(Photo by Joe Kovacs)

(CHRISTIAN POST) -- A former BBC journalist and deselected Liberal Democrat candidate, David Campanale, has filed a lawsuit against his party, alleging discrimination due to his Christian faith, sparking significant controversy within the political sphere in the United Kingdom.

Campanale claims he was prevented from contesting as a member of parliament in Sutton and Cheam, a significant electoral battleground, because of deep-seated hostility from party members toward his religious views. The legal battle and public outcry have raised questions about religious freedom and discrimination within political parties in the U.K.

Campanale’s civil claim includes serious allegations against the current Liberal Democrat candidate, Luke Taylor, accusing him of leading a campaign that marginalized Campanale for his Christian beliefs, the Telegraph reported.

Read the full story ›

Children at the Muslim American Society Islamic Center in Philadelphia at "Ummah Day" event April 17, 2019.

Muslims in America are "on the road" to running the government of the United States. At least, that was the clarion message of Osama Siblani, editor and publisher of the Arab American News, speaking at the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, Michigan, last month.

Siblani's comments can be seen in a video posted to X by the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI:

Osama Siblani, Arab Community Leader in Dearborn, Michigan: 40 Years Ago, the Mayor of Dearborn Warned of the City’s “Arab Problem,” Now We Rule the City, and We Are on Our Way to the White House; the Best Is Yet to Come pic.twitter.com/M68r5hL2vL

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) May 16, 2024

"We have the best that we can offer to the United States of America," Siblani said. "Not only in Michigan, but across the country. And we offered our best. The best is yet to come. I can be very confident to tell you that we are on the road to the White House, to Congress, to the decision-making everywhere in the United States!"

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Siblani added, triumphantly: "Forty years ago, we had a mayor for this town who talked about 'the Arab problem.' Guess what? The Arabs are [now] ruling Dearborn, Dearborn Heights and Hamtramck! So, brothers and sisters, we are on the road!" he concluded.

WND spoke to one person aspiring to the halls of Congress, but who is the diametric opposite of a Muslim radical, about the prospect of Islamic influence in the U.S. government expanding dramatically. Jerrod Sessler, candidate for the Republican seat in central Washington's 4th congressional district, is a Christian and decorated military veteran endorsed by President Donald Trump, Gen. Michael Flynn and the House Freedom Caucus.

Commenting generally on the world's religions, Sessler told WND, "There’s almost always an underlying tension between good and evil." And as Muslims continue to run for office in America, he said, "the tension here is between Christianity and Islam."

President Donald Trump and Jerrod Sessler

"A violent radicalism is evident within Islam – often referred to as Sharia law – but the population, at the leading of mass media, generally separates them from the average mosque attendee," Sessler explained. Yet, he contends, "Muslims cannot run from the radical faction within their faith, and there is no violent counterpart within Christianity."

Sessler acknowledges that there are non-violent Muslims living in America and around the world. Yet, he tells WND, "they do not have freedom to speak against the radical faction within Islam without drawing the ire of those very radicals."

Referring to his own Christian faith, Sessler shares unapologetically: "The God of the Bible offers grace through His Son Jesus' sacrifice." He adds, "We generally ignore the unhinged parts of Islam, but that only highlights the fact that it is wildly different than the grace afforded by God’s Son Jesus who offers redemption and full forgiveness through His sacrifice." Notes Sessler, starkly: "These two faith options could not be further apart."

Considering the God-given natural rights codified in the Constitution, Sessler suggests that "Americans should see statements about Islamic rule as a threat to freedom."

While he wishes to avoid expressing any negative sentiment towards any particular Muslim, Sessler concedes that their beliefs are essentially incompatible with the Judeo-Christian beliefs and values upon which America was founded. For him, "Islam is the underlying threat to our way of life in America." The idea that an Islamist would seek political office in the U.S. is a peculiar one, he argues, as "[he or she] can't actually fulfill the oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution."

Jerrod Sessler

For this, Sessler notes ironically, "I applaud them because many are doing the impossible." But on the other hand, he tells WND, "The people who elect them are either ignorant or motivated by something that may not be good for Americans."

"Think of how extreme it would be to give the majority of control in Congress to Islamic-leaning people. Would they preserve and protect the Constitution, or would they dismantle it and install something that aligns with the radical faction [and] with their belief system?"

Sessler is not surprised by the push for Islamists in the U.S. government. "They want to see their team win as much as Christians, but if we allow them that opportunity, then we will eventually lose the fundamentals of what it means to be a free American. Just imagine living in a situation where you cannot criticize your elected leaders for their poor or corrupt choices."

According to Sessler, "America is a Christian nation, so we should be able to handle some influx of migration from Islamic folks, but we also hope that they see Christians are actually working to show them a better way of living, believing and existing together."

The GOP congressional candidate ended with this warning: "Weak faith, distractions and social pressure to accept people, even those that threaten us, all contribute to the unsafe America that we find ourselves living in today."

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New York Attorney General Letitia James

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

By Nancy Flanders
Live Action News

Alliance Defending Freedom has filed a lawsuit against New York Attorney General Letitia James on behalf of two nonprofit pro-life pregnancy centers and one nonprofit network of affiliated centers in response to her decision to target pro-life pregnancy resource centers for their promotion and use of “abortion pill reversal” (APR). The lawsuit asks for James to be prohibited from applying New York business law to target the pro-life groups.

The National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA), Gianna’s House, and Options Care Center are suing James, arguing that she is violating the First Amendment through her lawsuit against 11 pro-life pregnancy centers. James is accusing the pro-life organizations of spreading “false and misleading” information regarding APR. In response, the pregnancy centers filed a lawsuit of their own.

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“New York is intentionally denying women the freedom to continue their pregnancies by censoring those who promote it. They are forcing women to follow through with an abortion — even if they don’t want to,” said Thomas Glessner, president and founder of NIFLA. “How does it even remotely make sense to trust women with their medical decisions if you are actively trying to hide scientifically-based information from them? It makes no sense, nor is it legal.”

APR has been shown to decrease the effects of the abortion pill regimen, which is made up of two drugs: mifepristone and misoprostol. Mifepristone is taken first and blocks the naturally occurring pregnancy hormone progesterone, depriving the developing child of oxygen and nutrients. Then misoprostol causes contractions that expel the baby. If a woman takes mifepristone and regrets it, she can contact the APR Hotline to be connected with a doctor who will administer progesterone to her in an attempt to outcompete the progesterone-blocking effects of mifepristone to try to save the baby. Progesterone has been used for decades to help women with a history of miscarriage to carry a baby to term. It is a naturally occurring pregnancy hormone.

Dr. George Delgado, pioneer of the “abortion pill reversal” protocol, produced a study showing that it has an effectiveness rate of up to 68%. To date, over 5,000 children have reportedly been born to mothers who changed their minds after beginning the abortion pill process and were able to access APR.

“Many women regret their abortions, and some seek to stop the effects of chemical abortion drugs before taking the second drug in the abortion drug process. Taking supplemental progesterone at that time can often save their baby’s life,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Gabriella McIntyre, who is representing the pro-life organizations. “The New York attorney general, however, is doing everything she can to deny women the freedom to make that choice.”

According to the Daily Wire, the lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York.

“Despite saying that she supports women’s choice, the Attorney General seeks to deprive women who change their mind and want to continue their pregnancies, or who are coerced or tricked into a chemical abortion, of truthful information about progesterone treatment, a safe option that has been used by obstetrician-gynecologists to help maintain pregnancies for decades,” the lawsuit states.

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

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WND is now on Trump's Truth Social! Follow us @WNDNews

(Photo by Joe Kovacs)

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire.]

By Nathan Harden
Real Clear Wire

Parents Defending Education (PDE) is an advocacy organization founded in response to concerns about the increasing influence of activist agendas in K-12 schools, particularly highlighted during the pandemic. Recently, PDE joined a Title IX lawsuit challenging the Biden Administration’s new rules on including transgender athletes in women’s sports. RealClearEducation had a conversation with Nicole Neily, the founder of PDE, about her organization’s objectives in promoting parental engagement and accountability in education, and–more broadly–the organization's efforts to influence the education system.

Can you tell us about the origins of Parents Defending Education (PDE) and what motivated its founding?

At the beginning of the pandemic, I was running a free speech group, Speech First, that focused on colleges and universities – but I became increasingly concerned with what I saw happening in our K-12 schools. In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, districts across the country sent out missives about systemic racism and their commitment to antiracism, which mystified a lot of families. Unsurprisingly, many people were fearful about pushing back on this messaging. I think back to when I was growing up – schools didn’t send out notes about Rodney King’s beating, or the Iraq War, or elections in general!

During the fall of 2020, the Wall Street Journal ran an interview with the superintendent of Evanston Public Schools in Illinois, near where I grew up, in which he said he planned to allow black and brown children to return to in-person education before white children because of “anti-racism.” I remember screaming out loud when I read the article because this plan was not only immoral – it was unconstitutional. I decided to form a new organization made up of parents that would be dedicated to protecting K-12 schools through litigation and other means.

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In retrospect, I was fairly naïve because I assumed that most districts that engaged in such policymaking did so out of ignorance and didn’t realize they were violating the law. My initial plan included a program of sending dozens of letters to districts to notify them that they needed to course-correct. I assumed that they would, in fact, make good-faith efforts to change their policies. Three years later, however, it’s become abundantly clear that many education bureaucrats at all levels of government disagree with the underlying tenets of equality before the law and seek to not only change the law but to fundamentally transform American society. This is why our organization is needed now more than ever.

What are the key goals and objectives of Parents Defending Education in reclaiming schools from what your website refers to as “harmful activist agendas?”

The first objective is to educate people about what’s taking place in schools. I grew up watching GI Joe cartoons in the 80s, and the end of every episode had a “life lesson” that concluded “and knowing is half the battle.” It struck me during the pandemic that the vast majority of American parents don’t know what their families’ civil rights are in an education setting, nor do they understand how the education system works in general. In the spring of 2020, several of my Democrat friends from Chicago called me to ask how to get their schools to reopen – because they really believed that their elected officials cared about their input. But as we’ve seen in the years since, nothing could be farther from the truth. They cared about their money and their power, but certainly not our children’s welfare or academic achievement.

For decades, parents have been accustomed to dropping their children at the schoolhouse gates, assuming that their children would receive a solid education. But during COVID, families got a window into what their children were learning (or not learning) when Zoom school was in their living rooms. Families were not only unhappy; they were petrified that if they said the wrong thing, they would be the neighborhood QAnon crank for the rest of their lives. So they kept their mouths shut.

Parents Defending Education seeks to demystify the education space, translating policy and legal jargon into English, exposing problems, and investigating how some of these issues arose in the first place.

A second objective is engagement. Education used to be a partnership between schools and parents, working together in the best interest of a child. But today, many families aren’t fully aware of what their children are learning and are held at arms’ length. Parental involvement isn’t – or shouldn’t be – a partisan issue. Sadly, many people simply don’t know where to begin; our collective civic engagement muscles have atrophied from lack of use. At Parents Defending Education, we’ve created guides and portals for people to get involved. This includes basic questions to ask school officials, how to file a civil rights complaint, and comment portals for people to weigh in at the state and federal levels on policy reforms.

Every person has a different level of risk tolerance, so while some people might be willing to speak up at a school board meeting, others might be more reticent to do so. But even the hesitant parent might be willing to have a private conversation with an administrator or even to pass on a tip to us anonymously. Every person can do something. It’s been absolutely incredible over the past few years to watch thousands of people get off the sidelines and say, “If not me, then who – if not now, then when,” knowing full well that they’ll receive blowback from their communities for having the temerity to speak out. Courage is contagious, and we have witnessed so many brave mothers and fathers (and grandparents!) use their voices for the first time.

The final objective is accountability. For far too long, education officials have become accustomed to operating behind closed doors – wasting money on pet projects and then passing nine-figure bond initiatives to make up their shortfalls (while the rest of us must stick to a budget), teaching one-sided lessons, and lowering standards to mask that the quality of education in 2024 is less than it was 30 years ago. Through our tip line and an aggressive public records campaign, we’ve been able to expose what’s really going on and how districts and schools are operating with our tax dollars. If every teacher in America needs to think to him or herself, “Is this lesson plan going to end up on the national news tonight,” it forces them to decide whether their political activism is worth it. If every principal must think, “Do I know what’s going on in my building? Because I’m the one who’s going to be called for comment by the local press,” then they’re going to exercise greater oversight. And if every school board member must think “I’m going to lose my seat if we’re not delivering the educational experience that my constituents expect,” then budget and employment decisions will be made accordingly.

Could you describe some of the specific challenges or issues that PDE seeks to address within the education system?

Over the past three years, the issues have evolved, which is what makes this job interesting – no two days are ever the same! In 2021, nearly all the tips that we received were about race: the 1619 Project, BLM at School, and racially segregated “affinity groups” and “healing circles,” which excluded students and staff from programming based solely on skin color. In 2022 and 2023, most of the tips were about “gender identity”: compelled pronouns, lesson plans, bathrooms and locker rooms, overnight field trips, and athletics. Since 10/7, we’ve fielded hundreds of issues related to antisemitism in K-12 schools, which in my opinion is as pervasive as in higher education but has gone underreported. Outside entities influencing schools is another troubling area – be it foreign funding, progressive foundations, or race and gender consultants advising districts and providing “professional development” training for teachers.

Your organization recently joined a lawsuit against the Biden administration’s new Title IX rule changes. Can you explain the basis of this lawsuit and its significance in protecting students' rights?

A bit of background: Passed in 1972, Title IX is a mere 37 words long, and was written to prevent discrimination on the basis of sex in education settings. (“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”) In plain English, this means that an individual must be treated differently than another based on sex. Two decades ago, this was viewed largely in the athletics context.

Immediately upon taking office, the Biden Administration signaled its intent to undo Betsy DeVos’ Title IX rules – issuing guidance and beginning the notice and comment process to codify their radical changes. In 2022 and 2023, PDE submitted formal comments in opposition to these rules, and also created comment portals that helped over 62,000 people submit their own comments (approximately 25% of the total comments filed!).

The final rule was released in April 2024 and was every bit as terrible and illegal as anticipated. The most significant aspect of the rewrite is that the Education Department has redefined the word “sex” to include “sexual orientation and gender identity,” changing the meaning of the statute entirely. In 1972, the word “sex” meant what it still means today – the binary concept – and the Department has no authority to redefine the plain text of the law.

The rule is a direct assault on parental rights, including parents’ right to access their child’s information under FERPA and state laws. In response to public comments which raised concerns that the rule might bar a recipient from treating a student according to their biological sex if requested by the parents to do so, notifying a student’s parents of the student’s gender transition or gender identity, or letting parents access their child’s educational records (including information about their child’s gender identity), the Education Department conceded that the rule can require such results, even when state law guarantees these parental rights. PDE maintains a running list of districts that maintain “parental exclusion policies” with regard to students’ gender identities at school; as of May 7, we’ve identified 1,062 districts impacting more than 10.8 million children.

At a minimum, the new rule will force these parents to have difficult discussions about sex and gender identity with their children before the children are ready.

How does the new Title IX regulation affect the core mission of Parents Defending Education, particularly regarding concerns about privacy and due process in schools?

Since the Biden Administration’s rule was released, PDE has fielded more questions and concerns from parents about how this will impact their children and this surge will only worsen as the rule coerces school districts into adopting illegal policies. Before the Biden Administration’s Title IX rulemaking, some schools already had bullying and harassment policies that punished students who “misgendered” their peers, bathrooms and locker rooms were opened up to students based on “gender identity,” and students were housed on overnight field trips accordingly. Thanks to Biden’s rule, these policies will spread to countless more schools.

In what ways does Parents Defending Education collaborate with other organizations or stakeholders to achieve its objectives?

Several of my colleagues and I have worked in and around public policy for many years, which means that we’ve been able to leverage many preexisting relationships with think tanks at the state and national level – as well as federal policymakers, state attorneys general, and reporters.

Our team also works with over 300 parent groups across the country, sharing information and resources and regularly meeting with parent advocates around the country.

How does PDE engage with local communities and parents to raise awareness and advocate for changes in education policies?

Every district is different – so we work with the individuals who send us tips to determine how best to engage. Success means something different to everyone. Some people just want a lesson plan canceled, while others desire different outcomes like leadership changes or policy rescissions. The people who reach out to us know their communities best – so we’ll discuss tactics like which policymakers might be worth approaching (and at what level of government), what to say, whether it might be more constructive to go to the media to exert public pressure, and whether the legal system might be a viable option. We encourage people to start with an open mind by asking questions and to not assume ill will – but also to document their interactions and to elevate their concerns as needed.

Could you share any successful initiatives or outcomes that Parents Defending Education has achieved since its inception?

