictions regarding marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The government is required to accommodate Kim Davis and other Kentucky citizens under the Kentucky Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

“In a rush to judgment that promoted expediency over due process, the district court’s original injunction trampled upon Kim Davis’s conscience,” said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. “We look forward to having the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals review this case and resolve this conflict to protect religious freedom.”

Faith Driven Consumer™— representing 41 million Christian consumers who spend $2 trillion annually, has earned wide recognition for rating the faith compatibility of consumer and entertainment brands, as well as serving as a voice for its community. Yesterday, the group announced the first annual Faith Equality Index (FEI)—the only industry benchmark to measure compatibility with Faith Driven Consumers—as well as a rating of the top 7 brands.

Now, the group reveals the 10 brands with the lowest ratings.

“The brands listed today fall far short of earning the business of Faith Driven Consumers, but also have a significant opportunity to get into the game and improve their positions relative to marketplace competitors,” said Chris Stone, Certified Brand Strategist and founder of Faith Driven Consumer. “With $2 trillion to spend, the newest color of the diversity rainbow is a huge untapped and underserved market—70 percent of whom are actively looking for a brand home.”

 offers a transparent tool to discover the degree to which each brand values Faith Driven Consumers, contrasted against scores the same brands have received from the groups they value most. Each brand rating contains the FEI score alongside:
 

• The Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index(CEI), rating LGBT equality 
   
• The Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility’s Corporate Inclusion Index (CII), rating Hispanic inclusion 
   
• Black Enterprise’s Best 40 list for African-American diversity
   
• Diversity Inc.’s Top 50 ranking for diversity

The Faith Equality Index annually rates, on a 100-point scale, how well brands acknowledge Faith Driven Consumers (FDCs) by welcoming, embracing, and celebrating them. The FEI is the benchmark tool FDCs use to make consumer choices—through the lens of their biblical worldview.

According to American Insights, 93 percent of Faith Driven Consumers see value in a resource that allows them to easily identify the faith compatibility of brands, 86 percent are more likely to do business with a brand that welcomes them and acknowledges their values, 77 percent would switch to a more compatible brand, and 70 percent are actively seeking brands. The FEI establishes the standard by which Corporate America demonstrates its commitment to equality, specifically inclusion of the Faith Driven Consumer market segment.

The 10 Lowest-Rated Companies :

• Bank of America 11 
   
• Unilever 11 
   
• DirecTV 14 
   
• Expedia 15 
   
• Nationwide 16 
   
• Pfizer 16 
   
• Microsoft 17 
   
• AT&T 17 
   
• Apple 19 
   
• T-Mobile 19

View the Faith Equality Index here: .

A same-sex couple is petitioning the court for the right to marry, but the court refused.  

What makes this couple different from the others granted marriage licenses across the country? They’re legally father and son.  

Retired teacher Nino Esposito adopted his partner Roland Drew Bosee in 2012, CNN reports. 

Bosee tells CNN the adoption “gave us the most legitimate thing available to us.” 

Gay news site The Advocate says the adoption process between gay couples was a common practice before legalized gay marriage.  

“Adoption offered legal protections for same-sex partners when it came to matters like hospital visiting privileges and inheritance laws. But now with marriage equality, some couples in this situation are finding it difficult to annul their adoptions so they can legally wed,” the site reports.  

In Pennsylvania, orphans court Judge Lawrence O’Toole denied Bosee and Esposito’s request for an adoption annulment.  

The Post-Gazette reports O’Toole denied the request because the state law gave him no authority to annul an adoption.  

When the Supreme Court struck down bans against gay marriage in June, the Christian community issued varied responses.  

“Still, it’s interesting that many Christians, including evangelicals, are coming to the conclusion that it’s possible to support legal same-sex marriage and also affirm the church’s traditional definition of marriage. Many Christians are attempting to negotiate the new normal on this,” Barna President David Kinnaman says. 

Other Christians pointed to the “slippery slope” philosophy SCOTUS brought forth.  

Charisma News columnist Michael Brown highlighted this point in his article “Why Can’t Two Gay Brothers Marry?” 

“So, go ahead and mock me and tell me there’s no slippery slope,” Brown writes. “As I’ve said before, you can mock my words today but you’ll mark them tomorrow.” 

Now, barely two weeks later, fathers and sons are asking to be joined in matrimony. 

After a century of searching, archaeologists say they have found the remnants of an ancient Greek fortress once a center of power in Jerusalem and a stronghold used to hold off a Jewish rebellion celebrated in the scriptural Book of the Maccabees. 

Researchers have long debated over the location of the Acra, built more than 2,000 years ago by Antiochus Epiphanes, king of the Hellenised Seleucid empire. Many asserted it stood in what is now Jerusalem’s walled Old City, at spots like the Church of the Holy Sepulchre or by the hilltop where two Jewish temples once towered and which now houses the Al Aqsa mosque compound. 

But the remains unearthed by the Israel Antiquities Authority and made public on Tuesday are outside the walls, overlooking a valley to the south, an area where archaeologists say Jerusalem construction was concentrated under the biblical King David. 

