The Battle to Worship in NYC Schools Goes On...

2 Timothy 3:12
"Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution"
Yet another protest is occurring in NYC. The cause? To let the 60 congregations in the Bronx continue to hold their worship services inside public schools and community public housing rooms. Churches such as Infinity Church and Bronx Household of Faith have been using public schools for their Sunday worship services for years but now city lawmakers, along with the Dept of education, have given these congregations until February 12th to find a new house of worship.

Luckily, Pastor Dimas Salaberrios of Infinity Church is not alone. NYC Council member Fernando Cabrera of district 14 in the Bronx is with them every step of the way. Salaberrios pastors his church in the middle of the Bronx River Housing Projects, the poorest in the country and the birth place of hip hop.  Infinity Church was also under the eviction radar up until the City Housing Dept recognized that they weren't under the Dept of Education ruling. This touches home for Salaberrios, who started attending a church as a teen that rented a city public school at the time.

This may look like OWS all over again, but these protests are worth the fight for these 60+ Bronx congregations. These protests all started with the ruling that these congregations would be evicted from the public schools they rent as houses of worship. It’s said that these schools don’t want to be associated with one particular religion or belief system. These protests starting in early December of 2011, with things seemed to have taken a turning point when Councilman Cabrera was arrested, with six other pastors and church leaders, on trespassing charges for not moving from in front of the city’s Law Department on January 5^th.

According to the ruling, the date that these congregations will be evicted is next Sunday, the 12^th. To catch you up with this cause, Park Slope Presbyterian Church rented their space in John Jay High School on Seventh Ave, Brooklyn, up until yesterday. The NY Times reported that there was a feeling of “sadness and disappointment” among the Rev. Matthew Brown’s flock hours after their Sunday service ended. Rev. Brown took the opportunity at getting a space in a nearby parish. Though there was this sadness in the air of the church leaving the place they started eight years ago, the reverend said that there’s a part of him that feels “excited”. But, Park Slope Presbyterian wasn’t the only congregation to move. The Victory Outreach Church of East Harlem had to leave P.S. 57 behind and share with its sister church in Brooklyn. Pastor Tony Valenzuela, and his family, had to move back to their native California after finding that there was no cheaper space to rent. It was a congregation of about 70 people and they celebrated with a farewell service by watching a video of the church’s accomplishments and having a potluck. This church was in the East Harlem neighborhood for eighteen years, helping reformed gang members, addicts, and mothers who lost sons to gun violence.

Islam Taking Over Spain, Again?

The Muslim population in Spain, especially in Barcelona and Salt, is growing at an unimaginable rate. What's helping it rise? The native Spanish birthrate is lower than the replacement rate and college-aged youth are leaving Spain to escape the nation's 50% unemployment rate. While the native Spanish population is decreasing, the Muslim population is increasing with its birthrate double that of native Spaniards as well as the immigration, especially from Saudi Arabia. It was reported that first the husband would come, then the immediate family, then the extended family such as in-laws, cousin, parents, etc.

As a short history lesson, the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) was once taken over by Muslim armies in the 7th century, calling the area Al Andulus but they were not completely expelled till Columbus discovered the New World, about 700 years later.

And what is Spain doing? They are definitely not sitting back and taking it -- both civilians and politicians are making sure that the country isn't completely taken over again. One major mosque building project was stopped because someone had placed a severed pig head, cut in half, on the building site - making the site unclean to Muslims. Plataforma x Catalunya (Platform for Catalonia) leader Joseph Anglada told CBN News that they aren't in Spain to adapt, but to conquer.

Speaking of unclean animals, Muslims of the City of Lleida (which make up a quarter of the city's popluation) tried to have the city officials ban dogs from public transportation, since dogs are also unclean to Muslims. So what has been happening? Dogs dieing out of nowhere. Josep Ortiz of Plataforma x Catalunya in Lleida told CBN News that 12 to 14 dogs died in one day - by being poisoned. "They must have eaten something or were given something..." he said. Were these perros given chocolate?

As strange as all of these things sound, at least the Spanish government is doing their best to stop this "invasion", such as banning the burqa (headscarf for Muslim women) in Lleida, the first Spanish city to do so.