jesusissavior--2020-03-31--Why Facts Don't Change Our Minds

Why Facts Don't Change Our Minds

The economist J.K. Galbraith once wrote , “ Faced with a choice between changing one ’ s mind and proving there is no need to do so , almost everyone gets busy with the proof.
” Leo Tolstoy was even bolder : “ The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already ; but the simplest thing can not be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already , without a shadow of doubt , what is laid before @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
Why do n't facts change our minds ?
And why would someone continue to believe a false or inaccurate idea anyway ?
How do such behaviors serve us ?
Humans need a reasonably accurate view of the world in order to survive .
If your model of reality is wildly different from the actual world , then you struggle to take effective actions each day .
1 However , truth and accuracy are not the only things that matter to the human mind .
Humans also seem to have a deep desire @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I wrote , “ Humans are herd animals .
We want to fit in , to bond with others , and to earn the respect and approval of our peers .
Such inclinations are essential to our survival .
For most of our evolutionary history , our ancestors lived in tribes .
Becoming separated from the tribe—or worse , being cast out—was a death sentence.
” Understanding the truth of a situation is important , but so is remaining part of a tribe .
While these two desires often work well together , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ many circumstances , social connection is actually more helpful to your daily life than understanding the truth of a particular fact or idea .
The Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker put it this way , “ People are embraced or condemned according to their beliefs , so one function of the mind may be to hold beliefs that bring the belief-holder the greatest number of allies , protectors , or disciples , rather than beliefs that are most likely to be true.
” 2 We do n't always believe things because they are correct @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make us look good to the people we care about .
I thought Kevin Simler put it well when he wrote , “ If a brain anticipates that it will be rewarded for adopting a particular belief , it 's perfectly happy to do so , and does n't much care where the reward comes from — whether it 's pragmatic ( better outcomes resulting from better decisions ) , social ( better treatment from one 's peers ) , or some mix of the two.
” 3 False beliefs can be useful @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are not useful in a factual sense .
For lack of a better phrase , we might call this approach “ factually false , but socially accurate.
” 4 When we have to choose between the two , people often select friends and family over facts .
This insight not only explains why we might hold our tongue at a dinner party or look the other way when our parents say something offensive , but also reveals a better way to change the minds of others .
Convincing someone to change their mind @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to change their tribe .
If they abandon their beliefs , they run the risk of losing social ties .
You can ’ t expect someone to change their mind if you take away their community too .
You have to give them somewhere to go .
Nobody wants their worldview torn apart if loneliness is the outcome .
The way to change people ’ s minds is to become friends with them , to integrate them into your tribe , to bring them into your circle .
Now , they can change @ @ @ @ @ @ @ abandoned socially .
The British philosopher Alain de Botton suggests that we simply share meals with those who disagree with us : “ Sitting down at a table with a group of strangers has the incomparable and odd benefit of making it a little more difficult to hate them with impunity .
Prejudice and ethnic strife feed off abstraction .
However , the proximity required by a meal – something about handing dishes around , unfurling napkins at the same moment , even asking a stranger to pass the salt – disrupts our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the outsiders who wear unusual clothes and speak in distinctive accents deserve to be sent home or assaulted .
For all the large-scale political solutions which have been proposed to salve ethnic conflict , there are few more effective ways to promote tolerance between suspicious neighbours than to force them to eat supper together.
” 5 Perhaps it is not difference , but distance that breeds tribalism and hostility .
As proximity increases , so does understanding .
I am reminded of Abraham Lincoln 's quote , “ I do n't like that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ him better.
” Years ago , Ben Casnocha mentioned an idea to me that I have n't been able to shake : The people who are most likely to change our minds are the ones we agree with on 98 percent of topics .
If someone you know , like , and trust believes a radical idea , you are more likely to give it merit , weight , or consideration .
You already agree with them in most areas of life .
Maybe you should change your mind on this one too @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you proposes the same radical idea , well , it 's easy to dismiss them as a crackpot .
One way to visualize this distinction is by mapping beliefs on a spectrum .
If you divide this spectrum into 10 units and you find yourself at Position 7 , then there is little sense in trying to convince someone at Position 1 .
The gap is too wide .
When you 're at Position 7 , your time is better spent connecting with people who are at Positions 6 and 8 , gradually @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most heated arguments often occur between people on opposite ends of the spectrum , but the most frequent learning occurs from people who are nearby .
The closer you are to someone , the more likely it becomes that the one or two beliefs you do n't share will bleed over into your own mind and shape your thinking .
The further away an idea is from your current position , the more likely you are to reject it outright .
When it comes to changing people 's minds , it is very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ another .
You ca n't jump down the spectrum .
You have to slide down it .
Any idea that is sufficiently different from your current worldview will feel threatening .
And the best place to ponder a threatening idea is in a non-threatening environment .
As a result , books are often a better vehicle for transforming beliefs than conversations or debates .
In conversation , people have to carefully consider their status and appearance .
They want to save face and avoid looking stupid .
When confronted with an uncomfortable set @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to double down on their current position rather than publicly admit to being wrong .
Books resolve this tension .
With a book , the conversation takes place inside someone 's head and without the risk of being judged by others .
It 's easier to be open-minded when you are n't feeling defensive .
Arguments are like a full frontal attack on a person 's identity .
Reading a book is like slipping the seed of an idea into a person 's brain and letting it grow on their own terms .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ someone 's head when they are overcoming a pre-existing belief .
They do n't need to wrestle with you too .
There is another reason bad ideas continue to live on , which is that people continue to talk about them .
Silence is death for any idea .
An idea that is never spoken or written down dies with the person who conceived it .
Ideas can only be remembered when they are repeated .
They can only be believed when they are repeated .
I have already pointed out that people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the same social group .
But here 's a crucial point most people miss : People also repeat bad ideas when they complain about them .
Before you can criticize an idea , you have to reference that idea .
You end up repeating the ideas you ’ re hoping people will forget—but , of course , people can ’ t forget them because you keep talking about them .
The more you repeat a bad idea , the more likely people are to believe it .
6 Let 's call this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The number of people who believe an idea is directly proportional to the number of times it has been repeated during the last year—even if the idea is false .
7 Each time you attack a bad idea , you are feeding the very monster you are trying to destroy .
As one Twitter employee wrote , “ Every time you retweet or quote tweet someone you ’ re angry with , it helps them .
It disseminates their BS .
Hell for the ideas you deplore is silence .
Have the discipline @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Your time is better spent championing good ideas than tearing down bad ones .
Do n't waste time explaining why bad ideas are bad .
You are simply fanning the flame of ignorance and stupidity .
The best thing that can happen to a bad idea is that it is forgotten .
The best thing that can happen to a good idea is that it is shared .
It makes me think of Tyler Cowen 's quote , “ Spend as little time as possible talking about how other people are wrong.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ideas die of starvation .
I know what you might be thinking .
“ James , are you serious right now ?
I 'm just supposed to let these idiots get away with this ?
” Let me be clear .
I 'm not saying it 's never useful to point out an error or criticize a bad idea .
But you have to ask yourself , “ What is the goal ?
” Why do you want to criticize bad ideas in the first place ?
Presumably , you want to criticize @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would be better off if fewer people believed them .
In other words , you think the world would improve if people changed their minds on a few important topics .
If the goal is to actually change minds , then I do n't believe criticizing the other side is the best approach .
Most people argue to win , not to learn .
As Julia Galef so aptly puts it : people often act like soldiers rather than scouts .
Soldiers are on the intellectual attack , looking to defeat the people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the operative emotion .
Scouts , meanwhile , are like intellectual explorers , slowly trying to map the terrain with others .
Curiosity is the driving force .
9 If you want people to adopt your beliefs , you need to act more like a scout and less like a soldier .
At the center of this approach is a question Tiago Forte poses beautifully , “ Are you willing to not win in order to keep the conversation going ?
” Be Kind First , Be Right Later The brilliant Japanese writer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ remember that to argue , and win , is to break down the reality of the person you are arguing against .
It is painful to lose your reality , so be kind , even if you are right.
” 10 When we are in the moment , we can easily forget that the goal is to connect with the other side , collaborate with them , befriend them , and integrate them into our tribe .
We are so caught up in winning that we forget about connecting .
It 's easy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than working with them .
The word “ kind ” originated from the word “ kin.
” When you are kind to someone it means you are treating them like family .
This , I think , is a good method for actually changing someone 's mind .
Develop a friendship .
Share a meal .
Gift a book .
Be kind first , be right later .
11

