By Christy Barritt

Poll: Americans Support Gun Rights More than Gun Control 

For the first time in decades, more Americans support gun rights than they support gun control. Furthermore, the majority of Americans believe gun ownership makes an individual safer.

According to a new poll from Pew Research, 52 percent of Americans currently say it’s more important to protect their right to own guns, while 46 percent think it’s more important to control gun ownership.

After the Newtown school shooting two years ago, support for gun control rose. But since January 2013, support for gun rights has increased by 7 percentage points. Around 57 percent of Americans say that gun ownership does more to protect people from becoming victims of crime, while 38 percent say it does more to endanger personal safety.

Also significant from the survey was the fact that 5 percent more women support protecting rights over gun control than they did just two years ago. Women are also the fastest growing demographic of gun owners in America.

Gamers Push to Ban Bible for Violence Against Women

More than 50,000 gamers from around the world have a signed an online petition seeking to ban the Bible in retail giants Target and Kmart. The move happened after the Australian arms of those two stores pulled Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V from shelves late last year when customers complained about the “sickening” level of violence against women in the game.

The general manager of corporate affairs at Target Australia said that he’d heard from many customers that there was a “significant level of concern” about the content of the video game. Grand Theft Auto V is a game directed at the adult market, and it allows players to participate in a variety of activities, including having sex with women and then killing them.

As backlash for pulling the game from the stores, gamers started their own petition to take the Bible off the shelves. The petition claims that the Bible encourages readers to murder women “for entertainment” and cites portions of the Bible that talk about stoning women, setting them on fire, and cutting off their hands.

Ten Most Talked About Facebook Topics in 2014

Facebook released its most talked about topics from 2014. Each year the social media giant does a “Year in Review” page and ranks the most discussed subjects by measuring how often a topic is mentioned in Facebook posts. The posts were analyzed in an aggregated manner in order to create the rankings on the list. The most talked about topics were:

The ebola virus outbreak

The Ice Bucket Challenge

Robin Williams

Super Bowl

Michael Brown and Ferguson

World Cup

Conflict in Gaza

Midterm elections

Malaysia Airlines

ISIS

Churches Are Target for Attack

Churches are now actively preparing themselves for what they see as the threat against them that is rising worldwide.

Andy Willis is head of security at Bellevue Baptist Church, a 30,000-member congregation in Memphis, Tennessee. He told CBN News, “Today churches that speak the truth, that teach and preach true biblical principles, they draw a lot of attention because there are a lot of components of society today that don’t want to hear that.” Because of that, churches have become targets for protests, predators, and maybe even terrorists. 

Bellevue has a camera system that constantly monitors and records activities on campus. The church has also a nurse/paramedic on their security team in case of everyday medical issues, but they are also trained if something tragic were to ever occur. Willis concluded his interview by encouraging all churches to have a plan in place. He wants people to trust God but also be prepared.

Christy Barritt is an award-winning author in Chesapeake, Virginia (christybarritt.com). She and her husband, Scott, have two sons.