In thanksgiving for the blessings of God and for the sending of His Son in order that mankind might be saved.
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"FREE TO BE THANKFUL" - Tony Perkins, Washington Watch, Nov. 20, 2018; https://www.frc.org/updatearticle/20181120/free-thankful [AS I SEE IT: On this day recognizing our need to be grateful people, few will note the importance of the religious freedom we in America enjoy and that tens of millions around the world are sadly denied.To follow the mainstream media is to be virtually unaware of the great strides that have been made by the Trump administration in promoting religious freedom around the world. Whatever your thoughts about our President, we need to give thanks for his commitment to securing rights that so many of us take for granted in America. P.S. - Though not mentioned in this article, let us be in PRAYER that religious freedom is also protected here in America. What we have long taken for granted can no longer be assumed. - Stan]
Most Americans are too busy bustling around grocery stores or packing their cars for the trip home to stop and think about the significance of this week. But for a handful of people, who, at one point, probably took the season for granted like so many of us, this year's Thanksgiving will be one to remember.
One of those people is Pastor Andrew Brunson. After months of wondering if he'd ever see his family again, the North Carolina native will be enjoying the holiday around a dining room table -- not stuck in a cold Turkish prison cell, alone. The day will probably be just as emotional for Kim Dong-chul, Tony Kim, and Kim Hak-song, freed from North Korea [through the efforts of ] President Trump in early May. Their days in captivity, which -- for Kim Dong-chul -- included torturous days at a hard labor camp were just as grueling. After three long years, the dream of coming home and being reunited with his family seemed too much to hope for. "We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return."
In Iraq, where Christians were hunted down by ISIS armies and chased out of villages dating back to Old Testament days, every day is an opportunity for thanksgiving. Along the Nineveh plains, where the prophet Jonah once walked, the reminders of heartbreak are everywhere. Rubble, broken crosses, and shattered picture frames are all that are left of some ancient streets. But thanks to President Trump and tens of millions of dollars in U.S. aid, there are also signs of life: new shops, a school, and churches that look more like construction sites than disaster areas. Even though the rebuilding process will take years, the journey home, almost everyone will tell you, has been worth it.
Unfortunately, not all Christians are so [blessed]. The world rejoiced at the release of Pakistani Asia Bibi -- only to see the mother of five forced into hiding, while angry Muslims take out their fury on a community of terrified Christians. While she waits for asylum in the West, the country's believers are the nation's new target. "We live under fear, the whole country is under tension. People are afraid and anything can happen in this situation," a retired Christian soldier told reporters. Elsewhere, Islamists began attacking "random travelers in the Muslim country who identified themselves as Christians in the wake of Bibi's acquittal." In certain Islamabad areas, police were warning Christians: lock up your shops and find someplace safe.
Church services were cancelled, and schools were closed while protestors with signs saying, "Hang Bibi," demonstrated in the town streets. For the three million Christ followers in the region, there is very little certainty that what happened to Bibi won't happen to them. "The government protects us, but blasphemy is such a sensitive issue we feel weak and in fear," anonymous believers tell the Telegraph. As FRC's Travis Weber points out, they have plenty of reason for concern. "The abuse of blasphemy laws to settle personal scores is one of the most pressing human rights issues of our time. Often through a mere accusation, lives are put at risk and death threats flood in. Asia Bibi's case has helped us see the injustice of using these laws in this way -- an issue which remains a religious freedom challenge worldwide, and one that demands our attention."
The New York Times, in its criticism of blasphemy laws like Pakistan's, explained that "Iran executed 20 people in 2015 for 'enmity against God,' and in Saudi Arabia, adhering to the wrong branch of Islam can mean death." European international human rights expert Nina Shea writes, "is trying to placate the Islamists by giving in on the blasphemy issue, but Bibi's experience is a case study on how legitimizing religious speech taboos only fans the flames." The EU, she explains, is so desperate to be politically correct that it's adopted "hate speech bans" on anything "deemed Islamaphobic by anyone." That's only empowered the radical Islamists in the Europe and U.K. In fact, they're such a force in the area that some leaders there are retracting their offers for Bibi's asylum, concerned that she might be murdered by their own Muslim extremists. What a tragic commentary on the state of P.C.'s blind acceptance in the West.
