"All Schools Shut Down in Augusta County, Virginia, Over Islam Homework", Plus Goings-on in Missouri

News today, excerpt from CNN

When the world geography class at Riverheads High School in Staunton rolled around to the subject of major world religions, homework on Islam asked students to copy religious calligraphy.
It read:
"Here is the shahada, the Islamic statement of faith, written in Arabic. In the space below, try copying it by hand. This should give you an idea of the artistic complexity of calligraphy."
The illustrative classical Arabic phrase was the basic statement in Islam. It translated to: "There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is the messenger of Allah."
When students took it home, it was like a spark hitting a powder keg. ... Calls and emails flooded the school. Some of them demanded the teacher be fired for assigning it. ... The county school system reacted. It removed the shahada from world religion instruction. "A different, non-religious sample of Arabic calligraphy will be used in the future," it said.

Of course it was an attempt to indoctrinate students. Of ALL the Quran or Hadiths one could have asked the students to copy "as an example of calligraphy", the workbook the teacher said she took it from had THAT particular sentence. If we translated this news story into one that said the exact same things but used a Christian example, it would go like this:

Here is the Isaiah 45:5 verse, the Biblical statement of faith, written in Hebrew, and the 1 Timothy 2:5 verse, written in Greek. In the space below, try copying it by hand. This should give you an idea of the artistic complexity of calligraphy."

The illustrative classical Hebrew phrase was the basic statement in Christianity. It translated to: "I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; and the Greek verse reads, "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,"

Imagine the outcry. Read the rest of the article linked above for the security part and why the School Administrators felt the need to close all their schools for the day.
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For no particular reason, I'll post this next graph. It struck me. From Marketwatch:

Just because the news media focuses more on a topic, doesn’t mean it is happening more. But in the case of terrorism, your eyes may not be deceiving you. New research produced by the University of Maryland’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland has identified a big surge in mass terror attacks. The chart here doesn’t take into account the Paris or Mali terror attacks, or indeed any that have occurred this year. [2015] (There were 11 in the first half of [2015].) The terror group that claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks, Islamic State, is also the leading perpetrator of all attacks between 2000 and 2014, accounting for 12% of the total.

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Did you know there are a series of highly suspicious and unusual events occurring in Mid-Missouri?
In and around December 10, 2015 we learned that there was a spate of suspicious bulk cell phone buys in the wee hours of the morning at various Wal-Marts. Some men of Middle Eastern aspect attempted to purchase 20 or 60 or more cell phones at a time. Cell phones of this type make tracing calls very difficult, and cell phones also are used to detonate bombs. The FBI is looking into to it.
Number of reports of mass cell phone buys grows in Missouri
We also learned that week that there was a mysterious spate of propane tank thefts in the same area. In and around December 11, 2015, we read of the thefts.
Dozens of propane tanks stolen from three different Missouri locations

KANSAS CITY, MO - Many are on edge after several law enforcement agencies notified the FBI about bulk purchases of cell phones at Missouri Walmarts. Now, another incident has some worried about terrorism. A large number of propane tanks have been stolen from several locations near Kansas City.  WDAF-TV reports that a BP gas station in Lee's Summit had 18-20 tanks stolen from outside cages last month. A CVS reported the same crime on the same night. Two weeks later another CVS in Independence was hit and 28 tanks were stolen from that location. 

Then we learn about the man in the woods. The Conservative Tribune reports,

A viral picture of a strange man walking in the woods in Missouri — combined with a number of suspicious cell phone purchases elsewhere in the state — have many believing the two may be connected to a possible terror plot. According to KFVS-TV, residents have described odd encounters with the man, who was caught on a trail cam in Madison County, Missouri.

From what I understand, the area is rural, the entry to the national forest at that location is remote, no car was found, he was not dressed for hiking or camping, and he disappeared. Which is interesting, because of this next news item from, you guessed it, Missouri. This is from October 2015.
Explosives in Mark Twain National Forest created 2 large craters

WAYNESVILLE, Mo. -Pulaski County sheriff's department investigators are trying to find who left explosives in the Mark Twain National Forest in. A hunter found them early Saturday. More from KY3-

The hunter is an Army combat engineer from Fort Leonard Wood. He recognized his discovery as explosives and immediately reported it to the sheriff's department. "The first shock went off just like ba-boom! Rocked my house. And then about another 15 seconds later baboom! It was even worse than the first one, rattled the windows and stuff in my house," said Eugene Davis, who lives near the discovery.
On Missouri 17, south of Waynesville just inside the national forest, there's a little dirt path used by hunters and campers. In a clearing just a few hundred feet from the highway, a hunter found a box containing a significant amount of explosives. A bomb squad from Fort Wood used a robot and found commercial explosives and decided it could not be moved and had to be detonated there. The sheriff's office warned neighbors in the area and, about 15 minutes later, two large explosions rattled windows in the area and left two craters each about two feet across. Leaves were blown off trees and the explosion set a small brush fire that was quickly put out by firefighters.

Apparently the explosives are the kind "that cannot be purchased easily." Officials are not saying if they were homemade bombs or IEDs.
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Next up, we have this stupidity. I mean, really.


We have an adversary. He is the devil, satan, that old dragon. (1 Peter 5:8)
He has schemes. (2 Corinthians 2:11)
He is relentless, for his hatred drives him. This hatred was demonstrated at the time he entered Judas (the only human alive that the Bible records satan himself possessing) all to betray Jesus. (Luke 22:3-6).
He steals, kills, and destroys. (John 10:10)
He knows his time is short (Revelation 12:12) and thus strives to do everything possible to continue his rebellion against God (Isaiah 14:13-154) by attempting to destroy humanity's relationship with God (remember, humans were created in God's image. Angels weren't).
So it should not surprise us that satan is using God's enemies to work his will of evil and chaos and terror. We love Muslims individually as sinners in need of the Light of salvation. However we're rightly suspicious of Islamic terror groups who have sworn our national death and are engaged in persistent, confirmed and credible attempts to fulfill their threat. Perhaps God will use the Islamic State as a hammer of judgment against America, as He used the Assyrians and the Egyptians and the Babylonians against the Israelites in their time of punishment for rebellion.
Share the Gospel - it is the only hope for most of the earth's inhabitants. And be prepared to see acts of terror even more heinous than the ones we have seen since 9/11 and San Bernardino etc. We are not surprised that satan is alive and well and at work. But we have the mind of Christ, His promises through His word, His son's atoning work and intercession in heaven as our priest, and the Holy Spirit to sustain and energize us in His holy work, even if (when) things get grievous in our nation.
Though the spirit of the age is at war with us Christians, and the pagans of this age war with us Americans, we have peace.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. (John 14:27).