Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) doesn't represent the people of Minneapolis. In fact, when she stands in front of a crowd and spews dangerous rhetoric, she doesn't even represent Los Angeles County. When she travels to Minnesota to tell the mob to "stay in the streets" and "get more confrontational," she only represents one thing: the fringe Left.
If you think destroying perfectly healthy babies in the womb is horrible, imagine letting scientists pick through the bodies for parts. Based on last Friday's announcement, Democrats are perfectly fine with both. "We believe that we have to do the research that it takes to make sure that we're incorporating innovation," new HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra insisted when he reversed the ban on fetal tissue experimentation. But just how effective is this ghoulish "innovation?" Not very, experts say.
Last week, the Biden administration moved to revoke the Trump administration's changes to the Title X program that increased health care options for women and shielded American taxpayers from funding the killing of unborn children.
Packing the courts isn't the only way Democrats can get what they want. And they know it. As disastrous as adding four more justices to the Supreme Court bench would be, threatening it is almost as effective. Joe Biden learned that from the man he desperately wants to be: FDR. The 32nd president wanted to overhaul the judicial branch, too, and never managed it. But what he did do to the courts was just as beneficial in the end -- he scared them.
At the end of the day, maybe the NCAA did conservatives a huge favor. Earlier this week, the woke collegiate sports association tried playing hardball with states that want to protect girls' sports. But so far, all they've done is motivate them!
As the old adage goes, personnel is policy. Nearing his 100th day in office, President Biden has made it abundantly clear that he plans to implement a radically liberal social agenda in America, demonstrated by who he's nominated to run the federal government.
Now we've heard it all. Democrats, who were already the butt of jokes for calling childcare "infrastructure," have done us one better. According to House liberals, court-packing is too! In a tweet, Congressman Mondaire Jones, a New York liberal declared: "Supreme Court expansion is infrastructure." Like a lot of people, Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) couldn't believe their eyes. "You just can't make this stuff up," she shook her head. And unfortunately, Democrats aren't. They're on the march to expand the court -- no matter what they call it.
If there's anything we've learned about the radical Left, it's that their calling card is intimidation. It's been liberals' most effective weapon for holding conservatives hostage in political debates for years. And this week, California Democrats are taking the idea to the extreme -- threatening to publicize the names, addresses, and employers of anyone who signs a recall petition. Why? Because they're terrified that Americans are on the verge of taking their blue states back!
The Democrats had a nearly flawless plan to ram through their federal takeover of elections, H.R. 1. They just had to wait for some southern Republicans to hinder poor minorities' ability to vote, play the racially-charged "victim" card, and then insist that a federal solution was needed to override racist election laws passed by Republican-controlled state legislatures. Not only was the plan sophisticated and anti-racist, they thought, but surely none of these backwater racist Republicans would see through the trap. Or so believed the out-of-touch, coastal elites who created it.
You know the president's decision to pull our troops from Afghanistan isn't popular when even the liberal media is concerned. Get a behind-the-scenes look at what this move would mean for the stability of the Middle East with Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) on "Washington Watch."
You'd think by now Leftists would know better than to capture their candid comments on-camera. But the investigative geniuses at Project Veritas, in their ongoing marathon round of Liberal Scandal Whack-a-Mole, have squarely hit on another doozy. The latest victim, to no one's surprise, is CNN, once again.
Last week, President Biden announced that every American adult age 18 or older will be eligible to receive the COVID vaccine by no later than April 19. Already, over 75,000,000 American citizens, or 22.7 percent of the population, have been vaccinated. As more and more individuals receive the vaccine, there has been growing conversation about whether or not proof of vaccines, or "vaccine passports," should be installed to help ensure that those who haven't been vaccinated and thus may be carriers of the coronavirus are not able to spread it outside their home state or country.
In case companies hadn't noticed, now isn't exactly a good time to drop a bombshell about radical politics. Either the NCAA hasn't been paying attention to the massive uproar in Georgia, or they don't seem to grasp the intensity of the pushback. Either way, most Americans (including the moderate ones), are fired up about the abuse Republicans are taking over election reform -- and this time, they don't mind saying so. That's bad news for a woke collegiate sports association who's used to dangling a few championship games in front of states and getting their way.
As far as breakups go, it was a messy one. But frankly, what happened in Georgia between Republicans and the corporate woke had been brewing for months. Sick of watching Big Business swoop into states and act like the fourth branch of government, conservatives' frustrations finally boiled over. After years of fighting alongside companies for the kind of economy that helped businesses flourish, Republicans had to come to grips with the obvious: the loyalty only went one way.
A cartel is formed when business leaders conspire together on how to force people to pay the prices they demand. But what is it called when CEOs conspire to force people to play by their rules on voting, not prices? English has no word for it because American corporations have never attempted to override American democracy -- until now.
If a federal law has saved almost 2.5 million lives, you'd think it's worth keeping on the books, right? This is exactly why conservative members of Congress are on a mission to preserve the Hyde amendment.
It'll be months before Major League Baseball knows how much its decision to move Atlanta's All-Star Game cost them financially. Fortunately, Americans won't have to wait nearly that long to understand how much it hurt the MLB politically. Thanks to Governor Doug Ducey (R-Ariz.), they already know. If the goal of MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and his liberal pals was to scare other states into submission, Arizona's new law makes it quite clear: he's already failed.
Jeremy Wong has never been all that interested in politics. The young associate pastor at Orchard Community Church always tried to keep his focus on the congregation -- until COVID struck. Then, to his frustration, things changed. Suddenly, it was impossible to minister the way he and so many other pastors had under California's suffocating lockdown rules. By October, after months of trying to lead Bible studies and prayer meetings over Zoom, Jeremy had had enough. He decided to join a lawsuit to fight the state's over-the-top limits on in-home religious gatherings. Finally, late Friday night, something happened that he "never in [his] wildest thoughts" expected: they won.
Just how dangerous is the effort to mainstream transgenderism? Very, liberal feminists are warning. Six months into California's so-called Transgender Respect, Agency, and Dignity Act, the fallout has been especially severe in a place most people don't think about: women's prisons.
If arts funding is "COVID relief," then it's no surprise that child care is "infrastructure." In the Democrats' lexicon -- where abortion is "health care," election reform is "racism," and social justice is a "public works" project -- the fact that Joe Biden is trying to reimagine another word to fit his agenda is just par for their delusional course.
If the Left's ridiculous crusade against Georgia's election law was supposed to scare other states, it failed. Across the country, a historic number of bills are moving to keep the disaster we saw in 2020 from repeating itself. Instead of cowering under the Democrats' absurd lies about racism, leaders seem more motivated than ever to keep the Left and its pals from unduly influencing our elections. And the sweeping reforms in the Peach State were just the start.
Considering all of the garbage coming out of Washington, most conservatives probably need a pick-me-up -- some reassurance that the entire country isn't racing into a pit of extremism. If the election reform efforts aren't enough to cheer voters up, then there are a good many things happening on life and religious freedom that might!
Some companies just can't resist touching the hot stove. Despite all of the grassroots pushback in Georgia -- all of the boycotts and outrage and public opinion polls -- two major U.S. brands have decided to wade into an even more controversial debate by launching a massive pro-transgender push for minors. In a stunning op-ed for USA Today, branch chiefs for Mars and Nestle announced Wednesday that they're coming for your kids in any state that's fighting for girls' sports or age limits on gender transition. We will "us[e] our influence," they warn, to crush fair competition, protections for children, and even religious freedom. And they're calling on every CEO in America to join them.
The United States may not negotiate with terrorists, but it doesn't mind using resources tied to them in official military trainings. Despite being linked in federal court to a case of domestic terrorism, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) -- a favorite go-to "source" of the Obama Pentagon -- is making a comeback under Joe Biden's DOD barely two years after an explosive scandal that should have destroyed the Leftist group for good.
Most Americans probably don't know a lot about a rule in the U.S. Senate known as the "filibuster," but they should. Why? As was made painfully clear during FRC's Pray Vote Stand broadcast last night, the filibuster is the only thing standing in the way of America ceasing to be the free country that we know and love due to the disturbing policies that the extreme Left wants to force through the Senate and impose on all Americans without compromise.
"Claiming state voting reforms are racist is ridiculous. I should know." That was FRC's Ken Blackwell responding in USA Today to the absurd liberal narrative in Georgia and other states. Check out his new column here!
A week into the fiasco over Georgia's election law, most Americans want to know: just who are these woke CEOs listening to? Not to their shareholders, who can't make a profit when their companies alienate half of the country. Not to lawyers or legislators, who could set them straight on what the policy actually does. And certainly not to U.S. consumers, who are sending a resounding message that they're done with businesses who can't check their radicalism at the door long enough to read a 98-page piece of legislation.
Arkansas just did something historic: It's become the first state in the nation to enact the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act. This much-maligned bill does three things: It protects minors from puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and/or masculinization or feminization surgery (all of which have permanent, life-long effects) until they are adults and can make adult decisions.
Once Georgia joined Iowa in enacting new laws to protect the integrity of the ballot box, the Left has become increasingly unhinged. After enlisting Major League Baseball, Delta Airlines, and Coca-Cola to try to bring about economic hardship in the state, the Left is now realizing hurting minority communities -- and openly lying about what the Georgia election reform law does -- is not likely to win over Americans to their perspective. The Left and woke corporations may not care about the truth, but Americans who vote and buy things do. So, what does Georgia's new law actually mean?
If the Left wanted to make an example out of Georgia, they succeeded -- just not the way they intended. Five days into the Democrats' election law hysteria, Governor Brian Kemp's (R-Ga.) grit is winning the messaging war and inspiring millions of incensed Americans to start fighting right along with him. After months of conditioning corporations to do their radical bidding, Joe Biden, Stacey Abrams, and their co-conspiring CEOs have finally overplayed their hand. The pack of lies they tried to pass off about Georgia's voting reforms is coming back to bite them. And the blowback for baseball is just the beginning.
Democrats certainly have an interest in weaker election laws, but is that what their frenzy in Georgia is really about? Or is there another agenda at work -- a more sinister, dangerous motive for the Left? According to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), this isn't about the Peach State at all. It's about every state. "This disinformation has a purpose," he warned. And the only way to stop it is for every American to understand exactly what it is.
Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson (R) had a say in the SAFE Act -- but he won't have the final one. This afternoon, barely 24 hours after the governor tried to sink a bill to protect children from life-altering transgender surgery and drugs, the state legislature voted to override him. By a 71-24 vote in the house and 28-7 vote in the senate, leaders like Rep. Robin Lundstrum (R) sent a resounding message that they won't be deterred from doing what's right for Arkansas kids.
The 2021 baseball season isn't even a week old, and it's already over for some fans. Why? Because, as Andrew McCarthy so efficiently put it: the Left ruins everything. Sports, entertainment, toys, snack cakes, you name it. Their wokeness is a cancer, and it's taking every enjoyable, unifying, non-political piece of American life and destroying it. In Georgia, their crusade against the state's election law is built on a house of lies. And for once, GOP leaders aren't letting them get away with it.
"Image is always important for a governor," Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.) admitted at the end of his Monday press conference on the SAFE Act. And unfortunately I think it was ultimately image -- not protecting children -- that drove his decision to veto a bill that would have saved Arkansas's kids from a lifetime of misery. "I hope that my statement today... causes Republicans to think again about who we are," he insisted. Let's hope it does. Because if passing a common-sense laws that stops children from being sterilized is controversial, then there are a number of Republican leaders that have some soul-searching to do.
Over the weekend, millions of Christians celebrated Jesus's resurrection and victory over sin. In many churches, after a year plagued by the pandemic, Resurrection Sunday provided hope that despite life's hardships, Jesus has defeated death and reconciled repentant sinners to God. Pastors around the country reminded their congregants that Jesus's resurrection is at the center of the gospel and the reason we celebrate Easter.
Over the last year, our country has faced enormous challenges. A pandemic has killed hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens and millions worldwide. Many people are still out of work. Children in many states are falling behind as school re-openings lag. There is tremendous anxiety and strife along political, cultural, and racial lines. Some churches remain closed or are only partially open. For many, the future is grim.
A few weeks ago, Joe Biden sat down with historians to see how he could change America in a way no other president had. Wednesday, we found out his plan: he's going to bankrupt us. The FDR wannabe didn't even wait until the ink on his $1.9 trillion dollar blue-state bailout (a.k.a. "COVID relief") was dry before trucking off to Pittsburgh and announcing he wants to spend $2.25 trillion more. Conveniently disguised as an "infrastructure bill," the White House has found a way to tuck the Green New Deal into an innocent-sounding public works package. His puppets in the media might sell it that way, but the Republican Party is calling it what it is: highway robbery.
There are 44 standing rules in the Senate, but only one seems to get all of the attention: the legislative filibuster. For Democrats like Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), it's suddenly become quite a nuisance. Instead of being able to ram every outrageous idea on their wish list through Congress and on to Joe Biden's desk, they've had to confront a sobering reality -- that's not how the U.S. Senate works.
The State Department launched its 45th human rights report Tuesday -- but after Secretary Antony Blinken's latest comments, no one is quite sure what "rights" we're actually talking about. Under Biden, the administration has been pretty clear that they aren't interested in the Constitution's definitions or even moral law. They want to go back to cloaking their social activism in "freedom." And destroying the State Department's Commission on Unalienable Rights was only step number one.
While the country holds its breath on Arkansas's SAFE Act, Franklin Graham had a message for Governor Asa Hutchinson (R): sign the bill! On Wednesday night's Pray Vote Stand broadcast, the president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelic Association and Samaritan's Purse prayed for common sense to prevail in Arkansas -- and every state where children are vulnerable to the transgender movement's lies.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) believes she has the right to unilaterally overturn the results of a state-certified election. Faced with the smallest majority of any House Speaker in a hundred years, she now is seeking to eject Republican Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) from Congress to give herself some breathing room. Miller-Meeks won the race for Iowa's 2nd Congressional District by six votes. While the election results from Iowa were certified after Miller-Meeks won multiple recounts Pelosi and the Democrats want to use their power to challenge and overturn the certified results.
Today, President Joe Biden proclaimed it to be "Transgender Day of Visibility." Decrying the supposed systemic discrimination of those who identify as transgender, Biden's proclamation only exposed just how out of touch he is with much of America.
Every 10 years, the state of Minnesota reviews and revises its academic standards, and the latest updates proposed for its social studies program in K-12 schools has turned heads for its blatantly left-wing political agenda. Although the timing of the update is unrelated to current events, the content is clearly a response to 2020's many protests and uprisings. The new curriculum is set to be steeped in left-wing ideology surrounding subjects like "whiteness," Christianity, and capitalism.
