Classroom Beating: Florida Student Gets Pummeled While Teacher Sits Back - ABC News

URL:  http://abcnews.go.com/US/classroom-beating-florida-stud...

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/h5ok

Zahra Baker Case: Warrant's Grim Details on Body Disposal - ABC News

URL:  http://abcnews.go.com/US/zahra-baker-case-warrants-grim...

Blood, Pieces of Bone Could Be Found in Bathtub, Elisa Baker Told Investigators

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/h5of

Convicted Murderer Justin Walker Updates Facebook Page From Prison Cell - ABC News

URL:  http://abcnews.go.com/US/convicted-murderer-updates-fac...

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/h5o7

Guns on Amtrak Trains - ABC News

URL:  http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/guns-amtrak-trains/story?...

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/h5nu

Seventh-Gay Adventists - Teaser | Adventist Today

http://www.atoday.com/content/seventhgay-adventists-teaser

Here is a short teaser from the feature documentary, "Seventh-Gay Adventists."



This film, which is still in production, explores the complex intersection of faith, identity, and sexuality through the stories of LGBT Adventists who are struggling with their desire to belong to the church they know and love and their need to be fully accepted for who they are.



As part of the research process, filmmakers set up a story booth in several locations throughout the U.S. with the sole purpose of listening to stories. Here are a few of them.



Producers: Stephen Eyer and Daneen Akers

Music: "Liviu Emo" by Luke Atencio



More information at: sgamovie.com



Read an exclusive interview with the filmmakers.

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/h5nh

The Transcript

Amplify’d from daringadventist.wordpress.com

The Transcript

When human beings became divorced from their Father, they departed the realm of intuitive holiness and entered the bisected, fragmented realm of performance. Here was a realm in which there was always a gulf between what they were and what they aspired to be. In this realm people constantly mistake parts for the whole, having a pathological attraction for living in parts and making religions out of them. Separated from God, humans would now have to perform in order to justify their acceptance with God and themselves. In this state of separation they would attempt to establish their own morality in order to be like God.

Many of them would become so introverted that they would presume to infer that God was like them. Because the remnants of their origins as sons of God lay buried in their slavery, they were sometimes successful in their efforts to achieve the good and eschew the evil. But often they were not and they habitually called good evil and evil good, even as the ways of God receded from their knowledge.

The summit of their folly was seen in the crucifixion of the One who had come to save them from their desiccation. Here among them lived the only One who did good because rather than live in parts, He lived in His Father as an obedient Son. But God is not mocked and their folly exposed the Wisdom of God and saved the people from their sin. Or should I say, it saves those who are careful to believe God’s Son and do what He commands. This means they shift their lives from the unstable sand banks of  performance and establish their lives deep rooted in Christ and on Christ the Rock. All because of the love and grace of the Father has made them one with Himself.

There is a definition of the righteousness of God: Jesus.

There never was a transcript of God’s character until the appearance of Jesus – the exact expression of His being. Moses laws were a check box that made all accountable to God. But these laws were not a transcript of His character, unless we would argue that God too must avoid idolatry, adultery, covetousness and theft. God lives from Himself. His purity is absolute and He is entirely untainted by evil. He never was an expression of the knowledge of good and evil. He expresses Himself in spirit and in truth.

God is not dichotomized, compartmentalized, and separated from Himself in the dualisms that afflict man. God is. He is made in His image, not in ours. He simply is I AM. The good of God is not the opposite of some evil. God’s good is good because I AM is good. God is underived, self-contained righteousness that knows no darkness ( 1 John 1.5) and is distinct from shadows (James 1.17), which is why the righteousness that comes from God Has to be Jesus the son of God. All this so that Jesus becomes the righteousness of God in us.

Humans, on the other hand live a split life. The good that they want to do they cannot do. They live a life bisected between hope and despair, the real and the ideal, wholeness and fragmentation until Jesus comes and opens a door – the door to union with God; the door that makes the two one; the open door that when entered makes man one with God, one with Himself and one with others. So God, man and the creation become one by the One Spirit.

Jesus is the new and living way, quite distinct from the old and dead way of the law of sin and death that grates among our members. This new way is a river of life unto life. The Father has created the opportunity for man to live in Him who is both the ideal and the real, the part and the whole and the resurrection and the life. Thus to live in Him is to become one new and partner with Jesus to multiply the new creation which is the Kingdom of God. To live is Christ. To live is to have Christ live in you and through you. To be alive is to die daily so as to live daily in Jesus.

