April DeBoer never intended to be a legal pioneer, much less a public face of perhaps the most significant civil rights challenge to reach the Supreme Court in years. She and her partner just wanted to be able to adopt children as a couple. MORE

Eight days of special prayer for Christian unity, observed from January 18 to 25, i.e., closing with the feast of the conversion of St. Paul. It began in 1908 with Reverend Paul J. Francis when still an Anglo-Catholic. After he entered the Roman Catholic Church and founded the Society of the Atonement, the feast was extended by Pope Benedict XV to the universal Church in 1916.

Have you ever wondered why there are no Amalekites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites today? If you believe the Biblical accounts of history in the Old Testament are accurate, it may be because God commanded the Israelites to slaughter those people groups–men, women, children, infants, and animals. MORE

NATO will be able to deploy forces on short notice – in any moment that an attack against one of its allies is launched – with its “high readiness spearhead force” in place for 2015. Troops from Netherlands, Norway and Germany were deployed to NATO’s eastern allies to provide “a very rapid response force” to be able to protect all allies against any threat, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told press in Berlin on Jan 14. MORE

Translation: Muslims are justified in murdering because they were brutally insulted by a cartoon.

Hmmm…First of all I’d like to see the pope punch someone who insulted his mother…then, define his ‘mother.’ Our Lady? Holy Mother Church? His biological mother? Me thinks he’ll back down with ‘turn the other cheek’ scenario on all of the above. SO the moral of the New Church is all other religions are justified in murder and persecution but Christians will need to back down. MORE

Street children as young as five are being caged in brutal detention centres alongside adult criminals in a cynical drive to smarten up the Philippines capital ahead of a visit by Pope Francis this week.

Hundreds of boys and girls have been rounded up from doorways and roadsides by police and officials and put behind bars in recent weeks to make the poverty-racked city more presentable when Pope Francis arrives tomorrow, a MailOnline investigation has found. MORE

…Russian politician Vladimir Zhironovsky that…WW 3 would begin sometime after the 15th of January. As we enter the 15th of January around the world, we learn’Grandmaster Putin’s Trap’ has been been sprung as Russia pulls itself out of the petrodollar and as likely stated in the brand new video below from ANP friend FreedomFighter2127, issued a “declaration of war upon NATO” by ‘announcing the final nail in the south stream coffin’. MORE

An underwater volcano off the coast of Tonga is spewing ash high into the air – causing air travel chaos and turning the surrounding ocean the color of blood. The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai underwater volcano is around 40 miles (65km) north of Tonga’s capital Nuku’alofa. MORE

“is the highest honor and respect we can offer to his holiness.”

Pope Francis became the second pope to visit a Buddhist temple on Wednesday, changing his schedule at the last minute to pay his respects at an important place of worship in Sri Lanka’s capital and to witness a key ritual for Buddhists: the opening of a casket of relics of two important disciples of the Buddha.

St. John Paul II visited a Buddhist temple during a 1984 visit to Thailand. MORE

In the eyes of most Iraqis, their country’s best ally in the war against the Islamic State group is not the United States and the coalition air campaign against the militants. It’s Iran, which is credited with stopping the extremists’ march on Baghdad.

Shiite, non-Arab Iran has effectively taken charge of Iraq’s defense against the Sunni radical group, meeting the Iraqi government’s need for immediate help on the ground. MORE

A Catholic bishop normally governs pretty much unchecked in his diocese — only the pope can dislodge a bishop. And each time Catholics celebrate Mass in Kansas City, Mo., they pray for Bishop Robert Finn, right after they pray for Pope Francis.

But some Catholics here, like Deacon David Biersmith, refuse to go along. MORE

At least a dozen protesters arrested in Venezuela remained in jail on Monday and masked assailants burned a bus amid scattered unrest over swelling lines for basic goods, activists said.

Police rounded up 16 people for protesting outside stores over the weekend, according to the opposition MUD coalition, which said four of them were released shortly after. MOR

Christmas is over. Now get out. That was the word this week as two of the nation’s giant retailers announced to employees and shoppers the closings of dozens of stores.

Macy’s is closing 14 of its 790 stores across the country. JCPenney is closing 39 of its stores and laying off 2,250 workers. MORE

As we charge into 2015 and new cold war relations heat up between Russia and the United States, a mysterious Russian radio station which has broadcast the same super-creepy signal for 24 hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week, and 365-days-a-year FOR THE LAST 40 YEARS is getting a lot of new interest due to its’ unknown purpose, with some claiming it is Russia’s ‘nuclear trigger’ while others say it’s a continuous broadcast into outer space to communicate with extraterrestrials. MORE

A 3.3 magnitude earthquake shook eastern Connecticut at 6:36 a.m. on Monday and Weston Observatory at Boston College is showing more seismic activity just hours later, at 12:03 p.m .

The U.S. Geological Survey has confirmed that there was a 3.3 magnitude quake around 6:30 a.m. and Plainfield police said they answered more than 200 calls this morning from people all over town who heard and felt the activity. MORE