Brazilian Couple Receive Criminal Conviction for Homeschooling

Verdict given despite sons passing law school entrance exams -- at ages 13 and 14

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, Latin America Correspondent

MINAS GERAIS, BRAZIL, March 26, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Despite the fact that his children passed difficult government imposed tests, and even qualified for law school at the ages of 13 and 14, homeschooler Cleber Nunes and his wife Bernadeth have been slapped with fines equivalent to a total of $3,200 for refusing to submit their children to the Brazilian school system.

However, Nunes told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) that he has no intention to pay the fine, although he says that he might have to spend 15-30 days in jail if he does not.

Although homeschooling is common in many countries, including the United States, and is associated with higher levels of academic achievement, it is completely prohibited in Brazil, the government of which has become increasingly intrusive in recent decades following the establishment of a socialist regime in the 1990s.

Since Nunes began to homeschool his two oldest children four years ago, his family has been subject to repeated threats of fines, imprisonment, and loss of custody.  However, he has resisted steadfastly and his case has gained national attention.

The guilty verdict in the criminal case against Nunes, which follows two negative verdicts in a parallel civil case that ended over a year ago, was given despite the fact that David and Jonatas Nunes had passed a difficult set of tests imposed by the criminal court.

"They had asked the kids to do the tests to check their level of knowledge, and also psychological tests to check their mental health," Nunes told LifeSiteNews (LSN).  "It seems that the only valid result they expected was the failure of the kids."

The tests imposed by the court on Nunes' children were so difficult that one of the teachers who had designed it reportedly admitted that she herself could not pass it.  However, David and Jonatas Nunes both passed the exams by margins of five and eight percentage points.

Despite his sons' performance, however, the government has again ruled against Nunes, this time in criminal court, and ordered a fine.  The total amount in fines owed by Nunes as a result of the decisions against him has mounted to over $3,200 in US dollars.

"If they impose tests it means that two possibilities should be considered.  They could be suffering intellectual abandonment, or not," Nunes told LSN.  "In other words, they were trying to prove they were victims. But they passed and they kept saying we were criminal."

Nunes says that despite his success, the judge ruled against him because of his style of home schooling, in which the children direct their own learning, with Nunes overseeing the process.

"The judge said we left the children to learn by themselves," said Nunes.  "He recognized that they passed the university entrance examination and the tests, but said that it was by their own efforts," he added, calling that a "joke."

"They want to take control of them, of their minds"

Nunes says he has decided not to appeal the ruling, because Brazil's Supreme Court has already refused to hear the appeal of his civil case.  Although he has paid his wife's fine to spare her jail time, he says he will not pay his own fine.

"The natural thing to do is appeal, but I don't trust the Brazilian judges," Nunes told LSN. "They already showed who they are and what they want. They are not interested in protecting our kids....They want to take control of them, of their minds, they want them out of their home."

Although he has refused to comply with the rulings against him, Nunes currently faces no more legal difficulties stemming from the homeschooling of David and Jonatas, because they are now beyond the age of mandatory schooling.

However, his daughter could soon be subject to compulsory schooling in Brazil.  She will soon turn four, the age at which compulsory schooling begins in Brazil.

Contact Information:

Cleber Nunes (he speaks English) can be contacted at: cleber@andradenunes.org

To contact the Brazilian Embassy:

Embassy of Brazil in the USA

3006 Massachusetts Avenue, NW

Washington, DC

20008-3634

Phone: (202) 238-2700

Fax: (202) 238-2827

Email: ambassador@brasilemb.org

Embassy of Brazil in Canada

450 Wilbrod Street

Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6M8

Phone: (613) 237-1090 or (613) 755-5160

Fax: (613) 237-6144

E-mail: mailbox@brasembottawa.org

Embassies of Brazil to other Nations: http://www.embassyworld.com/embassy/Brazil/Brazil1.html

Previous LifeSiteNews coverage:

Homeschooling Showdown in Brazil: Children to be Tested by Court in Battle Over Educational Rights of Parents

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/aug/08081802.html

Shock: Brazilian Homeschooling Parents Face Arrest Even after Early-Teen Sons Pass Law School Exams

Family appeals case to Brazilian Supreme Court

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/apr/09040112.html

Brazilian Court Convicts Homeschooling Family Despite Evidence of Success

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/dec/08122308.html

Brazilian Homeschoolers Score Surprise Victory in Showdown Against Government

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/sep/08090207.html

Brazilian Homeschool Couple May be Jailed if Their Children Fail Harsh Government Tests