In 2021, we filed the public records requests that exposed collusion between the National School Board Association and the Biden Administration. Members of Congress and Senators called on both Attorney General Merrick Garland and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to resign, and 26 state affiliates of the NSBA quit the national organization.

In the wake of the NSBA scandal, the Biden Administration created a “National Parents and Families Engagement Council” to give the impression that they actually wanted parental engagement. But in so doing, it violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act because it was neither transparent nor politically balanced. PDE sued the Education Department in partnership with our friends at America First Legal, and rather than addressing the Council’s deficiencies, the Administration chose to shutter the Council completely – showing that it was little more than a Potemkin village.

PDE successfully sued Wellesley Public Schools in Massachusetts over racially segregated affinity groups and First Amendment issues; the district agreed to revise its policies.

PDE successfully sued Linn-Mar Community Schools in Iowa over its parental exclusion and compelled speech policies; the state of Iowa passed a parental notification bill during our suit, but the Eighth Circuit ruled in our favor on speech grounds.

A California district’s plan to put a Planned Parenthood clinic into a local high school was tabled indefinitely after PDE exposed it.

To date, PDE has filed 37 civil rights complaints with the federal Office for Civil Rights; 9 investigations have been opened, 4 resolved when districts agreed to open the segregated programming to all students, and 2 referred to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Dozens of districts have retracted lesson plans after we’ve exposed them, including a Connecticut school walking back a “pizza and consent” lesson, the Los Angeles Unified School District removing posters that said “F*** the Police” and “F*** Amerikkka,” and a Virginia district removing “woke kindergarten” as a recommended resource.

Looking ahead, what are the key priorities or upcoming projects for Parents Defending Education in the coming year?

Thanks to our tip line and our relationships with parent organizations, we’re able to connect disparate stories to larger trends and identify problems on the horizon.

In the wake of last year’s Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard/UNC decision, we’re now watching education officials at all levels develop workarounds for racial preferences, which is absolutely an issue that will require attention in the future. School officials continue to treat students differently on the basis of race through the use of DEI hiring practices, segregated affinity groups and “healing circles,” because some education activists insist that students learn best from teachers with the same skin color.

Gender identity certainly isn’t going away any time soon – the new Title IX rules are going to be extensively litigated, and we believe they will eventually end up at the Supreme Court.

It’s important to remember that the antisemitism we’re seeing at universities didn’t magically occur when students first step onto college campuses; rather, that hatred is taught at far younger ages, through programs like ethnic studies and other curricula that frames human interaction through the lens of oppressor vs. oppressed.

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Feet of premature baby

(LIFENEWS) – For Savanna Buller and her youngest daughter, Margo, the journey home from the hospital was nearly nine months long. Baby Margo was born at 25 weeks last summer and weighed a mere 1 lb., 5 oz. Now, the family of six is together under one roof.

“She was the size of a water bottle,” her mother recalled. “She was very tiny. You look at this little baby and think, ‘How are you supposed to survive?’”

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Savanna and Daniel are high school sweethearts and have a 9-year-old son, 6-year-old daughter, and 3-year-old son. Savanna had no complications with her first three pregnancies, but when Baby Margo was about 20 weeks along, Savanna’s blood pressure spiked and she developed preeclampsia.

Read the full story ›

(THE BLAZE) – Abortion has been a major point of contention here in America, but it’s stayed under the radar as it’s slipped into poorer, non-Western countries. Medical doctor and researcher Dr. Calum Miller calls it “abortion colonialism.”

“It’s the idea that this is a new form of ideological colonialism, the way that Western countries go to non-Western countries, and they say, ‘You have to promote abortion, you have to legalize abortion, you have to put it in your schools,’” Miller tells Allie Beth Stuckey of "Relatable." If they refuse, they’re threatened with the withholding of something — like aid money.

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“They’re basically going into these countries and saying, ‘Your culture, your values, don’t matter. We know better, and you have to change them, or we’re not going to support you,’” Miller explains.

Read the full story ›

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

By Bridget Sielicki
Live Action News

Southwest Airlines was in federal court Monday seeking to reverse a court order to pay $800,000 to a flight attendant who was fired due to her pro-life beliefs. The airline was also challenging a judge’s contempt order requiring three of its attorneys to undertake “religious liberty training.”

In 2017, Charlene Carter filed a lawsuit against the airline in which she said she was unfairly fired from her job as a flight attendant due to her pro-life beliefs. She had been critical on social media of her union’s decision to participate in the 2017 Women’s March, due to its association with Planned Parenthood. A court agreed that she was unfairly terminated, and ordered Southwest to rehire her, as well as pay her compensation — an order it is still fighting.

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On Monday, the three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals began hearing the appeal from the airline, which is challenging the order that it pay Carter, as well as the August 2023 religious liberty training mandate. According to ABC News, the airline continues to maintain that it was justified in firing Carter, saying she was fired not for her religious beliefs, but because she violated rules requiring civility in the workplace by sending “hostile and graphic” pro-life messages to the union leader. The airline is also arguing that the mandated religious liberty training violates First Amendment speech rights of the attorneys.

Carter is being represented in her lawsuit by the National Right to Work Foundation.

“Southwest and TWU union officials made Ms. Carter pay an unconscionable price just because she decided to speak out against the political activities of union officials in accordance with her deeply held religious beliefs,” stated National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Yet rather than comply with the jury’s decision and the District Court order, Southwest and TWU union bosses have decided to attempt to defend their ‘targeted assassinations’ against a vocal union critic. We are proud to defend Ms. Carter throughout this prolonged legal case to vindicate her rights.”

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

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[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

By Nancy Flanders
Live Action News

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted from May 7-14 asked 3,934 Americans numerous questions, including questions regarding their views about abortion. In its findings, Reuters reported that most respondents believe abortion should be legal in “all or most cases” (57%). But what, exactly, does the open and broad “all or most cases” phrase mean? It seems perhaps even poll respondents don’t know, because follow-up questions stunningly revealed that even when people state that they support abortion in most cases, they actually support limited access to abortion.

“Most cases”?

The poll first asked respondents broad questions regarding abortion before asking them more specifically about their feelings on abortion restrictions by gestational weeks or in certain circumstances. The results showed that seven percent (7%) of respondents believe abortion should be “illegal in all cases,” and 24% believe abortion should be “illegal in most cases.” It also stated that 25% believe abortion should be “legal in all cases” and 32% believe abortion should be “legal in most cases.” Reuters determined that this meant 57% of all respondents believe abortion should be legal in “all or most” cases.

But when more specific questions about gestational age and “cases” (or circumstances) were asked, the results show a much different picture of what Americans think about abortion.

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When respondents were asked more specifically about abortion at certain gestational ages or in cases of rape, incest, or life of the mother, the results show a society that favors restricting the killing of preborn children — far more than many politicians or abortion industry operatives would care to admit.

The distinction is in the details

The poll asked a follow-up question to certain respondents, stating, “You mentioned earlier that you believe abortion should be legal at least some of the time. Would you support or oppose a national law that would allow abortion to happen….?” with four differing limits of “up to six weeks of pregnancy?” “up to 15 weeks of pregnancy?” “up to viability (24-28 weeks)?” and “only in cases to save the life of the mother, rape or incest?”

There had been no previous question asking about abortion being “legal at least some of the time” in this survey, but 32% (one-third) did respond that abortion “should be legal in most cases.” Assuming those are the respondents to whom the follow-up questions were asked, the responses about when abortion should be legal showed that most of that one-third want significant restrictions on abortion.

While Reuters claims 57% of respondents feel abortion should be “legal in all or most cases,” as gestational age increases, more Americans become uncomfortable with legalized killing of preborn human beings.

When asked, “Would you support or oppose a national law that would allow abortion to happen up to six weeks of pregnancy,” 55% (of the presumed original 32%) said “yes, support” while 42% said “no, oppose.” While this seems like it may offer a confusing result, the question that followed may offer us greater understanding.

When then asked whether they would support or oppose “a national law that would allow abortion to happen up to 15 weeks of pregnancy,” 42% of the one-third of respondents said “yes, support” and 55% said “no, oppose.” The answers to these two questions coupled together seem to indicate the possibility that over half of the “in most cases” crowd is fine with allowing abortion up to six weeks, but not up to 15 weeks.

When asked about support or opposition to a national law allowing abortion through “viability,” the poll defined viability as 24-28 weeks despite the fact that babies born as young as 21 weeks have survived. Just 27% of the original third of respondents who said abortion should be “legal in most cases” indicated support for a law allowing abortion up until 24 weeks, while 71% opposed it.

As gestional age increases, opposition to abortion also appears to increase.

Arguably the most interesting response, however, was the one that had to do with actual “cases.” Respondents who said abortion should be legal at least some of the time were asked whether or not they would support a national law allowing abortion “only in cases to save the life of the mother, rape or incest.” An astounding 74% said “yes” they would support a law allowing abortion only to save the life of the mother or in cases of rape or incest, while 24% said no, they wouldn’t support such a law.

This result indicates that for those who said they support abortion in at least some cases, the majority — nearly three-quarters of them — said they would support a law in which abortion was only legal in cases involving a risk to the mother’s life or in cases of rape or incest.

So again, the question remains: What does “most cases” even mean? Do many people mistakenly believe that “most” abortions take place for reasons of rape, incest, or risk to the mother’s life?

Other polling

Though somewhat puzzling, these Reuters poll responses are not outliers; they are in line with other abortion-related polling. A 2023 Knights of Columbus-Marist Poll revealed that though 61% of respondents considered themselves to be “pro-choice,” 69% of all respondents wanted abortion to be significantly restricted. The survey revealed that 79% of Americans did not want abortion on demand through all nine months of pregnancy, as pro-abortion politicians are currently seeking. The poll also found that 69% of those polled wanted abortion restricted — allowing it only in the first three months of pregnancy (25%), only for rape/incest/life of mother (26%) only for life of the mother (10%) or never under any circumstance (8%).

An early 2024 poll released by the Knights of Columbus found that the majority of Americans support at least some level of protections for preborn children from abortion. Of the 1,371 respondents, 58% claimed to be “pro-choice,” yet 58% of respondents also said abortion should only be allowed within the first three months of pregnancy (18%), only in cases of rape/incest/life of mother (22%), only for life of the mother (9%), or never allowed (9%).

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

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June has been designated by those promoting that LGBT alternative lifestyle choices as "Pride" month.

They have various events, celebrations, festivities and the like.

And according to a new lawsuit, they actually force people to participate in their agenda.

A report from Liberty Counsel explains it is Capt. Jeffery Little, a Christian and lifeguard, who has sued the Los Angeles County Fire Department for its illegal religious discrimination, retaliation and harassment.

Department officials were provoked by Little's decision to decline on religious grounds to raise a "Progress Pride Flag" at his beachside station last year during the designated "Pride" month.

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"Little, a 22-year county employee, alleges the Los Angeles County Fire Department denied his religious accommodation request, belittled his religious beliefs, punished him, and threatened him with 'suspension and/or discharge' from service for not complying with a county mandate to fly the flag during the month of June 2023," the legal team explained.

Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver said, "Religious beliefs matter. The Los Angeles County Fire Department makes a mockery of both the law and religion by blatantly infringing on Captain Jeffery Little’s sincerely held beliefs. There is no compelling government interest in this case to force someone to raise an ideologically divisive flag. People do not have to choose between their faith or their job."

The case is being handled for Little by the Thomas More Society, with help from Liberty Counsel.

The problem stems from a 2023 resolution from the county's supervisors that demanded county locations fly the "Pride" flag which contains a rainbow of colors.

According to his recently filed complaint, Little follows "traditional Christian beliefs regarding the moral illicitness of same-sex activity, the immutability of sex regardless of gender identity, and the view that all people are children of God regardless of their skin color."

He had requested a religious exemption so he would not have to personally raise the flag, because it represents an ideology in direct conflict with his faith.

The response was a refusal and orders to raise the flag. His division chief told him his beliefs "do not matter."

Then followed retaliation by other fire department officials who confronted him, removed him from some assignments, targeted him with pretextual complaints and talked about his religious objections to third parties.

That led to a death threat being sent to his home, the report said.

For the same mandate this year, his exemption request has been ignored.

The Thomas More Society alleges the fire county’s actions "were done with malice, fraud, oppression, and reckless disregard of Plaintiff Little’s rights." The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages and a permanent injunction against the Los Angeles County Fire Department to uphold Little’s protected rights.

Liberty Counsel is assisting the Thomas More Society to make religious accommodation resources available to several thousand Los Angeles County firefighters.

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I like to check the latest weather forecast every morning. I want to know what to expect for the day. I don't know why I do this, because I probably could predict the weather more accurately on my own. That's because bald men are always the first to know when it's raining.

Jesus warned, "When it is evening you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red'; and in the morning, 'It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.' Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times" (Matthew 16:2–3 NKJV).

And writing to the church in Thessalonica, the apostle Paul said, "But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night" (1 Thessalonians 5:1–2 NKJV).

Bible prophecy is a fascinating subject to explore. But we must never study prophecy or the events the Bible describes as happening during the end times in a merely academic way. When we read about these events, it should always move us and give us a sense of compassion, because we're reading about a real judgment that will come upon the world.

We see in the Old Testament that when God revealed to Daniel how end times events would play out, Daniel was stunned and unable to say a word. It moved him. And it should move us as well.

As we consider the nearness of Christ's return, it should cause us to want to reach out to unbelieving friends, family and loved ones. It should affect the way that we live and motivate us to live more godly lives.

John wrote, "Dear friends, we are already God's children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure" (1 John 3:2–3 NLT).

All around us are signs of the times telling us that Jesus Christ is coming back at any time. It's like a storm that is brewing. You don't know when it will happen, but you know it's coming. In the same way, we can interpret the times and the seasons. As we see what is happening in the world and the state it's in right now, we know that Christ's return is near.

Paul went on to say, "Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation" (1 Thessalonians 5:6–8 NKJV).

"Therefore let us not sleep, as others do." It seems like some people in the church are perpetually jet-lagged. They aren't watching the times and seasons. There's a passiveness, even a laziness, and a disconnect between their personal life and their spiritual life. Instead of walking in the Spirit, they're walking in their sleep.

Paul was saying, "Look, you need to awaken from your spiritual sleep, from unresponsiveness and inactivity concerning the things of God. Wake up! Pay attention!"

Sometimes we can be lulled into a spiritual slumber. We can become content, well-fed Christians as we read the Bible and go to church, constantly taking it all in. The problem is that we need an outlet for the truth we've received in our lives. God doesn't give us these truths to merely hoard. He gives us these truths to share.

"But let us watch and be sober." When I became a Christian, I met some believers who thought I needed to be more sober, because I was always joking and trying to have fun. But being sober doesn't mean that we can never smile or laugh. It simply means that we are to be clearheaded, alert and steady. It means living with our eyes open.

Some people assert that Christians are out of touch, that we are so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good. What nonsense. No one does more for the world than those who are heavenly minded. As I have often said, wherever you see great relief organizations, you see Christians reaching out to people, regardless of their beliefs or lack thereof. It is the Christians who are showing compassion in every practical way.

"But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation." The apostle Paul spent a good deal of time under house arrest, chained to a Roman soldier. He could closely observe their armor, and in this text, he mentions two pieces in particular: the breastplate and the helmet.

The breastplate generally was made of leather and protected the soldier's vital organs. And notice that Paul referred to it as a breastplate of "faith and love" not a breastplate of feelings. We are to live the Christian life by faith, not by fickle emotions that come and go. We are to have faith and love for God and his people.

Next was the helmet, which obviously was of vital importance. We need to put our helmets on and protect command central, because most temptations that come to us will come in the realm of our minds. It's in our minds that we reason, contemplate and imagine. We can reach into the past through memory and into the future through imagination. That is why we need to guard our minds.

Not only that, but "the hope of salvation" Paul referred to is the hope that salvation gives us. Our eternal destiny is secure. And we are to take the salvation that God has given us and live it out, applying it in every area of our lives as we await the return of Christ.

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James Dobson

James Dobson, founder of the James Dobson Family Institute and FamilyTalk radio, has been blunt over the years in calling out sin, including among America's leaders.

He's advised five presidents on family matters and was inducted in 2008 into the National Radio Hall of Fame. He authored more than 70 books including, "The New Dare to Discipline," "The New Strong-Willed Child," "When God Doesn’t Make Sense" and "Bringing Up Boys."

He's been called, by secular publications, the country's "most influential evangelical leader," and also helped found the high-profile Family Research Council in the 1980s.

Now he's being joined by two other leaders in his organization, Vice President of Public Policy Gary Bauer and Family Institute President Joe Waresak, in soliciting signatures on a letter calling out Joe Biden.

They right now are asking supporters to join in signing the document.

