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Friday, January 24, 2014

Hillary Knew More Than She Is Saying--Was There A Cover-up To Protect Her 2016 Prospects?

What Difference Does It Make?: Blaming The Dead For Benghazi

January 24, 2014 by Sam Rolley

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What Difference Does It Make?: Blaming The Dead For Benghazi

“What difference does it make?” –Hillary Clinton on Jan. 23, 2013, in response to Congressional questions about the obvious holes in the official narrative provided by her and the White House surrounding the Benghazi terror attacks that killed four Americans in Sept. 2012.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other ranking Obama Administration officials lied about what happened in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012.

But Clinton wasn’t the one out pushing the lies. Instead, the State Department suckered then Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice into hitting the television news gamut to lie in an effort cover Clinton’s derelict of duty as the Nation’s top diplomat.

For serving as Clinton’s stunt double, Rice would later get a raise.

After failing in its attempts to push on a skeptical public the lie that U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and his colleagues died as a result of a poorly produced video insulting Muhammad, the Administration quietly backed down. The new Democratic strategy for protecting lefty it-girl Clinton and her boss, President Barack Obama, was to stay quiet and accuse anyone who dared bringing up the dead Americans in Benghazi of fueling a false controversy.

By claiming that any questions about the strange events leading up to Benghazi should only exist in the minds of conspiracy theorists until the government’s official review of the attacks was completed, Democrats brilliantly set in motion what could be the Nation’s most shameless passing of the buck.

By not accepting responsibility, the Democrats helped themselves in three major ways. Obama was afforded the ability to brush off any questions about his leadership until after he was comfortably re-elected. Clinton was allowed to bow out of office with ample time to rebuild her image before her next Presidential bid. And while Americans waited for answers, recollections of the initial government explanations were dulled.

When Clinton was asked about the lies just over a year ago, she said that they didn’t matter.

Last week, Americans who have followed the Benghazi saga from the very beginning found out exactly why it matters that top Administration officials lied with the release of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s report on the attacks.

The report concluded that the attack was preventable; but, oddly enough, it also went out of its way to absolve Clinton of any responsibility for the American deaths.

The report does fault the State Department for a lack of security in Benghazi. But Clinton’s name doesn’t appear in the body of the report; instead surfacing only once, in an addendum included by Republican lawmakers.

Republican Senators Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Jim Risch of Idaho, Dan Coats of Indiana, Marco Rubio of Florida and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, asserted in the addendum: “Ultimately, however, the final responsibility for security at diplomatic facilities lies with the former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. At the end of the day, she was responsible for ensuring the safety of all Americans serving in our diplomatic facilities. Her failure to do so clearly made a difference in the lives of the four murdered Americans and their families.”

The addendum was condemned by Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who said in a statement, “I want the record to be clear: I condemn any efforts to use this report for political purposes.”

And mainstream media pretty much ignored the addition, instead turning the blame for the attacks on someone who, because of the State Department’s negligence, is no longer able to defend himself: Ambassador Stevens.

Former Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy Gregory Hicks noticed the blame-Stevens trend and, in a Wall Street Journal editorial this week, condemned media for doing so:

When I arrived in Tripoli on July 31, we had over 30 security personnel, from the State Department and the U.S. military, assigned to protect the diplomatic mission to Libya. All were under the ambassador’s authority. On Sept. 11, we had only nine diplomatic security agents under Chris’s authority to protect our diplomatic personnel in Tripoli and Benghazi.

I was interviewed by the Select Committee and its staff, who were professional and thorough. I explained this sequence of events. For some reason, my explanation did not make it into the Senate report.

To sum up: Chris Stevens was not responsible for the reduction in security personnel. His requests for additional security were denied or ignored. Officials at the State and Defense Departments in Washington made the decisions that resulted in reduced security. Sen. Lindsey Graham stated on the Senate floor last week that Chris “was in Benghazi because that is where he was supposed to be doing what America wanted him to do: Try to hold Libya together.” He added, “Quit blaming the dead guy.”

Clinton was aware of what she was doing from the moment Steven’s blood ceased to flow through his body. That’s why the State Department’s initial lies are and were so important.

While Rice bought time pushing a bogus narrative, Clinton huddled — likely with some of the same strategy friends responsible for her political hit list — to come up with the best plan to protect her 2016 ambitions in light of her failures.