It's been a long 10 days for the people of South Dakota, who just watched everything that their legislature worked for vanish with one wave of the governor's hand. "It's maddening. It's frustrating," one statehouse member said about watching Kristi Noem (R) destroy their months of progress on girls' sports. Despite a week and a half of outcry from her constituents, Noem dug in and did not, as some people hoped, reconsider.
Arkansas may have lost its bid for a national championship this week, but conservatives around the country are cheering on the state to become the first in another category: protecting minor children. Monday, after an emotional debate, the state senate voted 27-8 to send the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act to the governor's desk, where he could make history signing it into law.
Last Thursday, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed into law an election reform bill designed to address the controversies and problems of recent elections. The Left, predictably, went ballistic. They claim the law ushers in a new Jim Crow era. They claim it prohibits anyone from offering water to people waiting in line to vote. Even President Joe Biden repeated, "It's an atrocity. ... They pass a law saying you can't provide water for people standing in line, while they're waiting to vote." Biden also claimed the legislation "ends voting hours early" and amounts to "Jim Crow in the 21st Century."
If you missed Tony Perkins's reaction to being sanctioned by China, check out this interview on Monday's Fox News. He talks about his work on behalf of international religious freedom and the Uyghur human rights atrocities.
If the Biden administration won't call the border mess a "crisis," they're the only ones. Only four percent of the American people agree with the president that the surge isn't a "serious problem." As more pictures and eye-witness accounts break through the White House's blackout, the urgency on both sides is growing. After his pitiful performance on Thursday, the president's approval ratings on immigration are in an absolute freefall -- and the grim testimonies that leaders and local mayors are telling from the border aren't helping.
The media would love for you to believe that every corporation is going woke -- but that isn't exactly reality, Zogby warns. Business leaders might feel the squeeze of the far-Left, and some might even surrender to it, but deep down, they're just as worried as the rest of us about what cultural extremists are doing to America. And now we have the data to prove it.
Some wear China's scorn as a badge of honor. Late last summer, when the communist regime lashed out at Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fl.), he tweeted, "Last month #China banned me. Today, they sanctioned me. I don't want to be paranoid, but I am starting to think they don't like me." Turns out, China's government doesn't like a lot of people, including members of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) like Gayle Manchin and me.
If Americans were concerned that Joe Biden hadn't held a press conference, imagine how concerned they must be now that he has. After smashing the 100-year record for radio silence, most people assumed that the 78-year-old president would be a little more prepared to meet the press. What they got instead was a painful, hour-long confirmation that the fragile man leading our country has absolutely none of our crises -- the border, China, COVID, or fair and free elections -- in hand.
After a week of fierce pushback, Governor Kristi Noem's (R-S.D.) controversial position on girls' sports just got even lonelier. The South Dakota governor, who's been hoping for cover on her veto from other state leaders, continues to stand alone now that Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson (R) has inked his name to a law very similar to the one Noem rejected. Thanks to the hard work of the state legislature, the Land of Opportunity State is exactly that for female athletes.
In an incredibly significant move for voters everywhere, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R) signed SB 202 into law Thursday, a bill that makes sweeping reforms to the state's election law and corrects some of the weaknesses from 2020. After weeks of committee hearings and public input, the policy -- much to the relief of Georgians -- is now law.
Of all the fiction in Joe Biden's press conference Thursday (and there was a lot), one of the most ridiculous allegations was about the Trump administration supposed indifference toward China's Uyghurs. With as many connections to China as he has, the president ought to know that Donald Trump, along with Mike Pompeo and the leaders of the State Department, not only helped the Uyghurs, but led a global coalition to crack down on China's abuse of the population.
The abortion industry has done some stupid things over the years -- like putting forceps on its Christmas trees, fundraising on Mother's Day, opening abortion "spas," hosting condom art contests, and offering Black Friday deals -- but NARAL's latest "#ProChoicePup" hashtag is so ridiculous that Babylon Bee had to clarify that it's not satire. "In news that should surprise no one, the abortion industry is out of its freaking mind," Joel Abbott shook his head. Apparently, the far-Left can't get people on board with their agenda, so they've resorted to man's best friend.
It's difficult to imagine things getting much worse for Governor Kristi Noem (R-S.D.), who's faced an avalanche of criticism since deciding not to sign the state's popular girls' sports bill. Wednesday, days after running into what one conservative commentator called "a buzz saw," her team's frustration finally boiled over. After an unsuccessful media tour, which only dug the hole deeper, Noem's communications manager lashed out that his boss had been the victim what he called "conservative cancel culture." But if anything got canceled, conservatives fired back, it was South Dakota women's rights.
The Biden administration made history Wednesday, but not the kind that most Americans will celebrate. In a tight, near party-line vote, the Senate confirmed the president's transgender pick for deputy secretary of HHS, Rachel Levine -- whose idea of "health care" is sterilizing and mutilating young children. "This is a scary time in American history," former HHS leader Roger Severino said. And after Levine's first statement on the job, that might be an understatement.\r
Everyone loves an underdog. Well, almost everyone. While the rest of the country rallies around Oral Roberts University, cheering on the Cinderella of this year's NCAA basketball tournament, USA Today says the slipper doesn't fit. The small Tulsa college is evangelical, they announce, as if it's news. That means they believe the Bible. And if they believe the Bible, an editor argues, there should be no place for them on the court -- or anywhere else in polite society.
Only in the modern Democratic Party could protecting African-American children be considered racist. And yet, that's the messaging du jour for the Left, who's decided to play the race card on any issue that's remotely unpopular -- like overturning the ban on taxpayer-funded abortion. Of course, the Hyde amendment wasn't racist when Barack Obama supported it. It's only now, when the nation's been beaten into submission from months of George Floyd riots, that liberals could dare to make the argument -- and demand that the president's nominees do the same.
The target that the cancel culture has on the backs of Christians and conservatives is nothing new. For the past decade, the Left has been working hard to silence Christian and conservative voices and lessen their influence in the public square. At the beginning, their tactics were more subtle -- public shaming and classification of people and groups who advocated for biblical values as hate groups by organizations that used to be legitimate, such as the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Donald Trump changed a lot of things about the Republican Party, but one of the biggest favors he did social conservatives was refusing to be intimidated by the issues. He took on the abortion lobby, the gender wars, LGBT extremism, the cancel culture -- and never once apologized. Say what you will about his tone or methods, but Trump didn't shy away from the hard questions. After four years of that, most conservatives have lost the appetite for compromise. That's bad news for Republicans who don't have the stomach for those fights -- because there's one thing our movement isn't willing to settle for anymore, and that's cowardice.
It's a catchy slogan -- "taxation without representation" -- but does Washington, D.C. really have a case when it comes to statehood? Anyone who's driven around the District has to wonder, following cars with that phrase plastered in protest on the bottom of the city's license plates. For decades, Democrats have tried to force a debate on D.C. statehood -- evoking strong feelings on both sides. Monday's House Oversight hearing, it turns out, was no exception.
The FRC Stand Courageous Men's Ministry Team was on the road again this past weekend in southern California. Hosted by our good friend Pastor Jack Hibbs at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, 3,000 men packed out the worship center and overflowed onto outdoor space to hear our stable of speakers as well as attend standing room only breakouts.
There are defining moments in every political career -- decisions that have the power to rewrite a person's future. They can take a no-name conservative to celebrity status, or send a rising star cratering back to earth. Everyone with big dreams stands at those crossroads eventually -- and for Kristi Noem (R-S.D.), that time is now. The popular governor, who made a name for herself bucking COVID restrictions, has had her eye on bigger things in the Republican Party for a long time. But if she fails this test -- if she can't find the courage to stand up to the Left -- that's all she'll be remembered for.
What could the Left possibly want after same-sex marriage and transgenderism? Try polygamy. The media laughed off groups like FRC when we warned about that 15 years ago. Now, a decade and a half later, with American parents in the fight of their lives over girls' sports and city councils endorsing three-person relationships, it turns out we were right. The LGBT's fight was never about marriage -- it was about every sexual and social norm.
It's no secret that a lot of Democrats are interested in abolishing or creating exceptions to the filibuster, a procedural rule which requires that 60 senators instead of a simple majority must agree to vote upon a proposed piece of legislation. With the Senate split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, and Vice President Kamala Harris acting as the tiebreaker vote, the filibuster is the only thing stopping Democrats from pushing their radical left-wing agenda through Congress and to the president's desk, where President Joe Biden will likely sign most of the Democrat-controlled Congress' bills into law. The Democrats' solution? Reframe a number of proposals as necessary for the advance of "civil rights," for which the filibuster should move out of the way.
So it's a "tragedy," "mockery," or "coup" if Republicans challenge an election result, but completely acceptable -- four months later -- if you're a Democrat? That's the incredible double standard on display this week in the U.S. House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is throwing optics to the wind to pad her Democratic totals. In one of the grandest displays of hypocrisy this country has ever seen, the Left is actually trying to boot a sitting member of Congress, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) after her election was certified -- without any evidence of fraud. And the GOP is the party of subversion?
Joe Biden doesn't mind calling the climate a crisis -- but when it comes to thousands of trafficked kids, separated from their parents in a border mess of epic proportions, it's a "challenge." Or is it? Even White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki couldn't help slipping up Thursday and labeling the situation what it truly is. "... You said, 'crisis on the border,'" one reporter pointed out. Annoyed, Psaki corrected herself. "Challenges on the border," she insisted. "So that doesn't reflect any change in the administration's view of things?" the reporter asked. "Nope," Psaki fired back.
The mainstream media would love for you to believe that this wave of opposition to the transgender agenda is a one-party operation. But the truth is, there's a big disconnect between what D.C. Democrats and the rest of their party think about this controversial issue. Protecting children from this radical agenda is a lot more bipartisan than Americans realize. And the effort of at least one state Democrat is proving it.
Joe Biden won't talk to the press -- and he won't let his administration either! In news that ought to incense the American public, the president has ordered a media blackout on anything having to do with the immigration crisis. Everyone from border patrol to sector chiefs have been told to "deny all access" to the press, no matter how friendly they may be. That means no interviews, no photos, no facilities tours or ride-alongs without the White House's express permission. Just how desperate is the situation on the border? Enough to risk an administration-wide cover-up, it seems.
When a new curriculum is too woke for the New York Times, it has to be the most wildly out-of-step model this country's ever seen. It also has to be from California, which is one of the only states capable of taking public education to places even liberals would oppose. "The idea that a tax-supported public school system would, or could, be used to unleash this vicious cultural and spiritual poison into our young people's consciousness is both extremely offensive and quite possibly illegal," the Times's Brad Stephens wrote. And yet today, that "poison" is on the verge of becoming the Ethnic Studies standard for six million U.S. students.
Are LGBT activists really interested in finding middle ground on issues like religious freedom? Some in Congress naively think so, which is why the Fairness for All Act is currently being pushed as an alternative to the radical Equality Act. But as was made clear during FRC's Pray Vote Stand broadcast Wednesday night, Fairness for All is not so much a grand compromise as it is a narrow carve-out that gives lip service to the freedom to worship, all the while trampling on the constitutional freedom to live out one's faith in all realms of society. Also during the broadcast, a powerful first-hand testimony uncovered what is at the wounded heart of those struggling with gender identity.
Joe Biden hasn't abolished ICE, but he's done something just as bad. He's made it impossible for the agency to do its job. Just two months into the White House's amnesty experiment, the scene along our southern border is chaos. And who's fault is it? According to the administration: Donald Trump's.
The corporate mob may have some people shaking in their boots, but a new trend says there's no reason to. After January 6th, when CEOs were tripping over themselves to say they'd stop giving to Republicans, it sounded like a death knell for fundraising. But, two months later, the threat has turned out to be an empty one. Everyday Americans pack a much bigger punch than these woke businesses, it turns out. And they're just getting started.
Earlier this morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the infamous Equality Act, one of the Democratic Party's most radical pieces of legislation. If passed by the Left's slim majority in the Senate and signed into law by President Biden, the Equality Act would harm society at every level under the guise of fairness.
Tonight I'll be joining my good friend, Pastor Jack Hibbs, for a special "Happening Now" conversation at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, discussing the issues and trends facing our nation today. With the dramatic shift in our culture -- one that is increasingly hostile to followers of Jesus -- each of us needs to be informed, equipped, and ready to defend our freedoms. Click here to watch live at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT!
The Democratic establishment keeps gushing that Joe Biden's first months in office have been the most "consequential" in decades. Oh, they're consequential all right. Look at gas prices. And if the latest headlines are any indication, the pain at the pump is just the beginning.
Since the Supreme Court's decision in 2015 to redefine marriage, the movement to normalize homosexuality and same-sex marriage has moved at break-neck speed. While tech companies, the media, Big Business, and the entertainment and sports communities have largely fallen in line with the LGBT revolution, there has been one consistent outlier: the church. Despite calls to revise doctrine, the Catholic Church sent a strong message that they won't be bullied into capitulating on their long-standing beliefs about marriage and sexuality.
This week, the Washington Post was forced to majorly correct its January 9 report on President Trump's phone call with a Georgia elections investigator. The article's headline read "'Find the fraud': Trump pressured a Georgia elections investigator in a separate call legal experts say could amount to obstruction." In other words, one of America's largest newspapers publicly claimed that the sitting president had committed potentially criminal misbehavior.
America's biggest threat isn't China or North Korea. It isn't even Iran. According to this commander-in-chief, it's a 51-year-old talk show host who isn't afraid to call out this administration's absurd military priorities. Tucker Carlson probably had no idea how powerful he was until last week, when the Defense Department dropped everything it was doing to train its rhetorical guns on the Fox News commentator. When Tucker questioned this Pentagon's push for identity politics, he didn't just hit a nerve. He started a war -- the only kind, it seems, that this White House cares about.
Last week, an Illinois judge signed arrest warrants for five suspects on counts of forgery and perjury in the 2020 election. Such routine law enforcement of small-scale ballot fraudsters occur after every election. The warrants will therefore surprise nobody, least of all the proud pontificators who only months ago were loudly opining that election fraud never, ever happens.
In what looks like the abrupt end to what little democracy was left in Hong Kong, a new election law from Beijing now makes it impossible for anyone to run for political office without demonstrating their "patriotism." Of course, for Beijing, "patriotism" doesn't mean love of China. It means love of the Chinese Communist Party.
Joe Biden avoided talking to the American people longer than any president in the last 100 years. And when he finally did, it wasn't exactly worth waiting for. If you didn't watch the 23 minutes of this White House's revisionist history on the virus, count yourself lucky. It was an exercise in the dismal, partisan, hopeless rhetoric this administration was supposed to rise above. After more than 50 days of silence, all Joe Biden proved by coming out of the White House basement is that he's a sore and ungracious winner, who isn't above taking credit for the vaccine successes he inherited.