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"We write to you," they are telling Biden, "with grave concern about the radical agenda your administration is imposing on the American people. When you ran in 2020, a major theme of your campaign was to bring America together. Instead, your actions have indisputably divided the country. You and your most dedicated allies in Congress regularly demonize and dehumanize anyone who holds Judeo-Christian or conservative values, as well as anyone who dares to resist your agenda to deconstruct the morals, laws, and freedoms that have sustained our great Republic.

"Mr. President, the moral and constitutional framework that sustains our Republic is at risk of collapsing due to your ill-advised and un-American policies. We urge you and your administration to seriously consider your overwhelmingly low approval ratings and failing policies and take immediate corrective action. We, the people of the United States, expect nothing less from our leaders and will pray to this end."

And they submitted a list of Biden's actions and policies "that are irrevocably damaging our country."

He is, first of all, "threatening our democracy."

"You have weaponized federal law enforcement against your political opponents. The lawfare your allies have waged against former President Donald Trump is reminiscent of a Soviet show trial, not our constitutional Republic. We are quickly losing our moral credibility to promote freedom and democracy abroad," they charge.

Further, he's attacking the First Amendment and is "undermining" the Supreme Court," putting at risk the justices "physical safety."

He's also "undermining religious liberty."

Multiple "regulations, directives and mandates" are restricting the religious conscience rights of people and organizations, and his FBI "infiltrated and monitored Catholic churches, while your IRS harasses religious nonprofits," the letter charges.

Third, he is destroying parental rights, especially on the subject of education, and, as he's made abortion one of his major term goals, he's mobilized the whole of government to promote the deaths of the unborn in defiance of his own "expressed Catholic faith."

"This has even led to the sentencing of elderly grandmothers to multiple-year jail terms for peacefully demonstrating in line with their sincere religious beliefs," the letter explains.

He's turn racist, using rhetoric that amplifies racial divisions for political gain, and threatened the very existence of the U.S.A. by "allowing millions of people who we can't possibly 'vet' to enter our country—many from nations that are enemies of the United States."

He's threatened women with his transgender ideologies and tried to appease "campus anti-Semites and radical Islamists in Congress" through his meddling in Israel's internal policies.

He's weakened America with his forced agenda of abortion and same-sex marriage around the globe, compromised the nation's sovereignty by giving power to the World Health Organization, and his massive deficits have triggered an inflation that has exploded to 20% since he took office, threatening America's economy.

Further there are his attacks on law enforcement, and he's launched his administration on a campaign to harm the nation through a "non-scientific lie that a child can be trapped in the wrong body."

The letter is accompanied by list of references documenting the truth of the charges.

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(LIFENEWS) – A group of teen criminals in Chicago attacked a couple who were out on a date last weekend, leaving both victims injured from being beaten, and causing the pregnant wife to miscarry her child. Their crime? Walking down the street.

In an interview with a Fox32, the woman, identified only as “Nina,” said the gang of more than 10 teens walked up and began beating her husband in the head, shouting, “We own the street.”

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“They didn’t steal anything,” Nina recalled. “They said like, ‘We own the street. We own the street. You can’t walk around.’ I was wearing like a nice dress and heels. Like I was out on the date with my husband, and they dragged my dress on the ground, and they said, like, ‘we own the street. You can’t just walk around prancing in your little dress.’ And they were saying things that just didn’t make any sense to me because they don’t know me personally.”

Read the full story ›

(CROSSWALK) – In its brief history, the popular streaming series The Chosen has climbed to No. 1 at the box office and landed on the cover of major magazines. Now, fans can add another accolade to the list: No. 1 in the Apple TV App Store.

The Chosen app this week soared to the top spot in the Apple TV App Store and No. 2 in the App Store’s free app chart just as the first episode of Season 4 was released on streaming platforms.

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According to the company behind the project, in its first three days, the series amassed 3.5 million streams, representing an estimated 4.2 million viewers across U.S. households. The Chosen has experienced nearly 100 percent growth in its streaming audience compared to the release of Season 3, Episode 1.

Read the full story ›

(LIFENEWS) – A religious couple in Massachusetts took the Commonwealth to court for banning them from welcoming vulnerable children into their home through the Commonwealth’s foster care program.

In Burke v. Walsh, Mike and Kitty Burke wanted to foster and someday adopt children in need of a family. Even though Massachusetts has a foster care crisis, state officials refused to let the Burkes foster any children in the state.

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The reason was their religious beliefs about marriage, sexuality, and gender. With the help of Becket, the Burkes are asking the court to ensure that qualified families no longer suffer for their religious beliefs and that vulnerable children are given a loving home.

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(CHRISTIAN POST) – The United Methodist Church Council of Bishops has issued an official response to the news that a regional body with over 1 million members had voted to leave the denomination. The Côte d'Ivoire Conference, based in West Africa, voted last month to leave the UMC over the denomination removing rules that prohibited the blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of people in same-sex relationships from its Book of Discipline.

UMC Council of Bishops President Tracy Malone said in a statement issued Wednesday that she acknowledged the vote and the bishops were working with the conference as it becomes an autonomous church body.

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“While we grieve Cote d'Ivoire Conference’s decision to separate from The United Methodist Church, we commit to work with them through the process of becoming an Autonomous Methodist Church,” stated Malone.

Read the full story ›

(LIFENEWS) – Today Democrats in the U.S. Senate will hold a vote on Senator Ed Markey’s (D-MA) so-called “Right to Contraception Act,” more accurately titled the Payouts for Planned Parenthood Act. This misleading bill would funnel money to abortion giant Planned Parenthood, override conscience protections and create a “right” to abortion drugs.

Ahead of the vote, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser slammed the Democrats’ extremism in a statement: “While pro-life Americans celebrate two years of lives protected in the Dobbs era this June, Senate Democrats led by Chuck Schumer are planning a month-long campaign of fearmongering and demonizing pro-life protections. The Democrats’ deceptive Payouts to Planned Parenthood Act has less to do with access to contraception than with funneling taxpayer dollars to the abortion industry and crushing dissent. Contraception is legal and available in every state and Congress funds contraception through numerous federal programs every year.

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“With this bill, the devil is in the details. It requires taxpayers to bail out profit-driven abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood, where expectant mothers are sold abortions 97% of the time. It could even go so far as to create a ‘right’ to abortion drugs. It’s clear the Democrats’ priority is not helping women, but helping the abortion lobby that spends millions to get them elected.”

Read the full story ›

(LIFENEWS) – In 2023, there were 16 abortions reported in West Virginia, a decrease of 98% from the previous year. There was similarly a drop of 98% in drug-induced abortions between 2022 (403 drug-induced abortions) and 2023 (10 drug-induced abortions). Drug-induced abortions constituted 63% of the total in 2023. The Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) estimates that West Virginia’s 2023 abortion rate was 0.1 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44, down 98.1% from 2022 (Fig. 2).1 As of May 2024, 6 states have released 2023 abortion statistics, four of which reported that abortions decreased from the previous year.

In 2023, 75% of abortions performed in West Virginia were on state residents and 25% were on women from other states. Of the nonresident abortions, one was performed on an Ohio resident and three were performed on Pennsylvania residents. Thirteen percent of the abortions each were performed on girls ages 15 to 19 and women ages 20 to 24. Nineteen percent were performed on women ages 25-29 while 50% were performed on women ages 30-34. One abortion was performed on a woman whose age was 40 or older.

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In 2023, two abortions were performed at 8 weeks of gestation or earlier and another two were performed at 11 to 12 weeks of gestation. Six abortions were performed between 16 and 19 weeks of gestation. Five abortions were performed at 20 weeks of gestation or later while one abortion was performed at an unknown gestational age.

Read the full story ›

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]

By Elizabeth Troutman
The Daily Signal

When 75-year-old Paulette Harlow was sentenced to 24 months in prison on Friday for attempting to dissuade women from getting abortions, she felt thankful—despite her chronic health conditions.

“I went to the sentencing, and I felt very confident, and I felt very joyful, and I felt like it was a tremendous privilege to stand in the court on behalf of the unborn, who have no voice,” she told The Daily Signal. 

The jury found Harlow guilty in November under the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and of a civil rights conspiracy. The FACE Act prohibits “violent, threatening, damaging, and obstructive conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with the right to seek, obtain, or provide reproductive health services.”

Harlow’s lawyer has filed an appeal of the verdict.

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The FACE Act prohibits the use of force, obstruction, or property damage intended to interfere with “reproductive health care services.” Though it theoretically protects houses of worship and pregnancy resource centers, as well as abortion clinics, the Biden administration’s Justice Department has largely used FACE to prosecute pro-life activists like Harlow.

Harlow said she sat and prayed in October 2020 at the Washington Surgi-Clinic, which Dr. Cesare Santangelo ran at the time. Pro-life advocacy group Live Action once recorded Santangelo saying he “would not help” a baby in the rare event the baby was born alive during a late-term abortion procedure.

“We prayed, we sang music, and we called out to some of the women and told them not to be afraid, that we could help them, that they could still change their mind, and that we love them,” said Harlow, a resident of Kingston, Massachusetts, about 35 miles southeast of Boston.

The same federal judge who sentenced the other eight pro-lifers who protested at the clinic to a combined 23 years also sentenced Harlow, who will turn 76 on June 23. Harlow’s co-defendants received similar sentences, ranging from 10 months to five years.

At the end of the trial, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia reportedly said to Harlow that she should “make an effort to remain alive” as that is a “tenet of faith,” Live Action reported.

“Taunting an elderly woman about potentially dying alone in prison is disgraceful,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told The Daily Signal. “Clinton Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly disgraced the justice system with this remark and with this decision.” Kollar-Kotelly, now 81, was appointed to the federal district court by then-President Bill Clinton in 1997.

Harlow said she and her friends have been praying for the judge since the beginning of the trial.

The Department of Justice released a statement saying Harlow and the other eight pro-lifers “engaged in a conspiracy to create a blockade at the reproductive health care clinic to prevent the clinic from providing, and patients from receiving, reproductive health services.”

The pro-lifers “forcefully entered the clinic and set about blockading two clinic doors using their bodies, furniture, chains, and ropes,” the statement claims. An hour-and-a-half-long video of the “rescue mission” showed no signs of violence, however.

The DOJ did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.

Operation Rescue Boston, which Harlow is part of, is a pro-life organization that “relies on the Grace of God and employ[s] nonviolent, First Amendment-protected means of expression,” according to its website.

Harlow, who suffers from diabetes; Hashimoto’s disease, an inflammatory thyroid condition; and severe back pains, said that while she is not afraid to go to prison, she has serious concerns about her health. She doubts there is a prison facility that could accommodate her conditions.

The mother of six and grandmother of eight is currently under house arrest while she awaits the decision on the prison where she’ll spend the next two years.

“I’m not sure that they would be able to take care of all the things my husband takes care of full time,” she said. “I’m in pain all the time, and I can’t really take a lot of pain medication because of my liver, and so, I have to be very careful with what medications. And there’s a lot of times I’m not able to sleep, and I have to sleep during the day, and I don’t know how that would work with the noise of the prison.”

But Harlow is not scared about what will happen to her. She takes comfort in the charge of Pope John Paul II, who instructed: “Be not afraid.”

“I know that wherever I go, God’s going with me, and he’s going before me, and he’ll be with me, and he’ll protect me, and he’ll fill me with joy, like he did in the courtroom,” she said. “I just felt very joy-filled.”

When asked if she would like prayer for her upcoming sentence, Harlow instead requested that people pray for unborn babies and mothers in vulnerable situations.

“I’ll be OK,” she said. “I’m with God. I have a wonderful husband, wonderful friends and family, and supporters all over the place. Pray for those mothers that do not have that kind of support and go up to the abortion clinics.”

Though Harlow is a devout Catholic, she says stopping abortion is not a matter of religion.

“It’s what God tells us to do, but it’s just a matter of humanity,” she said. “Why would any country be killing off their own?”

Mary Margaret Olohan contributed to this report.

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]

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Violence erupts at UCLA amid anti-Israel protests on Tuesday, April 30, 2024.

College campuses in the United States became the scene of pro-Palestinian "protests" starting immediately after Hamas terrorists from Gaza invaded Israel and butchered some 1,200 civilians, often through horrific torture like burning whole families together, last Oct. 7.

Now two of the organizations that orchestrated those "protests" are being sued.

For being propagandists for those Hamas terrorists.

A report from CBN explains the lawsuit filed in Virginia accuses American Muslims for Palestine and National Students for Justice in Palestine, both of whom espouse anti-Semitic views, of collaborating with Hamas terrorists to be their "propaganda division" in America.

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Arsen Ostrovsky, of the Jerusalem-based International Legal Forum, told CBN, "These groups are the primary drivers of what we're seeing happening across campuses in the United States, which have effectively become a second front Hamas since October seventh."

He is working in conjunction with Greenberg, Traurig, a U.S. legal team, and the National Jewish Advocacy Group.

"They are acting and serving in collaboration and coordination with Hamas, essentially as propagandists and collaborators on campus to try and promote the Hamas extremist ideology," he said.

Anti-Semitic "demonstrations" began at Columbia University right after Hamas' terror attack on Israel, and have spread from coast to coast.

Anti-Israel protests at Columbia University on Sunday, April 21, 2024

"Hamas issued a call to action. And the very next day, SJP and their affiliates throughout the United States – they answered that call. They answered that directive. They created a toolkit, a manifesto for chapters across the United States, echoing the language, the terminology, the instructions by the Hamas terror group, and propagated that across campuses," Ostrovsky explained to CBN.

The cases charges that those groups have become foot soldiers for Hamas.

"There are nine plaintiffs, including Americans and Israelis as well," Ostrovsky said, seeking compensation for the damages done.

They include victims and survivors of the Nova massacre.

The legal fight includes the goal of shutting down the groups by documenting their violations of the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act.

"They are the ones fomenting the hatred, the anti-Semitism, the harassment of Jewish students," Ostrovsky said. "We need to shut them down. And we can do that legally by branding them as a terrorist organization, as a collaborator of the Hamas terror group, and making sure once and for all they cannot be active on campus."

Muslim terrorists with Hamas fire a barrage of rockets against Israel on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023

He said ultimately the fight will be not only on physical battlefields, but also in courtrooms.

"Today what we're seeing is that the state of Israel is being demonized and vilified and delegitimized and painted as a pariah. Where we're seeing the international law not only being misused but being turned into an act of lawfare against us for the simple act of defending our citizens, trying to bring back our captives," Ostrovsky stated.

He said not only to terrorists in Hamas need to be held accountable, so do those who enable the agenda, that support them.

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(FAITHWIRE) -- After the release of survey data giving Christians a “good reason for hope” when it comes to the Gospel’s impact on young people, the researcher behind the data is offering some helpful context.

Dr. John Plake, chief program officer at the American Bible Society, told CBN News 21% of Generation Z adults said in his organization’s annual “State of the Bible” survey that “they’ve actually increased their use of the Bible within the last year.”

This is notable considering the ongoing discussion about generational replacement and younger Americans being less faithful than previous generations.

Read the full story ›

(Photo by Joe Kovacs)

(LIFEWAY) -- Almost a decade after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage across the country, most pastors remain opposed, and the supporting percentage isn’t growing any larger.

One in 5 U.S. Protestant pastors (21%) say they see nothing wrong with two people of the same gender getting married, according to a Lifeway Research study. Three in 4 (75%) are opposed, including 69% who strongly disagree with same-sex marriage. Another 4% say they aren’t sure.

Previous Lifeway Research studies found growing support among pastors. In 2010, 15% of U.S. Protestant pastors had no moral issues with the practice. The percentage in favor grew to 24% in 2019. Today, support is statistically unchanged at 21%.

Read the full story ›

(Photo by Joe Kovacs)

(FAITHWIRE) -- In the aftermath of former President Donald Trump’s unprecedented conviction, controversial Pastor Mark Driscoll began pleading on social media for Jesus’ return ahead of Election Day in November.

“Lord Jesus, we would humbly request that you return before November 5,” he wrote on X.

@pastormarkdriscoll My thoughts on the election. . To be honest, if you're filled with the Holy Spirit it's obvious the options stink. Unfortunately, that's reality. Make an effort to maintain sobriety despite the difficulty. . For more content like this check out the link in my bio. #election #politics #culture ♬ original sound - Pastor Mark Driscoll

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee was convicted last Thursday on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up an alleged sex scandal that could have negatively impacted his 2016 campaign.

Read the full story ›

Gov. Jared Polis, D-Colo., performs his own rendition of 'Feliz Navidad' on Christmas Eve 2023

For at least the third time, the state of Colorado's anti-Christian agenda has been cited – and condemned – by the federal courts.

The latest ruling said the state broke the law by excluding Catholic preschools from a universal preschool program – solely because those schools consider religious affiliate in making enrollment decisions.