Unfortunately for Clinton, she couldn’t have anticipated the other scandals which have poured from the Obama Administration in the past year, making Americans more skeptical of political elitists than ever before. If Clinton is preparing for a White House bid, she’s going to have to come to terms with the fact that her failures led to American deaths is still, and will remain, to borrow from Joe Biden, a big f***in’ deal.

When The Law Enforcers Refuse To Enforce Legally Passed Laws, The Basis Of Our Law System Is Undermined.

ALARMING TREND: ATTORNEYS GENERAL REFUSE TO DEFEND LAWS

'You really trace that back to President Obama and Eric Holder'

Published: 12 hours ago

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In what appears to be the latest example in a trend of attorneys general refusing to defend laws passed by legislatures and voters, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring announced Thursday that he will no longer defend his state’s constitutional amendment defining marriage solely as the union of one man and one woman.

But a leading traditional marriage advocate is blasting Herring for casting aside the duties of his office to pursue a partisan agenda.

As a member of the state senate, Herring voted for the 2006 state constitutional amendment that defines marriage in the commonwealth as solely between a man and a woman. Now, less than two weeks after taking office as attorney general, he says the government is not only abandoning the defense of the law but actively joining a lawsuit filed against it by two same-sex couples.

“After thorough legal review, I have now concluded that Virginia’s ban on marriage between same-sex couples violates the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution on two grounds: Marriage is a fundamental right being denied to some Virginians, and the ban unlawfully discriminates on the basis of both sexual orientation and gender,” Herring said.

Herring won the Virginia attorney general’s race by less than 1,000 votes and actually trailed heading into the recount against Republican Mark Obenshain. It was by far the closest statewide race in Virginia, which also included Democrat Terry McAuliffe’s win over the GOP’s Ken Cuccinelli in the contest for governor.

Liberty Counsel Chairman Mathew Staver is outraged at Herring’s decision and told WND Virginia’s attorney general doesn’t seem to approach law enforcement much differently than President Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

“This is unfortunately the consequence of elections and you’ve got someone who is lawless. You really trace that back to President Obama and Eric Holder, when they decided to pick and choose, through the Department of Justice, which laws they wanted to defend and which ones they wanted to not just step aside but actually intentionally undermine.

“They did that with the federal Defense of Marriage Act, and now we see on the state level with this new attorney general, he does the same thing,” said Staver.

“He is not upholding the law. He is actually undermining the very law that was passed by the people. This was a constitutional marriage amendment that was passed by 57 percent of the Virginian voters. As attorney general, his obligation is to defend the laws, whether passed by the legislature or passed by the people. His obligation is not to simply act as a king or a potentate, where he just wants to pick and choose which laws he’s going to defend and which laws he’s going to intentionally undermine,” said Staver, who says this sort of action sets a precedent that could greatly damage the separation of powers.

“What would happen is if you had, for example, a Republican-led legislature and they passed laws that the Democratic governor or attorney general don’t like, they would just simply refuse to defend them, or even worse, work to actively undermine them. That just makes no sense. That creates a system of lawlessness. It does not respect the rule of law, and it certainly does not respect the process of the people in protecting their right for representation and the right to vote,” Staver said.

Herring is hardly the first official to declare he would not defend traditional marriage laws. In addition to Obama and Holder at the federal level, attorneys general in Pennsylvania and Illinois and the governor of Hawaii all unilaterally declared they would not defend state laws defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

The Washington Post reports Republican attorneys general have refused to defend other laws recently. Indiana’s Greg Zoeller refused to enforce part of his state’s immigration laws after the Supreme Court struck down similar provisions in Arizona’s SB 1070. In Virginia, Herrings’s predecessor, Ken Cuccinelli, declared one of former Gov. Bob McDonnell’s education reforms to be unconstitutional and announced he would not defend it.

Staver said there are different levels of refusing to defend existing laws but believes the practice is never a good idea.

“There is precedent through history where attorneys general won’t vigorously enforce a law, but that’s a whole different ballgame, where you decide not to give as vigorous a defense or not to offer a defense than when you go into court and actually file a brief that undermines a case,” Staver said.

“What you ultimately have happen here, whether it’s done by a Republican or a Democrat, when a law is challenged and it’s not vigorously defended, you ultimately have a system of lawlessness.” he said.

Staver is also quick to assert that refusing to defend the institution of marriage is far more significant than it is with respect to other laws.