The economist J.K. Galbraith once wrote, “Faced with a choice between changing one’s mind and proving there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy with the proof.”
Leo Tolstoy was even bolder: “The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him.”
What’s going on here? Why don’t facts change our minds? And why would someone continue to believe a false or inaccurate idea anyway? How do such behaviors serve us?
The Logic of False Beliefs
Humans need a reasonably accurate view of the world in order to survive. If your model of reality is wildly different from the actual world, then you struggle to take effective actions each day. 1
However, truth and accuracy are not the only things that matter to the human mind. Humans also seem to have a deep desire to belong.
In Atomic Habits, I wrote, “Humans are herd animals. We want to fit in, to bond with others, and to earn the respect and approval of our peers. Such inclinations are essential to our survival. For most of our evolutionary history, our ancestors lived in tribes. Becoming separated from the tribe—or worse, being cast out—was a death sentence.”
Understanding the truth of a situation is important, but so is remaining part of a tribe. While these two desires often work well together, they occasionally come into conflict.
In many circumstances, social connection is actually more helpful to your daily life than understanding the truth of a particular fact or idea. The Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker put it this way, “People are embraced or condemned according to their beliefs, so one function of the mind may be to hold beliefs that bring the belief-holder the greatest number of allies, protectors, or disciples, rather than beliefs that are most likely to be true.” 2
We don’t always believe things because they are correct. Sometimes we believe things because they make us look good to the people we care about.
I thought Kevin Simler put it well when he wrote, “If a brain anticipates that it will be rewarded for adopting a particular belief, it’s perfectly happy to do so, and doesn’t much care where the reward comes from — whether it’s pragmatic (better outcomes resulting from better decisions), social (better treatment from one’s peers), or some mix of the two.” 3
False beliefs can be useful in a social sense even if they are not useful in a factual sense. For lack of a better phrase, we might call this approach “factually false, but socially accurate.” 4 When we have to choose between the two, people often select friends and family over facts.
This insight not only explains why we might hold our tongue at a dinner party or look the other way when our parents say something offensive, but also reveals a better way to change the minds of others.
Facts Don’t Change Our Minds. Friendship Does.
Convincing someone to change their mind is really the process of convincing them to change their tribe. If they abandon their beliefs, they run the risk of losing social ties. You can’t expect someone to change their mind if you take away their community too. You have to give them somewhere to go. Nobody wants their worldview torn apart if loneliness is the outcome.
The way to change people’s minds is to become friends with them, to integrate them into your tribe, to bring them into your circle. Now, they can change their beliefs without the risk of being abandoned socially.
The British philosopher Alain de Botton suggests that we simply share meals with those who disagree with us:
“Sitting down at a table with a group of strangers has the incomparable and odd benefit of making it a little more difficult to hate them with impunity. Prejudice and ethnic strife feed off abstraction. However, the proximity required by a meal – something about handing dishes around, unfurling napkins at the same moment, even asking a stranger to pass the salt – disrupts our ability to cling to the belief that the outsiders who wear unusual clothes and speak in distinctive accents deserve to be sent home or assaulted. For all the large-scale political solutions which have been proposed to salve ethnic conflict, there are few more effective ways to promote tolerance between suspicious neighbours than to force them to eat supper together.” 5
Perhaps it is not difference, but distance that breeds tribalism and hostility. As proximity increases, so does understanding. I am reminded of Abraham Lincoln’s quote, “I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.”
Facts don’t change our minds. Friendship does.
The Spectrum of Beliefs
Years ago, Ben Casnocha mentioned an idea to me that I haven’t been able to shake: The people who are most likely to change our minds are the ones we agree with on 98 percent of topics.
If someone you know, like, and trust believes a radical idea, you are more likely to give it merit, weight, or consideration. You already agree with them in most areas of life. Maybe you should change your mind on this one too. But if someone wildly different than you proposes the same radical idea, well, it’s easy to dismiss them as a crackpot.
One way to visualize this distinction is by mapping beliefs on a spectrum. If you divide this spectrum into 10 units and you find yourself at Position 7, then there is little sense in trying to convince someone at Position 1. The gap is too wide. When you’re at Position 7, your time is better spent connecting with people who are at Positions 6 and 8, gradually pulling them in your direction.
The most heated arguments often occur between people on opposite ends of the spectrum, but the most frequent learning occurs from people who are nearby. The closer you are to someone, the more likely it becomes that the one or two beliefs you don’t share will bleed over into your own mind and shape your thinking. The further away an idea is from your current position, the more likely you are to reject it outright.
When it comes to changing people’s minds, it is very difficult to jump from one side to another. You can’t jump down the spectrum. You have to slide down it.
Any idea that is sufficiently different from your current worldview will feel threatening. And the best place to ponder a threatening idea is in a non-threatening environment. As a result, books are often a better vehicle for transforming beliefs than conversations or debates.
In conversation, people have to carefully consider their status and appearance. They want to save face and avoid looking stupid. When confronted with an uncomfortable set of facts, the tendency is often to double down on their current position rather than publicly admit to being wrong.
Books resolve this tension. With a book, the conversation takes place inside someone’s head and without the risk of being judged by others. It’s easier to be open-minded when you aren’t feeling defensive.
Arguments are like a full frontal attack on a person’s identity. Reading a book is like slipping the seed of an idea into a person’s brain and letting it grow on their own terms. There’s enough wrestling going on in someone’s head when they are overcoming a pre-existing belief. They don’t need to wrestle with you too.
Why False Ideas Persist
There is another reason bad ideas continue to live on, which is that people continue to talk about them.
Silence is death for any idea. An idea that is never spoken or written down dies with the person who conceived it. Ideas can only be remembered when they are repeated. They can only be believed when they are repeated.
I have already pointed out that people repeat ideas to signal they are part of the same social group. But here’s a crucial point most people miss:
People also repeat bad ideas when they complain about them. Before you can criticize an idea, you have to reference that idea. You end up repeating the ideas you’re hoping people will forget—but, of course, people can’t forget them because you keep talking about them. The more you repeat a bad idea, the more likely people are to believe it. 6
Let’s call this phenomenon Clear’s Law of Recurrence: The number of people who believe an idea is directly proportional to the number of times it has been repeated during the last year—even if the idea is false. 7
Each time you attack a bad idea, you are feeding the very monster you are trying to destroy. As one Twitter employee wrote, “Every time you retweet or quote tweet someone you’re angry with, it helps them. It disseminates their BS. Hell for the ideas you deplore is silence. Have the discipline to give it to them.” 8
Your time is better spent championing good ideas than tearing down bad ones. Don’t waste time explaining why bad ideas are bad. You are simply fanning the flame of ignorance and stupidity.
The best thing that can happen to a bad idea is that it is forgotten. The best thing that can happen to a good idea is that it is shared. It makes me think of Tyler Cowen’s quote, “Spend as little time as possible talking about how other people are wrong.”
Feed the good ideas and let bad ideas die of starvation.
The Intellectual Soldier
I know what you might be thinking. “James, are you serious right now? I’m just supposed to let these idiots get away with this?”
Let me be clear. I’m not saying it’s never useful to point out an error or criticize a bad idea. But you have to ask yourself, “What is the goal?”
Why do you want to criticize bad ideas in the first place? Presumably, you want to criticize bad ideas because you think the world would be better off if fewer people believed them. In other words, you think the world would improve if people changed their minds on a few important topics.
If the goal is to actually change minds, then I don’t believe criticizing the other side is the best approach.
Most people argue to win, not to learn. As Julia Galef so aptly puts it: people often act like soldiers rather than scouts. Soldiers are on the intellectual attack, looking to defeat the people who differ from them. Victory is the operative emotion. Scouts, meanwhile, are like intellectual explorers, slowly trying to map the terrain with others. Curiosity is the driving force. 9
If you want people to adopt your beliefs, you need to act more like a scout and less like a soldier. At the center of this approach is a question Tiago Forte poses beautifully, “Are you willing to not win in order to keep the conversation going?”
Be Kind First, Be Right Later
The brilliant Japanese writer Haruki Murakami once wrote, “Always remember that to argue, and win, is to break down the reality of the person you are arguing against. It is painful to lose your reality, so be kind, even if you are right.”10
When we are in the moment, we can easily forget that the goal is to connect with the other side, collaborate with them, befriend them, and integrate them into our tribe. We are so caught up in winning that we forget about connecting. It’s easy to spend your energy labeling people rather than working with them.
The word “kind” originated from the word “kin.” When you are kind to someone it means you are treating them like family. This, I think, is a good method for actually changing someone’s mind. Develop a friendship. Share a meal. Gift a book.
Be kind first, be right later. 11


jesusissavior--2020-03-31--Mankind Hasn't Even Begun To Tap Atomic Power

Creation VS Evolution To learn how to receive Jesus , click on the link below http : //www.greenslugg.com/basic-chris ... Jim @ @ @ @ @ given me permission to upload this video .
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jesusissavior--2020-04-01--CORONAVIRUS AND A CASHLESS SOCIETY

CORONAVIRUS AND A CASHLESS SOCIETY

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jesusissavior--2020-04-01--God Comforts Us To Comfort Others

God Comforts Us To Comfort Others

What a precious Bible verse—GOD COMFORTS THOSE WHO ARE CAST DOWN !
!
!
Psalms 34:18 , “ The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart ; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
” I love that PROMISE from God .
When we are dejected and cast down in our spirit , God consoles our hurting soul .
I have been there more times than I can remember , and for several years now I have been in the dog house of life !
Thankfully , one of the tasks of the blessed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as believers .
John And I will pray the Father , and he shall give you another , that he may abide with you for ever ; Even the Spirit of truth ; whom the world can not receive , because it seeth him not , neither knoweth him : but ye know him ; for he dwelleth with you , and shall be in you .
I will not leave you comfortless : I will come to you .
One of the benefits of being saved is the precious COMFORTER !
!
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Word of God , bringing truth to our remembrance .
John 14:26 , “ God Comforts Us To Comfort Others Please read this tremendous passage of Scripture a few times .
Wow , did you ever notice that Bible passage before ?
The Bible literally teaches that God so that we may be able to comfort others I love that !
!
!
No matter what hardship , burden , battle , loss , misery , worry , hurt feelings or tragedy that someone else is facing—GOD COMFORTS US SO THAT WE CAN @ @ @ @ @ @ @ awesome God and Savior !
!
!
!
!
!
!
If you survive in constant chronic bodily pain as I do , comfort others who suffer in constant bodily pain .
If you are the victim of an unwanted divorce as I am , comfort others who are divorced .
If you have lost your home as I did , comfort others who have lost their home .
If you are lonely and ca n't find companionship as I can not , comfort others who are lonely without a mate .
If @ @ @ @ @ @ @ inexplicable emotional pain as I do daily , feeling all alone in your afflictions as I do , comfort others who are hurting in their solitude .
I have had all of these painful things happen in my life , and my broken life is still a mess , but God is faithful and I am serving Him faithfully .
God is always good !
Bringing Others Comfort Further Comforts Us The apostle Paul told the believers at Corinth , that comforting them brought the apostle and his peers comfort .
Paul was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 're in this thing together !
” There is a great Bible truth to be learned here—we find comfort in our afflictions by comforting OTHERS !
Pastor Jack Hyles preached two wonderful sermons called : ' ” ( MP3 ) .
If your life can no longer sail as a ship for God to do His will , then help rescue other people on the broken pieces of your shipwrecked life , by God 's grace !