Amazon is the world's biggest marketplace of everything -- but ideas. When Jeff Bezos's empire decided to de-shelve Ryan Anderson, dropping a book that it made plenty of money on as a best-seller, any illusions about the company being a "diverse, tolerant" business were already long gone. Now, a couple of weeks after the controversy, Amazon has decided to answer its critics. And there are a lot of them.
"It's crazy we have to address it." That was Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves's (R) as he signed the second girls' sports protection bill in the country. But, he pointed out, that's where Joe Biden has forced this country: into a war over women's rights, privacy, fairness, and competition. At least in Mississippi, he vowed, "young girls... [will] have a fair level playing field." His daughters and every daughter will know -- "their rights are worth fighting for."
He's spent almost three decades in Washington, so the news that Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) has decided to retire was bittersweet. Don't miss our conversation looking back on his time in Congress, including a glimpse at what he might do back home in Missouri.
Mitch McConnell has served longer than any Senate Republican leader in history -- so it's safe to say he's seen some bad bills. There've been doozies like Obamacare, the Green New Deal, the Equality Act -- legislation to open the borders, ban homeschooling, and Medicaid for All. But nothing, McConnell insists, comes close to HR 1. In his opinion, the Democrats' federal takeover of elections is the most dangerous proposal of all. In 36 years, Mitch declared, "This is the worst bill I've observed in my time in the Senate."
No one will ever know how much fraud there was in the 2020 election, but in states like Georgia, where new information is still coming out, there are plenty of reasons to wonder. Four months after the mess of last November, experts are still investigating what might have happened to Donald Trump's reelection bid. And what they've found is enough to get every American on the election reform bandwagon.
What's the Left's version of "election reform"? It's HR 1, the deceptively named "For the People Act", a brazen attempt to force every state to turn over their election authority -- vested to them by the Constitution -- to Congress. Just how bad is HR 1? To name but a handful of the dozens of shocking ways it would subvert our free election system, HR 1 would: eliminate voter identification requirements, allow illegal immigrants and felons to vote, finance political campaigns with taxpayer dollars, invite fraud by providing universal mail-in ballots, expand Democratic seats in Congress by granting statehood to D.C., and so much more.
It's usually an administration's cabinet nominations that get the most attention -- but two senators are making the case that Joe Biden's deputy picks may be the most controversial of the bunch. Is the president trying to slip in his most radical nominees under Americans' noses? And just how much power do the seconds-in-command at HHS and the State Department have over abortion and transgender policy? Too much, Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) warn.
"They're not just labor camps, they are designed to strip them of their religious cultural identity." This is how Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) described the camps where 1-2 million Uyghur Muslims are detained by the Chinese government without trial and utilized as forced labor.
On Tuesday, Arkansas S.B. 6, the "Arkansas Unborn Child Protection Act," was signed into law by Governor Asa Hutchinson (R). The act, which criminalizes abortion at all stages of pregnancy except when the life of the mother is at risk, paints a big, red target on Roe v. Wade. The bill passed the state senate (27-7) with three-to-one support and the state house (76-19) with four-to-one support. State Senator Jason Rapert and State Representative Mary Bentley worked tirelessly alongside the Arkansas Family Council to ensure the bill's passage.
Cartoonists ought to be mocking the cancel culture -- not becoming victims of it! Apparently, not only is the mob overbearing and hypocritical, but humorless too. They've turned their corporate guns on everything from the gender-insensitive Mr. Potato Head to Pepe Le Pew, a Looney Tunes skunk the New York Times accuses of "normalizing rape culture." (What's next? A #MeToon hashtag?) Now, 27 years into a comic strip about a fictional duck, the banning of Mallard Fillmore in newspapers across the country is showing everyone where the liberal quack down might lead.
Over the past few years, conservatives have noticed with increasing alarm as social media giants and other Big Tech companies pressed their thumb on the scales of public debate, muzzling one dissenting voice after another. These mega-corporations had successfully lobbied for special government carveouts on the theory that they provided a public forum that enabled free speech, but now aggressively work to censor news, facts, and opinions they don't like. But thankfully there are those working to bring their abusive behavior to an end.
For all its talk of unity, the Biden administration has proven itself to be as hyper-partisan as it gets after only a month and a half in office. The nearly two trillion dollar spending bill that passed the Senate last week was only the latest episode, as President Biden and Democrat leadership cast aside their former bipartisanship to ram through a bill that broke decades of precedent against using our tax dollars to fund abortion.
They can't say they weren't warned. Everyone in America knew where Joe Biden stood on abortion -- because he told them. In 13 debates, multiple campaign ads, and a Planned Parenthood townhall, no one had any doubt that if this man won the White House, his folksy faith talk would take a backseat to his political deal with the far-Left. If Evangelicals for Biden want to say they never saw this COVID bill and its abortion funding coming, then they were the only ones.
Liberals can mock the Trump border wall they want, but three months into Joe Biden's amnesty policy, even Democrats are sounding the alarm. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) has been watching what's happened along the Mexican border with absolute shock and says that if the White House doesn't do anything, there will be an immigration "crisis" in a matter of "weeks -- maybe even days."
If you sent your teenagers off to Christian colleges thinking they'd be safe from Planned Parenthood's tentacles, Students for Life says: think again! In a stunning new report, Kristan Hawkins's group is digging into 700 faith-based schools, and what they've found so far will surprise you. At least 25 religious colleges and universities have relationships with the abortion giant. And that, she believes, is just the beginning.
Joe Biden said he wanted to meet Republicans halfway on COVID relief. If that's the case, Senator John Kennedy (R-La.) fired back, he's a darn poor judge of distance. "This bill is dreadful," he vented. "It's an orgy of pork... The only way I know how to improve it is with a shredder."
If nine percent of Americans consider China a "partner," they must all work for the NBA. The rest of the country, as the latest headlines make painfully clear, is done with the communist tyrants. Nine out of 10 Americans see China as a "competitor" or "enemy" now, and half think we should limit their power. Gallup's numbers for President Jinping are even worse. They put China's unfavorable rating at 79 percent -- the worst in the history of the polling company. And they don't have a whole lot of faith that Joe Biden's policies will help.
Getting the truth out about the Equality Act hasn't been easy. As if the mainstream media isn't deceptive enough, now liberals have the fact checkers doing their dirty work attacking those who are trying to put the facts out. But who's checking the fact checkers?
The "For the People Act" -- or, as it should be called, the Stick-It-to-The-People Act -- is so bad that one Democrat was willing to risk of the wrath of his party to stop it. Wednesday, to the surprise of his entire caucus, Congressman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) did something the Left couldn't believe: he listened to his district. When Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) put a bill on the table that would strip away every election safeguard in the country, people thought Thompson's vote was a sure thing. After all, he'd cosponsored the legislation. But when the time came to go down to the House floor, Bennie couldn't do it. His constituents opposed parts of the bill, he said later. And they're the ones he works for.
If only nine percent of the $1.9 trillion COVID bill fights the virus, then what on earth does the other 91 percent do? Well, for starters, Senator Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) pointed out, it tears down the firewall between taxpayers and abortion. The Democrats' priority isn't getting money into the hands of people who treat life -- they want to funnel billions to the abortionists who take it.
The Robertsons know a little bit about staring down the cancel culture -- they did it before almost anyone else! Eight years ago, when liberals came after A&E over the Christian values on "Duck Dynasty," the Left found out pretty quickly that it wasn't a fight they should have picked. The Robertsons refused to back down -- winning the respect of millions of Americans and becoming a symbol of courage in the entertainment world.
As evidenced by its name, Bethany Christian Services is a Christian adoption organization that does the vital, God-honoring work of placing needy children in the homes of adoptive parents across 30 states and in over a dozen countries around the world. On Monday, in a reversal of its long-standing tradition of adhering to biblical teaching on sexuality, Bethany announced that it would begin offering its services to same-sex couples.
Here's the thing with demanding civility -- you actually have to practice it. The Biden administration just learned that lesson the hard way. After two years of insisting on a kinder, gentler Washington, the president has raised plenty of eyebrows with his abrasive nominees. Neera Tanden was the surliest of the bunch, firing off years of social media insults as head of the radical Center for American Progress. She was everything Democrats said they hated in Trump: a brash, blunt, Twitter attack dog. Because she was one of them, the White House thought she'd be safe. They were wrong.
"I'm hoping for infinity." That's what Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) joked to a reporter about how long Wednesday night's debate over virus aid will be. "I don't want it to pass," he said seriously, so an endless debate would suit him just fine. And an endless debate is what the Senate is in for, thanks to the reconciliation process Democrats are using to ram through their miserable excuse for "virus relief." At $1.9 trillion dollars, the price tag is steep -- but is it as steep as the price liberals could (and hopefully will) pay in the midterms?
"Men and women have -- at a minimum -- 6,500 genetic differences between us. And this impacts every cell of our bodies -- our organ systems, how diseases manifest, how we diagnose, and even treat [them] in some cases." Biological gender, as Dr. Michelle Cretella of the American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) explains, is crucial to accurately treating and diagnosing patients. This is what the science says.
In one of the more colorful descriptions of the Equality Act, Senator John Kennedy (R-La.) told reporters that he doesn't believe in discrimination against anyone but said, "this bill guts religious freedom... like a fish. And anybody that's suggesting otherwise is either not telling the truth, or they didn't graduate from kindergarten." While he and the rest of the GOP brace for the bill to hit the Senate, the good news is, the states aren't waiting. They're racing to put up shields of protection now.
There was a time when schooling existed to teach kids what was true and how to think critically. Now, thinking and truth are punished, especially on college campuses. Education student Owen Stevens learned that the hard way when State University of New York (SUNY) Geneseo suspended him from required field teaching programs. What was his crime? Saying things on Instagram like, "A man is a man, a woman is a woman. A man is not a woman and a woman is not a man." Or, "I do not recognize the gender that they claim to be if they are not biologically that gender."
A lot has been made about the need for Republicans to "get on board" with some sort of alternative to the ill-conceived Equality Act. However, the "Fairness for All Act," introduced by Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) one day after the Equality Act vote in the House, is just as ill-conceived as the bill it is trying to replace. To constitute an acceptable alternative, a legislative proposal should actually solve a problem. While Fairness for All (FFA) backers may mean well, their proposal solves nothing.
Americans want COVID relief, but is that what the Democrats' bill is? Congressman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) says no. "This is the wrong plan at the wrong time and for all of the wrong reasons." Is it about pork or the pandemic? Find out in this interview from Monday's "Washington Watch."
It's a battle, Pastor Mike McClure said, that he "never wanted to be in." But it's a battle that God called him to fight -- and he knows it. Keeping his church open hasn't been easy, but then being obedient in the face of controversy usually isn't. Still, Pastor Mike pointed out, it's amazing when you do what's right how "the Lord just shows up." And late Friday, He wasn't the only one. The Supreme Court decided to weigh in too -- and the Christians of Santa Clara County couldn't be happier.
There were a lot of powerful arguments against the Equality Act, but Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) resorted to the ultimate authority: the Bible. During an intense debate on the House floor, the Florida representative said it was time for his colleagues to hear the truth about the transgender issue. But Democrats aren't interested in the truth -- or God. And far-Left radical Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) didn't mind saying so.
There are a lot of threats in the world, but there is only one this president appears to care about combating -- conservatives. In yet another sign that America is doomed to a term of unprecedented extremism, the Biden administration just released its training materials for its "one-day military stand down" to weed out dangerous views. But what constitutes as dangerous? Good question, leaders say -- and not one they have an answer to.
The bill was supposed to help America recover from COVID -- not make taxpayers sick. Unfortunately for our economy, Democrats don't seem to know the difference between a relief package and pork. The Left's 591-page excuse for a "rescue plan" is so loaded down with waste that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) might need the $112 million Bay Area transit expansion -- just to get out of town. Most voters, she ought to know, don't appreciate being railroaded.
Keira Bell can never get her childhood back. And her body, a scarred and mangled reminder, reminds her every day. "I am living in a world where I don't fit in as male or as female. I am stuck between two sexes." Now 24, she's dedicated her life to stop teenagers from making the same mistake. Unfortunately, Keira won't get any help from the Biden administration. As Thursday's eye-opening hearing made painfully clear, this is one White House that doesn't mind how many children its agenda hurts.
If there's one silver lining to the coronavirus, it's that public education is finally being exposed for the fraud that it is. Not only are parents starting to see what their children are being taught, but the nation is waking up to the fact that teachers unions don't care about educating kids. They're about protecting and feathering their own nest. And frankly, moms and dads are tired of it.
When it comes to censorship, one editorial board said, "it's about as subtle as carpet bombing." Liberals, who used to at least pretend to have some use for free speech, have dropped all pretense now. The war against a thinking culture is out in the open now, as shameless and determined as ever. To them, it's no longer enough to yank books off shelves, ban conservatives from the public square, and slap warning labels on thousands of years of proven science. They want to totally control the airwaves too. And they'll stop at nothing to force the carriers to do their bidding.
Winning the Senate helped Democrats, but it sure didn't guarantee smooth sailing for Joe Biden's cabinet nominees. The party's one-vote majority has created plenty of heartburn at the White House, especially where controversial picks like Xavier Becerra, Neera Tanden, and Deb Haaland are concerned. Keeping the Democrats on board with his radical choices has been no easy task for Biden, let alone dealing with the GOP's suddenly united front. "Don't expect Senate Republicans to forget how the Democrats treated Mr. Trump's nominees," John Barrasso (R-Wy.) warned back in December. And they haven't.
As Americans, we take pride in the fact that our forbearers gave their lives for the freedoms we hold dear. As recent events have shown, however, we can't afford to take those freedoms for granted and assume we won't have to fight for them here and now. As was made clear during FRC's Pray Vote Stand broadcast last night, the threats to religious freedom in America are real, but believers must realize that if we step up to the challenge, God will use these trials for His glory, especially when we show grace under fire.
For more on the latest headlines, check out Tony Perkins's Newsmax interview on Big Tech censorship and the Equality Act.
Joe Biden wouldn't trust his health care to someone with zero experience, so why is he asking America to? That was one of the biggest questions at Tuesday's Senate grilling of Xavier Becerra, the president's surprising pick for HHS secretary. The California attorney general, who's never had a lick of training in medicine, science, pharma, or the health care world, is applying for a job to oversee -- not just the nation's pandemic response -- but the biggest budget of any U.S. agency as a complete novice. And Biden said Donald Trump's COVID plan was bad?
The U.S. House tomorrow will vote on the Equality Act. It will almost certainly pass, without a single Republican cosponsor. Then its fate will be decided in the Senate. It's hard to imagine just how damaging this bill would be. Essentially, it takes every issue the Left feels is a sacred cow and wraps it into one bill -- a legislative right to abortion on demand, special privileges for sexual orientation and gender identity, and the abolition of religious freedom.