“We’re talking about marriage. We’re talking about a fundamental, observable relationship that has transcended governments. It wasn’t created by a governor or a legislature. It predates the Commonwealth of Virginia. It predates the United States of America. It is an institution and a relationship that is from the very beginning of time to the present. It transcends cultures. It predates governments,” Staver said.

“It is something that is part of the created, observable universe in which we live and it has been transmitted through history and times and cultures. To undermine that is not to be put into the same category … as Ken Cuccinelli deciding not to defend a portion of an education law,” he said.

Apart from the legal arguments surrounding the issue, Staver said there are obvious reasons why marriage should be set aside for the union of one man and one woman, from procreation to child rearing, and he contends even the most vigorous activism of same-sex marriage supporters cannot change those facts.

“Marriage as the union of a man and a woman is part of God’s natural created order. You may not like it. You may disagree with it. You may not like gravity. You may disagree with it, but it doesn’t matter what your opinion is on it. The fact of the matter is, it is what it is. It exists and it exists for a reason,” he said.

“Marriage is between a man and a woman. Ontologically, man and women are made for one another in a way that two men and two women simply are not. It is through the union of a man and a woman that we procreate the next generation. That’s why we have placed laws and policies around marriage to protect that very survival of our society,” he said.

“Also, it’s through the union of a man and a woman, husband and wife, male and female, that children have the best optimal environment in which to be raised. Moms and dads, male and female, bring different characteristics and components to the family relation and dynamic that two men and two women simply does not do.

“In fact, it is contrary to what two men and two women would do. When you eliminate one gender from the family, which is what same-sex marriage would do … and skew the view of the missing gender, have some antipathy or opposition toward the missing gender, you ultimately harm children. When you harm children, you ultimately effect society,” he said.

Liberty Counsel will likely get involved in the case, but Staver said it’s not clear how or when the new defense team for the state law will be chosen. He suspects the case will end up in front of the Supreme Court within the next year or two but is not optimistic the justices will rule in the way he believes they should.

“On this issue and other moral issues like abortion, I have absolutely no trust in the United States Supreme Court. These issues of life and marriage should not be up for a popular vote by justices of the United States Supreme Court,” he said.

“We’ve lived under the tragedy of abortion for 41 years. Fifty-six million people have died because seven people on the United States Supreme Court in 1973 and five people on the same court in 1992, ultimately voted, even though it has nothing to do with the Constitution,” he said. “Frankly, I have no confidence in this court or any set of justices on the Supreme Court unless they’re going to follow and adhere to the Constitutional principles and the rule of law.”

Now We Understand Why Obama Kept Supporting Morsi. He And Hillary Were Deeply Involved. Is This A Time Bomb For The Administration?

OBAMA, CLINTONS ACCUSED IN EGYPT OF AIDING TERRORISTS

Documents leaked ahead of trial of Muslim Brotherhood leaders

Published: 10 hours ago

JEROME R. CORSI About | Email | Archive

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NEW YORK – Two new, classifed documents leaked by Egyptian security implicate President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton in the aiding and abetting of terrorists.

The documents have been entered as evidence in the criminal trials of former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and other top Muslim Brotherhood leaders, scheduled to begin next month in Cairo.

Obtained by Arabic-speaking former Palestinian Liberation Organization-member Walid Shoebat and posted Thursday on his website, the two leaked documents provide evidence Egyptian security forces have monitored the movements and activities of Obama’s half-brother, Malik Obama, and his Islamic Dawa Organization, or IDO. The security forces also have kept an eye on the dealings with the Muslim Brotherhood of Essam El-Haddad, the father of Gehad El-Haddad, a senior adviser to the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States and a former employee of the William J. Clinton Foundation.

Malik Obama’s alleged terrorist ties

Shoebat referenced the publication of the leaked documents in Arabic by the Al-Masry Network in Egypt as evidence Malik Obama’s organization is the main sponsor of the effort to Islamize the Nuba area, Aswan and Luxor.

“The Aswan region is a territory in southeastern Egypt that borders northern Sudan, which includes a long stretch of the Nile River,” Shoebat wrote. “During the Mohammed Morsi regime, both Egypt and Sudan (under Omar al-Bashir) would have presented an opportunity to work toward the slow erasure of the border between the two nations. Such negotiations in Aswan would have predictably caused Egypt’s Security Forces great concern.”

Shoebat noted the Al-Masry report indicated that Malik Obama’s role with the Sudanese branch of IDO is much more significant than previously thought.