Right now, the United States may be the only country with enough commitment to true religious liberty to protect her. "Few Western nations -- which tend to be encumbered by political correctness and a misguided obsession with the separation of church and state -- are bold enough to take a stand for persecuted Christians, despite the fact Christians are the most widely persecuted religious group in the world," Rev. Joseph D'Souza warns. "Americans might not always be aware of it," he explains, "but when it comes to religious freedom, the U.S. holds a unique significance for Christians and other religious minorities across the world."
America, under President Trump, has made religious freedom more of a priority than any other nation on the planet. And for that, we -- along with our brothers and sisters around the world -- have much this week to be thankful for.
[italics and colored emphasis mine]
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Praying Through the Open Doors World Watch List for persecuted believers:To learn more, please go to -https://www.opendoorsusa.org/take-action/pray/monthly-prayer-calendar/
Focus for November: Praying for Pakistan -It is No. 5 on the 2018 World Watch List and has almost 4 million believers (out of a general population of 197 million). Converts who gather for worship face great risk. They are followed and monitored, and anyone who meets with them is investigated as well. Throughout November, Open Doors is focusing on strengthening our persecuted family in Pakistan.
November 22 | ALGERIA - The pressure on the Algerian church continues. Please pray for
the frontline leaders who are showing signs of fatigue. Pray for renewed strength and unity.*Name has been changed to protect identity. 
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"THE UNGRATEFUL NATION" - Ben Shapiro: Nov 21, 2018; https://townhall.com/columnists/benshapiro/2018/11/21/the-ungrateful-nation-n2536306
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 --------------------------------------------------------------- The unemployment rate among those with a high school education is 3.9 percent. The poorest quintile of Americans have seen their post-tax incomes increase 80 percent since 1979, according to Congressional Budget Office data, and post-tax and transfer income for that quintile has skyrocketed 32 percent since 2000. The upper-middle class in America constituted 13 percent of the population in 1979; as of 2014, it constituted 30 percent. According to Pew Research from 2015, when it comes to standard of living, "The U.S. stands head and shoulders above the rest of the world. More than half (56 percent) of Americans were high income by the global standard ... and 2 percent were poor." Fantastic products are cheaper than ever. Human Progress investigated the amount of time Americans must spend to earn enough money to buy key products and found that since 1979, the amount of time spent to earn a refrigerator had dropped 52 percent, 95 percent for microwaves, 65 percent for gas ranges and 61 percent for dishwashers. Between the mid-1960s and 2007, Americans were able to work less and leisure more: They worked nearly eight hours fewer per week, according to The Heritage Foundation. The wage gap is almost entirely a myth: Women who work the same jobs as men for the same number of hours, and have the same work history and same education as men make the same as men. The chief obstacles to income mobility in the United States are related to personal decision-making, not racial discrimination: As the Brookings Institution points out, of the people who finish high school, get a full-time job and wait until age 21 to get married and have children, nearly 75 percent join the middle class, and just 2 percent remain in poverty. What of freedom? In America, people of all religions practice freely, so long as the government isn't attempting to cram social justice down on them. People are free to speak, so long as government actors aren't utilizing the heckler's veto. We are free to use the press, free to associate and free to protest. All of this is the result of the greatest governmental philosophy ever committed to paper: God-given individual rights protected by limited government. We haven't always lived up to that philosophy -- in some areas, we've progressed mightily, and in others, we've regressed. But the overall success of the United States should be ringing proof that at the very least, we should be grateful and proud to live here. Yet as of July 2018, fewer than half of Americans surveyed by Gallup said they are extremely proud to be American. Just 32 percent of Democrats, down from 56 percent in 2013, said they are extremely proud to be American; only 42 percent of independents said are were extremely proud to be American. That's ridiculous. Regardless of political affiliation, we should be proud to live in a society founded on eternal truths, in which we have the ability to thrive based on our own choices. In 1789, as America struggled to find her footing after a revolution against the most powerful military and economic engine in the world, then-President George Washington issued a proclamation. He thanked God for "his kind care and protection of the People of this Country," for "the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed -- for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness." If Washington could urge gratefulness in 1789, we'd be fools not to do so now, when our lives are so much better in every material way. This Thanksgiving, let's remember what we have -- and let's remember the eternal ideas that provide the groundwork for our prosperity. [italics and colored emphasis mine] Ben Shapiro, 34, is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of "The Ben Shapiro Show" and editor-in-chief of DailyWire.com. He is The New York Times best-selling author of "Bullies." He lives with his wife and two children in Los Angeles.
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