He was canceled before the cancel culture. And looking back, maybe that was a blessing. Andrew Torba had a three-year head start to build his mob-proof business. Now, Gab is one of the only free speech havens still standing, giving tens of millions of oppressed Americans a social media platform to call home.
"Befuddling." "Inexplicable." "Baffling." Those are just three of the words Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas used to describe his colleagues' latest response to the 2020 election. After three months of mixed signals, the justices finally turned down a case that had most conservatives holding their breaths -- a lawsuit against Pennsylvania's expanded mail-in balloting order. The issue, many said, was moot. But the dangers of lawlessness, Thomas fired back, is not.
There isn't a single pro-lifer in America who wouldn't love to see Planned Parenthood completely defunded. But without both sides of Congress firmly in the hands of conservatives, former President Donald Trump did the next best thing. He chipped away at the forced partnership between taxpayers and the abortion industry with the most powerful weapon in his executive tool box: HHS regulations. It took months of hard work, but the "Protect Life Rule" became a reality. Now, two years of liberal lawsuits later, the Supreme Court will finally decide if the policy can stand.
The nine months felt like a lifetime, Tursunay Ziawudun remembered. Like most women, the nightmares from the camps still haunt her. Even in the United States, she can't escape the sound of the guards' footsteps, walking to her cell after midnight to take women to the "black rooms" where they would be raped -- over and over again. "Perhaps this is the most unforgettable scar on me forever," she said with a blank stare. "I don't even want these words to spill from my mouth."
Don't miss our own Joseph Backholm as he speaks tomorrow morning, at 10 a.m. (ET), at a rally to STOP the Equality Act hosted by our friends at Family Policy Alliance. He will be explaining why no Christian in their right mind can support this radical bill, which will be voted on in the House on Thursday. You can tune in to the rally here. Also check out Joseph's op-ed published today on the Equality Act, as well as another one published by our own Ken Blackwell.
Ryan Anderson didn't even know his book had been pulled. There was no warning, no notification from Amazon that the title had been removed. A reader tipped him off when he tried to buy a copy and couldn't. That's strange, Ryan thought, logging on to Amazon to see for himself. Sure enough -- his bright blue and pink book cover, When Harry Became Sally, had been replaced with a message: this is no longer a functioning page. Because at Amazon, free speech is no longer a functioning principle.
The original U.S. Constitution can survive a bomb, a massive fire -- even a nuclear blast. But can it survive the House majority's agenda? Based on their latest bill, the Equality Act, no one is quite sure.
Florida may not have had the same election issues as other battleground states in November, but that doesn't mean they're satisfied. Governor Ron DeSantis (R) believes the Sunshine State has a lot to be proud of when it comes to 2020, but he still thinks they can do better.
When President Biden took office, there was some hope he would, like Trump, be tough on China. But now, it's not so clear.
Politically, Joe Biden's supporters skew liberal. They are more likely to support abortion, favor liberal policies on gender and sexuality, and oppose limiting the size and scope of government. Of course, this is not surprising. As a candidate, Biden ran on a liberal platform and attracted the support of people who share his political ideology. But while the political leanings of Biden's voters are clear, what do we know about their faith? A new study is revealing.
An assistant principal at a Hilliard, Ohio high school sent an email to faculty telling teachers to endorse a controversial piece of legislation and encouraged students to do the same. The Hilliard City Council is currently considering legislation that would include sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) as protected classes in the city.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. A memo from President Biden's Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin directs commanders to conduct a "Stand-Down to Address Extremism in the Ranks." The goal, ostensibly, is to flush out people with extremist views from our nation's military. But the memo never defines "extremist or dissident ideologies."
"We must speak up for human rights. It's who we are," President Biden said at a town hall earlier this week. This is an American tradition worth upholding. Unfortunately, Biden fumbled through an answer in which he likened China's human rights abuses to "cultural norms" at the same event. Regardless of this confusion, there is much that the U.S. government can do to promote freedom and combat China's nefarious efforts across the globe.
On Tuesday, James Coates, pastor of GraceLife Church in Alberta, Canada, was arrested and placed in police custody for violating Canada's public health orders. Police officers and representatives from the Alberta Health Service (the "AHS") arrived at the church on Sunday. After monitoring the service, they determined that the church had violated public health orders, which limited attendance to 15 percent of building capacity and required attendees to wear face coverings and practice social distancing. Pastor Coates voluntarily turned himself in to police on Tuesday after he was told that police planned to arrest him.
Severe winter storms and extremely bitter temperatures have caused an unprecedented crisis in Texas and the surrounding region, as millions are still without power after four days. Don't miss this powerful and prayerful edition of Pray Vote Stand as Tony is joined by Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Pastor Roy Smith of True-Lite Christian Fellowship in Midland, Texas.
Rush Limbaugh passed away yesterday at the age of 70 after being diagnosed with advanced lung cancer a little over a year ago. After an extremely successful broadcasting career that brought conservatism back into the mainstream, Rush was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by former President Trump. Rush will be remembered not only for his tremendous contribution to talk radio but to America. Yesterday, FRC Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell appeared on CBN News's "Faith Nation" to share his thoughts on Rush Limbaugh's life and legacy.
You know you're in trouble when your own party turns against you. That's the lesson New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is learning, or should be learning, right now.
At a town hall meeting yesterday, President Biden stumbled over a morally confused statement suggesting he is unlikely to take meaningful action concerning human rights in China. This is more significant than the typical gaffes he is known for. To the countless victims of China's abuses who hope the U.S. will take up their cause, Biden is becoming a great disappointment.
There are some things LGBT activists simply don't want to learn about. That's one of the lessons from a recent and on-going attempt to torpedo a study about gender dysphoria.
February gave Texas the cold shoulder this weekend as an extreme winter storm pounded the entire state. As of this morning, power had not been restored to more than 4 million Texans. Hundreds of thousands have also lost water after the water treatment plants in Fort Worth, Abilene, and elsewhere suffered power outages. A handful of deaths from the cold have already been reported, although we may not know the true toll until the state digs itself out.
As of this writing, millions of Americans across the country, particularly in Texas, are dealing with frigid temperatures and winter weather crippling the electric grid and local economies. Experts are concerned about the spread of COVID-19 variants, and their potential to prolong the pandemic. And what has the newly minted Democrat majority in the Senate been up to? An arguably unconstitutional impeachment of a private citizen.
A group of Utah parents have prompted a review of an "equity book program" in their local school district after a teacher read a book favorable to transgenderism to a class of third-graders. The book, "Call Me Max", written by transgender-identified author Kyle Lukoff, follows the story of a girl wanting to be seen as a boy.
After observing the first few weeks of the Biden administration, the CEO of American's largest abortion chain Planned Parenthood says she is "over the moon" about the Biden/Harris administration's "vision" for expanding abortion. And it's easy to see why...
With Saturday's vote in the Senate acquitting President Trump on the charge of "inciting" the mob who stormed the U.S. Capitol while Electoral College votes were being counted, many may be asking whether the era of impeachment is over (at least for now). Others may be asking whether impeachment as a political weapon is only just being awoken.
Over the past year, churches have faced unprecedented challenges because of the coronavirus pandemic, and they have demonstrated remarkable resilience as they have adapted to serve their congregations in new and creative ways. Many churches initially suspended indoor worship services to comply with government mandates and protect their communities by slowing the spread of the novel illness. During the summer months, when churches began cautiously reopening, courts generally deferred to local governments by upholding restrictions on indoor worship services and gatherings.
Legislation to prohibit doctors from prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to minors is advancing in the Alabama State legislature.
Last week, the Connecticut State Senate considered SB 835, "An Act Concerning Deceptive Advertising Practices of Limited Services Pregnancy Centers." Contrary to its title, this bill is not about deceptive advertising. In fact, there is no substantial evidence that clients seeking services at Connecticut pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) have been or currently are being deceived. No, this bill is about silencing PRCs...
When New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) won an Emmy for his COVID press briefings back in November, no one knew how ironic the award would turn out to be. Three months later, Americans are finding out just how big of a performance Cuomo gave. A killer one, some would say. Now, knee-deep into a nursing home scandal that liberals are surprisingly silent about, we're learning just how much of an act his concern for New Yorkers really was.
They come with other girls, a woman inside the clinic explains, giggling like they're at the mall. Only they aren't at the mall. They're shopping for another gender. And Planned Parenthood is more than willing to oblige.
The first few weeks of Biden's presidency has seen the rollback of several Trump-era policies that put pressure on China. But while Chinese leaders may feel relieved, the United States has received nothing in return for the gradual easing of tensions.
They used to call it "retail therapy." But for conservatives, there's nothing therapeutic about walking the aisles of stores that want to shut down your speech, cancel your bank accounts, or send cents on every dollar to Marxist groups who despise America. In an age when conservatives can't turn on the TV, send their kids to school, check their Facebook feeds, or watch sports without being reminded about the wokeness of corporate extremists, it's no wonder they're fed up. And fed up -- Gallup warns -- is exactly what they are.
There were a lot of interesting storylines from the 2020 election that got lost in the mess of recounts and court cases. But now that some of the fog is clearing, and both parties have a chance to follow the trends, Republicans are coming face to face with a stunning development. It wasn't just minority voters that ran to Republicans last November. If you're looking for the sharpest dividing line in the country, it was in a place most pundits didn't look: marriage.
With election integrity concerns, a raging "cancel culture" on the prowl, and an administration in power with a clear agenda that is antithetical to biblical values, it's a challenging time to be a believer in America. So is it time to wave the white flag and throw in the towel? On the contrary, what became clear from last night's Pray Vote Stand townhall meeting held at Cornerstone Chapel in Leesburg, Virginia is that the time is now for all believers to dive headfirst into the battle for our country.
You might be a Leftist if you lay awake at night brainstorming which cherished American tradition to sabotage next. Back in November, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban suspended the playing of the national anthem before home games. Because stands sit empty due to coronavirus restrictions, nobody noticed until Tuesday.
If Joe Biden wants to tear down an institution like girls' sports, the least he could do is have a good explanation for it. After three weeks, he still doesn't. Instead, his administration stumbles its way through questions, clumsily trying to defend a defenseless policy that would destroy 50 years of women's progress. The worst example came Tuesday, when Jen Psaki -- a mom herself -- couldn't seem to understand why endangering our daughters was a bad idea.
As a late-night comic, Bill Maher has made a living making jokes at the expense of politicians, movie stars, and society's elite. As an avowed atheist, Maher has also routinely turned his comedic ire on people of faith. But after a recent monologue in which he referred to the recent attack on the U.S. Capitol as a "faith-based initiative" and described Christian theology as "magical religious thinking" and a "mass delusion," not many people are laughing.
A lot of people wondered what the Left would do without Donald Trump to kick around. Now we know: they'll follow him into private life and try to keep kicking him around. Now, like a bad habit they can't quit, Democrats are tossing aside every real issue facing America to take a second crack at impeaching a man who isn't even president. This time, though, their pathetic obsession with destroying Trump comes at a steeper price.
After months in court, two California churches achieved victories at the United States Supreme Court for themselves and churches around the nation. In a 6-3 decision released late last Friday, the high court enjoined California from enforcing the state's ban on indoor worship services. The pair of victories represent the latest wins for religious liberty since the outbreak of the coronavirus and subsequent lockdowns imposed by state and local governments.
In President Joe Biden's first major foreign policy speech last week, he took pains to emphasize that "America is back." Back to what, exactly? For now, that remains unknown, but several aspects of the speech are sure to raise eyebrows -- to say the least.
Don't miss Wednesday night's special Pray Vote Stand Townhall event -- live from Cornerstone Chapel in Leesburg, Virginia! If you're looking for hope in America, Pastor Gary Hamrick, Alliance Defending Freedom President and CEO Mike Farris, and I want to encourage you that there is a way forward in these challenging times. What is it? Tune in to PrayVoteStand.org at 7:30 p.m. (ET) on February 10th to find out.
Joe Biden learned a lot of things under Barack Obama -- but reaching across the aisle wasn't one of them. That's become quite apparent in the last week, as the new president charges ahead with a controversial COVID relief package that almost no Republicans support. Aides say the new president is trying to "avoid the missteps of the Obama years" -- but he's already repeating one of the biggest: talking about bipartisanship, but refusing to practice it.
Unfortunately for football fans, the political ads didn't end when the election did! The millions of people who tuned into Super Bowl LV found that out the hard way, thanks to companies like Jeep -- who tried to sell cars with condescending ads that tell the 74 million Americans who didn't vote for Joe Biden that the country's in much better shape, because liberals always know better.
On February 19, the Supreme Court will consider several lawsuits regarding the contested 2020 elections. These high-profile lawsuits, including those brought by attorneys Sidney Powell and Lin Wood, and the Trump campaign, will be considered for hearings at the Supreme Court's scheduled conference.
For spectators, it may be the most entertaining tradition in the U.S. Senate. The members either pretend to hate it or actually do, but the stories that come out of vote-a-ramas are legendary. Quirky and humanizing, the political all-nighters are painful for both parties, but they always seem to produce funny anecdotes like back-room poker games, stealth happy hours, regional food wars, and coffee -- lots of it. There are the iconic images -- like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) throwing pepperoni rolls at reporters in 2015 or the parade of mattresses wheeled in for sleepy senators in 2017. To everyone, it's about survival -- which usually means calories, caffeine, and cots.
Guess what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) made her top priority in this congressional session? If you said rigging the election system against Republicans, you'd be right! The very first bill that was introduced, H.R. 1, would do just that. Worse, it would usurp responsibility for regulating elections from state legislatures and give it to the same group of people who have used the same game plan to cement one-party rule in California (hint: it's not the Republicans).
The months ahead are going to test America and followers of Jesus, especially. But as Luke 18 urges, we must pray and not lose heart. We have to resolve to keep praying and standing until God gives justice. As believers, how do we navigate these challenging times? Next Wednesday, February 10, FRC is hosting a special, interactive Pray Vote Stand discussion to chart the way forward.
Sir Isaac Newton wasn't thinking about politics when he stumbled on the laws of motion. But physics, like politics, is about nature. And right now, Americans are responding to the liberal whiplash in a way that even science could predict: For every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. Joe Biden is pushing -- and America is pushing back.
"Go big!" says Joe Biden on COVID relief. Or is it "Go broke?" Americans are about to find out. In the meantime, the Wall Street Journal warns, this isn't about the pandemic at all. It's about turning a big crisis into even bigger government.
What does a 10-foot barricade around the Capitol communicate to the world? Wednesday night on our Pray Vote Stand broadcast, Congressman Ken Buck (R-Colo.) joined me to talk about the history of democracy's greatest building and what walling off the public would say about America. Later, Dr. Jim Garlow joined me to pray over the dangerous times our nation is facing -- and unpack what this fast erosion of freedom means for the church. Don't miss either conversation, available on demand below.
