In a provocative article published by The Guardian last week, former members of a Christian community, People of Praise, to which Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett belongs, argued that Barrett should recuse herself from the upcoming 303 Creative v. Elenis case. In some ways, this should be a wake-up call for Christians.
Attorneys General for 13 states filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to block capital asset manager Vanguard from purchasing more than $10 million worth of shares in publicly traded utility companies. They accused the firm of "engaging in environmental activism and using its financial influence to manipulate the activities of the utility companies in its portfolio."
The Biden administration has declined to appeal a federal court ruling that blocked their proposed federal mandate that would have required medical staff to perform gender transition procedures, including the removal of healthy organs, regardless of religious objections. The move could signal a recognition from the White House that a cultural shift away from widespread acceptance of gender transition procedures for minors is occurring.
For conservatives, who've spent the better part of six months in the trenches for an institution Republicans have always stood for, there were plenty of sad storylines from Tuesday night's marriage vote. Perhaps the saddest, at least to the movement's veterans, was watching men and women they trusted try to justify the abandonment of their longtime principles. Some didn't bother. Others, like Senator Todd Young (R-Ind.), took to the pages of their state's newspapers to mitigate the damage back home. And then there was Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), whose tragic and flawed thought process was laid bare for everyone to see - and lament.
China's Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission promised Tuesday to "resolutely crack down on infiltration and sabotage activities by hostile forces" as protests against the communist regime's "zero COVID" policy lingered for a fifth day. In implementing the likely brutal lockdown, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will have an ally that might surprise many Westerners: California-based Apple, Inc.
Many Christians rightly possess a positive perspective of adoption as a means of growing a family - proven by the fact that Christians are twice as likely to adopt a child as other Americans. However, even among Christians, the rate of families that adopt is around a dismally low 5% despite 38% of practicing Christians having seriously considered adopting. There is perhaps no greater encouragement for someone considering adoption than to hear the wisdom of parents who have walked that road themselves - and who would make the same decision again in a heartbeat.
Despite the constantly shifting sands of the culture war, one could hope that there is still moral territory where common ground between conservatives and liberals can be found; namely, protecting children from the likes of pedophiles and child sexual abuse material (CSAM) producers. If the lack of shared public concern about harbingers of pedophilia is any indication, however, the complete moral desolation of western society may have already arrived on our doorstep.
On Tuesday night, the U.S. Senate passed the so-called "Respect for Marriage" Act which critics say invites "predatory lawsuits" against people of faith, stigmatizes biblical values, and drives Christians from the public square. Although nearly all Senate Republicans voted for amendments demanding greater respect for religious liberty, 12 Republicans voted for the unamended bill - and against the interests of their own voters, according to pro-family organizations.
On Saturday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury gave American energy company Chevron the green light to drill for oil again in Venezuela. Previously, the United States had targeted sanctions on the country due to the communist regime under President Nicolas Maduro. According to the Treasury Department's press release, this move towards natural resource extraction will help "alleviate the suffering of the Venezuelan people and support the restoration of democracy."
A school board in the Portland, Ore. area walked out during a meeting in October after parents brought up concerns over content in school libraries featuring "gender-affirming care" and sexually explicit material. Meanwhile, a medical doctor testified in an Arkansas court on Monday that gender-affirming care fails to take into account underlying psychological disorders.
The Chinese regime is gradually escalating a nationwide crackdown after a fatal apartment fire in the city of Urumqi flared up into widespread demonstrations against the central government. But the regime's tolerance of protests is nearly gone.
With Congress set to vote on the Democrat-led Respect for Marriage Act, a bill that would redefine marriage, there is ample cause for concern about the many consequences that might arise. The potential repercussions - both anticipated and not yet seen - make way for a longstanding argument: that we should not be quick to burn down the institutional structures passed down to us through the ages.
When the Senate floor came to a screeching halt Monday evening, there was hope that the Republicans' 12 marriage defectors were on the verge of making things right. For two and a half hours, the chamber was at a virtual standstill - crawling toward the 60 votes needed to move the so-called Respect for Marriage Act forward. A little before 8:00 p.m., the spell was broken, along with any confidence that the GOP's dozen Democrat enablers would have a change of heart.
As the United States grapples with the reality of a future without Roe v. Wade, the topic of adoption has surfaced as a surprising source of controversy. The abortion industry and its supporters have been quick to demonize adoption as a viable alternative to abortion - often citing concerns about transracial adoptions as causing a lifetime of trauma for a child. For countless adoptees like Jaelyn Morgan, however, adoption is characterized primarily by immense love.
In their newly released Abortion Surveillance report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a victory for life. In 2020, the year that gave us the COVID-19 pandemic, reported abortions decreased overall by 1.5% in the United States.
In a blow to religious freedom, the U.S. Senate voted to overcome a Republican filibuster against an amendment to the so-called "Respect for Marriage" Act, clearing the way for the passage of a bill that critics say is "dangerous," "deceptive," and "harmful" to Christian businesspeople and nonprofits soon to face legal harassment.
As senators prepare to take a series of votes on the deceptively titled "Respect for Marriage Act" (H.R. 8404) this week, one focal point of concern is the inadequate - perhaps even stillborn - protections that the bill to codify same-sex marriage provides for religious freedom.
I encourage you to immediately embark on a healthy change. Not in your diet, although that might be valuable. And not in your spiritual regimen, although that might also be life-changing. It is time for each of us to reconsider how we think about and engage in electoral politics.
Rare protests across China were sparked on Saturday against the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) ongoing draconian COVID-lockdowns. The Chinese people have endured exceedingly tight restrictions affecting daily life since the beginning of the pandemic. One incident in the city of Urumqi seemed to be the final straw - igniting pushback after 10 people were killed in a fire when rescue efforts were hampered by the government's "zero-COVID" policy.
A birthday is a celebration of life - but unfortunately, not everyone leaves behind a legacy that makes theirs worth celebrating. Friedrich Engels, co-father of Marxist theory, born 202 years ago today on November 28, 1820, is one such individual. Engels dedicated his life to an ideology that, in its every iteration, has destroyed lives - including by preventing the birthdays of millions of unborn children.
During this summer's monkeypox outbreak, one man who caught the virus casually told an interviewer something that would have seemed impossible to most readers: "I have a boyfriend and my boyfriend has a husband and we all live together." To most Americans, the combination - of words or relationships - would seem shocking. Yet some do not see the lack of monogamy in same-sex marriages as a problem: LGBT activists privately hope to break the "heteronormativity" of having only two partners in a marriage, "to infect the straight world" with polyamory, and to "radically alter" or abolish marriage altogether.
This year for Thanksgiving, I joined extended family for a Thursday feast and introduced them to my wife and son for the first time. Right there, I have a lot to be thankful for. Perhaps you, too, counted your many blessings this past week. Or perhaps you feel that your reasons to give thanks are few and far between. Either way, the Bible exhorts us to primarily give thanks for God's unalienable gifts that are immune to the circumstances of this life. "Let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken" (Hebrews 12:28). In reinforcing our hope in our future reward, few books outshine that of Joshua.
Some people seem to make a career of attacking America's heroes. This is not to say anyone is above criticism or that our admiration for exceptional people should go from respect to reverence. Instead, there is a difference between dealing honestly with the flaws of the great and using those flaws to justify degrading them.
The Western world has been admirably united in opposing Russia's war in Ukraine. A new report, however, indicates that Christians may have more of a stake in the conflict than previously realized.
After any election, the true winners and losers are reflected not merely by the tally of votes received but how they are perceived by the public. Here is a brief guide now that the dust has settled on this month's midterm elections.
Without a doubt, 2022 has been a year of monumental victories for the unborn. This year brought with it unimaginable joy as the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade - the white whale of the pro-life movement - and over half of the country began protecting unborn lives at some point in gestation. The recent midterm elections, however, have left some Republicans blaming the half-hearted "red wave" on the Dobbs decision.
While the Biden administration has been spinning the border crisis as a natural disaster - after months of refusing to even acknowledge the existence of a crisis - House Republicans have argued otherwise, calling the crisis a man-made disaster that is the result of the Biden administration rescinding proven border security measures and implementing catch-and-release policies.
After every national election, the parties represented by an elephant and a donkey desperately seek a third mascot: a scapegoat. This year, both parties have selected a most appropriate sacrifice: the unborn. The Big Business-uber-alles wing of the GOP has made Lindsey Graham's bill, which would protect most (but not all) unborn children at 15 weeks, the unique object of its hatred.
Thanksgiving is a time we take to express our gratitude towards God. Families travel to see each other and maybe play a football game in the yard with friends and neighbors. That is, until last year, when experts and government officials warned us that if we celebrated, we risked death - to ourselves and our loved ones. Especially Grandma. So, stay home! That was the same advice given to the Pilgrims.
The fourth Thursday in November isn't quite as musically-inclined as the older, more internationally-known holidays. Maybe that's because it's a uniquely American holiday (I hear, you Canada...), or maybe it's because our mouths are too filled with turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie to sing effectively. , But we Christians don't have to settle for a songless Thanksgiving Day. After all, we have a whole book of songs, many of which focus on gratitude.
Shortly after Dr. Anthony Fauci gave his final public statement as a government official, one of the doctors Fauci tried to drive from public view gave his own assessment of Fauci's tenure: "His advice turned out very badly," said Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University professor of medicine and co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration. In his career overall, "He has not succeeded."
The president of the second largest teacher's union in the country described conservative arguments against transgender ideology as "demonic" in a recent interview. But experts say that this rhetorical tactic is a way of dismissing unfavored arguments without ever addressing them.
While Americans are running last minute errands for a weekend of feasting and football, conservatives are frantically working to stop what's awaiting everyone on Monday: the end of religious freedom as we know it. With just days until the next big hurdle on the so-called Respect for Marriage Act, House and Senate Republicans are working around the clock to peel off three of the 60 votes Democrats need to keep the bill alive. Target number one? The party's 12 defectors.
With the 24/7 news cycle rapidly providing reasons to be deeply concerned for the state of our country, Thanksgiving offers an opportunity for us to reexamine our circumstances in life. President George Washington, who led under-supplied rag-tag American patriots in poor conditions against the mighty British army, was no stranger to hardship nor was he naive regarding the immense challenges faced by the new country he fought to establish. Instead of dwelling on the difficulties surrounding him - including internal divisions in his administration and even the fear that the burgeoning political system might fail - he pointed the American people to express gratitude to Almighty God.
According to new post-midterm polling, American voters under 30 are gradually becoming less liberal. On Monday, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk tweeted about Morning Consult survey numbers indicating a 13-point drop in young voters voting liberal in the last five years.
While both parties sift through the midterm results, trying to decipher what messages resonated with voters, Republicans won't have to look far. One of the biggest takeaways for the GOP ought to be just how fed up Americans are with woke capital. Whatever dam broke when conservative governors started doing battle with corporate bullies is opening the political floodgates. And the results of November 8 prove it.
America has increasingly defined itself as a land that lives by fictions. One of the most pervasive lies insists that Americans support same-sex marriage by ever-increasing margins. But occasionally, one of the media's myths runs into a contradictory reality that people know is true in their bones. The belief that married people should not have sex with anyone except their spouse comes as close to a universally accepted truth as this country can muster. That sets public support for same-sex marriage on a collision course with itself.
When Disney CEO Bob Chapek sent a memo to senior leaders Friday explaining that the company was "going to have to make tough and uncomfortable decisions," he had no idea just how uncomfortable they were about to become. Less than two days later, the ax fell in his own office, ending one of the most tumultuous chapters in Disney history. Chapek, who'd been a polarizing figure from the get-go, was out - and no one was more surprised than him.
With Obergefell, the Supreme Court made gay marriage the law of the land and mandated that government institutions and processes could make no legal distinctions between adult romantic relationships. Two married men cannot be treated any differently than a married man and woman. Indeed, from the perspective of adult emotional fulfillment, there may be no distinction. But from the child's perspective, these two couplings are polar opposites.
As the World Cup soccer tournament kicks off this week - the most watched sporting event in the world - host country Qatar has come under increasing scrutiny because of its restrictions on religious freedom and the human rights violations committed there in order to prepare for the tournament.
In a feel-good story of local generosity, Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, Feed the Fridge, is doing its part to provide Thanksgiving meals for seniors and military families in need. The charity, founded by the co-owner of Medium Rare restaurant, Mark Bucher, started the initiative during the pandemic to feed the hungry and keep small, local restaurants in business. Now, Bucher taking that same goodwill and changing families' holiday for the better.
Last week, Americans witnessed a disturbing vote in the United States Senate as 12 Republican senators joined all 50 Democrats in voting for the so-called Respect for Marriage Act. One of the most interesting storylines is Senator Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who was eager to vote for the bill and quickly dismissed religious liberty concerns in his floor speech. But we need only look back 10 years ago to find a very different Thom Tillis.
Former "Full House" star Candace Cameron Bure is taking the heat for telling The Wall Street Journal that her new television channel will keep Christianity, including "traditional marriage," central in their family-oriented films.
As pressure ramps up on the Democrats' same-sex marriage bill, Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) is teaming up with 20 of his colleagues to demand that the party's 12 deserters reconsider their position before the next vote. "The free exercise of religion is absolutely essential to the health of our Republic," Lee wrote in a "Dear Colleague" letter first obtained by The Daily Signal. "We must have the courage to protect it."
"Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here," wrote John J. Ray III of cryptocurrency exchange FTX on Thursday. \rThe sudden rise and spectacular fall of FTX is a cautionary tale for everyone, but believers, in particular, can benefit by applying the wisdom of Scripture to this case study.
For the second time in a week, a woman who has detransitioned from a gender-nonconforming lifestyle is suing the health care professionals who advised her to undergo gender transition procedures, including the surgical removal of both breasts. The lawsuit highlights a growing trend of formerly gender-confused individuals who are suing the health care industry over what they say is medical malpractice for leaving them with disfigured bodies because of medical misdiagnosis.
If the 12 Republican senators who voted for the Democrats' same-sex marriage bill don't have buyer's remorse, they will. Take it from Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.). Ever since his "yea" vote in July, the House Freedom Caucus chair has been squarely in the blast zone of movement conservatives. Now, as his Senate colleagues flirt dangerously with the same mistake, he has one word for them: Don't.
Addressing the declining U.S. birthrate and its economic consequences on the nation, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is betting on 11 million illegal immigrants and "Dreamers" from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to do the heavy lifting.
Recent Gallup polling shows that most Americans aren't worrying about COVID like they used to. Mandatory masks, proof of vaccination, six-foot social distancing, and quarantine seem to be buzzwords of the recent past for 78% of respondents who reported that they have completely returned to their normal cadences of life.
In the ever-expanding "Now I've Heard Everything" file, we must today place the latest dictum from Hillary Clinton. "Voters didn't just choose Democrats in these midterm elections," she has written of last week's election. "They chose democracy."
If you're waiting for the Georgia runoff to decide what the Republicans' margins are, don't bother. Thanks to Wednesday's marriage vote, we know exactly where the lines are drawn. Heading into this week, a lot of people said that America was about to find out what the Senate GOP is made of. Now we know. Republicans may be down one seat in the Senate, but they're 12 short where it matters - on principle.
The state of Arkansas is currently on trial in federal court for attempting to protect children from mutilation and sterilization. The Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act would prohibit irreversible gender transition procedures on minors, but it's been blocked from taking effect while it makes its way through the litigation process.
Instead of a war on Christmas, this year features a war on the retailers who sell Christmas gifts. Target reported earnings per share of $1.54, 49.3% lower than the anticipated $3.04. The lackluster profits were partly due to declines in consumer spending, but another, less expected factor was organized retail crime.
A new program run by the city of San Francisco was announced Wednesday that will give a guaranteed monthly income to people who identify as transgender. The program will focus on giving the free money to transgender-identifying individuals who are homeless. City officials made no mention of a similar program for homeless individuals who do not identify as transgender.
A publicly funded state teachers union hosted a drag queen story hour for children at its convention last week. The New Jersey Educators Association (NJEA), which skims millions of dollars directly from property taxes and "is by far the biggest political spender in New Jersey," directly promoted woke political topics for the classroom at its 2022 convention.
Eight days after Election Day, when American voters went to the polls to cast their votes in the midterm elections, the U.S. is still waiting to know the final results. Seven races in the House of Representatives have still not been called by election officials because ballots are still being counted. Many are asking: in perhaps the most technologically advanced nation on earth, why is it taking so long?
A bill supported by President Biden that would legalize same-sex marriage nationwide, threaten Christians who object to participating in LGBT ceremonies, and create a bonanza for trial lawyers to sue believers in natural marriage cleared a key Senate hurdle Wednesday afternoon - with the assistance of 12 Republicans.
A Georgia lower court on Tuesday struck down Sections 4 and 11 in the state's heartbeat bill, provisions that prohibit abortions after a heartbeat is detected, which typically occurs around six weeks gestation. Superior Court of Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney wrote, "those provisions exist on paper only; they have never had legal effect in Georgia. They were and are void and must be re-enacted in our post-Roe world if they are to become the law of Georgia."
At the 2022 Qatar FIFA World Cup, the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) exchanged their crest's red, white, and blue team colors for rainbow stripes in an attempt to bring LGBT activism to the forefront of the Middle Eastern country's mind where homosexuality is outlawed. Though the crest won't be seen on the playing field, the message will be loud and clear off the field.
The Parents Television and Media Council (PTC) released a new study revealing that major media companies such as HBO, Netflix, and Hulu are targeting children with adult content on social media. In their report, "A TikTok-ing Time Bomb," PTC found that despite their TV-MA ratings, children were being exposed to dangerous, violent, and sexual adult television shows via popular TikTok and Instagram hashtags.
"America's comeback starts right now," former President Donald Trump told hundreds of cheering supporters at his Mar-a-Lago residence Tuesday night, as he announced he will run for a second term as president of the United States. Trump asked for prayer as he vowed to protect parental rights, prevent males from competing in women's sports, and "defend life" in an hour-long speech that proved light on specific policies on social issues.
"We've all heard of people being cancelled, thrown off social media, even fired from jobs ... But how many years before a Christian minister [who speaks] on marriage and sexual orientation is reported [to] a government anti-terrorism program?" For Reverend Dr. Bernard Randall, that time has already come. The chaplain of a Church of England School was suspended, fired for gross misconduct, and reported to child protective services simply for restating what the Church of England believes. If his story sounds like a distant outlier, it's not. Randall's nightmare will be every Christian's nightmare if our Senate passes the Respect for Marriage Act.
The abortion industry has garnered both financial profit and political support by marketing itself as an essential component of women's rights - but the evidence proves that legal abortion has concealed the crimes of abusers for generations. Now, as states increasingly embrace pro-life laws that protect the unborn from abortion, abusers are finding it more difficult to manipulate women behind closed doors.
One Republican senator who is considering supporting the so-called Respect for Marriage Act is Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah). "I'd like to get onto the bill," he told The Hill. Romney hopes to attach a flimsy religious freedom amendment to the bill. "If that amendment is attached to the bill, I'll vote for it." Romney sang a much different tune in 2006, when as governor of Massachusetts he joined a Family Research Council simulcast in Boston.
Many have commented that this election was a referendum on abortion. With two pro-life ballot initiatives going down in flames, and radical amendments in California, Michigan, and Vermont passing by large margins, it is hard to make the case that a majority of Americans value life in the womb. Sadly, abortion is not the only example of a time when the collective conscience of the American people has been beaten into submission. There was another point in American history when the question of personhood of a human being was put to a vote.
An 18-year-old advocate for the rights of children who struggle with gender dysphoria is filing a lawsuit against a California-based health care company for "breaching the standard of care" when it recommended and performed puberty blocking drugs, hormone therapy, and surgical transition procedures on her as a minor. The news comes as legacy media outlets are beginning to acknowledge the significant health risks that puberty blocking drugs and gender transition surgeries pose to minors.
Andrew Thorburn had no idea the whirlwind he was in for when he accepted the job of chief executive of Australian Football League club Essendon. He would be pressured to resign just over 24 hours after taking the job. At the center of this controversy was not a personal scandal nor an accusation of being unqualified - rather, it was his association with City on a Hill Church, where he served as chairman.
In an otherwise deflating election for Republicans, one of the few areas where conservatives did make hay was America's school boards. From Florida to Loudoun County, the parents' rebellion rode a red wave of upsets from coast to coast. For all of the chatter about what the GOP could have done differently in these midterms, education stands alone as one of the most powerful issues connecting the party with voters. So why would Republicans support a bill that strips away parents' say in the classroom? Good question - one that every American should be asking their U.S. senators before Wednesday.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) made the case Monday on MSNBC for why it will be "a lot easier to get things done" for Senate Democrats if their party wins the Georgia runoff election. Having that one additional vote enables the party to confirm more progressive nominees, pass legislation more quickly, and exercise subpoena power, he said.
Trust is a wonderful thing. It enables friendships and business investment, marriages and simple purchases at the grocery store. Yet trust, when misplaced, is also a dangerous thing. It emboldens the deceptive and destroys the naÏve. It is my fear that our president might well be in this last category.
Even as officials continue to count the ballots in midterm races, President Joe Biden admitted voters should not "expect much of anything" on his signature campaign promise to codify Roe v. Wade into law, admitting he lacks the votes. At the same time, two federal courts have blocked Biden's student loan bailout, effectively hamstringing two issues that fueled his unexpectedly successful showing last Tuesday.
Though a week has passed since Tuesday's midterm elections, more than a dozen races for the U.S. House seats have yet to be called, according to Fox News, keeping a slim but anticipated Republican majority for the House at bay from the 218-seat target.
In February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, most western Christians didn't express immediate concern about threats to religious freedom. Everyone knew the fighting would be ugly, and a general sense of dread was stirred up by reports of Russia's notorious ruthlessness in other conflicts. Yet specific fears of what might happen to religious believers in Ukraine were not clear in our minds. In retrospect, we should have been paying closer attention.
When Republicans secure a narrow House majority, which appears likely as vote counting continues, it will mean an aggressive oversight agenda in the new year, something the Biden administration largely has avoided from Congress in its first two years. Here are eight investigations to expect under GOP leadership of the House in the coming year.
Dawn broke crisp and clear over Mount Sinai on Sunday morning, as half a dozen climate activists gathered to adorn their cause with religious overtones. They chose the site based on its proximity to COP27, a global climate summit now underway at Sinai coastal resort Sharm El-Sheikh, but once chosen they couldn't resist conscious parallels to Moses receiving the Old Covenant.
While the country's attention flits between the slow drip of election results and Bali's G20 summit, Democrats continue to bask in their softer-than-expected midterm landing. The president, who's taken America's five-million vote shift toward the House GOP as a mandate to change nothing, insisted after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping that the divided results prove that "America is back."
Since the earliest days of the church, false teachers have preyed upon the ill-informed, the impressionable, and the immature. Whether for financial gain or the intoxication of power or because of their own spiritual blindness, those who misrepresent the true Gospel of Jesus Christ are legion. Examples abound.
Every November, the United States celebrates National Adoption Month - a tradition that began in 1984 when President Ronald Reagan first instituted National Adoption Week. For generations, American adoption activists have worked to destigmatize and celebrate the beauty of growing a family through adoption. As more birth mothers consider placing their child for adoption in an increasingly abortion-free America, it is more important than ever to recognize the beauty and hope that characterize stories of adoption.
Republicans may have controlled the redistricting process in more states following the 2020 census, but that hasn't translated into a huge increase of seats in Congress. An analysis by The Washington Stand reveals that Republicans will gain only 1-5 seats in Congress due to redistricting, even though they controlled the redistricting process in 19 states (with 184 seats in Congress), compared to eight states controlled by the Democrats (with 75 seats in Congress).
Republicans haven't won the House yet, but the media is already salivating over the next election - for GOP leadership. While a handful of districts are still up for grabs, the headlines are full of juicy gossip that Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is in for a rocky road to the speakership if his party wins back the gavel. Will there be a messy dogfight over key posts - or is the Left just trying to splinter a narrow majority into unworkable GOP pieces?
On Wednesday, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) made headlines when he posted a comment on Twitter stating that he thought the idea of parents being in charge of their children's education was "stupid." The controversial statement comes in light of a sweeping movement across the nation of parents getting more involved in public education, particularly through running for and winning school board seats.
On Veterans Day, we honor these brave individuals for their willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice and offer their country the very best that they had to give. Every citizen owes a debt of gratitude to the veterans who have made our freedom possible. For President Biden, however, America's veterans appear to have only one purpose: advancing his personal radical abortion agenda.
The man behind the Supreme Court case that redefined marriage nationwide lost his bid to enter the lowest rung of state politics by a landslide on Tuesday. Jim Obergefell, the plaintiff in the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges case, ran as a Democrat for the Ohio House of Representatives, losing by 23 percentage points in a district that is 57% Republican. Republican State Rep. D.J. Swearingen (R-Huron) vastly outperformed that metric while burying Obergefell in a 61% to 38% electoral blowout.
CNN exit polling from Tuesday's midterm elections shows that the unmarried woman's vote has become a force for the Democratic party, with 68% voting blue at the ballot box. Some, such as Fox News's Jesse Watters, have gone so far as to say that single women were what stood between Republicans and their anticipated red wave.
