Sweden’s sexualized LGBT church altar is not ‘inclusive,’ it’s driving people away from modern Christianity

The obsession of many Western Christian leaders with “inclusivity” has brought sexual politics and its activists into the church, turning off many seeking a simple solution to their faith, not depictions of gay sex on the altar.

The decline in membership of the Church of Sweden should accelerate this Advent thanks to one place of worship in Malmo deciding it needed to enhance its woke credentials despite the risk of upsetting Christians elsewhere.

On the first day of the Christmas season, and try not to simply raise your eyebrows yet, it chose to unveil its new altarpiece, a homoerotic painting depicting black and white gays and lesbians cavorting naked. Oh, and the work is by Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin, herself a lesbian in case there was any doubt about her allegiances.

Of course the Church of Sweden thinks this is brilliant. Maybe that partly explains why in 1972 around 95 percent of Swedes belonged to the church, while only 57 per cent identified with it last year.

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/474858-lgbt-church-sweden-altarpiece/

China bans US military ships and aircraft from visiting Hong Kong, places sanctions US human rights orgs amid Washington's support for protesters

China has banned U.S. warships and military aircraft from stopping in Hong Kong after the U.S. passed legislation supporting pro-democracy protesters in the country.

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Last week, President Donald Trump signed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which would allow the U.S. to impose sanctions on China due to rights violations in Hong Kong.

China's Foreign Ministry condemned the new law, calling it nothing more than a show of public support for "violent criminals."

You can read more about the protests here.

What are the details?

According to a Monday CNN report, China's Foreign Ministry confirmed the move. During a news conference in Beijing, Hua Chunying, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said, "In response to the unreasonable behaviors of the U.S. side, the Chinese government decides to suspend the review of requests by U.S. military ships and aircraft to visit Hong Kong as of today."

Beijing is also set to impose sanctions on certain U.S.-based human rights organizations that have been reporting on the ongoing unrest within the country.

"China decides to sanction on the organizations that behave badly during the Hong Kong extradition-bill unrest, including National Endowment for Democracy, National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, International Republican Institute, Human Rights Watch and Freedom House," Hua added.

Hua also stated that Beijing wants the U.S. to "stop interfering" in the country's "internal affairs."

"We urge the U.S. to correct the mistakes and stop interfering in our internal affairs. China will take further steps if necessary to uphold Hong Kong's stability and prosperity and China's sovereignty," Hua said.

Last week, Trump issued a statement on the new law, saying, "I signed these bills out of respect for President Xi, China, and the people of Hong Kong. They are being enacted in the hope that Leaders and Representatives of China and Hong Kong will be able to amicably settle their differences leading to long term peace and prosperity for all."

https://www.theblaze.com/news/china-bans-us-military-ships-from-hong-kong

School Cop Arrested for Allegedly Raping Child He Was Tasked with ‘Protecting’

Clearwater County, MI — While most parents of school children in the United States will take comfort in knowing a police officer is at their child’s school, all too often, school cops are caught committing the vilest of offenses. As the following case out of Clearwater County illustrates, “protection and safety” are the last things at least one student of Bagley High School received from her school cop.

Neil Dolan, 31, a deputy with the Clearwater County Sheriff’s Office, was charged last week with multiple counts of criminal sexual misconduct after a 9th grader came forward and told investigators that this armed man, in his full police uniform, forced them to have sex with him inside the school office. His alleged victim was just 15-years-old at the time of the assault.

According to the Bemidji Pioneer, the assault allegedly occurred the last day of school in early June of 2017, the complaint said. Dolan was a school resource officer at Bagley High School for the past eight years. The complaint does not identify the victim by name or gender, however, it said the victim was in the ninth grade.

Clearwater County Sheriff Darin Halverson said this caught the entire department by surprise as Dolan has been with them for nearly a decade. The sheriff told reporters that there were no signs of misconduct on the part of Dolan, who plays other roles in the Clearwater County community, including emergency manager and football coach, according to the Pioneer.

The Pioneer spoke to a parent of a girl at the high school, Kim Bennett, who said news of Dolan’s arrest was “quite a shock.” She explained to the paper that Dolan was a prominent figure in the town with whom students gather around and high-five.

“I hope they aren’t true,” Bennett said of the allegations, “but if they are he is, unfortunately, going to pay the consequences.”