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/aug/08082207.html

Homeschooling Showdown in Brazil: Children to be Tested by Court in Battle Over Educational Rights of Parents

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/aug/08081802.html

Brazilian Government Prosecutes Homeschooling Family, Threatens to Remove Children

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/mar/08030610.html

Source: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/mar/10032601.html

Divulgation: http://lastdayswatchman.blogspot.com/

Lula humiliates Israel 

Brazilian president refuses to lay down flowers on the grave of the founder of the modern State of Israel 

By Julio Severo 

I wonder what would happen if, in visit to Brazil, an Israeli government official declared in the Brazilian Congress gaffes humiliating Brazil. 

Israelis would not be capable of that discourtesy. They are so polite and civilized that they allowed Lula, as a demonstration of affection for the Brazilian people that represents a large portion of the tourists visiting Israel, to make his speech in the Parliament of Israel. 

No retribution for the affection. Lula took advantage of the opportunity to criticize Israel. 

That was the only visit that Lula made to Israel. That, in fact, was the only visit that a Brazilian president made to Israel. The marks left are of a sickly ideology — which tolerates everything that communist Cuba does against her own people, but criticizes Israel for defending her people and her land. 

As if it were little humiliating for a foreign president to humiliate Israel in her own Parliament, Lula went beyond. He refused to do what all of the presidents that visit Israel do: to lay down flowers in Theodor Herzl’s grave, considered the founder of the modern State of Israel. 

Evidently, Lula must have been aghast, because different from his friend Fidel Castro, who has his hands dirty of innocent blood, and different from many of his own assistants, linked to communist terrorist groups that shed innocent blood in the past, Theodor Herzl had never shed blood of anybody. 

Don’t ask him what he thinks about Herzl having the idea of helping the State of Israel get up from the debris of History… 

Today, Lula laid flowers in Yasser Arafat’s grave, considered the founder of the modern State of Palestine, established in Israeli lands. He did it as a demonstration of his respect and affection.

Very different from Herzl, the hands, the feet, the head and everything else of Arafat are dirty of blood. In his terrorist attacks, Arafat didn’t spare anybody, even children in school buses, which were exploded by the bombs of the terrorist group PLO, founded by Arafat. 

However, Lula knows how to dissimulate. In Israel he visited the Museum of the Holocaust, laid down flowers and said: “Never more, never more, never more!” Two months from now, he will be visiting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which denies the Holocaust, “What never more, comrade Lula? That never happened!”

Ahmadinejad wants at all costs to make nuclear weapons. And he makes no secret of his objective: To destroy Israel. To kill Jews. 

In Lula’s agenda, there is not any speech in the Parliament of Iran criticizing Ahmadinejad or the bomb to destroy Israel. They are friends, and friends deserve respect and affection. Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez are witnesses of the fidelity to Lula to his friends. 

If in his several visits to Cuba Lula never criticized the Cuban government, why would he make that now to comrade Ahmadinejad? 

If Ahmadinejad is able to fulfill his dreams, Lula will have the opportunity to dissimulate again and lay flowers in the 2nd Museum of the Holocaust, which will have to be built away from the lands of Israel, which will be then polluted by a strong radioactivity. 

Lula will repeat again, “Never more, never more, never more!” And Ahmadinejad will join him, adding, “Israel never more, never more! Israel never more, never more!”

Portuguese version of this article: Lula humilha Israel

Spanish version of this article: Lula humilla a Israel

Source: www.lastdayswatchman.blogspot.com

Lula, the meddler  

What every Christian should know about Israel

Lula, the meddler 

Cuba, Israel and the forsaken black 

By Julio Severo 

No, the Fidel Castro dictatorship has never considered Lula a meddler. In fact, in his recent visit to Cuba, Brazilian president Lula preferred not to defend a black that, after years of unjustified prison and torture, also died from a hunger strike. Lula had no pity and mercy on him. After all, he was guilty of a horrible crime: to disagree with the Cuban communist paradise. Have you already seen crime worse than that? 

Additionally, it was a mistake — in Lula’s modest opinion — for the man to appeal to a hunger strike, stopping eating the beggar ration kindly granted by the Cuban government. The correct thing was for him to remain alive to keep suffering tortures. In the past, Cuba used the paredón a lot, but probably because of the shortage of bullets, tortures are more economical. However it may appear bad, the Cuban striker just was one of the dozens of thousands of innocent men annihilated by the Cuban government, which only wants the “well-being” of its own people.

