Month: June 2025

War for Art – OpentheWord.org

War for Art – OpentheWord.org

Published by Sam Flores

Credit: Anna Kolosyuk, unsplash.com “I do not fear Death” Aragorn “You can read about war and warfare, but it’s another thing to experience a battlefield. When you do, the Bible has a whole new meaning” Graham Cooke – Prophet “I think the timing is too late, but things happen when they are supposed to happen. In fact I was gearing up to do something else. I was supposed to direct Alexander the Great, but I got a really hard message – and I mean a really hard message – to drop everything and do this now…The producer, Steve McEveety, was amazed. He’s never seen anything fall into place like this from nothing. So there is something quite timely about it. I don’t quite understand why” Mel Gibson – from Ken Duncan’s book The Passion. We live in the days when it is time for the creative prophets of art to rise up and heavily influence the art industries that are generating false worship in the world. Cause Uproar “I do not receive honor from men” …

NSS to host screening of ‘Kindoki Witch Boy’ with filmmakers

NSS to host screening of ‘Kindoki Witch Boy’ with filmmakers

Published by Sam Flores

The makers of a film about the true story of a boy accused of ‘witchcraft’ will join the National Secular Society for a special screening. ‘Kindoki Witch Boy’ tells the story of Mardoche Yembi, who at 12 years old was sent from the Democratic Republic of Congo to London to live with his aunt and uncle. There, he suffered abuse at the hands of his extended family after he was accused of witchcraft, or being a ‘Kindoki child’, by an evangelical Christian pastor. Now in his thirties, Mardoche created ‘Kindoki Witch Boy’ based on his experiences in collaboration with BAFTA-winning director Penny Woolcock. It was released this year to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the murder of eight year old Victoria Climbié, a victim of sustained spiritual abuse. The film screening, which will be held on July 24th in central London, will be followed by a conversation with Mardoche and Penny. This will give members of the audience a chance to ask them questions about the making of the film and the growing problem …

Do you have the right to believe? … Anything? – OpentheWord.org

Do you have the right to believe? … Anything? – OpentheWord.org

Published by Sam Flores

Hochhädrich, AustriaCreidt: Thanti Riess, Unsplash.com So, what do you believe? I am sure we should all ask ourselves that question. Wherever you live, there is a common belief system, for you and your neighbors and friends. One very important question is; What do I believe? And the twin to that question is; Why do I believe? It is easy to be polite and to conform enough so that we don’t create arguments and fights. Some families are split because of different beliefs. Many years ago, we lived in a small place and participated in a local Christian church.  Some of us, who were good friends, knew another family who didn’t go to our church. We were all good friends, and the others decided to join us on Sundays. There was no pressure, but they liked being with us, their friends. After a few weeks, they stopped coming to the same church as us, but they were still good friends. I was surprised and I wondered if they had a problem in the family or marriage …

Best restaurants to try Korean scorched rice in Los Angeles

Best restaurants to try Korean scorched rice in Los Angeles

Published by Sam Flores

After a raucous night out in my 20s, the real afterparty was always at BCD Tofu House — hunched over bubbling Korean tofu stew and a sizzling-hot stone bowl of steamed rice. After I’d scooped most of it out, a server would pour warm tea into the bowl, loosening the rice clinging stubbornly to the bottom. Scraping up those crispy-chewy bits of scorched rice, known in Korean as nurungji, quickly became my favorite part of the meal. Long before electric rice cookers, Koreans traditionally cooked rice over an open flame in an iron cauldron called a gamasot. As it steamed, the bottom layer would crisp up against the hot metal, forming golden-brown nurungji. “Today, nurungji simply means the crispy layer of rice that forms at the bottom of any pot or cooking appliance,” says Sarah Ahn, who co-wrote the Korean cookbook “Umma” with her mother, Nam Soon Ahn. “Personally, and within Korean culture, I see nurungji as a deeply nostalgic food, especially for Koreans of my mom’s generation.” Chef and cookbook author Debbie Lee adds, …

NSS-led coalition calls for parliamentary inquiry on circumcision

NSS-led coalition calls for parliamentary inquiry on circumcision

Published by Sam Flores

A coalition coordinated by the National Secular Society has urged Parliament’s health and social care committee to launch an inquiry into the non-therapeutic circumcision of boys. The call came in a letter from 14 signatories including the National Secular Society, circumcision support charity 15 Square, doctors, and families harmed by non-therapeutic circumcision. Liberal Democrat peer Paul Scriven and human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell also signed. The letter noted there is no legal requirement that circumcisers be medically trained, and non-medical circumcisers are entirely unregulated. “This arrangement is endangering the health and lives of children”, it said. It said non-therapeutic circumcision is “ethically and legally anomalous” in that “the youngest and most vulnerable are afforded the fewest protections”. Circumcising an adult without his consent would constitute grievous bodily harm. British Medical Association (BMA) guidance states: “The BMA cannot envisage a situation in which it is ethically acceptable to circumcise a child who refuses the procedure, irrespective of the parents’ wishes.” Therefore, it is those youngest children, who “have no voice and who cannot consent, who are …