According to Shoebat’s translation from the original Arabic, the article says in part:

“Authorities within Egypt’s security apparatus have warned over the past two and a half years of the movements of the Islamic Dawa Organization (IDO), based in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, headed by businessman Kenyan owner Aboonju Obama (Malik), the elder brother of U.S. President Barack Obama, according to security authorities who are privy to the details of the investigation. One official said the organization and its president, a close friend of the President of Sudan Omar al-Bashir, support the Muslim Brotherhood with money, as well as the international organization of the group.”

Shoebat further notes the Al-Masry report suggested that Malik has headed not only the Kenyan branch of IDO but the Khartoum-based organization that is “overseen by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.” Malik Obama’s role allegedly includes assisting and regulating the global Muslim Brotherhood agenda.

In November, WND reported Egyptian lawyers had filed criminal terrorist charges in the International Criminal Court against President Obama in addition to the criminal terrorism charges previously filed in Egyptian courts against Malik Obama.

WND reported in August that Tehani al-Gebali, the vice president of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt, gave a speech and participated in an interview broadcast on Egyptian television, identifying Malik Obama as “a major architect” managing investments for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

On Sept. 7, 2011, two years before the IRS targeting of conservative groups became a national scandal, WND reported the Barack H. Obama Foundation, a 501(c)3 tax-exempt raising operated by Malik Obama in Kenya, appears to have received IRS approval one-month from the application submitted in May 2011. The IRS determination letter dated June 11, 2011, granted a highly irregular retroactive tax-exempt approval only after the group came under fire for operating as a 501(c)3 foundation since 2008 without ever having applied to the IRS for a tax determination.

“Malik Obama’s prominent role as Executive Director of the IDO, at minimum, implicates his brother in a serious conflict of interest matter relative to national security,” Shoebat said.

“That Malik was given illegal tax-exempt status by Lois Lerner may implicate his brother, President Barack Obama, as an accessory to terror funding, which is why Lerner should be granted immunity for her testimony,” he said. “So far, members of Congress who sit on such committees have shown no desire to do this.”

Problems in Egypt for Hillary and Bill

In September 2013, Gehad el-Haddad, openly known to be a senior Muslim Brotherhood official who had worked for five years at the William J. Clinton Foundation, was arrested in Cairo and charged with inciting violence. Until the arrest, el-Haddad was one of the Muslim Brotherhood’s top communications officials in Egypt as well as a top adviser to Morsi.

Gehad el-Haddad

In December, Shoebat documented that el-Haddad’s father, Essam el-Haddad, was also in custody in Egypt for his close association with the Muslim Brotherhood while serving as an aide to Morsi.

Both father and son are now in Al-Agrab, a high-security prison in Egypt, with their assets seized by Egyptian government, while they await trial on espionage charges. The charges include working with Clinton while she was secretary of state to coordinate between the Morsi government and the Obama administration, allegedly in the interest of inciting violence in Egypt to solidify political control for key Muslim Brotherhood leaders active in Egypt as terrorist operatives.

“Further evidence that Gehad el-Haddad is not just an innocent victim of circumstance has to do with the family he married into,” Shoebat noted.

“His wife is the daughter of Dr. Mahmoud Abu Zeid, who is a leader within the Muslim Brotherhood Guidance Bureau. Gehad is also the nephew of Mohammed Ibrahim, who is a member of the leadership within the Guidance Bureau. This all adds up to mean that the longtime Bill Clinton employee is one of the primary players within the Muslim Brotherhood regime.”

Shoebat has further reported that in August, when U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns went to Cairo with U.S. Sens. John McCain and Lindsay Graham, it was Gehad who helped Burns arrange a secret 90-minute meeting with then-imprisoned Khairat el-Shater, a top-ranking Muslim Brotherhood member who had served as a deputy to the Morsi government.

“Without reading too much between the lines, that ‘major espionage involving foreign countries’ most likely includes the Obama administration when Hillary Clinton was the Secretary of State,” Shoebat concluded.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Can This Pastor Make A Difference In The Relations Between Christians And Jews? A Very Interesting Story And One Worth Pondering.