“Human beings just want to be loved... just love the hell out of them!” —Pastor John K. Jenkins Sr.“I cannot love you as I love myself until I love God as I ought to love Him.” —Dr. Jack Hyles“The pastors have destroyed the churches, and they've been trained by people that have never built churches, and they have no compassion.” —Pastor Jack Hyles, “ Many Pastors Have Destroyed My Vineyard “When you get dissed by men—the whole reason God allowed you to be dissed—is because He didn't want you to fit in! He don't want you to fit in with the world. He don't want you to fit in with the rest of the group! He don't want you to be just like them! 'Cause there is something special about you! There's an assignment for you. There's a call for you. There's an anointing for your life. God does not want you to fit in!” —Pastor John K. Jenkins Sr., “Being Dissed”“Lord, help me to preach today as if it were the last sermon I would ever preach.” —Dr. Jack Hyles“There is no greater joy in the Christian life than to trust Him and need no explanation.” —Dr. Jack Hyles“Salvation can only be evidenced by works, if works are required to be saved.” —Pastor Ralph “Yankee” Arnold, “Why Lordship Salvation Is Wrong!”Faith is the only righteous thing that I can do!” —Pastor Jack Hyles“The world's greatest need is preaching preachers. The Gospel is our emancipation proclamation: let's take it to the slaves of sin.” —Brother Lester Roloff“The law tells me how crooked I am. Grace comes along and straightens me out.“ —Billy Sunday“When someone does something wrong, make it a point to never forget all the things they did right.” —Pastor Bob Gray Sr.“I've stood for more sneers and scoffs and insults and had my life threatened from one end of the land to the other by this God-forsaken gang of thugs and cutthroats because I have come out uncompromisingly against them.” —Billy Sunday“We're saved because we have faith in Jesus. We believe that He died on the cross. We believe He was buried, and stayed there for three days, and we believe He got up out of the grave. ...The law never gives life!” —Pastor John K. Jenkins Sr., “ Justified: The Book Of Galatians, Chapter 2


THE CORONAVIRUS HOAX!

Governments love crises because when the people are fearful they are more willing to give up freedoms for promises that the government will take care of them .
After 9/11 , for example , Americans accepted the near-total destruction of their civil liberties in the PATRIOT Act ’ s hollow promises of security .
It is ironic to see the same Democrats who tried to impeach President Trump last month for abuse of power demanding that the Administration grab more power and authority in the name of fighting a virus that thus far has killed less than 100 Americans .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ President Trump now claims the power to quarantine individuals suspected of being infected by the virus and , as Politico writes , “ stop and seize any plane , train or automobile to stymie the spread of contagious disease.
” He can even call out the military to cordon off a US city or state .
Swords Into Plowshares ... Paul , Ron Best Price : $ 4.00 Buy New $ 15.99 State and local authoritarians love panic as well .
The mayor of Champaign , Illinois , signed an executive order declaring @ @ @ @ @ @ @ guns and alcohol and cut off gas , water , or electricity to any citizen .
The governor of Ohio just essentially closed his entire state .
The chief fearmonger of the Trump Administration is without a doubt Anthony Fauci , head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health .
Fauci is all over the media , serving up outright falsehoods to stir up even more panic .
He testified to Congress that the death rate for the coronavirus is ten times that of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scientific basis .
On Face the Nation , Fauci did his best to further damage an already tanking economy by stating , “ Right now , personally , myself , I wouldn ’ t go to a restaurant.
” He has pushed for closing the entire country down for 14 days .
Over what ?
A virus that has thus far killed just over 5,000 worldwide and less than 100 in the United States ?
By contrast , tuberculosis , an old disease not much discussed these days , killed nearly 1.6 million @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the panic over this ?
If anything , what people like Fauci and the other fearmongers are demanding will likely make the disease worse .
The martial law they dream about will leave people hunkered down inside their homes instead of going outdoors or to the beach where the sunshine and fresh air would help boost immunity .
The panic produced by these fearmongers is likely helping spread the disease , as massive crowds rush into Walmart and Costco for that last roll of toilet paper .
The madness over the coronavirus is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ community .
The head of the neoconservative Atlantic Council wrote an editorial this week urging NATO to pass an Article 5 declaration of war against the COVID-19 virus !
Are they going to send in tanks and drones to wipe out these microscopic enemies ?
People should ask themselves whether this coronavirus “ pandemic ” could be a big hoax , with the actual danger of the disease massively exaggerated by those who seek to profit – financially or politically – from the ensuing panic .
That is not to say the disease @ @ @ @ @ @ @ die from coronavirus .
Those in vulnerable categories should take precautions to limit their risk of exposure .
But we have seen this movie before .
Government over-hypes a threat as an excuse to grab more of our freedoms .
When the “ threat ” is over , however , they never give us our freedoms back .
The Best of Ron Paul

Governments love crises because when the people are fearful they are more willing to give up freedoms for promises that the government will take care of them. After 9/11, for example, Americans accepted the near-total destruction of their civil liberties in the PATRIOT Act’s hollow promises of security.
It is ironic to see the same Democrats who tried to impeach President Trump last month for abuse of power demanding that the Administration grab more power and authority in the name of fighting a virus that thus far has killed less than 100 Americans.
Declaring a pandemic emergency on Friday, President Trump now claims the power to quarantine individuals suspected of being infected by the virus and, as Politico writes, “stop and seize any plane, train or automobile to stymie the spread of contagious disease.” He can even call out the military to cordon off a US city or state.
Swords Into Plowshares... Paul, Ron Best Price: $4.00 Buy New $15.99 (as of 11:36 UTC - Details) State and local authoritarians love panic as well. The mayor of Champaign, Illinois, signed an executive order declaring the power to ban the sale of guns and alcohol and cut off gas, water, or electricity to any citizen. The governor of Ohio just essentially closed his entire state.
The chief fearmonger of the Trump Administration is without a doubt Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. Fauci is all over the media, serving up outright falsehoods to stir up even more panic. He testified to Congress that the death rate for the coronavirus is ten times that of the seasonal flu, a claim without any scientific basis.
On Face the Nation, Fauci did his best to further damage an already tanking economy by stating, “Right now, personally, myself, I wouldn’t go to a restaurant.” He has pushed for closing the entire country down for 14 days.
Over what? A virus that has thus far killed just over 5,000 worldwide and less than 100 in the United States? By contrast, tuberculosis, an old disease not much discussed these days, killed nearly 1.6 million people in 2017. Where’s the panic over this?
If anything, what people like Fauci and the other fearmongers are demanding will likely make the disease worse. The martial law they dream about will leave people hunkered down inside their homes instead of going outdoors or to the beach where the sunshine and fresh air would help boost immunity. The panic produced by these fearmongers is likely helping spread the disease, as massive crowds rush into Walmart and Costco for that last roll of toilet paper.
The madness over the coronavirus is not limited to politicians and the medical community. The head of the neoconservative Atlantic Council wrote an editorial this week urging NATO to pass an Article 5 declaration of war against the COVID-19 virus! Are they going to send in tanks and drones to wipe out these microscopic enemies?
People should ask themselves whether this coronavirus “pandemic” could be a big hoax, with the actual danger of the disease massively exaggerated by those who seek to profit – financially or politically – from the ensuing panic.
That is not to say the disease is harmless. Without question people will die from coronavirus. Those in vulnerable categories should take precautions to limit their risk of exposure. But we have seen this movie before. Government over-hypes a threat as an excuse to grab more of our freedoms. When the “threat” is over, however, they never give us our freedoms back.
The Best of Ron Paul, MD


jesusissavior--2020-04-01--As Doctors Taper Or End Opioid Prescriptions, Many Patients Are Driven To Despair, Suicide!

