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- [Announcer] This is CBN NewsWatch.

- And thank you so much forjoining us for CBN NewsWatch.

It is Monday, January6th, I'm Efrem Graham.

Ahead today,

the growing confrontation betweenthe United States and Iran

after President Trump ordered the strike

that killed the mastermindbehind Iran's terror attacks

and campaigns throughout the Middle East.

We're gonna get the word

on what could be next from Jerusalem.

Another front in the culture wars,

this time, the battleover who can have a baby.

Is it only women or men too?

He was the victim of abuse himself,

we're gonna tell you how a pastor

now helps sexual-abuse victims to recover.

And remember God's General,

a memorial service this weekend

for legendary Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke.

All those stories and more ahead

in this edition of CBN NewsWatch.

We begin this half-hour with the face-off

between Iran and the United States,

which has the Middle Eastbracing for everything,

from targeted strikes to the verge of war.

As Chris Mitchell nowreports from Jerusalem,

the consequences of the killing

of Iran's General Qassem Soleimani

are felt throughout theregion and around the world.

- [Chris] Iran's tributes toSoleimani reached a crescendo

when his casket arrived in Tehran.

From Baghdad to Beirut,

Iran and its allies are promisingrevenge and retaliation.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed

his terror group can nowtarget US troops in the region.

Iran has also threatenedto attack Israeli cities.

The Shia-dominated Iraqi Parliament

passed a nonbinding resolution

to kick the US out of Iraq.

While in Tehran, Iran announcedit will no longer comply

with the restrictions ofthe 2015 nuclear agreement.

Trump threatened sanctions against Iraq

if they force US troops out.

Oil prices are up

and the strategic Strait of Hormuz

could be a key target for Iran

to hit the most strategic waterway

for the world's oil supply.

In Washington, President Trumpsays the US will strike back

in case of any Iranian retaliation,

and he's sending an additional3,500 troops to the region

and deploying missiles atembassies and US bases.

On Sunday talk shows,

US Secretary of State MikePompeo defended the strike.

- We would have been culpably negligent

had we not gone after Soleimaniwhen we had the opportunity.

He was actively engaged

in plotting against American interests.

- [Chris] Retired GeneralDavid Petraeus said

the strike hit Iran's mostpowerful military figure.

- This is bigger than bin Laden,it's bigger than Baghdadi,

this is the most powerful figure in Iran

for the solidificationof the Shia Crescent,

and also the operational commander

of the actions that they were pursuing.

- [Chris] Those plans included

building up Iranian-proxy forces

throughout the MiddleEast, including Iraq.

Pompeo says Iran wants to turn the country

into a vassal state,

and the Obamaadministration's nuclear deal

helped them do it.

- The Iranian governmentis trying to, basically,

take over Iraq's political system.

Iran is bribing Iraqi politicians.

To the Iraqi people,

do not allow your politicians

to turn Iraq into a proxy of Iran.

- [Chris] While manyare mourning Soleimani,

others in Iraq and Iranare celebrating the death

of who many considerthe mastermind of terror

throughout the Middle East.

Despite the talk of war,

some are asking if thiscould also be a time

for diplomatic overtures to Iran.

Yet in the meantime,

there's heightenedsecurity in major US cities

and concern about cyber attacks

on key infrastructure throughout the US.

Chris Mitchell, CBN News, Jerusalem.

- And Chris Mitchell joinsus now from Jerusalem.

So, Chris, why was Soleimani so feared,

and what was some of his masterplan for the Middle East?

- Well, Efrem,

he was feared because he was sort of

the arch-terrorist of all arch-terrorists

here in the Middle East,

and as David Petraeus says,

much more importanttarget than al-Baghdadi

or even members of Al-Qaeda.

What he had in plan right now

was a master plan for the region,

and he wanted to haveregional hegemony for Iran.

They also wanted to build a land bridge,

military land bridge,

from Tehran all the wayto the Mediterranean Sea.

In particular,

what he wanted to do was surroundIsrael with proxy enemies.