Democrats faced a rude awakening in the 2016 election when Donald Trump's surprise upset victory was propelled, in part, by his major inroads into the Left's "Blue Wall." This shock evidently awoke the Democrat's political machine to lock down the voting base in the big three: Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Republicans underperformed expectations of a red wave on Tuesday, striking out in dozens of races for governor's mansions, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House which were rated as "toss-ups." But a state where Republicans did surprisingly well is New York.
Only days after a plurality of voters (31%) selected inflation as the top issue in exit polls, another month of bad news proved them right. Inflation rose 7.7% over the past year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) Thursday release of Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for October. Every dollar in your pocket has lost that much purchasing power without ever exchanging hands.
For the first six months after Jane's Revenge began a domestic terrorism campaign, pro-life pregnancy resource centers asked the federal government to stop the violence. Now, they're asking an expected pro-life majority in Congress to protect the unborn.
Family Research Council didn't view my son's birth as the end of my career. Instead, they viewed it as an opportunity to utilize the unique gifts moms bring to the workplace. In a country where women are often presented with a choice - children or a career - FRC's willingness to try something different is the envy of every mom I talk to at the park.
As the two sides try to make sense of Tuesday's surprises, Americans can agree on one thing: there were plenty of successes and disappointments to go around. Republicans and Democrats will both walk away discouraged about certain assumptions they carried into this week - and they are equal parts proud and reassured by other obstacles they overcame. By the end of the night, the GOP's sky-high expectations were the drag on what should have been a triumphant moment - stopping President Joe Biden's unchecked radicalism in its tracks.
One might expect the waning of a globe-altering pandemic would bring a sense of relief among the global community. Instead, we've seen the opposite. Relief isn't here.
Riding a nearly 20-point win in his gubernatorial race Tuesday night, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) had six more reasons to celebrate: all six of the school board candidates that he endorsed also won their races. The victories served as a stark reminder of how important the issue of education and parental rights has become, as DeSantis made the issues central to his campaign.
While Republicans underwhelmed expectations of a red wave, the party did extend their gains among a key demographic: Hispanic voters. While the trend is not new to the 2022 election - indeed, the mainstream mediahas warnedextensivelyabout it - the results cement and extend previous gains. Indeed, the GOP outperformed its 2018 performance in 29 out of 33 Hispanic-majority congressional districts, and its 2020 performance in 25 districts, according to an analysis of preliminary results by The Washington Stand. In 13 districts, Republicans bested their 2018 performance by more than 20 percentage points.
Though the wall of Roe v. Wade has fallen, injustice and evil have remained unchecked or been strengthened in multiple states across the country. After the election, it is just as dangerous to be an unborn baby in Michigan as it is to be one in North Korea. Roe is gone - but the hearts of Americans have been infected with the culture of death that was permitted to fester for nearly 50 years. Though the necessity to win hearts and minds for life is an intimidating prospect, it is not an impossible one.
Tuesday night's midterm election results brought in victories for several staunchly pro-life governors across America. While voters remain concerned over the economy, the border, and education, strong pro-life policy turned out to be a winning issue for many incumbent Republican governors.
As states continue counting the final ballots, the race for control of the Senate is taking shape. As of Wednesday afternoon, The Associated Press had unofficially called a winner in all but three races, with control of the Senate still undetermined. Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada continue to hold the keys to the next party majority.
The marijuana industry suffered a blistering setback in the 2022 midterm election, as voters in three states turned back a well-financed campaign to expand recreational marijuana use. The David vs. Goliath contests pitted marijuana companies against a broad-based coalition of civic and faith leaders, which prevailed in the most hotly contested showdown.
Republicans do not appear to have been able to bring the "big red wave" to the shoreline. Multiple elections remain too close to call, leaving control of both the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate uncertain. "There is no red wave. I don't even know if you call it a red ripple tonight," former Rep. Michele Bachmann told Family Research Council President Tony Perkins during a special election night coverage.
While other states were urging patience, the ballots didn't take long to count in Florida, where Republican Ron DeSantis kicked off the night by mopping the floor with Democratic challenger Charlie Crist. His near 20-point landslide set the tone for a remarkable evening in Florida, where Senator Marco Rubio (R) also cruised to his third term - proof that the Sunshine State is not the swing state it once was.
A recent Wall Street Journal story highlighted how the median net worth for cohabitating couples is significantly lower (at $17,372) than it is for married couples ($68,210). This data is the latest in a string of reports that continue to come out exhibiting the benefits of marriage, even as the rates of cohabitation rise and marriages fall.
Dr. George Barna, a senior fellow with Family Research Council's Center for Biblical Worldview, conducted research through the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University exploring what Americans believe about morality. From a sampling of 2,275 respondents, Barna aimed to answer this question: How do people decide what is right versus what is wrong?
Abortion activists unfurled a creative new campaign medium in Philadelphia, in the final push before the 2022 midterm election. Dozens of tiny drones lit up the night sky, bat signal-style. Like a marching band at halftime, they spelled out the Democrats' all-important, closing message of the election: "Protect Abortion. Our Lives, Our Bodies, Our Futures."
Free speech advocate Elon Musk is ready to crack the whip on U.S. Twitter advertisers who give into progressive activist pressure and leave the platform. On November 4 he tweeted, "Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists. Extremely messed up! They're trying to destroy free speech in America."
One of the most legendary soccer players of his time received a jail sentence and a fine for posting "transphobic" social media messages citing the Bible's creation account. "God created Adam and Eve," wrote retired Greek football legend Vassilis Tsiartas in the second of two Facebook posts opposing a 2017 law that would have lowered the age to legally change one's gender to 15 and removed other legal barriers.
Wafting through Biden's speech last week was the Democrats' aroma of desperation as they struggle to find any winning issue to stump through Election Day. Since July, Democrats have piled all their chips on abortion, hoping voters would punish Republicans for the overturning of Roe v. Wade, overriding usual midterm trends. But when Democrats leaned into abortion, the issue proved to be a paper wall. Without abortion, Democrats don't have much to campaign on.
November 8 will mark the first Election Day in a post-Roe v. Wade America, where elected representatives are free to determine the protections that our nation will afford to babies in the womb. To create a culture of life in the United States where all humans receive their God-given rights, voters must use this opportunity to cast their ballot in favor of candidates and policies that will protect the unborn. Here are eight reminders to consider as you prepare for Election Day.
It goes without saying that our democracy only works if every American has confidence in our elections. That's why the RNC has been on the frontlines fighting relentlessly to hold Democrats accountable and protect the vote.
A global "news" outlet has accused a black female Republican candidate of spouting "incendiary Christian nationalist statements" for encouraging Christians to share the gospel. Vice News claimed that Kristina Karamo, Republican candidate for Michigan Secretary of State, has a "history of transphobic, homophobic, and incendiary Christian nationalist statements." To define the term Christian nationalism, the reporter twice linked to an apolitical statement that does not mention nations, government, or politics.
Every year, thousands of young people attend colleges and universities that profess a strong commitment to the Bible and the historic teachings of the Christian faith. Yet today many schools that profess Evangelical Protestant beliefs are straddling an ever-widening chasm between the convictions they claim and the policies they practice. Calvin University is the latest example.
As we enter the final stretches of the midterm election season, summer feels like it was ages ago. But some of you might remember that blistering hot July day just before Congress departed for their August recess when the Pelosi-led House of Representatives passed the so-called "Respect for Marriage Act."
As recently as a decade ago, our military establishment was the most trusted and honorable of all government organizations. However, things began to change during the Obama administration with worrisome surveys telling a different story. Today's Americans are telling pollsters that their level of trust in America's leadership and confidence in our military services are steadily declining. There are some disturbing reasons for this.
Words have meaning and a weight to the meaning, regardless of the language. Words, whether spoke or not, can also have consequences, justified or not. Words that someone is compelled to speak by the powers that be, such as the government, goes against every fiber of the First Amendment. After all, that is not free speech. Former West Point, Va. public school teacher Peter Vlaming knows all this first-hand.
Say the guy next door doesn't like your spouse, your house, your children, your profession, etc. In all likelihood, you would say, in as many words, "Who cares?" You're comfortable with the choices you've made and are unconcerned with whether they meet a cranky neighbor's approval. Why is it, then, that so many people who now identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender insist not only that society accepts them but also affirms and even celebrates their lifestyle choices? Why do they care so much?
It's fall, and we're once again falling back into the dark ages. Not really, of course. It's simply the end of the charade we've all played for the past eight months called Daylight Saving Time (DST). Every first Sunday in November, we all pretend that we get an extra hour of sleep, move whichever ancient non-resetting clocks we still own back one hour, and begrudgingly welcome the dinnertime darkness. While our internal circadian rhythms won't change immediately, we'll instantly alter our external daily schedules to align with the new norm. And everybody does it because, well, because it's the law.
The Florida Board of Medicine and Board of Osteopathic Medicine on Friday adopted standards of care regarding the treatment of individuals suffering from gender dysphoria. During a joint board meeting, the boards each voted to adopt new Practice Standards for the Treatment of Gender Dysphoria that prevent doctors from performing experimental gender transition procedures on minors, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender transition surgeries.
In recent years, the individuals responsible for leading our nation have often been marked by either immense fame or a lifetime of name recognition based on holding prior offices. Perhaps it is time for Americans to raise our standards and place greater value on a key indicator of integrity for political leaders: respect for human life.
This past summer, when Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb (R) signed legislation outlawing abortion almost completely in the state, Eli Lilly and Company, a major pharmaceutical company, stated that "given this new law, we will be forced to plan for more employment growth outside our home state," and that the law "will hinder Lilly's - and Indiana's - ability to attract diverse scientific, engineering and business talent from around the world." But after a series of mixed messaging that tried to target the overturning of Roe v. Wade, CEO David Ricks quickly changed his mind.
A year into his dumpster fire of a presidency, Joe Biden's team must have already assumed the midterms were lost. By January, when the president had collected more failures than most presidents do in two terms, a tiny seed was being planted. Asked if America would have "free and fair" elections in 2022, Biden replied, "Oh, yeah, I think it easily could be illegitimate. ... I'm not going to say it's going to be legit." Not a single ballot had been cast, and the president was already declaring the whole thing rigged.
A few years ago, controversy struck the Miss United States Of America (USOA) franchise when Anita Green, a biological male who, after transitioning, now identifies as a transwoman, sued the organization for discrimination. While Green had competed in beauty pageants before, such as Miss Montana USA, Miss USOA only allows for "natural born females" to enter their pageants. Upon trying to compete in Oregon, Green argued that the organization had violated the state's public accommodation law. The Ninth Circuit Court disagreed.
On Friday, House Republicans in the Judiciary Committee released a 1,050-page report detailing the testimonies of whistleblowers as well as other documents that point to the growing politicization of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice. The report quoted the descriptions of whistleblowers characterizing the FBI bureaucracy as "rotted at its core" and full of "rampant corruption, manipulation, and abuse."
Penguin Random House rejected a demand to cancel a book deal with Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Over 700 employees in the publishing world have signed an open letter urging the publishing giant to cancel the book deal, first reported in 2021, for her decision this summer to overturn Roe v. Wade. But, in another sign that the woke mob is losing its leverage, Penguin Random House refused to cave.
Only days before the midterm elections in which control of the U.S. House and Senate will be decided, every race matters. One race that could determine control of the Senate is in Pennsylvania where voters will choose between Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Mehmet Oz to replace retiring Republican Pat Toomey. While this race contains the usual fights over the minimum wage, abortion, and energy policy, discussions over Mr. Fetterman's health have taken center stage following a stroke he suffered around the same time he became the Democrat's nominee.
After multiple federal intelligence agencies warned of a "heightened threat" of violent attacks against people involved in abortion or family issues, the CEO of a firebombed pregnancy center is asking Christians to hold a prayerful vigil outside pro-life institutions on election night and the next evening.
Given the fall of Roe v. Wade earlier this year, much of the mainstream media's focus this election cycle has been on abortion, including the many abortion-related, state-level ballot initiatives being considered by voters. Understandably so. But there is another important issue that will be voted on directly by the people this November - marijuana legalization. A total of five states - Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota, and South Dakota - are considering ballot measures to legalize recreational marijuana this year.
On Election Day, November 8, Kentuckians - for the first time ever - will have the opportunity to directly vote to protect the sanctity of preborn human life and safeguard our tax dollars from paying for the horrors of abortion by voting Yes on Amendment 2.
"Let's Declare a Pandemic Amnesty," begged a Monday headline in The Atlantic. Author Emily Oster, an economist at Brown University, explained underneath, "We need to forgive one another for what we did and said when we were in the dark about COVID." Since then, conservative rebuttals have flown thick and fast - including, doubtless, many who never read her piece - ranging from respectful to vengeful. A week out from the midterm elections, many on the right are in no forgiving mood.
A prominent pediatric neurosurgeon has publicly spoken out against performing gender transition procedures on minors in a recent Federalist podcast, adding to the growing number of doctors around the country voicing strong objections to the controversial practice as well as a strong majority of voters heading into next week's midterm elections.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that since the August primary election, over 80,000 Floridians have registered as Republicans, nine for every one newly registered Democrat, whose numbers have not significantly increased. Recent polling has DeSantis and Senator Marco Rubio (R) taking considerable leads in their respective races, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.
President Joe Biden re-engaged the issue of drug legalization with his recent announcement of a blanket pardon for anyone who had committed the federal offense of simple possession of marijuana - around 6,500 individuals. This executive action intensified discussion over whether Congress should take further steps to legalize the drug - and where it might lead.
Although the DHS has dissolved their controversial Disinformation Governance Board (nicknamed the "ministry of truth" by critics) earlier this year, word broke this week that the organization has continued monitoring "misinformation" on social media platforms. Facebook even granted direct access to the DHS and government partners to report alleged disinformation.
During a caustic speech in Washington's crime-ridden Union Station Wednesday night, President Joe Biden declared all people of goodwill "must unite to make it absolutely clear that violence and intimidation have no place in America." He could begin by protecting pro-life advocates, who are 22 times more likely to suffer violent attacks than abortion facilities, a new study has found.
This week on "The View," Anne Hathaway, star of "The Devil Wears Prada," used the anniversary of the film to further perpetuate two lies. The first lie is that women need abortion to succeed, and the second is that women should be satisfied with a world where this is true.
Since the pandemic, the traffic seems to only run one way in California: out. "For Sale" signs dot the lawns up and down the state, as the mass exodus continues. Los Angeles and San Francisco have been hardest hit, racking up top honors as the two cities Americans are fleeing most. For some, it's the expensive housing and high prices. For others, it's the crime and dangerous streets. But that violence is about to get a whole lot worse if Proposition 1 passes. Pretty soon, the most unsafe place to be in California could be the womb.
As news surfaced that almost 60% of CEOs plan to move away from a controversial investment strategy known as "environmental, social, and governance" (ESG) investing in the next six months, Oklahoma became the first state to put into effect a law requiring the state to no longer conduct business with financial firms that use ESG strategies to shun fossil fuel companies.
Pennsylvania taxpayers have paid more than $16.7 million since 2015 on gender transition procedures for minors, according to public records obtained by the Pennsylvania Family Institute (PFI). The news comes at the same time that the U.K.'s National Health Service concluded that, for many adolescents who identify as transgender, doing so is just a "transient phase."
The Supreme Court's decision to return the issue of abortion to the states has resulted in two new firsts: Many states held their first-ever marches for life, and the legacy media had their first opportunity to lie about them. One of the most egregious examples of media bias involved the Ohio March for Life. Thankfully, pro-life advocates can stave off this common media attack by using one word.
Maybe a recession wouldn't be the worst thing in the world after all. According to the woke CEOs of America, conservatives would at least have one thing to look forward to: a "pause" in ESG investing. That's one of the stunning takeaways from KPMG's latest survey of hundreds of top executives. "In an uncertain economic environment, CEOs are adjusting their business strategies ..." Chair Paul Knopp explained. And one of those "adjustments" is to reconsider their radical activism - a shift red states are speeding up with every painful divestment.
Big cities, small cities, suburban areas - the uptick in juvenile crime does not discriminate. From Los Angeles to Philadelphia, children are ganging up to commit crimes like robbery and carjacking. In Washington, D.C., one 13-year-old has already filled out his rap sheet with 11 counts of armed robbery, carjacking, and assault. "I've been in law enforcement for nearly 23 years now, and I will honestly say, within the last year or two, it has been the worst I've ever seen it regarding our youth," said Tyree Jones, sheriff of Hinds County, Mississippi, home to the state's capital in Jackson.
Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), joined Tony Perkins on "Washington Watch" this week to discuss the legal action the RNC is taking against Google's purported censorship of their account. She claimed that their emails would go from 90% deliverability to 0% in the last four days of every month for the past ten months.
On Monday, Politico reported that around $57 million has been spent in support of Michigan's Proposition 3 ahead of next week's midterm elections, a ballot proposal that would codify abortion into a fundamental right in the Michigan Constitution. Experts say the large sum highlights the vast funds available to the abortion industry, while also warning of how the referendum could negatively impact parental rights and the health of minors.
It is no secret that the U.S. military is struggling to maintain its dominance at the international level. A recent annual report from the Heritage Foundation ranked the U.S. military as "weak" for the first time since reporting started. With threats looming from hostile actors regarding strategic U.S. interests on the Korean Peninsula, the Taiwan Strait, and in the Middle East, military leadership has its hands full. Instead of taking these concerns seriously, President Biden's Department of Defense is busy playing politics.
After months of COVID postponements, fall of 2021 saw most schools re-open nationally. Would all be forgiven and forgotten with this "return to normal?" Were kids as resilient as we were promised, could they bounce back? It seems not.
Just nine days before the 2022 midterm elections, a widely touted media outlet has accused the Biden administration of not cracking down hard enough on churches. Yet critics say the law the story endorses violates the First Amendment's protection of religious liberty.
This past summer, Macy Petty, a college junior interning at Family Research Council's headquarters in Washington, D.C., stood outside the court in anticipation of the release of the Dobbs decision. When it finally dropped, Petty fell to her knees and sobbed tears of joy. A few weeks ago, Petty discovered that the clip of her falling to her knees in tears was being used in a pro-abortion advertisement paid for by the California Democratic Party.
Don't ask the man who sings "Most People Are Good" what he thinks about those lyrics this week. Country music star Luke Bryan is probably wondering if people are even rational after spending the weekend as a social media punching bag. Bryan, who's also a celebrity judge on "American Idol," became the object of the Left's fury after his Jacksonville concert on Friday, when he invited Governor Ron DeSantis (R) on stage to help him raise money for the state's hurricane victims. Within hours, Luke was trying to clean up from another storm - his own.
Americans would be hard-pressed to name a president in U.S. history who has taken a more radically anti-life stance on abortion than President Joe Biden - but even #46 can't seem to appease the increasingly dangerous ideas of the abortion industry and the bloodthirsty lobby that supports it.
Independent voters are increasingly shifting to favor a Republican candidates for the U.S. House, according to two CBS News/YouGov polls conducted over the course of October. In a poll conducted October 12-14, 40% of independent registered voters said they would vote for a Democrat for the House of Representatives, while 38% said they would vote for a Republican (D+2). In an October 26-28 poll, 33% of independents said they would vote for a Democrat, while 49% said they would vote for Republican (R+16). Interactive Polls first noticed the 18-point swing in the GOP's favor over a mere two weeks.
The people of Canada have earned a pop-culture stereotype of being polite, kind, and respectful - a reputation that, recently, the nation seems hellbent on dispelling. In March of 2023, Canada will begin allowing individuals to receive assisted suicide based upon mental illness. Given the nation's atrocious record on protecting life in the womb, however, it is actually unsurprising that Canada's disrespect for human dignity targets the innocent at any age.
Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to visit Victory Bible Academy, located in Thailand near the border with Burma. Operated by Christian Freedom International (CFI), a nonprofit dedicated to supporting persecuted Christians, this school's student body is comprised of Karen Christian refugees from Myanmar (also known as Burma). Most of the student's families were forced to flee Myanmar and its tyrannical military that has long been at odds with ethnic and religious minorities.
One million pregnancies end in miscarriage in the United States each year. It is shocking to realize that pregnancy loss numbers are even higher than this, because this excludes other losses like stillbirth, infertility, and non-viable pregnancies. often there is profound grief. Women's grief is downplayed and underestimated; men's grief is completely ignored and considered nonexistent.
The Presbyterian Church in the USA has decided to add a "nonbinary/genderqueer category" to the form it uses to collect information about its membership. "We've always asked how many female members there are in the church," says Kris Valerius, who manages denominational roles and statistics. We're now asking how many men, women, and nonbinary/genderqueer members there are. We've never asked that question so we don't know how many people will fill it out."
As polls show the 2022 midterms trending back toward Republican candidates, the legacy media have fixated on a purported rise in "Christian nationalism" - but an expert says state churches in other countries have often diluted the gospel, the last thing Christian conservatives want.
In the last century, America mistakenly theorized that the promotion of a free market economy in countries like China would naturally lead to political freedom and the fall of dictatorial world powers. Perhaps blindsided by the success of the free market in the Western hemisphere, the U.S. couldn't fathom the rise of a communist state with a booming economy that would one day fight to establish a new global order.
As a study from the Netherlands revealed that the vast majority of minors who took puberty blocking drugs continued taking treatments to advance gender transition, another highly publicized study purporting to show improved mental health outcomes for minors who undergo transition treatments has been "appended."
Get ready for another unnecessary economic crisis created by the hapless economic policies of the Biden administration. U.S. diesel reserves have reached critically low levels, fuel supplier Mansfield Energy warned its clients. After steadily dwindling for months, diesel stores have now reached their lowest level since 2008, and America only has supply for 25 days. On Wednesday, inventories were 20% below the seasonal average of the last 10 years.
In a recent interview with VladTV, NBA champion Matt Barnes spoke out against male athletes who identify as women participating in women's sports. "I'm pro-make-your-choice ... but sports is different. It's a different beast. If you're born a woman, you should play women's sports, and if you're born a man, you should play men's sports," Barnes said.
Christians who reject transgender ideology could virtually be barred from serving as police officers in the nation's largest state, thanks to a series of laws and guidelines rolled out under California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) - policies that experts say may lead officers to make more dangerous decisions and would chill free speech. State officials have said police departments should scour applicants' social media profiles for "disqualifying bias," such as calling a man who identifies as female a male.
If the marriage debate was supposed to happen after the election, no one told South Carolina. Wednesday night's showdown between Governor Henry McMaster (R) and challenger Joe Cunningham devoted a good chunk of time to the subject, which Democrats desperately want to believe is a winning issue for them. Since the end of Roe v. Wade, the president's party has been deliberately stoking fears that Obergefell is the next to fall - a prospect that didn't seem to bother McMaster one bit.
In the wake of historic declines in math and reading scores in schools and polls showing concerns over controversial material in classrooms on the top of midterm voters' minds, Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled a plan to spend $5 billion on electric school buses.
A failing football team might come out of halftime and score a fluke touchdown based on their opponents' successive penalties, but that doesn't mean they've figured out how to generate effective offense. Just so, a positive result for the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) advance estimate for the Third Quarter (July-September) of 2022 doesn't mean the U.S. economy is gaining strength.
Throughout the midterm campaign cycle, the only policy topic that Democrats have been eager to discuss is abortion. Recent debates have demonstrated, however, that the Democrats' goal of appealing to the average American falls flat when their abortion extremism is exposed.
This year's midterm elections have the highest combined total of abortion-related ballot measures in a single year ever recorded in the United States. While most states are moving to either promote abortion or protect unborn life, Montana has opted to go in a slightly different direction, turning its attention to infants who are born alive after failed abortion attempts.
Please, take seriously the danger of the offended heart when you experience difficulties. You must not allow offense to take root in your heart. Decide: "I will turn my eyes toward Jesus and not away." Lean into the leadership of Jesus. Lean into your Beloved. He is committed to bringing you safely through to His Kingdom.
As abortion activists see voters rejecting their message, they have conspicuously reframed their views to say they support some restrictions on abortion: the ones allowed under Roe v. Wade. But what pro-life protections did that 1973 Supreme Court opinion actually allow? Is Roe v. Wade a standard most Americans support? And how should Christians view the controversial ruling?
"It was a grave betrayal of trust by somebody." On Tuesday, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito addressed the Dobbs draft leak from the stage of a Heritage Foundation lecture. He asserted that whoever leaked his initial draft decision to Politico in May, previewing the overturning of Roe v. Wade, had endangered the lives of the five justices in the conservative court majority.
The Court of Appeals of Indiana on Friday affirmed a trial court decision removing a 17-year-old minor from the custody of his parents for their refusal to affirm him in a female gender identity. The case displays the messy, personal qualities in a gender identity crisis, as well as the disastrous implications of permitting the transgender ideology to gain a foothold in law.
As news broke that the United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS) will increase restrictions on the use of puberty blockers for minors experiencing gender dysphoria, a leading pediatrician observed that multiple European countries and the American public have moved away from the Left's insistence on giving gender-confused children puberty blocking drugs and undergoing irreversible surgeries to remove healthy organs.
With less than two weeks remaining before the 2022 midterm elections, Americans are deciding which candidates and causes to support. Christian voters should remember that straight-line issues are those where we can draw a straight line from biblical principle to public policy. Abortion is an obvious example of a straight-line issue.