This is the first of a three-part series on the nation 's struggle to address a crippling opioid crisis , and the unintended victims left in its wake .
It happened slowly .
The pain caused by a 1980 back fracture , the result of a tractor-trailer crash , crippled more and more of Jay Lawrence ’ s body and spirit .
By 2006 , the Tennessee native and Navy veteran ’ s arms and legs were going numb .
The excruciating pain reduced him to tears .
Multiple surgeries , chiropractic adjustments , and physical therapy didn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prescription painkillers – 120 milligrams a day of morphine .
A high dose , but it dulled the pain enough for him to take walks with his wife , shop for groceries , even take in a few movies .
But last February , the pain clinic doctor delivered jarring news : He was cutting Lawrence ’ s daily dosage , first to 90 milligrams then , in short stages , down to 30 milligrams .
The doctor said the reduced dosage was in response to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2016 as part of a national anti-opioid push , according to Lawrence ’ s wife , Meredith .
“ The doctor said : ‘ You know these guidelines are going to become a law eventually .
So we 've decided as a group that we 're going to take all of our patients down , ’ ” she told Fox News in an interview .
Lawrence ’ s pain returned with a vengeance .
He could barely move or sleep .
He soiled his pants , unable to make the bathroom in time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like every nerve in my body is on fire , ” he told his wife .
Meredith said she and her husband went to their primary care physician and asked for a referral to another pain clinic .
They were told it would take a minimum of six weeks .
That was too much for Lawrence .
In March , on the day of his next medical appointment , when his painkiller dosage was to be reduced again , he instead went to a nearby park with his wife .
And on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vows just two years earlier , they held hands .
He raised a gun to his chest and killed himself .
Lawrence , who was 58 , became one of an undetermined number among the nation ’ s 20 million chronic pain sufferers who chose suicide after being cut back or denied prescriptions for opioids .
The suicides have motivated many of those who continue to suffer from pain - and family members and advocates of those who took their lives – to call for a re-evaluation of the rush to reduce opioid @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ We have a terrible problem .
We have people committing suicide for no other reason than being forced to stop opioids , pain medication , for chronic pain , ” said Thomas Kline , a North Carolina family doctor and former Harvard Medical School program administrator .
“ It ’ s mass hysteria , a witch hunt .
It ’ s one of the worst health care crises in our history , ” said Kline , who has 26,000 Twitter followers , and a website where he publishes the names of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ having their opioids cut back or eliminated .
“ There are five to seven million people being tortured on purpose.
” The CDC doesn ’ t have numbers of those who commit suicide after having their pain medications cut .
But most of the doctors who spoke to Fox News said they knew of between one and six patients who took their life after losing access to opioid treatment , and being turned away from other doctors who now see prescription painkillers as a hassle .
Several prominent doctors and pain patient advocacy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who say they have been left in debilitating pain and are considering suicide .
The issue earlier this year came to the attention of Human Rights Watch , which launched an investigation .
`` Clearly , there are patients now who feel like life is not worth living if they return to living in pain , '' said Diederik Lohman , director of Health and Human Rights for Human Rights Watch .
`` Many of the patients we spoke to are very law-abiding , and would turn to suicide before going to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ government has a duty to respond to the overdose crisis but to do so in a way that is harming people who have a legitimate medical issue is a human rights issue . ''
Many pain patients say they understand the urgent need of political leaders and government agencies to fight the drug overdose epidemic .
But targeting the millions who legitimately suffer from chronic pain is grasping for a solution that doesn ’ t address the preponderance of illegal drugs , they argue - or the rate of overdoses caused by them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 30 showing that despite a drop in painkiller prescriptions over the years , the drug overdose rate continues to soar , with the growth driven by the illicit opioid fentanyl and its cousins .
It is a trend that has held for several years .
“ People with pain shouldn ’ t have to suffer because people without pain are abusing opioids , ” said Cynthia Toussaint , a former ballerina from California , who has Complex Regional Pain Syndrome ( CRPS ) , which left her bedridden for 10 years , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pain patients don ’ t want to take opioids any more than cancer patients want to use chemotherapy .
However , many people with pain need opioids to function physically and pursue the joyful aspects of life.
” At a recent American Medical Association ( AMA ) meeting , the group ’ s president , Dr. Barbara McAneny , spoke of how an advanced prostate cancer patient of hers attempted suicide after he was denied opioids by an insurer .
“ The pendulum swung too far when pain was designated a vital sign @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of it swinging back so far that patients are being harmed , ” she said , according to published reports .
Federal officials have said the CDC guidelines weren ’ t intended to disrupt the proper prescribing and use of opioids .
“ We ’ re not telling any doctor that they can ’ t make a legitimate prescription , ” then-U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions told Fox News , in an interview before he left office .
“ Maybe some doctors are getting too cautious .
We don ’ t know.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ essential for people , ” and said , “ it ’ s very clear that people with serious pain problems are in need of real significant pain relief and sometimes [ opioids ] are the only thing that will provide relief , and it is absolutely legitimate to prescribe it.
” CDC officials added they are also aware chronic pain sufferers have committed suicide in their struggle to get by with fewer or no opioids .
“ We have heard about suicides , ” said Dr. Debbie Dowell , a senior CDC medical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ guidelines on opioid prescribing .
“ We ’ ve heard the reports .
It ’ s tragic that anyone takes their life for any reason , including that they had their opioids unilaterally stopped.
” Dowell said the scope of suicides caused by under-treatment of chronic pain “ isn ’ t something that ’ s easy to measure .
We ’ ve looked at how we might measure this .
Sometimes patients or their families don ’ t report it.
” The CDC guidelines focused on primary care physicians and recommended extreme caution @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a maximum daily dosage of 90 morphine milligram equivalents for first-time painkiller patients .
But the guidelines also warned against forcibly tapering or abruptly cutting off severe pain sufferers who have responsibly have taken opioids , noting that a drastic change could lead to withdrawal , and serious illness .
Untreated pain , many health experts say , can also lead to hypertension , more serious pain conditions , and other problems .
Health practitioners say this is a plight that could affect anyone -- all it takes is a slip , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could bring on intense and perhaps long-term pain .
Dowell said patients should be prescribed on a case-by-case basis .
“ We believe everyone deserves effective pain management , ” she said .
“ The CDC guidelines are not a regulation or a law – it ’ s guidance for providers.
” “ It never made a recommendation to take people off medication involuntarily , or to taper down involuntary , '' she said .
`` It was meant to provide updated guidance about the benefits and risks of opioids for chronic pain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ – together – could make decisions.
” The CDC disclaimer was apparently lost among the headlines about the staggering number of deaths due to opioids .
Political leaders and government officials often failed to note the bulk -- at least 60 percent , according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services -- of the overdose epidemic was caused by illicit drugs , not prescription painkillers .
And when officials did address the portion of deaths due to prescriptions , advocates of safe opioid use argue , they often lumped together pain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ obtained someone else ’ s prescribed opioids .
That made for a perfect storm , which formed the basis for a slew of hardline state and federal policies , including a Trump administration vow to slash prescriptions by 30 percent over the next three years .
Either in response to the CDC guidelines or as proactive measure to deal with the opioid crisis on their own , at least 33 states have enacted some type of legislation related to prescription limits , according to the National Conference of State Legislators .
Health care @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prescription plans are bracing for January , when the federal insurance program will give its insurers and pharmacists the authority to reject prescriptions that deviate from CDC recommended dosage .
“ The CDC guidelines were geared to primary care doctors , but they have been hijacked and weaponized as an excuse for draconian legislation , ” said Michael Schatman , a clinical psychologist and director of research and development at Boston Pain Care , a multi-disciplinary pain clinic , and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Pain Research .
“ Illicit opioids , not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” The disproportionate focus on prescription painkillers by officials responding to the overdose epidemic , pain specialists and public health researchers say , is in great part why the drug-related death rate continues to climb while legal opioids becomes less available to pain patients .
“ We ’ re targeting the most vulnerable and sickest people who have been on opioids a long time , ” said Dr. Stefan Kertesz , an addiction specialist and professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine .
“ Insurers are issuing rules that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ opioids for anyone over 90 milligrams .
Well , five percent of people who receive opioids account for 60 percent of the milligrams prescribed .
With so many milligrams going to a tiny group of very sick people , if you can knock a few people off these opioids you can show a big numeric reduction.
” “ What we ’ re really doing is dragging down the dose on the most disabled people , ” said Kertesz , who sits on several state opioid safety committees .
“ Prescription control seems an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that ’ s not stopping addiction.
” CRIES FOR HELP , AND GIVING UP On social media , comments sections on news sites , and in emails to Fox News , numerous pain sufferers say they have made suicide plans because their health care provider has forcibly reduced their dose to a deficient level , or cut them off entirely .
They speak of being treated like drug abusers , submitting to frequent urine tests and pill counts .
`` I have been on pain management since 2006 , '' said a man @ @ @ @ @ @ @ `` Have a crippling disease that there is no cure for , and can no longer get the medications I need .
A few months ago I was researching death with dignity and other options for assisted suicide if I wasn ’ t able to get the help needed down the road . ''
Some posted comments about a loved one who died by suicide after losing access to a long-term treatment for pain , and finding it intolerable to continue suffering .
Others said their spouse ’ s suffering , together with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ away or undertreated by doctors , was the reason they came around to accepting their loved one ’ s suicide plan .
In her new home in Georgia , its walls covered with pictures of her late husband , Meredith Lawrence recalled the helplessness she felt watching him suffer , as the pain worsened , and the drugs were tapered down .
“ He said ‘ I have three choices , ’ ” Meredith recalled .
“ He said ‘ I could do illegal drugs , I could suffer the rest of my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ end my life .
I ’ m not going to do the first two.
’ ” Lawrence ’ s doctor did not respond to email and phone requests to comment for this story .
Meanwhile , hashtags on Twitter like # SuicideDue2Pain , # DontPunishPain , # PatientsNotAddicts have become common .
“ I think about suicide every day , ” said Dawn Anderson , a former trauma nurse from Indiana , whose doctor cut her opioid dosage after his office was raided by the DEA .
“ I recently wrote a suicide @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Anderson , a diabetic whose legs were both amputated below the knee .
“ They have seen all I have gone through .
I want to live .
But not like this.
” Anderson , 53 , now finds it too painful to stand on prosthetics because of what she says is undertreated pain , and is confined to a wheelchair .
“ The pain feels like an electrical shock that happens every 30 seconds in some parts of my body , ” she said , “ and in the back it ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hot poker that is stuck and never coming out .
The pain I endure on a daily basis is taking my will to live.
” Anderson ’ s doctor did not respond to requests for comment .
Anne Fuqua , a former nurse in Alabama who herself suffers from chronic pain , has logged records of 167 suicides since 2014 that she maintained were directly a result of patients who had their opioids reduced or cut and suffered uncontrolled pain .
Fuqua said she is in the midst of verifying more suicides that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Cresta , a 26-year-old Massachusetts woman , has a rare disease , Stiff Person ’ s Syndrome , that causes muscle spasms and rapid convulsions that fracture her bones and often leave her stuck in an unnatural position for days .
She has had the condition since she was 19 .
`` You 're in fear that your doctor will say that your next prescription is your last , '' Cresta said , adding that when she has `` a bad day '' it means “ I stop being a mother , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pain by ending it all has seemed , at times , like the way out .
Not everyone agrees the problem is the cutting back of legal opioid prescriptions .
Dr. Andrew Kolodny , who directs opioid research at Brandeis University ’ s Heller School for Social Policy and Management , believes government policies on opioids need to be even tougher .
Kolodny , who also is executive director of the Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing and one of the nation ’ s most vociferous critics of opioids , balks at the alarm @ @ @ @ @ @ @ painkillers .
“ The effects of hydrocodone and oxycodone produced in the brain are indistinguishable from the effects produced by heroin , ” Kolodny said .
“ So my point is that when we talk about opioid pain medication , we ’ re essentially talking about heroin pills.
” Kolodny said opioids have an important role - in limited circumstances - such as ending suffering “ at the end of life for some patients , ” and “ for a couple of days after major surgery.
” Many pain experts and patients blame @ @ @ @ @ @ @ particularly the CDC , to treat opioids as if it were heroin , and pain patients as people who are one opioid away from being addicts .
“ No role - none - zilch , ” he said .
“ PROP was one of many organizations that was asked by CDC to offer them feedback on the guideline .
Our letter is publicly available .
CDC did not make the changes we requested.
” To Kolodny , “ It ’ s a manufactured controversy … They ’ ll say with my opioid , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bed .
For a heroin user it ’ s the same thing for them .
They say they feel horrible , can ’ t do anything or function until they take their first dose of heroin in the morning.
” Sessions appeared to view the issue as a war that needs to be fought , full-speed ahead .
“ This is the greatest health hazard we ’ ve had , ” he said of fatal overdoses.
“ Let me just say this to the suicide problem and other problems : They ’ re @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” he said .
“ People don ’ t know how powerful these addictions are .
So people get into a situation where they can ’ t keep taking the drugs , and some of them might conclude they can ’ t live without them . ''
`` We need to break that cycle , '' Sessions said .
`` We ’ re making progress at it , but we still prescribe far more pain pills than in any country in the world … we as a nation need to face up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ officials at the agencies at the forefront of the fight against opioids - including the Drug Enforcement Agency ( DEA ) – were hard-pressed to provide details to Fox News about just how many overdose deaths involved those legitimately prescribed opioids .
A report by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health , widely cited by many pain experts , said that among 477 people whose deaths were opioid‐related in 2018 , 90 percent , or 423 of them , tested positive for fentanyl – a telltale sign of illegal opioid use .
Pain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and alarm over the terribly high percentage of drug overdoses .
“ I share the nation ’ s concern that more than 100 people a day die of an overdose .
But my patient nearly died of an under-dose , ” said McAneny , the AMA president .
“ My patient suffered , in part , because of the crackdown on opioids… When I visited my patient in the hospital as he was recovering from his suicide attempt , I apologized for not knowing his medication was denied , '' McAneny said .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” If you ’ re thinking about suicide , are worried about a friend or loved one , or would like emotional support , the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline network is available 24 hours a day , 7 days a week , across the United States .
The Lifeline is available for everyone , is free , and confidential -- 1-800-273-TALK ( 8255 ) The deaf and hard of hearing can contact the Lifeline via TTY at 1-800-799-4889 .
Nacional de Prevención del Suicidio -- 1-888-628-9454 PART II : DOCTORS CAUGHT BETWEEN STRUGGLING @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : TOUGH NEW OPIOID POLICIES LEAVE SOME CANCER AND POST-SURGERY PATIENTS WITHOUT PAINKILLERS