That would be Hezbollahon its northern border,

Islamic Jihad and Hamason its southern border,

even the Houthis in Yemen, andespecially in Syria and Iraq.

He was providing ballistic missiles,

precision-guided missiles,

to some of these Shiite militia

inside Iraq and also in Syria.

And that's why Israel has been trying

to hit those targets for months now,

and that's what happenedwhen the US targeted

some of these bases inside Iraq.

And overall, Efrem,

I think people need to understand

that Iran really has agoal to dominate the world.

That's their ultimate goal and plan,

even it may seem farcicalto us in the West,

that's what they ultimately want to do.

- That said, what are thedangers Israel is now facing,

and what is it doing to prepare?

- Well, what it's doingright now to prepare,

it's closing down a skiresort on the border

in the Golan Heights on Mount Hermon.

Really, if you were here,in the streets of Jerusalem,

you wouldn't see anything changing,

but even just a couple of weeks ago,

even before Soleimani was targeted,

the IDF chief of staff said

that preparing for an intenseconfrontation with Iran.

He says he can't guaranteeit's gonna be a short war,

but he wants the public to be prepared

for this kind of confrontation.

One of the dangers they faceis about 150,000 rockets,

by Hezbollah, pointed at Israel.

Some could hit anywhere in Israel,

from its north to the south.

Many of these, or someof these, right now,

are precision-guided missiles

that pose a threat tomilitary installations,

key infrastructure,

so it's a very dangerous area right now,

for here, for Israel.

- Chris, in following this story,

we see reports of mourningin Iran over Soleimani,

but we also hear reports ofpeople celebrating his death,

why the different reactions?

- Well, I think that's a key point

to be made here in the region.

You might get the sense thatall of the region is mourning,

is upset, is angry, and vowingrevenge and retaliation,

but you have to rememberthat many people here,

inside Iraq, inside Iran even,

and throughout the Middle East,

are really celebrating,

because he has been abrutal terror master.

You can see, just in thelast couple of weeks,

where there have beenprotests inside Iraq and Iran,

where hundreds have been killed,

many at the orders of Soleimani,

so many people, in fact, inIran were passing out sweets

instead of mourning Soleimani.

And you have to realize too

that there are many enemies of Iran,

like Saudi Arabia,

that really, right now, privately,

are probably celebrating his death.

- I know a prayer ministry in Jerusalem

issued a prayer alert,

how are they recommending to be praying?

- Well, they're recommending, first,

to pray against unholy alliances

with Iran and its neighbors,

whether in Syria, Iraq, even Turkey,

and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Also, praying for protection of the people

that would be targeted by Iran.

Psalm 91, which is thatgreat psalm of protection,

they're asking people to pray for that

for the people that maybe potential targets,

and they're asking for God'ssovereignty here in the region,

that he would be overseeing what could be

a very volatile future in thenext few weeks and months.

- All right, Chris Mitchellreporting for us from Jerusalem,

Chris, thank you.

Islamic terrorists overrana key military base

used by Americancounter-terrorist forces in Kenya

before dawn Sunday.

The attack by membersof the Al-Shabaab group

based in neighboring Somalia

killed a US serviceman

and two Defense Department contractors

and destroyed Americanaircraft and vehicles

before the terrorists were pushed back.

Five of the attackers were killed.

Kenya is a key base forfighting Al-Shabaab,

which is linked to Al-Qaeda.

Back here at home,

five people are dead and about 60 injured

on the Pennsylvania Turnpikeearly Sunday morning

when a loaded bus wentout of control on a hill,

setting off a chain reaction

that involved three tractor-trailersand a passenger car.

The injured victims rangefrom age seven to 67.

All are expected to survive.

The bus was travelingfrom Rockaway, New Jersey

to Cincinnati, Ohio.

It was traveling downhill on a curve

when it careened up anembankment and rolled over.

Two tractor-trailers then hit the bus,

and a third crashed into those trucks,

and it turned into a chain-reaction crash.