Arkansas Pastor Tells Breaking Israel News his Church Celebrates Hanukkah

Posted by: Princella Smith December 2, 2013 , 4:17 pm

A man’s gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men (Proverbs 16:18)

Dr. Scott Stewart, Expert in Hebraic and Christian Studies prepares for an international television interview

“Not Your Grandpa’s Pastor”

He speaks so quickly that it seems the sound waves of his words hit your ears before his lips stop moving. He is a “young 48 years old”. Even though he has three children, a grandchild, and a grandchild on the way, you would never notice any sign of slowing down with the skip in his step and nearly no sign of gray hair.

“He” is Scott Stewart, and he sat down with Breaking Israel News for his first exclusive interview since the announcement that he will be the newly inducted Pastor of Agape Church in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The first thing you hear when you enter the office is his pleasant receptionist chirping “Welcome!” She knows it’s time for the meeting and assures that “Pastor Scott will be right with you.” The second thing you hear is Scott’s authoritative yet friendly voice coming from down the hall rattling off a list of items to be done before he dashes into the lobby to greet me: “Hey, Princella. Are you ready? It’s interview time!”

I involuntarily pause for a second. He’s wearing blue jeans with a blue jean jacket and casual shoes. This is certainly a far cry from the usual ensemble of a pastor of a church in Arkansas—or anywhere in the American South for that matter. No suit and tie? No blazer and slacks? Not even a polo shirt and khakis?

Scott’s eyes are shining, and he has the biggest smile on his face—almost like a kid right before he opens his birthday presents. He reaches out to give me a hug like he hasn’t seen me in three months even though we belong to the same church. Immediately, any nervousness I may have had about conducting a good interview for my first Breaking Israel News profile piece goes out the window.

“Let’s go!” he said.

He doesn’t take the traditional seat of sitting behind the pastor’s desk and directing me to sit in the guest chairs. He plops down in one of the guest chairs, and I take the seat at his desk so that I have more room to type.

I’m still really taking all of this in. This is one of the most laid-back ministers I’ve ever met. This man is going to be my new pastor at Agape Church? He’s going to maintain this persona in southern, traditional, bible-belt Arkansas?? This I’ve got to see.

We jump right into what seems to be Scott’s favorite topic (besides his love for God) to discuss: his record of church-planting in Europe and the heavy Hebraic influence of each. Scott’s churches are not the traditional Anglican or Catholic churches which come to mind when the words “Christian Europe” are heard.

It seems the church closest to Scott’s heart is the one he planted in Scotland, “The Church at Stirling”.

Dr. Scott Stewart speaks five languages and was inducted into the Oxford Society of Scholars. He instituted “The Jacob Plan” in the United Kingdom where Jews and Christians worshiped together.

There, he instituted “The Jacob Plan” which is an Israel outreach ministry in Scotland.

“It’s our reconciliatory arm of the ministry which reaches out to the Jewish community,” he said. We are commanded by both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures to honor the seed of Abraham. This arm does that.”

And this is where Scott most distinguishes himself from traditional Christian ministers—especially ones in the American South. He truly believes that Christians should take the lead in repairing the damage done to the spiritual relationship between Christians and Jews which reaches as far back as the days of Constantine the Emperor who brought Christianity to Rome and then Greece.

It’s not that American Christians do not support Israel. In fact, the largest pro-Israel organization in the entire world is Christians United for Israel (CUFI) with a growing membership of over one million members. However, most Christians would be surprised to know the deep-seated distrust of Christians within the Jewish community due to a combination of historical events, theological misunderstandings, and lingering pain from the Holocaust.

“The Jacob Plan”

The Jacob Plan at The Church at Stirling will be the defining aspect of Scott’s legacy. The Jacob Plan aims to find the commonality between Christians and Jews. “We are commanded by both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures to honor the seed of Abraham. The Jacob Plan does that,” Scott explained.

“We named it The Jacob Plan, because, in the Hebrew scriptures, Jacob is renamed ‘Israel’”, Scott continued. “We created an event as a part of The Jacob Plan that honors the Jewish people for their contribution to the Christian faith and call it ‘A Night to Celebrate Israel’ ”.

Scott is quick to clarify that “A Night to Celebrate Israel” is not the same as “Night to Honor Israel” which is led by CUFI. The main difference between the two is that CUFI’s “Night to Honor Israel” places more emphasis on public policy and includes political figures and policy-makers while Stirling’s “A Night to Celebrate Israel” considers their effort to be more faith-based.

