Let’s go back in time when reciting the Lord’s Prayer was the first thing we did in public school.

I was from a Jewish family, and yet saying that prayer was truly the high point of my day. My siblings are atheists, but my older sister recently asked me this:

“Do you remember that prayer we said in school?”

I responded by telling her that the prayer comes from the Bible. Jesus taught His disciples to pray that prayer. My sister said that even though no one ever talked about God in our home, saying that prayer made her feel warm and happy.

Prayer Taken Out of Schools

I’m sure that many of the readers of this article remember infamous Madalyn Murray O’Hair. She was called “The Most Hated Woman in America.”

From allthatsinteresting.com

Madalyn Murray O’Hair founded the American Atheists organization in the 1960s following the landmark Supreme court ruling that banned prayer in public schools — of which O’Hair pushed for herself.

The mission of the American Atheists was in part inclusive, and O’Hair opened her arms to people of all kinds — including ex-cons. It would be this willingness and openness, though, that would lead to her grisly demise more than 30 years later.

After the war, O’Hair earned her law degree from South Texas College of Law in 1952. She then joined the Socialist Workers Party because she was unhappy with the American government’s policies towards the Soviet Union, and even tried to emigrate to the U.S.S.R. in 1959 and 1960, but the country denied her son William citizenship.

At about the same time, William, then in junior high, attended a public school in Baltimore. It was here that O’Hair first made a name for herself. O’Hair was incensed that William had to say daily prayers while in school. She sued the school district for failing to adhere to the separation of church and state, and the case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1963, the court voted 8 to 1 to ban mandated prayers in public schools. O’Hair proclaimed in the case that Americans had “an unalienable right to freedom from religion as well as freedom of religion.” She then appeared on the first episode of Phil Donahue’s talk show to publicly discuss her views.

Read rest of article HERE

The Effects of Removing the Bible and Prayer From our Public Schools

From cnsnews.com

Education Expert: Removing Bible, Prayer from Public Schools Has Caused Decline

Education expert William Jeynes said on Wednesday that there is a correlation between the decline of U.S. public schools and the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1962 and 1963 decision that school-sponsored Bible reading was unconstitutional.

“One can argue, and some have, that the decision by the Supreme Court – in a series of three decisions back in 1962 and 1963 – to remove Bible and prayer from our public schools, may be the most spiritually significant event in our nation’s history over the course of the last 55 years,” Jeynes said.

On June 25, 1962, the United States Supreme Court decided in Engel v. Vitale that a prayer approved by the New York Board of Regents for use in schools violated the First Amendment because it represented establishment of religion. In 1963, in Abington School District v. Schempp, the court decided against Bible readings in public schools along the same lines.

Since 1963, Jeynes said there have been five negative developments in the nation’s public schools:

• Academic achievement has plummeted, including SAT scores.
• Increased rate of out-of-wedlock births
• Increase in illegal drug use
• Increase in juvenile crime
• Deterioration of school behavior

“So we need to realize that these actions do have consequences,” said Jeynes, professor at California State College in Long Beach and senior fellow at the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, N.J. “When we remove that moral fiber — that moral emphasis – this is what can result.”

Other facts included a comparison between the top five complaints of teachers from 1940-1962 — talking, chewing gum, making noise, running in the halls and getting out of turn in line – to rape, robbery, assault, burglary and arson from 1963 to present.

“Now the question is, given that there is a movement to put the Bible as literature back in the public schools and a moment of silence and so forth, can we recapture the moral fiber – the foundation that used to exist among many of our youth?” Jeynes asked rhetorically.

To that end, Jeynes said, there is a movement across the country to reinstate the Bible as literature in the public schools, with 440 school districts in 43 states currently teaching this type of course.

Ten states have passed a law or resolution to bring the Bible as literature in the public schools statewide.

The movement, however, is secular in nature, with the Bible being taught as literature rather than the word of God. And rather than prayer, a “moment of silence” is established that “can be used as the students choose,” Jeynes said.

When CNSNews.com asked about the secular nature of this approach, Jeynes said data from nationwide surveys show that both students of faith and those with no faith both respond positively to the Bible as literature curriculum – the former said they learned more about the Bible in class than in church, and the latter said they have an increased interest in the Christian religions.

“The effects are very, very positive,” Jeynes said.

Jeynes said the data he used in his presentation comes from the federal government (Departments of Education, Justice, Health and Human Services and the U.S. Census Bureau), and research by the advocacy groups Bibleasliterature.org, the Bible Literacy Project, the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, and California educator and researcher Nader Twal. source

The Damage is Done but We Must Press On

Through the years we have seen such horrific violence as mass shooters taking the lives of so many of their peers in public schools. We watched in horror this past weekend as two young men shot and killed over two dozen people.