(intense music)

Coming up, it is one of themost basic facts of nature,

the fact that women canhave babies and men can't,

yet now, the simple facthas become controversial,

in the current war over gender identity.

We're gonna bring you a lookat that when we come back.

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(dramatic music)- [Announcer] As the world

watches from the outside,

- It's a big, diplomatic tugof war here in the Middle East.

- [Announcer] go inside thestory with Jerusalem Dateline.

- Israeli archeologists aretalking about a discovery

that could change the thinkingabout the Temple Mount.

- [Announcer] Join CBN JerusalemBureau Chief Chris Mitchell

and get the biblical perspective

on the events shaping the world.

- What starts in Israel thenends up going to other places.

- [Announcer] Watch Jerusalem Dateline,

Friday night at 9:30 onthe CBN News Channel.

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- [Announcer] Life,

it's meant to be lived fully.

Jesus said it,

"I came to give you life,

"life to the fullest."

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- [Announcer] Get the top political news

and analysis fromWashington on Faith Nation,

tonight at six Eastern, onlyon the CBN News Channel.

- [Caitlin] Check out the CBNNews Daily Rundown podcast

each weekday with me, Caitlin Burke.

Click on the Show tab at CBNNews.com,

where you can listen and subscribe.

- It's a scientific fact neverquestioned until recently,

the fact that women cangive birth and men cannot,

yet it is creating controversy

in the culture war over gender identity.

Our Mark Martin is on this story.

- A popular podcaster has dropped a guest

because the woman says thatonly women can have children.

Faithwire's Dan Andros ishere with this trending story.

Dan, who all is involved here,and what exactly happened?

- Yeah, so, apparently, Candace Owens,

who's a conservative commentator,she's a Trump supporter,

she's very opinionated,

and she works for PragerU, among others,

and she's always outthere with her opinions,

and she's very bold with her opinions,

but the Daily Mirror had run a story

claiming a transgender man

had given birth through artificial,

and it's a very confusing headline,

artificial inseminationfrom a transgender woman,

a sperm donation,

so it was, really, what it was,

was just a woman who had given birth

via artificial insemination,

from a man donor, a male donor.

So, that story was being

soundly sort of mockedand ridiculed on Twitter.

And so, what happened,

Candace retweeted the article,

and just said, "Onlywomen can give birth."

And so she had beenscheduled to be on a podcast

with New York podcaster Jameela Jamil,

and she's kind of a notorious progressive

who famously sort ofbragged about her abortion,

and said that it, in her own life,

that that caused her the ability

to be successful in her career,

et cetera, et cetera.

So, what happened was,

when Jameela saw this tweet from Candace,

she actually canceled herappearance on the show,

saying that the transgenderpeople on her staff

would feel unsafe.

And so she basicallywas banned from the show

for stating a scientific fact.

- Why would a biological, scientific fact

be harmful to transgender people?

How does this play intotheir agenda, do you think?

- Yeah, well, there's this ongoing debate,

where people are reallydivided on this fact,

and it is a scientific fact,

but when you're talkingabout gender issues,

there are those who want to say

if you don't identify with the gender

that you were given at birth by God,

that you have to go alongwith what that person says.

And so that's kind of where the rub is,

where people who don'twanna relinquish the truth,

and actually just saywhat you actually are,

which is a male or a female,

they're kind of butting heads.

And so, in pushing that agenda,

it's hard to say exactly whatis the endgame with this one,

but it is very clearthat those on the left

would prefer to be ableto just call people

whatever they would choose to be

rather than what God gavethem as a gender at birth.

- As you mentioned,

Candace Owens is controversialin her own right,

as a black woman speakingout against Democrats,

what's her message?

Break it down a little bit more for us.

- Yeah, well, she's just beenvery pro-Trump in her stances,

and so I think any time youcome out and you're pro-Trump,

and she is a minority, she's a female,

so there's a lot of angst, I think,

from those on the otherside, these anti-Trump types,

who feel that she's supporting someone

who they would say is a racist.