However, even if Dolan is convicted of the charges, if history is any indicator, he likely won’t face much of a punishment.

Dolan remains free after posting bond, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported. He is expected in court on Monday to face the charges. If convicted on both counts of criminal sexual conduct, Dolan could be sentenced to up to 45 years in prison. But this will likely never happen, even if he pleads guilty.

In the land of the free, child sex abusers get far less time in jail than people caught with a plant. Disgusting indeed.

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/school-cop-arrested-sexual-assault-child/

Survey: National populist True Finns Party largest party in Finland

The True Finns Party, a national populist party that’s critical of the European Union, mass migration, and the Islamization of the West, is now the largest party in Finland, a new survey has revealed.

The survey, carried out by the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, showed that if an election was held today, the True Finns would garner more than 22.4 percent of the vote, making them the largest party in the country.

Research data shows that the True Finns enjoy widespread support throughout Finland which spans across various population groups and ages. The party does, however, enjoy substantially more support from men than it does women, Susanna Ginman – a lead writer for Hufvudstadsbladet, one of the largest newspapers in Finland – says.

Like other populist parties operating throughout Europe, the True Finns have positioned themselves as the only real alternative to the globalist visions adhered to by traditional center-right and center-left parties.

The poll also revealed that the Social Democrats, who won April’s parliamentary elections by a slim majority, slipped to the third most popular party in the country just after the centrist Coalition Party.

A separate survey carried out by Yle early last month put the Social Democrats as Finland’s fourth-largest party.

The survey’s results come just weeks after a poll in Sweden revealed that the national populist Sweden Democrats are now the most popular party in Sweden, with 24 percent of the country’s electorate supporting it.

Despite constant attempts by the mainstream media to smear them as a radical right-wing party, support for the True Finns has only continued to expand.

https://voiceofeurope.com/2019/12/survey-national-populist-true-finns-party-largest-party-in-finland/

Futures Fade China PMI Euphoria After Trump Restarts Trade War With Brazil, Argentina

Markets started off the week in full-blown euphoria mode, despite another lukewarm Black Friday (as Amazon continues to cannibalizes the entire bricks and mortar retail industry) disappointing Korean exports, Japanese industrial data and a report out of China that only a full rollback on existing tariffs will lead to a "Phase 1" trade deal, with traders instead choosing to focus on this weekend's NBS and Caixin manufacturing PMI data out of China, of which the former unexpectedly moved into expansion in November, while the latter jumped to a near three-year high, which reinforced market confidence that the worst may be over for China (of course, this is merely a soft survey; China's actual hard data has been an absolute disaster) and the world economy.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/futures-fade-china-pmi-euphoria-after-trump-restarts-trade-war-brazil-argentina

’60 Minutes:’ More Than 300 Ads by Trump Campaign Taken Down by Google and YouTube

More than 300 of President Donald Trump’s political ads have taken down by Google and its video platform YouTube, mostly over the summer, according to a report by 60 minutes.

The CBS reporters were unable to find specific reasons for the mass takedowns of Trump ads, a common problem with social media companies, which are often reluctant to explain precisely why a ban or other act of censorship has happened. “We found very little transparency in the transparency report,” concluded 60 Minutes.

CBS reporters investigated the removal of pro-Trump ads after YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki highlighted the company’s decision to ban some of the President’s ads during an interview.

Via CBS News:

60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl asked Wojcicki, “Have you taken down any of President Trump’s ads at all?” YouTube’s CEO responded, “There are ads of President Trump that were not approved to run on Google or YouTube.” When pressed for an example, Wojcicki added, “Well, they’re available in our transparency report.”

In response to concerns raised after the 2016 election cycle, Google and YouTube, like Facebook, keep a searchable archive of political ads that have run on the site.

60 Minutes reviewed the archive to learn more about President Trump’s problematic political ads. We found that over 300 video ads were taken down by Google and YouTube, mostly over the summer, for violating company policy. But the archive doesn’t detail what policy was violated. Was it copyright violation? A lie or extreme inaccuracy? Faulty grammar? Bad punctuation? It’s unclear. The ads determined to be offending are not available to be screened. We found very little transparency in the transparency report.

The GOP and the Trump campaign have condemned Google’s recent rule-changes around political ads, calling them a “blatant attempt to suppress voter information” ahead of the 2020 election.