It is the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty that explained a federal court ruling cites the state's illegal exclusion of those preschools from a program that funds 15 hours per week of free preschool to more than 40,000 families.

During its first year, it benefited families with children in private, public and faith-based preschools.

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But leftist activists inside the state's bureaucracy refused to authorize benefits to families who sent their children to St. Mary's and St. Bernadette's Catholic preschools because those institutions ask families to share their Catholic beliefs.

The court found, in its 101-page opinion, that the state's discrimination "created an unworkable scheme that breaches the appropriate limits on state power."

The court found the state had "no compelling interest" in its discriminatory policy.

"Last year, a different federal judge in Denver also issued a ruling against the state, in a case brought by a separate religious preschool raising similar claims," Becket reported.

"Of course a Catholic school shouldn’t be punished for caring about its students’ religion," explained Nick Reaves, a Becket lawyer. "Colorado richly deserves this injunction, as it did the earlier one."

The schools explained the state's discrimination violated the Free Exercise, Free Speech and Establishment clauses of the First Amendment.

Integral to the state's agenda is that it demands schools incorporate sexual orientation and gender identity ideologies into their programs. The state has plunged headfirst into that ideology since the election of homosexual Gov. Jared Polis.

The judge said, "The department has allowed faith-based providers to deny children and families equal opportunity based on their religious affiliation, or lack thereof, and has cited no compelling interest for permitting that discrimination while denying plaintiffs’ request for a related exemption. On that narrow basis, I conclude defendants have violated plaintiffs’ free-exercise rights and that judgment in favor of plaintiffs is warranted. I consequently grant Plaintiffs relief in the form of a limited permanent injunction, declaratory judgment, and nominal damages."

It ruled, "The court immediately and permanently enjoins defendants Lisa Roy and Dawn Odean, acting in their official capacities on behalf of the Colorado Department of Early Childhood, from requiring, as a condition for participation in the Colorado Universal Preschool Program, that the preschools operated by plaintiffs St. Mary Catholic Parish in Littleton and St. Bernadette Catholic Parish in Lakewood agreed to provide or provide eligible children an equal opportunity to enroll and receive preschool services regardless of religious affiliation for as long as defendants allow exceptions from the religious affiliation aspect of the equal-opportunity requirement set out in [state law] and in the Colkorado Universial Preschool Program Service Agreement.

The defendants were ordered to pay $1 nominal damages.

The total hasn't been announced, but Colorado taxpayers likely won't get off so easily in the attacks on Christianity earlier, under the administration of Polis.

It recently lost the 303 Creative case at the U.S. Supreme Court.

There, state officials demanded that a Christian web designer follow the state's anti-Christian "non-discrimination" mandate and promote events that violated the web designer's faith.

A judge recently ruled that the state – the taxpayers – must pay the costs and fees for the plaintiff in that caser.

Such cases, by the time they are all the way through the high court, can accumulate tens, or even hundreds, of thousands of dollars in lawyers' time and costs.

The leftist state's failed attack was on Lorie Smith and her 303 Creative company, through which she intended to create websites for couples being married.

However, the state demanded that should she begin that service, she also must provide the same services to same-sex duos, in violation of her Christian faith.

She sued for the First Amendment violation demanded by the state, and won.

The state earlier lost a similar battle with Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, who challenged the state's "non-discrimination" plan that also would require him to promote ideologies that violate his Christian faith.

In that case, the Supreme Court specifically cited Colorado's "hostility" to Christianity under Polis.

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(JNS) -- Nathan Weeden, 24, was sentenced to 26 months in prison and three subsequent months of supervised release on Tuesday for conspiring to discriminate against Jews and black people and for vandalizing a synagogue.

The Houghton, Mich., man, who is a member of the white supremacist gang The Base, did more than just destroy property, stated Larissa Knapp, executive assistant director of the FBI’s National Security Branch.

“The FBI will not accept hate-driven threats of violence intended to emotionally and/or physically harm victims and will rigorously investigate anyone conspiring to vandalize houses of worship and intimidate others from safely practicing their religion,” she said.

Read the full story ›

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]

By Tyler O'Neil
The Daily Signal

The Left’s main smear organ has targeted an openly gay organization and groups of doctors who oppose “gender-affirming care” in efforts to silence opposition to the transgender agenda and drag queen story hours.

The Southern Poverty Law Center released its “Year in Hate and Extremism” report Tuesday, warning about encroaching “theocracy” and an “authoritarian takeover” as part of the “organizational infrastructure … upholding white supremacy in the United States.”

As I explain in my book, “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center,” the SPLC gained fame by suing the Ku Klux Klan into bankruptcy. It later took the project it used to monitor the Klan and weaponized it against mainstream conservative and Christian nonprofits, putting them on a “hate map” along with Klan chapters.

On Tuesday, the SPLC raised the alarm about having “documented 86 active anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups—about 33% higher than 2022, and the highest number ever recorded by the SPLC.”

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Of course, the SPLC isn’t “documenting” these “hate groups”—it’s smearing organizations by comparing them to the real hate of the Klan. By warning about the “increase” of “anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups,” it is ratcheting up the alarmist rhetoric and demonizing Americans who dare to dissent from its transgender agenda. It’s also scaring donors into ponying up cash in what a former SPLC employee described as a “highly profitable scam.”

Most of the increase in its count of “anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups” comes from the SPLC’s decision to add state-based family policy councils, groups of doctors who oppose transgender medical interventions, and chapters of the group Gays Against Groomers to the list. These groups don’t support “hate”—they merely oppose the SPLC’s agenda.

The SPLC added to the list policy groups that oppose radical laws to promote transgender identity. These groups support legislation to ensure that males cannot enter women’s restrooms, locker rooms, and prisons in the name of gender identity; legislation to protect children from “gender-affirming care” that may sterilize them; and legislation to prevent schools from hiding children’s “transgender” identity from parents.

These new “hate groups” are: Advocates Protecting Children in Virginia, the California Policy Council, the Center for Christian Virtue in Ohio, the Child and Parent Rights Campaign in Georgia, the Family Action Council of Tennessee, the Florida Family Policy Council, Frontline Policy Council in Georgia, the Louisiana Family Forum, Massachusetts Family Institute, the Montana Family Foundation, Pennsylvania Family Institute, and the Family Foundation of Virginia.

SPLC headquarters in Montgomery, Alabama

The SPLC also demonized groups of doctors who oppose experimental “transgender” medical interventions. These interventions, euphemistically referred to as “gender-affirming care,” involve drugs to block puberty, cross-sex hormones to make males seem female and vice versa, and surgeries to remove healthy reproductive organs. While much of the medical industry has been captured by gender ideologues who champion these interventions, many brave doctors have spoken out against them. Now, they find themselves on a map with the Klan in a report on “white supremacy.”

These groups include Do No Harm, Genspect, Partners for Ethical Care, and the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine.

The “Year in Hate” report also cites another report the SPLC released last year that demonized opposition to transgender orthodoxy as “pseudoscience” and a tool of “theocracy.”

In an ironic twist of fate, the SPLC also added an explicitly homosexual group to the anti-LGBTQ+ category this year: Gays Against Groomers. The group began as a Twitter account created by Jaimee Michell, and according to the SPLC, it has four chapters. The headquarters in Milwaukee has three offshoots in Missouri, North Carolina, and Washington.

Michell started Gays Against Groomers to warn against the sexualization of children and to highlight the fact that not all people who identify as LGBTQ+ support sexual lessons and events geared toward kids. The SPLC condemns Gays Against Groomers for making “amplifying anti-trans and anti-drag messaging key to its online and in-person activity.”

The SPLC dismisses any concern that LGBTQ+ lessons and events might sexualize children and make them vulnerable to abuse. In fact, the report on “Hate and Extremism” trumpets the phenomenon referred to as “Drag Queen Story Hour,” in which scantily clad men in exaggerated feminine dress and makeup read books to children.

“Drag, which often challenges strict adherence to binary gender roles, poses a problem for hate and antigovernment groups because it offers freedom from the restrictive ideologies they espouse,” the SPLC’s R.G. Cravens claims.

He also argues that “drag performs an important role in American democracy in addition to its artistic value,” because “drag artists” can use their platform to “educate people on the importance of voting and other forms of democratic engagement.”

Cravens never admits the sexualized nature of Drag Queen Story Hour. Instead, he demonizes opposition to it by suggesting that it is rooted in hatred. He claims that “the activities of anti-LGBTQ+ groups overlapped with white nationalist, neo-Nazi, antisemitic, and antigovernment groups who targeted LGBTQ+ people and events for intimidation and violent campaigns designed to drive LGBTQ+ people from public life.”

He also suggests that any criticism of drag’s hyper-sexualized interpretation of femininity is rooted in knuckle-dragging misogyny.

“By upending the notion that women are inherently feminine and men are inherently masculine, for example, drag challenges long-held sexist notions that women are a ‘weaker sex’ who should be subservient to men because they are only valuable for procreation,” Cravens writes.

Cravens claims the SPLC tracked “195 incidents of right-wing protesters targeting drag events across the country” in 2023, suggesting these protests were violent. He mentions isolated incidents of real violence unconnected to any of the mainstream organizations the SPLC brands “anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups.”

The SPLC again kept many mainstream conservative Christian groups on the list of “anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups,” most notably the law firm Alliance Defending Freedom and the think tank Family Research Council.

Alliance Defending Freedom has won numerous cases at the U.S. Supreme Court, including free speech and religious freedom cases like 303 Creative v. Elenis and Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. Even Alliance Defending Freedom’s ideological opponents, such as former American Civil Liberties Union President Nadine Strossen, have condemned the SPLC’s smear against the law firm.

Both Alliance Defending Freedom and the Family Research Council have repeatedly debunked the SPLC’s accusations against them, yet the SPLC continues to repeat its claims.

In 2012, the Family Research Council suffered a terrorist attack from a man who used the SPLC “hate map” to target the organization. While the SPLC condemned the attack, it has kept the Family Research Council on the map.

Last year, the SPLC added parental rights groups—including Moms for Liberty—to the “hate map,” in part because they oppose transgender lessons in school.

The SPLC has suffered many scandals. It paid more than $3 million to settle a defamation lawsuit from a Muslim reformer the SPLC had branded an “anti-Muslim extremist” in 2018. It fired its co-founder, Morris Dees, amid a racial discrimination and sexual harassment scandal in 2019. Even so, many legacy media outlets, Democrats, and companies use the SPLC as an arbiter of what is considered “hate.” The Biden administration has repeatedly worked with the SPLC, with a Justice Department division listening to an SPLC briefing on the “hate map.”

The SPLC owes its bread and butter to demonizing conservatives, and no one should take its claims at face value.

(PAGE SIX) -- Evangeline Lilly is done with acting for now.

The “Lost” alum, 44, announced her retirement via Instagram Monday, saying she’s “so filled with joy and contentment” and ready to “live out [her] vision.”

“Praise God, I feel so grateful for my blessings. Stepping away from what seems like the obvious choice (wealth and fame) can feel scary at times, but stepping into your dharma replaces the fear with fulfillment,” the actress captioned a nearly 20-year-old video of herself.

Read the full story ›

On the set of "The Chosen," from left, Kian Kavousi as James, George Harrison Xanthis as John, director Dallas Jenkins, and Jonathan Roumie as Jesus.

(FAITHWIRE) -- The creator of “The Chosen,” the hit TV show about Jesus and his followers, hopes the series’ lasting legacy is one focused on helping people know and “love Jesus more.”

“We’re seeing people all over the world [who are] telling us, ‘I know Jesus more. I love Jesus more. I’m reading my Bible more than ever because of the show,'” creator and director Dallas Jenkins told CBN News. “If that continues, there’s nothing greater than that.”

Jenkins, who spoke Sunday on the red carpet at the KLOVE Fan Awards in Nashville, Tennessee, also addressed some of the lessons he’s learned while making “The Chosen” over the past seven years.

Read the full story ›

Katy Perry

(FAITHWIRE) -- Over the weekend, pop singer Katy Perry posted an edited version of Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker’s recent commencement address, during which he criticized President Joe Biden, so-called “Pride month,” and LGBT lifestyles.

Perry, a former judge on ABC’s “American Idol,” seemingly took issue with some of the LGBT-related comments Butker made during his mid-May graduation speech at Benedictine College, a small Catholic school in Atchison, Kansas.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by KATY PERRY (@katyperry)

The part of Butker’s address that garnered the most attention centered on his statements about women. He told the female graduates gathered for commencement that, ultimately, careers will be unfulfilling in comparison to becoming wives and mothers.

(See the original, unedited speech:)

Read the full story ›

Anti-Israel protests at Columbia University on Sunday, April 21, 2024

By Kate Anderson
Daily Caller News Foundation

A Columbia University alum has decided to ditch his alma mater by giving a $260 million donation to an Israeli university as protests continue to plague the ivy league college’s campus, according to a Monday announcement.

The donation was given to Bar-Ilan University in Israel, a public research university, by an American Jewish donor who was active in World War II, according to the announcement from Bar-Ilan’s President Prof. Arie Zaban during a Board of Trustees meeting. The donor, who wished to remain anonymous, formerly attended Columbia, which has been rocked by weeks of pro-Palestinian protests that have led to arrests and violent clashes with police.

“The donor, a man of broad academic education, believed that the development of Israel’s technological resilience relies primarily on breakthrough science,” Zaban said in the announcement. “During his visits to Israel, he recognized the significant impact Bar-Ilan University has made in key areas thanks to its science-based infrastructure and deep connections to all sectors of Israeli society.”

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The donation will be used to develop “Deep Tech sciences” in the “energy, environment, cryptography, bio-convergence, quantum, AI, and natural language processing” fields, according to the announcement.

“We have a mission,” Zaban told the university’s board, according to the announcement. “Today, more than ever, Israel needs support and investment in its science and human capital. Our research-driven technological resilience is the key to a thriving society and economy.”

Amid weeks of tension on American university campuses, centering largely around Columbia, pro-Palestinian protesters have demanded that the university completely divest from Israel in opposition to its war with the terrorist organization Hamas. Columbia was forced to cancel their main commencement ceremony in May due to safety concerns and ongoing protests and police just recently broke up another encampment on school grounds over the weekend.

Other universities have also been chastised by donors for allowing the protests to get out of hand. Barry Sternlicht, a real estate mogul, called out his alma mater, Brown University, in May for conceding to protesters by agreeing to discuss divestment options, according to The New York Times.

Top donors to Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania also threatened to pull donations in protest of the universities’ administrations’ tepid response to the protests, according to CNN.

Columbia declined to comment.

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(CHRISTIAN POST) -- Police in Mitchell, South Dakota, are investigating after Congregational United Church of Christ, an LGBT-affirming congregation planning to host a gay pride event this month, was vandalized with Scripture on Thursday night.

The church's vandalism was first noticed around 8 a.m. last Friday morning by individuals from law offices across the street from the church, according to Dakota News Now. The vandals spray painted Leviticus 18:22 on the walls and sidewalk of the church in red multiple times. They also urged the congregants to “repent” in their message.

Leviticus 18:22, which condemns same-sex relationships, states: “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.”

Read the full story ›

A new ruling on Monday from the Texas Supreme Court means a lower court's expansion of abortion permissions is being rolled back.

"The Texas Supreme Court has ruled that the state's constitution and abortion law protect both a mother and her unborn child," explained Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver after the decision.

His organization has fought on behalf of the pro-life movement in courts across the country.

"The pro-abortion industry is sowing confusion where the law is clear. Doctors can use their 'reasonable medical judgment' based on best practices to treat pregnant women experiencing a life-threatening condition. Texas law is on the side of life."

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The high court ruling, 9-0, rejected claims by pro-abortion interests that the near-total state abortion ban be opened up so that they could do more abortions.

Liberty Counsel explained, "The case centers around about 20 women who say they were denied emergency abortions when their doctors were uncertain about what the state’s 'Human Life Protection Act' allowed them to do in certain medical cases. The plaintiffs, which includes women and their doctors, complained the exception was 'confusing,' as well as 'unconstitutional' if the law did not allow abortion under a broader set of pregnancy complications."

A lower court had claimed that the precedent should be a "good faith belief" that there was any life-threatening issue, not the statutory "reasonable medical judgment."

The high court, however, rejected the agenda.

"Texas law permits a life-saving abortion," the ruling said. "The law permits a physician to intervene to address a woman’s life-threatening physical condition before death or serious physical impairment are imminent."

Explained Liberty Counsel "The state high court also expressly addressed the challengers’ confusion about what is allowed under the law. The court stated that any physician who tells a pregnant patient they 'may die' or suffer 'substantial physical impairment' without an abortion, and 'in the same breath,' says the law will not allow it 'is simply wrong in that legal assessment.' The court emphasized a mother need not be in 'imminent peril' or 'first suffer' impairment for doctors to intervene."