Scott’s face completely lights up when he starts speaking about the reactions to the yearly “Night to Celebrate Israel”. Without seeming to breathe in between sentences, he chirps: “We’ve had so many Jewish people attend the events, and they say ‘What is this? How do you create the electricity in the room like this?’ ”

According to Scott, the Jewish attendees usually appear a bit cautious or not quite at full comfort level when they first arrive. It’s almost as if they do not know what to expect. However, as the service progresses, they find themselves pleasantly amazed at the sight.

The featured music focuses on the Hebrew aspect of Christianity, so Jewish and Christian attendees are comfortably appearing at the service together. They sing songs like “Mighty One of Israel” and even some songs with Hebrew language permeate the room. Torah and Tanakh scriptures are quoted—known to Christians as the Old Testament—the foundation of the Christian Bible.

Scott and the Church at Stirling leadership want their Jewish guests to know that this is their premiere event of the year. They wear full kilts which is the most formal dress possible in Scotland.

As a result of The Jacob Plan, there are “Nights to Celebrate Israel” in Wales and London and others forthcoming in Ireland and Manchester.

The fact that these things happen in a place like Europe is more than remarkable and quite impressive. Europe is known in many circles for its widespread Anti-Semitism, so my first follow-up question to Scott was: “How do the Jewish attendees respond to this?”

Scott is eager to reply that the Jewish attendees are less expressive during service but express afterwards how impressed they were to worship together. Their raving reviews seemed to have surprised him a bit because they were so quiet during the event.

Nefesh B’nefesh means “soul by soul” or “one by one” in Hebrew. It is an organization promoting Aliyah known as the official process of immigration to Israel. Their mission according to their website is to “…send an unmistakable signal of Anglo-Israeli Jewish solidarity and of our mutual determination to strengthen the State of Israel and thereby increase the likelihood of an ever expanding Aliyah reality.” Yet another entity unusually headquartered in the United Kingdom.

The head of the United Kingdom arm of Nefesh B’nefesh attended one of the services two years ago and couldn’t stop talking about it: “Did everybody feel that?” he asked his fellow Jewish attendees.

Scott is very excited as he offers an effusive description of the man’s astonishment: “He just kept turning to me and asking: ‘How do you do that?’ over and over. So many of the Jewish attendees couldn’t believe it. They felt an energy—a religious energy—and they felt it in a worship service with Christians!”

As proven with The Jacob Plan, Scott seems to have taken the method of “meeting people where they are” in building relationships between Christians and Jews. Because of his work in Europe, for example, the Jewish community invites members of The Church at Stirling to travel with them to Israel each year on their chartered flights when there are open seats. They even attend ballets and other social events together with the Christian Scots.

Scott’s work with The Church at Stirling has received acclaim from the Israeli government elite itself. Scott had already left Scotland and returned to Arkansas by the time the church held this year’s “Night To Celebrate Israel”, but a true testament to his leadership is that the church continues to hold that celebration as he initiated it, and both the event and the church have developed a growing esteem in the public eye.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recognized the 2013 “Night To Celebrate Israel” via an official congratulatory letter. Scott has a copy of the letter on his iPhone and paused in the middle of the interview to send it to me.

An excerpt of Netanyahu’s letter read: “This special evening affords me the opportunity to express my gratitude to [T]he Church at Stirling and its many guests for your staunch support of the State of Israel. It is heartwarming to know that the people of Israel have such steadfast friends. The friendship is a source of great strength.”

The Jewish Telegraph also covered the event and ran a story on October 21, 2013 citing Glasgow Jewish Representative Council President, Paul Morron: “To see so many people travelling to this event to show their support for Israel is very special. The impact this has had on the local community is quite dramatic in a place which can be quite hostile to Israel at times.”

Earlier in the year, The Israeli embassy in London invited members of the church to Israeli President Peres’ birthday party. When Scott began explaining this, it refreshed my personal memory because I was living in Israel at the time, and there was an attempt for me to meet these members, but we could not get our schedules to mesh.

Things seem to be slowly coming together for me at this point of the interview, but I still want to know what makes a man like this tick?

Scott is so intriguingly unusual. Here is this man from ARKANSAS who has traveled the world and planted Christian churches in EUROPE of all places. Most Christians do not view Europe as a mission field because it is so predominately Christian, but Scott’s mission there was different. It wasn’t as much about converting others to Christianity as it was about leading Christians toward a deeper and more historical, intellectual understanding of the Hebraic roots of Christianity which extend beyond knowledge of the Old Testament. He truly wants Christians to understand the roots of Jewish skepticism of Christianity and thereby repair the relationship worldwide.