My last article dealt with depression in young people and the psychotropic medicines they are prescribed. This depression which is so pervasive in young people (even in children) is a direct result of God being taken out of schools and public life. Many of these children have only one parent and come home from school to an empty house.

And we wonder why there is so much depression!?

Mass Shootings

Mass shooters have become the norm. As usual, our leftwing politicians politicize the killing and blame it on our president. It’s interesting to note that most of these Leftist accusers are also atheists.

The same things are said by governors and congressmen/women: “We have to come together at this sad time. This will make us stronger as we care for one another.” No mention of returning to God. No mention of the correlation of gun violence and the removal of God and the Bible from every area of life in America.

They can’t see the correlation between the violence and the removal of our Lord from public life because they DO NOT KNOW HIM.

And if brave brothers and sisters in our government step out in faith, and attempt to get prayer and Bible reading put back in our schools, The Freedom From Religion Atheist organization will be on the steps of the Supreme Court in a flash. This evil organization is very powerful in these last days.

Satan is Emboldened in America 

Gone are the days in which many Christians would stand up for righteousness in the face of evil. Many are fearful of being accused of “Hate speech.” The public knows that true Christians believe the Word of God and know that the Word condemns homosexuality. But atheists do not care what is written in the Bible. They claim that God and His Word are a crutch for weak people.

I love this website:

From creationtoday.org

Prayer in School Affects all of Society

Since prayer was eliminated from public schools, the quality of education has shown a steady statistical decline. Is there a link between the two?

Prayer Sets a Standard

Humanism assumes that the supernatural does not exist and that reality must be discovered purely from man’s reasoning. Our public school system has been operating on this foundation since prayer was removed in 1962. Returning prayer to school would be an affront to this philosophy because prayer acknowledges the existence of someone greater than man.

Allowing prayer in school sets an important standard. It tells students that they are more than just a collection of chemicals and energy that happen to be occupying space and time. Prayer is an action which proclaims that life is more than saving the environment or accumulating wealth. The fervency with which school prayer is opposed is not because the ACLU (an anti-Christian legal group) is trying to protect atheists from being indoctrinated by religion. It is opposed because it represents the antithesis to the beliefs of those who set policy for much of our public school system. Prayer is a frontal attack on the notion that mankind is in autonomous control of his own destiny and an insult to those who believe that friends, possessions, or power can bring meaning or joy.

Morality Declines Without Prayer

A primary purpose of public education is to shape good citizens. This involves more than just the memorization of facts. Most Americans are in favor of prayer in public school because they realize that there is something to be gained from the open acknowledgement of God’s existence. Morals can only be built on the basis that a moral source—God—exists. Once acknowledgement of God’s existence is removed, there is no absolute basis for morals, and a free society drifts toward anarchy.

Since prayer was removed from public school classrooms in 1962, we have had a six-fold increase in violent crime, our divorce rate has tripled, births to single mothers have increased five-fold, the teenage suicide rate has tripled, and SAT scores (standardized college entrance test) have dropped 80 points (approximately 10%). The removal of prayer may not be the only cause of social ills, but the negative trends are certainly a symptom of the spiritual decline which is at their root.

What a hypocritical message we send to our children when we allow laws to be passed which limit the free expression of speech in public by banning public prayer in classrooms. Federal and Supreme Court judges should be impeached who undermine the freedom upon which this country was founded. The situation has become so absurd that congressional prayers cannot be voluntarily read in a school building.

Take a Stand

Our nation was founded on the freedom to publicly acknowledge God’s existence. Allowing prayer in schools will improve, not detract from a student’s understanding of the universe. Our experiment with replacing affirmation of God’s existence with atheistic humanism has been a dismal failure. Whenever the opportunity arises to support the public acknowledgement of God by prayer (or any other means), it benefits all of society to take a vocal stand. As Edmund Burke correctly noted in 1795, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” As with all truths, this is still applicable today. source

I wrote recently on “taking a stand” and how the child of God is like an army when defending righteousness, because God stands with him/her! We should never forget this.

The evil of this world is thick and sometimes so intimidating. I’ve read that it is in vain to stand against such evil. NO! It is never in vain to stand up for what is right. How do we know if some people hearing or reading our words might just pick up a Bible and read for themselves!?

“But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed” (1 Peter 3:14-16).

How Can I Be Saved?