President Joe Biden called laws aimed at preventing minors from undergoing transgender injections, mutilation, or castration "outrageous" and "immoral" - a position that critics tell The Washington Stand is itself immoral, hypocritical, and guilty of inflicting greater moral damage than America's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan last year.
While everyone's attention is locked on November 8, there are plenty of ominous things barreling down the track as soon as the elections are over. Regardless of who takes control of Congress, the Democrats are already plotting to spend their last two months doing as much damage with their majority as possible. Everything from military spending to marriage is on the table, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) insists. "Members should be prepared for an extremely - underline 'extremely,'" he said, "busy agenda heading into the last two months of Congress." And the busier senators are, the more concerned Americans should be.
Christopher Monzon, a campaign volunteer for Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), was assaulted on Sunday night in his Rubio for Senate shirt and Ron DeSantis ball cap. He was canvassing a neighborhood in the Hialeah area for the Republican senator as he is up for reelection against his Democratic challenger, Orlando's former chief of police, Rep. Val Demings.
The House Progressive Caucus has now retracted the letter it sent to President Biden in which they call on him to negotiate with the war criminal Vladimir Putin. The Progressive Caucus, composed of the Democratic party's 100 most liberal House members, urged Biden to "engage in a proactive diplomatic push, redoubling efforts to seek a realistic framework for a ceasefire."
Two weeks out from the pivotal midterm elections, The New York Times published an article claiming that Congresswoman Mary Miller (R-Ill.) and other Republicans use "inflammatory" and "hostile" language to "vilify" their political opponents at a higher rate than Democrats. Miller countered by saying the "extreme" policies of the Left warrant strong pushback.
President Biden on Sunday declared his executive order forgiving student loans was "a law" from Congress, which he signed, and which is now "being challenged by my Republican colleagues." "I got it passed by a vote or two," the president explained. There's only one problem: Congress never voted on student loan forgiveness; President Biden assumed that power unilaterally.
As the midterm elections approach, voters in every state are already witnessing the desperate scramble of candidates pursuing the last few percentage points to move them out of the margin of error in their race. Amid this political chaos, however, voters in several states must also prepare to cast their vote on more subtly significant measures - namely, ballot referendums centered on abortion.
In light of the looming midterm elections only two weeks away, NowThis News released a one-hour special featuring conversations between six young Democratic activists and President Joe Biden. The presidential forum included interviews on an array of hot-button policy issues: gun violence, student loan forgiveness, transgender laws, abortion, criminal reform, and climate change.
When The New Yorker's Susan Glasser ran into Donna Brazile this month, the former DNC chair didn't exactly share Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) enthusiasm over the Democrats' prospects November 8. Unlike the speaker - who said that America could "take it to the bank" that her party would win the midterms - Brazile was openly skeptical that the Left could "defy history." If there is one thing keeping Democrats in the game, she insisted, it's this strategy: "Roe, Roe, Roe to Vote." But is abortion really the election godsend the president's party thinks it is?
The U.S. State Department will kick off a "10-Day Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Interagency Equity Pursuit Challenge," with a 9 a.m. rally on Tuesday morning, November 1. Lunchtime addresses, articles, teleconferences, and even feature-length documentaries will educate employees about "four cultural groups" - "Women, Minorities, Persons with Disabilities, and LGBTQIA+."
Newly released data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) revealed that almost three million illegal immigrants crossed America's southern border in the fiscal year ending in September 2022, obliterating the previous record by over a million. On Sunday, a Democrat congressman from Texas said the border is "not secure" and that there must be "repercussions" for illegally crossing.
We are pro-life because the Bible is pro-life. That is the animating conviction of the evangelical pro-life movement. We are not pro-life because it is a winning issue. We are not pro-life because we like the issue. We are not pro-life because we like the reputation it gives us. We are pro-life because the timeless and perfect Word of God compels us to be pro-life.
There are dozens of actions that Americans under the age of 18 are not allowed to engage in - including voting, joining the military, having sex with someone over 18, applying for credit cards, and adopting a child, to name a few. And according to a new poll, nearly 80% of Americans believe that using puberty blockers or undergoing procedures to permanently change their sexual characteristics should be among them.
Earlier this month, President Biden pardoned 6,500 people across the nation who had been convicted in federal court of simple marijuana possession. Though the move didn't free any of the 2,700 federal inmates convicted of marijuana possession, it did bring to the forefront a bill before Congress that may come to a vote in the upcoming lame duck session.
When President Biden spoke the other day about making abortion-on-demand the law of the land, the news media - probably without much thought, of course - used religious language to describe the president's proposal. For the Left, abortion has become a kind of rite, something to be "enshrined."
In a recent interview, Virginia State Delegate Elizabeth Guzman (D) stirred up controversy by indicating she planned to reintroduce a bill that would criminalize a parent not affirming their child in an LGBTQ identity as child abuse or neglect. In response, WJLA published the full, 19-minute interview. That interview sheds some insight into the beliefs and assumptions of progressives like Guzman, and it's worth examining in more detail.
The Democrats' hopes of riding abortion advocacy into a big blue wave in the midterm elections are washing out to sea, as Republicans' proactive attacks on Democrats' support for abortion until the moment of birth has turned the tide.
On Wednesday, the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted unanimously to recommend the COVID-19 vaccine as part of the recommended immunization schedule for children as young as six months of age. Several Republican leaders, however, are leaning into parents' concerns about their children being vaccinated and have announced their intent to ignore the CDC's recommended guidance.
In April, the American Bible Society began releasing its 12th annual State of the Bible report in stages. While the first chapter of the study revealed that the American public's overall engagement with the Bible is at a historic low of 19%, the latest chapter of the study found that almost 40% of non-Bible users say "the message found in Scripture has transformed their lives."
Following the monumental pro-life victory of overturning Roe v. Wade, the abortion lobby has taken to a conspicuous new strategy to convince women that abortion is necessary: changing its definition. And who better to do the abortion industry's dirty work than its loyal mouthpiece? In a recent article, The New York Times asks, "What does 'abortion' mean?" and claims that, "Even the word itself is up for debate." Is it, though?
"Young men aren't having sex!" A Twitter thread that has been gaining traction resurfaced a 2019 Washington Post study, which found that young men are not having as much sex as they used to. It has puzzled experts and sent several looking for answers.
Taxpayers will underwrite the travel costs of pregnant members of the armed services who want to travel to another state to have an abortion, a policy President Joe Biden has said he would like to expand to all women nationwide. The Biden administration will "establish travel and transportation allowances for Service members ... to facilitate official travel to access" abortion, a memo signed Thursday by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced.
"Let's be clear. Having children is why you're worried about your price for gas. It's why you're concerned about how much food costs," Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams told "Morning Joe" viewers on Wednesday. The question: "What could you do as governor to alleviate the concerns of Georgia voters about those livability - daily, hourly - issues that they're confronted with?" Her answer: more abortion, obviously. Oh, if only Christians were so creative and persistent in sharing the gospel!
On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) voted unanimously to add the COVID-19 vaccine to the schedule of recommended vaccines for children. While the decision does not mandate the vaccine for schoolchildren, many are seeing the vote as a way of pressuring school administrations to require a shot that has become highly controversial due to its failure to protect against COVID transmission and serious side effects such as myocarditis.
As American families increasingly buckle under the weight of rising inflation, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams (Ga.) thinks she has the solution: simply abort your children so you can afford food and gas! According to Abrams, "having children is why you're worried about your price for gas, it's why you're concerned about how much food costs."
In a blockbuster exclusive, The New York Times has revealed the president is following an obscure White House figure's three-word plan to help Democrats win the midterm elections. This official believes the president can overcome the fact that weary Americans say his policies worsened the economy - and overwhelmingly oppose his party's radical proposals to pack the Supreme Court or replace incumbent Democrats with more progressive challengers - with the one thing voters find irresistible: "free" money.
The softspoken elderly man sitting across from me in a small room in Bangkok, Thailand certainly didn't seem like someone who could provoke a raging violent mob against him. Yet, that is exactly what happened to Talib Masih, a Pakistani Christian who was forced to flee for his life.
It's no secret that California is one of the most pro-abortion states in the country. Yet, despite all the recent laws passed protecting access to abortion, it may shock voters to learn that a November ballot measure would further enshrine abortion into California state law.
In recent days, a Vermont high school soccer coach and parent was fired for using male pronouns in reference to a biologically male trans-identifying student who watched his daughter change in the girls' locker room, and a Pennsylvania school was found to be instructing teachers to hide the preferred names and pronouns of trans-identifying students from their parents. The incidents are the latest in an escalating clash between school administrators and parents over the transgender issue that is spilling into the voting booth.
It's no picnic for anyone in the financial sector right now, but for Larry Fink, CEO of the woke bully BlackRock, times have never been tougher. His years-long joyride - using investors' money to advance his pet political causes - has come to a screeching halt. Red state conservatives are angry, they're motivated, and for the first time in this David and Goliath battle for corporate America, they're loading their slings.
Over 1,100 adolescents underwent gender transition surgery between 2016-2019, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics. No less shocking than the cumulative total is the accelerating rate from year to year.
For the first time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, during the recent demonstrations over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, Iran's Christians have publicly spoken out against the regime.
Although National Public Radio (NPR) receives only a small percentage of its funding from federal grants, its name represents a claim that a study of its news coverage renders suspect.
Seventeen members of the House of Representatives urged the Biden administration on Monday to revise "the United States Coast Guard's (USCG) policy regarding religious exemptions from the COVID-19 vaccination order." The letter, obtained by The Washington Stand, was led by Representative Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and was addressed to President Joe Biden, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and USCG Commandant Admiral Linda Fagan.
If the pandemic's over, nobody told the mainstream media. Just as the world returns to semi-normalcy, The Washington Post is ratcheting up its COVID warnings for winter, despite the country's vaccine fatigue. The latest "swarm" of variants - a stew of random letters, numbers, and decimals - has experts wringing their hands, reporters insist. They could even "inject chaos into your travel plans," the Post warns. But Americans aren't exactly racing to "supercharge their protection" with the latest shot. And after Pfizer's latest confession, it's no wonder.
Although numerous polls show a faltering economy and skyrocketing inflation top voters' concerns, President Joe Biden promised Tuesday to make signing a law legalizing late-term abortion nationwide his first priority next year - a vow one Republican congressman called "absolutely wicked" and agreed reflected a demonic agenda.
With the midterm elections 21 days away, President Biden and lawmakers in his party are using abortion as their primary talking point to convince voters to pull the lever for Democrats on November 8. At the same time, a swath of recent polls of likely voters indicate that most Americans are primarily concerned with economic uncertainty and inflation, immigration, and education and parental rights, with abortion ranking below numerous other issues.
Ulta's attempt to broaden the conventional definition of gender and beauty backfired, resulting in calls for consumers to ditch the company for making a "costume" or a "feeling" out of womanhood. By featuring a transgender-identifying person on their podcast to discuss "The Beauty of... Girlhood," many accused the beauty brand of being out of touch with its consumer base by choosing a biological male to represent women.
After intense national backlash, a Virginia Democrat has opted against introducing a bill that would remove children who identify as gay or transgender from parents whose lack of support allegedly causes "mental injury" - the latest sign that parents are "taking back their schools," a Republican congressman said Monday.
Trial hearings began Monday on the Arkansas SAFE (Save Adolescents from Experimentation) Act, which was blocked last year after the Republican-controlled legislature passed it into law over the governor's veto. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Arkansas filed suit in federal court immediately after its passage to block the law from taking effect. Judge James Moody, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, blocked the state from enforcing the law while the lawsuit proceeds, and he now presides over the trial.
Seventeen-year-old Shanti De Corte was waiting to board a plane headed to Italy for a school trip in 2016 when an explosion went off in the Brussels Zaventem Airport. Parts of the airport filled with smoke and panicked people started running before a second bomb went off a few minutes later. Thirty-two people were killed in the airport and the corresponding attack at a metro station that day, both claimed by ISIS. Earlier this year, the then-23-year-old chose to commit suicide through euthanasia. This controversial case in Belgium is sparking well-deserved increased scrutiny on the country's euthanasia law.
On a drive through Washington, D.C., you might come across an advertisement for Community of Hope - a charitable organization devoted to providing health care and housing for families experiencing poverty and homelessness, with a special emphasis on prenatal care. The city's commitment to supporting essential services for underserved pregnant mothers such as prenatal care and breastfeeding education is noble on its face - but does it accurately depict the District's wholistic treatment of unborn children?
Last week, Ulta Beauty sparked controversy by inviting transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, a biological male in the process of transitioning, as a podcast guest for the episode, "The Beauty of ... Girlhood." In a clip from the hour-long episode that has circulated the internet, Mulvaney tells the host of aspirations to become a mother and raise children.
Infertility caused by puberty blockers is "a big deal" and "something you must have a conversation about," said Dr. Jeremi Carswell, director of the Gender Multispeciality Service at Boston Children's Hospital, in a video obtained by Breitbart. Her comments seemingly conflict with the hospital's website, which claims puberty blockers are "temporary medicines that are completely reversible, [and] they do not cause any permanent changes."
There is a time and place for ending parental rights in the name of protecting children, but this isn't one of them. Indeed, Virginia Delegate Elizabeth Guzman's proposal flips true parental authority on its head. Such ideologically-driven attempts to take children from their parents have no place in a free society.
As North Carolina becomes an increasingly critical battleground state three weeks before the midterm elections, Family Research Council hosted a Pray Vote Stand event on Sunday evening at Trinity Baptist Church in Mooresville, North Carolina. At the event, Chief Justice Paul Newby of the North Carolina Supreme Court underscored that human rights are bestowed by God, that judges are not "elected to be kings," and that all Christians are called to the "public duty" of praying for their country and voting for biblical values.
If you asked Michigan voters what Proposal 3 is about, most of them would say "abortion." They'd be half right. Turns out, the state's extremists have buried something equally horrifying in the text: a complete abolition of parents' rights. Not only would moms and dads be powerless to stop their daughters' abortions under the radical language, they'd also have zero say in their children's gender transitions.
Yeshiva University is an Orthodox Jewish institution in New York City. Although admitting students who identify as LGBTQ, the school has been in a legal contest with a student group calling itself "the YU Pride Alliance," which has been demanding recognition as an official campus club. Yeshiva University is an Orthodox Jewish institution in New York City. Although admitting students who identify as LGBTQ, the school has been in a legal contest with a student group calling itself "the YU Pride Alliance," which has been demanding recognition as an official campus club. Yeshiva had refused to recognize the organization because "the club's proposed activities were at odds with Jewish religious principles." On September 14, the Supreme Court said, in essence, "So what?"
Republican Herschel Walker and Democrat Raphael Warnock faced off Friday night in their only debate, less than a month before Georgians elect one man to serve in the U.S. Senate. Candidate debates are most useful when they serve to clarify the candidates' positions or draw distinctions between the candidates. On abortion, Friday's debate did both.
This week, South Carolina faces the opportunity to join the ranks of states with laws on the books that protect life at conception - a move that would raise the total number of states to 20. Given that another 20 states in the U.S. currently allow legal abortions at any point in pregnancy, for any reason, the line in the sand between pro-life and pro-death states is quickly solidifying.
Could transgender activists be any more aggressive? Unfortunately, the answer is yes. A Virginia state delegate plans to introduce a bill next session that would make it a crime for parents to affirm their child's biological sex, if the child disagrees.
At a time when the internet has seen a massive increase in child pornography, FBI officials have been told child porn investigations are "no longer an FBI priority"; they should now focus on purported cases of domestic extremism, an agency source has revealed. And the Biden administration has seemingly stopped prosecuting obscenity cases altogether.
Today, there is a war being waged by "unknown warriors," men and women who put their actions and their treasure, their hearts, homes, and prayers, on the line for those in need. These are Christians who have been called by a loving God into fellowship with Him through His Son and whose deep conviction is that having been redeemed by the death of the Savior, they must do what He bids them.
Parents who do not affirm their children's transgender status or sexual preference could face criminal charges of "abuse or neglect" under a proposal being considered in a swing state. The idea's proponent, a liberal Democrat, claimed the Bible justifies removing children from the home of parents who do not obey their children's instructions about sex and gender identity.
When Matthew fled persecution in Vietnam, it wasn't the end of government harassment and threats for him and his family. Vietnamese authorities routinely direct message him on Facebook, telling him to stop advocating for religious freedom or else they will harm his family. The threats aren't fake.
October 15 marks Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day in the United States - a day set aside for the remembrance of little ones who died too soon. On this day, it is important to remember that the untimely death of any child is a tragedy - including the children whose lives were intentionally taken from them by the abortion industry.
While America's hands are full with domestic disputes, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been strategically infiltrating American universities with the aim to access national security information and to promote CCP propaganda where possible. Though there have been some attempts to uncover unethical U.S.-China partnerships on Ivy League college campuses, the severity of the issue has yet to receive the national attention it needs.
Pfizer never tested its COVID jab to ascertain whether it prevented transmission of the virus, admitted Janine Small, Pfizer president of International Developed Markets on Monday.
Last month, a North Carolina high school girls' volleyball team was forced to play against a team rostering a biological male on the girls' team. The trans-identifying player from Highlands High hit the ball directly into the face of one of the female players. Due to the athlete's male strength and ability, the swing caused severe head and neck injuries.
Persecuted Christians around the world find their lives threatened by secularists and intolerant faiths. U.S. religious liberty advocates now see their existence called into question by shadowy commands from Wall Street, as banks have canceled "dozens" of faith-based organizations' bank accounts for political reasons.
You hear it every two years, like clockwork: "This is the most important election of our lives." But is every election really so critical? Why does each subsequent election seem to be the most important? In a recent Decision interview, Tony Perkins, who has spent nearly 20 years in Washington as president of Family Research Council, explained why.
Think of it "along the lines of, you know, maybe a really ugly mole that you never really liked. And then, finally, it's gone." A mole. That's how the president-elect of one of the world's largest trans advocacy groups described a child's gender - a feature so inconsequential that it can be lopped off when the mood strikes. A birthmark. Dr. Marci Bowers, a father of three who transitioned mid-marriage, insists "medical and possibly surgical care for adolescents makes sense." Thousands of hurting survivors beg to disagree.
Students who reject their biological sex are skyrocketing in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), increasing almost 11-fold since the school introduced a gender support form in 2019, according to self-reported data. Here in this wealthy suburb of the nation's capital, it seems the Left's fixation on gender anarchy is troubling the youth.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of Americans have gathered in Washington, D.C. in the bitter cold of January for the national March for Life, marching toward the Supreme Court in commemoration of 63 million lives in the womb lost with energetic hope for the end of abortion. After the historic overturning of Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, next year's annual March for Life will be different.
Like a page turner, inflation is easier to start than stop, as proved by Thursday's latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Despite the Federal Reserve continuing to raise interest rates, inflation remained historically high. The Consumer Price Index, a key statistic, rose by 8.2% over the past 12 months (compared to 8.3% in August) and 0.4% over a month ago (compared to 0.2% in August).
As heavy use of the term "Christian nationalism" continues to circulate among legacy media outlets three weeks before the pivotal midterm elections, experts say the strategy follows the tactics used by Marxists in the past, which is to label political opponents with a controversial term in order to suppress the impact of an influential voting block deemed unfavorable by those in power.
"Don't forget the North Korean defectors stuck in China." This was the plea that one North Korean defector wanted to convey to American Christians. Meeting at the offices of a small nonprofit called North Korean Refugees Human Rights (NKRHR) which operates a shelter in China for North Korean defectors, I sat down in September with founder Kim Yong-hwa and several defectors who volunteer their time to aid others who are traveling the same harrowing path they once did.
Despite a checkered and often unpopular record, President Joe Biden has succeeded in one pursuit where presidents have failed for the last 50 years: politicizing federal law enforcement agencies, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told "Washington Watch with Tony Perkins" on Wednesday.
Christian nationalism - a label for racist bigoted extremists or a loaded buzzword aimed at intimidating the church from boldly standing for biblical truth in the culture? With the trending term ever increasing in popularity and media presence, Family Research Council's president Tony Perkins hosted a Pray Vote Stand Townhall Wednesday night at Cornerstone Chapel in Leesburg, Virginia.
With the midterm elections only 26 days away, data shows that voters are prepared to hit the polls and vote for candidates who prioritize the economy.
The Marriage Strengthening Research & Dissemination Center (or MAST Center) recently released a new report illustrating the vast scale of disillusionment regarding the institution of marriage in the eyes of America's young people. Among other findings, the study found that almost 80% of teenagers (categorized as 15 to 19-year-olds) expect to cohabit before marriage, with 95% saying that they expect to marry someday.
LGBT activists bullied a local news station into deleting a news-breaking story and reporting their version of events instead. On September 28, 2022, WCAX-TV interviewed a high school volleyball player at a high school in Randolph, Vermont, who along with her teammates was barred from using their own locker room because they felt uncomfortable changing in front of their male teammate, a boy who identifies as a girl. But if you try to locate their story today, you'll receive an error message.
Eleven pro-life advocates, scheduled to appear in court Wednesday morning, became the latest in a "disturbing" series of armed raids by federal agents designed to stop Christians from sharing their "worldview," according to a leading congressional Republican. But those committed to peaceful, law-abiding outreach at abortion facilities tell The Washington Stand they plan to increase their efforts to reach abortion-minded women.
The "Parents versus School Boards" franchise got a reboot on Monday, as a Michigan school board meeting was prematurely shut down just before the public comment period because so many parents attended that it was "breaking the fire code." The school board in question wasn't in ruby-red farm country, nor was it in well-off suburbs. No, the school board was in Dearborn, Michigan, home to the largest Muslim population of any American city per capita and reliably progressive voting trends.
A Chinese house church that escaped together three years ago is in more danger now than ever. Chinese authorities ramped up persecution against Pastor Pan Yongguang and Shenzhen Reformed Holy Church for years, prompting them to hold a church vote in 2019 and decided to flee China, heading to South Korea's Jeju Island.
In post-Roe America, the establishment abortion industry has found itself up against state laws that show the will of the American people to protect unborn lives. In a bid to maintain relevance amid the growing culture of life, Planned Parenthood just announced its latest scheme: a mobile "clinic" that will roam the border of Illinois in hopes of raking in clients from neighbor states that legally protect unborn lives.
For someone who says she doesn't know what "wokeness" is, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth has certainly presided over her fair share of it. Desperate to change the conversation from the branch's pitiful recruiting numbers, Wormuth is frantically trying to defend the military's obsession with "equity, diversity, and inclusion" while the world is teetering on the brink of nuclear war. Her strategy, apparently, isn't to just ignore the services' extremism, but to deny it even exists - a doomed mission, if there ever was one.
Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the abortion issue's return to the states has sent ripples through both sides of the aisle. For many Republicans, the victorious celebration has been laced with the urgency to pass pro-life state legislation. For Democrats, all energy has been focused on turning out blue voters to the polls.
At the end of June, the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade and returned control of abortion to the political process. Ever since, appeals to Scripture, God, and explicitly religious themes seem to happen more frequently among abortion advocates. This is no accident; rather, it's a conscious or unconscious response to the changed political landscape. And it's particularly revealing.
Nevada is, in many ways, a key battleground state in the 2022 election. With a high-profile U.S. Senate race that could determine which party controls the chamber in the 118th Congress to a competitive governor's race, voters in Nevada have a lot on the line. However, many voters in Nevada may not be aware of a ballot measure that could dramatically alter state laws on life and the family.
As President Joe Biden pardoned a few thousand people convicted of marijuana possession on October 6, he announced a process that could "expeditiously" remove all federal barriers to "medicinal" marijuana nationwide. Yet a voluminous and growing body of evidence proves that marijuana - especially marijuana containing high levels of THC - causes a host of psychological, physical, mental, and emotional harms, often to the most vulnerable and frail members of society.
There is perhaps no foot soldier more faithful to the abortion lobby than Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.). Bush uses her congressional platform to advocate for repealing the Hyde Amendment and codifying Roe v. Wade - in other words, she supports legalizing abortion on demand until the moment of birth, funded by taxpayer dollars. Yet, despite all of her persistent pro-abortion advocacy, Bush herself has been profoundly harmed by the exploitative and racist tendencies built into the very bones of the abortion industry.
At the end of September, popular online payment processor PayPal announced impending updates to their Acceptable Use Policies (AUP). The policy update stated that it would debit users up to $2,500 if they engaged in banned activity such as "promot[ing] misinformation" or "hate," effective November 3. As the headline spread across the media, the idea that PayPal's terms gave the company the right to withdraw several grand from bank accounts sparked a wave of outrage.
Disney might have escaped Hurricane Ian, but it can't say the same about the storm that blew through in March. Teams are still working around the clock to try to clean up the damage done by the company's clash with Florida Republicans - most of it, a new report suggests, behind the scenes. While CEO Bob Chapek brags that he "stood firm" during the showdown over the state's parental rights law, state officials say that privately, Disney is eating plenty of humble pie.
Less than 50% of Americans approve of President Biden's handling of 10 key policy issues, according to an Ipsos poll of 1,003 American adults conducted October 3-4. With Election Day four weeks from Tuesday, the sitting president's approval rating remains underwater by double digits in the Real Clear Politics average - hardly an encouraging sign for his party.