If the mess of 2020 accomplished anything, it was lighting a fire under conservative states. After weeks of election counting, recounting, and questions, more legislatures than ever are determined to stop Democrats from taking advantage of COVID again. Cheat-by-mail is going to end, they warn. And a record number of states are lining up to prove it.
The family structure among poor blacks, read the Department of Labor report, "is highly unstable, and in many urban centers is approaching complete breakdown." The year was 1965, and 25 percent of black children were born out of wedlock. Studies conclusively show that, on average, children who grow up in homes with a married mother and father grow up to have more education and income than children who don't.
Elections have real-life consequences. This is true for religious protections, which can vary greatly depending on the incumbent presidential administration. The Department of Justice (DOJ) was a fearless advocate for faith during the Trump administration. Now, only two weeks into the Biden administration, a prominent appointee to the DOJ is making it known that she considers standing up for faith "shameful."
Are there really enough credible threats in the nation's capital to justify a permanent, razor-wire fence? Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) says no. Listen in to our conversation from Tuesday's "Washington Watch" about the Democratic leadership's willingness to turn the Hill into a Capitol fortress.
According to Joe Biden, Democrats were supposed to be building bridges -- not walls! Tell that to his party's leaders, who are actually considering a plan to add a permanent, razor-wire fence around the Capitol complex. Despite major pushback from both parties, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) have told reporters that they'll "defer to the experts" when it comes to securing America's representatives -- even if it means turning the People's House into a supermax.
The Left's radical insanity is so contagious, even the most secluded school districts aren't immune. The latest casualty is the public school district in Ames, a community of 62,000 residents in central Iowa, hardly a hotbed of Leftist radicalism. But this week, in observance of African American history month, the Ames school district is sponsoring a "Black Lives Matter week of action," foisting on children such principles as "globalism," "queer affirming," and "trans affirming."
When President Biden was sworn in, he called for unity. As it turns out, his administration instead came bearing a sword (and a pen) instead. From school bathrooms to school sports, the Biden administration seems bent on a radical transgender agenda that ignores reason, science, and basic common sense. And sadly, women and children will be hardest hit.
Joe Biden insisted that his administration would "look like America." If that's true, most Americans are ready for an extreme makeover. A week and a half in, the majority would agree: nothing this White House has done comes even close to resembling their values. Instead, it's been a 13-day parade of far-Left extremism that's snuffed out any hope that this president's "whole soul" is actually in "bringing America together." What it's in, as far as the Washington Post can tell, is an LGBT agenda that will blow the doors off of modern convention.
The cancel culture likes a pushover. Unfortunately for them, they haven't found one in Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). The junior senator from Missouri has faced more criticism in 2021 than anyone but Donald Trump--and just like the 45th president, he's not giving an inch. And if his approval ratings are any indication, the vast majority of people respect him for it.
For someone who came late to his party's extremism, Joe Biden is already very good at it. The man who used to walk in the March for Life came full circle late last week, prying Americans' wallets open so that he could fund abortions overseas. To his supporters, it was good--but not enough. To his critics, it was even more motivation to fight back.
Like so many things about the last 10 months, Friday's March for Life didn't look quite the same. But just as the rain, sleet, and snow have never stopped pro-lifers from making the trek, a deadly pandemic didn't either. Hundreds still turned out to make the solemn walk to the Supreme Court, where they've prayed for 48 long years to end the violence of Roe v. Wade. Inside, sits a new justice who brings pro-lifers one step closer to that goal. Outside, hangs the dark cloud of the Biden administration, threatening to do everything in its power to stop her.
The coronavirus wasn't God's gift to the Left -- but it was a gift. And Democrats, after balloting chaos that handed them the keys to Congress and the White House, are hoping to make the mail-in process a little more permanent. Not on my watch, says new Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Banks (R-Ind.).
"Fund abortion, not cops!" That's what their signs said when activists burst into a Catholic mass in downtown Columbus and marched through the aisles. "Two, four, six, eight, this church teaches hate," they chanted as they rushed the pulpit where Bishop Robert Brennan was leading a day of prayer for the unborn. While a stunned congregation looked on, the police had to haul the women, pushing and shouting, from the sanctuary. A week into the investigation, most people want to know: can the rioters be charged with a crime? Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost says yes.
In a way, the Left's obsession with Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is a compliment. The mob doesn't waste its time with leaders who aren't true threats. And the Missouri conservative is a threat all right -- because regardless of what they call him, try to do to him, or take away from him, he's not backing down.
If you asked most people about Joe Biden in the 1980s, "abortion radical" is hardly a term they'd use to describe him. But the man who used to walk in the March for Life wouldn't even recognize himself now, sitting behind a desk in the Oval Office -- signing the death warrant of unborn children. Today, his evolution to the outer limits of his party was officially complete. By reopening America's wallets to abortion, his legacy as a moderate anything is permanently finished.
Good news isn't hard to come by if you look in the right place: the states. While Joe Biden is busy shredding everything from the military to free speech, plenty of local leaders are back in session, doing everything they can to stop this radicalism at their borders.
Praise Donald Trump -- get canceled. Praise Barack Obama -- get canceled. Raise your company's sales by 1,000 percent -- get censored. Welcome to the life of Goya CEO Bob Unanue. The conservative folk hero, who Americans rewarded for his conviction by sending profits through the roof, is back under fire -- this time from his own board of directors. Apparently, shattering company sales records doesn't matter if you don't have the right point of view.
Under Joe Biden, America won't just run out of oil -- it'll run out of ink! The new president has been so busy signing executive orders that he's probably at risk of carpal tunnel syndrome. Amazingly, the man who told George Stephanopoulos "you can't use executive orders unless you're a dictator," doesn't seem to have any use for the democratic process so far.
Democrats have never been the party of good behavior, despite what their current members will tell you. While their leadership tries to haul Donald Trump before the Senate for a second impeachment trial, most conservatives want to know: where was this civility four years ago? If it's criminal to suggest that people to figuratively "fight," then what about encouraging actual violence? If that's the new standard, then make room on the witness stand. Because the impeachment hearings are about to get a lot more crowded.
There are a lot of good conservatives in Congress -- even more after November -- but it takes a special kind of leader to show courage on the tough issues. Congressman Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) is one of those rare Republicans who doesn't mind speaking out when something is fundamentally wrong -- no matter what the Left calls him. When Joe Biden decided to radically compromise the military and wave in people who identify as transgender, the former Army ranger didn't hesitate. He stood up and called it wrong. He didn't care who else stood with him -- because doing what's right has always been more important to him than doing what's popular.
If the cancel culture thought they'd have a pushover in Mike Lindell, they were mistaken. The MyPillow founder has never lost any sleep over the Left's attacks -- and he doesn't plan to start now. When a handful of companies decided to drop the popular line over Mike's concerns over the 2020 election, he wasn't rattled. He just vowed to stand taller for any business who might be next.
Here's a sentence you'll never see on CNN: "President Joe Biden, hoping to stack his first 100 days with as many achievements as possible, has relied heavily on the use of executive orders." Or this: "While the orders have run the gamut from immigration to federal lands, they all offer Biden a key benefit: the ability to tout wins without going through the arduous legwork of working with Congress to pass legislation."
Bishop Robert Brennan of Columbus, Ohio, celebrated a Respect Life Mass last Friday on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Catholic parishioners gathered at St. Joseph Cathedral to peacefully worship and pray for the unborn and an end to abortion. However, an angry and incredibly disrespectful group of pro-abortion protesters interrupted the Mass to shout their support of abortion and protest the liturgy. The mob stormed the cathedral with signs bearing messages like "Abortion on Demand Now" and "Defund the Police. Fund Abortion." and chanted, "Two, four, six, eight, this church teaches hate."
If there was a honeymoon, it's over. Less than a week into the administration that isn't Donald Trump's, a surprising number of Americans are already regretting his replacement. Within hours of his swearing in, Joe Biden got right to work -- alienating core constituencies with his attacks on oil, energy, unions, jobs, and women. Industries that had lined up to support the Democrat were stunned. What happened to the moderate president they were promised? When Biden said he'd unite America, no one knew it would be against him.
As the nation commemorates the 48th anniversary of Roe v. Wade (the Supreme Court decision legalizing elective abortion nationwide in 1973), pro-life and pro-family Americans can take heart that their voices are still being heard in state capitals across the country. The "wave" election of pro-life Republicans in 2009 inaugurated a new era in pro-life state laws: More pro-life state laws have been enacted in the 11 years since that "wave" first took office in 2010 than in the previous 37 years since Roe.
Proving America's moral leadership on his last day in office, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo officially designated China's brutal actions against Uyghur Muslims as "genocide" and "crimes against humanity." This designation will make it difficult for anyone looking to go easy on China. The world cannot treat a government that is actively committing genocide just like that any other country.
Joe Biden hasn't said where he stands on packing the courts, but we know one thing he's willing to pack: Congress. While most people were focused on Biden's big-ticket actions on Wednesday, things like rejoining the Paris Climate Accord and transgendering America's bathrooms, the new president managed to slip one order through that could tilt the balance of the House and Electoral College for years. If you didn't care about Census policy before, trust me. You care about it now.
Democrats may have manipulated state election laws in 2020, but they'll have a much harder time doing it now -- if Pennsylvania has anything to say about it. In some of the best news of year so far, Republicans from the Keystone State are vowing to completely overhaul the mail-in ballot system that may have wrongly handed Joe Biden the presidency.
In the competition for "wokest school system of all," Illinois just might be the winner. But be warned, parents in the other 49 states, it's coming for you too.
There've been plenty of issues over the last year and a half where Democrats have had to "bring Joe Biden along." Whether it was the Hyde amendment, socialized medicine, or religious tests, the Democrat had to move several clicks to the Left to meet the party's radical new standard. That was never the case with the LGBT agenda. In fact, you could make the argument that when it comes to things like transgenderism, it's Biden doing the pulling. And his first day behind the Resolute Desk proved it.
In normal times, Victor Davis Hansen agreed, talking about America's founding wouldn't be controversial. But these are not normal times. And the fierce reaction to President Trump's 1776 project proves it.
The Washington Post will have a lot more time on its hands now that Joe Biden has been sworn in. According to the paper's spokesperson, they can call off their whole fact-checking operation. Apparently, it's not necessary now that their preferred party is in office.
It wasn't the scene many of us had hoped for, but the view of the National Mall on Wednesday morning was still striking. The field of flags, waving in the sun, looked unmistakably hopeful -- a sign that what happened on that lawn two weeks ago would never be the end of the story. America, for all of its faults and passions, would keep standing. And the peaceful transfer of power that's distinguished this nation for centuries would go on -- however disappointing its final outcome may be.
Conservatives aren't the only ones with a wary eye on Washington today. With a new administration comes fresh uncertainty for millions of people abroad. For four years, persecuted believers of all faiths have had an ally in the White House -- a president who made it his personal mission to lift minorities out of fear and chains, to give them a voice when the rest of the world looked away. What will they have in Joe Biden? Many are scared to find out.
Before conservatives get too depressed about the upcoming year, there are plenty of things President Trump did for America that an army of liberals can't change. Two hundred of them are sitting in America's courtrooms. And as one ruling after another keeps reminding us, they may be a more formidable foe than Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were counting on.
The liberal media can't stand the heat, so they're telling conservatives to get out of the newsroom! The latest target? The hugely popular alternative to Fox News, Newsmax. Hear how the radicals are trying to shut down the successful outlet with CEO Christopher Ruddy on Tuesday's "Washington Watch."
When frustrated people decided to take things into their own hands January 6th, a lot of Americans got hurt. There were the actual victims -- the men and women who lost their lives and others who were injured. But because of the Left's double standard there were also good and decent Americans who will have to live with the fallout of what happened, even if they had nothing to do with it and even condemned the lawlessness. Some were there -- like the peaceful protestors who desperately wanted to be counted.
Reeducation camps. Deprogramming. Where have we heard those before? Oh, right. Communist China -- and now, apparently, Katie Couric. The far-Left darling of the mainstream media may be retired, but she doesn't mind joining the liberal press in its call for punishing members of Congress who questioned the election results. "They've bought into this big lie," she insisted on "Real Time with Bill Maher," and they bought into this big lie. And the question is how are we going to really almost deprogram these people who have signed up for the cult of Trump."
It's been a long time since Planned Parenthood had such a good friend in the White House. And CEO Alexis McGill Johnson is making sure they cash in on every moment.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day came at the perfect time for our nation this year, as we struggle to make sense of the worst divides since segregation. What can the church do to bridge gap? Is unity even possible at this point? Kelvin Cochran joined me on "Washington Watch" to look back at what Dr. King would have to say about both.
He only flew to Seattle once. It was early November of 1961 -- two years before the young civil rights leader would give one of the most famous speeches in history. At just 32, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. hadn't won his Nobel prize or written his letter from a Birmingham jail, but word of the influential pastor had spread. Out west, thousands of miles away from the powder keg of boycotts and unrest, things may have been calmer, but plenty of people were still hostile to King's message. They thought it was too radical, too revolutionary. So, they did what the forces of bitter intolerance have perfected today: they canceled him.
Now that some of the shock of the last two weeks is starting to wear off, most Americans have the same question: can we actually pick up the pieces and move on? With 80 percent of the country worried the nation is falling apart, there's a lot of concern that nation's days are numbered. These are the times when the only way forward is looking back and rallying around the principles that made America exceptional in the first place. Luckily for us, there's a day this weekend that gives all of us the chance to do just that.
According to the latest undercover video of CEO Jack Dorsey from Project Veritas, Twitter plans to censor even more conservatives. "This is going to be much bigger than just one account [Donald Trump's, which they permanently suspended], and it's going to go on for much longer than just this day, this week, and the next few weeks, and go beyond the inauguration... I don't believe this is going away anytime soon," said Dorsey.
Wasting away in a Turkish prison wasn't how Andrew Brunson would have chosen to spend two years of his life -- but after watching turmoil of the last two weeks unfold, he's more convinced than ever: God was preparing him for this moment. Persecution is coming, he believes. And there's no greater burden on his heart than to make sure Americans are ready for it.
"Nobody knows." That's the refrain One America News network's John Hines says he got over and over again on Wednesday. What was the point of impeachment? Nobody knows. What happens now? Nobody knows. "I've asked probably a dozen lawmakers why the Democrats would do this -- a second time -- before President Trump leaves office. They don't know. [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi may not even know." Most people can only come up with one answer for the spectacle on the Hill, and that's spite.
For most of us, the last week has felt like a lifetime. In the course of eight days, we've lost the Senate and an election challenge, watched as angry people stormed the Capitol and equally angry leaders impeached the president. We've seen the crushing of our voice, the silencing of our freedoms, and felt the wave of corporate punishment start to roll across the country. Americans are so badly shaken that 80 percent of them think the country is falling apart. And church leaders, political leaders, and Christians aren't far behind.