Shalom b’Yeshua

MARANATHA!!

grandmageri422@gmail.com (copy and paste this address in your email to write to me)

grandmageri422@gmail.com

Article at grandmageri422.me

 

Second Mass Shooter Supported Elizabeth Warren, Socialism & Gun Control

How about the mainstream media, which includes Fox News? I found nary a word about the beliefs of this maniac. But does this surprise me? That’s rhetorical.

Politicizing mass shootings is a hallmark tactic of the Left. These people are still not over the shock of 2016 when they were certain that their darling, Hillary Clinton, was a shoe-in. I believe that the Democrats are seriously frightened because they have no viable candidate to run in 2020.

That is glaringly obvious to everyone.

Rahm Emanuel’s quote pretty much sums up the Left’s actions after a tragedy:

“Never let a serious crisis go to waste.”

I wonder if that quote is framed and hangs on the office walls of Leftist politicians. It’s despicable.

From frontpagemag.com

The pattern here is that there is no pattern.

The media keeps popularizing mass shootings, encouraging likeminded losers to pick up guns and open fire. Their motives vary, from purely personal to ideological. But ideology for mass shooters tends to be a cover for the same sort of personal dysfunction.

The media jumped on the narrative of  Patrick Crusius, the first mass shooter in El Paso, Texas, for being an anti-immigration environmentalist. (It was much more interested in the first part of that than the second part of it.)

It’s paying much less attention to Connor Betts. An Elizabeth Warren supporter.

Connor Betts, the Dayton, Ohio, mass shooter, was a self-described “leftist” who wrote that he would happily vote for Democrat Elizabeth Warren, praised Satan, was upset about the 2016 presidential election results, and added, “I want socialism, and I’ll not wait for the idiots to finally come round to understanding.”

On Nov. 2, 2018, he wrote: “Vote blue for gods sake.”

On Feb. 14, 2018, he tweeted this at Sen. Rob Portman: “@robportman hey rob. How much did they pay you to look the other way? 17 kids are dead. If not now, when?” That was the date of the mass shooting at a school in Parkland, Florida.

Authorities now say that Betts, 24, of Bellbrook, Ohio, donned body armor and a mask before shooting and killing 9 people outside a Dayton bar, including his own sister. At least 27 people were injured. Police say the motive is unclear.

On the Twitter page, Connor Betts indicated he’d vote for Elizabeth Warren for president but not Kamala Harris, responding to a person’s tweet suggesting they be co-presidents. “Nahh, but only cuz Harris is a cop – Warren I’d happily vote for,” he wrote.

He shared an article that criticized Democratic leaders like Nancy Pelosi for not supporting Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Ayanna Pressley. “Read it,” he wrote.

Motive?

I’m going to go with another mentally unstable product of a broken society whose political views stem from obvious cultural affinities, but who throbbed with anger, wanted to break things, and eventually killed a bunch of people.

That psychological profile could just as easily describe any number of these mass shooters. source

Mental health and Psychotropic Drugs and Their Link to Mass Murders

There’s a common thread that runs through the lives of most of American history’s mass shooters. It’s not political. It’s not racist. It has nothing to do with so-called White supremacy.

It has everything to do with doctors pushing depression drugs on their patients – especially young adults. It is a known fact that Zoloft and Prozac and the rest of this class of drugs is dangerous for the young adult. In many cases, depression drugs affect older people in much the same way; but it is documented with a warning on the insert of these medications that depression drugs are not suitable for young people because it causes Suicidal and Homicidal thoughts.

Here is an article and video about this with documentation of past mass shooters and the depression meds they took:

Please note that this video is from 2018:

From truthinmedia.com

Watch Video:

Mass Shootings and Psychiatric Drugs   <click to watch

When it comes to the debate over mass shootings in America, why does the discussion always go toward tougher gun laws?

And yet, we are not talking about the role of antidepressants and other psychiatric medication.

The truth? The connection between mass shooters and these medications is stunning.

Let’s give it a Reality Check you won’t get anywhere else.

The response to the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, has been call after call for tougher gun laws, but seems to ignore the issues once again surrounding antidepressants.

Without question, Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old man who killed 17 students and wounded more than a dozen that afternoon of February 14, had for years exhibited signs of mental health problems. We talked about it on Reality Check a few episodes back.

Here’s what we know about Cruz:

Cruz’s adoptive father Roger Cruz died more than a decade ago, and his adoptive mother Lynda Cruz reportedly struggled with her son and his brother Zachary until her death in November 2017.

Barbara Kumbatovich, a former sister-in-law, told the Miami Herald that Lynda Cruz “did the best she could,” and that Nikolas and Zachary “were adopted and had some emotional issues.”

Kumbatovich told the publication that she believed Nikolas was on medication to deal with those issues and that Lynda “was struggling with Nikolas the last couple years.”

