Nov. 27, 2019: Real first Thanksgiving; Harvest Bible Chapel releases financial records; China's brainwashing camps
Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2019
Here are the latest headlines, brought to you by The Christian Post.
— Leaked documents reveal new details about China's Uighur brainwashing camps
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Newly leaked documents expose details about China’s network of detention centers that house hundreds of thousands of Muslims in Western China. The Chinese government has continually denied claims that it has unjustly imprisoned hundreds of thousands to millions of Uighur Muslims in the Xinjiang region. However, documents called “The China Cables” that were leaked to news outlets on Sunday offer a peek into the ideological motivations and structure behind these detention centers that the Trump administration has strongly condemned.
— Harvest Bible Chapel releases financial records review exposing misuse of church funds
A legal and financial review of Harvest Bible Chapel's records has revealed that their founding and now former pastor James MacDonald was paid over $1 million annually, amid other instances of malfeasance. The review looked at financial statements from January 2016 through mid-February of this year. During that time, MacDonald's spending included over $170,000 on hunting and fishing trips; over $139,000 on meals and entertainment; and over $94,000 for clothing and eyewear. The report revealed that the church maintained two private checking accounts that gave MacDonald $3.1 million during those three years and two months.
In response to the report's findings, MacDonald said in an Instagram post that the expenses were "elder and auditor approved" and they "predate the involvement of those now speaking.”
— Alleged abuse victims sue Catholic Church, say they were pressured into taking unfair settlement
Two cousins from Mississippi who say they were abused by two Catholic clergy have filed a lawsuit against the Catholic Church, arguing that they were pressured into accepting cheaper settlements from the diocese in Jackson. Both men are now 36 years old, and were allegedly abused by former Franciscan brothers Paul West and the late Don Lucas as children while they were enrolled at a Catholic school in Mississippi.
Both cousins separately reported their abuse claims to the Catholic Diocese of Jackson, Mississippi, which offered a settlement of around $15,000 each in return for keeping silent about the abuse. The settlements they were given were far less than other amounts doled out by the diocese, including about $5 million to 19 other abuse victims in 2006, at an average of $250,000 per victim.
— School district severs ties with doctor who won't clear girl to wrestle on boys' team
A public school district in Western New York has severed ties with a doctor whose medical assessment was that a 12-year-old girl should not compete on a boys' junior varsity wrestling team. While the student won the girls’ 12U 86-pound weight class at the National United Wrestling Association for the Youth National Championship in April 2018, and passed two strength tests mandated by the state, neither the doctor nor the gym teacher accepted her on the JV boys’ wrestling team.
Lancaster Central School District Superintendent Michael Vallely said in a statement that he did not agree with the decision to prevent the 12-year-old girl from wrestling with the junior varsity boys’ wrestling team at Lancaster Middle School.
Allowing girls to compete in male-only sports and boys to compete in female-only sports has become a subject of intense debate in recent years. Some have argued that biological realities related to muscle mass, bone density, bone structure and connective tissue put biological females at a distinct disadvantage when competing with males, especially in sports where much physicality is involved.
— America’s real first Thanksgiving
While the Pilgrim story is clearly an important part in America’s story, their role in what became the annual holiday of Thanksgiving has become a myth. The real first Thanksgiving, called a “day of thanksgiving to almighty God,” was held 400 years ago on Dec. 4, 1619, in Virginia. That was when a group of 38 Englishmen aboard the ship Margaret arrived at what became Berkeley Plantation, about 30 miles up the James River from Jamestown and the first English-speaking settlement in the New World, and near present-day Williamsburg. They had just crossed the Atlantic to work over 8,000 acres of Virginia land under the auspices of a commercial enterprise.
Historians say the occasion — a full two years before the Pilgrims had their own thanksgiving — wasn’t a feast. Instead, it would have been marked with fasting and prayers from the Church of England’s 1604 Book of Common Prayer. Variations of that liturgy are still used every Sunday in Episcopal and Anglican churches.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/americas-real-first-thanksgiving.html
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