But the court ruling said, "The current law, however, plainly does not permit abortion based solely on a diagnosis that an unborn child has an abnormal condition, even a life-limiting one. An unborn child’s diagnosis must be coupled with reasonable medical judgment that the mother has a life-threatening physical condition…or serious physical impairment."

Further the ruling noted the state's historical commitment to protecting the unborn, commenting, "The history of abortion regulation in Texas demonstrates the Legislature’s unmistakable commitment to protecting the lives of pregnant women experiencing life-threatening complications while also valuing and protecting unborn life."

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Joseph's Tomb in Israel restored in April 2022 after vandalism by Muslim rioters (Photo courtesy Naftali Bennett/X)

(JNS) -- A haredi Jew sustained minor wounds in a Palestinian attack overnight Sunday as he tried to enter Nablus (Shechem) in Samaria to pray at the Joseph’s Tomb site on the outskirts of the city.

The man, who was part of a group that had attempted to reach the site without approval of the Israel Defense Forces, was rescued by Palestinian Authority police, who released him into IDF custody.

The victim was treated on the spot for wounds to his face and evacuated to Rabin Medical Center’s Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah.

Read the full story ›

By Kate Anderson
Daily Caller News Foundation

Roughly two years since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court will hand down two rulings this month that could have major implications for the legality of abortion.

Since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling in 2022, many states have placed stricter bans on abortion, while President Joe Biden’s administration has made efforts to broaden access to the procedure. The Supreme Court is now weighing two cases, one to resolve tension between federal and state law on abortion restrictions, and another on whether or not the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) put women at risk by approving abortion pill prescriptions without a doctor visit.

The first case involves a law in the state of Idaho banning abortions entirely, with limited exceptions to save the life of the mother or in cases of rape and incest. In November 2022, the Department of Justice sued the state, claiming that the ban violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) passed by Congress in 1986, which prohibits hospitals from turning away patients having a medical emergency.

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The DOJ argued before the Court in April that the law would prevent doctors from performing an emergency abortion out of fear of being prosecuted by the state. Justice Samuel Alito questioned the strength of the argument, noting that EMTALA requires doctors to provide emergency care to protect both the mother and the unborn child. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar replied that Congress never intended for the law to be used to prevent an abortion for a woman “facing grave life and health consequences.”

“[EMTALA] tells us that Congress wanted to expand the protections for pregnant women so they could get the same duties to screen and stabilize when they have a condition that is threatening the health and wellbeing of the unborn child,” Prelogar said. “But what it doesn’t suggest is that Congress simultaneously displaced the independent, preexisting obligation to treat a woman who herself is facing grave life and health consequences.”

The Biden administration, however, is using EMTALA to override a state’s right to regulate abortion per the Dobbs decision, according to Kristi Hamrick, vice president of media and policy for Students for Life, who spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation

“What Idaho is saying is that ‘We see the mother and child both as patients and abortion is not healthcare. If your healthcare kills people on purpose, you’re doing it wrong. We’re not turning people away. We’re offering stabilizing care and treating two patients.’  And the state is well within its rights to do so,”

Supreme Court justices also heard oral arguments in March for a second case regarding the FDA’s relaxed regulations on abortion pill prescriptions. A group of doctors from the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine filed a lawsuit in 2022 arguing that FDA regulations allowing abortion pills to be shipped in the mail and prescribed without an in-person doctor visit put women at risk of serious complications that could require emergency treatment and surgery.

The lawsuit claimed that the FDA failed to go through the proper procedures to ensure that the new protocols would not create an increased risk to the patient’s health.

Doctors further argued that the FDA’s rules would require medical professionals who object to abortions to violate their conscience by surgically completing an abortion after a woman suffered complications.

The justices, however, appeared skeptical that the doctors had standing to bring the case, with Justice Elena Kagan noting that a lot of hospitals have “mechanisms in place” already to allow them to recuse themselves from certain procedures.

As with Dobbs case, both court opinions have the potential to dramatically change the political and legal landscape surrounding abortion. The real question, however, is whether or not the rulings handed down are of sound legal judgment or merely an attempt to politicize the law, according to Thomas Jipping, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies.

“Unfortunately, in a lot of different ways, abortion seems to change the way we look at everything. In the Idaho case, you have a federal statute versus a state statute and in the other case, you have federal regulations involved,” Jipping told the DCNF. “Courts should look at those objectively and impartially, figure out what they mean, how they apply to the facts of the case, and that’s it. Those decisions are neither right nor wrong because pro-lifers or pro-abortion advocates like them. We are losing the ability to separate those and it’s politicizing the law, which I think it’s a very dangerous trend.”

The DOJ and FDA did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

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(INDEPENDENT SENTINEL) – The daughter of The View” co-host Sunny Hostin celebrated her graduation from her $63,000-a-year New York City prep school, wishing for the complete destruction of Israel. She was mocking her Jewish peers. For a member of the Democrat elite who always scream about alleged Republican hate, this is the real hate.

“Now that I got my diploma: FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA, PALESTINE WILL BE FREE,” Paloma Hostin wrote in a Snapchat post obtained and shared on X by StopAntisemitism. That expression clearly calls for the destruction of Israel and the death of any Jew to make it happen.

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“And to all the mfs who screenshotted my stories and showed them to your parents trying to get me suspended or expelled, look at me now,” she continued.

Read the full story ›

(NEW YORK POST) – One of the top private schools in the country has “devolved” into a “hotbed of Jew-hate,” parents charge. A Jewish student who graduated from the Ethical Fieldston School in the Bronx was tormented by classmates calling him an “ethnic cleaner” and a “colonizer” and even witnessed a teacher give rabbis the middle finger at an assembly, according to his mom.

“Fieldston is a hotbed of Jew-hate and these terror-supporting students are the epitome of the ‘trigger warning’ generation,” Dr. Logan Levkoff said in an Instagram post.

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Levkoff’s Tuesday post came in response to a student letter that defended a classmate accused of vandalizing the school with anti-Israel graffiti and bashed Jewish parents. It claimed the parents were “intimidating” them and “suppressing” ideas not in line with “Zionist ideology.”

Read the full story ›

(RVM NEWS) – There was a massive outpouring of support after a pro-life diaper company announced its donation to the Diller family. EveryLife has stepped up to support the family of fallen NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller. They have pledged a lifetime supply of diapers and wipes to his family following his tragic death.

“At EveryLife, we believe in supporting families and honoring the sacrifices of those who serve their communities,” said Sarah Gabel Seifert, co-founder and president of EveryLife, in a statement. “When we heard about the tragic loss of Officer Diller and the young son he left behind, we knew we had to help in any way we could.”

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Officer Diller, 31, was shot and killed in Queens on Monday, March 25, during a traffic stop. The suspect, Guy Rivera, 34, who had 21 prior arrests, is charged with murder. Diller leaves behind his wife, Stephanie, and their 15-month-old son, Ryan. Diller’s wife, Stephanie, delivered a powerful eulogy at her husband’s funeral.

Read the full story ›

(CHRISTIAN POST) – A regional body of the United Methodist Church with approximately 1 million members has voted to leave the mainline denomination over its acceptance of gay marriage and noncelibate gay clergy.

The Côte d'Ivoire Conference based in West Africa voted earlier this week to leave the UMC after the denomination's decision to remove rules banning the blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of people in romantic same-sex relationships from its Book of Discipline. With approximately a million members, the conference was one of the largest regional bodies within the worldwide denomination, according to UM News.

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The approved decision argues that "the new United Methodist Church has preferred to sacrifice its honorability and integrity to honor the LGBT" and that "the new United Methodist Church is now based on sociocultural and contextual values which have consumed its doctrinal and disciplinary integrity."

Read the full story ›

2022 March for Life

The top law enforcement agent in Washington state, the attorney general, has called a halt to his own extremist campaign against two faith-based, pro-life nonprofits after being told his "investigation" was illegal.

Officials with ADF explain that AG Bob Ferguson had been demanding privileged records and international documents from Obria Group and Obria Medical Clinics.

He had singled them out for targeting because he disagreed with their "life-affirming views," the organization explained.

"No one should be investigated by the government simply because they hold views the government doesn't like. We’re pleased Washington's attorney general has ceased his unlawful investigation into our clients, and that Obria Group and Obria Medical Clinics PNW will be free to continue their life-saving work in the community," explained Lincoln Wilson, a lawyer with ADF.

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"We look forward to a ruling from the court confirming that the attorney general unlawfully targeted and harassed these clinics because of their pro-life stance. The Constitution protects Obria medical clinics, and all other pro-life organizations, to freely speak their beliefs, exercise their faith, and continue compassionately serving women and couples facing difficult pregnancy circumstances," he said.

ADF had brought a lawsuit against Ferguson, prompting him to shut down his review.

Ferguson previously had claimed that he wasn't harming the clinics.

However, the ADF report revealed, "one of the clinics showed that Ferguson’s investigation caused it to lose insurance coverage and to pay seven times more for replacement coverage."

That prompted Ferguson to formally close his investigation.

His demands had included that the organizations provide documentation, "for a time period exceeding 13 years," as well as answers to various questions for Ferguson's investigation into "possible" consumer protection violations.

The broadside against the organizations was just part of what appears to be a nationwide move to bludgeon pro-life centers.

Attorneys general from New Jersey and California also have created controversy because of their lawsuits against pro-lifers.

They claim that the centers are "misleading" women about abortion.

Earlier, the ADF's Gabriella McIntyre told the Daily Caller News Foundation. "We’re seeing this as part of a larger trend of hostility towards pro-life organizations and particularly towards pro-life pregnancy centers across the nation.

"These attorneys general are targeting and harassing pregnancy centers, because of their religious and pro-life views. They are using their consumer protection authority to accomplish their purpose, which is clearly to divert and impede the mission of these organizations to serve women and families, and instead shift their focus to complying with these unfounded and unjustified demands.”

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Christian dad and pro-life activist Mark Houck testifies to Congress on Tuesday, May 16, 2023. (Video screenshot)

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

By Cassy Fiano-Chesser
Live Action News

Sidewalk counselor Mark Houck was arrested after his home was raided in September of 2022 by 15-20 armed FBI agents, in front of his terrified children. Houck filed suit against the Department of Justice (DOJ) in November, and now the pro-life organization 40 Days for Life is joining him.

Houck’s arrest stemmed from an altercation outside of a Planned Parenthood in 2021, during which a regular abortion facility escort allegedly accosted Houck’s 12-year-old son, though there were no clients present at the abortion facility at the time. Houck said he had to physically push the escort to get him away from his son. Despite the fact that lower courts did not charge Houck, the FBI responded by showing up in the early morning hours at Houck’s house in 2022, and charged him with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for assaulting an escort. He was eventually acquitted of all charges, but the entire ordeal was traumatizing for his family.

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“All of the children were screaming,” Ryan-Marie, Houck’s wife, said in an interview with Live Action founder and president Lila Rose. “My son was saying, ‘You can’t take him. He’s my best friend.’ My daughter Therese was really a mess after she saw the people in the back of the house… It was seven kids running around screaming and crying and grabbing onto my legs.”

Houck, who was shackled and chained to a table for six hours, added, “[It was] an act of terror designed to humiliate, intimidate and instill fear in us and they’ve effectively done that with our children to this day, but [to] instill fear in pro-life America, right? Because this is now becoming an overreach of government.”

In November of 2023, Houck sued the Department of Justice, alleging that the FBI used excessive force during the arrest. And last week, the newly-formed 40 Days for Life Institute of Law & Justice filed another lawsuit on behalf of Houck. “This lawsuit won’t defend only Mark’s rights — but also the rights of ALL pro-life Americans targeted by the compromised and biased DOJ,” the pro-life organization wrote in a press release.

“My children’s innocence was taken in an instant,” Houck previously said. “You cannot put a price on that innocence. The stuff that my wife and I have invested in our children for the last 15 years – in their protection, in their safety, in their innocence by homeschooling them, by protecting them, by teaching them – all of that was taken away in an instant. We don’t know the long-term effects of this. What’s the two-year-old going to say in five years? What’s the four-year-old going to say in ten years? How are they gonna feel around law enforcement?”

He added, “There’s no amount that is going to make me feel like there’s accountability. But there needs to be something to demonstrate to the American people, to the populace, that the government will be held accountable.”

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

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Marziyeh Amirizadeh

ISRAEL – The current and ongoing war is presenting Israel with a multi-front existential threat it has not seen since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

But unlike the previous wars, the current conflict is being pressed by a non-Arab Shia element – Iran. Indeed, the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas was ordered by Iran to sidetrack the imminent normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, which would have constituted "the jewel in the crown" of the Abraham Accords, to the benefit of both countries. As the home to Mecca and the leader of the Sunni Arab world, Saudi Arabia is the nemesis of the Shia non-Arab Iran.

Despite decades of explicit threats and aggression, last month marked the first time Iran directly attacked Israel. Indeed, Iran's many proxies in the region – Hezbollah to the north and the Houthis to the southeast – joined in, helping Hamas despite not sharing any interests with the Arab Sunni terrorist organization other than a mutual hatred of the Jewish state and a desire to serve their masters in Tehran.

While the Oct. 7 massacre was horrific, Hamas was merely the weapon used by Iran to attack Israel. The source of conflict in the region is the Islamist regime in Tehran, which is in fact hugely unpopular with its citizens and can retain power only by ruthless means. These means have, in turn, impoverished Iran, and yet the regime chooses to invest in anti-Israel aggression rather than feed its people. While Iran is rich in natural gas and oil reserves, its economy is in shambles due to its exorbitant military expenditures, its hugely expensive nuclear program and international economic sanctions.

Iran's economy would have catastrophically crashed were it not for an injection of billions of dollars following the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA – commonly known as the "Iran nuclear deal," signed by President Barack Obama in 2015. While Iranian-funded terrorism was reined in after President Donald Trump withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018 and reinstated the economic sanctions, the situation was again reversed when President Joe Biden entered office. He pursued a renegotiated JCPOA rather than support the nation’s populace and a democratically elected government.

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While he was unable to negotiate a deal with Iran which had increased its demands, Biden did remove the economic sanctions, reviving the Iranian economy. The current Iranian-sponsored conflict exploded as a result.

While the situation seems intractable and impossibly complex, there is a Gordian Knot solution that could bring peace overnight.

While it involves a revolution in Iran, it does not require violence and is, indeed, a peaceful, faith-based response. Indeed, this revolution has already begun.

A Christian revival is slowly growing in Iran. It should be remembered that until the revolution in 1979, Iran, under the Shah, was a close ally of Israel. And while Persia was an ancient culture that was historically Zoroastrian, Christianity in Iran dates back to the early years of the religion during the time of Jesus, predating Islam. Sunni Islam arrived during the Middle Ages after the Arab conquest, and then Shia Islam in the Safavid conversion of the 15th century, becoming the official religion soon after. Today, over 99% of Iranians are Muslim, with 90-95% being Shia.

Yet, according to many scholars, Iran today is witnessing the highest rate of Christianization in the world.

In 1976, the census reported the Christian population of Iran was about 170,000. In 1999, that number was believed to have grown to over 300,000. And while official estimates place the Christian population at around 120,000, unaffiliated estimates claim the number might have climbed to somewhere between one million and three million in a population of almost 87 million.

But human rights groups have reported that Christians, particularly those who have converted to Christianity from Islam, are severely oppressed in the Islamic Republic. Those who convert to Christianity from Islam can practice their faith only in secret, in so-called house-churches.

Conversion from Islam to Christianity is illegal in Iran. Iranian law imposes fines, lashing and prison terms for converts, and judges are even given discretionary powers to impose the death penalty. Converts can lose their inheritance, unmarried Christians can be forced into marriage to a Muslim, and married believers may be forced to divorce or face losing their children.

Marziyeh Amirizadeh

Indeed, Iran was number nine on Open Doors’ 2022 World Watch List, an annual ranking of the 50 countries where Christians face the most extreme persecution.

Despite this oppression, one exiled Iranian Christian leader, Bishop Edward Hosvepian-Mehr, leader of the non-denominational Iranian Church in Europe, told Tablet Magazine recently that "six of every ten Iranians are prepared to become Christians."

This astonishing wave of Christianity was confirmed last week in a WND interview with Marziyeh Amirizadeh, a Christian who converted from Islam while in Iran. Marzi, as she prefers to be called, is an Iranian American who immigrated to the U.S. after being sentenced to death by hanging in Iran for the crime of converting to Christianity. She endured months of mental and physical hardships and intense interrogation in Evin prison – one of the most brutal prisons in the world.

The interview took place just a few days after the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash. Raisi, known as the "butcher of Tehran," was responsible for the brutal murder of thousands of Iranians. Unlike many world leaders, including from the U.S. and the U.N., who sent condolences to the Iranian regime over the death of its murderous president, Marzi celebrated the death of the tyrant.