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/12/02/60-minutes-more-than-300-ads-by-trump-campaign-taken-down-by-google-and-youtube/

Madrid Opens With "Point Of No Return" Climate Scaremongering… But Where's Greta?

After previously finding herself stuck in the wrong place halfway around the world when the United Nations moved its global climate meeting from Chile to Spain, young climate activist Greta Thunberg is running a little late to the Madrid 25th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP25).

Though lacking in creating the same guilt-laced "terror" and panic-laden atmosphere that Greta has proved herself capable of, there was still plenty of climate apocalypse fear mongering during Monday's opening remarks to kick off the conference sans Greta. UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres declared "the point of no return is no longer over the horizon".

Guterres warned that, "In the crucial 12 months ahead, it is essential that we secure more ambitious national commitments — particularly from the main emitters — to immediately start reducing greenhouse gas emissions at a pace consistent to reaching carbon neutrality by 2050."

"We simply have to stop digging and drilling and take advantage of the vast possibilities offered by renewable energy and nature-based solutions," he added, though the aging bureaucrat's words certainly won't go viral as he can't work in a tirade or the same level of emotive guff about being forced to miss school.

Speaking of Greta, she's expected to arrive Tuesday after hitching a boat ride across the Atlantic with an Australian sailing couple.

https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/madrid-climate-conference-opens-point-no-return-scaremongering-wheres-greta

U.S. Birth Rate Drops for Fourth Year, Remains Below Replacement Level

The United States’ birth rate has continued to decline for the fourth consecutive year, newly released federal data reveals.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published the finalized birth and fertility rates for 2018, finding that U.S. birth rates have been dropping since 2015. Last year, less than 3.8 million babies were born in the U.S. — a drop of two percent, or almost 64,000 births, since 2017.

“This is the fourth year that the number of births has declined following an increase in 2014,” the CDC report details. “Before that year, the number of births declined steadily from 2007 through 2013.”

Across major racial groups, the birth rate continued to drop. For example, in a year-to-year comparison for 2017 to 2018, the number of births for non-Hispanic whites declined by two percent. For Hispanics and non-Hispanic blacks, the number of births declined by one percent, as well as a three percent decline in births for non-Hispanic Asians.

The total fertility rate, which stands at 1,729.5 births per 1,000 women, remains below replacement level — the number of births needed to at least replace a generation of Americans. Every year, there must be at least 2,100 births per 1,000 women to be considered at or above replacement level.

Since 1971, the birth rate has been below replacement level, according to the CDC. Birth rates across all major racial groups — non-Hispanic whites, Hispanics, non-Hispanic blacks, and non-Hispanic Asians — were again below replacement level for 2018.

Political consultant Ryan Girdusky noted in his newsletter this week:

Since 2016, non-Hispanic white births have fallen by about 100,000, blacks by 6,600, Asians by 13,700, and Hispanics by 22,200 annually. Every racial group currently has a fertility rate under replacement levels. The only state to have a fertility rate above replacement levels is in South Dakota, with North Dakota, Nebraska, and Utah slightly behind.

Girdusky said the U.S. could see an increase in the birth rate for the first time in years.

“The good news is that [the second quarter] of 2019 was the first quarter in several years where the fertility rate rose,” Girdusky wrote.

Despite a declining birth rate below replacement level, Republican and Democrat lawmakers have yet to lay out a national agenda to increase American births, fertility, and family rates.

Oppositely, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has implemented a pro-family agenda to increase his nation’s birth rate among similar rapid decline, as Breitbart News has reported. As part of that agenda, the government of Hungary gives a loan of $33,000 to eligible Hungarian couples after they marry. That loan is fully forgiven by the government so long as the couple has three children.

“What we need is not numbers, but Hungarian children: we’re not seeking to sustain an economic system, but Hungary, the Hungarian nation and Hungarian history; we want to encourage the continuation of our families for several generations,” a government spokesperson said in June.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/12/01/u-s-birth-rate-drops-for-fourth-year-remains-below-replacement-level/

U.N. Blames Climate Change for Global Mass Migration

The United Nations has blamed human-induced climate change for mass migration as its COP25 convention on climate change lurches into gear in Madrid Monday.

“Climate change and displacement — how are they linked?” the U.N.’s migration office (UNHCR) asks in a new one-minute video.