Evidently, if Lula were not socialist, the socialist media would never forgive him, “Racist Lula! False human rights advocate!” But his friendship with Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez guarantees immediate and automatic pardon and closed eyes by the press, which don’t also care about blacks and others that perish under communist governments.

Blacks and other minorities are very useful for the socialist ideology, but they are disposable when they riot against the slavery imposed by socialist governments on their populations. This is why Lula took the decision of not interfering in the Cuban “internal affairs”. 

The case of the wretched Cuban black didn’t move black-rights Brazilian activists, nor did it lead them to yell complaints against the alleged supreme benefactor of their cause in the Brazilian presidency. After all, Lula has the zealous commitment of supporting Castro’s communist cause and the black militants’ cause, providing that they don’t interfere in the supreme cause — “May Karl Marx’s kingdom come. May his will be done!” 

In Lula’s utopian socialist vision, Fidel Castro and his government are victims of the tyranny of the free speech from Cuban citizens that refuse to see the benefits of a life subdued under the socialist collar. Real oppression is a government suffering resistance by a stupid people against the “sovereign right” of the State of controlling citizens by any means. For Lula, that is the worst kind of oppression. So, what if he thought the black’s death in the rotten communist prison was the death of one more “oppressor” against the wonderful liberating forces of the secular State?

So far as it depends on Lula and Castro, every anti-socialism citizen should make a permanent hunger strike, without any right to breaks.

Undeniable admirer of the gay agenda, Lula would have just a paraphrased saying by Oscar Wilde to blacks, Christians and others oppressed by Castro’s paradise, “The best way to defeat the Castro communism is surrendering to it!” 

Lula would apply that saying to many other examples. 

However, he would never do that to Israel.

The Brazilian government, which has been systematically voting against Israel in the UN Security Council since Lula took office in 2003, has never condemned the most severe human-rights violations in Sudan, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, etc., where hundreds of thousands of Christians have been tortured and murdered. Philosophy of Lula: For friends, everything. For “enemies”, nothing.

If the poor black were Palestinian and he had been victim of Israel, Lula would certainly appeal for more drastic reactions. (“Hey, comrade Ahmadinejad, why so much delay? Are you going or not to make the bomb?”) 

Certainly, Lula would never be silent on a Palestinian black’s death. But because the poor black “chose” to be victim of Lula’s Cuban friend, the only solution was the hunger death indeed. 

Now, Lula is visiting Israel and Palestinians in the Jewish territories occupied by them. Ah, at last, the man recognized — after almost one decade visiting the countries enemies of Israel without touching the land of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — that he also needs to travel at least once to Israel. 

It is not a courtesy visit, although Shimon Perez, the president of Israel, is as socialist as Lula. Actually, the Brazilian president hopes to obtain in some way the position of a peace “mediator” between Israelis and Palestinians. He wants, in short, a significant role in the international pressures that want to force Jews to hand over to the Palestinian Arabs half of the land God gave in promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 

Hey, don’t judge Lula. He does it because he has no faith in God and his promises. Is there free will, isn’t there? Everybody has a right to fight against what God promises. Lula is just exercising his right of secular interference in the internal affairs of Israel. In addition, he just wants to change the Brazilian scale, where crowds of evangelical Brazilians visit Israel yearly as a gesture of support to the Jewish people. 

Lula’s visit represents the shadiest side of Brazil. He will be representing Brazilians that don’t accept by any means the alliance of God with the Jewish people. 

I am not sure what can happen to a man that wants to be a meddler right in the middle of an issue that God have already fully decided. The land of Israel has already been handed over. That decision, which is final, came from God, not man. If Lula wants to give lands to Palestinians, let him give his personal properties. 

However, I know what could have happened if Lula had used his gift of meddling between Fidel Castro and a poor dark-skinned Cuban subject. Yet, nobody defended the man, who died in a horrible way. Lula was there, in his comfortable presidential skybox, watching, with popcorn and coke (euphemism for rum) in his hands, the last minutes of a lonely Cuban citizen’s show against communist tyranny. In the end: unhappy end — for the black. At least, Lula was able to consume his popcorn and coke. 

In the case of Israel, Lula’s pretension of being a “peace mediator” between Israelis and Palestinian is just an euphemism for “meddler”, a term that according to the Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) means, “One who meddles; one who interferes or busies himself with things in which he has no concern; an officious person; a busybody”.