Every day, 12 churches or Christian buildings are attacked. Every day, 12 Christians are unjustly arrested or imprisoned and another five or abducted. These are the findings of Open Doors' 2021 World Watch List, a report which identifies the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. Whether by violent attacks from non-state actors or government regulations, Christians face severe impediments to the free practice of their faith in many places around the world. As threats to religious freedom mount, it is important to know the challenges believers face around the world.
Liberals are nothing if not reliable. It's been 13 years since Barack Obama's chief of staff sat down with ABC and declared, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." Rahm Emanuel's party has lived and died by those words through two administrations, taking advantage of every situation to push an agenda that no one would even consider under normal circumstances.
Twitter is opposed to government's restricting speech; maybe it is because they don't want competition. In a development that is adding more fuel to the fires against Big Tech, Jack Dorsey's company made the astonishingly bad PR move to tweet about the situation in Uganda.
There aren't many areas of consensus in Congress, but thank goodness Big Tech reform is one of them. Democrats may go along with the theatrics of banning President Trump from Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook for now, but once the dust settles, liberals are just as gung-ho on breaking up the monopoly as anyone.
For most Americans, there hasn't really been time to stop and process what happened at the Capitol last Wednesday. Instead, we're just trying to survive, fighting off daily waves of crackdown and retribution -- punishment for a crime the vast majority of conservatives didn't commit or condone. The people in power, the same ones who called the summer riots "the American Way," are coming for our rights, our speech, even our livelihoods. Who will be left standing? If history is any indication -- we will.
If the Jeff Bezoses of the world want to shut conservatives down, they're in for quite a fight. Twitter rival Parler, who is still reeling from being booted off Bezos's Amazon web service Saturday, is headed to court with a case that could rattle Big Tech's big plans. "Parler will be back," investor Dan Bongino vowed. "I will go bankrupt and destitute before I let this happen."
The new Congress has only been sworn in for eight days, and Democrats have already made a mess of their first week. "One of President Trump's biggest flaws is not knowing when to stop," Michael Goodwin pointed out. But the far-Left's latest impeachment stunt makes it clear: that's one thing they all have in common.
All they needed was an opening. And for the rich extremists at the helm of the West's social media, last Wednesday's riot gave them one. The purging of conservative expression has begun. We knew it was coming -- just as we've always known it will take every one of us to stop it.
"With the campaign over," Joe Biden has insisted, "it's time to put the anger and harsh rhetoric behind us." You first, several Republicans are saying. After a week of turmoil and partisanship, it seems the president-elect is no more willing to abandon his name-calling ways than his friends on the far-Left.
When all else fails, look to the states. That's where hope is in abundance. Despite a difficult start to 2021, pro-life leaders are keeping their heads down and focusing on what they can do to affect change. In Kentucky, that's translated into an encouraging start to the short legislative session, especially where the unborn are concerned.
It was only a matter of time until a book about corporate tyranny found itself shut down by -- you guessed it -- a corporation. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who has led many efforts in Congress to hold technology companies accountable, felt the full weight of the cancel culture this week when the contracted publisher of his forthcoming book, The Tyranny of Big Tech, refused to publish.
Miracle Hill Ministries in South Carolina is one of that state's oldest and largest foster care providers, gladly serving every child it can. The ministry is also faith-based, and reflects its beliefs in the way it operates. In the closing hours of the Obama administration, HHS had issued a regulation that threatened to violate the religious freedom of such faith-based groups. This eventually happened, and in 2018 Miracle Hill was threatened with the loss of federal funding unless it modified its beliefs and the way it operated. But by that time, the Trump administration had since taken power, and HHS granted Miracle Hill a waiver from the requirements.
While the last few years have exposed mounting international religious freedom crises, one country that shined a ray of hope was Sudan. After its long-reigning former dictator, Omar al-Bashir, was finally deposed in 2019, a new transitional government began enacting radical reforms -- an answer to the prayers of Sudanese Christians. Yet, challenges for Christians in Sudan remain, and ought not be ignored.
This country has seen some dark days. There have been moments of unbelievable despair, like we witnessed at the Capitol, when everything seems to come apart at the seams. Those are the hours when the hopelessness we see looks nothing like the nation we thought we knew. Yet, in almost 250 years, even the worst of times have never defined us. And we can't afford to let this one either.
There's a lot more to this country than the White House and Congress. In fact, in this fog of fury and disillusionment, one of the greatest untold stories of 2020 is just how much conservatives stand to gain from what they did in the states on November 3rd. If you're looking for silver linings after this week -- and I don't know anyone who isn't -- take a trip to the Republican states. Thanks to voters, that'll take a while -- because there are a lot more now than ever.
It only took a few hours early Wednesday morning for Hong Kong police officers to arrest over 50 people connected to the pro-democracy movement, search 76 places, and freeze $200,000 in assets. Utilizing a national security law designed as a tool to crack down on those who disagree with the policies of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, the mass arrests mark a new era for Hong Kong.
Calm is beginning to return to Capitol Hill after lawlessness and violence broke out earlier this afternoon. The violence at the U.S. Capitol building against Congress and Capitol Police is wrong and dangerous for our republic. Lawlessness is not the way, and such actions makes it difficult for law-abiding Americans to fight the good fight. Pray for our republic!
When things started looking bleak on the morning of November 4th, conservatives held tightly to one comfort: At least we have the Senate. Two long and punishing months later, even that consolation is slipping away. Barring a last-minute surge for Senator David Perdue (R-Ga.), Republicans -- despite truly incredible gains in the House -- are on the verge of two tough years in the minority. It isn't the script any of us would have written for the country we love. But as those of us who've lived through the long arc of this movement know: it isn't the closing chapter either.
Americans may be saying goodbye to President Trump later this month, but his presence will still be larger-than-life in another branch of government: the courts. Almost every day, there's another headline reminding both sides what an amazing judicial legacy the 45th president is leaving behind. And with Congress very nearly in Democratic hands, that's no small prize.
No one would mistake CNN as a champion of Christianity, but Chris Cuomo's latest diatribe against Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) crosses a line -- even for them. Maybe the network bosses have decided they don't want the big slice of viewership that the church represents. If not, then they've got an uphill climb proving otherwise, especially when they let their junkyard dogs use their airtime to attack faith.
How dramatically did Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg change the 2020 election? The Facebook billionaire's influence, bought through $350 million in political grants, stretched to 2,500 jurisdictions and paid for ballot drop boxes, polling station employees, neighborhood harvesting, and other key decision-making. Did it tilt the outcome? Thomas More Society's Phill Kline joined us on "Washington Watch" to unpack one of the most disturbing, untold stories from last November.
If the U.S. government were hiring a company to run our elections, Facebook is the last place most of us would turn. For starters, they haven't proven they support free speech -- let alone free elections. Then there's the inherent bias. Just last November, CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted under oath that his "employee base skews Left-leaning." So the idea that America would hand over the keys to the 2020 election to him -- or any other Big Tech mogul -- is horrifying. But, the money trail shows, that's exactly what 2,500 local jurisdictions did. And now, the entire nation is paying for it.
For months, Democrats have been the riot party -- the tear-down-statues, vandalize-memorials, loot-small-businesses, and burn-everything-else voice in America. In Washington, D.C. in June, fires blazed up and down the National Mall, and what was the liberal mayor's response? To send our national guardsmen packing. Now, six months later, the president's supporters are coming to town. And what is Mayor Muriel Bowser's (D) response? Send back-up!
One of the very first things Joe Biden has promised to do as president is abolish girls' sports. It's a ludicrous thing to make a priority, but the former Obama VP insists -- like most liberals -- that "transgender equality is the civil rights issue of our time." It's the fair thing to do, Biden argues. But is it? New research in the British Journal of Sports Medicine says no.
Joint sessions of Congress are usually perfunctory, formal events. But so far, nothing about Wednesday's gathering of the House and Senate is shaping up to be ordinary. When the results of the Electoral College are presented to Congress, they're usually certified without much controversy. That won't be the case this year when more than 150 Republicans have vowed to take the loudest stand against election fraud in U.S. history.
House Democrats sure didn't waste any time sparking controversy. The 117th Congress had barely been gaveled in when Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) decided to stir the pot with a "prayer" that has several Americans wondering what, exactly, our country is in for under this leadership. In a word, the Washington Times warned: godlessness.
According to a recent Gallup poll, there are few things that Americans are more united about than celebrating Christmas. Ninety-five percent of Americans celebrate the holiday with even 85 percent of non-religious Americans observing one of the two most important holidays for the Christian faith. But as you might expect, the unity begins to fade as the focus shifts to the story of the manger. According to Pew Research, only 57 percent actually believe the key elements of the Christmas story. Sixty-six percent believe Jesus was born to a virgin, 75 percent believe he was laid in a manger, 67 percent agree angels announced his birth, and 68 percent believe a star guided the wise men to the Messiah.
On December 16, the Trump administration's Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the University of Vermont Medical Center (UVMMC) for violating federal conscience protections known as the Church Amendments. DOJ is suing UVMMC for discriminating against multiple employees who stated that they did not wish to participate in abortions because of their religious beliefs.
A series of stories this week highlights the incoherence and danger of the arguments coming out of transgender activism.
Despite being only a few days away from Christmas vacation, the Trump administration continues to follow through on its commitment to life and religious liberty, with nine different federal agencies finalizing a joint rule this week providing for fair and equal treatment for religious groups in federal programs. HHS Secretary Alex Azar joined me yesterday on "Washington Watch" to discuss his department's participation in this rule.
As Americans peruse store aisles and websites in search of Christmas gifts this year, many may not be aware of a sinister and growing problem with the products they are buying: if it was made in China, there's a good chance that it was produced through slave labor.
Elections have consequences, and so do lawsuits. In response to the Archdiocese of Washington's lawsuit against D.C.'s church restrictions, Mayor Muriel Bowser eased restrictions on church capacity in the nation's capital. This welcome change comes just in time for more people to attend Mass for Christmas, one of the holiest days of the year. People should not be forced by the mayor to stay home to celebrate our Lord's birth -- especially when people are able to go eat and drink at a local restaurant for the holiday.
The disruption wrought by the coronavirus pandemic has affected nearly every aspect of American life including school, work, entertainment, and even worship. While many leaders have tried to address concerns over public health while maintaining civil liberty, some overzealous authorities have exploited the pandemic by unfairly discriminating against churches. However, a series of recent decisions from the Supreme Court suggest the tide is finally turning in the fight to preserve religious freedom in America.
With school shutdowns, logistical complexities with online classes, and rampant uncertainty due to the coronavirus, it's been a monumentally difficult year for students, their parents, and teachers. But there has been a silver lining in all of this: more and more parents are having their eyes opened to the leftist agenda that has embedded itself in many of our nation's public schools.
Yesterday, after nine long months of praying for an end to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sarah Lindsey -- a critical-care nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens -- received the first coronavirus vaccination. While the distribution of this vaccine is a sign of hope for many, the hyper-political climate in which it was created has caused moral, ethical, and medical concerns surrounding the vaccine.
Once again, liberal leaders are trying to restrict the religious freedom of religious adherents -- this time at one of the holiest times of the year. Washington, D.C. is still restricting indoor worship services to only 50 people, regardless of the size of the church. The Archdiocese of Washington is fighting back.
BBC reporters recently traveled to what is now one of the most secretive places on earth -- the Xinjiang region of China. As the film crew tried to capture what the Chinese government insists are "vocational training centers," Chinese authorities prevented them from recording, intensely questioned them, and proceeded to trail them closely. If these facilities are truly benign, why make such an effort to hide them?
The D.C. mayor's office is only a half-mile from the National Archives. If Muriel Bowser (D) ever made that trek, she might have a better grasp on the U.S. Constitution. It's right there for everyone to read, including the First Amendment, which warns leaders like her against infringing on the free exercise of religion -- something her COVID rules have done to every believer in the nation's capital. Now, one of the holiest days of the year approaching, Catholic leaders are done with the unfair treatment. And they're taking her to court to prove it.
While California, New York, and other states have gone off the deep end on coronavirus restrictions, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam (D) has been unusually quiet. That changed Thursday, when the radical leader broke his silence with a slew of new rules. And, like every other liberal leader, he didn't mind shaming churches in the process.
America's college campuses have been a problem for years, but lately, for reasons no one is talking about. The Chinese Communist Party is here, Secretary Mike Pompeo warned -- and they're hiding in the shadows of our liberal schools.
Like every other radical group hoping to cash in from a Joe Biden presidency, the Secular Democrats for America have come forward with a blueprint of their own (Emphasis on the word blue.) Claiming to be the fastest growing non-religious religious group, they're demanding a seat at the administration's table to dismantle 240 years of American freedom. Will they get it? Under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, anything is possible.
The biggest fraud of the 2020 election had nothing to do with ballots or voting machine or even liberal officials. This election was rigged by something else entirely: Big Tech. And now, days before the results are even certified, Silicon Valley is making it clear -- they aren't done.
If Joe Biden wins the presidency because state officials ignored their own laws, it won't just be Donald Trump who's lost -- it'll be the people of Texas, Alabama, South Carolina, Florida, and so many others who've lost their right to be represented. Those voters deserve to be heard. And thanks to 18 state attorneys general, they might finally get the chance.
It's usually Rep. Rosa DeLauro's (D-Conn.) purple hair that gets people's attention. But lately, she's being noticed for something else: her adamance that taxpayers fund abortion. DeLauro, who's next in line to chair the House Appropriations Committee, made no bones about her priority at Tuesday's hearing, declaring that the 44-year-old Hyde Amendment was as good as gone if Democrats get their way. Don't bother stopping us, liberals warned, or everyone will know -- pro-lifers are racist.
Thanks to coronavirus, collecting the offering is tough -- but cashing in your chips isn't! That's the state of play in Nevada, where pastors are struggling to fill their pews under the governor's unfair COVID rules. If you run a casino, you can pack it out. But if you want to worship God in a 1,000-seat sanctuary, you have to limit it to 50 people -- or else.
Turns out, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) does a better job selling Goya than her radical agenda! According to the company's CEO, her boycott of the brand was the gift no one saw coming. When the House socialist vowed to stop buying Goya because Robert Unanue visited the Trump White House, he said his sales increased 1,000-percent! It was such a boon to business, Unanue chuckled, that the company gave her an honorary "Employee of the Month" award. Take that cancel culture!
This year's Christmas break will be a little different for schools. A lot of students are already home -- and liberal governors are working overtime to send more there, senators warn.
After the latest massacre in Nigeria, the United States isn't waiting a single minute to respond. In a bold move, the State Department has decided to declare the country -- "a broken and bloodstained Nigeria," as FRC's Lela Gilbert calls it -- a Country of Particular Concern.