Antiochus, who lived from 215-164 BC, chose the spot for the Acra in order to control the city and monitor activity in the Jewish temple, said Doron Ben-Ami, who led the excavation. 

With an estimated length of up to 250 meters (yards) and 60 meters in width, it would have dominated the countryside. 

Beneath what a decade ago was a paved parking lot, Ben-Ami’s team sifted through an artificial hill made of layers of earth left behind by successive cultures. 

In one area they uncovered stones from a section of a massive wall, the base of a tower and a sloping defensive embankment that nearby artifacts like coins and wine jug handles suggest date to the period of Antiochus. 

Lead sling stones and bronze arrowheads from the period were also found, perhaps left over from battles between pro-Greek forces and Jewish rebels trying to take over the fortress. 

“This is a rare example of how rocks, coins and dirt can come together in a single archaeological story that addresses specific historical realities from the city of Jerusalem,” Ben-Ami said. 

The Acra’s location was referred to vaguely in at least two ancient texts – the Book of Maccabees, which tells of the rebellion, and a written record by historian Josephus Flavius. 

Historians tell how the rebels, lead by Judas Maccabeus, took back Jerusalem from the Greeks, a victory marked in the Jewish festival Hannukah. But the Acra held out until rebels under Judas’ brother, Simon, later lay siege and forced its surrender. {eoa}

© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.

Atheists are trying to eliminate the free speech of Christian athletes and coaches.

4 WINDS, a sports ministry that stands up for Christian athletes and coaches, believes university and school sports are a target for atheists, as they use the popularity of sports to get their message out as campus leaders at the targeted schools are silent.

“The secular school system is a puppet of atheists even though they claim to be neutral,” says 4 WINDS President Steve McConkey. “Christian free speech is being attacked as most educators are trained at universities that have put God on the shelf and have accepted different forms of Marxism without God. However, many Christian teachers have not bought into the system.”

Bremerton High School in Seattle is on the verge of firing football coach Joe Kennedy for praying at midfield after games, with students joining him. He has done this since 2008.

In August, the Freedom From Religion atheists in Madison, Wisconsin sent warnings to top universities, opposing volunteer Christian activities on their teams. They are setting up potential lawsuits.

During last spring’s March Madness, Freedom From Religion reprimanded top university basketball teams.

In Seattle, some students and teachers cooperated with Satanists in public protests at a football game where Coach Joe Kennedy prayed.

“There is a new phase in the fight for Christian free speech,” states McConkey. “Obviously, there is a spiritual battle over our young adults. Once you oppose Christians on campus, anything becomes acceptable.”

Starting in 2003, McConkey protested the International Olympic Committee for allowing transgenders to compete. During the last few years, he has taken on the International Olympic Committee, US Olympic Committee and the NCAA for their LGBT policies.

This instructive video shows what news reports would look like if they applied their outrageous Israel-reporting techniques to terrorist attacks in the rest of the world.

In the hope of lessening the egregious anti-Israel bias, here are some pointers to members of the media:

1. Your job is to report facts, not reinforce a narrative. Really. The facts matter—they form the basis for judgments. So here are some facts for you, meticulously documented and updated (with details and graphs worthy of a data scientist) in a shared Google spreadsheet by Nehemia Gershuni-Aylho. According to his data, in the fifty days from September 11 through October 31, there have been 1,315 Arab Muslim attacks on Jews, including stabbings, bombings, rock-throwing, etc. That’s about 26 attacks per day resulting in the murder of 11 innocent Jews. Adjusted for the U.S. population, that’s over 1,000 knife, bomb and other attacks per day that kill 440 people during fifty days of terror. How would the U.S. react to that?

2. Remember that the weaker party can be wrong. Actually, when a Palestinian man stabs a 70-year old woman, he’s not even the weaker party. Sometimes Palestinians do indefensible things. Sometimes Israel is guilty of only trying to protect its citizens from insanely hateful violence. And as an honest reporter, you should try to show this.

3. Properly identify the terrorist and the victim when reporting on casualties, and describe the main causal sequence of events with relevant context. That’s how you avoid headlines like “Jewish man uses his neck to attack the blade of Palestinian’s knife.” The BBC’s distortions were actually not far from that when they effectively turned terrorists into victims. The BBC’s bias is so egregious that even their former chief complained.

4. Do your homework on this region. Learn its basic history so that you don’t moronically suggest (as the NY Times did) that Jews have no historical connection to the Temple Mount. Otherwise it looks like you’re trying to support Palestinian revisionism against basic facts and endless archaeological evidence (including what a 10-year old recently discovered).

5. Learn the history of this conflict enough to know that Pallywood has been actively deceiving journalists for at least 15 years now, in an effort to delegitimize Israel. Before publishing “information” fed to you by fixers and “eyewitnesses,” realize that even Amnesty International has admitted the unreliability of “eyewitnesses” in this conflict. The most galling Pallywood example from this latest round of Arab terrorism is the inflammatory lie – by “moderate” Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas—that Israeli forces had “executed” a 13-year old. The truth: he was treated in the same Israeli hospital caring for the boy he tried to murder.