How did he get here? How does a person develop such a passion? What is his back story?

“What’s his motivation?”

Scott is incredibly sensitive. To his surroundings. To other people. To fluorescent light.

At the start of the interview, Scott quickly moved about the room adjusting his window blinds, tinkering with the lamp, and talking with a smile. “Is this lighting okay? I just really don’t like these types of lights. I’m sorry.”

The other offices in the church building have their light switches flipped on, but Scott’s office is lit by the sunlight shining through his window and a lamp near his desk. It fits his personality because people who are sensitive to fluorescent light often dislike how it casts an unflattering glow on colors. This type of person wants the real thing—the real color—not the color reflected by fluorescent light.

As much as Scott has traveled, I wonder if fluorescent light somehow reminded Scott of the cage of a 9am to 5pm type of job. Maybe the fluorescent light is representative of the type of life he has managed to avoid. As much as he has traveled and as adventurous of a personal life that he has led, of course he prefers sunlight. He wants to be out there!

All a part of what makes this man tick.

From the start, it would appear that Scott was destined to lead a nearly textbook southern-American-protestant-Christian-mom’s apple pie-Anglo-Saxon type of life. Scott was raised in Little Rock, Arkansas. His mother was a homemaker. His father owned a construction company, and his family attended a Baptist Church.

However, in true leader form, Scott’s talents began making way for him at an early age, and he began to stand out among his peers.

Scott says he became a baptized Christian at age nine, answered the call to ministry as a teenager, and preached his first sermon at age 15 at the Baptist church in Little Rock where he grew up. He tells me a story that he has repeated several times in the pulpit.

Scott chuckles as he recalls his first public ministering attempt: “I had written this entire 20-30 minute sermon, and I finished it in 10 minutes!” His laughter is infectious at this point, and I start laughing, too, because Scott talks so fast.

Scott’s fast-talking is not similar to the smooth, used car salesman. He is just so excited about what he’s saying, and his mind is moving so quickly that is tongue often cannot seem to keep up with his brain. He speaks clearly, but occasionally, he gets tongue-tied and will make fun of himself for saying a word wrong before correcting it and moving on. He did this during an evening sermon I heard him deliver at Agape Church in preparation for his taking over of the pastorate. It invoked the congregation to laughter, and I was sitting one row behind his wife, Loretta, when he did it. “Oh my gosh. He just talks so fast,” I said amusingly. Loretta heard me, turned around slowly and nodded with a knowing smile as if to say: “Yes, I’ve told him this for years.”

As a matter of fact, while Scott explains the story about his 10-minute sermon, he talks fast. He still does it. No need to change what seems to be working for him so far, I guess.

His eyes are dancing at this point. I think he is glad to get a laugh out of me. So much energy, this guy! He must have been an athlete.

“Were you involved in any sports? You have all this energy, and you seem pretty fit,” I asked while hoping to get some insight into this rare type of leader’s mindset. Scott was almost a black belt in taekwondo until his ribs were broken, but he seemed to enjoy baseball the most. Scott was a very good high school baseball player. He played pitcher and 3^rd baseman and quickly notifies me that not only is the pitcher a focal point on a baseball field, but the 3^rd baseman position is also known as the “hot corner” in baseball. That’s right. Scott played TWO of the most important positions on the field. Watching an athlete perform in or on the field/court/course/pool will often tell an observer about the persona of said athlete.

I’m a sports enthusiast and former college basketball player myself, so I understand the mental focus, determination, and competitiveness necessary to compete at a high level.

Scott speaks like a true competitor—still recalling play for play the day that he nearly pitched a shut-out game. He sits up in his chair and leans forward to make sure I really hear this.

“One hit. Only one hit. Right at the end of the game, one guy found my rhythm and got a hit off me, and I still regret it.”

He is serious. His entire face changed, but then that famous smile quickly returned.

In Scott’s case, the position of baseball pitcher seems to most accurately describe his individuality. It is the one position in baseball where he determines how the team moves.

“They’re waiting to see if I throw a curve or a fast pitch,” he explains. “Everyone is waiting for what the pitcher is going to do. This position and the catcher control the game. It’s all about what move you make.”

It’s not all about sports when researching the “what-makes-this-man-tick” element of Scott.

He must have made his parents very proud because he’s a dream combination of brawn and brain.