In the middle of a global pandemic, you'd think health officials would have better things to do than mask checks at empty churches. Well, think again, says Rev. Dr. Dennis Jackman. It didn't matter that he was working in his office alone. The last time he answered the door of the church without his face covered, it almost cost him $5,000. Do it again, the government told him, and they'd shut down his church -- indefinitely.
According to NASDAQ, what happens in the bedroom now matters in the board room! In a bombshell announcement, the stock exchange is threatening to drop companies who don't meet certain LGBT, race, and gender quotas on their boards of directors. It's the latest shoe to drop in the march to trample the free market and replace it with woke activism. And if Joe Biden is president, they'll have their best shot at success yet.
Over the weekend, the formation of a new Methodist denomination was announced during an online worship service hosted by former and current Methodist church leaders. According to organizers, the Liberation Methodist Connexion (LMX), as the group will be called, is a socially progressive denomination that will reimage what it means to follow Jesus. But even a cursory review of the new denomination reveals nothing close to orthodox Christianity and something more akin to a Marxist, LGBT-pride.
Americans aren't the only ones concerned about a Biden administration. Persecuted people all around the world have a lot to lose if Donald Trump isn't reelected. Just this past week, a Uyghur leader bluntly said that a liberal president would be a nightmare for the suffering minorities in China. "We're actually quite worried, I'll be honest with you."
Apart from the elections and coronavirus, nothing has taken 2020 more by storm than racial tension. The death of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor has led to violence in the streets, the toppling of statues, the renaming of schools and universities -- and in many corners of the country, a fierce emphasis on Critical Race Theory. What is it and why should we care? Dr. Owen Strachan joined me on "Washington Watch" to explain.
If Joe Biden wants a radical cabinet, he'll have to get through the Senate first. How hard will that be? Find out in my "Washington Watch" interview with Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.).
Patriot. Friend. Teacher. Student. Husband. Father. Legendary thinker. Christ follower. That's how FRC's Ken Blackwell describes his good friend Walter Williams, who the world lost this week at the age of 84. To understand the legacy he left behind, don't miss Ken's tribute in CNS News, "Walter Williams -- A Warrior for Liberty."
No one could have predicted the twists and turns of this election, but Donald Trump was certainly right about one thing: his deeply religious base was going to rewrite the record books. Back in January, talking to a group of evangelicals, he predicted that as high as their turnout was in 2016, Christian conservatives would "blow those numbers away in 2020." And boy, did they.
Where are the real journalists? Certainly not in Pennsylvania, where one of the most jaw-dropping hearings in state history just took place. Most Americans haven't heard a word about it, which is no great mystery since the media is doing everything it can to make the election results look squeaky clean. The reality, Paul Kengor warns, is anything but. And a 570,000 ballot dump is a major reason why.
Most conservatives would love to be a fly on the wall of CNN's internal morning call. Now, thanks to James O'Keefe's latest sting operation, they can be! The Project Veritas founder spent two months listening into the network's anti-Trump meetings. And what he heard is exactly what you'd expect from a pillar of the fake news community: liberal propaganda masquerading as journalism.
They should have been in the fields working. Instead, the village men, shoulders sagging, were plowing the ground for something else: graves. Stretchers, filled with the bodies of their Nigerian sons and brothers, lay spread out in quiet rows -- the gruesome proof of a war that won't go away.
While the media's looking ahead to January, some states are still trying to sort out what happened in November. No one is busier than Georgia, where election officials aren't just working through two Senate runoffs but a critical presidential recount. If anyone doubted Georgia's political importance before, trust me: they aren't doubting it now. With one congressional chamber in the balance -- and the possible fate of Trump's legal challenge -- this one is for all the marbles.
Are super stores the super spreader? That's the question El Paso Mayor Dee Margo is asking. In a Texas city that's been so ravaged by the virus that they've had to bring in mobile morgues, Margo thinks it's time people take a long hard look at the data. While everyone's trying to shut down churches, the real culprit might be an industry no one's bothered to regulate.
While most Americans were at home prepping for the big day, nine Supreme Court justices were still at the office Wednesday night, cooking up something else: a rebuke of New York City's COVID restrictions. In her coming out party, new Justice Amy Coney Barrett made her presence felt -- casting the tie-breaking vote that only solidified the working mom's standing as a rock-solid defender of religious freedom.
Barack Obama may have written a book called The Promised Land, but if his latest comments are any indication, he won't be leading the Democratic Party there any time soon. In trying to explain how Donald Trump could have captured such a big slice of the Hispanic vote, the former president managed to reaffirm to everyone why they're leaving the party in the first place.
Antifa isn't feeling thankful, in case you were wondering. While the rest of the country ate turkey and watched football, the Left's army of fascists celebrated the day the only way they know how: looting and rioting. In Oregon, where Governor Kate Smith (D) threatened to jail Thanksgiving revelers, the irony is: there wasn't room. Police stations were too busy booking the mob.
At the end of a difficult year like 2020, giving thanks may not come very naturally to many of us. Some of us have lost loved ones due to the coronavirus, while others have lost their livelihoods due to an economic downturn or to the destruction of property from rioters. Even if we haven't been directly affected by illness or death from the pandemic or from job loss, we have all had to deal with mounting uncertainties.
When pro-lifers are counting their blessings this Thanksgiving, they can add something else to the list: the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. In another win for President Trump's legacy on judges, the full Fifth Circuit gave the green light to three states to defund Planned Parenthood in Medicaid. Texas and Louisiana had been fighting to cut ties with the abortion giant for years -- only to be slapped down by the courts. Now, thanks to four new Trump judges, the bench had just enough common sense to give state leaders that right.
Legislative bans on sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) -- usually, but not exclusively, targeted at therapy for minors offered by licensed mental health providers -- have spread from California to 19 other states, as well as dozens of municipalities, since 2012. These bills are a shocking and unprecedented assault upon freedom of speech and religion, as well as upon ethical principles such as client autonomy and client-therapist privacy.
When the call came, the mom of three was concerned -- but not enough to get dressed. She reported to the police station in her slippers, she remembers, telling her children she would be right back. She wasn't. After a brutal interrogation at the Chinese precinct, her world went dark. Covered in a black hood, Zumrat Duwat felt the shackles clamp her feet and hands, and she knew: the promise she made to her family -- like so many Uyghurs before her -- would be broken. Zumrat was not coming home, and there was nothing she or anyone else could do.
Planned Parenthood doesn't just believe you should be able to target certain babies for abortion. They're willing to go to court to guarantee it. Fortunately for the "imperfect" children they want to discard, judges for the 6th Circuit aren't quite so eager to end babies' lives just because they aren't "up to society's standards." That's not health care -- that's eugenics.
Have cheaters prospered in the 2020 election? Almost half of America says yes (including a third of Democrats!). But there's one thing almost every voter agrees on: getting to the bottom of whatever fraud there is -- and making sure it doesn't happen again.
Even if Donald Trump isn't in the White House for the next four years, he's leaving the next president with a whole lot to remember him by. As the days tick on, more liberals are starting to realize that even if Joe Biden wins, upending all that Trump did will be a much harder climb than many people thought. The roots of this administration's policy run deep, and pulling them up will be a long, difficult slog--if the Democrat can manage it at all.
Contesting an election is no easy feat--especially when state Democrats are changing the rules as they go along! In Wisconsin, where President Trump trails Joe Biden by 20,608 votes (0.6 of a point), it made sense to pay the money and ask for a recount. After all, the race is close, and the Badger State has had its share of irregularities. But what if the biggest irregularity is how the election commission is acting?
In Oregon, you can have cocaine, but not cranberries. Heroin, but no ham. Meth, but not mashed potatoes! Amazingly, a state that just legalized drugs wants to criminalize Thanksgiving! Talk about a double helping of hypocrisy--just in time for the holidays.
All week, we've heard about how Big Tech is destroying free speech, influencing the election, and shutting down debate. But what if the dangers are even greater? What if one of the biggest threats Twitter, Facebook, and Google pose isn't just to the public square -- but to the public health? Could Big Tech be the new Big Tobacco? And if it is, can the government treat it as such?
Donald Trump has been a unique president for a lot of reasons, but one in particular: he keeps his promises. Anyone who's seen Joe Biden's priorities has to be praying he doesn't. They make Hillary Clinton, who ran on the most extreme platform of any candidate in history, look like a Sunday School teacher. And unfortunately, Biden's agenda isn't a collection of radical policies we think he'll push. These are things he's said he'll do. And as CNS News's Terry Jeffrey points out, it's a terrifying list.
Monica Palmer didn't expect to pick up the phone and hear President Trump on the other line. But after the last 48 hours, the Wayne County Republican had become a household name in Michigan -- and beyond -- when word leaked out about how badly she and her family had been harassed. "He was checking to make sure I was safe after seeing/hearing about the threats and doxxing," she explained. But he might have to check in again, now that Palmer is doing her best to reverse her vote and stop the certification.
While the world's eyes are still on America, the Trump administration is busy building on its religious freedom record abroad. Find out what the State Department is up to in this exclusive interview with Ambassador Sam Brownback.
For more on the coronavirus and the opportunity the church has to impact the debate, don't miss my interview with the CBN.
"Smaller companies don't have the resources" to "prevent the next Trump situation," a Big Tech exec said to an undercover reporter last summer. Google, Twitter, and Facebook, she bragged, do. One year, thousands of censored posts, and a presidential election later, Americans are starting to understand just how far Big Tech will go to manipulate the democratic process.
Can liberal party officials actually harass Republicans into certifying county election results? It looks that way in Michigan, where a sudden decision to formalize Wayne County's tally has onlookers shaking their heads. For days, the two parties were at loggerheads, voting 2-2 to keep the results from being finalized. That all changed overnight -- and now, we may know why: the GOP canvassers and their families were threatened, doxxed, and shamed.
In the House, where the Democrats lead is looking slimmer every day, a strong Republican leadership team will be crucial to keeping the Left in check these next two years. Fortunately, the party announced Tuesday that it had elected an all-star team, promoting some of our good friends and keeping other watchdogs of faith, family, and freedom in their posts.
If there's a resolution to the presidential race by January, don't expect the country's anxiety level to drop. Two of the most important races in Senate history could be teed up for a runoff five days after New Year's. What's on the ballot in Georgia? Only the future of the Supreme Court, the Electoral College, and the sanctity of the U.S. Constitution. As far as Democrats like Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) are concerned, "[First] we take Georgia, then we change the world."
In the only other contested election Americans have to compare this to, George W. Bush won the presidency by 537 Florida votes. So imagine everyone's surprise when Georgia officials stumbled on five times that number of ballots in Floyd County. "The reason you do an audit is to find this kind of thing," Gabriel Sterling told reporters after the 2,600 uncounted votes turned up. But just how many of "these kinds of things" are happening in states that we don't know about? That's the question Americans deserve an answer to.
Joe Biden hasn't officially won the election, but his long "dark winter" may already be here. With the new spike in coronavirus cases hitting certain areas of the country, governors and state officials have rushed to force Americans back inside for the foreseeable future. A wave of new restrictions is coming down hard in places like Chicago, New York, New Jersey, and California -- affecting, not just normal activities, but the holidays too.
They flooded downtown D.C. holding patriotic flags and signs, a mass of Americans filling the streets to show their support for the president. The media would ignore them, of course -- but the sea of Million MAGA marchers, like the dozens of campaign rallies leading up to the election, would be hard to overlook. Chants of "Count every vote!" rang out -- a cry echoed in courtrooms across the states, where the Trump campaign fights on.
If money talks, then it's telling an interesting story about the 2020 election. Most conservatives already knew -- or maybe even experienced -- Big Tech's censorship. It's the world's worst kept secret that the CEOs of Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Amazon are hard-core liberal activists. But what about their employees? Is there more political diversity in the rank and file who fulfill your Prime orders and help spit out search results? According to the latest campaign spending reports, the answer is a resounding no.
It's no wonder our children are confused about their gender, since even the dictionary can't define it! In an announcement that will make people's heads swim, Oxford University Press agreed to change the meaning the word "woman" and "man" -- because of an online petition! Incredibly, some of the most respected lexicographers in the world have thrown in the towel, caving to cries that certain words should be more "gender neutral." And dictionaries, Apple TV makes clear, are just the tip of the iceberg.
On November 12, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) held a joint press conference calling for the passage of the Heroes Act. The Senate, House, and White House have been dealing with this far-left bill for months, but Schumer claims that the results from the 2020 election prove the necessity of passing the Heroes Act as a "starting point" on a new round of coronavirus relief legislation.
How far does the Left want to go to cancel opposing viewpoints? Far enough to deprive citizens of their constitutional right to legal representation, apparently. Recently, a $500,000 negative ad campaign has been launched against law firms that are representing President Trump in his claims of voting irregularities and possible fraud in the various swing states.
In a keynote speech before the Federalist Society convention this week, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito provided a stark reminder of the need to consistently be on guard to defend our freedoms, observing that "[t]he [coronavirus] pandemic has resulted in previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty."
FRC's policy experts covered multiple angles of the 2020 election in a series of recent op-eds. Don't miss Joseph Backholm's Why the Left Lost the Election Even if Biden Wins the White House at Townhall, Mary Beth Waddell's Pro-Life Women Won Big on Election Night at CNS News, and Katherine Beck Johnson's Election 2020 showed Republicans that it pays to be bold at the Washington Examiner.
"The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has violated the U.S. Constitution," said Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry. General Landry, my state attorney general, joined me on "Washington Watch" yesterday. He was part of ten state attorneys general who filed a brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Pennsylvania court's ruling.
At the time of this writing, it has been almost 220 hours since the polls closed on Election Night 2020. Since then, we still do not have a clear winner in the race for president. As hundreds of thousands, even millions, of ballots have been counted in the days since Election Day, Americans are settling into two very different assumptions about the election results. The first sees record high turnout, welcomes the profligate use of mail-in ballots, and Joe Biden as a decisive victor in the right number of battleground states.
"God has to send a spiritual awakening into America," Pastor Carter Conlon said during a special Pray Vote Stand prayer event last night. "There has to be a mercy moment in America where God's people come back again into his house, [and] like the Prodigal Son, we literally come to ourselves and say 'What have we done?'" FRC President Tony Perkins hosted the event in order to pray in a special way for honesty and integrity in our election system, patience and civility among our citizens, and justice and righteousness in the outcome of the election.
At a time when our nation's focus is directed inward amidst domestic turmoil surrounding the presidential election, political polarization, and the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, it can be easy to overlook Veterans Day. These days, stories about our armed forces during a time when our foreign military engagement remains low aren't making the headlines.