In addition to Kumbatovich’s statements, records show that police were called to the Cruz residence as many as 45 times since 2008, according to Buzzfeed News.

Between reports that Cruz had previously pulled a gun on his brother and mother, and an anonymous FBI tip from January that Cruz had been suicidal but then decided “he wants to kill people” and that he was “going to explode”… all evidence is indicating a clearly unstable young man with numerous documented concerns from those who knew him.

We still don’t know what, if any, medications Cruz might have been on. But we do know that the number of high-profile mass shootings over the past 30 years, and the link to psychiatric medication, is deeply concerning.

In 1989, 47-year-old Joseph T. Wesbecker shot 20 workers in a Louisville, Kentucky, factory, killing nine people… just a month after he began taking Prozac. The drug maker, Eli Lilly and Company, later settled a lawsuit brought by survivors.

1998: 15-year-old Oregon school shooter Kip Kinkel, who opened fire in his school cafeteria, was on Prozac.

1999: Columbine killer Eric Harris was taking Luvox, another antidepressant.

An important fact about Luvox. According to author David Kupelian from his book, How Evil Works, “Luvox manufacturer Solvay Pharmaceuticals concedes that, during short-term controlled clinical trials, 4 percent of children and youth taking Luvox — that’s one in 25 — developed mania, a dangerous and violence-prone mental derangement characterized by extreme excitement and delusion.”

In 2005, 16-year-old Jeff Weise, living on Minnesota’s Red Lake Indian Reservation, shot and killed nine people and wounded five others before killing himself. Weise had been taking Prozac.

2007: Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed 32 people. Officials found prescription medicine “related to the treatment of psychological problems” among his personal belongings, according to the New York Times.

2012: Colorado theater shooter James Holmes was reportedly prescribed the antidepressant Zoloft.

2013: Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis sprayed bullets at office workers and in a cafeteria, killing 13 people including himself. Alexis had been prescribed Trazodone by his Veterans Affairs doctor.

2014: Elliot Rodger, the Isla Vista, California killer who went on a shooting spree after stabbing three men to death, had been prescribed psychotropic drugs, according to The Los Angeles Times.

2017: Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal, had been prescribed diazepam.

Known by its brand name Valium, “a sedative-hypnotic drug in the class of drugs known as benzodiazepines, which studies have shown can trigger aggressive behavior.”

Paddock received the prescription in June 2017. That October, he carried out the deadliest shooting in modern American history.

And there are dozens of other examples. To be clear, we’re not saying that prescription drugs are to blame for mass shootings.

The underlying issues of mental health that these shooters seem to all have, however, are alarming. And knowing that the majority of them were prescribed antidepressants, you have to consider this…

Some of the most alarming side effects of Prozac include suicidal thoughts, self-mutilation and manic behavior.

Zoloft can cause hallucinations, agitation and memory problems. 

For Valium, it’s also hallucinations, depression, and thoughts of suicide.

These are dangers that drug makers themselves are required to disclose.

The use of these antidepressants in America has skyrocketed. As of 2013, 12 percent of Americans were filling prescriptions for them. And while millions of people do not suffer violent episodes, the drug makers warn that some people may… and do.

You’ve heard some of those warnings in the commercials those pharmaceutical companies pay to run on mainstream media networks. According to the New York Times, “771,368 such ads were shown in 2016 … an increase of almost 65 percent over 2012.”

Pharmaceutical companies were estimated to spend $6.4 billion on direct-to-consumer advertising in 2016, according to USA Today.

Further, Open Secrets reports that in the 2016 election cycle, pharmaceutical companies contributed $12.4 million to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, another $1.5 million to former Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, more than $812,805 to Sen. Ted Cruz, $446,400 to Chris Christie, $388,706 to Donald Trump, and $280,408 to Bernie Sanders.

So, what you need to know is that correlation does not always equal causation. We do not know that the reason for these mass shootings is because of any one drug or any number of drugs. Nor do we know how much of a role these drugs may have played at all… but the question is, why is that?

Why are politicians and mainstream media pushing so many discussions about guns and virtually no discussion of whether or not antidepressants are playing a role? Because the numbers are compelling and beg a question that deserves an answer. source

Violent Video Games Cause Children to Lack Compassion for Mass Murders

I will just touch on this subject; I don’t want the reader to have overload of information – but I think that this is important:

From bits.blogs.nytimes.com

Looking at Link Between Violent Video Games and Lack of Empathy

The sound of machine guns rattled through the building as explosions shook the walls.

No, I wasn’t at a weapons convention or shooting range or in an impromptu war. I was at the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo here, also known as E3.