This is the first of a three-part series on the nation's struggle to address a crippling opioid crisis, and the unintended victims left in its wake.
It happened slowly. The pain caused by a 1980 back fracture, the result of a tractor-trailer crash, crippled more and more of Jay Lawrence’s body and spirit.
By 2006, the Tennessee native and Navy veteran’s arms and legs were going numb. The excruciating pain reduced him to tears. Multiple surgeries, chiropractic adjustments, and physical therapy didn’t work.
He finally found solace in prescription painkillers – 120 milligrams a day of morphine. A high dose, but it dulled the pain enough for him to take walks with his wife, shop for groceries, even take in a few movies.
But last February, the pain clinic doctor delivered jarring news: He was cutting Lawrence’s daily dosage, first to 90 milligrams then, in short stages, down to 30 milligrams. The doctor said the reduced dosage was in response to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) prescribing guidelines released in 2016 as part of a national anti-opioid push, according to Lawrence’s wife, Meredith.
“The doctor said: ‘You know these guidelines are going to become a law eventually. So we've decided as a group that we're going to take all of our patients down,’” she told Fox News in an interview.
Lawrence’s pain returned with a vengeance. He could barely move or sleep. He soiled his pants, unable to make the bathroom in time, Meredith said.
“It feels like every nerve in my body is on fire,” he told his wife.
Meredith said she and her husband went to their primary care physician and asked for a referral to another pain clinic. They were told it would take a minimum of six weeks.
That was too much for Lawrence. In March, on the day of his next medical appointment, when his painkiller dosage was to be reduced again, he instead went to a nearby park with his wife. And on the very spot where they renewed their wedding vows just two years earlier, they held hands.
He raised a gun to his chest and killed himself.
Lawrence, who was 58, became one of an undetermined number among the nation’s 20 million chronic pain sufferers who chose suicide after being cut back or denied prescriptions for opioids. The suicides have motivated many of those who continue to suffer from pain - and family members and advocates of those who took their lives – to call for a re-evaluation of the rush to reduce opioid dosages for those who most need them.
“We have a terrible problem. We have people committing suicide for no other reason than being forced to stop opioids, pain medication, for chronic pain,” said Thomas Kline, a North Carolina family doctor and former Harvard Medical School program administrator.
“It’s mass hysteria, a witch hunt. It’s one of the worst health care crises in our history,” said Kline, who has 26,000 Twitter followers, and a website where he publishes the names of those who he said committed suicide after having their opioids cut back or eliminated. “There are five to seven million people being tortured on purpose.”
The CDC doesn’t have numbers of those who commit suicide after having their pain medications cut. But most of the doctors who spoke to Fox News said they knew of between one and six patients who took their life after losing access to opioid treatment, and being turned away from other doctors who now see prescription painkillers as a hassle.
Several prominent doctors and pain patient advocacy organizations said they have heard from hundreds who say they have been left in debilitating pain and are considering suicide. The issue earlier this year came to the attention of Human Rights Watch, which launched an investigation.
"Clearly, there are patients now who feel like life is not worth living if they return to living in pain," said Diederik Lohman, director of Health and Human Rights for Human Rights Watch. "Many of the patients we spoke to are very law-abiding, and would turn to suicide before going to the street to get illicit drugs. The government has a duty to respond to the overdose crisis but to do so in a way that is harming people who have a legitimate medical issue is a human rights issue."
We have a terrible problem, we have people committing suicide for no other reason than being forced to stop opioids, pain medication, for chronic pain. It’s mass hysteria, a witch hunt. It’s one of the worst health care crises in our history. There are 5 to 7 million people being tortured on purpose. — Dr. Thomas Kline, former Harvard Medical School program administrator, and publisher of list of pain patients who have died by suicide.
Many pain patients say they understand the urgent need of political leaders and government agencies to fight the drug overdose epidemic. But targeting the millions who legitimately suffer from chronic pain is grasping for a solution that doesn’t address the preponderance of illegal drugs, they argue - or the rate of overdoses caused by them.
The CDC released a report Nov. 30 showing that despite a drop in painkiller prescriptions over the years, the drug overdose rate continues to soar, with the growth driven by the illicit opioid fentanyl and its cousins. It is a trend that has held for several years.
“People with pain shouldn’t have to suffer because people without pain are abusing opioids,” said Cynthia Toussaint, a former ballerina from California, who has Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), which left her bedridden for 10 years, and unable to speak for five. “Pain patients don’t want to take opioids any more than cancer patients want to use chemotherapy. However, many people with pain need opioids to function physically and pursue the joyful aspects of life.”
At a recent American Medical Association (AMA) meeting, the group’s president, Dr. Barbara McAneny, spoke of how an advanced prostate cancer patient of hers attempted suicide after he was denied opioids by an insurer. “The pendulum swung too far when pain was designated a vital sign, and now we are in danger of it swinging back so far that patients are being harmed,” she said, according to published reports.
ISSUES WITH CDC GUIDELINES
Federal officials have said the CDC guidelines weren’t intended to disrupt the proper prescribing and use of opioids. “We’re not telling any doctor that they can’t make a legitimate prescription,” then-U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions told Fox News, in an interview before he left office. “Maybe some doctors are getting too cautious. We don’t know.”
Sessions acknowledged “opioid prescribing can be essential for people,” and said, “it’s very clear that people with serious pain problems are in need of real significant pain relief and sometimes [opioids] are the only thing that will provide relief, and it is absolutely legitimate to prescribe it.”
We have heard about the suicides...It's tragic that anyone takes their life for any reason, including that they had their opioids unilaterally stopped. — Dr. Debbie Dowell, lead author of the 2016 "CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain"
CDC officials added they are also aware chronic pain sufferers have committed suicide in their struggle to get by with fewer or no opioids.
“We have heard about suicides,” said Dr. Debbie Dowell, a senior CDC medical advisor, and lead author of the guidelines on opioid prescribing. “We’ve heard the reports. It’s tragic that anyone takes their life for any reason, including that they had their opioids unilaterally stopped.”
Dowell said the scope of suicides caused by under-treatment of chronic pain “isn’t something that’s easy to measure. We’ve looked at how we might measure this. Sometimes patients or their families don’t report it.”
The CDC guidelines focused on primary care physicians and recommended extreme caution in prescribing opioids. It also suggested a maximum daily dosage of 90 morphine milligram equivalents for first-time painkiller patients.
But the guidelines also warned against forcibly tapering or abruptly cutting off severe pain sufferers who have responsibly have taken opioids, noting that a drastic change could lead to withdrawal, and serious illness.
Untreated pain, many health experts say, can also lead to hypertension, more serious pain conditions, and other problems. Health practitioners say this is a plight that could affect anyone -- all it takes is a slip, a fall, or a botched surgery that could bring on intense and perhaps long-term pain.
Dowell said patients should be prescribed on a case-by-case basis.
“We believe everyone deserves effective pain management,” she said. “The CDC guidelines are not a regulation or a law – it’s guidance for providers.”
“It never made a recommendation to take people off medication involuntarily, or to taper down involuntary," she said. "It was meant to provide updated guidance about the benefits and risks of opioids for chronic pain so that the provider and the patient – together – could make decisions.”
GUIDELINES BECOME ENFORCEMENT TOOLS
The CDC disclaimer was apparently lost among the headlines about the staggering number of deaths due to opioids. Political leaders and government officials often failed to note the bulk -- at least 60 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services -- of the overdose epidemic was caused by illicit drugs, not prescription painkillers.
And when officials did address the portion of deaths due to prescriptions, advocates of safe opioid use argue, they often lumped together pain patients and people with addiction who illegally obtained someone else’s prescribed opioids. That made for a perfect storm, which formed the basis for a slew of hardline state and federal policies, including a Trump administration vow to slash prescriptions by 30 percent over the next three years.
Either in response to the CDC guidelines or as proactive measure to deal with the opioid crisis on their own, at least 33 states have enacted some type of legislation related to prescription limits, according to the National Conference of State Legislators. Health care providers and pain patients who have Medicare prescription plans are bracing for January, when the federal insurance program will give its insurers and pharmacists the authority to reject prescriptions that deviate from CDC recommended dosage.
“The CDC guidelines were geared to primary care doctors, but they have been hijacked and weaponized as an excuse for draconian legislation,” said Michael Schatman, a clinical psychologist and director of research and development at Boston Pain Care, a multi-disciplinary pain clinic, and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Pain Research. “Illicit opioids, not prescription opioids, are driving overdose deaths.”
The CDC guidelines...have been hijacked and weaponized as an excuse for draconian legislation. — Michael Schatman, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Pain Reseach
The disproportionate focus on prescription painkillers by officials responding to the overdose epidemic, pain specialists and public health researchers say, is in great part why the drug-related death rate continues to climb while legal opioids becomes less available to pain patients.
“We’re targeting the most vulnerable and sickest people who have been on opioids a long time,” said Dr. Stefan Kertesz, an addiction specialist and professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine. “Insurers are issuing rules that say we won’t cover long-term opioids for anyone over 90 milligrams. Well, five percent of people who receive opioids account for 60 percent of the milligrams prescribed. With so many milligrams going to a tiny group of very sick people, if you can knock a few people off these opioids you can show a big numeric reduction.”
“What we’re really doing is dragging down the dose on the most disabled people,” said Kertesz, who sits on several state opioid safety committees. “Prescription control seems an easy answer to the epidemic, but that’s not stopping addiction.”
CRIES FOR HELP, AND GIVING UP
On social media, comments sections on news sites, and in emails to Fox News, numerous pain sufferers say they have made suicide plans because their health care provider has forcibly reduced their dose to a deficient level, or cut them off entirely. They speak of being treated like drug abusers, submitting to frequent urine tests and pill counts.
"I have been on pain management since 2006," said a man from Tampa in a Facebook message. "Have a crippling disease that there is no cure for, and can no longer get the medications I need. A few months ago I was researching death with dignity and other options for assisted suicide if I wasn’t able to get the help needed down the road."
Some posted comments about a loved one who died by suicide after losing access to a long-term treatment for pain, and finding it intolerable to continue suffering. Others said their spouse’s suffering, together with the frustration and anguish of being turned away or undertreated by doctors, was the reason they came around to accepting their loved one’s suicide plan.
In her new home in Georgia, its walls covered with pictures of her late husband, Meredith Lawrence recalled the helplessness she felt watching him suffer, as the pain worsened, and the drugs were tapered down.
“He said ‘I have three choices,’” Meredith recalled. “He said ‘I could do illegal drugs, I could suffer the rest of my life in pain, or I can end my life. I’m not going to do the first two.’”
Lawrence’s doctor did not respond to email and phone requests to comment for this story.
Meanwhile, hashtags on Twitter like #SuicideDue2Pain, #DontPunishPain, #PatientsNotAddicts have become common.
People with pain shouldn't have to suffer because people without pain are abusing opioids. — Cynthia Toussaint, pain patient
“I think about suicide every day,” said Dawn Anderson, a former trauma nurse from Indiana, whose doctor cut her opioid dosage after his office was raided by the DEA.
“I recently wrote a suicide note to my family,” said Anderson, a diabetic whose legs were both amputated below the knee. “They have seen all I have gone through. I want to live. But not like this.”
Anderson, 53, now finds it too painful to stand on prosthetics because of what she says is undertreated pain, and is confined to a wheelchair.
“The pain feels like an electrical shock that happens every 30 seconds in some parts of my body,” she said, “and in the back it’s a stabbing pain, like a hot poker that is stuck and never coming out. The pain I endure on a daily basis is taking my will to live.”
Anderson’s doctor did not respond to requests for comment.
Anne Fuqua, a former nurse in Alabama who herself suffers from chronic pain, has logged records of 167 suicides since 2014 that she maintained were directly a result of patients who had their opioids reduced or cut and suffered uncontrolled pain.
Fuqua said she is in the midst of verifying more suicides that have been reported to her.
Caylee Cresta, a 26-year-old Massachusetts woman, has a rare disease, Stiff Person’s Syndrome, that causes muscle spasms and rapid convulsions that fracture her bones and often leave her stuck in an unnatural position for days. She has had the condition since she was 19.
"You're in fear that your doctor will say that your next prescription is your last," Cresta said, adding that when she has "a bad day" it means “I stop being a mother, a wife, a daughter.”
Ending the pain by ending it all has seemed, at times, like the way out.
CALLING FOR TOUGHER ANTI-OPIOID POLICIES
Not everyone agrees the problem is the cutting back of legal opioid prescriptions.
Dr. Andrew Kolodny, who directs opioid research at Brandeis University’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management, believes government policies on opioids need to be even tougher.
Kolodny, who also is executive director of the Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing and one of the nation’s most vociferous critics of opioids, balks at the alarm sounding over the decreasing supply of prescription painkillers.
“The effects of hydrocodone and oxycodone produced in the brain are indistinguishable from the effects produced by heroin,” Kolodny said. “So my point is that when we talk about opioid pain medication, we’re essentially talking about heroin pills.”
Kolodny said opioids have an important role - in limited circumstances - such as ending suffering “at the end of life for some patients,” and “for a couple of days after major surgery.”
When we talk about opioid pain medication, we're essentially talking about heroin pills. — Dr. Andrew Kolodny, director of opioid research at Brandeis University's Heller School for Social Policy and Management
Many pain experts and patients blame Kolodny for pushing the federal agencies, particularly the CDC, to treat opioids as if it were heroin, and pain patients as people who are one opioid away from being addicts.
Kolodny said that isn't true.
“No role - none - zilch,” he said. “PROP was one of many organizations that was asked by CDC to offer them feedback on the guideline. Our letter is publicly available. CDC did not make the changes we requested.”
To Kolodny, “It’s a manufactured controversy … They’ll say with my opioid, I can at least get up from bed. For a heroin user it’s the same thing for them. They say they feel horrible, can’t do anything or function until they take their first dose of heroin in the morning.”
FEDS SAY THEY’RE AT WAR
Sessions appeared to view the issue as a war that needs to be fought, full-speed ahead.
“This is the greatest health hazard we’ve had,” he said of fatal overdoses.“Let me just say this to the suicide problem and other problems: They’re arising out of addiction to those drugs,” he said. “People don’t know how powerful these addictions are. So people get into a situation where they can’t keep taking the drugs, and some of them might conclude they can’t live without them."
"We need to break that cycle," Sessions said. "We’re making progress at it, but we still prescribe far more pain pills than in any country in the world … we as a nation need to face up to that fact.”
Federal and state officials at the agencies at the forefront of the fight against opioids - including the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) – were hard-pressed to provide details to Fox News about just how many overdose deaths involved those legitimately prescribed opioids. A report by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, widely cited by many pain experts, said that among 477 people whose deaths were opioid‐related in 2018, 90 percent, or 423 of them, tested positive for fentanyl – a telltale sign of illegal opioid use.
Pain management experts said they share the concern and alarm over the terribly high percentage of drug overdoses.
“I share the nation’s concern that more than 100 people a day die of an overdose. But my patient nearly died of an under-dose,” said McAneny, the AMA president.
“My patient suffered, in part, because of the crackdown on opioids… When I visited my patient in the hospital as he was recovering from his suicide attempt, I apologized for not knowing his medication was denied," McAneny said. "I felt I had failed him.”
If you’re thinking about suicide, are worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline network is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, across the United States. The Lifeline is available for everyone, is free, and confidential -- 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
The deaf and hard of hearing can contact the Lifeline via TTY at 1-800-799-4889. Nacional de Prevención del Suicidio --1-888-628-9454
PART II: DOCTORS CAUGHT BETWEEN STRUGGLING OPIOID PATIENTS AND CRACKDOWN ON PRESCRIPTIONS
SIDEBAR: TOUGH NEW OPIOID POLICIES LEAVE SOME CANCER AND POST-SURGERY PATIENTS WITHOUT PAINKILLERS
PART III HEALTH EXPERTS OFFER SOLUTIONS FOR UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF OPIOID CRACKDOWN