So I think anyone defendingthe president, at this point,

is gonna be controversial to a degree.

Whether it's warrantedor not is hard to say.

I can't speak for all thethings that Candace has said,

but basically, she is a Trump supporter,

and so that's just gonnaagitate people on the left

who don't like the president.

- Well, what's coming uptonight on Faith vs. Culture?

- Yeah, we're gonna be talking about

this tragic shooting that happened

in White Settlement, Texas,

and a lot of the issuesthat came out of that

and the aftermath of it,

where we saw a hero, Jack Wilson,

actually stop the shootingbefore it got worse.

But we're seeing some of the congregants

forgive this shooter,

we're talking about some of the issues

with how can we be betterprepared as a church body,

as this church was,

they were prepared to stop this incident.

So we're gonna talk aboutthose issues and more

on tonight's episode.

- All right, Dan Andros, withFaithwire, thank you, sir.

- [Efrem] And you can catch Faithwire

on the CBN News Channel

tonight at 9:30 Eastern Standard Time.

(intense music)

Still ahead,

as the Me Too movementhas shaken up Hollywood

and the political world,

it's also rocked the Church.

We're gonna introduce you to one pastor

who's a survivor of sexual abuse himself,

and we're gonna show you howhe's working to help others,

stay with us.

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- The Me Too movement

sent shock waves of seismic proportions

across Hollywood, WallStreet, and Washington,

now the issue is shakingthe Church as well.

Our John Jessup talked toa sexual-abuse survivor

who's on a mission to help victims

see themselves in a different light.

- Come on in, how you doing?

- [John] Kim and Monty Weatherall

enjoy spending time together,

whether it's in church orworking out at the gym.

She's helped him tackle weight loss

- 80 pounds, yes, I walkedin there well over 300,

and upwards of 320 pounds.

- [John] and also indealing with a painful past.

- When I got home, and hetold me what his plan was,

it hit me like a ton of bricks.

- I made a decision to end my life.

- Monty resisted getting help,

because as a pastor, he'sused to giving advice.

Most people in his life know Pastor Monty

as a young, dynamic preacher

always armed with an encouraging word,

what they didn't know was foryears, he wore many masks,

projecting different personasto hide a painful secret.

- From four to seven years old,

I was abused over those threeyears by two male relatives.

- [John] He never toldanyone about the abuse,

fearing retribution.

Instead, Monty hid the pain,pretending to be someone else.

- For the rest of my life,

I begin to play thesedifferent characters,

because I was so uncomfortablewith being myself.

- [John] It worked untilthe only character left

was the man in the mirror.

- I didn't realize that on somelevel, I was blaming myself,

but I had to give myself permission

to realize that it wasn't my fault.

That suicidal spirit thatwas on me, it just broke,

but I knew that the journey wasn't over.

- [John] The road to recoverystarted on the outside,

with a goal of getting in shape

to lay a foundation forhis emotional healing.

- I think, psychologically,

as I am being, I think, torturedas a child by the abusers,

I tried to really just hide all of that.

Being overweight, out of shape,

I made a decision that apart of taking my life back,

I had to take my body back.

- [John] Monty found a counselor

and worked through difficult sessions,

recalling those early childhood memories.

And just like female victims,

it took decades into adulthoodto begin the process.

- The majority of the women that I see

who were violated as a child

really aren't ready tostart the healing process

til they're at least 30.

- [John] In the #MeToo era,

sexual-abuse scandals havenow hit evangelical circles,

with its own social mediacampaign, #ChurchToo.

- I regretfully had a sexual incident

with a female high schoolsenior in the Church.

- [John] Challenging as it may be,

Wheeler believes these revelations

can help churches do better

to address sexual abuse and reach victims.

- What we are seeing isthe community as a whole

starting to, at least,

willing to talk about this conversation.

We're seeing that churches are now...

I think the Me Too movement

is helping some pastors realize that,

"Oh, my gosh, we do have a lotof survivors in our churches,

"and what are we doing,

"and what can we do to help them heal?"