Before dictators, Lula’s necessary interference disappears while the oppressed die. Hundreds of thousands of tortured and murdered Christians in Sudan, Cuba, Iran and North Korea do not appear to have some effect on Lula’s conscience (or conscienceless).

Before God and his promises, Lula, with his nose in the air, says, “Nobody will hold me back from entering in this issue! I do what I please and I travel where I want with the money from my subjects!” 

In the trip agenda of Lula this year, there is also a scheduled visit to the president of Iran, comrade Ahmadinejad, who is always promising to destroy Israel and Jews.

Would Lula be able to consider paying a visit to Ahmadinejad or calling him a friend if the Islamic leader had promised to destroy dictators Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez?

Chavez is a friend of Ahmadinejad, and both have friendship with Lula. Both also support terrorist groups against Israel.

Yet, you will see who will prevail in the end. 

I only fear for Brazil, because although Lula has a right of playing the role of comrade of the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish modern Haman, a whole nation may suffer the consequences from a bibacious and irresponsible man’s decisions.

Portuguese version of this article: Lula, o intrometido

Source: www.lastdayswatchman.blogspot.com

What every Christian should know about Israel

Socialism, Islam and Hell

Muslim suicides surpassed by Protestant and Jewish suicides

Brazil’s Lula, the friend of Iran’s Ahmadinejad

Iran, hatred of Jews and the schizophrenic Lula administration

World amazed by unprecedented address by President Lula at the UN Human Rights Council

The cost of the high popularity of Lula

The great Brazilian miracle

Does Julio Severo preach ‘hate’ against homosexuals? 

Deception and abuse in the slanderous anti-“homophobia” propaganda 

By Julio Severo 

Since my book “O Movimento Homossexual” (The Homosexual Movement) was firstly published by the Brazilian branch of Bethany House Publishers in 1998, Brazilian gay activists have had the ideological consensus that Julio Severo preaches anti-homosexual hate. And that consensus is abundantly spread by them in comments and articles that flood the internet — probably as a way to draw away and protect ordinary homosexuals from a message showing that homosexuality is not normal. What is true and false in their “consensus?” What is true and false in their attitudes toward Julio Severo? 

True: Regularly, Julio Severo receives gay activists' furious messages swearing at him and accusing him of crimes and hate against men that commit homosexual acts. 

False: Regularly, Julio Severo sends messages to gay activists swearing at them. 

True: Some of the hostile messages that Julio Severo receives bring threats. 

False: Julio Severo sends messages to homosexuals threatening them of physical aggression. 

False: Julio Severo is accused of hate because he killed homosexuals. 

True: Julio Severo follows the biblical norm of loving the homosexual sinner and agrees with the biblical and divine condemnation to the homosexual sin. 

False: Homosexuality is a natural behavior without any connection with diseases and boys’ sexual abuse. 

Hate in the Bible? Hate in the Blog Julio Severo?

I and millions of other Christians just repeat and mention the Bible, which explicitly condemns homosexuality, sodomy, sex between a man and other man — whatever one wants to call a man’s behavior putting his penis into another man’s anus. 

Is there incitement to anti-homosexual hate in the Bible? If there was, homosexuals would not have any chance, because there are millions of Christians in Brazil that respect what the Bible says, including on homosexuality. With millions of Christians moved by “hate”, the entire homosexual population would be murdered, and with the total absence of homosexuals in the society we would not have any longer problems of boring “homophobia” accusations and worries about forced pro-homosexuality indoctrination of school-children. Nobody would need any longer to worry about any threat of gay dictatorship.  

Resuming the question: Is there incitement to anti-homosexual hate in the Bible? Is there incitement to violence against homosexuals in the Blog Julio Severo?

Life expectancy of homosexuals is low, but the Bible and Julio Severo cannot be blamed for it. With their unhealthy and harmful lifestyle, they acquire so many diseases that homosexuality itself is a serious risk for their lives. 

There are the cases of some homosexuals that were murdered by skinheads and by neo-Nazis. But those individuals have no interest in what the Bible says. They don’t also like what Julio Severo writes. Many homosexual prostitutes are murdered by thieves (drug-traffickers and thieves), not because of incitement from the Bible or from the Blog Julio Severo, but because they chose places prone to criminality. 

Many gays are murdered — and many more are assaulted — by violent partners, but not because of incitement from the Bible or from the Blog Julio Severo. And, ultimately, a lot of homosexuals die because of a life of excesses, drugs, alcohol and unhealthy and destructive practices. The Bible or Blog Julio Severo cannot be blamed for inciting them to drugs, alcohol and unhealthy and destructive practices. 