Having a love for the Bible was not enough for Scott, he wanted to know about it from a historical and intellectual level so that he could accurately understand it if he was to preach from it.

He started his undergraduate degree at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock (UALR) before transferring to The American Institute in Arkansas to study middle eastern history and received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees which he received with honors.

He received a PhD in Hebrew Studies specializing in biblical Hebrew language from the Jubilee Christian College Graduate School of Jewish-Christian Studies. According to its site: “The focus of this Christian college program is to understand that in every area of life the foundation of all truth is found in the principles taught by the ancient Hebrew Prophets.” They even refer to Jesus by his Hebrew name, Yeshua.

Recently, Scott was inducted into the prestigious Oxford Society of Scholars as a fellow. He is now pursuing his 2^nd elite degree, a Doctorate of Literature at Oxford University. The doctorate program fits Scott’s modus operandi. It is research based, and he is not required to be in class. He will have to compile and present papers and to also be peer reviewed.

Judging by his international speaking experience and depth of intelligence, it is likely that Scott will not only do this but with flying colors.

Scott believes he will write about: “Constantinian Christianity and the Curse of Cultural Relativism” thereby fulfilling a large component of his goal to educate Christians about the differences between the Hebraic roots of their religion and the Greek influence imposed upon Christianity when Constantine aimed to nearly completely rid modern-day Christianity of anything resembling its Judaic roots.

“Change the world…No, really – change it”

Scott is 100% Christian, but he does not celebrate Easter. He calls Jesus by his Hebrew name, Yeshua, and he celebrates Chanukah.

“Say, what?!” I asked him incredulously when he said he doesn’t celebrate Easter. “That’s the entire point of being a Christian! We believe Jesus was the final sacrificial lamb for the redemption of the sins of all mankind. How are you even a Christian if you don’t celebrate Easter?” I’m seriously considering whether or not I need to change my church membership at this point in the interview. Do I want to have a pastor who does not celebrate Easter??

Scott goes on to explain: “I celebrate the resurrection. I celebrate Passover the way Yeshua—Jesus—did because He was a practicing Jew! The term ‘Easter’ is pagan and was initiated by Constantine in an effort to entirely separate the Passover celebration from Jesus’ resurrection and to drive a deeper wedge between Christians and Jews. The Easter eggs and rabbits are part of the Babylonian pagan culture.”

It turns out that Scott’s account is accurate. He is not speaking against celebrating the resurrection of Christ as Christians believe. He is against doing it under pagan premises when the entire notion behind it was driven by a hatred of the Jews. Sadly, most Christians are not aware of this. They are not “separating themselves from Jews” by celebrating Easter. They are celebrating the resurrection of Christ, but they are not aware that so much of the celebration and the secular items surrounding it are a result of Constantine’s anti-Semitism.

www.letgodbetrue.com explains it very similarly to the way Scott explains it:

“Pagans have always got excited about spring, because they saw the sun increasing in power, animals mating, and plant life reviving. With their minds totally blinded by a holy God, they exalted animal and human fertility, reproduction, and sexual love. Goddesses of love and fertility were worshipped with spring festivals and gross immorality. The Roman Catholic Church, seeking to ‘Christianize’ the pagans, gave new names and meanings to the old pagan festivals to keep their unregenerated members happy… But Bible Christians are plainly told to reject any association with pagan religion or any religious things highly esteemed by the world. Any participation in them is spiritual adultery and highly offensive to the most high God. The Oxford English Dictionary reads, ‘Easter. The name is derived from Eostre, the name of a goddess whose festival was celebrated at the vernal equinox; her name shows that she was originally the dawn-goddess.’ Compton’s Encyclopedia reads, ‘Our name Easter comes from Eostre, an ancient Anglo-Saxon goddess, originally of the dawn. In pagan times an annual spring festival was held in her honor.’…Though the King James Bible has the word ‘Easter’ in Acts 12:4, it was used only as a synonym for the Passover, or the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which was the event under consideration, as Herod waited for the right time to kill Peter and not offend the Jews (Acts 12:1-3). The OED confirms this use of “Easter” as a synonym for the Jewish Passover.”

Most Christians recognize Easter eggs and the Easter rabbit as secular and not a part of the religious resurrection story—much like Santa Claus is secular and not related to the religious story of the birth of Jesus—but they don’t know that deliberate paganism is associated with the rabbit and the eggs during Easter.