"I definitely didn't shed any tears," Marzi told WND. "It was such a big joy for me and many Iranians. Millions of Iranians celebrated his death. He had the blood of thousands of Iranians and Israelis on his hands. And so, after his death, many millions of Iranians celebrated openly on social media and behind closed doors in Iran."

Unfortunately, Marzi does not believe Raisi's death will bring change to Iran.

"We know that he was only a puppet of the Supreme Leader of Iran," Marzi said. "They can replace him immediately with another person. He was selected by the Supreme Leader who is in control of everything, and the Ayatollah will choose another puppet."

Marzi was critical of the world leaders who mourned the death of the "butcher of Tehran."

"It was very disgraceful," Marzi said. "I saw that at the U.N. Security Council, the politicians and leaders of the world held a moment of silence for the butcher of many innocent people. That represents a total lack of moral clarity. Also, the U.S. State Department issued official condolences for him, which made me very upset."

Marzi recalled her experiences in an Iranian prison in 2009.

"I was praying to God, asking why he didn't destroy these cruel criminals who were torturing and executing my people," Marzi told WND. "God told me in a dream that He was giving an opportunity to these people to repent. But if they don't, I'm going to destroy them all. When I learned of Raisi's death, I realized that is what happened. That's God's justice. So, of course, I will rejoice for the deaths of these criminals because they are unrepentantly evil."

Against all odds, Marzi, born into a Muslim family, became a Christian in Iran.

"I lived in Iran for 33 years, and I became a Christian more than 20 years ago," Marzi explained. "I served the Lord there for almost five years before I got arrested. I have lots of experience of sharing my faith, sharing Jesus and the Bible, and many other Iranians were evangelizing. I connected with thousands of Iranians. Honestly, the majority of the Iranians were open and receptive. I can honestly say that we never even had one bad experience.

"So many are tired of this Islamic regime. Iranians do not see themselves as Muslims [as] in other countries, especially Arabic countries. And they don't practice Islam in their homes. Our language is Farsi, not Arabic. We know that we are Persians, descended from the generation of King Cyrus. The majority of millions of Iranians believe that their land and their country have been taken hostage by these radical Muslims."

"There are many churches in Iran," Marzi said. "We don't know exactly how many, but based on the research by some Christian ministries, Iran has the fastest growing churches in the world."

But taking on the Christian faith is only part of the change that is imminent in Iran.

Marzi noted that before the Islamic Revolution, Iran was westernized. She emphasized that the Islamic regime is not just a threat to Israel, but threatens all of Western society.

"I am a proud American right now, and this is my home," she said. "This is my country. I care about this country, but I see how they brainwash the youth in this country with radical Islam. So many youths blindly go to the streets and call for the genocide of Jews. They are waving the flag of Hezbollah and Hamas and burning their own flag. That makes me very concerned because it reminds me of exactly what happened in Iran in 1979. Many students went to the streets, rioting and looting in the name of socialism, Marxism and communism. They supported a fanatic Muslim Khomeini. And now it's been more than 40 years – and they are suffering."

"And the same thing is happening in America because politicians in America do not care … Instead of standing with the Iranians, standing with Israel, too many people and politicians are … standing with terrorists and appeasing them, making deals with them, which is very dangerous. It's so disappointing."

"The Democrats, the Biden administration are doing this," Marzi told WND. "I am working to warn Americans, especially the churches, and keep telling them that as Christians, they have a responsibility to stand up for our values. Many of your enemies infiltrated your system, your government and your policies. We don't want the same thing that happened during the Holocaust when, unfortunately, some churches stood with the enemy. We can’t just sit and watch the same thing happen again."

"I experienced the brutality of the Islamic regime. We don't have much time. It is important to know that these people have an evil nature and they possess nuclear bombs. They just fired more than 300 missiles and drones at the State of Israel. They will not hesitate to fire a nuclear weapon at Israel or even the U.S. They are saying it openly."

Editor’s note: Marzi (Marziyeh Amirizadeh) is a published author, public speaker and activist for religious freedom. Her first book, "Captive in Iran," recounts her capture and imprisonment. Her second book, "A Love Journey with God," recounts how Marzi found God, the struggles she experienced as a Christian woman in an Islamic country, and how God can turn any situation into triumph. She has shared her inspiring story throughout the United States and around the world, to bring awareness about the ongoing human rights violations and persecution of women and religious minorities in Iran. Both books are available on her website, Marzi’s Journey.

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The American Center for Law and Justice has declared a victory in its fight for a public school teacher who was told it was illegal for her to pray where students could see her – even in a parking lot.

The fight involves teacher Staci Barber and the Katy, Texas, Independent School District.

The ACLU said the judge hearing the case ruled "that since the school has updated its policy in response to our demand letter," there now is no "language in the Employee Handbook that explicitly prohibits praying in the presence of students."

The legal team reported, "It is a tremendous win for our client because she can now pray when she desires as this case continues to trial."

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District officials had hauled the teacher "into her principal's office" for gathering with two friends and fellow teachers to pray at a school flagpole earlier.

School officials claimed then "it was against the law" for them to pray "where students could see them."

Faced with the ACLJ's challenge, the district "removed some language from its policy."

But, the legal team said, "our client was still unable to engage in any prayer in the presence of students or to pray publicly, even off the clock, when she was on school grounds."

The result was a lawsuit that was filed, and the resulting court decision at a preliminary point in the resolution of the case.

When the case was developing, WND reported the case lists as defendants the district and Bryan Rounds, a principal at Cardiff junior high.

The ACLJ pointed out, "Every year millions of people gather at school flag poles to pray before the school day begins. The ACLJ is very proud to stand in support of See You At The Pole, a prayer rally for students and participating adults to lift up their schools in prayer. Our client has prayed at the pole every year on behalf of her students.

"This year she had gathered with two friends and fellow teachers to pray at the school flagpole. The school principal called these teachers into his office. He told them that they could not pray at the pole or in the presence of students because if they did so, students may see and join in. He told them that it was against the law for them to pray publicly where students could see them and then pointed them to a school policy that prohibited teachers from praying in the presence of students."

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[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

By Cassy Fiano-Chesser
Live Action News

Efforts to place a “quiet zone” around the Family Planning Associates (FPA) abortion business in Chicago have halted for now, though a buffer zone is still in place.

In November of 2023, Planned Parenthood and Alderman Bill Conway asked the Committee on Public Safety to ban bullhorns, speakers, and other amplification devices from the streets surrounding FPA, saying pro-lifers are “increasingly aggressive” and have been “actively running” towards women while yelling and chanting. Conway claimed pro-lifers are placing amplification devices right next to the FPA building — something even the FPA medical director denied.

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“I’ve been inside while this is going on and … you can literally feel the building shake because of this amplified intimidation,” Alderman Conway claimed. “It’s so loud that the staff at the clinic’s intake desk can barely hear what patients are saying to them.”

Eric Scheidler, executive director of Pro-Life Action League, said this is false. “They are lying. There’s no way,” he told Live Action News in November. “They say that the building is shaking. This is a brick building. If this brick building is shaking from someone using a battery-powered megaphone, then they have building code problems on their hands. … They’re lying when they say they can’t hear themselves inside the building. There’s just no way that that’s true.”

Yet Conway has been unsuccessful at passing the ordinance, as it has failed twice in six months. Last week, Ald. Nick Sposato and Ald. Ray Lopez used a parliamentary measure to delay the vote by one meeting. “Further delay of this measure will only seek to heighten this harassment,” Conway said, adding that he will try again a third time. “Do not worry. This delay will not stand. And this will pass. This very constitutional measure.”

Yet Sposato said the opposite, questioning if the ordinance would “silence freedom of speech,” and asked why abortion facilities alone were being “singled out.” Chicago is already an incredibly pro-abortion city, with then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot saying she wanted it to be an “abortion oasis” in 2022.

FPA has a long history of injuring women. At least three women are known to have died there, including a 13-year-old girl, while one of the abortionists has been sued for malpractice 10 times. The city of Chicago, meanwhile, has refused to release 911 records regarding injuries to women at FPA, even though the federal Freedom of Information Act requires these records to be made available once identifying health information has been redacted.

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

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Former Miss Nevada Elizabeth Hunterton

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

By Bridget Sielicki
Live Action News

Former Miss Nevada Elizabeth Hunterton had an emotional reunion on May 18, meeting her birth mother for the first time years after being abandoned as an infant at an airport.

Hunterton, a 44-year-old who previously held the title of Miss Nevada, was famously known as the Baby Jane Doe who was found abandoned at the Reno-Tahoe International Airport in 1980. Years later, a 23&Me search led her to find her birth mother. As the two connected virtually, the woman, who has remained anonymous, told Hunterton that a friend had promised to take the infant Hunterton to an adoption agency, but instead, abandoned the newborn at the airport. Hunterton was adopted by a loving family who she says has given her a beautiful life.

Though she has been in contact with her biological mother since 2020, the recent meeting was the first time the two had met face-to-face.

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“As my husband and I approached the location where my birth mother was waiting, I stopped walking and wasn’t sure if I could go through with it,” Hunterton told PEOPLE. “Ultimately, I chose courage over fear and I’m glad I did.”

“Our initial embrace was somehow both a lifetime in the making, comfortable and uncomfortable all at once,” she told PEOPLE. “We stared at each other quite a bit and attempted to do so without the other noticing, but we were both definitely doing it. Our resemblance isn’t physical, rather in heart and demeanor.”

Hunterton has been documenting much of her story and her journey to reconnect with her mother on TikTok. In a recent video, she talked about the meeting.

@elizabethhunterton #adoptionjourney #adoption #birthmother #adoptee #transracialadoption #identity #Elizabethhunterton #crazystory #mysterysolved ♬ original sound – Elizabeth Hunterton

“The first question I get asked is, ‘How did it feel?’” she said in the video. “It felt then as it feels now, the whole thing is freaking strange. I know. This is my story, so it shouldn’t feel as weird as it does, but it’s weird.” She also recounts telling her birth mother that she has felt nothing but love and gratitude for giving her life — a sentiment her adoptive mom wanted her to share.

When Hunterton asked her adoptive mother if there was any message to pass on to her biological mom, Hunterton said she was told: “Please thank her for you.”

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

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A friend of mine once invited me on a walk to go see an "amazing" lake. When we hit the 30-minute mark, I said, "I'm getting pretty tired. Maybe we should head back."

But my friend, who likes to walk, said, "No, it's just a little further."

When we had been walking for an hour and 20 minutes, we passed someone going in the opposite direction. I said, "Excuse me, is there a lake up there?"

The hiker said, "Oh yeah. It's way up there!"

I said to my friend, "I'm going back."

But he encouraged me to keep going. "Greg, come on," he said. "You're going to love this lake!"

We finally made it to the lake, which really was more of a pond. And then we began the journey back. We ended up walking a total of 6 miles. That might not be a lot for some people. But for me, it was a long walk.

Sometimes in our spiritual lives, we need someone who pushes us forward, because we can get discouraged. We think, "I can't go another step. I'm done."

It's good to have a Christian friend who comes alongside us and says, "You can go further. You can do more. Let me help you. Let me encourage you." That's because if we're not moving forward in our relationship with Christ, we are naturally going backward. There is no standing still in the Christian life.

I have been asked about notable people who once claimed to be Christians and then declared they weren't Christians anymore. News like that concerns us, because we think, "Am I next? Am I going to abandon my faith?"

That is entirely up to us.

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One of the signs of the last days is that some will fall away from the faith. The Bible says, "For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths" (2 Timothy 4:3–4 NLT).

One indication that you're going in the wrong direction is if you challenge Scripture. Sometimes we'll come across passages that don't make sense to us. That is the time to talk to a pastor or someone who has been reading the Bible for a while to give us clarification.

But there is a difference between that and challenging Scripture. If you come to a passage and say you don't like it because you don't want to do what the Bible says, that is a different matter altogether. We don't adapt the Bible to our lifestyle; we adapt our lifestyle to the Bible and understand that it is God's inspired Word.

True believers may stumble, but they ultimately will return to God. And if they do not return to God, then they never really were true believers to begin with.

The Christian life is one of constant growth. The apostle Peter wrote, "Make every effort to respond to God's promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone" (2 Peter 1:5–7 NLT).

He goes on to say, "The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:8 NLT).

Peter was saying that we won't reach some plateau where we know it all. And who better to tell us about this than Simon Peter, whose faux pas are legendary.

One day Jesus said to him, "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers" (Luke 22:31–32 NLT).

Jesus lives to make intercession for us (see Hebrews 7:25). Jesus is praying for you.

The Bible says, "Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall" (Proverbs 16:18 NLT). This simply means that we should go through life aware of our weakness, vulnerability, and propensity to do the wrong thing.

Self-confidence leads to another step down, which is prayerlessness. Not praying about something actually can be a sin. While a sin of commission is doing what you should not do, a sin of omission is not doing what you should do. The Bible says, "Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it" (James 4:17 NLT).

All too often we worry instead of pray. Yet the Bible reminds us, "Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6–7 NLT).

True believers are never happy when they're out of fellowship with God. If you're out of fellowship with God and have sinned against him, then you'll be unhappy. And if you can't be happy in your sin, then that is a good sign.

Christians who try to compromise their beliefs will end up in a miserable no-man's-land where they have too much of the Lord to be happy in the world and too much of the world to be happy in the Lord. If you hang around with the wrong people in the wrong places, the next thing you know, you will be doing the wrong thing. Don't be that person.

There has to come a point in our lives as Christians when we say, "I'm responsible for my own actions. I make my choices, and then my choices make me. I have Christ living inside me, and he will give me the power to live the life he has called me to live."

A wise, growing Christian will realize there is always so much to learn. There is so much that needs to still change in our lives as we're transformed into the image of Jesus Christ.

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Christians across America, and anyone who endorses "faith, family and freedom," have been given their marching orders for the November presidential election.

The instructions do not include WHO to vote for, but the messaging is clear.

"The Left is not only waging legal warfare against Donald Trump. They are attempting to prevent half the country from having any say in the governance of our nation, and they have weaponized the legal system to ensure their success at any cost," began a statement from Gary Bauer, senior vice president of public policy for the James Dobson Family Institute.

"They are already using our legal system to go after pro-life activists and patriotic Christians who defend religious liberty. The Deep State is spying on conservative parents and churches, treating them like enemies of the state. They have even gone so far as to compare caring parents to terrorists.

"The Left has repeatedly [contended] that conservatives are a threat to our democracy. Yet, they are the ones who are aggressively attacking our constitutional Republic with blatant disregard for our fundamental rights. We cannot remain silent against such explicit tyranny."

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The statement continued, "But here’s what we must understand: What just happened is not only about Donald Trump, and it will not stop with him."

The verdict "is a clarion call for every God-fearing, America-loving Christian and our fellow citizens who believe in faith, family, and freedom to run, walk, or crawl, if necessary, to the polls this November."

Bauer described the conviction, on Thursday, of Trump on business records-related claims as "a tragic day for America" and a "clear abuse of our justice system."

"This politically motivated and stacked trial is what we have come to expect in communist China or North Korea—not in the United States of America. The totalitarian impulse of the neo-Marxist Left is to suppress and silence political opposition using any means necessary."

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(PROTESTIA) – Gather25 is inviting all the Christians of the world, every denomination living on every continent, for a 25-hour event of simultaneous worship and prayer that will harness the power of Artificial Intelligence to ensure it is seen and heard in every tongue and language.

On March 1, 2025, Gather25, which is “led by a collection of ministries, partners, and leaders,” will use live-streaming powered by A.I. translation technology to enable the Global Church to “connect together for prayer, worship, repentance and commissioning.”

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Jennie Allen, the founder Gather25, said that the idea came to her after she had a vision of the second coming of Christ, and was concerned for the soul of the world if Jesus came back soon.

Read the full story ›

Joe Biden exits the Oval Office to deliver remarks on the August Jobs Report, Friday, Sept. 1, 2023, in the Rose Garden of the White House. (Official White House photo by Adam Schultz)

(NEW YORK POST) – President Biden and first son Hunter Biden attended church together Thursday morning, four days before jury selection begins in the younger Biden’s trial on federal gun charges.

Biden, 81, and Hunter, 54, attended Mass at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Roman Catholic Church on the ninth anniversary of the death of Joe Biden’s elder son, Beau. Photographers captured Hunter and his father walking near each other outside the church’s cemetery, where Beau is buried, though it was unclear if any words were exchanged.

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Hunter and Joe Biden then took the presidential helicopter, Marine One, to the first family’s holiday home at nearby Rehoboth Beach, where Biden will remain for the rest of the day.

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A new streaming season of "The Chosen" is being launched after a delay that principals say was prompted by a dispute over a distribution agreement that now has been resolved.