- [John] That question is whatmotivates Monty Weatherall.

- I know the shame,

I know the courage thatit took for those women,

and those men that are coming out,

to say, "This happened to me."

- [John] With so much interest

in justice reform and redemption stories,

he's concerned aboutneglecting the victim.

- I'm glad that legislation is happening,

I'm glad when authenticredemption has taken place,

that's great, but we can'tforget those boys, those girls,

those men, those womenthat have been abused.

And so, I know why, now,

why the Holy Spirit relayedme to write this book,

for that reason.

- [John] That book, Taking My Life Back,

documents how Monty wentfrom suicidal thoughts

- We are healed right now.

- [John] to thriving andeven forgiving his abusers.

- For me, it started with a decision.

I had to make a decision

to forgive those that sexually abused me.

My abusers, they didn'tknow who I was gonna become.

They didn't know I would become a pastor,

that I would help thousands,

they didn't know I wouldeven witness to them,

and lead them to Christ,and baptize one of them.

- [John] For Kim,

she says their marriage is stronger

and they're happier than ever.

- Sometime I look at him

and I don't even think it'sthe same person I married.

He was wonderful then,

but he's wonderful, andhealthy, and whole now.

- [John] John Jessup, CBN News,

reporting in Swansea, Illinois.

(intense music)

- [Efrem] Coming up,Christians around the world

remember the man affectionatelyknown as God's General,

Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke.

We're gonna bring you a look

at his memorial service fromthis weekend when we come back,

stay with us.

(upbeat music)- [Announcer] Too often,

we carry baggage from our past.

You know what it's like.

It affects everything andeveryone in our lives.

It's always there,

weighing us down

and keeping us fromachieving true happiness.

But do you know God never meant

for us to be trapped in the past?

You can be free of your baggage.

Learn how God's forgiveness

leads to changed lives and new beginnings.

Call The 700 Club.

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- [Efrem] I'm Efrem Graham,and this is Studio 5.

Cruise with me as I discoverthe good things happening

in the world of music,

sports, television, and movies.

- The fact that Ryan Coogler

was gonna be directing the film,

I knew that somethingspecial was gonna happen.

- [Efrem] We'll chat with artists

at the forefront of entertainment

and explore the connection

between popular culture and faith.

- I asked my pastor, I said,

"Well, does that mean I'msupposed to be a preacher?"

He says, "Well, no, youalready have a pulpit."

- [Announcer] Watch Studio5, Wednesday night at 9:30.

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- I am Regent's firstROTC graduate student.

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- [Man] Young people, millennials,are flocking to church.

- [Woman] It's not an exaggeration to say

that we love to meet them

and that we love to know their stories.

- Christian leaders gathered

in Orlando, Florida this weekend

to remember Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke,

who died in December.

Many people gave tribute to Bonnke,

who spent 60 of his 79years preaching the gospel,

recording some 77 million salvations.

The service was more than a memorial,

it was also a passing of the torch

to the next generation.

CBN President and CEO Gordon Robertson

shared how God changedthe course of his life

when he attended a Bonnkecrusade in India in 1994

with Pastor John Gimenez,

as God used it to call him into ministry.

And Nigeria's Muslim presidentextended his condolences

and called Bonnke's deatha great loss to Nigeria,

Africa, and the entire world.

Time now for your Monday Motivation,

and I leave you with this thought

as we embark upon the firstfull week of the new year,

they're lyrics from a familiar song:

It's a new season, it's a new day,

a fresh anointing is flowing my way.

It's a season of power and prosperity.

It's a new season coming to me.

With that word, makeit a marvelous Monday.

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That is gonna do it for thisedition of CBN NewsWatch.

Remember, you can find moreof our CBN News programs

on the CBN News Channel at anytime

or at CBNNews.com.

We'd love to know what you think

about the stories you've seen here today.

You can email us, theaddress is NewsWatch@CBN.com.

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We'll see you tomorrow.