Such lies can kill. Because when it comes to this conflict, Arab leaders know that violence replaces reason at the slightest provocation—like hooligans at a football game incited to attack the opponents of their beloved team. So inciting lies are very much a weapon. The media should know this and expose the falsehoods, rather than blindly proliferate them. Journalists should know that “reporting” inflammatory claims can produce mob violence, and should therefore be doubly careful about checking facts, unless of course their goal is to trigger riots (which do produce more sensational news stories).

6. Learn the history of this conflict enough to know that Arab Muslims have been killing Jews in this area for over a century, with shifting excuses over time.

7. Stop trying to use the latest of those shifting excuses to justify the unjustifiable (here too, the BBC is an offender). No alleged grievance warrants randomly stabbing people in the street. The average Syrian is infinitely worse off than anyone in Gaza or the West Bank, but Syrian teens aren’t randomly stabbing civilians. Countless refugees from Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere have risked their lives for the hope of a better future in Europe. And yet there are virtually no Palestinians from the West Bank or Gaza among the millions desperate to reach Europe. So random stabbings don’t reflect some miserably unfair existence – they are the product of raw hatred and incitement.

8. Take note of nuances. Some 92 Israeli Arab Muslims have committed terrorist attacks. They are not under occupation (and have better freedoms and living standards than most of the Arab world has). So clearly these attacks are not about any political dispute; they are driven by the same hateful incitement that rejects any state for the Jews.

9. Show cause and effect (ideally one before the other), and not just effect. When you show only Israeli responses to attacks, it makes Israelis look as if they wake up every morning asking how they can hurt Arabs. Israelis actually have better things to do with their mornings, Like try to cure cancer. But when people are trying to kill them, they understandably get a bit distracted. If the world could keep Israelis safer, a cure might be discovered quicker.

10. Articles should contain a logical subject and verb, preferably in a way that indicates who did what. According to CNN, Joseph’s Tomb spontaneously “catches fire.” CNN would rather change the laws of physics than blame Muslims for trying to burn a Jewish holy site. But there is a long list of non-Muslim sites that have been desecrated or destroyed by Muslims—from the Buddhas of Bamiyan razed by the Taliban to the countless monuments and churches destroyed by the Islamic State. History is also littered with Islamic conquests that converted non-Muslim holy sites into mosques.

11. Israeli lives matter. Getting both sides of the story means including photos and profiles of Israeli victims of Arab terrorism at least as often as you include photos and profiles of Arab attackers who were killed while trying to murder innocent Israelis. In case you’re not sure what it’s actually like to survive a stabbing attack, Kay Wilson’s TED Talk is a must-watch for some valuable context (and a reminder of what a life-affirming culture looks like, as opposed to the death cult trying to stamp it out).

12. Don’t be afraid to present Gazans as they present themselves (brandishing butcher knives and calling for Jewish blood). Show this Palestinian mother who celebrates that her child was killed trying to murder Israelis and who hopes that she and her other children all die for the same “cause.” Showing the Palestinian death cult of Jew-hatred that runs from crib to coffin might help observers understand why there’s still no peace.

Just for some context, when was the last time that you saw a video of a Jewish mother hoping that she and her children can all die for the sake of murdering some Germans to avenge the German Nazi murder of six million Jews (which seems a bit worse than praying on a contested holy site)?

13. If you want to falsify information to sanitize Palestinian terror, as NBC correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin did, try not to do so on live TV, because you’ll look really biased (and stupid).

14. It’s better to research whether the maps you display on your “news” broadcast were produced by anti-Israel propagandists BEFORE you broadcast them, because otherwise you’ll look as biased (and stupid) as NBC/MSNBC did.

15. To ensure that your reporting is fair and consistent, consider how a similar event was covered in other countries/contexts. For a strikingly convenient example, contrast how differently NBC News (again!) reports on airstrikes taking place in two neighboring Mideast conflicts, within just eight days of each other:

On October 3, NBC News used this headline to report that 60 Russian airstrikes in Syria killed 39 civilians: “Russia Launches New Wave of Airstrikes in Syria.” On October 11, NBC News used a much more personalized headline—with victim profiles—when reporting on one Israeli air strike that killed two civilians: “Israeli Strike in Gaza Kills Palestinian Woman, Child as Violence Continues.” So are two Gazan civilians more worthy of attention and sympathy than 39 Syrian civilians?

Ironically, despite your endless bias in favor of Palestinian terrorists, they thank you by posing as journalists in order to stab Israelis – a deceit that only undermines the trust that combatants have in the label “PRESS” and potentially endangers true war correspondents.

Each small instance of bias may seem like a mere “journalistic microagression” against Israel, but its cumulative effect is toxic and sometimes deadly. At best, the persistent anti-Israel bias poisons many millions—from voters to policy-makers—against Israel. Even worse, it can lead to anti-Semitic violence, by mobs and/or individuals thugs, as is so often the case in Europe.

You journalists are key to a fair and civilized world. Start acting like it.

Noah Beck is the author of The Last Israelis, an apocalyptic novel about Iranian nukes and other geopolitical issues in the Middle East.