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” 2 Cor 5.21 NIV.

More on the Kingdom of God here. Read more at daringadventist.wordpress.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/h5mb

Amplify’d from gawker.com

Kentucky to Build Greatest Religious Amusement Park Ever

Kentucky's Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear breathlessly announced today that he has secured a deal with Ark Encounter LLC to build an awesome creationism-themed amusement park in his state. What, along with a "full-scale Noah's Ark," will it contain?

The $150-million Ark Encounter park is expected to bring 900 jobs and $250 million in revenue to the state, according to a comical press release from the governor's office titled, "Governor Beshear, Ark Encounter Announce Plans to Build a Full-Scale Noah's Ark." While it's privately funded, those $37.5 million in tax breaks won't hurt either.

Aside from the full-scale Noah's Ark — and btw, how exactly did they determine the precise dimensions of this mythical ark? — the park will contain other remnants of the hallucinatory, impoverished desert hellscape that was early Judeo-Christian civilization.

In addition to the full-size Ark, the complex will include a Walled City much like was found in ancient times, live animal shows, a children's interactive play area, a replica of the Tower of Babel with exhibits, a 500-seat 5-D special effects theater, an aviary, and a first-century Middle Eastern village.

"5-D special effects" are when Jesus jumps out of the picture and pours scalding hot wine on you, for changing money in a temple.

The parent company behind this project is also responsible for the Kentucky's Creation Museum, so now you can visit both in the same trip.

The governor's office also notes, however, that many of the Ark Encounter's constructions are expected to be LEED-certified. Bad idea. Haven't these people never heard about the Green Dragon?

Hey, jobs are jobs.

Graphic via ArkEncounter.com

Send an email to Jim Newell, the author of this post, at newell@gawker.com. Read more at gawker.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/h5jx

Amplify’d from www.jpost.com

Iran hangs former soccer player's mistress

Shahla Jahed was hanged at dawn, after spending more than eight years in jail for the slaying of the player's wife

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

TEHERAN, Iran — Iran on Wednesday hanged a former soccer player's mistress  — known as a "temporary wife — who was convicted of murdering her love rival in a case that captivated the Iranian public for several years. Shahla Jahed was hanged at dawn, after spending more than eight years in jail for the slaying of the player's wife, the official IRNA news agency reported. RELATED: Iran hangs 2 for allegedly aiming to topple state Woman in Iran stoning case denies being tortured Jahed had become what is known as a "temporary wife" of former soccer star Nasser Mohammad Khani. She was charged in 2002 with stabbing his wife, Laleh Saharkhizan, to death and convicted of murder in 2004 and again in 2009, after her appeal was denied. Contracts with "temporary wives" are a legal way for Iranian men to have mistresses outside marriage, with the agreements lasting from between several hours to a few years. Wednesday's death sentence was based on the Islamic law of "qisas" — or eye for an eye retribution. International human rights groups, including Amnesty International, had campaigned for Jahed's punishment to be halted. The IRNA report said that just before the hanging at Teheran's Evin prison, the 40-year-old Jahed prayed peacefully, then burst into tears and cries, shouting for her life to be spared. The victim's son pulled the chair from under her feet as Jahed gasped for breath in the remaining moments of her life, the khabaronline.ir news website said. The former soccer striker, Khani, also attended the hanging. The reports also said that judiciary officials spent almost an hour in talks with Saharkhizan's family before the hanging, trying to convince them to spare Jahed's life but were unsuccessful. Prominent artists and respected cultural figures in Iran have also for years appealed to the victim's family to show mercy. Under Iranian law, men and women can commit to a "temporary marriage" for an agreed period of time after a certain amount of money is paid to the woman. In Iran, men are allowed up to four legal wives under Islam and any number of temporary wives. Women can only be married to one man at a time. Jahed initially denied any involvement in Saharkhizan's killing but later confessed to the stabbing, only to subsequently withdraw the confession. Several Iranian experts have said she may have been wrongfully convicted. Read more at www.jpost.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/h5ho