Both the Bible and Blog Julio Severo are a source of orientation and information, containing recommendations against drugs, alcoholic beverage and destructive behaviors, including homosexuality. Even so, gay militants insist that both the Bible and Blog Julio Severo incite hatred against homosexuals.

Does Blog Julio Severo “incite” its readers to hate homosexuals? 

Alexander, a reader of Blog Julio Severo that suffers discrimination just for not supporting special laws and 'marriages’ for homosexuals, tells that on the Sunday, March 7, about 11:00 pm, he began to hear curse words coming from the upper apartment. Soon afterwards more curse words and frightening screams came. “You * &% $#@  Come here… You * &% $#@, you deserve this [followed by a scream]… Now you * &% $#@, you will see [followed by another scream]”.  

Alexander says, “At ounce, the threats and screams increased, and it was evident that somebody wanted to flee at all costs from an aggressor. I jumped from the sofa and I went up gingerly the stairway to see what was happening, and when I arrived close it become apparent that it was a violent fight of a homosexual ‘couple’. When I heard the screams again I had no doubts, I knocked on the door. On that moment the voice that screamed desperately screamed still higher: ‘Help!!!! Please, help!!!’ I knocked again on the door, which was locked. When I continued to knock, the door opened up partially: this was the aggressor holding the door and saying that everything was ok, and that I should leave. Through the opening I was able to see the other man’s face. He was shaking and visibly desperate to leave the apartment. Half-naked and with panic-stricken eyes, he screamed: “Please, help me! Help out from here! He is beating me!” 

The aggressor then ordered Alexander away. Immediately, Alex calls the police, and in 5 minutes 3 policemen arrived and for a long time negotiated to enter in the apartment to save a homosexual from another homosexual… 

Then Alexander tells me: “Julio, this was my history at the Sunday night… the history of a ‘homophobic’ that had to save a gay that was victim of aggression from another gay”. 

Only defamations   

However, instead of worrying about the genuine well-being of homosexuals and attacking the real causes of the problem, what gay activists make routinely is to abuse, insult and slander people that don’t agree with their views. They launch systematic defamatory campaigns against their victims, accusing them of having exactly the same hate that is so predominant among them.  

They chose to live a life of lies and defamations, and they are angered at any Christian that reminds them that they need to repent, in order to avoid the place of eternal punishment shown by the Bible as the place of destiny for those that choose to reject salvation and to remain in their sins: hell. 

They are very lucky that Christians in Brazil have not all the hate that they so much preach against us in their defamations, because if we had, Brazil would have no longer any gay activist to complain and suck taxpayers for their gay orgy parades.

Their defamations are so ridiculous they go so far as to accuse Brazil of being champion of murders of homosexuals, as if Iran were a paradise where no homosexual is murdered.

Send Brazilian gay activists to the Islamic paradises in the Middle East

However, if they want to combat genuine hate against them, I make a suggestion: they should send a homosexual delegation to Iran, led by Luiz Mott (the leader of the Brazilian homosexual movement), with the goal of convincing Muslims in Iran not to kill homosexuals. If that delegation doesn’t return to Brazil, I suggest to send another, led by Toni Reis (the president of the largest gay group in Brazil), to Saudi Arabia. If for some “mysterious” reason the second delegation also does not to return to Brazil, I suggest to send a delegation a day, in chartered jets with hundreds of gay activists, to other Muslim countries. 

In the end, Paulo Vanucchi, the Secretary of the Human Rights Office of the Presidency of the Brazilian Republic and responsible for the federal program Brazil Without Homophobia, would let Lula know, “Majesty, Brazil sent so many gays to Iran, Saudi Arabia and other Muslim nations that it is possible now to do big Brazilian gay parades in those countries. The big trouble is that almost no gay was left here to receive the enormous budgets that you, Majesty, allocated to gay groups, which are emptied of their board of directors and members, which accompanied those delegations. What will we do now with so much money remaining? Besides, up to now we have received no phone call or email from Luiz Mott and Toni Reis. Our biggest allies disappeared! Brazil is now facing an unprecedented shortage of gays in all of its history. That is a state of public calamity!” 

It is possible (but not certain) that Lula could call his friend Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran to ask, “Comrade Ahmadinejad, in the past months hundreds of homosexuals delegations left Brazil for Iran, Saudi Arabia and other Muslim nations. So many gays left here that now we run the danger that they have become a species in extinction in Brazil”. 