How vested religious interests block progress in medical ethics

How vested religious interests block progress in medical ethics

Published by Sam Flores

In the space of three days, the House of Commons passed two momentous pieces of legislation which would have a significant impact on how the law treats decisions related to our own bodies. On 17th June, MPs voted 379 to 117 to partially decriminalise abortion. And on 20th June, in a narrow vote of 314 to 291, Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) bill paved the way for a law to permit assisted dying. Both bills will now be further scrutinised in the House of Lords before final Commons’ votes and royal assent. Such major societal changes that intersect with medical care rarely progress when facing professional objections. The British Medical Association (BMA), the UK’s largest union and professional body for doctors, originally opposed assisted dying. This was cited as a strong determining factor in MPs’ earlier rejection of more permissive legislation on assisted dying – despite longstanding overwhelming public support. Most BMA policy is formed during formal debates at the Annual Representatives Meeting (ARM). Between 2009 and 2024, I was a BMA …

Counterfeit Cracking – OpentheWord.org

Counterfeit Cracking – OpentheWord.org

Published by Sam Flores

By Jeanne Doyon A local Connecticut news story reports, “State police…cracked a counterfeiting operation.”  I thought this only happened in spy movies. Suddenly, I am more aware of money that passes through my hands, looking carefully at the serial numbers.  The last thing I want is to be fooled into taking fake bills, and even more, I don’t want to use one myself by mistake. People who are trained to identify counterfeit money need to know the real thing. So instead of studying the counterfeit, they analyze the real currency. God’s Word says that Satan is a fake; he is anti-Christ. And, though he presents himself as an angel of light, if you know the Light of the World, the enemy’s attempts at counterfeiting it will stand out. Everything that God is, Satan tries to counterfeit so he can dupe us into trading God’s way into one that leads us astray. Some discoveries I have made include: Jesus is the Truth; Satan is the father of lies. Jesus is the Lion of Judah; Satan is …

Council unanimously agrees to end religious reps’ voting powers

Council unanimously agrees to end religious reps’ voting powers

Published by Sam Flores

The National Secular Society has welcomed Falkirk Council’s decision to remove voting privileges from religious representatives with reserved seats on the Executive Committee. In a full meeting today (pictured), councillors unanimously agreed to remove voting powers from the three religious representatives appointed to the council’s Executive. By law, local authorities in Scotland must appoint three religious representatives to their education committees, at least one of whom must be appointed by the Roman Catholic Church and one by the Church of Scotland. The motion, proposed by Scottish National Party councillor Iain Sinclair, said “only elected members of the council will have the right to vote at the Executive Committee”. A deputation made on behalf of the Catholic archdiocese of St. Andrews and Edinburgh opposed the motion. It is thought Falkirk Council is the tenth council in Scotland to have removed its religious representatives’ voting powers. Six councils voted to do so in 2023, the most recent being East Lothian Council in December that year. The NSS briefed all councillors prior to the meeting, saying voting powers …

A guide to California Gold Rush towns Nevada City and Grass Valley

A guide to California Gold Rush towns Nevada City and Grass Valley

Published by Sam Flores

You could argue that Nevada City peaked 170 years ago, along with Charles Darwin, Herman Melville and Queen Victoria. But we’re still talking about them all. And Nevada City, 60 miles northeast of Sacramento in the Sierra foothills, is reachable without a séance. In the 1850s, it grew from a miners’ outpost into a Gold Rush boomtown of 10,000 (heavy on the bars and brothels) before anyone got around to naming that other Nevada as a territory or a state. Today it lives on as a tiny town with a lively arts scene and a liberal bent, home to about 3,200 souls. Perhaps because there’s so much to escape from these days, Nevada City and its larger, more middle-of-the-road neighbor Grass Valley have been drawing more visitors than ever lately. Nevada County’s hotel and vacation rental tax revenues have doubled in the last five years to a record high. “A lot of people are coming up from the Bay Area and settling up here because Nevada City is in a lot of ways like the …

Do Not Be Staggered – OpentheWord.org

Do Not Be Staggered – OpentheWord.org

Published by Sam Flores

Credit Frank Okay, unsplash.com He [Abraham] staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief: but was strong in faith, giving glory to God. — Romans 4:20 By Rick Renner When we first began our TV ministry in the former USSR, I traveled long distances to reach cities where I could become personally acquainted with the directors of massive TV stations and begin a relationship with them that would enable me to negotiate for time on their stations. I always traveled with my associate — and in the early days, I often took my eldest son Paul along with me so he could see and experience the miracles God performed to open doors for our TV ministry. On one such trip, late at night, faith erupted in my heart for the expansion of our TV ministry across all the former USSR. I’ll never forget that moment! Prior to that revelation, we had begun to broadcast the message of the Gospel through our TV program, but I never realized until that night how vast our TV outreach was …