Following revelations that the Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) may have punished workers who had conscientious objections against participating in transgender surgeries and is motivated to perform transition procedures on children for monetary gain, the hospital has announced they will temporarily halt transgender surgeries on minors.
On September 7, AP News reported the growing persecution of Chinese Christians in their homeland - and more recently abroad as well. The report highlighted Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church, led by Pastor Pan Yongguang, as a regular target of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). For the past three years, the church has sought refuge on Jeju Island in South Korea, but Chinese authorities have stalked, harassed, and threatened the 61 congregants who decided to flee their home country and "summoned, intimidated, and interrogated" their relatives, the report said.
Early Monday morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a destructive missile barrage into Ukraine, firing 83 missiles into every major city. The strikes targeted critical infrastructure like power plants, knocking out electricity in western cities like Kyiv and Lviv. As a result, Ukrainian internet traffic decreased by 75%. "They are trying to wipe us off the face of the earth," responded President Vladimir Zelenskyy.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled last month that a Wisconsin prison could not force a Muslim inmate to submit to strip-searches by a guard who is biologically female, but who identifies as transgender and is employed as a male by the prison. "A prisoner's right to be free from highly invasive intrusions on bodily privacy by prison employees of the opposite sex - whether on religious or privacy grounds - does not change based on a guard's transgender status," explained the court.
If American politics teaches us anything, it is that voting patterns are unpredictable. While certain things remain generally true over time, in any given election, last-minute surprises can alter what had seemed to be an almost certain result. With that said, there are strong indications that a significant shift is underway in one segment of the American electorate: young women.
The Western world lost what should've been an obvious win: the battle of marriage. We fumbled because we took our eyes off the ball and got distracted by religious liberty questions, the self-interest of adults, and accusations of being on the wrong side of history.
Amazon is currently facing a lawsuit on behalf of the families of two young men who died by suicide after purchasing a substance on Amazon that has no household purpose in such a concentrated form - but has been linked to at least 50 deaths by suicide. It is ironic that Amazon refused to terminate its sale of a substance that has been linked to suicide while having banned other far less threatening items in previous years for the sake of ideological differences.
Following President Biden's pardon of thousands of individuals convicted of marijuana possession at the federal level, experts say the president is continuing a pattern of lawlessness stretching back to the beginning of his presidency.
The entertainment and legacy media present abortion as empowering, but that's not the feeling that impelled one mother to agree to a medication abortion. "I was scared to death," she told researchers. Even five later, the woman - who still describes herself as "pro-choice" - says she regrets her chemical abortion. "Now I wish I would've just faced it all and had my baby," she said. "I regret it still to this day and probably still will for the rest of my life."
An analysis of U.S. insurance claims shows a shocking rise in gender transition treatments for minors between 2017 and 2021. The study was performed by health technology company Komodo Health and commissioned by the left-leaning, international wire service Reuters. They reviewed "full or partial health insurance claims for about 330 million U.S. patients over the five years from 2017 to 2021," including "roughly 40 million patients annually, ages six through 17." They reported statistics for gender dysphoria diagnoses, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender transition surgeries.
Kanye West may not be the first name that comes to mind when people think of the 2024 presidential race, but the rapper (who now goes by Ye) proudly declared "I'm pro-life" and that he lives his life to serve God alone before making a fleeting reference to a possible presidential campaign in two years' time.
For a billionaire, Larry Fink hasn't had an especially good year. The CEO of BlackRock, who ushered in this age of corporate wokeness, has been used to operating in the shadows. Those days, Republicans insist, are over. After years of having his way with investors, Fink is now in an unfamiliar position: playing defense. And thanks to the state of Louisiana, he'll be playing it with $800 million less dollars.
In the space of a week, two teachers and a reporter have been fired from their jobs over stances they took because of their religious beliefs. Notably, all the firings happened in conservative parts of the country.
A new law passed last week by the California legislature and signed by Governor Gavin Newsom (D) would make the state a sanctuary location for children who wish to obtain gender transition procedures. But according to a new report, California has enough problems caring for children already.
Despite the American public's disagreement and backlash against the politicization of sports events, the "gender inclusive" train shows no signs of slowing down. Bank of America Chicago Marathon announced a nonbinary heat at their upcoming October 9 race. While the runners who identify as neither male nor female won't receive prize money, Chicago Marathon is working on a more "inclusive" environment for the minority group. (Out of 40,000 registered attendees, less than 100 entered under the nonbinary division.) In a similar measure, both Boston and London Marathons are planning to add the nonbinary division to their 2023 races.
The D.C. Council on Tuesday voted 12-1 for a bill that would allow non-citizens, including illegal immigrants, to vote in local elections. Under the bill, the only requirements to vote in the District of Columbia are residency (30 days) and age (18 years on general election day) requirements. The initial vote came after the seven-member Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety unanimously approved the measure the same day.
Flying in the face of conventional wisdom, new research suggests that young people, and those in the lower income bracket, shouldn't worry about saving money for retirement, Marketwatch reports. The (lack of) financial planning advice originates from the "life-cycle model" which describes the spending habits of early, mid, and late career professionals.
It was a March for Life like no other: For one thing, it took place on a beautiful fall afternoon. For another, it took place outside Washington, D.C., in the quintessential middle American city of Columbus, Ohio. Thousands of people from every corner of the Buckeye state stood outside the statehouse before pouring into the streets of the state capital Wednesday for the first-ever Ohio March for Life.
After a three month summer recess, the nine justices of the Supreme Court reconvened for the new October 2022 term on Monday at 10 in the morning. For the first time in months, the fence around the building has come down. And, for the first time in years, since the onset of the pandemic, the court has opened its doors again to the public to listen in on oral arguments - masks optional.
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt (R) signed a bill on Tuesday "to prevent gender transition services for minors at Oklahoma Children's Hospital at OU Health." The move could serve as a harbinger of legislative intervention, as state lawmakers become aware of the pervasive gender transition activities performed on minors at hospitals across the nation.
A GOP senator has introduced legislation to curtail the potential overreach of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the wake of the Democrats' vast expansion of the tax collection bureau's budget and their plan to hire tens of thousands more agents. The news comes as a report surfaced of five IRS agents embezzling $400,000 of funds meant for COVID relief and spending the money on vacations and luxury items.
Tuesday, during a meeting of the Biden administration's Task Force on Reproductive Health Care Access, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona remarked, "Students need access to health care to thrive in school and in life, and that includes reproductive health care ..." Cardona's message was clear - women can choose to abort either their child or their future.
A strange development is taking place in the American political landscape. At precisely the moment the Left is sounding the alarm about the growing threat of "Christian nationalism" (see here, here, here, and here), they are increasingly employing religious arguments in support of their policy preferences.
On September 30, Russia's President Vladimir Putin declared once again that he would use "all available means" to defend Russian territory. Putin has continued to use such words as "escalating" and "provocative" to describe Ukraine's military operations, intentionally triggering fears of his own potentially deadly responses. And while many observers have implied that Putin is bluffing about nukes, or that he would not dare to use the weapons he has at his disposal - both strategic and tactical - Putin's threats should be taken seriously.
If the Justice Department investigates journalists exposing those who profit from performing double mastectomies and sterilizations of healthy children, it will compound the Biden administration's "threats to democracy and to the rule of law," a Republican congressman said Monday.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit last week upheld a Texas judge's practice of recognizing volunteer chaplains at start of his court sessions, rejecting an anti-religion group's claim that the practice is "coercive."
Even as the Army reported a 25% shortage in recruitment numbers, Biden administration officials are refusing to relinquish policies that require troops to receive the COVID-19 shot, which lawmakers on Capitol Hill say is exacerbating the recruiting problem, decreasing operation readiness, and ignoring litigation challenges and legitimate exemption requests.
As the death toll from Hurricane Ian soars past 100, heroes like U.S. Coast Guard Aviation Survival Technician Second Class Zach Loesch are one reason it isn't higher. Loesch kicked through a wall to rescue a 94-year-old disabled woman and her husband, hoisting them - and her wheelchair - into a helicopter amid high winds. You know, the sort of feats they choreograph in a Marvel movie.
Putin now insists that certain parts of Ukraine now belong to Russia. He claimed Friday that Russia would officially annex four Ukrainian regions, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk (from south to east), creating a "land bridge" to the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. When Putin threatens to employ nuclear force to defend Russia's "territorial integrity," he includes the Ukrainian territory he now claims belongs to Russia - including territory Russian forces have never captured from Ukrainian forces.
Amidst a violent crime surge plaguing urban hubs across the country, many voters think the issue of crime is "highly important," per a recent poll, and their responses show that the majority don't trust Democrats to manage or pay serious attention to it.
A group of "social justice warriors" intent on subjecting the U.S. military to extreme left-wing ideology has come perilously close to "taking down" military institutions, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned on Monday.
A funny thing happened to the Democrats' same-sex marriage bill on its trip from the House to the Senate: people actually started reading the legislation. When they did, an uncomfortable reality set in - nothing in the text explicitly outlawed polygamy. It was just a "drafting error," the more liberal senators claimed. But it wasn't a "drafting error" when a New York judge recognized polyamory late last month. How much longer until the party who wants "love" to be the legal basis for every relationship follows suit?
The recent firing of a substitute teacher in Georgia for voicing concerns over an elementary-level book featuring same-sex couples highlights the ongoing clash between parents and school administrators over the kinds of sexual content that children are exposed to in school.
A Vermont high school announced last week that the girls' volleyball team was barred from the locker room until further notice. The whole volleyball team - except, apparently, for the biological male who plays on the girl's team. The closure was not due to a health hazard, routine maintenance, or legitimate reason; rather, the school kicked the girls out of the girl's locker room for asking their male teammate to leave while they changed. "We do not make this decision lightly, but we believe it is the right decision at this time," wrote the co-principals and athletic director in an email to parents.
Director Andrew Dominik's adaption of Joyce Carol Oats' "Blonde," a fictionalized account of Marilyn Monroe's tumultuous life and career, has led to widespread criticism from mainstream sources because the movie posits that the sex symbol's true desire, motherhood, never came to fruition partly due to the forced abortions she allegedly suffered at the hand of a male dominated Hollywood agenda.
Much is being made of the recent Pew Research study showing a decreasing number of self-identified Christians in the United States. The study indicates that by 2070, people professing Christian faith will be under 50% of the population. This would be a century-long shift. In 1970, more than 90% of Americans affirmed some form of Christian faith.
Several weeks ago, Chrissy Teigen - model, television personality, and wife of singer John Legend - announced that what she had thought to be a miscarriage back in September of 2020 was actually an abortion.
State Rep. Scott Wiener's (D) SB 107 - a bill proposing to make California a "refuge" state for performing transgender surgeries on minors - successfully made its way to Gov. Gavin Newsom's (D) desk and received his signature Thursday. Now signed into law, California doctors can perform gender transition procedures (such as surgeries and hormone therapy) on children, even those traveling from states who have prohibited such actions on minors.
As Hurricane Ian continues to make its way up the east coast, leaving destruction in its wake, the tragic loss of life, home, and treasured possessions has devastated the nation. Even when circumstances are bleak, however, the gift of new life can always provide a source of hope. For labor and delivery nurses in states like Florida, the arrival of a hurricane has long been thought to bring with it the arrival of many new little ones who will need care.
Fox News has been the top-rated cable news network for 20 consecutive years on the strength of its appeal to conservative viewers - so it's baffling that the network would choose to mimic CNN and MSNBC in its coverage of abortion. Yet that's precisely what it did in a recent story that parroted the laden language used by the legacy media, the abortion industry, and the Democratic Party (but then, I repeat myself).
As pro-life organizations and churches face a crescendo of physical attacks, cyberattacks have become an emerging threat, and it's getting the attention of lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
On Thursday, John MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church in California, penned an open letter to Democrat Gavin Newsom calling the California governor to repentance over a series of recent decisions. Describing what he called the "diabolical effects" of the governor's worldview, MacArthur specifically mentioned Newsom's policies on abortion, transgenderism, homelessness, and crime. However, MacArthur's strongest words were reserved for the governor's recent billboard campaign that used Scripture to promote California's permissive abortion laws.
The Liberty University football team thinks they are coming to the University of Massachusetts to play football on October 8, but it appears that the home team has organized another type of confrontation for that day.
As far as relationships go, it was a surprisingly durable one. Big Business and the Republican Party were like the D.C. power couple we never expected to break up. Until they did. Now, in the messy aftermath, new battlelines have been drawn. But what happens if the GOP retakes Congress in November? What will conservatives do if corporate America comes crawling back, talking sweet economic nothings? The chairman of CPAC has a suggestion: slam the door in their faces.
Six state attorneys general on Thursday filed a legal challenge to the Biden administration's move to cancel student loan debt for millions of Americans across the country.
If you can read this, thank a Pilgrim. Today, we take many things for granted, like our ability to read. Had the Pilgrims not risked their lives to come here, we might not possess that ability. We might also be subjects of a monarchy. What does this have to do with public schools? Let's investigate.
Radical activists have so politicized America's public school system that few people would be surprised to hear of teachers who believe they should hide children's gender identity from their parents, who think elementary school is the "perfect time" to teach children transgender ideology, or who say they should exploit word problems in math to "normalize" the use of non-binary pronouns. Yet even cynics may not expect to encounter these far-left views in schools that serve the children of U.S. soldiers.
Though the initial Category 4 hurricane sweeping the southwestern coast has been downgraded to a Category 1 as of Thursday morning, Ian is still wreaking havoc in the lives of Floridians, with rainy repercussions expected to ripple out to neighboring states and along the east coast.
As the midterm elections loom just six weeks away, a new study has found that a strong majority of all Americans, regardless of political affiliation, want political leaders strongly rooted in constitutional principles that emphasize "personal character, traditional values, and basic democracy."
As legislators try to get answers about why the FBI reportedly dispatched dozens of armed agents to raid the home of a pro-life advocate, the man's wife says she and their seven children are seeking healing and closure. While the Houck family and the authorities dispute the details of the case, pro-life legislators say the reaction demonstrates that the Biden administration has weaponized the government against his political opponents while turning a blind eye to his supporters' misdeeds.
On Tuesday, over a thousand students across six northern Virginia counties walked out of their high school and middle school classrooms in protest of Governor Glenn Youngkin's (R) newly released "2022 Model Policies on the Privacy, Dignity, and Respect for All Students and Parents in Virginia's Public Schools." Inviting parents back into education, the draft defers to mothers and fathers to make the best decisions for students, particularly when it comes to issue of transgenderism.
Washington, D.C., the sanctuary city turned "border town," has 99 problems among which homelessness remains a top contender. D.C.'s homeless population is twice the national average with nine persons out of 1,000 experiencing homelessness, according to Central Union Mission. While District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser's (D) Office of Migrant Services is busy accommodating migrants, are the homeless receiving the care that they need?
Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill and military experts are raising alarm bells over the purchase of farmland near Grand Forks Air Force Base by a Chinese Communist Party-linked company, which they say jeopardizes national security.
When Oklahoma leaders descended on the state capitol this morning, there were plenty of things on their special session to-do list. But none got more attention than the bullseye Republicans are painting on the University of Oklahoma health system.
Taxpayers have given $234 million to an early childhood development organization that promotes introducing infants to transgender ideology by the age of three. It also held a special "Drag Bingo" event for educators and interventionists who attended its most recent conference.
Urbanites across the country are double bolting their doors and watching their backs as the violent crime wave continues to sweep through many major American cities. Leading the pack with historic criminal highs are Baltimore, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Atlanta, and New York City, though many others have experienced the uptick in brazen lawlessness on their streets.
As furious as Democrats are about the end of Roe v. Wade, they certainly can't complain about the timing. Months away from a midterm bloodbath, the Supreme Court's decision was - in many ways - a political gift. While the issue of abortion may not have the power to upend the November elections, it's certainly given the president's party something to talk about other than his monumental failures. And talk they have - about everything but their radical position of abortion until birth.
On Monday, the New York Times published a story highlighting the growing trend among adolescent girls who identify as transgender and voluntarily undergo surgical breast removal, popularly known as "top surgery." The report comes as experts and lawmakers express increasing concern about the institutional and cultural influences that push transgender ideology on minors and the infringement of parental rights.
"Authentic" and "true self" are the shibboleths of the postmodern age. Being "real" is what counts even if to be real one must deny physical and visible reality. What, though, do these mandatory axioms actually mean?
News of newly elected right-wing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's victory rippled across the pond Sunday night, marking a historic turn for Italian politics. Though her critics were quick to tie Meloni's alleged political history with a neo-fascist agenda, her straightforward approach to Italy, and by extension, Europe's issues has garnered whole-hearted support from other conservative EU party leaders like Viktor Orban.
Although President Joe Biden declared that "the pandemic is over" last Sunday on "60 Minutes," the Biden administration seems to hold the vaccination mandate more sacred than religious liberty - and America's national security is paying the price.
A large contingent of FBI agents arrested a pro-life activist at his home on September 23 over an almost year-old and highly disputed incident with a pro-abortion supporter outside an abortion facility in Philadelphia. Meanwhile, no arrests have been made in the FBI's now three-month long investigation of attacks on dozens of pregnancy resource centers and pro-life organizations since May.
The whole concept behind Salesforce is to help companies connect with customers. So it's more than a little ironic that the CEO behind the effort is intent on driving a political wedge between his own business and half of America. For Marc Benioff, who's spent years turning Salesforce into a woke social force, it's no surprise that he'd threaten to yank his company from pro-life states. The real surprise - at least for Benioff - may be how little those conservative states care.
"Every two hours a Christian is killed," said Gia Chacon, founder of For the Martyrs at the third annual March for the Martyrs that took place this past Saturday in Washington, D.C. In 2021 alone, more than 360 million Christians have suffered persecution and discrimination, 5,898 Christians were killed for their faith, 5,110 churches and Christian buildings were attacked, and 4,765 believers were detained without trials, arrested, sentenced, or imprisoned.
"By land, by air, or by sea!" Suzanne Scholte, an American activist, proclaimed. These are the means through which she and others are working to get information to people in the world's most closed country, North Korea. It's a daunting task - one that's become increasingly difficult.
So is abortion now illegal in America? Is the battle to protect life won at long last? Far from it! Although the June 24 Supreme Court decision in Dobbs clearly states that its 1973 decision was in error, and that there is no constitutional right to abortion, the fight for the right to life now moves to the states ... and to you!
After the Supreme Court handed down its historic decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization in June of this year, overturning Roe v. Wade and allowing states to enact laws that protect the unborn, the pro-life movement was united in celebration for the lives to be saved. But with the celebration came questions. Many in the pro-life movement may be wondering exactly where we go from here. Now that a key battle in the war has been won, what's next for the pro-life movement?
Voters pleaded with Republican leaders to protect parental rights, children's modesty, and religious liberty as the GOP unveiled its "Commitment to America" midterm agenda on Friday morning - asking would-be Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to make America "godly" and become "the party of parents."
Earlier this week, Great Britain and indeed all of the world mourned as Queen Elizabeth II was laid to rest next to her beloved husband Philip. The last two weeks have been a time of tremendous change for Great Britain as they received both a new head of government and a new head of state within a matter of days.
While the Left often circumvents real issues that concern Americans, a recent poll highlighted the ideology most are afraid of: socialism. National Review reported on Monday that 55% of Americans are more worried about the "Socialist Left" than "MAGA Republicans."
On Friday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) offered her thoughts on Twitter regarding the human rights protests currently happening in Iran. Ocasio-Cortez's take? She wrote, "Mahsa Amini was senselessly murdered by the same patriarchal and autocratic forces repressing women the world over. The right to choose belongs to us all, from hijabs to reproductive care." In other words, AOC sees the recent wave of American pro-life legislation protecting unborn lives across the nation after the overturn of Roe v. Wade as being comparable to the oppression of women living under radical Islam.
SB 107 is sitting on California Governor Gavin Newsom's (D) desk right now awaiting his anticipated signature, and many American parents are disturbed by what this could mean for their families. The bill would allow minors to obtain procedures such as puberty blockers, hormones, and gender transition surgeries, which several states are restricting or banning altogether.
In the space of just 33 words, Biden uttered two outright lies. The first is that Graham's bill does not include exceptions in the cases of rape and incest. The second lie is the contention that the Catholic Church has somehow changed its position recently with regard to abortion.
We're being watched, and it's not just paranoia. How should Christians view privacy in a state of surveillance?
Jesus commanded His disciples to say what they mean and mean what they say. "Let your yes be 'yes' and your no be 'no,'" He told them (Matthew 5:37). Being clear and firm is a matter not only of integrity but of courage. Backtracking and rationalizing clear, definitive statements signals weakness and, sometimes, cowardice.
Republican leaders prepared to unveil the "Commitment to America" plan, their 2022 midterm pledge that they believe will draw a sharp contrast between themselves and congressional Democrats on core issues including abortion, the right of parents to a successful public education that respects their values, economic prosperity, and constitutional rights.
Stacey Abrams, the Democratic candidate for governor of Georgia, denied that unborn children have a heartbeat at six weeks and that the ultrasound is part of a grand conspiracy to give men control over women's bodies - statements that run contrary to well-established facts and medical standards of fetal development.
The military is struggling mightily to meet their recruitment goals. In August, reports came in that the Army had only "recruited about 52% of its goal for fiscal year 2022 and is likely to wind up short by as many as 15,000 recruits." Significant shortages in personnel are also being reported by the Air Force and Navy. Meanwhile, Biden's military leaders continue to flounder in woke ideologies that are being pushed on servicemembers.
College football season is back - and so is the politicization of a fall pastime that used to unite Americans across the aisle. This year's game day rivalries on the University of Massachusetts's home field consist of a little more than fans with opposing school spirit. With plans to host the Liberty University Flames on their territory for their October 8 home game, UMass announced that the game day will also be "Pride Day."
On Monday, the steps of the Harrisburg Capitol Building were packed with pro-life supporters who traveled from every corner of Pennsylvania to march for life. This event marked the first state March for Life in a post-Roe America - and offered fascinating insight into the dichotomy of enthusiasm between pro-lifers and abortion supporters.
"Since the students had done nothing wrong, I never thought that they would be brutally shot by machine guns," one woman in northern Burma, also called Myanmar, told The Guardian. It started as a normal day for the woman, who has asked to remain anonymous for her safety. She was not concerned when she first saw government helicopters pass by because they had flown over the remote village before without incident. But the helicopters returned, and with them, terror.
On Tuesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) announced a proposed tax relief package that would provide $1.1 billion in tax relief to Florida families, including provisions to make necessary baby items like diapers, cribs, and strollers permanently tax exempt. Due to a record budget surplus, DeSantis is seeking to "allow families to purchase items for their children at a lower cost and help families keep more money in their pockets."
When governors started bussing migrants to sanctuary cities, not everyone was pleased. A sheriff in San Antonio launched a criminal investigation into Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), and others have referred to the tactic as "human trafficking." Others have taken a theological approach claiming that those who call themselves Christians (both DeSantis and Abbott do) should know better than to use immigrants as political pawns. Is it unbiblical to relocate immigrants to make a point?
Dozens of congressmen have introduced a bill accusing the Biden administration of "dereliction of duty" after its nearly three-month-long investigation into abortion extremists' crime spree against pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) has yet to yield a single known arrest.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has renewed her heated campaign against pregnancy resource centers by implying that the crisis pregnancy center "industry" lures "pregnant people" into its offices - not to help expectant mothers - but to conduct "surveillance" that could help politicians prosecute women who obtain illegal abortions. Pro-life health care providers call the allegations ludicrous, and a former human trafficking victim replied to Warren's incendiary rhetoric by saying, "I wish she'd be quiet."
As the flood of illegal immigrants at America's southern border crests to an all-time high, a Texas sheriff has called out the Biden administration's immigration policies as creating a "class of slaves," while also asserting that the real numbers of illegal immigrant crossings are far higher than what is generally understood. In his opinion, the administration is also "aiding and abetting" the flow of illegal narcotics into the U.S.
One of the best ways to fight cultural absurdity is to make fun of it. Scott Adams, creator of the comic strip "Dilbert," has spent 33 years leaning into that philosophy - poking fun at the woke mob, the cancel culture, and the outlandish social policies of the Left. After all, G.K. Chesterton once said, "Humor can get in under the door while seriousness is still fumbling at the handle." But for Adams, getting under the door isn't the problem. Having the door slammed in his face by 77 newspapers is.
The much-watched trial of Cardinal Joseph Zen, a widely respected Catholic cardinal from Hong Kong, was delayed from its scheduled start this week. He and five others were charged with failing to apply for a local society registration for their former nonprofit, the 612 Humanitarian Fund between July 16, 2019 and Oct. 31, 2021. The fund offered financial and legal aid to pro-democracy protesters who protested a controversial bill that would have allowed extradition to mainland China in 2019.
As polls show Democrats threatening to dam up the GOP's big red wave, former Arkansas governor and two-time presidential candidate Mike Huckabee revealed the three issues that he thinks will chart the path to his fellow Republicans' victory in November - including a firm commitment to life. "Keep it simple," the former governor says.
KathyGrace Duncan, who once lived as a man, is now an advocate for women who identify as transgender at Portland Fellowship in Oregon. Recently, she gave her testimony as part of a panel discussion on the transgender movement at Family Research Council's annual Pray Vote Stand Summit.