jesusissavior--2020-04-01--The Ministry Of Angels

The Ministry Of Angels

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jesusissavior--2020-04-01--THE BATTLE OF THE AGES

THE BATTLE OF THE AGES

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RIGHT DOCTRINE MATTERS

My name is Robert Serreyn .
I am a U.S. Army Veteran of the first Gulf War , Desert Shield , and Desert Storm , 1990-1991 .
I am married to a lovely lady , my BEAUTIFUL WIFE Susan .
I have always enjoyed reading , and studying the Bible , no matter where I am .
People would notice this and began to ask some very interesting questions .
I was encouraged by my pastor ( Dr. Max Younce ) to begin this website so everyone could read the questions that people have asked about the Bible .
You @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doctrinally , incorrect answers people have been given , taught and believe .
God says , “ All scripture is given by inspiration of God , and is profitable for doctrine , for reproof , for correction , for instruction in righteousness : ” ( 2 Timothy 3:16 ) .
The Bible also tells us , in Galatians 1:8,9 , to BEWARE of anyone , even an angel , if they tell us of a Gospel , or doctrine , DIFFERENT from what God has told us in the Bible .
“ But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ heaven , preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you , let him be accursed .
( 8 ) As we said before , so say I now again , If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received , let him be accursed.
” ( Galatians 1:8-9 ) .
RIGHT DOCTRINE does matter , ESPECIALLY if it is Bible Doctrine .
1 Timothy 4:13 Till I come , give attendance to reading , to exhortation , to doctrine .
MOST IMPORTANTLY @ @ @ @ @ @ @ HEAVEN

Hello!
My name is Robert Serreyn. I am a U.S. Army Veteran of the first Gulf War, Desert Shield, and Desert Storm, 1990-1991.
I am married to a lovely lady, my BEAUTIFUL WIFE Susan.
I have always enjoyed reading, and studying the Bible.
I was encouraged by my pastor (Dr. Max Younce) to begin this website so everyone could read the questions that people have asked about the Bible.
You would be surprised at the many, doctrinally, INCORRECT answers people have been given, taught and believe.
God says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:” (2 Timothy 3:16).
The Bible also tells us, in Galatians 1:8,9, to BEWARE of anyone, even an angel, if they tell us of a Gospel, or doctrine, DIFFERENT from what God has told us in the Bible.
“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. (8) As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:8-9).
THEREFORE…
RIGHT DOCTRINE does matter, ESPECIALLY if it is Bible Doctrine.
1 Timothy 4:13 – “Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine”.
MOST IMPORTANTLY – KNOWING THAT YOU ARE GOING TO HEAVEN


jesusissavior--2020-04-01--Here's My New 'BLOGSPOT' Blog - To God Alone Be The Glory!