A report at JulieRoys.com explains that it's Season Four that will appear starting June 2 after the months-long delay.

"The wait is finally over. The response from those who’ve seen Season 4 in theaters was that this is our best season, so I can’t wait to deliver these episodes free and easy to the world," said Dallas Jenkins, creator of the popular television series on Jesus.

He had revealed earlier the season was delayed for "legal reasons" as it premiered in theaters a few months ago.

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It's eight episodes now will be released through its app at the rate of two a week through June, on Sundays and Thursdays.

DVDs also are being shipped.

The disagreement was over The Chosen LLC, which has 65 employees, and the Utah-based Angle Studios, which was a partner and worked on distribution.

Jenkins said that no longer is the case.

He said the two organizations had "different ideas" about moving the project forward.

"Ultimately, he said, the pay-it-forward model that originated with Angel Studios wouldn’t allow 'The Chosen' to meet its goals of reaching a billion people — including those who can’t pay for it — while also financing future seasons," the report explained.

The distribution of those pay-it-forward funds was the key to the dispute.

The two sides had been operating under a 2022 agreement, but The Chosen alleged that Angel Studios breached the deal and an arbitrator eventually agreed.

"The contract is indeed terminated, and The Chosen’s relationship with Angel Studios is effectively over," Jenkins explained.

Angel Studios had disputed claims of a contract breach.

The report explained, "With over 200 million viewers, 'The Chosen' has far outpaced the reach of typical faith-based fare, receiving shoutouts from the likes of Kourtney Kardashian and country singer Blake Shelton. In addition to the Chosen app, viewers can currently watch Seasons One through Three on Amazon Prime, Hulu and Peacock and Season One on Netflix. Seven seasons are expected in total, and 'The Chosen' is currently filming Season Five."

The Hollywood Reporter said the new episodes include, "Clashing kingdoms. Rival rulers. The enemies of Jesus close in while His followers struggle to keep up, leaving Him to carry the burden alone. Threatened by the reality of Jesus' growing influence, religious leaders do the unthinkable — ally with their Roman oppressors. As the seeds of betrayal are planted and opposition to Jesus’ message turns violent, He’s left with no alternative but demand his followers rise up."

The three earlier seasons are available on Peacock, Prime Video and other streaming platforms.

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Pope Francis from behind

(CHRISTIAN POST) – Pope Francis has issued an apology for using a derogatory description during a recent closed meeting with a group of Italian Catholic bishops while discussing a ban on homosexuals from seminaries.

Matteo Bruni, the director of the Holy See Press Office, released a statement Tuesday explaining that the pontiff is sorry for using an Italian word that loosely translates in English to "faggotness."

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"The Pope never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms, and he apologizes to those who felt offended by the use of a term, as reported by others," stated Bruni.

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Members of the city council in Carlsbad, California, have been scolded for insisting that a chaplain who has prayed "in
Jesus' name" is guilty of harassment.

It is First Liberty Institute that has sent a letter to the council members urging them to revoke an order from their city manager that "forbids police chaplain JC Cooper and fire chaplain Denny Cooper from concluding prayers at some events 'in Jesus' name.'"

"The city council should follow the Supreme Court’s clear statements with respect to prayers such as the chaplains’ and allow them to pray according to their sincere religious beliefs," explained Kayla Toney, counsel for First Liberty.

The institute explained that JC Cooper is a local pastor who has faithfully served as a volunteer chaplain for the Carlsbad police agency for six years. His father, Denny Cooper, has served as the volunteer chaplain for the fire department for 18 years.

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Both provide support, encouragement, and prayer to first responders as they face traumatic situations, the institute said.

"When asked by the police chief to give the invocation at the Carlsbad Police Department Awards Ceremony, JC concluded his prayer, consistent with his long-held beliefs, 'in Jesus' name.' He was later told by the city manager that unless he removed 'in Jesus’ name' from his invocation, he would be subject to discipline. He was then told that he could refer to any other name for God, just not 'Jesus,'" the institute said.

The letter recommending a course correction for the city noted, "The city manager misunderstands the law concerning public chaplains and invocations, and we urge the city council to revisit the decision to censor the chaplains’ prayers. The First Amendment’s Establishment Clause does not require government 'to purge from the public sphere anything an objective observer could reasonably infer endorses or partakes of the religious.'"

The letter explains in the Kennedy v. Bremerton decision, the Supreme Court overruled the long-criticized 'endorsement' test established in the now-defunct Lemon decision, instead providing, "the Establishment Clause must be interpreted by reference to historical practices and understandings."

The letter to the city explains it is city manager Scott Chadwick who "claimed that invoking 'Jesus' was considered harassment, created aa hostile work environment, and lifted one religion above another."

The legal team explained, "Dating back to the Continental Congress in 1776, the United States has a robust and widely recognized tradition of both public prayer and chaplain programs. The court has explicitly held that governmental bodies may begin their meetings or other events with a prayer or invocation. … While such prayers or invocations may not proselytize or disparage other faiths, chaplains do not have to scrub their prayers of language identifiable to their faith.

"Government should not censor prayers in an attempt to make them 'generic' or 'nonsectarian.' … Indeed, in an increasingly diverse and pluralistic environment, it would be 'daunting, if not impossible,' to write an invocation that would be 'inclusive beyond dispute,' nor does the Constitution require anything of the sort—and 'some may feel that they cannot in good faith deliver such a vague prayer.'"

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(EPISCOPAL CHURCH) – In affirmation and celebration of The Episcopal Church’s LGBTQ+ members, the Office of Communication is pleased to unveil a new Pride shield available online for churchwide use.

The design retains the upper-left blue corner of The Episcopal Church’s shield logo and incorporates elements of the traditional Pride flag as well as the Progress Pride flag and Philadelphia Pride flag. In their use of black, brown, pink, and light-blue diagonal lines, the latter two flags represent intersectional progress in acknowledging people who are often overlooked by the mainstream LGBTQ+ movement: communities of color; the transgender community; and the many thousands harmed by anti-LGBTQ+ policy—from those who lost their lives in the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and ‘90s, to those still disproportionately impacted today.

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“As a longtime ally of LGBTQ+ people, I was so excited to work on this Pride shield for The Episcopal Church,” said Melissa Walker, senior graphic designer. “I hope many more people feel seen and included by this new graphic as we enter Pride month.”

Read the full story ›

(FOX 5 DC) – An international organized crime ring is reportedly targeting houses of worship in Maryland and Northern Virginia.

So far, in 2024, thieves have already burglarized five religious institutions - two Buddhist temples, two mosques, and one Hindu temple in Montgomery County, according to police. In 2023, they targeted seven similar places, with investigators making arrests in about half the cases.

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Lieutenant Andrew Suh with Montgomery County Police said the primary suspects in these cases are a group called the Romanian Organized Crime Group, who call themselves the ROMAs. "They travel around the United States and commit property crimes," Lt. Suh said. "They don't want to harm anyone. It's not a hate crime, but obviously it affects the public."

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It's no longer an America where Opie Taylor on the Andy Griffith show would face consequences for lying.

It's not even the "M.A.S.H." society where good usually was a clear choice among the bad things that happen in life, and the gray areas left people feeling uncomfortable.

Or where a deceiving interloper, created by Disney, would get his comeuppance while trying to destroy Princess Anna of Arendelle.

Now it's a place where, "A majority of adults accept lying, abortion, consensual intercourse between unmarried adults, gay marriage, and the rejection of absolute moral truth as morally acceptable."

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It's where "Less than half of all adults embrace the Bible as their primary guide to morality. A minority believes that every moral choice either honors or dishonors God."

It's where "A large minority of adults accept the notion that as long as you do no harm, you may do whatever you wish."

That's all according to research from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, which has released its "American Worldview Inventory 2024."

It bluntly warns, "What Millennials began, Gen Z is accelerating, regarding the generational transformation of the nation's moral landscape." Center Director George Barna found that "biblical worldview incident in the U.S. has declined for five consecutive generations and during that time, the number of adults holding a biblical worldview has plummeted … to 4%."

And it's continuing.

"Our studies of teenagers and preteens indicate that the national incidence will drop another two points within the next 15 years, unless some dramatic and unusually effective spiritual renewal event occurs."

In fact, "traditional morality" has become a casualty as Millennials and Gen Zs replace Boomers, ages 60-78, and elders, ages 79 and older, as the largest part of the adult population.

The assessment explained, "While Millennials have disrupted and reshaped moral beliefs and behavioral norms established by Boomers and Busters (Also known as Gen X, ages 41 to 59), Gen Z (born between 2003 and 2021) is maintaining or accelerating these trends, and is further reshaping or solidifying these as the new moral norms."

Those include that while six out of 10 Boomers and Busters consider having an abortion "to be acceptable behavior," for the younger set its nearly seven out of 10.

Then "consensual sex between unmarried adults" gets approval from 69% of Millennials and 73% of Gen Zs.

Even, "refusing to repay a loan that is due," is now approved.

"Overall, about one-quarter of adults from generations encompassing people 55 and older say they accept the refusal to repay a loan to a wealthy relative who does not push for repayment to be morally acceptable. Nearly twice as many younger adults accept such refusal to repay what is due to be morally defensible (42% of Millennials, 50% of Gen Zs)."

Gen Z now is forging even "new levels of acceptance" of behaviors.

Six of 10 say "lying to protect your personal best interests is morally acceptable."

And 66% of Gen Z say it's morally fine to do "anything you desire as long as it does no harm," a standard that Millennials, at 55%, are close to reaching.

Key to the results is that only 21% of Gen Z "identify the Bible as their primary source of moral guidance, lower even that the 29% for Millennials.

The report continued:

"Like the Millennials before them, Gen Z reflects similar levels of support for gay marriage, the rejection of absolute moral truth, and the dismissal of the notion that every moral choice either honors or dishonors God.

Knowing that most spiritual and moral beliefs and behaviors do not change during the adult years unless a significant, life-transforming personal crisis intervenes, it is unlikely, Barna says, that the worldview elements that characterize Gen Z today will change substantially in the years to come.

However, there are two noteworthy exceptions to the worldview continuum.

Gen Zers are less likely than people from earlier generations (including Millennials) to believe that people are basically good. This may be a result, Barna says, of the cultural turbulence they experienced during their formative years.

“Young adults tend to form their worldview primarily through feelings and personal experiences, rather than logic and facts,” Barna says. “Gen Z grew up with a daily bombardment of conflicting messages about right and wrong. Most of them lived in homes traumatized by divorce. Crime has escalated precipitously in recent years. War and terrorism have been constant, looming threats. Bullying, pedophilia, and child trafficking have been part of their life’s narrative. Under such conditions, and without any kind of deeper spiritual wisdom provided to put these matters in context, it is not surprising that so many young adults feel their way through uncertain times and conclude that human beings are not inherently good.”

Barna noted the irony:

"Millennials and Gen X have largely dismissed Christianity as irrelevant. Yet, they’re coming to the same conclusion as the Bible: that people are not basically good. We’re sinners. Sin distorts our minds and hearts, producing bad choice after bad choice. Repentance and reliance upon Jesus Christ are the solutions—an antidote that people also dismiss as ‘old-fashioned’ or ‘foolish.’ But biblical truths are the only reliable truths and they serve us best."

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In a nation where the Constitution protects freedom of speech, and its Supreme Court has ruled that right extends to students in schools, a stunning case has developed in Kentucky where school officials punished an honor-winning senior for speaking about Jesus.

The Christian Post has documented the case involving Micah Price, who got his diploma, finally, five days after he was punished by officials at Campbell County High.

Price's offense was that he went "off-script" and encouraged classmates to find Christ, in his graduation speech.

Supt. Shelli Wilson told a local broadcast outlet Price was chosen by a principal to deliver an "approved" speech. Officials said they would allow him to thank his "Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

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They banned him from further comments, but when he was at the podium, he told classmates, "He is the light. He is the way, the truth and the life.," a paraphrase of a popular Bible verse.

He explained school officials immediately ordered him to appear before the school board and "explain."

And they withheld his diploma.

Later, he met only with principals in his school, and was given his diploma.

"An answered prayer. We got the diploma," he said.

He added, "I did go against the rules. I should have been punished which I do agree with. … I simply cannot go anywhere without mentioning what my Lord and Savior has done for me and just what he's brought to me and my life. I did deserve to be punished but through Christ we prevail."

This brave young man, Micah Price preached the saving grace of Jesus Christ at his high school graduation and then was denied his diploma after…

pic.twitter.com/uwnLPTMe5G

— Jon Root (@JonnyRoot_) May 30, 2024

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Hillary Clinton

(LIFE NEWS) – Hillary Clinton criticized Democrats for being “complacent” about abortion prior to Roe v. Wade being overturned in an interview for an upcoming book.

The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022 after upholding a Mississippi law in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that banned most abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy. During the interview, Clinton assigned blame widely, but excluded herself from criticism, according to the New York Times.

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“We didn’t take it seriously, and we didn’t understand the threat,” Clinton said during the interview. “Most Democrats, most Americans, did not realize we are in an existential struggle for the future of this country.”

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Russell Brand

(DAILY WIRE) – Actor Russell Brand said this week that it’s been a “big change” after becoming a Christian a month ago. The comedian and podcast host made the remarks in a video posted to social media where he shared what his experience has been like thus far into his new journey.

“I’ve been a Christian a month now and it’s been a big change,” he said. “Not that I’ve entirely changed as a person, of course I haven’t, but I’ve taken on a lot of new concepts and it changes you to accept that it’s not like you’re in a game show and by doing really, really good things, you can get redeemed.”

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“No, repentance, to repent, means that you have to continually change and acknowledge that I am in a battle against myself,” he continued. “That I need to surrender myself to an ever-present eternal and accessible Jesus. That mercy is something that’s given to me, been granted to me, that I live with through love, not something that I can sort of win or achieve by doing good deeds.”

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Bill and Melinda Gates

Robert Schmad
Daily Caller News Foundation

The ex-wife of liberal megadonor Bill Gates has committed to spending $1 billion supporting abortion and other left-of-center priorities over the next two years.

Pivotal Ventures, Melinda French Gates’ new charity, announced Tuesday it would be spending to combat “the rollback of women’s rights and headwinds to social progress in the U.S. and around the world.” The philanthropy earmarked $200 million specifically for American organizations focused on “advanc[ing] women’s power and protect[ing] their rights, including reproductive freedom.”

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“For too long, a lack of money has forced  organizations  fighting for women’s rights into a defensive posture while the enemies of progress play offense,” Gates said. “I want to help even the match.”

The Center for Reproductive Rights, the Collaborative for Gender + Reproductive Equity and the National Women’s Law Center were among the pro-abortion organizations that Pivotal Ventures has committed to funding, according to the charity’s website.

The National Women’s Law Center established an “abortion access legal defense fund” after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, according to its website. The fund covers legal expenses for organizations and individuals accused of violating state abortion laws.

The organization opposes efforts to regulate abortion drugs, arguing that they’re safer than Tylenol, according to its website. It has also been active in legal battles over abortion, often filing pro-abortion amicus briefs.

The Center for Reproductive Rights is also focused primarily on legal advocacy and often sues to prevent pro-life laws from taking effect, or to overturn existing laws protecting unborn humans, according to Influence Watch. The center claims that, through a five-year plan it launched in 2021, it loosened abortion-related laws in 17 countries, covering a total of 2.3 billion people.

The Collaborative for Gender + Reproductive Equity has a broader mission, focusing on working to “connect protecting abortion access” to “other priorities of low income women and women of color” like economic issues and voting rights, according to its website.

“The Collaborative for Gender + Reproductive Equity (CGRE) is honored to have received a grant from Melinda French Gates to supercharge our work to advance women’s power and protect women’s rights in the U.S.,” the organization said in response to receiving its grant from Pivotal Ventures.

Gates founded her new charitable venture in May after leaving the Gates Foundation, which she co-founded with her former husband, and taking $12.5 billion with her as part of an exit agreement, Reuters reported.

Not all of Pivotal Ventures’ announced grantees focus on pro-abortion advocacy.

The New America Foundation, for instance, is a sprawling left-of-center think tank that covers a number of areas ranging from “racial equity” to things like technology or education. Community Change, another organization Pivotal Ventures is backing, focuses on helping people of color, immigrants and women to “wield power to reshape our democracy.”

Other areas Pivotal Ventures is focusing on include getting more women elected to office, investing in minority women and bringing more women to the tech industry, among other things, according to its website.

Pivotal Ventures did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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(CHRISTIAN POST) – A new survey has revealed that nearly 40% of British Christians prefer not to disclose their religious beliefs. The findings reflect a broader trend of religious reticence in the U.K., which experts attribute to various factors, including a rise in antisemitism and a “self-confidence crisis” among British Christians.