"Every year, one million Hispanic youth turn 18 and become eligible to vote. Since 2016 voter registration numbers among Hispanic Americans have swelled 24% compared to 9% for all other ethnic groups in America. Recently, we've seen evidence that Hispanic Americans, whether they be Mexicans, Colombians, Venezuelans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, etc., are changing their voting behavior, and leaving the Democratic Party in favor of the Republican Party."
If Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) hadn't done anything since his shock win last November, he'd probably still be an improvement over his radical predecessor. For one, the Commonwealth wouldn't have a leader who openly embraced infanticide. For another, voters would at least have someone on the record who believes that parents - not schools - know best.
On September 16, reports surfaced that the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), a leading organization that advocates for transgender medical procedures, had removed all age guidelines regarding the appropriate time to start puberty blocking drugs and undergo surgeries to remove healthy organs. The revelations come as news emerged Monday that a South Carolina clinic may have dispensed cross-sex hormones to children as young as four.
My name is Geng He, and I am the wife of Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng. My two children and I have not seen my husband in 14 years. To this day, we do not even know if he is still alive. In our endless longing to see him again, we helped create this incredible art piece, "Relief Sculpture of Gao Zhisheng."
The recent ceremonies surrounding the death of Queen Elizabeth II communicated solemnity, sadness, honor, and dignity. Not only a nation, but much of the world mourned the death of the Queen, who for decades symbolized the solidity of the British monarchy. And yet, earthly ceremonies come and go, reminding us palpably of greater realities. But they will not last long in our memories. The triumphal march of Christ to the New Jerusalem, however, is no such occasion. It is not a ceremony to recall only occasionally. It is the very destiny of our days.
Yeshiva University, a private Orthodox Jewish university in New York City, is refusing to back down following their temporary setback at the Supreme Court last week. In a 5-4 decision on Friday, the Supreme Court reinstated a New York trial court decision that required Yeshiva University to approve an LGBT club on campus despite school officials saying it violated their religious beliefs.
A documentary, released Monday, unveils the stories of three women who previously identified as transgender in a futile attempt to escape depression and suicidal thoughts.
At the beginning of this year, Wendell Perez got a call that no father ever wants to receive - his elementary-aged daughter had attempted to hang herself in the school bathroom. It was only until the child's second suicide attempt in a matter of two days that Perez and his wife found out that the school was secretly transitioning the young girl into a male identity, without the parents' knowledge or consent.
The Biden administration has set another national record on illegal immigration: For the first time in U.S. history, more than two million illegal border crossings took place in one year at the southern border, according to new government statistics released Monday afternoon.
In the eyes of the Biden administration, the summer of 2022 has been going so well that it merited a concert: a performance by James Taylor on the South Lawn of the White House last week. But someone at the White House forgot to send the celebratory memo to the American people. In a "60 Minutes" interview on Sunday, President Biden yet again displayed just how out of touch he is with reality.
Queen Elizabeth II is being mourned around the world for bringing dignity, warmth, and discretion to her role as monarch and international role model. But the mourning is not universal.
Vladimir Putin is in trouble. His unwarranted but massive invasion of Ukraine has been repudiated by all but the world's most repulsive governments and, more immediately, on the battlefield. The recent defeat of Russian forces across a wide front has demonstrated the weakness of the Russian military and the ineptitude of its commanders.
California Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday cited the words of Jesus from Mark 12:31 in support of abortion, "Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these." The billboard campaign advertises California abortion in seven pro-life states - Indiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Texas.
What is the first word of the United States Constitution? "We." People will say: "You work for me. You need to do what I say to do. You work for me." And I try to smile at them and say: "Actually, I work for we." Because this selfish attitude has become more and more prevalent, that the whole world is about me. But the power of our Constitution began with this very simple principle of "we."
Ambassador Sam Brownback discusses religious freedom with TWS - both internationally and what's at stake in America. He emphasizes its importance and how Americans can and must stand up for the nation's most crucial right.
Libby Emmons, Editor-in-Chief of the Post Millennial, talks to TWS about sifting through media bias and misinformation. She gives readers advice on how to navigate finding good news outlets.
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) overhauled the state's transgender policy for public schools, preventing administrators from hiding children's gender transition from their own parents and affirming parents' right to "nurture values and beliefs for their own children."
Adianis Morales shares with The Washington Stand how she has used FRC Action's resources to rally conservative voters for the polls. She explains the importance of voting according to Christian values and reveals the response she has received in Florida.
Wisconsin parents asked a federal court last week for a permanent injunction against the Eau Claire Area School District's (ECASD) gender identity policy "to vindicate parents' fundamental rights to care for and raise their children, and to religious freedom." The unincorporated group Parents Protecting Our Children explain that the gender identity policy "mandates that schools and teachers hide critical information regarding a child's health from his or her parents."
Rob Bluey, Executive Editor of The Daily Signal, gives TWS the scoop on why alternative media sources are necessary. He advises conservatives to have a balanced media diet and healthy skepticism of social media.
Key midterm elections are intensifying in battleground states like Pennsylvania, with the abortion issue taking center stage in the campaign strategies of candidates like John Fetterman and Josh Shapiro. Given that inflation has hit 40-year highs under the Biden administration and violent crime is on the rise in Democratic-run cities after their push to defund police departments, it is little wonder that Democrats are scrambling for a leg to run on in November.
A woman facing an unexpected pregnancy may experience complex and conflicting emotions surrounding the best path forward for both her unborn child and herself. When mothers hear messages about placing their child for adoption that deliberately paint the process in a negative light, it becomes more difficult for them to believe that choosing adoption when necessary is an act of love.
Pastor Jentezen Franklin of Free Chapel in Gainesville, Ga., brings a word of hope to Christians, charging young Americans to "turn on the light" in the world around them in an interview with TWS. He reminds Christians of the biblical mandate to pray for leaders on every side of the aisle.
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee charges Christians to get off the sidelines and engage with the culture in an interview with TWS. He encourages them not to pay attention to criticism and remember that even Jesus was unpopular during his time on earth.
Lt. General (Ret.) Jerry Boykin lamented that the Afghanistan withdrawal "will go down in history as the worst foreign policy failure in U.S. history. And every decision that was made was wrong." Setting aside the catastrophic ramifications for religious freedom, it also broadcast a global image of America as weak and hapless.
Apparently signaling a lack of support, Senate Democrats on Thursday postponed voting on a bill that would officially declare same-sex marriage the law in all 50 states.
The West Virginia legislature passed a new abortion ban on Tuesday, the second state to do so after the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade. The state House of Representatives passed H.B. 302 by a three-to-one margin (69-23) on July 27. The state Senate approved (22-7) an amended version on Tuesday, and the House passed (77-17) the bill with the Senate's amendments the same day. Governor Jim Justice (R) is expected to sign the bill.
Dr. Ben Carson, former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, explains to TWS how America has strayed from Judeo-Christian values. From his perspective as a prominent neurosurgeon, Carson also unpacks how science affirms that a baby in the womb is a complete human being.
Congressional Republicans have introduced the first national pro-life protection since the overturn of Roe v. Wade, aiming to safeguard children capable of feeling pain from abortion - a proposal favored by a lopsided majority of Americans, including nearly two-thirds of Democrats.
Ryan Bomberger, cofounder of the Radiance Foundation, debunks the commonly used exception that abortion is moral in cases of rape and incest, from his own personal testimony of being "conceived in rape, but adopted in love."
Katy Faust, founder and leader of the child advocacy group Them Before Us, gives TWS a preview of her upcoming main stage talk where she explains how the "Respect for Marriage Act" would infringe upon children's rights.
Allie Beth Stuckey, host of BlazeTV's "Relatable," shares some ways that young women and moms can "raise a respectful ruckus" against evil in their lives and at the polls. "Politics is not the only way or even often the primary way to love your neighbor, but it is a necessary way to love your neighbor," she told TWS in a preview of her main stage talk.\r
Dr. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and popular podcast host, unpacks the significance of the upcoming Senate vote on the "Respect for Marriage Act" and the implications it could have if passed. He gives a sneak peek to TWS on his Pray Vote Stand Summit main stage address.
Seattle Pacific University (SPU) has sustained so many serious attacks over the past few years that it could use a little comic relief. In a new lawsuit filed Monday in Washington Superior Court, that's exactly what its critics provide. Founded by the Free Methodist Church USA (FMC) as Seattle Seminary, SPU has come under fire for expecting of employees a lifestyle consistent with biblical standards, as set forth in a detailed, nuanced Statement on Human Sexuality, which says that sex should be limited to "the context of the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman."
After a slew of states passed laws aimed at strengthening election integrity in 2021 in the wake of voting irregularities that surfaced in the 2020 election, Democrats spent months attacking the bills, saying they would lead to "voter suppression." But data from recent primary elections indicate that voter turnout increased following the passage of the new laws, and experts say that these laws aimed at securing elections lead to increased voter confidence in the election system.
On September 12, in response to the U.S. Department of Education's proposed Title IX ruling which redefines "sex" to include "sexual orientation" and "gender identity," Family Research Council (FRC) submitted a public comment addressing both the legal and social ramifications of this controversial ruling.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has declared his intention to push through a bill to codify same-sex marriage "in the coming weeks." The measure, called the Respect for Marriage Act, would override a 1996 law defining marriage as "only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife" and reinforce the Supreme Court's controversial Obergefell decision with the force of federal statute.
Since the Supreme Court's ruling in Dobbs, the abortion industry has worked to conflate the cultural and medical definitions of abortion. Their attempts to blur the lines between the intentional killing of a child in an abortion and the tragic unintended death of a child in a miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy are hurtful, insulting, and dangerous.
How quickly free speech has deteriorated in our current age of "misinformation." In public policy we've gone from the Lincoln-Douglas debates to, "We have to pass the bill so that we can find out what is in it." Making an argument is seldom permitted, and when you do, it's only when approved by the "Fact Checkers." This point may be debatable, but debate itself is now a lost concept.
The U.S. military has suffered a string of humiliating defeats over the past 18 months, second only to the humiliation of surrendering Afghanistan to the Taliban. These defeats have not come from the hands of a foreign foe (although that may happen soon), nor even at the hands of an invasive species of ideology (although they have tried their hardest to embarrass themselves). Rather, I mean the string of defeats that the U.S. Constitution has handed to various branches of the military in the U.S. judicial system.
June's Dobbs Supreme Court decision put abortion at the epicenter of public forum debate, paving a platform on mass media for advocates to lay out a case for life. Last night, an episode of "Dr. Phil" aired on the topic of abortion, featuring president and founder of the pro-life organization Live Action, Lila Rose, along with a number of individuals representing the pro-abortion side.
As the Senate considers the "Respect for Marriage Act," a bill that would codify the right to same-sex marriage into federal law, dozens of conservative groups representing millions of Americans have expressed grave concerns that the legislation will imperil the religious freedom rights of Christians and those of other faiths who believe that marriage is a sacred bond established by God that is reserved for one man and one woman. Ordinary business owners like Donald Vander Boon have already experienced what life can be like when their beliefs about marriage run afoul with the federal government's view.
If your stride recently became lopsided, it's likely because your wallet is unusually light. Your hard-earned money may have fallen through an imaginary hole at the supermarket cash register. The Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures inflation, rose 8.3% over the last 12 months, with August numbers increasing 0.1% from July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on Tuesday. The increase came despite gasoline prices declining 12.2% (not seasonally adjusted) from July, as most other prices continued to rise.
Attacks on pro-life churches and pregnancy resource centers could become a daily occurrence if liberal district attorneys and a complacent Justice Department refuse to prosecute the perpetrators, according to a former FBI counterterrorism and intelligence expert.
Vice President Kamala Harris was "gaslighting" the American people when she likened those who question the integrity of the 2020 election to the perpetrators of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, lobbing a "gross insult" at those who perished on 9/11 and presenting "the picture of extreme" thinking, a Republican congressman has said. The actions of the Democratic Party - including those of Harris - could not survive the judgment she has passed on Republicans, he said.
At a press conference, Officer Grady Judd of Polk County, Florida, reported that the department's recent "Fall Haul" sting operation was a rousing success, arresting 160 individuals connected to human trafficking. Cumulatively, the convicts racked up 52 felonies, including Offering to Engage in Lewdness, Possession of Marijuana with Intent to Sell, and Negligent Child Abuse.
On Friday, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough excoriated Christians who oppose abortion on the grounds that Jesus "never once mentioned it." Reducing the gospel to a single issue is "heresy," he said, and those who do so "are using Jesus as a shield to make 10-year-old, raped girls go through a living and breathing hell here on earth."
Despite having hundreds of thousands of fewer customers, Planned Parenthood committed a record-breaking number of abortions and received an historic amount of funding from U.S. taxpayers in 2021, according to its newly released report.
On September 9, attorneys representing the College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Mo. filed a petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit asking the full court to consider the college's case that it cannot be legally forced to allow biological men in women's private spaces, including dorms, bathrooms, and locker rooms.
Organizers of the September 9-11 Boise Pride Festival cancelled a "Drag Kids" performance after public pressure prompted multiple sponsors to pull their support. The event advertised drag performances by children "from ages 11-18," which conservative sleuther Christopher Rufo uncovered on the Tuesday before the event.
Sex education debates - or shall we better call them battles? - in the states and in local schools are in the news every day. In the chaos, confusion, and controversy of sex education, a clearer understanding of the two opposing approaches is needed. They are defined as "comprehensive sex education" (CSE) and "abstinence" (or "abstinence-only"). Both are misnomers.
A left-leaning New York think tank sounded a familiar warning about Arizona's "voter suppression bills" being "dangerously close to becoming law." Little more than a year later, in August 2022, Arizona notched a record for high turnout in a primary election as 1.45 million voters participated, or 35.1% of those registered, surpassing the previous record in a 2000 primary by 7,000 ballots.
Dr. Maya Angelou famously said, "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." Likewise, when elected Republican legislators show us their anti-life cowardice, we should believe them.
Each year on September 11, the families of the victims gather at the site of the Twin Towers for a memorial service where the names of the 2,983 victims are read aloud. Alongside 10 of the names, the words, "and her unborn child" are read. These names, which are inscribed on the 9/11 memorial, as well as Monica Rodriguez Smith and her unborn child who were killed in the 1993 terrorist bombing at the World Trade Center, remind Americans of the impact of every life.
While the Biden administration is working overtime to dispel fears that it is weaponizing government power to target political enemies, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is weaponizing government power to target political enemies. And, just like a bully, it's picking on those smaller than itself.
On Thursday, the District of Columbia's Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) declared a public state of emergency over the nearly 10,000 migrants that have continued to arrive by the busload at Union Station since April. In a statement, Bowser announced that she will be devoting $10 million of the city's funds for her new Office of Migrant Services to support the humanitarian efforts by both the city government and charity organizations meeting the migrants upon their arrival.
On August 31, the California State Senate passed a bill that would allow courts in California to take custody of minors from out of state who come to the Golden State seeking gender transition surgeries and cross-sex hormones, even if these actions go against the wishes of the minors' parents. Legal experts and children's advocates warn that the measure, which awaits Governor Gavin Newsom's (D) signature to become law, is almost certainly unconstitutional, would cause severe harm to the health and wellbeing of children, and would egregiously violate parental custody rights.
Queen Elizabeth II often showed a deeply held faith, especially in her ceremonial role in delivering her annual Christmas broadcasts - messages that were often more orthodox, and more substantive, than the sermons delivered by the clergy of her Anglican Communion. Here are five faith-inspired examples of royal rhetoric that show her sincere, and well-articulated faith.
For all his professed concern over threats to "our democracy," President Joe Biden's recent actions to expand abortion for active-duty and retired soldiers - which a Biden administration official says is "what our nation owes them" - is "running rogue over our Constitution," a Republican congressman has said.
Over the weekend, Instagram delivered a hit to the pornography industry by deplatforming Pornhub from its audience of over 13 million followers. The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) claims the Meta-owned company's action is a result of their lobbying against the organization. In a press release, CEO Dawn Hawkins applauds Instagram's stand against sexual exploitation. "Instagram is courageously choosing to stop partnering with Pornhub, and it is time for all corporate entities to follow its example," Hawkins said.
A lot has and will be written about Queen Elizabeth II. But what must not be forgotten in the many tributes to the late queen is her faith in Jesus Christ.
On Wednesday, the Miami-Dade School Board, which represents the nation's fourth-largest school district, voted against a measure that would have recognized October as "LGBTQ history month." The vote follows an August 23 school board election in which Miami-Dade was flipped to a conservative majority.
Passing a bill enshrining same-sex marriage in national law would put the existence of religious nonprofit ministries at risk and send "a pretty strong message that religious beliefs don't matter," a Republican senator has said.Some Republicans "just want to get this thing behind us, and the faster we can do that, the better. And the best way to do that is to simply give them the votes they need to pass the bill," Senator Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) told Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on "Washington Watch" Wednesday "That would be a terrible mistake," he said.
California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) on Tuesday extended emergency measures implemented in late August to mitigate an extraordinary heat wave's effect on the state's energy grid. The National Weather Service forecasts "dangerously hot conditions" with temperatures into the triple digits likely to persist through Friday. "Many state buildings will power down lights and air conditioning beginning at 4:00 p.m. to save energy." The emergency declaration "will allow power plants to generate additional electricity" and "permits use of backup generators."
The advent of a Supreme Court populated by jurists who believe the Constitution is not legal putty but a text with definite meanings has created angst, heartache, and deep anger among those on the Left. Perhaps the most vivid case in point is a new book by legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky, "Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism." Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California-Berkeley law school, argues that "the Framers likely did not want their views to control constitutional interpretation."
Students across the nation are returning to school this fall. Many are still a year or more behind where they should be, due to the learning loss triggered by the panicky shutdowns and inexcusable "virtual" learning inflicted upon them over the past three years. But for some students, going back to school looks much different than what they were expecting, for one simple reason: it hasn't happened yet.
In the name of saving the planet and re-defining social equity, ESG standards are being rapidly adopted and enforced across the world. There are billionaires, political figures, Big Tech moguls, and educational elites who promote this new philosophy - and they are not only pushing America toward ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) laws, but they are pushing the unquestioning acceptance of things like Synthetic Sex Identity, Social Emotional Learning curricula, and critical race theory in our schools and universities, diversity mandates in our businesses, and a new branch of gender health care practices across the world.
With November's midterm elections just eight weeks away, Democrats are seeing President Biden's recent sharply-worded rhetoric and abortion rights as rallying points to make the midterm elections close, which have been expected for months to go the GOP's way. Meanwhile, warnings are emerging that conservative voters cannot afford to rest easy on predictions of a comfortable victory in November.
A United Nations expert has accused Christians in the U.S. of "the misuse of religious narratives" and the "deliberate exploitation" of believers to oppose extreme gender ideology and transgender surgeries for minors - among other "egregious abuses" of LGBT people's human rights. The U.N. figure says permanently sterilizing teens represents "the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health," recommends U.S. schools adopt sex education that teach homosexuality and gender fluidity, and refers to women as "persons with gestational faculties."
Senate Democrats have crammed a bill to codify same-sex marriage into a continuing resolution to fund the government past September 30. "We need the federal government to pass funding authorizations by the end of September," explained Travis Weber, FRC's vice president for Policy and Government Affairs, on "Washington Watch." But codifying same-sex marriage is "still obviously unacceptable, whether a standalone vote or attached to funding bills."
On Wednesday, USA Today featured an article detailing the "major panic" across women's college sports as coaches and athletic administrators encounter state laws protecting unborn children from the evil of abortion. The article quotes one Power Five coach from a pro-life state as saying, "If a young woman is in a moment of crisis, that is when they need to know they can rely on us. The ruling doesn't change that it's our job to support and serve these young women - it's just made it a lot more challenging."
This week, the state senate in South Carolina is discussing a bill that would protect the lives of unborn babies beginning at conception. While the bill is not perfect - given that it fails to protect unborn children conceived in rape or incest from abortion - it is succeeding at finally correcting the misleading language of other pro-life protections that feature the "life of the mother" exception.
As the states continue to pass pro-life protections that defend the unborn from abortion, it is important to consider the necessity for these laws to protect all unborn lives. Sadly, the importance of protecting unborn children who are prenatally diagnosed with disabilities has fallen to the wayside in the national conversation about abortion. Some states protecting unborn lives from conception are failing to include babies with a prenatal diagnosis under that protection.
Disney-owned FX is releasing a new adult cartoon series, "Little Demon," about a woman who has a fling with Satan (voiced by popular actor Danny DeVito) and bears his child. With the animation coming soon to Disney+, Star+, and Hulu, the parents of Disney's primary audience are not happy about this release.
In a speech brimming with dehumanizing and erroneous statements, President Joe Biden hit upon a truth: "I believe we were in a battle for the soul of this nation." His insight is true, if unoriginal. Unfortunately, Biden's fighting on the wrong side.
As negative mental health outcomes for young people continue to reach unprecedented levels, many are pointing to the increased use of social media as a main culprit. Experts say that a two-pronged approach of more parental guidance and new laws governing Big Tech companies are needed to combat the problem.
It was a dark and angry sight. Motionless soldiers flanked the grizzled head of state as he angrily condemned his political opponents in front of a black-and-red background. Worthy of a Hollywood portrayal for a third-world Hitler wannabe, the setting appropriately transformed the iconic Independence Hall into a dystopian hellscape for a presidential address that presented a "dangerous escalation in rhetoric," according to a majority of Americans (56.8%) and independents (62.4%).
The Biden administration remains manically committed to weaponizing the U.S. government and civil rights law to advance the LGBTQ+ agenda. The Department of Education's newly proposed Title IX rule uses the federal rulemaking process to destabilize students with gender ideology, roll back rights for women and girls, and undermine parental rights, just to name a few - all in order to force the LGBTQ+ political agenda on every public school student in America.
Though cases of incest are unquestionably tragedies, failing to protect the innocent babies conceived in these difficult circumstances is punishing the innocent for the crimes of the guilty. Unfortunately, in several pro-life states that have legally protected their unborn citizens from abortion, children conceived by incest are not receiving the same protection.
It is always impressive when a national political leader unapologetically speaks the truth. That's what Liz Truss, the Tory (conservative) Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs and the new Prime Minister of Great Britain, did during an interview on September 4. She told the BBC that the economics of redistribution - taking money from one segment of the population and giving it to another - don't work.
As the states continue to pass pro-life protections that defend the unborn from abortion, it is important to consider the necessity for these laws to protect all unborn lives. Sadly, the importance of protecting unborn children who are prenatally diagnosed with disabilities has fallen to the wayside in the national conversation about abortion.
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre declared at the August 31 press briefing: "When you are not with what majority of Americans are, then, you know, that is extreme. That is an extreme way of thinking." By his own criteria, Joe Biden sits atop the most extremist administration in decades. The disconnect between his actions and those of mainstream Americans could hardly be more profound. How? Let us count the ways.
A representative of the United Nations has instructed U.S. officials to better implement a treaty against racism and that they must make it easier to abort minority children. Promoting abortion under the guise of fighting discrimination proves that the global body's aggressive drive to undermine pro-life laws around the world "has reached a dangerous new level," a U.N. watchdog has told The Washington Stand.
The Christian life is described as warfare, a boxing match, or a race. We have opponents that make our journey more difficult - the world, the flesh, and the devil. So, we need to keep the end in view. To help us remember how to obey God rightly, and to encourage us in our Christian walk, we can hardly do better than study the book of Deuteronomy.
Though cases of rape and incest are unquestionably tragedies, failing to protect the innocent babies conceived in these difficult circumstances is punishing the innocent for the crimes of the guilty. Unfortunately, in several pro-life states that have legally protected their unborn citizens from abortion, children conceived by rape and incest are not receiving the same protection.
Last week, country music wife Brittany Aldean made ripples online when she took a strong social media stance against allowing children to go through gender transitioning. In the openly conservative influencer's words, her comments that were "taken out of context" were labeled "transphobic" by multiple mainstream media outlets and progressive country music counterparts.
Unfortunately, like many other educational places in the U.S., the Smithsonian has fallen privy to critical theory and is propagating a radical cultural agenda. In the National Museum of American History, an exhibit called "Girlhood: It's Complicated," looks at the political impact of women from a young age - girlhood.
In the weeks following the overturn of Roe v. Wade, the abortion industry has ruthlessly sought to sell the lie that treatment for an ectopic pregnancy is the same thing as abortion. When combatting this deception with the truth, it can be helpful to know the story of a couple who experienced the heartbreak of ectopic pregnancy, so that it is not hypothetical, but concrete. This is the story of Sean and Emily's ectopic pregnancy - a tragedy that will impact the rest of their lives.
On Tuesday, Biden introduced his "Safer America Plan," his newly unveiled solution to fund policing, prevent crime, and ban assault weapons. "It's based on a simple notion," he said. "When it comes to public safety in this nation, the answer is not 'defund the police,' it's 'fund the police.'" This comes in contrast to the Democrats' strategy to defund the police during the riots of 2020.
In his speech, Biden essentially dehumanizes a whole segment of the American people. In doing so, he divorces them from the country for which many of them have served and fought, worked and prayed. He does not appeal to what Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature" but castigates millions of Americans as virtual demons.