With a shy and uncomfortable voice, he continues, “Would you be offended or bothered if I asked you a little question? We have still received no news from those delegations, and I just wanted to know if something has happened…” 

Ahmadinejad: “Friend Lula, I will be sincere. Here in Iran there are no homosexuals”.

Lula, who is a notorious hard drinker, would answer under the effect of alcoholic beverage, “Comrade Ahmadinejad — hic! —, if Brazil were not under a crisis of reduced homosexual population — hic! —, we could give some of them to you free of charge!”

Without alcohol, probably Lula’s answer would be, “Thank you, comrade Ahmadinejad. I knew that you were going to be sincere. However it may be, I won’t allow such a small issue to interfere in our friendship or in my friendship with other Muslim presidents. My regards to you”. 

Vanucchi: “What about now, Majesty? How are we going to explain to the Brazilian public that massive ‘disappearance’ of gay activists? Whom will we make accountable for it?” 

Lula: “Didn’t you hear what comrade Ahmadinejad said? There are no homosexuals in Iran. Wretched homophobic Christians in Brazil: they have exploded the airplanes of the gay delegations before they arrived at Iran, Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries!” 

Lula continues, “We need to move fast, before somebody in the media insinuates that our Islamic allies could have some responsibility in those terrorist actions”. 

Vanucchi: “Majesty, we can create a Truth Commission to investigate all the terrorism that Christians in Brazil have been using against homosexuals for years. For many years they have been saying that men that commit homosexual acts are condemned to hell. That is a most serious terrorism! We can also create anti-terrorism laws and a national list of anti-terrorists alert containing the names of all homophobic Christian leaders in Brazil. That will make possible for us to track, monitor and arrest any one of them at any moment” 

Lula: “Excellent idea, Vanucchi! Just do not forget to put in the list also the fanatics that during all my administration tormented my efforts to legalize abortion”. 

Portuguese version of this article: Julio Severo prega “ódio” aos homossexuais?

Spanish version of this article: ¿Julio Severo predica el “odio” a los homosexuales?

Source: www.lastdayswatchman.blogspot.com

Former gay militant asks forgiveness from Julio Severo

Prove you love Jesus

Prove you love Jesus!

“If you love homosexuals, support pro-homosexuality laws”.

By Julio Severo

In the early times of Christianity, Roman Empire forced Christians to deny Jesus, under death threats. But faithful Christians proved to Jesus their love, not renouncing him or denying him. They were not afraid of being martyred for Jesus’ sake.

Yet, do not think that the strategy from darkness does not change. Today, while the State works eagerly to impose capital punishment on the Christian expression and testimony in the society, trendy voices demand another kind of behavior from Christians.

On the homosexual issue, the leftist media and homosexual groups yell, “If you love Jesus, approve anti-discrimination laws” — which sanctify homosexuality making it exempt from criticism. They also aggressively raise “homophobia” charges against Christians, saying, “If you do not approve those laws, thousands of homosexuals will be murdered, and Jesus does not want it. Prove your Christian love!”

If you do not follow their instructions on the “right way of loving Jesus”, you are immediately charged of being intolerant. If you dare to say that “you love homosexuals, but that homosexuality is a sin”, they will say that you are promoting hate and violence.

What to do when the society, or the spiritual forces manipulating it, craftily uses the words in the Bible to push Christians to approve laws that will eventually make sin sacred and produce persecution and death to the Christian testimony in the society?

If you have ever been led to a situation where words in the Bible were used to force you to follow determined direction, know that you are not the first victim of this exploitation,

And Satan said to Jesus, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone’”. (Matthew 4:6)

Answering the devil that was manipulating the words in the Bible, Jesus said, “You shall not tempt the LORD your God.” (Matthew 4:7 NKJV)

Jesus answered with God’s Word because he knew it very well.

The devil twists anything to achieve its intents. This is why certain anti-discrimination laws, which are covertly aimed at promoting homosexuality, are strategically entitled laws of “protection for the homosexual minority”. The plot is evident: to frame all criticism to the gay agenda in those laws as a direct assault against the “protection for the homosexual minority”!

This exploitation is purported to leave Christians and others in an unpleasing defensive situation: If you do not approve those laws, you support violence and murders of homosexuals.

Strange voices insistently demand from Christians,

“Those laws are only to protect homosexuals”.

“If you do not approve them, you are not a Christian”.

“If you do not approve them, you do not love homosexuals”.

“If you do not approve them, you do not love Jesus!”

