The 3 - January 6, 2019

This week's edition of The 3, with three stories of relevance to the Christian community, features several stories that are continuations of top issues from the previous year.  For instance, there is more internet censorship; this time of one of America's leading evangelical ministers.  And, the Administration's policy on transgender individuals serving in the military received an affirmative court action.  Plus, with new House leadership, taxpayer funding of abortion was included in a new Federal spending bill.

3 - More Internet censorship: Franklin Graham temporarily banned from Facebook

One of the Meeting House Top 10 Topics of 2018 involved the censorship of Christians from social media sites.  And, recently, a frequent Facebook user was banned - for an two-year old post.  The Washington Examiner published the story of Franklin Graham's short-term removal from the website.  The story stated:

Following the ban Graham said in a Facebook post on Friday that the flagged statement, which was from April, was about North Carolina's "bathroom bill" that focused on which bathrooms transgender individuals were legally allowed to use.

He also shared the content of that flagged post, urging his followers to judge whether it contained hate speech. The post was critical of Bruce Springsteen canceling a North Carolina concert over the bill's existence.

He had written, in April 2016, that, "Bruce Springsteen, a long-time gay rights activist, has cancelled his North Carolina concert," adding "He says the NC law #HB2 to prevent men from being able to use women's restrooms and locker rooms is going 'backwards instead of forwards.' Well, to be honest, we need to go back! Back to God. Back to respecting and honoring His commands. Back to common sense."

Facebook said that the move against Graham was made in error. A spokesperson for Facebook said to the Examiner: "A page admin for Franklin Graham’s Facebook page did receive a 24-hour feature block after we removed a post for violating our hate speech policies," adding, "Upon re-reviewing this content, we identified that the post does not violate our hate speech policy and has been restored.”

The article also states:

"Why are they going back to 2016?" Graham asked during an appearance on Fox News. "I think it was just really a personal attack towards me. The problem with Facebook, if you disagree with their position on sexual orientation then you could be classified as hate speech, or that you’re a racist. This is a problem."

Graham also said that he accepted Facebook's apology and was appreciative that they apologized.

2 - Trump Administration (finally) wins an appeals court victory on military transgender restrictions

Another of the top 10 stories of 2018 involved the proposed ban on many transgender individuals from serving in the military, a policy developed by then-Secretary of Defense Mattis and approved by the President.  However, these regulations cannot go into effect because of court decisions against it.

That's still the case, but the Administration did win a court victory recently about the policy.  According to the USA Today website:

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the partial ban announced by the Pentagon, but never implemented, should not have been blocked by a district court while it was being challenged.

The website goes on to say that, "other courts' blockades of the policy remain in effect." It also states:

Four federal district courts blocked the policy from going into effect, and even while appeals courts have been considering it, the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to weigh in. The justices will consider that request at their private conference next Friday.

1 - New House leadership: attempt to include taxpayer funding of abortion in spending bill

There is new leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives, which now has a Democrat majority. And, the legislative priorities have definitely changed.  While lawmakers are at a standoff regarding border security, the new majority has proposed spending taxpayer dollars on...abortion.

LifeSite News reports that:

Following her re-election as House Speaker Thursday, Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi announced that her party would be “offering the Senate Republican Appropriations [Committee] legislation to reopen the government later today.” The proposal consisted of one bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security until February 8 and another to fund federal departments until the end of September.

The article goes on to say:

The legislation lacked the wall funding at the heart of the dispute, however, and would also repeal the Mexico City Policy (now called Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance) that Trump reinstated shortly after taking office and later expanded. In addition to making abortion-involved groups once again eligible for foreign aid, the Democrat plan would also give $37.5 million to the United Nations Population Fund, from which Trump withdrew in 2017 over its participation in China’s forced abortion regime.

The priorities have definitely changed - you won't see attempts to defund Planned Parenthood from House leadership, and prior to the election, Pelosi also said that, according to CBN.com, she would introduce the "Equality Act" as one of her first orders of business.  The article says:

The act would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which already bars discrimination on the bases of race, color, sex, religion, and nationality. The Equality Act would expand those protections beyond the workplace. The bill would prohibit gender discrimination in retail shops, restaurants, health care, and social services, housing, applying for a loan, or participating in the jury selection process.