In a nationally televised speech Thursday night, President Joe Biden warned that "MAGA Republicans" have "fanned the flames of political violence" and constitute a "threat to American democracy," charges a conservative congressman says aim only to "dehumanize" his political opponents.
On Wednesday, nurse practitioner Paige Casey sued her former employer, CVS, for firing her simply based on her religious beliefs regarding abortion-causing drugs. Since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June, tensions - and corporate political activism - regarding abortion have been at an all-time high. Casey's case could be an important indicator of what might happen to corporations that discriminate against employees with a religious conviction that life begins at conception.
As the states continue to pass pro-life protections that defend the unborn from abortion, it is important to consider the necessity for these laws to protect all unborn lives. Sadly, the importance of protecting unborn children who are prenatally diagnosed with disabilities has fallen to the wayside in the national conversation about abortion.
National Review's Nate Hochman "spent the last couple of weeks digging into exactly what kinds of LGBT activist groups and medical clinics MLB franchises and teams were funding under the auspices of these LGBT-themed pride nights." What he found makes a drag queen story hour seem like Sesame Street. For 20 out of the 29 teams, these pride nights were "funding groups that were either promoting sex changes for children as young as 12 years old, or ... actually providing them themselves."
National test results released on Thursday from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) revealed that the math and reading scores of elementary school students reached historic lows in 2022, with an unprecedented drop in math and the largest drop in 32 years in reading among nine-year-olds. Experts say that the drops can be attributed to a variety of factors, including repercussions from school shutdowns, discipline issues, open borders, classroom time spent on controversial ideologies, and other factors.
Attorney General Merrick Garland distributed a memo Tuesday to all Department of Justice (DOJ) staff, to "reaffirm and remind all Department personnel of our existing policies regarding communications between the Justice Department and Congress." According to those policies, "no Department employee may communicate with Senators, Representatives, congressional committees, or congressional staff without advance coordination, consultation, and approval by OLA [Office of Legislative Affairs]." If you believe Garland, the memo was purely routine.
An undercover video has captured a public school administrator admitting that he quietly refuses to hire "brainwashed" religious teachers and older people, so he can impose his own liberal views on the district's schoolchildren. His comments touched off a torrent of criticism from Catholic officials, education experts, and Democratic elected officials.
Madrigal-Borloz is the "SOGI czar" at the United Nations. Or, more precisely, he is the U.N.'s so-called independent expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, or SOGI. The Costa Rican lawyer just concluded an official visit to the United States intended to "assess" the "human rights of LGBT persons" here.
In the aftermath of Roe v. Wade's overturn, disinformation and fearmongering have been the only tools left in the abortion industry's kit to convince the nation that life-affirming laws are somehow dangerous for women. The abortion industry has shown that they will stop at nothing to continue profiting from their evil work, whether it is spreading ableist narratives about fetal anomalies or falsely equating ectopic pregnancy treatment with abortion.
It's only been a few months since Disney was humiliated at the hands of Florida Republicans - and already, the Left is declaring the war against woke capital dead. The wet blankets at USA Today, in an attempt to dishearten conservatives, announced that none of the party's plans to infiltrate Big Business are working. This strategy "isn't winning over shareholders of the nation's largest companies," the paper claims. But as this month's polls remind us, hardly anyone in America trusts the media. And based on this story, now is no time to start.
Sometimes, when having a hard conversation about a sensitive topic like abortion, it can help to be armed with the true stories, experiences, and words of those who have personally faced what it means to protect life without exceptions. In the coming days, The Washington Stand will be featuring the lived experiences and wisdom of strong individuals who have carried their babies to term after receiving a prenatal diagnosis, survived an ectopic pregnancy, and been conceived through rape and incest.
It has now been over seven years since the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision mandated that all 50 states recognize same-sex marriage. As the current court case of Yeshiva University illustrates, there appears to be no end in sight to the legal battle between LGBT rights activists and religious institutions who maintain belief in biblical sexuality.
On August 30, 2021, the last American troops left Afghanistan, entrusting hundreds of American civilians and thousands of Afghan allies left behind to the brutal mercy of the Taliban. This was to meet President Biden's deadline to withdraw all U.S. military personnel by August 31, 2021, one year from Wednesday. The arbitrary withdrawal timeline was not modified to conditions on the ground. Over the advice of his generals, President Biden insisted that American troops would leave by the end of August, no matter who was left behind. And that was the end of the conversation.
Mass lockdowns, the West's preferred response to COVID-19, cost millions of years of lost lives and "harmed nearly every single poor person on the face of the Earth," concluded a leading scientist. "The lockdowns harmed nearly every single poor person on the face of the Earth, and it did it in a myriad of ways," Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, told "Washington Watch" guest host Joseph Backholm on Tuesday.
Mikhail Gorbachev has died, but the effusions of sentimental goo emanating from his champions in the world of diplomacy are very much alive. While there is evidence that Gorbachev realized that a nuclear "exchange" between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. would have been devastating and had to be avoided, he does not deserve the credit he is being given. That belongs to the Left's once-favorite target, Ronald Reagan.
I am a senior at a private Christian university, and most of my peers are dishing out tens of thousands of dollars to pay for loans every semester. On many occasions, I find my friends making (not so ironic) jokes about how Uncle Sam owns their college degree. When I tell my friends I am graduating debt-free, they look back at me with astonishment. Most of my friends attribute my lack of financial bondage to being "smart" or just pure "lucky." However, there is a lot more to my story than a few fortunate college scholarships.
"It's wrong that [people] would be able to say to women what they think women should be doing with their lives and their bodies. But it's sinful, the injustice of it all." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) remarked on the "sinfulness" of restricting abortion last Friday when she joined Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier (Calif.), a House Pro-Choice Caucus member, for a "reproductive health" roundtable discussion with several doctors at the University of California in San Francisco.
Few places embody America's pluralistic ideal better than Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the Amish heartland, where the religious sect known for its uncompromising way of life coexists side-by-side with a broad spectrum of modern American beliefs and sentiments. Yet, in a strange twist, this richly tolerant farm country is the setting for the latest case of the federal government's persistent incomprehension of Christianity.
On August 26, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that a ballot measure intended to roll back Arizona's recently enacted election integrity law will not be on the upcoming November ballot. The bill that was targeted by the initiative was signed into law in March and required that prospective voters show proof of citizenship before being allowed to vote.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg revealed his platform censored stories about Hunter Biden's laptop after a warning from the FBI - a practice that a former FBI investigator says violates the norms and standard operating procedure of that department. That act of misguided, Big Tech censorship meaningfully impacted the outcome of the 2020 election.
Disney has made it quite clear that it no longer clings to its founder's belief that "the most important thing is family." Quite on the contrary - for Disney, the most important thing is money, even if that means dictating the size of someone else's family.
Celebrities are fighting about politics again - this time, a country music artist's wife is in the epicenter of the drama. Brittany Aldean, wife of CMA Award-winning Jason Aldean, mother, and beauty influencer, posted a makeup video on Instagram last week to her audience of 2.2 million followers. "I'd really like to thank my parents for not changing my gender when I went through my tomboy phase. I love this girly life," her tongue-in-cheek caption read. Some stars didn't appreciate the humor.
Twelve years after the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law, we're still finding out what's in it. The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Friday upheld a permanent injunction preventing the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from enforcing a requirement that hospitals "perform gender-reassignment surgeries or abortions" against Franciscan Alliance, a Catholic hospital network of nearly 19,000 health care professionals, because doing so would be "in violation of its sincerely held religious beliefs."
After years of litigation, California and the state's Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) were unwilling to budge on forcing churches and other religious entities to pay for abortion against their deeply held beliefs. So ADF filed the lawsuit against the DMHC. Earlier this month, that case was finally resolved.
A recently released report from the state government of Mississippi underscored that hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars are being squandered on government programs that could have been avoided if more fathers were present in their children's lives. The report reflects a decades-long pattern of social science data that points to how closely marriage and religious practice are to positive social outcomes for their children, experts say.
A coalition of left-leaning politicians and Big Tech executives plan to limit, label, and stigmatize pro-life pregnancy resource centers - a move the director of a recently firebombed clinic says will "foment violence" against the already embattled women's charities. Last Tuesday, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) issued a statewide consumer alert about "so-called Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs)," and Big Tech is piling on.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in an interview released Thursday that Facebook suppressed the New York Post's report about Hunter Biden's laptop after the FBI warned the tech giant about misinformation.
The eagerness of abortion advocates to dehumanize the unborn speaks of something sad and desperate. Unable to deny the personhood of the little one in the womb, they speak in a sort of muted code. By using terms that attempt to sanitize something evil, we assuage our consciences and gradually create a thick callous over the tender flesh of our basic moral impulses.
There's an old saying that some people's purpose in life is to serve as an example to others. That's certainly true of the Israelite generation who perished during the 40 years in the wilderness. "Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience" (Hebrews. 4:11). It's worth considering the wilderness wanderings of those unfaithful Israelites, to learn from their bad examples. Moses records most of those wilderness years in the book of Numbers.
After Tuesday's primaries, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) praised the Democratic voter turnout, saying, "Republicans should be very, very, very scared this morning about their prospects. I have never believed that we would not hold the House. That's my mission. And that's what I hope to accomplish, and I plan to do it." While predictions and hopes for a red wave in November have been high, are conservatives and Republicans right to heed Pelosi's victory cry?
The war in Ukraine continues to escalate despite declining media coverage. Cities are still being bombed, families are still fleeing, and men - both young and old - are still fighting for their country. Recently, I visited Gut Elim, a community hidden in the green German countryside within the small town of Bad Wildungen that is helping refugees. "When you're coming to Gut Elim," one of the coordinators said, "you're coming to God's move on the earth." She was right.
Far from a "distraction," much-derided "culture war" issues as the reality of gender, the definition of marriage, and "systemic racism" are flashpoints in the war to transform America into a collectivist nation, a renowned Bible expositor and commentator has said. "Make no mistake, that which is canceled today will be criminalized tomorrow," wrote Dr. Erwin Lutzer, author of the new book "No Reason to Hide: Standing for Christ in a Collapsing Culture."
Facing intense public backlash, the Biden administration on Friday released a heavily redacted version of the affidavit justifying the unprecedented raid on President Donald Trump's home. The amount of material blacked out has convinced a leading congressman "there were very likely political motivations" behind the action, a concern shared by a former high-level Justice Department official.
Have you ever imagined a lion that's scared of its own roar? It petrifies its prey, but instead capturing the moment - and its dinner - it turns tail and runs. That's the position the Republican Party finds itself in, only weeks away from the beginning of early voting in the 2022 midterm elections.
School boards have been the center of a lot of controversy in recent years. The National School Board Association labeled parents "domestic terrorists," children are being given books that can't be read aloud in public, and drag queens are being invited to school assemblies. As a result, many parents and concerned citizens have concluded it's time for new leadership and have chosen to run for school board. Is that a bad idea? Christianity Today ran an article titled "Don't Run for School Board" that made this very argument.
Late Thursday night, the White House admitted that its bailout of student loans will cost hundreds of billions of dollars over the next 10 years - but a former congressman said Democrats' claims that the action will not deepen the national debt would "embarrass George Orwell." Touting a lower deficit is like standing "at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, but then a few rocks fall down, and you get to stand on those little tiny rocks," Dave Brat said. "You're still at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. ... Only in D.C. can you get away with that kind of logic."
Earlier this year, Israel's Tel Aviv University published "The Antisemitism Worldwide Report 2021." It reveals that the most serious increases in anti-Semitic activity occurred in the U.S., Canada, the U.K, France, Germany, and Australia. Why this rise in acts of vicious, irrational hatred toward the Jewish people?
When we call abortion a "women's" issue, we do a grave disservice to men. Abortion harms them too. It causes real psychological injury. Studies indicate that the fathers of aborted children often experience grief, shame, and despair for many years after the abortion.
Around the country, the headlines have been plagued with stories of mothers who wanted to give birth to their child but received a life-limiting prenatal diagnosis and now, often out of a deeply misguided attempt at compassion, are franticly searching for a way to abort their child. While these tragic narratives are heartbreaking - full of the mother's shattered hopes and dreams for her unborn child - they also fail to accurately depict what it means to love someone with a disability.
"We like to think we're masters of our own destiny," Grove City College's Carl Trueman insists, "but there's a lot of evidence that points in the other direction." He explained two disadvantages in particular. First, "imagine the burden placed upon a three- or four-year-old who asks their parents, 'Who am I? Am I a boy or a girl?' And the parent says, 'Well, you've got to decide that for yourself.' That's a terrifying burden to place on the child." Second, "sooner or later, nature bites back. We're seeing already with the accounts of detransitioners."
For some college students, the three or four-month summer vacation hasn't been enough of a break to reset. A new Boston University (BU) study found that mental illness has increased among college-aged kids in the past eight years, with anxiety up 110% and depression up 135% since 2013. While many students seek help amidst their struggles, there are plenty who don't as depression, anxiety, and loneliness hit record highs among the college population, according to a similar BU study. What changed? The Washington Stand takes a deeper look.
After Libs of TikTok exposed the Boston Children's Hospital for performing gender transition surgeries on minors, the hospital rushed to contain the fallout, revising its website to remove the evidence. But Botson was just the tip of iceberg. According to research compiled by The Washington Stand, at least 13 hospitals - mostly children's hospitals - in the United States perform gender transition surgeries on minors.
President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that he will force U.S. taxpayers to bail out college students for up to $20,000 of student loan debt and further reduce repayments - a policy that sounds superficially compassionate, but which victimizes the innocent, rewards the guilty, and violates biblical morality in a plethora of ways. Here are the first seven that come to mind.
On Wednesday, President Joe Biden unveiled a sweeping plan to let delinquent student loan borrowers transfer tens of thousands of dollars in debt to taxpayers. If he were a biblically minded leader, Biden would have used his nationally televised press conference to repent of his role in creating the student loan crisis in the first place.
Just as school bells across the country begin ringing for another semester of class time again, Florida conservatives are running another victory lap around the school yard.
In a Friday memo to its employees, Walmart announced it was expanding its insurance coverage for abortion, as well as providing travel benefits to obtain them legally. Under the new policy, Walmart will cover the travel costs for employees who must travel more than 100 miles from their home to obtain a covered procedure. The largest private employer in the U.S., with approximately 1.6 million employees, Walmart maintains its own insurance plan for employees.
In its staring contest with human biology, did the American Academy of Pediatrics just blink? For years, the Academy has been a booster for the school-to-sterilization-pipeline for kids struggling with their sexed bodies-to the dismay of at least some of its 67,000 members. But in a telling letter to the Wall Street Journal this week, the group seemed to signal a shift in its position.
A leading economist has denounced President Joe Biden's plan to let some Americans write off thousands of dollars of student loans as "irresponsible," "unfair" to those who paid their loans, and "astonishingly imprudent." Although the media widely dubbed this an act of "debt forgiveness," that's a misnomer. "The debt doesn't really get canceled. It just means they shift the debt" from "the people who took out the loans to you and me and everyone else who's a taxpayer," Stephen Moore, a senior fellow at FreedomWorks, insists.
In 2021, the American Worldview Inventory released data analyzing the top 10 most prevalent "seductive unbiblical ideas" embraced by American adults. With contemporary culture becoming more secular, belief systems divergent from Scripture are not surprising. What is surprising, however, is that even among adults who have a biblical worldview, 6% harbor many secular beliefs as part of their personal philosophy.
Texas public schools are beginning to hang posters featuring the national motto, "In God We Trust." While that hardly seems newsworthy, the intense backlash that the posters have garnered is newsworthy - and points to troubling cultural trends.
Grace Christian School "fielded hundreds, probably thousands, of phone calls Thursday, Friday, over the weekend, with just some of the most outrageous things: People threatening to burn my house down, threatening to kill my family," said Barry McKeen, school administrator and pastor of Grace Community Church of Valrico, Florida, which runs the school. The threats came in reaction to an article by NBC News, which published several paragraphs of a June 6 email in which McKeen reiterated to school parents the school's commitment to biblical sexuality.
Media distrust is a growing problem in our country, and it's not hard to understand why. But for trust to be restored, there must be honesty about past biases. The media must commit to covering the news fairly, honestly, and completely - even when it isn't flattering or comfortable. Big Tech must commit to allowing diverse viewpoints to remain standing, without censorship.
Uganda, located in East Africa, is a largely Christian nation, reflecting the faith of more than 80% of its population. But reports of anti-Christian violence there are increasing exponentially. Unlike the horrific massacres in Nigerian villages and churches or the mass beheadings in Mozambique, Ugandan attacks tend to target individual converts from Islam to Christianity. They are carried out by radical Islamists, encouraged by local Muslim clerics or terror groups like al-Shabab and ISIS-affiliates.
Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published a piece highlighting the schemes of the online chemical abortion black market. For example, Plan C, a site that has received media coverage from left-wing sources like the New York Times, encourages women to travel to Mexico or the southern border to obtain pills. It also links to "online pharmacy" websites that feature off-brand abortion drugs for sale that have not been reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the most public figure associated with the government's COVID-19 strategy of government lockdowns and mask/vaccine mandates, announced on Monday that he will leave his post in December. The federal face of the pandemic stated he is not retiring but moving on "to pursue the next chapter of my career." Fauci leaves office as the highest-paid official in the U.S. government.
In an opinion referencing unicorns and the Netflix original "Stranger Things," a federal judge appointed by President Obama blocked part of a law enacted by Florida Republicans and Governor Ron DeSantis (R) to combat woke ideology. You'd expect his opinion to contain the typical ideological screed - light on the logic, heavy on the racism, and hold the freedom. But it doesn't.
In a major setback for the Biden administration's vaccination mandate, a federal judge has ruled that military brass cannot punish any Marine who refuses to receive the COVID-19 vaccine for religious reasons. "U.S. Marines who filed for religious exemption and were denied, at least at the first level, are now protected," Mat Staver, the founder of Liberty Counsel, celebrated.
August 22 marks the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief. The day is intended to remind us of a simple though devastating reality - people around the world face violence because of their faith, and we must fight against it.
Philadelphia residents and taxpayers, represented by the Thomas More Society (TMS), sued the city for funding abortions in violation of Pennsylvania law. Earlier this month, on August 4, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney (D) announced the city would provide $500,000 to the Abortion Liberation Fund of Pennsylvania (ALF-PA), a group which pays for abortions.
While Joseph was not, like his adopted son Jesus, sinless, the biblical evidence is that he was faithful, engaged, and consistent. Sadly, too many of the men of our day fall far short of this standard.
Deng Ziqi, better known to her millions of fans by her stage name G.E.M., is soon to release a new album titled "Revelation." Yet, her new single has not only her fans, but Chinese Christians, feeling excited. G.E.M.'s new single "Gloria" and the accompanying music video was released last week, and it is breaking norms in the Chinese music industry with its distinctly Christian themes.
There's no way to sugarcoat the facts - recent drug seizures at the southern border reveal dangerous narcotics that appear to be targeting children with their deceptively candy-like appearance. Last week in Arizona, border patrol agents intercepted 250,000 "rainbow fentanyl" pills busted from a vehicle on Tuesday, and 15,000 of the lethal multicolor pills strapped to a person's leg last Wednesday.
For many decades, Christians have felt they satisfied their citizen obligation by simply casting a ballot on Election Day. But the times have changed dramatically.Merely voting is no longer enough to ensure the security and extension of a safe country driven by the Constitution, rule of law, and biblical morality. If there is any hope of stabilizing and restoring our nation, we desperately need an "all hands on deck" commitment from biblical Christians between now and November.
Are Christians hateful? Bigoted? Ignorant? Do they "cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them"? Do they stubbornly retain discredited beliefs, while the world has passed them by, entering into a more enlightened age? Is there a common distinction between the Christians the world hates, and the Christians the world loves? There is, and a good place to see that distinction is in the book of Leviticus.
The former chaplain of Austin's fire department says the liberal city dismissed him from his position over a blog that said it is unfair for men to compete against women in sports events - basing its views in the Bible. Now, he's suing the department.
One of the nation's premier legal organizations dedicated to preserving religious liberty has a new leader. The Alliance Defending Freedom announced Friday that Kristen Waggoner will become ADF's president and CEO on October 1.
The Biden administration has been spent nearly two years transporting illegal aliens across the nation for many reasons - including to have taxpayer-funded abortions. A new bill introduced by a coalition of pro-life senators aims to protect U.S. taxpayers from subsidizing non-citizens' abortions.
"Is TikTok destroying civilization? Some people think so." Elon Musk's June Twitter musing isn't the only source questioning whether Americans should be downloading the wildly popular short-form video app. The social media platform has taken the internet - and a predominately Gen-Z audience - by storm. But the widespread talk of the threat of the Chinese Communist Party's surveillance is dampening the excitement.
Vandals painted pro-abortion messages late Wednesday or early Thursday at a pro-life pregnancy center in Massachusetts. The vandals splattered red paint across the white exterior of Bethlehem House Inc. Pregnancy Care Center in Easthampton, 99 miles west of Boston.
While the IRS bulks up to come after conservatives, another "nonprofit" is robbing taxpayers blind and then turning around and using its freed-up cash to influence elections. And yet, Planned Parenthood's racket never seems to raise an eyebrow in the federal government, which is apparently too busy harassing ministries who don't take a dime of taxpayer money.
One of the leading figures in the Trump impeachment saga says his new bill will rectify the "iniquity" in U.S. laws by giving economic benefits to same-sex couples to hire surrogate mothers - but family experts say his rosy analysis forgets the rights of one person: the child.
In a split decision on Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that "gender dysphoria" is a protected class under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The court ruled that a male identifying as a female, named Williams, who was imprisoned in Fairfax County, Virginia should be housed with the female inmates, even though he retains male body parts.
Conservative states have a warning for corporations that have "gone woke": the consequences of political activism are no longer one-sided. "They've weaponized tax dollars against the very people and industries that have generated those dollars." Derek Kreifels, CEO of the State Financial Officers Foundation, added, "If you want to make social change in this country, we have a democratic process that you should utilize to get that done."
A legal expert has promised to sue - and defeat - a Minnesota-based public school district for adopting an official policy to fire white teachers in order to make room for ethnic and racial minorities, regardless of seniority.
Last month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized record-breaking amounts of fentanyl being smuggled across the southern border from Mexico. In July alone, they confiscated upward of 2,100 lbs of the illicit synthetic opioid, which is 203% higher than the amount in June. Per the Drug Enforcement Administration, a lethal dose of the drug is approximately two milligrams, which means that in July alone, the fentanyl seizures amounted to enough doses to kill every American, according to the Washington Times.
As students continue to struggle with learning loss brought on by school lockdowns, a public teachers union has taken out a new ad branding concerned parents "extremists" and instructing them to take their complaints "somewhere else."
On Tuesday, President Biden signed the "Inflation Reduction Act" into law, a $437 billion spending package that received no Republican votes when it narrowly passed the Senate on August 7. Economic experts say that the Inflation Reduction Act will not reduce inflation, and that Biden's economic policies ignore underlying issues that are the real causes of the record-high inflation that is squeezing the wallets of Americans.
Since August of last year, ever-increasing questions continue to circulate about the shocking downfall of Afghanistan and the subsequent bloodshed. Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Jerry Boykin served in the U.S. Army for 36 years as one of the original members of the Delta Force and was also commander of the Green Berets; he later served as deputy under secretary of defense for intelligence. His responses to interviewers' recent questions provide a perspective of his views on Afghanistan after a year's consideration. And his thoughts no doubt mirror those of countless veterans who watched the debacle that brought the conflict to such a chaotic end.
It was just a routine checkup, they thought. But when the couple sat down in the doctor's office, they were stunned at what the pediatrician asked their three-year-old son. "... [T]he doctor comes in, and he sees my son sitting there at the table," the dad posted on TikTok, "and the first question that he asks him is, 'Are you a boy or are you a girl?'" The chart clearly says the child is a boy, and his parents were relieved to hear him affirm it. But the dad was rattled - and as far as he's concerned, every other parent should be too.
The school board for Wauwatosa, Wisconsin will consider a "Curriculum Revision proposal" to radically reshape their "Human Growth and Development" (HGD) curriculum (essentially, sex ed) into a tool for radical, gender ideology indoctrination.
A recent Gallup poll confirmed what many Americans already knew - people don't trust the media like they did before. What's driving the skepticism? Washington Stand reporter Marjorie Jackson takes a closer look.
The Biden administration told a United Nations body that it promotes abortion to minorities and illegal aliens in order to combat racism. The exchange came last Friday, August 12, during the U.N.'s periodic review of how the U.S. is implementing the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
A year ago, Calvary Chapel San Jose (CCSJ) was the most persecuted church in America. Despotic officials, both state and local, employed every trick in the book, unsuccessfully, to force the church to shut its doors. The harassment continued after the Supreme Court ruled twice in the church's favor. On Monday, the California Court of Appeals (the state's mid-level court) hopefully ended the crusade, ruling in favor of CCSJ and its Pastor Mike McClure in three separate cases.
On August 10, the Center Square reported that 96% of school districts (534 out of 554) in Illinois have opted out of the state's proposed standards for sex education in public schools included in a bill authored, passed, and signed into law by Democrats, despite the fact that Illinois is considered one of the "big three" most liberal states in the nation.