“Climate change means extreme weather events are happening more often and with greater force. Rising sea levels, drought, floods, wildfires, and other natural hazards are forcing people to flee their homes,” the video asserts.

“Most are displaced inside their own countries, but people may also cross borders to find safety,” the text states. “Climate change can also intensify conflicts as people compete for scarce resources.”

“When disasters interact with the effects of conflict and violence, some people fleeing in this context may become refugees,” it says.

As a human interest story to witness this depravity, the UNHCR inserts a short clip of a Zimbabwean woman named Precious Ryrhayo, who was forced from her home because of flooding.

“I was sleeping then water falls away inside of the house. Then we wake up and run away,” Ms. Ryrhayo declares.

While flooding was clearly the cause of Ms. Ryrhayo’s displacement, is it accurate to say that climate change was the culprit?

Curiously, according to the Zimbabwe Meteorological Services Department, the country has actually experienced a slight decrease in average yearly rainfall for the more than 100-year period between 1901 and 2006, so while Ms. Ryrayo undoubtedly experienced the effects of bad weather in the form of flooding, it is thoroughly unscientific to blame that event on climate change.

If anything, that flood would have been less likely now than 100 years ago.

All can agree, however, that the real cost of climate change must be measured in terms of its impact on human lives. One stark metric for such an accounting is annual deaths from extreme-weather events, since the death toll represents the ultimate impact on human beings. What we find, however, is that weather-related deaths have plummeted in the last 100 years to a mere fraction of their previous numbers.

In the year 1900, 1.27 million people died from extreme-weather events, whereas in the last decade, the average deaths globally from such events was 60,000, despite the fact that the world’s population has increased five fold, from 1.6 billion in 1900 to 7.7 billion in 2019.

Put in other terms, if we look at the number of deaths from extreme weather events from the 1920s to the present day, we find that both deaths and death rates have declined exponentially.

https://www.breitbart.com/environment/2019/12/02/u-n-blames-climate-change-for-global-mass-migration/

Farage Demands Whole-Life Prison Terms for Terrorists Infected with ‘Jihadi Virus’

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage laid down the law to representatives of other political parties in a Sunday election debate, slamming “liberal elite” weakness and demanding serious action against radical Islamic terrorists.

“Well, we all express our condolences, but nobody apologises, apologises for the fact the liberal elite have given us a ridiculous sentencing system,” Farage began when the subject of the London Bridge terror attack by freed terrorist Usman Khan was raised at the ITV debate between representatives of the Brexit Party, Conservative Party, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Scottish National Party (SNP), Greens, and Welsh separatist Plaid Cymru.

“I don’t care if these people were in jail for six years or twelve years — if you have committed mass murder, or planned to commit mass murder, you’re not just an ordinary criminal: you’ve got the virus of jihadism,” Farage continued.

“And I think these people should never, ever be let out of prison, unless we’re absolutely convinced they do not have the jihadi virus — but, of course, political correctness stops us from doing this,” he lamented.

Leftist politicians on the panel offered little but platitudes on the subject of sentencing, warning against “draconian” or “knee-jerk” responses to the latest terrorist atrocity, while Rishi Sunak, representing the Conservative party, stressed Boris Johnson’s pledge to end the practice of releasing serious criminals on licence halfway through their terms automatically — but Farage was implacable.

“[T]hat won’t stop them reoffending,” he said bluntly

“There are 74 convicted terrorists out on our streets [on early release licences]; there are 400 returning jihadi fighters on our streets who’ve come back from Syria — surely whether they serve six years or twelve years isn’t the point. Why should they ever be let out again into society?” he demanded.

“Well, our plan is for them to serve the full mandatory term,” Sunak repeated woodenly, and blamed European Human Court of Human Rights rulings for the government’s inability to sentence terrorists to potentially indefinite custodial terms.

“Is anyone else on the platform concerned there are 74 convicted terrorists out on our streets, and 400 returning jihadis? Do we just ignore it and pretend it’s going to go away?” Farage asked.

“This is not just an ordinary criminal. These people want to destroy our civilisation. Surely they should be put in prison for life?” he asked, looking around the stage to the other party representatives for a response — and receiving none.

“Silence,” he observed, pointedly.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/12/01/farage-demands-whole-life-prison-terms-terrorists-infected-jihadi-virus/