And he humbled thee , and suffered thee to hunger , and fed thee with manna , which thou knewest not , neither did thy fathers know ; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only , but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live .
The Hebrews had been enslaved in Egypt for 430 years .
Exodus 12:40 , “ Now the sojourning of the children of Israel , who dwelt in Egypt , was .
” But wait , the Bible says 400 years @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spake on this wise , That his seed should sojourn in a strange land ; and that they should bring them into bondage , and entreat them evil .
Did God make a mistake ?
Is the Bible untrue ?
Is this a blatant contradiction ?
Oh my , lions and tigers and bears , Oh my !
!
!
Ah ha , do n't drool you atheist scoundrel , I have an answer to put down your infidel skepticism !
Carefully notice that Exodus 12:40 says the children of Israel “ DWELT @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but in Acts 7:6 the Bible says suffered “ ” for 400 years !
The Jews enjoyed 30 years of prosperity while Joseph was still alive , but when he died and went to Heaven , the Egyptians afflicted the Hebrews with evil for the next 400 years !
Four hundred years came and went .
In the Old Testament , we find the phrase : “ IT CAME TO PASS ” mentioned times !
We find the phrase : “ IT SHALL COME TO PASS ” mentioned 116 times in the Old @ @ @ @ @ @ @ burdens , health woes , losses , worries and struggles you have in your life today —IT SHALL COME TO PASS !
!
!
God can use all things to bring glory to Himself !
!
!
The Lord could not heal a blind man in John 9:5 , unless God had made a blind man !
Did you know that God makes deaf , dumb and blind people ?
It is true !
Exodus 4:11 , “ And the LORD said unto him , Who hath made man 's mouth ?
or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , or the seeing , or the blind ?
have not I the LORD ?
” Humanity tends to look down on disabled people as if there is something WRONG with them , but God makes some people disabled , so that God can be GLORIFIED !
!
!
From The Frypan Into The Fire dry ground , being rescued by a divine supernatural miracle of God .
Can you imagine ?
The Hebrews were so happy , rejoicing over the new found liberty and freedom .
But things did n't go as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to you when you 're making big plans !
!
!
The children of Israel were so happy !
It had been 400 long years of cruel bondage in slavery to the Egyptians .
Finally , God had raised up a deliverer , Moses !
They got to the Red Sea and were overcome with FEAR .
Oh no , the Coronavirus is going to overtake us !
What shall we do ?
OUR GREAT OMNIPOTENT GOD DELIVERED THEM !
!
!
Here they went , across the Red Sea on , being @ @ @ @ @ @ @ God .
Can you imagine ?
The Hebrews were so happy , rejoicing over the new found liberty and freedom .
But things did n't go as they planned .
Life is what happens to you when you 're making big plans !
!
!
So we learn that just because things are n't going the way we want , does n't mean God is not blessing us .
Whether or not things are going well in your life is absolutely no indication if God is pleased with you or not .
Even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ earth .
Isaiah 53:3-4 , “ He is despised and rejected of men ; a man of sorrows , and acquainted with grief : and we hid as it were our faces from him ; he was despised , and we esteemed him not .
Surely he hath borne our griefs , and carried our sorrows : yet we did esteem him stricken , smitten of God , and afflicted.
” I sometimes wonder if the Lord Himself was the man who was beaten and left for dead , and a Good Samaritan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lot of people hated the Lord .
The Bible says Jesus was tempted in all ways ( Hebrews 4:15 ) , so He must know what it feels like to be robbed , mugged and left for dead .
I am not saying this is what happened , but I simply consider the possibility .
Perhaps Jesus was the Good Samaritan Himself .
We simply do n't know .
But I do know that—A FAITH MUST BE TESTED !
God tests all His children , to see if we will keep His commandments @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are not some believers who get a free pass , and others have to struggle or suffer .
God is not an absent parent ( Hebrews 12:6-8 ) .
Granted , some believers are called into a ministry of suffering , as I believe I have been , suffering more than our share of hardships , burdens and afflictions in life ; but that simply means God has chosen me to use in more mighty way , which requires that He humble and break me more .
God is always good !
!
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Our text passage of Scripture says in 8:2-4 that God caused them hardships !
The Lord sent them from bondage in Egypt to bondage is the desert !
There were scorpions and snakes , a lack of food and water , intense heat from the burning sun , and no more leaks ( onions ) , cucumbers , melons , fish and goodies that they had previously enjoyed in Egypt .
Numbers 11:5-6 , “ You could say they had leaped from the frying pan into the fire !
GOD DID THAT TO @ @ @ @ @ @ @ want you to learn my friend ... God provided for them for the next 40 YEARS , but He never gave them a satisfied life , to teach them that man shall not live BY PHYSICAL FOOD ALONE , but by EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDETH OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD !
Boy I love that truth !
God let 's problems , difficulties and adversities happen in our life ; to HUMBLE US ; to teach us that we need more than eating at Taco Bell to survive , we also need @ @ @ @ @ @ @ !
By the way , I always get 5 Taco 's Supreme and one ground beef Taco Salad ( and I eat it all ) !
That 's like 15,000 calories ... lol !
There is a God !
Listen friend , God did n't put us here to stuff our face and enjoy life ( although He wants us to enjoy life ) , God put us here to OBEY HIM !
Ecclesiastes 12:13 , “ We Must Have An “ EVERY WORD ” Bible Today To Live And may I say @ @ @ @ @ @ @ us so that we will learn to live by from His mouth .
Notice that it does n't say by every nor does it say by every of the Bible ; but rather , it says by When some horrible Bible professor or preacher says that the King James Bible is NOT inspired , he is denying that we have an ” Bible today !
!
!
Denying the verbal inspiration of the Word of God is wickedness !
Ironically , Bob Jones University ( BJU ) today strongly denies the inspiration of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they claim that only the original Hebrew , Chaldean and Greek autographs of the Bible were inspired , which no longer exist .
Yet , their very own founder , Bob Jones Sr. ( 1883-1968 ) , who started BJU in 1927 , proclaimed the inspiration of the King James Bible ...


jesusissavior--2020-04-01--HAVE YOU BEEN BORN AGAIN???

HAVE YOU BEEN BORN AGAIN???

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jesusissavior--2020-04-01--11,500 Nigerian Christians Murdered