Researchers at a Spanish university have announced the creation of "mouse embryos in the lab without using any eggs or sperm." These tiny creatures have been made using stem cells and are being grown in "small beakers of nutrient-filled solution" and have developed brains, beating hearts, and even intestinal tracts.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has problems, alleged 11 Democratic senators in an August 11 letter. Specifically, USAID recipients are too reluctant to carry out abortions, they argue, and that needs to change. The senators painted the morality problem as an information problem; if people only knew they could use the money for abortions, surely they would.
The nation's largest conservative, Protestant denomination revealed on Friday it is under investigation by the Biden administration over claims of sexual abuse and harassment. The federal probe by a persistent church critic raised eyebrows, coming amidst a flurry of actions opponents say are intended to punish the president's political enemies.
After serious voting irregularities surfaced during the 2020 presidential election, causing widespread concern over the validity of the results, many Americans are approaching the 2022 midterm elections with a nagging pit in their stomachs: What if mine and the voices of millions of my fellow citizens are rendered silent by voter fraud?
I graduated from nursing school in 2015, excited about starting my career and forging my future as a medical professional in one of the most prestigious medical centers in the world. Although my education and training shaped me to appreciate the incredible advances of modern medicine, I have grown increasingly disillusioned at the deafening silence of medical professionals around the country who are abandoning biological reality in the name of radical transgender ideology.
Last week's violent attack on world-famous novelist Salman Rushdie was a sobering reminder of the Iranian regime's ruthless global influence. It also exposed its radical leadership's long and unforgiving memory.
With all of the other fires the Biden administration is trying to put out, tying up a federal agency in court for the foreseeable future probably wasn't an appealing option. That might explain why on Friday, while the media was consumed with news from Mar-a-Lago, the Department of Agriculture quietly cried uncle on an outrageous policy that would have held needy kids hostage to the president's radical LGBT agenda.
It has become quite common to hear of threats to "our democracy." But what does this mean?
Shortages of baby formula are worse now than they were three months ago, when the crisis became a national issue. According to data from ISI Worldwide, a consulting firm helping the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to track outages, the out-of-stock rates for the weeks ending on August 7 (26%), July 31 (27%), and July 24 (30%) were all higher than the week ending May 15 (22%), when everyone was clamoring for the Biden administration to fix the problem.
The shooting. That's still how it's referred to around here. Simply "the shooting." That's all you have to say, and everyone who works for Family Research Council - whether they were here that day or not - knows what you're talking about. And they also know that thanks to one man, Leo Johnson, "the shooting" happened only to one person: Leo himself.
August 15, 2012 "started out as a typically normal day" for Family Research Council (FRC) building manager Leo Johnson, as he described it. Johnson, who had seven years of experience as a security guard for FRC, had moved into the position of building operations manager, but still spent part of his daily shifts manning the guard desk in the lobby of FRC's headquarters in Washington, D.C. Little did he know that on this day, in an instant, his life would be on the line, and would be forever transformed.
An Iranian Christian convert residing in Germany is in danger of deportation after the European Court of Human Rights dismissed his asylum-seeking case. In 2018, Hassan - whose name has been changed to protect his identity and is filed as "H.H" in public records - fled religious persecution in his home country.
Exodus offers the perfect antidote to cultural forces who want Christians to confine their faith to their own bedrooms, or at least to the walls of their churches. There is no one like our God, who does wondrous works (Exodus 15:11). All the earth is his, particularly his people (19:5). He has saved us for the purpose of serving him, and he will redeem us out of slavery to sin. How could servants of this great God not devote all their lives to serving him?
The estimated 30 agents who searched the president's 58-bedroom Palm Beach mansion on Monday carted off 21 boxes of material, as well as multiple binders of photographs, a "leatherbound box of documents," a "potential presidential record," and a "handwritten note." Federal officers took four sets of documents they say were marked "top secret/sensitive compartmented information," three sets of papers marked "secret," and three marked "confidential."
Evangelical leaders say Christians should not respond to legitimate concerns that the Biden administration is weaponizing law enforcement agencies against its critics with sinful fear or threats of violence, which will only strengthen federal efforts to repress believers' civil liberties. Instead, one of the nation's foremost Christian leaders has revealed the exact words he prays when he thinks about the future of American freedom.
While a sweltering August heat wave sweeps through the states, summer temperatures aren't the only numbers on the rise. Inflation keeps breaking records, hitting 9.1% in July; gas prices in June were higher than ever before; and in the current economy, the Misery Index (economic measurement of inflation and unemployment) is skyrocketing. While the White House has remained ambiguous on the definition of a recession, many economic experts confirm that the state of America's economic symptoms fit the conventionally accepted definition.
You may have forgotten the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) even had COVID guidelines. Already whittled down from severely draconian origins to something that more reflected Florida's early policies, the CDC's official guidelines have finally been updated to better reflect public opinion. That's not quite how they put it, of course. "CDC is streamlining its COVID-19 guidance to help people better understand their risk, how to protect themselves and others," began their Thursday press release.
With Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) promising a vote on legislation that will codify same-sex marriage, it is worth reviewing the serious threats to religious freedom that have already arisen as this idea (and its underlying ideology) has been legitimized in recent years. Looming among these is the threat to the tax-exempt status of religious organizations that believe marriage is between one man and one woman.
As American culture drifts from its foundational biblical principles, so too will our society cast aside marriage as an essential societal institution and good. The only solution to reverse this decline in marriage is to recover the transcendent nature and purpose of marriage as revealed in Scripture.
In recent years, and especially since the Supreme Court's repudiation of Roe v. Wade earlier this summer, advocates of abortion have promoted the story that the reason evangelicals are almost uniformly pro-life is rooted in something sinister.
More than 24 hours after an unprecedented FBI raid on his Palm Beach residence, former President Donald Trump remained "flabbergasted" by their actions, a congressman who met with him has revealed.
Tens of thousands of new IRS agents will target middle-class, conservative Christians for new rounds of audits if a bill favored by President Joe Biden passes Congress on Friday, an expert has warned. The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives looks poised to pass the "Inflation Reduction Act of 2022" on Friday. The legislation - which cleared the Senate on Sunday by a party-line, 51-50 vote - would hire 87,000 new IRS agents in an effort to raise $124 billion in new revenue through enhanced "enforcement" actions, such as audits.
The list of ways America's position in the world could be made more precarious keeps getting shorter; everything on the list keeps happening, one-by-one. This week, the disastrous incident is: America has lost eyes on Russia's nuclear arsenal. Russia announced on Monday it was halting U.S. inspection of its nuclear facilities in retaliation for U.S. sanctions imposed for their invasion of Ukraine.
With the nation's first post-Roe school year rapidly approaching, the pro-abortion lobby's crosshairs are once again aimed at one of their favorite targets: female college students. On August 8, Vice President Kamala Harris gathered the president of the American Council on Education and the presidents of eight colleges to discuss her concerns about how the Dobbs decision and the overturn of Roe v. Wade would impact college students. The participants of this meeting offer a vignette of the stunning ignorance that lies behind the Biden administration's perspective on abortion; of the 10 participants, two were self-identifying lesbians and five were men.
The Fargo, North Dakota School Board voted 7-2 at a Tuesday meeting to not recite the Pledge of Allegiance at upcoming school board meetings. School Board Vice President Seth Holden argued at the meeting that reciting the Pledge was a "non-inclusionary act," excluding atheists, agnostics, and adherents of many religions because of the words "under God."
It seems even 10 years after the FRC shooting on August 15, the Southern Poverty Law Center's dangerous lies about mainstream Christian organizations, like FRC and ADF, still persist.
Most people would agree that transparency in government is a good thing, so it was perplexing to see U.S. senators and representatives vote against amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would have provided for more transparency at schools for children of U.S. military members.
When someone dies, family members are the ones left to live with the burden of grief and missing their loved one - not the government. So why should a court have the authority to determine when life support ends?
The Supreme Court ruled on June 21 that state education budgets can't discriminate against Christian schools - but the most significant aspect of the case came more than six months earlier. In a revealing exchange during the oral arguments of Carson v. Makin last December 8, an attorney for the state of Maine essentially confessed that the government wants to discriminate based on religion, because politicians have "values they want to instill" in public schoolchildren. Multiple Supreme Court justices then explained precisely how they wish to discriminate against traditional Christian and religious believers.
If Republicans thought marriage was a throwaway issue in 2022, they're learning pretty quickly that voters don't think so. Despite a political climate dominated by the economy, primary season is shedding some interesting light on a subject that pundits wrongly assumed Americans have "moved on" from. While marriage isn't at the top of most voters' concerns in a country where a single chicken breast now costs $4.56, the debate has proven to be surprisingly potent in swing states the GOP can't afford to lose.
On Tuesday, Pew Research Center released a new survey showing that both Republicans and Democrats increasingly view members of the opposite party in a negative light. For Christians, this once again raises an important question as our society steadily becomes more polarized and judgmental: How are we called to love our neighbors who have opposing political views?
"I just want to say a number: zero," said President Joe Biden Wednesday. "Today, we received news that our economy had 0% inflation in the month of July - 0%." He added, "While the price of some things went up last month, the price of other things went down by the same amount. The result? Zero inflation last month."
A "Student Identification Card" sounds relatively innocuous, like something that could come in handy for a field trip, emergency drill, or cafeteria hour. Such a card seems unlikely to serve a purpose in promoting LGBT indoctrination and deceiving parents. And yet, that's exactly what it is now being used for.
The institution charged with training the next generation of American military leaders teaches that "racism" marks every aspect of U.S. society, "slavery" is alive and well in the United States, capitalism oppresses the poor, and it indoctrinates soldiers in feminism and "queer theory," a Freedom of Information Act request has found.
A recent Barna Research report reveals that there is an uptick in millennials seeking out church post-pandemic. While just a few years ago this generation received the brunt of jokes and stereotypes embodying youthful naivete and a disdain for responsibility, Generation Y is now turning ages 25 through 40. While some argue that with age comes maturity, this new study breaks down the effects of the pandemic as it pertains to millennials engaging in local worship. And the reason might come as a surprise.
The Justice Department must turn over all documentation used to justify a raid on President Donald Trump's Florida home or stand presumed guilty of a vicious double standard that victimized conservatives, multiple experts - including a U.S. congressman - told The Washington Stand. Already, Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has called for Attorney General Merrick Garland to be impeached over his role in the historic rifling through a former president's belongings. "Biden has taken our republic into dangerous waters," Hawley wrote. "At a minimum, Garland must resign or be impeached."
Joe Biden may believe in a woman's right to choose, but what about a doctor's? Or a nurse's? Or a pharmacist's? While the Left rants, vandalizes, and bullhorns about the sanctity of personal decisions, their version of individual freedom has limits. It doesn't apply, for instance, to people who don't share their radical worldview. In that case, there's only one choice - surrender. But fortunately for America, there are still Christians like George Badeaux who refuse to.
Pennsylvania lawmakers on Monday called on the state's acting education secretary, Eric Hagarty, to scrub "Gender Theory Student Indoctrination" from state education websites immediately - or resign. Twenty-one Republicans in the Pennsylvania House supported this "Reform or Resign Ultimatum."
Crime is surging in American cities. An AP story on Monday reported that in municipalities like Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Portland, violent crime is steeply rising at the same time that the number of law enforcement officers is dwindling. Meanwhile, the Biden administration's top law enforcement officials are occupied with other matters.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents initiated a raid Monday on former President Trump's residence at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, reportedly seeking classified documents taken by President Trump when he vacated the White House. But before we jump to conclusions, Christians should remember to wait for the facts to come out.
In a coming-of-age tale as old as time, schoolyard bullies are quick to steal lunch money. Only this time, the Biden administration threatened to withhold federal lunch funding from a small Christian school for adhering to their biblical values. Unfortunately for the government, Grant Park wasn't going down without a fight.
State universities indoctrinate future teachers in controversial transgender, racial, and political theories - and instruct them to teach these principles to children beginning in preschool, a new report has found. "There's a huge amount of liberal indoctrination going on," the report's author, Will Flanders, told "Washington Watch" guest host Joseph Backholm on Monday. "We found it across every public university in the state that has an education program."
President Joe Biden's plan to have taxpayers fund the travel of women in pro-life states seeking an abortion in another state may be terminated before it reaches viability. Republican lawmakers, including a member of House leadership, have introduced a bill to protect Americans from being compelled to underwrite the transportation costs of poor women to receive an abortion in a less protective state.
At 12 miles southwest of Grand Rapids, it would lie at about 7 o'clock if a clock face were interposed on the famous "palm" map. It's about a mile, as the crow flies, from Sunrise Acres Egg Farm. It's a mile-and-a-half from the nearest Meijer grocery. Jamestown Township, population 9,630, is deep in Michigan's Dutch Reformed farm country. The Township's local library, named Patmos, is deep in something else: trouble.
The mood was "super cheerful - giggly," a woman who worked inside the clinic explained. They came in with other girls, laughing like they were at the mall. Only they weren't at the mall. They were shopping for another gender.
In retaliation for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) recent visit to Taiwan, China has announced it is cancelling "dialogue with the U.S. between regional commanders and on defense policy coordination, military maritime safety, returning illegal immigrants, criminal matters, transnational crime, (and) illegal drugs." Additionally, China moved to "halt bilateral talks on climate change with the United States."
In a clear sign of the vitality of the pro-life movement in the post-Roe era, Indiana became the first state since the Dobbs Supreme Court ruling overturned Roe v. Wade to pass a wide-ranging pro-life bill that protects most unborn children from abortion, with some exceptions included for cases of rape and incest and to save the life of the mother.
After Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) finally indicated last week how small a version of the Build Back Better bill he would support, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) hurried to cash that check before the deal fell apart, scheduling a vote-a-rama on Saturday and a final vote on Sunday.
In the aftermath of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which once again allowed state legislatures and Congress to pass laws protecting life, several states have had laws go into effect protecting life at conception. As more and more states move to protect life in the womb in its earliest stages, it is important to see what kind of impact laws outlawing abortion will have on reducing abortions.
Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do the wicked prosper? Why is there so much frustration, pain, and seemingly pointless suffering in this world? These are tough questions, and they are made even more challenging to answer because they are usually asked out of acute emotional anguish, provoked by difficult circumstances. Underneath these questions, you will often find a soul wrestling with doubt, asking questions like, "Is God good? Is he in control? Can I trust him?"
If fidelity to Scripture means a loss of members or even ecclesiastical collapse, then "let God be true and every man a liar" (Romans 3:4). Is the survival of a denominational organization more important than obeying our Redeemer? The Archbishop of Canterbury should know better than what this week's conference implies.
New CDC data confirm that monkeypox overwhelmingly occurs in men who identify as gay or bisexual and who engage in risky sexual behavior- yet LGBT activists have said it is "not moral" to ask men to refrain from sex until the government can get the virus corralled.
This summer, students aren't the only ones dreading going back to the classroom. According to staggering enrollment data, parents appear to have had a case of back-to-school blues over public education since COVID-19's onset in early 2020. In the past two years, a mass exodus of over 1.2 million students has left the public school system as parents seek alternative education routes, such as public charter schools, private schools, and homeschooling.
Is religious practice in America dying? If taken at face value, the conclusion of recent studies is clear: the U.S. is becoming increasingly secular. However, other studies continue to show that religious practice leads to increased happiness, less depression, and more involvement in community life, with a religious upbringing leading to positive outcomes in adulthood. In the end, experts say, what remains evident is that despite numerous challenges and a changing landscape, Christianity in America isn't going anywhere.
It took five years of litigation and a 9-0 U.S. Supreme Court ruling against the city in May for the Christian flag to finally be allowed to go up on the public forum flagpole of the Boston City Hall Plaza. Harry Mihet of the legal group Liberty Counsel, which engaged in the court battle against the city, said Wednesday was "a great day for the city of Boston, for the Christian community in the city of Boston, for freedom itself, and for the Constitution."
If the Republican Party wants to assemble the voter base it needs to win national elections, it must maintain pro-life and pro-family stances on the issues, an evangelical leader told a GOP planning and strategy meeting this week. At the same time, he pointed to a decades-long victory on abortion while counseling conservative Christians not to give up, even if it appears they are losing the battle over LGBT issues with some wings of the GOP.
The calls started coming in from across southern Louisiana on Monday. Offices in Shreveport, New Orleans, and Baton Rouge were all-hands on deck, divvying up patient lists to try to reach everyone in time. One by one, they called dozens of women, explaining that their abortion procedures couldn't go forward as planned. "The court reinstated the law," they explained for the third time since Roe v. Wade was struck down. As many as 120 women across the state were scheduled to end their pregnancies this week - all lives that were saved, at least for now, by order of the First Circuit Court.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) made a splash with her recent visit to Taiwan - or, at least, she provoked a few. Shortly after she landed, the Chinese military on Tuesday announced live-fire "training drills" in six zones, virtually surrounding Taiwan with at least 10 ships and 100 planes.
If you did a case study of our political and cultural polarization and how radically different the Democratic and Republican parties are, look no further than each party's poster boy - California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R).
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) announced on Thursday morning that he was suspending State Attorney Andrew Warren "effective immediately." Warren is among the woke cadre of district attorneys who rode to victory on waves of funding from George Soros. With progressive groups like Fair and Just Prosecution, he has pledged to prioritize progressive priorities over enforcing the law, such as a pledge, issued on the date of the Dobbs decision, to enforce no pro-life laws.
As talk of codifying same-sex marriage into law intensifies with the "Respect for Marriage Act" in the Senate, Katy Faust, founder and director of Them Before Us, believes this would be a detrimental move against children's rights. This past Tuesday, on Family Research Council's broadcast, Pray Vote Stand, she shared why she is personally invested in the impact that marriage has on children.
The dangerous and unregulated use of abortion pills is accelerating quickly in America. But what if there was a way to reverse the effects of chemical abortion for women who change their minds?
Although a number of peculiar circumstances led to a pro-life voter referendum failing in Kansas on Tuesday, pro-life advocates should remain engaged in the political fight, confident of their ultimate victory, a scholar said the day after the vote.
President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Wednesday that could force taxpayers to pay the costs of women who travel to another state to have an abortion. The decree "paves the way for Medicaid to pay for abortions for women having to travel out of state," said White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre at Wednesday's press briefing.
Primary elections serve a significant role in our constitutional republic. Representing the views and priorities of 330 million Americans can sometimes be a tall order for the two major political parties. In the party primaries, though, candidates have an opportunity to distinguish themselves by appealing to certain constituencies - and hopefully, if they win - to a broader electorate on Election Day.
A pro-life member of Congress, Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.), died in a car crash on Wednesday in northeastern Indiana. Two staffers in her vehicle - Emma Thomson, 28, and Zachery Potts, 27 - also perished in the accident in Elkhart County after a driver reportedly went left of center and crashed into Walorski's SUV on State Route 19 at 12:32 p.m. The driver of the other vehicle, 56-year-old Edith Schmucker, also lost her life.
A group of concerned parents have sued the Linn-Mar Community School District for a policy which "authorizes children to make fundamentally important decisions concerning their gender identity without any parental involvement and to then hide these decisions from their parents," according to the lawsuit.
Just as the surge of terrorism and hate crimes against pregnancy resource centers (PRC) and churches appeared to be slowing down in recent weeks, two more churches were targeted in Lawrence, Kans. over the weekend. With this ongoing violence and with the rhetoric surrounding PRCs continuing to heat up on Capitol Hill, pregnancy center staff are increasingly finding themselves having to divert valuable resources away from helping vulnerable women in need in order to bolster security measures for their buildings.
In an attempt at playing four-dimensional chess, the Biden administration has determined to sacrifice the Department of Justice (DOJ) in pursuit of a political advantage. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Tuesday the DOJ was suing the state of Idaho over its pro-life trigger law that bans abortion, which has now taken effect.
The senior member of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee said Tuesday that the newest report from the bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) "makes it absolutely clear" that there has been no improvement in the human rights situation in North Korea and that the Biden administration "must take immediate action."
The decision of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to visit Taiwan will almost certain bring "Chinese action against the American homeland," an expert on China policy forecasted. The Chinese communist government will launch "further attacks on Taiwan," even though they would be "stiffening the resolve of Taiwan's people," China expert Gordon Chang told "Washington Watch with Tony Perkins" on Monday.
A bill that would legally quash pro-life pregnancy resource centers resembles authoritarian governments' efforts to dismiss opposing viewpoints as "disinformation," a U.S. senator said on Tuesday.
The pro-life cause just experienced its first setback at the ballot box since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Voters in Kansas defeated the "Value Them Both" amendment (or Amendment 2), which would have clarified that the state constitution does not contain an unalienable "right" to abortion. With 63% of the statewide vote total in, Kansans rejected the amendment nearly two-to-one.
George Soros insisted, based upon an unnamed study, that woke prosecutors have nothing to do with the rise in violent crime. He even went so far as to assert, "Violent crime in recent years has generally been increasing more quickly in jurisdictions without reform-minded prosecutors." It's unclear what evidence he is looking at.
Tuesday, people in Kansas hit the polls and voting on the "Value Them Both Amendment," a ballot initiative seeking to change the state's constitution to make it possible to pass pro-life laws. With this first post-Roe attempt to change state abortion law, several instances of hate crimes against pro-life individuals and organizations have been reported in the Greater Kansas City area.
As far as campaign slogans go, "We Hate Babies" isn't a particularly good one. And yet, with each passing day, that seems to be the message the Democratic Party is desperate to convey. Like Barack Obama, who insisted he didn't want his daughters "punished with a baby," the Left's post-Dobbs strategy seems to be painting motherhood as the worst form of oppression and pregnancy as a torture encouraged only by pro-life zealots. It's a far cry from society's mainstream, but then, what about the president's party isn't?
"Smoke and mirrors," Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) called it on Monday's edition of Washington Watch. "Completely Orwellian." That's the verdict on the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which a damning analysis from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School Budget Model (PWBM) has concluded does not improve America's economic picture. "The impact on inflation is statistically indistinguishable from zero." Worse, if the act had any effect, it "would very slightly increase inflation until 2024."
Democrats in Congress are moving to reinforce the Supreme Court's grave error in the Obergefell ruling with legislation. Not only does the atrociously named "Respect for Marriage Act" discount the faith of millions of Americans, it also erodes their religious liberty by elevating the "right" to same-sex marriage above the constitutionally-guaranteed right for people to live according to their faith.
In the brief period of human history that the U.S. has recognized gay "marriage," proponents have asked the same question: "How does my gay marriage affect you?" In reality, redefining the central institution in human society causes real harms - the very harms predicted by the defenders of marriage.
One of America's most-hated terrorist enemies has been killed - but it is no time for America to become complacent about the terrorist and geostrategic threats facing our "woke" and politicized military, a top general said on Monday.
The head of the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) said Sunday that he and his staff are looking into ways to "make sure" that women veterans and their dependents are able to get abortions if their state has laws that prevent them from doing so.
Less than 40 days out from the Dobbs decision of June 24, abortion clinics have taken a hit in post-Roe America. The overturning of Roe v. Wade ushered in a new era for the pro-life and pro-abortion movement alike, moving the battle over life from the federal level to the states. According to a recent Guttmacher Institute report, 11 red states have taken swift action to protect unborn life. This has resulted in a mass halt in abortions.
On this past Thursday, Republican and Democratic lawmakers convened not in the Capitol, but at Nationals Park, the home of the Washington Nationals team. The teams sold thousands of tickets - mostly to Hill staffers and other politico-types - with proceeds going to charity. But this year, not everyone was there for fun at the friendly faceoff.
On Jaelene Daniels's Twitter page, there's a single pinned tweet. It says, "If you live for people's acceptance, you'll die from their rejection." "Unashamed," she added below. The post is from 2016, a year before the soccer star made coast-to-coast headlines for refusing to wear an LGBT pride jersey. It was a decision that cost Jaelene a spot on the U.S. Women's National team - ending a longtime dream. "I just felt so convicted in my spirit that it wasn't my job to wear this jersey," she said. Five years later, that conviction hasn't changed.
Is Google censoring search results from pro-life pregnancy resources centers (PRCs)? Sixteen state attorneys general are determined to find out. "We hope that Google isn't doing it," Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall (R) told Tony Perkins Friday on "Washington Watch." "But what we did see, for example, the attorney general from New York calling upon Google to limit or censor the searches ... looking for pregnancy centers." More than 20 Democratic lawmakers have also urged Google to censor pregnancy resource centers.
Starting in May, hundreds of Seattle Pacific University students and their allies in the Seattle LGBTQ community conducted a "sit in" at the school demanding that SPU's board of trustees change the institution's "homophobic" policies. Now, Washington's Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D) has "announced a civil rights investigation into Seattle Pacific University for refusing to hire LGBTQ+ faculty and staff." So what is SPU's response? Unlike other Christian colleges, it's fighting back.
With three months until November, there is a lot of momentum behind the education issue heading into the midterm elections. As parents across the country have become increasingly frustrated with the public school system, they have proven that they're ready to take their passion to the polls.
People can't live without tribes. The same is true for followers of Christ. There are denominational tribes, of course, but there are much more than that. There are intra-denominational enclaves, cross-denominational enclaves, and Christian enclaves which have nothing whatsoever to do with denomination. Many of these tribal affiliations are good, but there is another kind of tribalism afoot that flourishes particularly in our internet age, and understanding it is key.