A similar reluctance among Jewish respondents can be seen, with 38% agreeing with the statement, “I prefer not to tell people about my faith or religious belief,” according to the survey, commissioned by the Institute for the Impact of Faith in Life (IIFL) and conducted by Whitestone Insight. In contrast, only 29% of Muslim participants felt the same way.

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Jake Scott, the secretary of IIFL, said the reluctance among Christians might stem from uncertainty about their religious identity. “There was a high correlation between ‘exclusivist’ Christians — who reflected 28% of Christians in the survey — and a willingness to talk about the faith,” Scott told The Telegraph. Exclusivists are those who believe their religion is the only true faith.

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(CHRISTIAN POST) -- Pope Francis reportedly told a group of bishops that homosexual men should not be allowed to enter seminary to train for the priesthood and is accused of using a vulgar Italian phrase to describe the queer community in his remarks.

Francis endorsed the ban during a 90-minute, closed-door meeting with over 200 members of the Italian bishops' conference on May 20 at Vatican City, according to reports. The restriction is based on a 2005 document crafted under the administration of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI.

The Jesuit publication America reported the news on Monday, citing Italian media and an "informed source, who did not want to be identified."

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Mamie Laverock

(FAITHWIRE) -- “When Calls the Heart” star Mamie Laverock is on life support after falling from a fifth-floor balcony.

News of the 19-year-old star’s tragic accident came via a GoFundMe page organized by her family. In it, her parents, Rob and Nicole Compton, said their daughter suffered an undisclosed “medical emergency” on May 11.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Erin Krakow (@erinkrakow)

Days later, the Hallmark star fell off a high balcony.

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A school district in Florida accepted funding from a local church, and in return promised a sponsorship status that included the church's name on a banner on campus.

Now the district apparently has reneged, and a legal team is investigating.

It is Liberty Counsel that confirms it has written to officials with the Broward County Public Schools over their discrimination against Cooper City Church.

The district, the report said, "unconstitutionally" removed the church’s sponsorship sign from Cooper City High School while keeping other community sponsor signs on display on campus.

The church wants the sign reinstated, and treatment equal to other sponsors.

The district, so far, has refused to respond after its "Office of Legislative Affairs" ordered the sign killed.

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The district's action, explained Liberty Counsel, "violates the First Amendment and its Free Speech, Free Exercise of Religion, and Establishment Clauses, as well as both Florida law and U.S. Supreme Court precedent."

The original deal came about in 2023 when Cooper City Church reached an agreement with the school over its "Partners in Education Sponsorship" program.

As a "Gold Level" sponsor, the church was supposed to be acknowledged on a banner, the school website and in the yearbook. Also during home games.

"Contrary to the agreement, the church is also not currently listed on the school’s website as a partner or sponsor, and it is unclear whether all other sponsorship benefits have been canceled," Liberty Counsel said.

The legal team explained in its letter to the school the U.S. Supreme Court has held that a church cannot be deprived of a benefit available to others "solely on account of religious identity," as that violates the Constitution.

In fact, the court also has ruled that "when government does not speak for itself, it may not exclude speech based on 'religious viewpoint'" because doing that is "impermissible viewpoint discrimination."

"The church has the right to become a community sponsor within the district’s Partners in Education sponsorship program, without giving up its religious identity or beliefs," the legal team explained.

The church is seeking restoration of the sponsorship acknowledgement, observation of all other "Gold" sponsorship requirements and removal of the discriminatory prohibition in the school's practices.

The report said the church's contribution to the district was $1,000.

And the legal team told the district it was prepared for "further proceedings" should the dispute remain unresolved.

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[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

By Bridget Sielicki
Live Action News

Minnesota lawmakers on Sunday failed to pass the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which would have put a ballot measure before voters that enshrines a “right” to abortion in the state’s constitution.

Legislators in the Senate adjoined their final session late Sunday night without voting on the amendment. Though it doesn’t state the word “abortion,” the amendment aims to protect it. The amendment says the “state shall not discriminate against any person in intent or effect on account of […] making and effectuating decisions about all matters relating to one’s own pregnancy or decision whether to become or remain pregnant.”

Pro-life advocates campaigned heavily against the amendment, even creating a digital ad to inform voters and lawmakers about the amendment’s extreme language, which would have allowed abortion up to birth for any reason.

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“Minnesotans all across the state have been telling their legislators: We don’t want abortion-up-to-birth permanently mandated by our Constitution,” said Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) Co-Executive Director Cathy Blaeser. “Nor do we want you to deceive us about what you’re really trying to do. Polls show that most Minnesotans don’t want abortion added to the ERA, and most don’t want unlimited abortion. This ERA isn’t about equal rights at all. It’s extreme, exclusionary, and dishonest.”

Blaeser noted her organization will continue to fight for pro-life protections in the state.

“MCCL has campaigned extensively in recent weeks to inform Minnesotans about our state’s abortion-up-to-birth policy and the deceptive ERA,” she said. “And we aren’t going to stop. We’re going to tell Minnesotans the truth, and Minnesotans are going to continue to make their voices heard.”

Ben Dorr, executive director of Minnesota Right to Life, gave a social media update following the bill’s defeat.

“I am so thankful to God, I’m so thankful to our supporters here at Minnesota Right to Life…God has shown us tremendous grace, tremendous mercy in holding off this wicked, vile abortion amendment from being passed this year,” he said, noting the extensive effort his organization and supporters put into campaigning against the amendment.

“This is a massive victory for unborn babies and their moms!,” MCCL wrote in a Facebook post. “For the time being, at least, those babies won’t be permanently excluded from protection by our Constitution.”

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

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Lila Rose

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

By Bridget Sielicki
Live Action News

Live Action president and founder Lila Rose recently sat down with Carl Trueman, a professor, theologian, and author of the book The Rise of Modern Self. The two discussed how American culture did not become what it is today by accident, and examined the ideological trends that led to current cultural conventions, the rejection of natural order, and the change in how people view sex.

Trueman explained that individuals, especially Americans, like to believe that they are free, autonomous, and without obligations. Americans, he said, live by an idea of radical individualism, which was once a great strength but has arguably become an Achilles heel of the United States. “That which made America great,” he said, “I think at this point in time, is beginning to make America weak.”

Over the last 500 to 600 years, said Trueman, Western society has “increasingly emphasized psychology, feelings, and inner mental life as being definitive of who we are” and external connections have slowly been pushed into the background. He said, “We’ve persuaded ourselves that we are who we think or we feel that we are.”

He explained that what he believes to be the problem is that humans began “authorizing the inner space over everything else.” Rather than having an external authority — namely God — Trueman told Rose that “in the modern world we’ve allowed the inner space to become an authority.” He noted that an acceleration of the power of the inner self began in the 18th century and that in the 19th century, people “got rid of God but continued to act as though He existed. People would begin to become their own gods.”

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Trueman and Rose discussed the theories of everyone from Friedrich Nietzsche, who said people should not allow language to dictate who they are, to Sigmond Freud, who believed human happiness is found in sexual satisfaction. They also discussed the impact of Simone de Beauvoir, who suggested that gender is a social construct, not a biological factor, and Hugh Hefner, who worked to break down the social and cultural stigmas surrounding pornography.

“It’s interesting, the Catholic philosopher Augusto Del Noce in an essay… in 1970 writing about the sexual revolution of the 60s,” said Trueman, “he makes this comment that the sexual revolution will have a deeper impact and create more chaos in American society than anywhere else in the west because of America’s deep roots in individualism.”

In the interview, Trueman and Rose also discussed what it means to be human. Trueman explained, “How you imagine what it means to be a human being is critical here. If you, let’s say you’re a Christian believer, then you’re going to think human beings are made in the image of God and you think that brings with it natural obligations, natural vertical obligations to God and horizontal obligations to those who are also made in His image. If you imagine human beings being free, unencumbered individuals, then you’re going to think that every human relationship is a contractual one, and it’s the negotiating terms of the contract that will determine what your moral obligation is in any given situation.”

The conversation continued with discussions on normative anthropology, what it means to be human, gene editing, the LGBTQ movement, the dangers of technology that allows humans to do anything they want, and sex as recreation.

Trueman noted, “When you have a strongly contraceptive/abortion culture, the way you imagine the importance and the nature of sex changes because of that. It becomes recreation. You start to think that pregnancy is an unfortunate by-product of the activity and not a central part of it. [The natural order of sex is] between a man and a woman in the confines of marriage. I think it’s the common sense position… because that’s the context in which children can be protected. One of the funny things about the debate about marriage in this country is that people have forgotten why we had state laws about marriage in the first place. We had laws about marriage to protect children. That’s why the state has an interest in marriage because the state has an interest in protecting children.”

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

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American Idol Abi Carter

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

By Bridget Sielicki
Live Action News

American Idol winner Abi Carter wowed the crowd Sunday night, with the 21-year-old taking home the Season 22 victory. In a follow-up interview on Live with Kelly and Mark, Carter told hosts Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos that she’s been musical since before she was born, as her mother listened in during an ultrasound appointment and heard her ‘singing’ in the womb.

“I’d never heard of this before this segment, but you actually were humming in utero?” Ripa asked Carter.

“Fun fact,” Carter explained. “When my mom was pregnant with me she went in for an ultrasound. And the doctor was listening for a heartbeat and he takes off his headphones and puts them down and says, ‘Andrea, you need to listen to this. I don’t even know what I’m hearing, it sounds like whale sounds — she’s singing in your stomach,'” Carter said. “I looked it up recently and it’s a thing — sometimes babies will sing in their mom’s stomach.”

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“My mom is a singer herself,” the American Idol winner went on. “So I was always listening to her sing from the womb.”

This extraordinary phenomenon is just one of the many signs that preborn children are living, growing beings in their mother’s wombs. The child is developing at a remarkable rate as she goes from a mere cell to a complex human child throughout the nine-month gestation. Live Action’s “Meet Baby Olivia” video gives a sneak peek at this process.

As the Endowment for Human Development notes, beginning at 18 weeks, the child’s speaking movements begin in her larynx, or voice box. By 20 weeks gestation, her sense of hearing begins to function, which means she can hear her mother singing to her. In fact, these movements may begin even earlier; a 2016 study led by Dr Marisa Lopez-Teijon of the Institut Marques in Barcelona showed babies “singing” to orchestral music as early as 16 weeks.

“On hearing music, the fetus (sic) responds with movements similar to vocalization, which is the step prior to singing and speaking,” the study authors wrote.

As Carter’s story shows, responding to music and learning to sing are traits that begin before a child is even born.

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

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An injunction has been issued by a federal judge in a fight over advertisements that were censored by the transit bureaucracy in Washington, D.C.

It will allow the ads, referencing political or religious issues, to run while the court fight continues.

According to an announcement by the First Liberty legal organization, the order came in the case WallBuilders v. WMATA, a case dating to last year that challenges WMATA ad restrictions as violations of the First Amendment.

"The First Amendment grants all Americans the right to express their point of view, religious or secular," said First Liberty Senior Counsel Jeremy Dys. "Rejecting a faith-based advertising banner by labeling it an 'issue ad,' while accepting other ads such as those promoting a 'Social Justice School,' 'Earth Day,' and the highly controversial idea of terms limits for Supreme Court Justices, is clearly hypocritical, discriminatory, and illegal. We are grateful that the court recognized that WMATA unconstitutionally rejected WallBuilders ads and look forward to continuing to fight for complete victory."

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The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has a reputation for censoring speech in ads on its vehicles. This is not the first legal case that has erupted because of its censorship.

The First Liberty report revealed, "WallBuilders is a Texas-based non-profit organization that seeks to educate the public about the role that the Founders’ Christian faith played in the creation of the nation and the drafting of the Constitution. It sought to place its advertisements on the side of WMATA Metro buses. WMATA rejected the ads on the grounds that they violated its advertising guidelines, which prohibit advertising 'intended to influence members of the public regarding an issue on which there are varying public opinions.'"

The legal fight focuses on the guidelines WMATA uses to censor speech.

The new court ruling found that Guideline 9, banning "[a]dvertisements intended to influence members of the public regarding an issue on which there are varying opinions," is "not a reasonable restriction on speech." The order called those rules "vague" and pointed out they fail to give "objective, workable standards" that could be reasonably applied, a requirement under the First Amendment.

First Liberty confirmed this case, in which the ACLU also is participating, is the second free speech lawsuit filed by the ACLU challenging WMATA's advertising guidelines.

Back in 2017, its case revealed how WMATA discriminates against a variety of viewpoints.

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(Photo by Joe Kovacs)

A new student-led Bible club has been approved at a school in California after seven months of "anti-Christian hostility" from school officials.

The report comes from Dean Broyles, of the National Center for Law & Policy, which wrote to school officials explaining the students' right to have their own club in the Oceanside Unified School District.

"This flagrant mistreatment and abuse of these courageous religious student leaders and other OHS students who desire to participate in the A-Team Bible Club is one of the most egregious examples of government anti-Christian religious discrimination and hostility that I have seen in my nearly thirty years of practicing law," Broyles explained.

He cited the opposition from OHS ASB cashier and clerk Robbin Pollard.

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"Pollard’s actions and communications towards these Christian students were arbitrary, capricious and discriminatory. Such state anti-religious bigotry is unacceptable and is unlawful. But this is precisely what happens when the state delegates too much unchecked discretionary government power to a single ‘gatekeeper,’ who either does not know the law or does not care to abide by it. The OHS ASB, particularly Pollard, owes these student leaders an apology."

He said the law requires government to be neutral, not hostile, toward religion.

Part of that, he said, is "Accommodating religious students on campus by giving them equal access."

His report on the dispute explained how the school had thrown up "relentless red tape and overt religious discrimination."

The breakthrough, the approval from the board, happened only days after the district got an 18-page letter from NCLP charging the school with anti-Christian hostility.

"The student leaders attempting to launch the Christian Club had endured more than seven months of significant anti-Christian hostility and blatant religious discrimination from a rogue teacher at Oceanside High School since first attempting to form the club at the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year," he said.

The report noted the Religious Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, the Equal Access Act and OUSD’s own policies and regulations protect such student-led clubs on high school campuses.

Pollard, the report said, repeatedly had claimed to the students that there were too many Christian clubs on campus and they would have to wait a year.

The first meeting of the A-Team Bible Club was held just days ago.

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People visit gravesites of their loved ones on Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, May 25, 2020. (U.S. Army photo by Elizabeth Fraser)

(CHRISTIAN POST) -- The National Park Service will allow a chapter of the Catholic fraternal organization Knights of Columbus to host a Memorial Day service at a Virginia cemetery after initially prohibiting the gathering.

The First Liberty Institute and the international law firm McGuireWoods LLP released a statement Thursday announcing that NPS gave a permit for the Knights of Columbus Petersburg Council 694 to hold its annual Memorial Day Mass at the Poplar Grove National Cemetery in Petersburg.

"The Knights are thrilled that they will be able to exercise their religious beliefs and keep this honorable tradition alive. We appreciate the tremendous support of Governor Youngkin and Attorney General Miyares in this case," FLI Senior Counsel Roger Byron said in a statement.

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(Photo by Joe Kovacs)

(CHRISTIAN POST) -- A former employee of a Florida church has reportedly stolen $775,000 from its parish operating account over the last five months.

Christ the King Catholic Church, located in Tampa, is believed to have had money stolen from its parish account while the church is undergoing a construction project in the hopes of building a new youth center.

The Rev. Len Plazewski, pastor of Christ the King Church, told Tampa Bay 10 News on Monday that several factors contributed to concealing the stolen funds, including the construction project.

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Harrison Butker

(CHRISTIAN POST) -- Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker said Friday that the “shocking level of hate” he's received in response to his recent Catholic college commencement speech will not deter him from being “unapologetic” and doesn’t compare to the persecution martyrs have faced.

Butker, 28, spoke publicly for the first time since his commencement speech at Benedictine College in Kansas on May 11 sparked a national media firestorm as he touched on abortion, women, parenting, and LGBT issues.

On Friday night, Butker spoke during “Courage Under Fire” gala in Nashville, Tennessee, in support of the Regina Coeli Academy. RCA, of which Butker is a board member, is a classical homeschool hybrid model that offers an accredited curriculum for pre-K through 12th grade.

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A satanic display for Christmas on display in the Iowa state Capitol in December 2023.

(NEW YORK POST) -- A former Republican congressional candidate avoided a hate crime charge after being accused of vandalizing a Satanic Temple of Iowa statue that was part of a holiday display at the state capitol.

Michael Cassidy, a Navy Reserve veteran from Mississippi, pleaded guilty Friday to misdemeanor criminal mischief as part of a plea agreement to have the felony hate crime charge dropped, the Des Moines Register reported.

Cassidy, 36, admitted that he “partially dismantled a display in the Iowa State Capitol Building, without a right/license to do so,” according to a court filing.

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