Amplify’d from www.fox23.com

Murder Inmate Posts Shocking Facebook Pics

by: Abbie Alford

UPDATE--The spokesperson for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, Jerry Massie, says Justin Walker has been moved to the Oklahoma State Penitentiary and placed in Administrative Segregation in the H-unit in McAlester. A cell phone was recovered along with some marijuana. Massie says DOC will be asking for charges to be filed in Greer County as well as proceeding with its own internal misconduct process. This happened less than 24 hours after FOX23 News reported Walker's Facebook to DOC. A Tulsa man serving a 30-year-prison sentence for murdering an Oklahoma Sheriff finds a way to post some surprising photos on Facebook. FOX23 News found pictures of Justin L. Walker, 32 posing in his prison cell. Walker was convicted of killing Pawnee County Sheriff Dwight Woodrell, Jr. in 2001. FOX23’s Abbie Alford looked into the Facebook postings that fly in the face of law. He’s known as “Jus N Walk” and he’s a known member of the Aryan Brotherhood Gang. He’s not shy about posing with his cellmates. Folks we talked to on the street are shocked. “They are living it up in there," says a Tulsa man on the street. Convicted murderer, Justin walker shows himself smoking what appears to be a homemade bong inside his cell at the Granite Reformatory, a medium security facility in southwest Oklahoma. “He's smoking a bong in jail? In prison?" asks another man on the street. Walker posts more photos from his bunk apparently smoking a joint, holding a bottle of booze and a bag of weed with another man. "A pound of weed? Wow, bag of it. In prison?" says another man on the street. As FOX23 News continues to show folks on the street the pictures cause a lot of concern. "He has something in his hand, it looks like a knife," says one of the men on the street. It’s a shank and he’s licking it. Facebook shows Walker started posting pictures and comments earlier this month. He even added pictures of a girl he calls his daughter. She is posing with guns. "What kind of image is he setting for kids? These kids that are on Facebook and you got someone that is inside the institution that is loose like that?" says a mother on the street. Facebook shows the pictures are uploaded from a cell phone and on his Facebook page is a picture of Walker holding one. "That's an i-Phone. It's a Blackberry," says two friends on the street. The spokesperson for the Department of Corrections says it’s a felony to have a cell phone in a correctional facility and officers aggressively investigate cases where inmates have smuggled in contraband. "I've heard they throw that stuff over the fence to them," says man on the street. Or smuggle phones and drugs hidden and in their body. He’s even told friends on Facehook how to send money so correctional officers can’t track it. “Walmart or walgreens sell green dot cards its called greendot" money pack reload card " it will hav 14 numbers on it then text me the numbers . Then I give em to my boy that got the store.cause they take all my money that's sent in I got big azz fines and medical bills for smashin fools out. Westsidin m/fers. You aint got ta send me any thing girl I know its hard on ya'll out there.” Since FOX23 News first reported the story Walker has deleted some of his status updates and photos. FOX23 News was the first to tell the Department of Corrections about Walkers’ Facebook page. The Granite Reformatory would only tell FOX23 News that action will be taken. Although, around 4:37 p.m. Walker did post on his Facebbok  “Just chillin its count time smoking a cig thinking about today’s events.” The Department of Corrections says it’s up to the District Attorney in Greer County, location of the Granite City prison, to file charges against Walker. Walker could spend more time in prison. Federal officials are working on a law that would allow them to install a jamming system to ban inmates from using cell phones.

Related Links Justin Walker's DOC Information Read more at www.fox23.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/h5hi

Amplify’d from gawker.com

Convicted Murderer Posts Prison Party Pics on Facebook

Justin Walker is serving a 30-year sentence for the killing of an Oklahoma Sheriff. "Jus N" has a Facebook page. Also, apparently, a Blackberry, a bong, a stash of weed, knives, some booze and other goodies inside his jail cell.

Oklahoma's FOX 23 News found out about "Jus N Walk" and his Facebook page, which, sadly, no longer contains the photographs of Walker taking bong rips, drinking hooch and licking shanks. He likes fantasy novels, the movie Natural Born Killers, and, according to FOX 23, adheres to white power ideology. Watch the news report above.

After this report aired, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections moved Jus N Walk from the medium security Granite Reformatory to the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. Officers found his phone and weed. It was just too good to be true, wasn't it, Jus N? [via Mediaite]

Send an email to Jeff Neumann, the author of this post, at jeff@gawker.com. Read more at gawker.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/h5gv