Last week, Reuters uncovered a private letter from Chinese officials that requested the United Nations human rights chief hide a report on human rights violations in Xinjiang. The report has been in the development process for years at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. It's believed to provide damning evidence of Chinese atrocities against the Uyghur population.
"Every human life is of infinite value - and we, as lawmakers, have a duty to protect the weakest and most vulnerable from harm." These words certainly ring true when considering human trafficking - the modern slavery crisis that victimizes nearly 25 million people around the globe. Over 400 representatives from both sides of the aisle saw the necessity for legislation that defended the human person from the many atrocities inflicted by human trafficking, including kidnapping, forced labor, and sexual assault.
Today marks World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, intended to raise awareness about human trafficking and to promote solutions to protect the victims. While the movement against human trafficking has grown over the past few decades, there is still much to be done to combat this evil, especially in areas of the world we hear little about. For North Korean women like Jihyun Park, the day is a poignant reminder of past struggles.
In the upcoming school year, Maryland's Montgomery Country Public Schools will prohibit school staff from disclosing students' transgender identity to their parents. The 2021-2022 Guidelines for Student Gender Identity booklet outlines a plan where "LGBTQ students can express their gender identity free from discrimination, bullying, or harassment."
It's the "House of Horrors" of gender ideology. The Tavistock clinic in London, England is the only facility in the United Kingdom performing so-called gender transitions, and it has inflicted them on over 9,000 youth since the 1990s. In 2020, leaked transcripts showed staff concerns about the welfare of children who came through the clinic were suppressed - concerns like, "If I am not wrong, very many vulnerable children have been very poorly treated and will be left with, potentially, a lifetime of damage here."
The state of Florida has instructed public schools to ignore a Biden administration executive action that would force schools to open girls' showers, locker rooms, restrooms, and dormitories to members of the opposite sex, and to let males compete in women's sports. As the state's officials noted, since the federal government admits guidances do not - and cannot - carry legal weight, the latest transgender document "should not be treated as governing law."
On Friday afternoon, the West Virginia Senate will hear the third and final reading of H.R. 302, a bill to clarify and amend West Virginia's abortion laws. Despite loud and disrespectful protests in the state house (abortion activists were well organized), West Virginia's House of Delegates on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed the bill 69-23. Republicans hold the majority in the House of Delegates 78-22, and they hold the majority in the Senate 23-11.
It's rare that GOP leaders are heard cheering on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif). This is the unusual situation caused by the White House's inconsistent messaging regarding Pelosi's upcoming trip to Taiwan - a trip that China's authoritarian leaders really don't want her to make.
On Thursday, Family Research Council hosted a Watchmen on the Wall briefing for ministry leaders in Maysville, Georgia. The meeting offered pastors updates on the most pressing issues facing followers of Jesus in America. Andrew Brunson, Bishop Garland Hunt, Bishop Patrick Wooden Sr., and other speakers offered insight and encouragement on how to respond to today's culture for a biblical worldview and engage in practical ways.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - FRC Action, the legislative affiliate of Family Research Council, announced today it will support challengers to Members of Congress who voted in favor on the so-called Respect for Marriage Act.
The Biden administration has abandoned the vast majority of Americans to cater to tiny minorities, special interests, and foreign powers. Transgender activists, the abortion industry, and Chinese Communists enjoy Biden's unmerited favor; middle-class families, taxpayers, and church-goers hear Lunch Bucket Joe say, "Depart, I never knew you."
"Is this really happening?" That's what the University of Kentucky's Riley Gaines thought to herself, looking around the room. No one told her - or any of the other swimmers - that they'd be sharing their NCAA locker room with a fully-grown man. "So not only were we forced to race against a male," she told Tucker Carlson about Lia Thomas, "we were forced to change [in front of] one." And if President Biden gets his way, every girl in America - from kindergarten to college - will be in the same boat.
This past week, the House of Representatives passed legislation allegedly to protect access to "contraception," with just eight Republican congressmen voting yes. What Democrats in Congress are pushing, though, isn't access to "contraception."
A widely accepted "rule of thumb" is that, when the economy experiences two consecutive quarters of economic contraction (declining GDP), it has entered a recession. However, the Biden administration has made much of the fact that the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), which is responsible for officially determining the dates of a recession, employs a definition that doesn't mention two quarters of negative growth.
The decision to overturn Roe in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization is one that will have an international impact, especially as many pro-lifers in other countries look to the robust pro-life movement in the U.S. for inspiration. In China - one of the other five countries with the world's most radical abortions laws - pro-lifers maintain a tiny presence. But Chinese pro-lifers face more challenges than most as they try to navigate tight government restrictions and a culture shaped by the legacy of China's notoriously brutal "One Child Policy."
Earlier this week, the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) served a complaint to a bar that offers drag shows for children. The R House Bar in Miami was recently featured in viral videos in which a topless drag queen can be seen entertaining a young girl.
A devout Catholic college football coach made headlines last week for publicly taking a firm pro-life stance. Coach Jim Harbaugh of the University of Michigan Wolverines spoke at a pro-life fundraiser, along with his wife, Sarah. The Detroit Catholic covered the couple's individual testimonies of faith and commitment to their pro-life values.
A Republican senator has said he will "absolutely oppose" a bill redefining marriage nationwide, warning that liberal activists plan to "use it as a weapon" to drive Christians out of the public square. During Wednesday's episode of "Washington Watch with Tony Perkins," Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.) announced for the first time that he will vote against H.R. 8404, marketed as the "Respect for Marriage" Act, if it comes to the Senate floor.
Puberty blockers earned a warning label from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) earlier this month after six minors (ages 5-12) experienced severe symptoms. The puberty blockers in question are known scientifically as "gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) substances" The minors, who were all biologically female, suffered from symptoms of "pseudotumor cerebri" (tumor-like masses in the brain), including visual disturbances (seeing bright lights that aren't there), headache or vomiting, papilledema (swelling of the optic nerve), increased blood pressure, and abducens neuropathy (eye paralysis).
A U.S. congresswoman said on Tuesday that a Biden executive order could potentially use taxpayer dollars to fund the use of ballot harvesting, which could include the use of unsupervised ballot drop boxes, in U.S. elections - leaving election integrity experts highly concerned about how this could lead to potential voter fraud.
In the AP's new style guide, reporters are being urged to write based on someone's emotions rather than on reality - further blurring the lines of objective truth.
If top U.S. officials were trying to lose a cold war to China, they could hardly do a better job. A report from Saturday details how China's infiltration of U.S. infrastructure could potentially give them influence over our nuclear capabilities. Another report from this week detailed how China infiltrated the Federal Reserve, cultivating assets and stealing information. "This is the most dangerous moment in history after the Second World War," warned Gordon Chang on Monday's edition of "Washington Watch."
This week, The Heritage Foundation released a list of frequently asked questions about the Democrats' radical same-sex marriage bill, H.R. 8404. Roger Severino, the former director of the HHS's Civil Rights Division, sets the record straight on what the sweeping law would actually do.
General Mark Milley misled Congress, under oath, about the way firing hundreds of thousands of soldiers who refuse to comply with the Biden administration's vaccination mandate will harm America's national security, a Republican congressman revealed Tuesday.
Every state has certain distinctives. One of Kansas's happens to be owning the geographical center of the contiguous United States. For the lower 48, a little chapel near the Nebraska border is smack dab in the middle of the country. And starting next week, the state can brag about being in the center of something else: the nationwide abortion debate.
Is there any word the Left won't redefine? God once judged the world by confusing their language; now men are judging themselves by confusing their own language. Sharing a common language and understanding of what words mean is one of the most fundamental attributes that holds society together. The Left seems to believe that society isn't worth holding together, if it won't conform to their utopian schemes.
By attempting to change rules through executive action that would lead to widespread violations of privacy rights, conscience rights, religious freedom, fair sports play, and a plethora of other rights, Biden is attempting to remake America into California's image, without the permission of the American people.
Senate Republicans are feeling the pressure to defend marriage and the natural family, as two large grassroots coalitions warn them that a controversial bill will fuel frivolous litigation and subject the most fundamental unit of society to an infinite variety of experimentation and tampering.
No one likes to be told they are on the "wrong side of history," and no one likes being called "hateful." Furthermore, the desire to affirm the dignity of our friends who identify as LGBT is rooted in the biblically consistent conviction that everyone has inherent value and ought to be treated with decency and respect. To affirm the dignity of our LGBT friends and avoid being vilified, should Republicans move on from social issues perceived as divisive, such as the definition of marriage?
According to Lifeway Research, "With a 1.17% growth rate, almost 2.56 billion people will identify as a Christian by the middle of 2022. By 2050, that number is expected to top 3.33 billion." Of course, identifying with a denomination or faith tradition is different from experiencing what Jesus called the new birth (John 3). However, there is no question that millions of men, women, and children are coming to saving faith in Christ.
Never underestimate the Republican Party's ability to self-destruct. That's the one thing years of cultural battles have taught everyone. Heading into November with the elections on a silver platter, the men and women who rebranded themselves as the "anti-woke" have suddenly gone soft on an issue that should be a political no-brainer: marriage. After seven years of letting the court take the heat for redefining history's oldest institution, a surprising number of Republicans are making a fatal mistake - believing they can win back Congress by sounding just as radical as the party set to lose it.
As the Biden administration considers declaring monkeypox a public health emergency, an epidemiologist says the easiest way to combat its spread is to discourage the practices of "aggressively hypersexualized gay men."
Myanmar's military recently executed four pro-democracy activists in what is believed to be the first use of capital punishment in the southeast Asian country (also known as Burma) in more than three decades. In closed-door trials earlier this year, the activists were sentenced to death for carrying out "brutal and inhumane terror acts" by helping militias fight the army that overthrew the democratically-elected government in February 2021.
Persuading (or rather, mollifying) parents remains a major issue for Democrats. Fully half of likely voters believed education is too politicized, according to a May poll commissioned by the American Federation of Teachers in seven battleground states. They were also dissatisfied with "the amount of say that parents have in what their children are taught" (50%), "the way schools have handled the COVID-19 pandemic" (42%), "the way students are taught about racial issues" (60%), and "the way students are taught about issues related to sexual preference and gender identity" (58%).
Unfortunately, a lot of people who should know better seem to be struggling with how to respond to Congress's marriage debate. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) criticized the Obergefell decision in 2015 but told reporters that she was "keeping a very open mind" about the issue because she has a "good number of very close friends that are same-sex married." The implication is that it would be unloving not to support same-sex marriage - and there are plenty of people who would agree with her.
The Dobbs Supreme Court decision has sparked a renewed focus on adoption in America. A recent Washington Post story reported on the small number of women with unplanned pregnancies who choose adoption and asserted that this is "unlikely to change" despite new pro-life laws. Meanwhile, a new survey of women of childbearing age is providing insight into what factors influence the decision.
Religious freedom is core to who we are as humans. We naturally seek to answer life's biggest questions - about who we are, where life itself comes from, what our purpose is, and where we are going. These answers are found in our Christian faith. This makes the freedom to choose and live out our faith essential to living a fully human life.
In a House Oversight Committee hearing on July 13, self-proclaimed "abortion storyteller" Sarah Lopez insisted, "My abortion is the best decision I ever made. It was an act of self-love [...]." The day before, in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, abortionist Dr. Colleen P. McNicholas said simply, "Abortion is an act of love." The abortion lobby is correct about one thing - abortion is a matter of love, but not true love; instead, it is a complete perversion of love. What is the object of the warped love that motivates abortion?
With the overturning of Roe v. Wade, state legislatures are grappling to implement initiatives to improve maternal health care both during and after pregnancy. Extending Medicaid health care coverage for pregnant women up to 12 months after they give birth or miscarry is one of the measures states are taking to ensure women have access to quality maternal care.
Earlier this week, the Miami-Dade School Board voted against adopting two new sex education textbooks for the 2022-23 school year. With a narrow vote of 5-4, the decision followed emotionally charged debate between more than 40 parents and board members.
The Biden administration's international religious policies, which include funding atheists abroad, is "anti-God" and "anti-Christian," said a Republican member of Congress.
State officials in Louisiana have withheld tens of millions of dollars from a Democratic city where elected officials, including its Soros-linked prosecutor, defiantly refused to enforce the state's pro-life laws. The funds would have helped build a critical update to the city's water and sewage infrastructure. Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry (R) told The Washington Stand he proposed delaying state funding for city projects until liberal officials stopped threatening to turn New Orleans into a "sanctuary city" for abortion.
At the moment, only 4% of women with unwanted pregnancies place their children for adoption. But with the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade, social workers at pregnancy resource centers expect this number to increase due to a potential post-Roe unplanned baby boom. With this possible rise in domestic infant adoptions, a pertinent question has emerged: Is America prepared for a plethora of adoptable babies?
A good Samaritan stopped a mall shooting last Sunday 15 seconds after it began, said Greenwood, Indiana police on Tuesday. At a Monday press conference, Greenwood Police Chief James Ison had said the good guy with a gun engaged within two minutes, but on Tuesday clarified that was due to misreading his notes. The abbreviated timeline only makes the courageous action of Eli Dicken that much more heroic. But the Left doesn't understand the significance of Dicken's manly behavior. In fact, the Left doesn't understand the solemn, masculine duty to protect - in any area of society.
Under the guise of protecting access to contraception, Democratic leaders in Congress have introduced "a Trojan Horse" that protects abortion on demand while denying Christians the religious freedom to opt out of chemical abortions. "Believe me, they are coming for your rights - especially Christians. Especially," warned Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) on Friday.
The House Freedom Caucus declared their opposition to H.R. 8404, the Respect for Marriage Act, in a press release on Friday. They characterized the bill as "fearmongering over the Supreme Court decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization," which Democrats resorted to "in a desperate effort to distract from their creation of galloping inflation, a record-breaking border crisis, and skyrocketing gas prices."
Amid a "red wave" midterm election cycle, and after the most successful Supreme Court term in living memory, including the long-sought-after overturning of Roe v. Wade, many Republicans seemingly feel a sudden urge to apologize for the victories by abandoning every conservative principle and give Democrats everything they want.
Despite the attempted assassination of a sitting U.S. congressman, the attacker, David Jakubonis, was released the next day by the Monroe County sheriff's department despite being charged with a felony. The release fits a pattern of Democrat lawmakers loosening criminal laws, despite lawlessness continuing to climb.
When the Supreme Court delivered its blow to marriage in 2015, burning down three dozen state laws and tearing up 50 million ballots, the GOP's reaction was straightforward. Outrage. With a handful of exceptions, the response that echoed across the two coasts was a collective "How dare they?" As far as Republicans were concerned, what the five justices did on that June day was a betrayal of the people, our system of government, and the pillar that's upheld society since the beginning of time. "It's an injustice," they railed. Now, seven years later, they finally have a chance to prove it. The question is: will they?
According to the State Department, funding Queer Lisboa and similar initiatives in other countries is part of President Joe Biden's push to "support LGBTQ+ and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Accessibility efforts" overseas.
As the U.S. Senate debates the "Respect for Marriage" Act, a social scientist said politicians must understand that preserving the time-honored definition of marriage is necessary to establish "social justice for children."
On Tuesday, 47 Republican congressmen voted in favor of the "Respect for Marriage Act," a bill that was rushed for a House floor vote with little notice from Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). The measure would force every state to recognize same-sex marriages in the unlikely event that Obergefell v. Hodges is overturned. At least one congressman is calling the actions of these GOP members a "political calculation."
Despite its name, the bill isn't about marriage or respect at all. It's about imposing the radical Left's sexual ideology as state orthodoxy. Now more than ever, we need courageous elected leaders who will stand up to woke ideology and protect the foundations of our free society.
Three U.S. Senators wrote July 14 to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), expressing concern over "Chinese food manufacturer Fufeng Group's recent purchase of roughly 370 acres of land near Grand Forks, North Dakota." Fufeng plans to build a wet corn mill on the site. However, because of national security implications that potentially go far beyond food production, Rubio, Cramer, and Hoeven urged the CFIUS to conduct a full review.
In our rejection of God's word, we've abandoned his instructions, thereby destabilizing the intended foundation of marriage for children. The results are devastating for kids. And the implications are repeatedly reflected in news headlines. There will always be challenges with kids, black, yellow, red, and white. However, as adults, we must follow God's plan and prayerfully proceed to what's next.
Mr. Biden would probably have been an excellent salesman, public relations executive, or even talk-show host. But a statesman, sadly, he is not. From issue to issue, on domestic and foreign policy, he has been inconsistent, erratic, and blown about by every wind of changing partisan preference and political pressure.
Watching his environmental legislation stymied by popular will and the democratic process, President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced he would implement some of his Green agenda through executive actions. But legal experts tell The Washington Stand that the president has overreached the limits of his constitutional authority - and that his policies will make Americans pay even more for energy.
It's the most radical "summer camp" ever. No, really. The Portland-area Budding Roses summer camp "cultivates free, safe, and empowering spaces for youth to learn, express themselves, and engage critically with the social justice issues that impact them." What that boilerplate gobbeldy-gook means is that they aim to teach 4th through 8th graders about white supremacy, police abolition, protest chants, and how to deal with tear gas.
What is particularly infuriating about transgender ideology is that it fails to grasp its own inherent contradictions.
Politicians who will not enforce state laws should not receive state funds, said Louisiana's top law enforcement official, a decision that could cost defiant cities tens of millions of dollars this week alone.
The House's fast-tracking of the "Respect for Marriage Act" is emblematic of the astonishing speed at which the moral revolution continues to move concerning same-sex marriage. But it is just as true today as it ever has been that natural marriage is the context for strong families, thriving communities, and stable civilizations.
The American people have lost faith in the Biden administration because they have a pattern of denying reality and gaslighting the public. They said inflation was "temporary." They said the border is secure. They said they don't think the Wuhan coronavirus came from the Wuhan coronavirus lab. They said the Taliban wouldn't take over Afghanistan in a weekend. They said men can get pregnant. This is all madness!
"Heroic Faith: Hope Amid Global Persecution" highlights gripping stories of Christians from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe who are bravely devoted to their faith. Co-written by Family Research Council's religious freedom experts, Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Jerry Boykin, Lela Gilbert, and Arielle Del Turco, the book takes a close look at the tragic circumstances Christians face due to dangerous and sometimes deadly opposition to their faith in Jesus Christ.
Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine appeared Monday on MSNBC to promote permanent mutilation as a solution for mentally disturbed minors. "We really want ... to affirm and to support and empower these youth not to limit their participation in activities in sports and even limit their ability to get gender affirmation treatment in their state," he said.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) rushed the "Respect for Marriage" Act to a vote this week, claiming that the Supreme Court might overturn the 2015 case that first invented a putative constitutional "right" to same-sex marriage. The bill - which would prevent states from recognizing a marriage as the union of one man and one woman - passed the lower house of Congress by a hefty 267-157 margin. While 157 Republicans voted no, 22% of House Republicans voted to redefine marriage and prevent states from recognizing the natural family in the event the Supreme Court reverses itself.
One year ago, President Joe Biden said the inflation that had marked every month of his presidency would soon be a thing of the past. Last July 19, Biden denied the economy would see "persistent inflation," because "our experts believe and the data shows that most of the price increases we've seen were expected and expected to be temporary." By December, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the administration should stop calling rising prices "transitory."
If you asked the talking heads, they'd say Americans are flocking to the Republican Party because of Joe Biden. It's a reasonable explanation, considering the dumpster fire he's made of our economy, energy, and inflation. But there's another reason that voters are turning to the GOP - and it has nothing to do with the price of gas in Wichita. It's because under Donald Trump they rediscovered something important: their moral courage. And this week's marriage debate, however contrived it is, is putting everything they've learned to the test.
Governor Greg Abbott of Texas (R) commissioned charter buses to provide free transportation for migrants who volunteered to travel from overwhelmed Texas border towns to Washington, D.C. To date, over 100 buses with capacity of up to 40 passengers each have arrived, bringing undocumented men, women, and children straight to the streets adjacent to the Capitol, where many politicians were advocating for open borders.
A panel of judges will soon rule on whether Georgia's heartbeat abortion law can take effect. In 2019, Governor Brian Kemp (R) signed a bill prohibiting abortion once a "detectable human heartbeat" is present (the bill included exceptions for rape and incest when a police report has been filed). The law was blocked before it could be enacted by a federal judge who found it unconstitutional based on the federal Roe v. Wade precedent. Since the Supreme Court ruled that abortion is not protected in the Constitution, Georgia's abortion law is up for review.
Minneapolis city councilmembers joined pro-abortion groups on Sunday at a rally to urge Mayor Jacob Frey to directly fund abortions in the next city budget. Councilmembers Aisha Chughtai and Robin Wonsley Worlobah joined 16 pro-abortion groups, as well as U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Minnesota House Majority Whip Kaohly Vang Her, and members of the state legislature's new "Reproductive Freedom" Caucus.
On June 28, four Sudanese Christian men were arrested for violating a previously annulled apostasy law - a law demanding a death sentence for leaving Islam. This latest report of Christian persecution has led to increasing concern about Sudan's future, thanks to a 2021 military coup that shattered widespread hopes for continuing freedom of worship.
Recently, I saw a bumper sticker that read, "The Constitution: Frustrating Liberals Since 1789." This is a humorous witticism, but it carries the ring of truth. Liberal outrage over the recent Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade has been generated not only by the end of their cherished national culture of abortion on demand, but also by an understanding of our country at odds with the vision of America's Founders.
As the raging national debate over abortion laws continues almost a month after the watershed Dobbs Supreme Court decision, a former Southwest Airlines flight attendant has won a lawsuit against her former employer for wrongful termination over her outspoken pro-life views.
With economic pressures squeezing middle-class families tighter than any time in a generation, congressional Democrats have decided to ram through a series of laws that would write left-wing positions on social issues into law, including a national bill establishing same-sex marriage.
The strangest part of the Left's obsession with "disinformation" is that, despite their rhetoric, they cannot conceive of countering disinformation as a search for objective truth. For them, it's only a cynical, political exercise. Twisting the facts for political ends is exactly what they accuse their opponents of doing.
The problem used to be that judges wanted to be legislators. Now, thanks to the Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs, legislators want to be judges. It's a shift that seems to be exploding under Joe Biden, who has about as much use for the separation of powers as a menu at Haagen Dazs. Desperate Democrats, who can't manage to get the courts, Congress, or voters on board with their radical agenda, have turned to the one thing that Barack Obama perfected: lawlessness.
While Russia's invasion of Ukraine has slowed to a deadly slog, Russia is rapidly reshaping the territories it controls into its own image. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called out Russia's "systematic 'filtration' operations and forced deportations" in a July 13 press statement.
The Founding Fathers envisioned three co-equal branches of government with distinct roles serving as a "check" against each other to ensure that one branch did not grow too powerful. Congress, reflecting the will of the American people, would pass legislation, the president would act on behalf of the nation by enacting those laws, and the Supreme Court would act as a backstop against tyranny and mob rule by interpreting the constitutionality of Congress and the White House's actions. Washington Democrats have all but abandoned this bedrock framework.
In 2019, then-candidate Joe Biden said, "In prison, the determination should be that your sexual identity should be defined by what you say it is, not what, in fact, the prison says it is." Biden and Democratic congressional leaders favor the so-called Equality Act, which would codify the notion that transgender criminals should be jailed in a facility that matches their gender identity. With that legislation stalled, the president is taking unilateral action to promote the transgender cause.
In a ruling that is a clear victory for advocates of keeping biological males out of girls' sports and locker rooms, a federal judge has blocked a Biden administration directive that reinterprets Title IX's prohibition of "discrimination on the basis of sex" to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) made it clear during meetings with the United States a while ago that "the Taiwan Strait is not an international waterway, and China has sovereignty and control over the Taiwan Strait." The U.S. disagreed and expressed its dissatisfaction, and Beijing said immediately that "China will not impede the normal navigation and air traffic rights of the relevant countries in the Taiwan Strait," which is nonsense.
Whether it's the beach, a theme park, or a scenic foreign city, vacations can be enjoyable and refreshing. New experiences can open our eyes to the wider world and build sweet memories with loved ones. Extra leisure allows us to reflect and recharge. But among the fun and excitement, vacations have a dangerous side. I'm not talking about jellyfish or sunburn; their danger is only skin deep. I'm talking about the spiritual danger vacations pose by tempting us to leave our Christianity at home.
America is under threat. This is not news in itself, but the kinds of threats we face are of a different sort than in previous years. The list of specific dangers is long and disturbing.
Missouri dad John Potter has made a name for himself by speaking out and rallying other parents to put checks and balances on the Columbia Public School (CPS) district, vying for transparency in their children's educational institutions. This week, the national power struggle between parents and school boards continues, as a high school prepares to receive funding for a new "gender closet."
On Thursday, Texas state officials filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration challenging its recent guidance that health providers can carry out abortions in emergency cases regardless of their state's laws. Under the guidance released earlier this week by the Department of Health and Human Services, health providers who carry out emergency abortions are protected under federal law. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) responded to this by suing the HHS to "ensure that the Left's abortion agenda can't reach Texas babies."
For the first time as president, Joe Biden visited Israel this week, arriving on Wednesday and staying into Friday. The Middle East trip featured both impressive innovation - such as cultural exportation of the American "fist bump"- and salutary preservation of key features of Middle East stability.