Have you ever heard those voices?

And the shrewdness of those voices does not end there. Thousands of pro-abortion and pro-homosexuality socialist politicians have been elected in the whole world by millions of Christian voters that have been misled by the fraudulent proposals from socialism. Many of those Christians ask the question, “Is it ok for me to vote for a pro-abortion and pro-homosexuality candidate?” Immediately the voices appease them, “Do not worry about the abortion and homosexuality issue. There are things more important to consider. The most important is that this candidate is in favor of the poor. Wasn’t Jesus in favor of the poor? If you love Jesus and the poor, vote for him”.

The devil is neither in favor of the poor nor of the Bible, but he always manipulate them when convenient. So if you do not know sufficiently God’s Word, the world and the devil himself are going to use the words in the Bible to tell you what you should do to prove your love for God.

To answer these attacks, you should know God’s Word much more that the world and the devil do.

Then you will not need to follow their orders to demonstrate your love. You will demonstrate it to Jesus. And the world will hate you as much as it hated the One that demonstrated maximum love for all the human beings. Jesus said,

“And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.” (Mark 13:13 NKJV)

“If you had anything in common with the world, the world would love you as one of its own. But you don’t have anything in common with the world. I chose you from the world, and that’s why the world hates you.” (John 15:19 GWV)

However, the devil and the world make special promises to those that avoid being hated: ignore God’s commands. Do the world’s will, and its hate against you ends. Approve pro-homosexuality laws, and the world and the devil will praise you. Had not Jesus himself warned about it 2,000 years ago?

“Woe to you when all men speak well of you, For so did their fathers to the false prophets.” (Luke 6:26 NKJV)

“How horrible it will be for you when everyone says nice things about you. That’s the way their ancestors treated the false prophets.” (Luke 6:26 GWV)

In the Roman Empire, the order was,

“Deny Jesus or die!”

The modern order is,

“Love Jesus, but deny his commands. As a reward, everybody will praise you”.

The same devil that persecuted and murdered the first Christians is offering a compromise for the modern Christians, “You do not need to deny your love for Jesus. Just deny God’s commands!”

If you do not comply, they will spill on you infernal hate and have even the brazenness to defame you as hate and violence promoter. Those that are intolerant, threatening and violent against your testimony will have the cynicism to charge you of intolerant, “homophobic” and instigator of crimes, and your free speech will be speedily beheaded.

Yet, Truth will prevail, because the Holy Spirit is active convincing of sin and unrighteousness.

The true love for Jesus always goes together with God’s commands. Jesus said,

“He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” (John 14:21 NKJV)

About homosexuality, God’s command is clear,

“If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.” (Leviticus 20:13 NKJV)

“Do ye not know that unrighteous persons shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor those who make women of themselves, nor who abuse themselves with men, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor abusive persons, nor the rapacious, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Darby)

The counterfeit, worldly and devilish version of “love for Jesus” does not contain God’s commands, and its use is exclusively to induce, press and mislead the emotions of Christians to approve laws that are not according to God’s laws.

Therefore, if you want to prove your love for Jesus, just follow his commands — regardless what the counterfeit versions of “love for Jesus” try to impose on you.

If you want to prove your love for Jesus, tell the truth to homosexuals and the society. Tell that they are in need of Jesus to be saved from hell. And let Jesus use you to deliver men that are captive in the homosexual sin.

If you love homosexuals, let them know that there is a way out from the homosexual sin, even though you are afraid to be morally martyred by anti-“homophobia” lynchers.

The demonstration of this love and the truth implies many risks today, including malicious and criminal charges of hate incitation, intolerance, violence, discrimination, prejudice, “homophobia”, etc.

Many Christians, wanting to avoid problems, answer “Yes” to the voice that says, “If you love Jesus or if you love homosexuals, approve laws favoring homosexuality”. By their silence to the truth that disturbs the world and the devils, they get false security, comfort and many praises.

Yet, those insisting in speaking the truth suffer viciously by the hate sowers. And the time is speedily coming near when innocent men and women may be condemned to prison for telling that “homosexuality is a sin”.

In the presence of the modern haters that use any and every defamation and are ready to throw Christians into the lion’s dens, who will be courageous to prove his love for Jesus by following his commands and speaking the truth?

Portuguese version of this article: Prove que você ama Jesus!