With shootings happening with alarming frequency in schools, malls, movie theaters and streets across America, people are again asking if video games contribute to gun violence. And do so-called first-person shooter games have a particular impact on people — usually young men — who suffer from the types of mental illnesses that make them more prone to violent behavior?

In the halls of E3, where toy guns are everywhere and fantasy mayhem is encouraged, such questions are unavoidable.

A first-person shooter is a game in which you, the player, carry a weapon into some sort of video game conflict. It can be a simulation of a battlefield, like the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. It can be a simulation of violent city streets. And sometimes you get to be the villain, targeting police or the unfortunate workers in a bank that is about to be robbed.

The mass shootings in recent years in Newtown, Conn., and Aurora, Colo., were both committed by young men who had regularly played first-person shooters. But of course, tens of millions of young men play these games and never commit acts of violence.

Studies on the impact of video game violence by research institutes, universities and psychologists have been inconclusive. For seemingly every report that says video games lead to real-world shootings, there have been others rebutting those claims.

But new psychological studies are finding that as violent games become more realistic, constantly playing them can lead to a desensitization toward real violence.

“The research is getting clearer that over the long term, people with more exposure to violent video games have demonstrated things like lower empathy to violence,” said Dr. Jeanne Brockmyer, a clinical child psychologist and professor emeritus at the University of Toledo. “Initially, people are horrified by things they see, but we can’t maintain that level of arousal. Everyone gets desensitized to things.”

Ms. Brockmyer has written a paper, set to be published later this summer, that will show how areas of the brain responsible for empathy become muted by violent images when teens are exposed to them over long periods of time.

The paper comes on the heels of a study from Canada’s Brock University, published in February, which found that when children play violent video games for significant lengths of time, they are not as morally mature as other children their age. Researchers believe that the constant flood of violent images takes away a child’s ability to feel empathy for people who have been through similar situations in real life.

But while the study found evidence of slowed moral growth in teens who play games, it was unable to determine if these effects happen to people who play first-person shooter games for two hours a day, once or a week, or any other specific amount of time.

At video game conferences, asking the game-violence questions some psychologists are trying to answer is considered unacceptable. When I approached attendees and developers at E3 and asked if there was any evidence tying video game violence to real violence, or even if we should be talking about such a link, most people simply scoffed.

“Ha — umm, no,” one young man said snidely, rolling his eyes at me before returning to the first-person shooter he was playing.

People noted that mass shootings happened before there were video games. And guns and violence have been a part of video games since the mid-1970s when Gun Fight, an early, very pixelated, two-player shooter was released in arcades.

But it is hard to argue that there isn’t some level of desensitization after a day spent at E3. At the main entrance of the Los Angeles Convention Center where the conference was held, people lined up to play the new game Payday 2. In this game, you team up with friends to rob a bank. Killing police is a big part of succeeding.

As I watched people picking off cops and security guards with sniper rifles and handguns, news broke that a real-life shooting in Las Vegas had resulted in the death of two police officers and three civilians (including the two shooters).

I asked Almir Listo, manager of investor relations at Starbreeze Studios, which makes Payday 2, if he felt in any way uncomfortable about making a game that promotes shooting police.

“If you look hard enough, you can find an excuse for everything; I don’t think there is a correlation,” he said. “In Sweden, where I am from, you don’t see that stuff happen, and we play the same video games there.”

After the Sandy Hook shootings in Connecticut, when it became clear that Adam Lanza was a fan of first-person shooters, including the popular military game Call of Duty, President Obama said Congress should find out once and for all if there was a connection between games and gun violence.

“Congress should fund research on the effects violent video games have on young minds,” he said. “We don’t benefit from ignorance. We don’t benefit from not knowing the science.” Yet more than a year later, we don’t conclusively know if there is a link.

And gun violence in the real world — and the gaming world — goes on. source

Conclusion

Brethren, I felt strongly that we need a clearer understanding of the factors which affect Mass Shooters.  It’s not cut and dry, and it’s certainly not Political as the Left would try to have you believe!!

I know that there is a lot of information in this piece. I pray that there are people who will read this and will make changes in dealing with depressed young people in their families.

As a believer, I feel that leading them to Jesus is the best and most effective way of dealing with their depression! We must pray for the families who are in the midst of dealing with young people acting out and displaying erratic behavior.

It does seem like the world is going crazy. But don’t forget:

“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,  unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,  traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!  For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 2:1-7).

How Can I Be Saved?

Shalom b’Yeshua

MARANATHA!

grandmageri422@gmail.com (Copy and paste this address in your email to write to me.)

Articles can be read at grandmageri422.me