11,500 Nigerian Christians Murdered

A Nigerian civil society organization claims that no fewer than 350 Christians have been killed across the West African country since the start of 2020 and estimates that about 11,500 Christians have been killed since 2015 .
“ Nigeria has fully become a killing field of defenseless Christians , ” the Anambra-based nongovernmental organization International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law ( Intersociety ) said this week in a new special report , titled “ Nigeria : A Killing Field Of Defenseless Christians.
” “ Available statistics have shown that between 11,500 and 12,000 Christian deaths were recorded @ @ @ @ @ @ @ June 2015 when the present central government of Nigeria came on board .
Out of this figure , Jihadist Fulani herdsmen accounted for 7,400 Christian deaths , Boko Haram 4,000 and the ‘ Highway Bandits ’ 150-200.
” The organization , which is headed by Christian criminologist Emeka Umeagbalasi , has monitored violence against Christians in Nigeria since 2010 through a team of criminologists , lawyers , journalists , security , and peace and conflict studies graduates .
Nigeria has been marred by violence in the last decade-plus due to the rise of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Haram and its splinter group , the Islamic State ’ s West Africa Province .
In recent years , massacres carried out by radicalized Fulani herders against predominantly Christian farming villages in Nigeria ’ s Middle Belt have also driven communities from their homes .
Additionally , bandit gangs have been responsible for carrying out kidnappings along some major highways .
The United Nations estimates that about 2 million people have been internally displaced across Nigeria and 11 million people in need of assistance .
An additional 550,000 are said to be displaced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Niger .
“ While 100 percent of the victims of Jihadist Herdsmen attacks across Nigeria are Christians , the estimated 4,000 Christians killed by Boko Haram were part of the estimated 6,000 [ people in total ] massacred by the sect since June 2015 , ” the report explains .
“ Generally , many , if not most of the victims of Boko Haram/ISWAP attacks in Nigeria ’ s Northeast are Christians .
On the part of ‘ Bandits/Highway Kidnappers ’ in Northern Nigeria , most of their rural victims are Muslims @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of their roadside victims are Christians traveling to northern or southern parts of the country using the Birnin-Gwari Federal Road , near Kaduna , etc.
” For its monitoring and documentation , Intersociety relies on what it deems to be credible local and foreign media reports , government accounts , international rights groups , eyewitness accounts and reports from various Christian bodies in the country .
Intersociety reports that Fulani herdsmen accounted for 250 of the 350 deaths recorded in January and February 2020 while Boko Haram and highway bandit gangs are responsible @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two months , Intersociety reports that radical Fulani militants have carried out attacks in Nasarawa , Adamawa and Edo in addition to some other locations throughout the country .
Last year , Intersociety reported that no fewer than 2,400 Christians were killed by Fulani radicals in 2018 .
In 2019 , according to the group , between 1,000 to 1,200 Christians were killed by Fulani attackers .
While reports have indicated an increase in deadly Boko Haram attacks beginning in December 2019 , Intersociety noted that Boko Haram attacks targeting Christians since January @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Taraba States .
“ [ The attacks are ] claiming between 50 and 70 Christian lives and loss of churches and other buildings belonging to Christians , ” the report explains , adding that Boko Haram was responsible for killing at least 1,000 citizens in 2019 .
Additionally , between 100 and 150 Christian travelers were said to have been abducted on highways since the beginning of the year .
“ The killings targeted at Christians in Nigeria have continued into the first week of March 2020 leading to hacking to death of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ report reads .
“ Among the worst hit in the latest round of Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen attacks are Plateau State with 70-80 deaths , Kaduna [ with ] 50 deaths , Kogi [ with ] 30 deaths , Benue [ with ] 15-20 , Delta [ with ] 16 and Taraba [ with ] 10.
” In the past 57 months , no fewer than 20 clergymen ( including eight Catholic priests and seminarians ) have been hacked to death , while no less than 50 were abducted or kidnapped , Intersociety reported @ @ @ @ @ @ @ kidnapped and then executed the Rev .
Lawan Andimi , chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria ’ s chapter in the Michika Local Government Area of Adamawa state .
Other slain religious leaders killed in Nigeria in the past 12 months include the Revs .
Clement Ugwu and Paul Offu .
Intersociety also estimated that over 2,000 churches and Christian worship centers have been burned since June 2015 , with Fulani herdsmen being responsible for about 1,500 and Boko Haram accounting for 500 .
Churches in Benue , Plateau and southern Kaduna @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Fulani radicals .
“ In eight years , between 2011 and 2019 , Benue State had lost 600 churches and other Christian worship centers to Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen , '' the report states .
Intersociety ’ s claim that most of the people killed by Boko Haram are Christian contradicts data given out by Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari in early February .
In an op-ed , Buhari stated that “ 90 percent of all Boko Haram ’ s victims have been Muslims.
” Buhari claimed that the “ now-failing terrorists have targeted the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the young and the old without discrimination.
” However , weeks later , a member of the Nigerian government , Minister of Information Alhaji Lai Mohammed , acknowledged that terrorists are focusing their attacks on Christians , noting that in the past , that was not the case .
`` They have started targeting Christians and Christian villages for a specific reason , which is to trigger a religious war and throw the nation into chaos , '' he said while distancing the perpetrators from Muslims and noting that Muslims have also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nigeria can vary depending on which organization is providing them because of the lack of adequate government record-keeping , International Committee on Nigeria co-founder Stephen Enada previously told The Christian Post .
Enada , who fled to the United States in 2016 after his cousin was killed by Fulani radicals , believes that reported death tolls should be construed as nothing more than estimations .
“ When you talk about data mining statistics , Nigeria doesn ’ t even have a national data record to even say [ what is ] our population @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ So sometimes , if somebody is killed , you don ’ t even have a way to trace a person to his family outside his community because we don ’ t have data.
” “ Because we don ’ t have such data , it is very complicated .
Sometimes , when people are killed , they will just do a mass burial where there is no autopsy , post mortem , no record .
If you go to these communities , you will see that they don ’ t have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
That is what we are working with.
” Last November , the U.K.-based NGO Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust estimated after a fact-finding mission that at least 1,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria from January 2019 until November 2019 .
HART , founded by Parliament member Baroness Caroline Cox , estimated that at least 6,000 Christians were killed since 2015 .
A HART spokesperson clarified to CP that the 1,000-deaths estimation counts “ predominantly people killed in Plateau , Southern Kaduna and Taraba states by Fulani Herdsmen ” but also includes some killings @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The HART spokesperson added that the estimation was partly based on reports from the Kaduna state government and reports from the Plateau state .
HART 's estimations also include Boko Haram ’ s killing of security officers and soldiers believed to be Christians .

350 Nigerian Christians killed in first 2 months of 2020: NGO report Group estimates at least 11,500 Nigerian Christians killed since June 2015
A Nigerian civil society organization claims that no fewer than 350 Christians have been killed across the West African country since the start of 2020 and estimates that about 11,500 Christians have been killed since 2015.
“Nigeria has fully become a killing field of defenseless Christians,” the Anambra-based nongovernmental organization International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) said this week in a new special report, titled “Nigeria: A Killing Field Of Defenseless Christians.”
“Available statistics have shown that between 11,500 and 12,000 Christian deaths were recorded in the past 57 months or since June 2015 when the present central government of Nigeria came on board. Out of this figure, Jihadist Fulani herdsmen accounted for 7,400 Christian deaths, Boko Haram 4,000 and the ‘Highway Bandits’ 150-200.”
The organization, which is headed by Christian criminologist Emeka Umeagbalasi, has monitored violence against Christians in Nigeria since 2010 through a team of criminologists, lawyers, journalists, security, and peace and conflict studies graduates.
Nigeria has been marred by violence in the last decade-plus due to the rise of extremist organizations in the northeast like Boko Haram and its splinter group, the Islamic State’s West Africa Province.
In recent years, massacres carried out by radicalized Fulani herders against predominantly Christian farming villages in Nigeria’s Middle Belt have also driven communities from their homes.
Additionally, bandit gangs have been responsible for carrying out kidnappings along some major highways.
The United Nations estimates that about 2 million people have been internally displaced across Nigeria and 11 million people in need of assistance. An additional 550,000 are said to be displaced in neighboring countries of Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
“While 100 percent of the victims of Jihadist Herdsmen attacks across Nigeria are Christians, the estimated 4,000 Christians killed by Boko Haram were part of the estimated 6,000 [people in total] massacred by the sect since June 2015,” the report explains.
“Generally, many, if not most of the victims of Boko Haram/ISWAP attacks in Nigeria’s Northeast are Christians. On the part of ‘Bandits/Highway Kidnappers’ in Northern Nigeria, most of their rural victims are Muslims while many, if not most, of their roadside victims are Christians traveling to northern or southern parts of the country using the Birnin-Gwari Federal Road, near Kaduna, etc.”
For its monitoring and documentation, Intersociety relies on what it deems to be credible local and foreign media reports, government accounts, international rights groups, eyewitness accounts and reports from various Christian bodies in the country.
Intersociety reports that Fulani herdsmen accounted for 250 of the 350 deaths recorded in January and February 2020 while Boko Haram and highway bandit gangs are responsible for 100 deaths.
In the past two months, Intersociety reports that radical Fulani militants have carried out attacks in Nasarawa, Adamawa and Edo in addition to some other locations throughout the country.
Last year, Intersociety reported that no fewer than 2,400 Christians were killed by Fulani radicals in 2018. In 2019, according to the group, between 1,000 to 1,200 Christians were killed by Fulani attackers.
While reports have indicated an increase in deadly Boko Haram attacks beginning in December 2019, Intersociety noted that Boko Haram attacks targeting Christians since January 2020 intensified in Borno, Adamawa and Taraba States.
“[The attacks are] claiming between 50 and 70 Christian lives and loss of churches and other buildings belonging to Christians,” the report explains, adding that Boko Haram was responsible for killing at least 1,000 citizens in 2019.
Additionally, between 100 and 150 Christian travelers were said to have been abducted on highways since the beginning of the year.
“The killings targeted at Christians in Nigeria have continued into the first week of March 2020 leading to hacking to death of over a dozen more,” the report reads. “Among the worst hit in the latest round of Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen attacks are Plateau State with 70-80 deaths, Kaduna [with] 50 deaths, Kogi [with] 30 deaths, Benue [with] 15-20, Delta [with] 16 and Taraba [with] 10.”
In the past 57 months, no fewer than 20 clergymen (including eight Catholic priests and seminarians) have been hacked to death, while no less than 50 were abducted or kidnapped, Intersociety reported.
Earlier this year, Boko Haram kidnapped and then executed the Rev. Lawan Andimi, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria’s chapter in the Michika Local Government Area of Adamawa state.
Other slain religious leaders killed in Nigeria in the past 12 months include the Revs. Clement Ugwu and Paul Offu.
Intersociety also estimated that over 2,000 churches and Christian worship centers have been burned since June 2015, with Fulani herdsmen being responsible for about 1,500 and Boko Haram accounting for 500.
Churches in Benue, Plateau and southern Kaduna states were among the most targeted by Fulani radicals.
“In eight years, between 2011 and 2019, Benue State had lost 600 churches and other Christian worship centers to Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen," the report states.
Intersociety’s claim that most of the people killed by Boko Haram are Christian contradicts data given out by Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari in early February.
In an op-ed, Buhari stated that “90 percent of all Boko Haram’s victims have been Muslims.” Buhari claimed that the “now-failing terrorists have targeted the vulnerable, the religious, the non-religious, the young and the old without discrimination.”
However, weeks later, a member of the Nigerian government, Minister of Information Alhaji Lai Mohammed, acknowledged that terrorists are focusing their attacks on Christians, noting that in the past, that was not the case.
"They have started targeting Christians and Christian villages for a specific reason, which is to trigger a religious war and throw the nation into chaos," he said while distancing the perpetrators from Muslims and noting that Muslims have also been victimized.
Death toll statistics in Nigeria can vary depending on which organization is providing them because of the lack of adequate government record-keeping, International Committee on Nigeria co-founder Stephen Enada previously told The Christian Post.
Enada, who fled to the United States in 2016 after his cousin was killed by Fulani radicals, believes that reported death tolls should be construed as nothing more than estimations.
“When you talk about data mining statistics, Nigeria doesn’t even have a national data record to even say [what is] our population,” Enada explained at the time. “So sometimes, if somebody is killed, you don’t even have a way to trace a person to his family outside his community because we don’t have data.”
“Because we don’t have such data, it is very complicated. Sometimes, when people are killed, they will just do a mass burial where there is no autopsy, post mortem, no record. If you go to these communities, you will see that they don’t have any record for the people who died. That is what we are working with.”
Last November, the U.K.-based NGO Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust estimated after a fact-finding mission that at least 1,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria from January 2019 until November 2019.
HART, founded by Parliament member Baroness Caroline Cox, estimated that at least 6,000 Christians were killed since 2015.
A HART spokesperson clarified to CP that the 1,000-deaths estimation counts “predominantly people killed in Plateau, Southern Kaduna and Taraba states by Fulani Herdsmen” but also includes some killings by Boko Haram in Borno state.
The HART spokesperson added that the estimation was partly based on reports from the Kaduna state government and reports from the Plateau state. HART's estimations also include Boko Haram’s killing of security officers and soldiers believed to be Christians.