Source: www.lastdayswatchman.blogspot.com

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Lula Has No One But Himself to Blame for Falling Out of Grace with Foreign Press

Written by Augusto Zimmermann

The supporters of president Lula in Brazil constantly remind us that he is very appreciated by foreign journalists. Well, I bring some bad news to these people: Lula is definitively not as "loved" as he once was.

In a certain way, everything started to change when Brazil decided to support the request from Cuba and Libya to suspend the consultative status of the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) within the U.N. Commission on Human Rights.

In joining with Libya and several other undemocratic nations with an extensive record of human-rights violations such as China, Cuba, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, Brazil voted for the suspension of one of the few organizations representing freedom of the press to have consultative status within that important branch of the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

Another conflict of interest took place in 2004, during the controversial attempt that was made by the Lula administration to expel the American journalist Larry Rohter, a correspondent from the New York Times. His visa had been cancelled because he dared to write an article airing widespread public concerns over the President's drinking habits.

As everybody knows, as a result of receiving widespread criticism from the international media, President Lula, stubbornly sticking to his guns, saw it fit to end the imbroglio with a farce. Unable to retreat from his own radical stance without losing face, he decided to interpret as a 'retraction' a letter in which the journalist actually confirms what he wrote in the article. Thus, the whole matter was solved not as a result of respect to legality, but rather out of the apparent magnanimity of Lula.

The President's kind-hearted generosity notwithstanding, he found himself once again criticised in the international media when Brazil abstained on United Nations resolutions condemning numerous human-rights abuses in the Congo, Sri Lanka and North Korea.

In this respect, a recent article in Newsweek accuses the Brazilian government of being completely silent on the genocidal policies of the Islamic government of Sudan. It even refrained from voting to grant human rights monitors a wider brief in that troubled country, and only reversed course in June last year after a public outcry by human-rights organisations.

Newsweek also informs its millions of readers that the "Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez has no better friend than Lula, even as the former has muzzled the media, bullied rivals, and smothered trade unions," even though Human Rights Watch accuses his political regime of widespread human-rights violations, including the restriction of free speech, the killing of political opponents, police torture and politicisation of the judiciary. Even so, Lula has told Newsweek that Venezuela is a democracy and that "each country establishes the democratic regime that suits its people."

That Lula is also developing excellent ties of friendship with the Iranian President Ahmadinejad has also not been ignored. According to Newsweek, such reality can be evidenced by the fact that Lula has "stoutly defended Iran's nuclear program and even invited Ahmadinejad to visit Brazil."

In addition, the United Press International (UPI) published an article commenting that Lula has even questioned the right of the Iranian people to protest against those fraudulent elections, pointing out: " "In Brazil we also have people who do not accept electoral defeats."

Brazil's apparent support for Iran, when even China and Russia condemned its nuclear program, has been interpreted as a disastrous move.

According to a recent editorial from The Washington Post, the Brazilian support shows that the West was actually right in not offering the country a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council. To have a more positive influence in the world, the editorial says, Brazil should immediately stop embracing pariahs such as Ahmadinejad.

With regard to its dabbling in Central American politics, The Wall Street Journal has published an article contending that the Brazilian intervention in Honduras was a major obstacle to the peaceful (and democratic) solution of the crisis in that country.

Written by Dr Susan Kaufman Purcell, the director of the Center for Hemispheric Policy at the University of Miami, the article says that during the crisis in Honduras Lula stood behind the ousted President Manuel Zelaya, who attempted to follow in the steps of his Venezuelan ally Hugo Chavez, particularly in regard to his desire to change the Honduran constitution to scrap presidential term limits, which was the reason for his being ousted.

When Zelaya took refuge in the Brazilian embassy, the cable news network CNN reported in its website that Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim declared that the ousted Honduran president had been popularly elected, and that Brazil would not tolerate any actions against the embassy.

The position was considered extremely hypocritical, because Brazil had just voted in the Organization of American States (OAS) to lift the membership ban on Cuba - a country that has not held a democratic election in 50 years. This Brazilian vote contradicts the organization's democratic charter.

So it is no wonder that many foreign journalists are now getting quite suspicious of president Lula. The fact that he values so much the friendship of dictators and mass-murderers can be interpreted as sign that he is neither a true democrat nor particularly interested in the protection of basic human rights.

Hence, if Lula completely falls out of grace with the foreign press he has only himself (and his disastrous' foreign policies) to blame.

Portuguese version of this article: “Romance” com Lula está no fim

Dr Augusto Zimmermann teaches law at Murdoch University, Australia.

Source: Brazzil            

Divulgation: www.lastdayswatchman.blogspot.com

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