Despite what the media says, the 2020 presidential election is far from decided. According to the preliminary vote counts, Joe Biden is leading slightly in several states that are the key to the Electoral College.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made headlines this week when he was asked about transitioning to a Biden administration in January and cheekily responded, "There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration."
Four years after trying to sabotage Donald Trump's candidacy, the Senate Judiciary Committee is still trying to get to the bottom of the FBI's involvement. Was the Russian collusion hoax just an excuse for the agency to spy on the campaign? Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) took on former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe in a fact-finding hearing and stopped by "Washington Watch" to talk about it.
Many Americans are rightly concerned about fairness and honesty in the ongoing vote counts in the 2020 election. As irregularities are being uncovered and investigated, we must pray that discrepancies -- whether intentional or inadvertent -- will be revealed and that disputed races will be settled with righteousness and justice.
The media must be awfully forgiving. After four years of hammering home how suspect our election process is -- how vulnerable it is to meddling and interference -- they're suddenly comfortable with it. What happened to the talking heads who insisted that tech glitches had impacted the Midwest votes in 2016? Or that our online systems had been hacked? Like magic, their suspicions have vanished. Now, despite six states' worth of questions and a mail-in system that's ripe for more abuse, Americans realize: the only ones trying to influence the election are the ones who aren't interested in counting the legal votes.
If Americans thought the 2000 election was painful, buckle up. This is like five Floridas, Victor Davis Hanson warns. Dealing with contested counts in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania is the mother of all contested elections. Which is why, he writes, "Millions of voters find it rich that suddenly the Democratic Party is vouching for a pristine voting count" -- after four years of warning that the system was irrevocably broken! And where is the media in all of this? Messaging for the Left instead of reporting.
I am deeply saddened by the news of the passing of Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr. The nation has lost a fearless minister of the gospel, and I have lost a dear friend. Harry and I came from opposite sides of the tracks in Cincinnati, but we walked a shared path together through our Christian faith. In 2005 when we first met, Harry, although conservative, was a registered Democrat. We began discussing immigration, the ethnic divide, and the climate, among other topics.
No one expected the media to play fair, but Saturday was still an agonizing experience for tens of millions of Americans. Watching the networks declare Joe Biden the winner of a race that's still unresolved in key states was not only difficult -- but frustrating for fans of the democratic process. Just 48 hours earlier, the former vice president had urged "patience." "Democracy sometimes is messy," he admitted.
When residents in Washington, D.C. heard the media call the election for Joe Biden, they erupted in celebration--whooping and hollering, banging pots together on their front steps, honking car horns, and generally behaving as if Munchkin Land had been freed from the wicked witch.
While much of the media is acting like Democrat Presidential Candidate Joe Biden has already won the election and is starting with that assumption in every piece now being written, that's a faulty assumption. Candidate Biden has not yet been elected president. There are a number of steps--under the Constitution, federal, and state law--that still need to occur in the presidential election process. Here are the facts.
Facebook on Thursday removed a group called Stop the Steal, a pro-Trump group organizing public calls for election integrity as several states still have not finished counting ballots. The group had grown to more than 361,000 members in 24 hours.
Will the election hinge on Arizona? And if it does, will it be counted fairly? Congressman Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) is on the ground in the state that might prove crucial to Donald Trump's reelection hopes. Hear what he's saying about the process and the possible path to victory.
If you want to feel better about the election, here's an idea: turn off the news! We've become so conditioned to listen to the media in situations like this, thinking only they can update maps and color in states. But here's the reality: No one -- not even Fox News's Decision Desk -- can change the fact that there are actual processes and laws in place that will settle this election.
It's difficult for anyone to go through this agonizing election process in our country -- but as Christians, we're so fortunate. Despite all of the confusion and unease, we are never without hope, never without comfort, never without a God in whom we can trust. As hard as these last several days have been, believers can know with absolute certainty that nothing catches God by surprise. We are in His care, and we will continue to be no matter what happens in the days ahead.
If someone asked you where Christians could be fined $300,000 for worshipping Jesus, most of you would probably say communist China. Try San Jose, California. That's where liberal local officials have decided to make an example of any congregation willing to stand up to the governor's ridiculous orders. They're willing to bankrupt churches and even send Calvary Chapel Senior Pastor Mike McClure to jail for daring to safely gather God's people.
Justice Amy Barrett made history Sunday when she was sworn in as the first mother of school-age children (seven of them!) to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. She is the fifth woman ever to sit on the court. The Girl Scouts among others, tweeted congratulations in recognition of Justice Barrett's accomplishments for the female sex.
If you thought Google's cryfest after Donald Trump's election was extreme, wait a few months. Sundar Pichai's company could be on the verge of real anguish -- and not because of who wins. If you thought bipartisanship in Washington was dead, Wednesday's Senate hearing should have made it clear: there's one thing the two sides agree on, and that's reining in Big Tech. They may have different motives, but Republicans and Democrats have news for America's social media moguls -- the squirming has just begun.
The people of Philadelphia woke up Thursday morning to more ransacked businesses, broken glass, and reports of more arrests. After three nights of unrest, police tried to lock down the city with a 9 p.m. curfew, but even that didn't stop a series of ATM explosions and more looting. As many as 200 storefronts have been hit in a wave of crime and destruction that's making the city council's $33 million in police cuts look like an example of what not to do.
Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool."
With some evangelical leaders actually encouraging believers to disengage from the election, the Conservative Baptist Network's Pastor Prophet Patriot event could not have come at a more crucial time. Held at Truett McConnell University in Cleveland, Georgia on Tuesday evening, the event featured FRC President Tony Perkins as well as Dr. Brad Jurkovich, Dr. Emir Caner, and former Marine Tim Lee, among others.
With approximately 80 percent of the world's population living in countries high levels of religious oppression, persecution is a simmering global crisis. For years, U.S. officials have spoken of the importance of promoting religious freedom abroad. But what would it look like if American leaders took that seriously? The Trump administration has given us a glimpse, and it's impressive.
This Thanksgiving, Californians have a variety of onerous government restrictions to be thankful for. Near the top of the list (right under worship bans) come the restrictions on Thanksgiving itself.
On Sunday, I'll be preaching at Greenwell Springs Baptist Church at the 10:30 a.m. service. If you plan to be in the Baton Rouge area, we would love for you to worship with us. For those not in the area, you are welcome to watch the livestream on Facebook.
Once again, the Trump administration has taken unprecedented action to protect unborn life and promote families, this time by helping to form a global coalition of countries committed to these aims. The 32 countries that signed the Geneva Consensus Declaration agreed that the United Nations should never promote abortion as a method of family planning. They also reaffirmed basic human rights that enjoy a broad consensus among countries across the globe, including "the dignity and worth of the human person."
If an uninitiated viewer had stumbled upon the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett last week, they would have to be forgiven for thinking that Barrett was being nominated for a Health and Human Services (HHS) position in charge of regulating health care.
"The school districts won't come clean. They'll dress it up in buzzwords and euphemisms. And when you see this stuff, it's really shocking. It's stuff that almost no one in the country believes." Investigative reporter Luke Rosiak described on Washington Watch the tactics local officials use to keep parents in the dark about the radical agenda being pushed across America's 13,000 school districts. "You routinely see them using euphemisms and denying freedom of information requests, and a lot of times they'll just delete stuff when it's embarrassing."
For over six months Americans have been forced to adjust their lives because of the coronavirus. Aspects of everyday life, including the enjoyment of constitutionally protected rights, were temporarily set aside, or abridged while the nation worked to flatten the curve and slow the spread of the virus. While most states and entities worked in good faith with churches, certain jurisdictions and groups have used the virus as an excuse to infringe on basic religious liberty protections.
You can't say Wikipedia didn't warn us. Last month, co-founder Larry Sanger had a blunt message for users: the site's neutrality policy was "dead." Then, he went on to prove it -- decreeing that volunteer editors can no longer describe themselves as believers in natural marriage on their profiles, because it's too "discriminatory." Apparently, it isn't just social media picking sides anymore.
This past weekend, a longtime Washington Times reporter and friend, Ralph Hallow, passed away from complications that resulted from a fall and broken hip. I first met Ralph in a Lebanese restaurant in D.C. when I was a candidate for the U.S. Senate, which was my first taste of Ralph's eclectic personality. He was a journalist, an agitator, a great American, and he had a great sense of humor. He was also very devoted to his wife, Millie, who added to the intrigue and appeal of Ralph's character. We will miss him, and we'll be praying for his family.
Rule #1 of Crisis PR: If you want to discredit a story, don't try to cover it up. Obviously, that advice never made it to Facebook and Twitter, because when the bombshell broke about Hunter Biden's emails Wednesday, both companies panicked. Instead of letting the news cycle play out, they made a desperate move -- blocking the New York Post's articles and locking down the accounts of anyone trying to share them. But unfortunately for them, rather than stopping the story, Big Tech became the story.
In just 20 days, America will pick its president and new Congress. Just how critical is this election for religious freedom? As the seventh episode of FRC's Pray Vote Stand 2020 webcast series revealed, the numbers speak for themselves. There have been 87 incidents of churches being singled out and persecuted by local governments across the country in the name of "safety" during the coronavirus lockdown. But the church is fighting back: 68 churches in 16 states are suing to stop the unconstitutional crackdown.
The year 2020 is one for the record books on all accounts, including hurricanes. Hurricane Delta hit Louisiana on Friday, as the record-tying fourth named storm of 2020 to strike Louisiana, as well as the record-breaking 10th named storm to strike the United States this year. The frequency of the storms has made them almost common occurrences, which has brought less media coverage of the recovery efforts.
Day Two of Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation hearing was supposed to be when the probing questions about her fitness for the bench would begin. Instead, we were treated to more of the same from Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee -- a public charade that seemed like a healthcare campaign event for liberal policy priorities.
On Facebook, Wilhoit Properties says, "It is our sincere desire to do everything possible to make your stay here a long and happy one." Unless, older residents found out, that stay includes the Bible. In Oklahoma, one of the 16 states where Wilhoit runs a senior living facility, a controversy has been brewing since March, when one of the tenants said all of the religious material in the common areas disappeared. A resident had complained about an angel decoration at Christmas, and that was apparently enough to scrub 116 properties clean of anything remotely religious. At least until Secretary Ben Carson got involved.
Dallas Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban was pressed to answer why, exactly, he along with the entire National Basketball Association (NBA) claimed to promote human rights, but looked the other way concerning China's gross human rights abuses. His justification was simple -- for money.
It took more than an hour and a half for someone to say it, but Senator Ben Sasse (R-Nebr.) finally did. Looking around the hearing room at the socially-distanced Democrats, he said bluntly, "I do not know what any of that has to do with why we're here today." Like the liberals before her, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) had just finished five minutes of requisite Trump bashing, apparently forgetting that it was Amy Coney Barrett on the stand, not the president of the United States.
Just seven short months ago, it seemed unthinkable that local governments in America would openly ban churches from opening while allowing other facilities to remain open. But then the coronavirus pandemic happened, which revealed the anti-religious nature of many in the seats of power in our country.
Most Americans -- Democrats and Republicans -- know that social media engages in political censorship. And you would have to be naïve not to see that conservative viewpoints are the chief victims -- as documented daily at https://censortrack.org/ (although some still try to deny it).
"If there is a silver lining in the coronavirus pandemic, it may be the education that parents have received about what their children are being taught in government schools." As FRC President Tony Perkins made clear in the introduction to the sixth episode of FRC's Pray Vote Stand 2020 webcast series, government classrooms are where "kindergartners are learning that sex is encouraged but God is taboo" and kids are taught that America is a toxic, fundamentally unjust place.
As America lurches from one crisis to the next, 2020 seems like a year of reckoning for our national sins. This year also happens to be the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims landing in the New World. What better time is there to plead for the Lord's forgiveness, and what better place is there to do it than at the place where it all began?
Since the onset of the pandemic, churches around the country have had to make tough choices. Although suspending in-person gatherings was not an easy decision, an overwhelming percentage of churches closed their doors and reverted to virtual and online ministry. However, as the pandemic wore on and authorities began loosening restrictions on in-person meetings, churches, like restaurants, retail stores, and businesses, were ready to resume meetings while abiding by generally applicable health and public safety requirements such as wearing masks and practicing social distancing. But many churches soon found themselves held to a different standard.
From the president's bout with coronavirus, the impending Supreme Court confirmation hearing, and the politics of the 2020 election, there has been no shortage of news stories to follow. However, an important story that has received relatively little coverage is the religious liberty violations against churches across the country. Despite encouraging signs that the virus is being managed, certain state and local authorities continue to discriminate against churches and houses of worship.
As the clock ticks closer to the election, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, are representing their respective parties in the latest bout of COVID-19 relief negotiations. The problem with this set up is that there has only been two people involved in negotiating a measure with a trillion dollar price tag and thousands of pages of legislative text without any broader deliberation from the people's representatives.
He meant it as an insult, but when Chris Rock mentioned the president's condition on "Saturday Night Live" and said, "my heart goes out to COVID," the White House probably chuckled in agreement. If there's one person the virus probably regrets infecting, it's a fighter like Donald Trump. From the minute he announced his diagnosis to every upbeat video since, the president isn't flinching in the face of this test. He's doing what he's done since the very beginning: confronting the virus head-on.
Most of us woke up this morning with a grim reminder: the coronavirus is still very much alive. President Trump's tweet that he and First Lady Melania have tested positive for COVID was another shock to the American system, as everyone bears down for the last months of a year that no one will be sorry to see go. The president, in his tweet to the nation, was optimistic, promising that we would all get through this "together."
It isn't a crime to be a Christian -- but according to the Biden campaign, it is a crime to nominate one to the Supreme Court. In an eye-opening exchange, one of the Democrat's staffers seemed appalled that Amy Coney Barrett's resume includes a stint as a trustee of an Indiana Catholic school. The scandal, at least to liberals, isn't that the school is Catholic -- but that it acts like one.
There's nothing that Democrats and the media hate more than a win for President Donald Trump. And his third nomination in four years to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court is shaping up to be just that.
Why is the Left mobilizing to oppose the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court? The answer is simple: they want to "legislate" their radical left policies from the courts, and Judge Barrett stands in the way of their anti-constitutional plans.
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson joined Tony on Washington Watch yesterday to discuss the launch of the Mustard Seed Series, a HUD initiative that will highlight how the faith-based community is working to help some of society's most vulnerable. Don't miss this exclusive interview.
Becoming a Supreme Court justice used to be an attorney's dream. It's getting there, Brett Kavanaugh will tell you, that's a nightmare. "I have no illusions that the road ahead of me will be easy," Amy Coney Barrett acknowledged at her Rose Garden nomination ceremony on Saturday. And she should know -- it's the same road where she collided with Senate Democrats over her Seventh Circuit appointment three years ago. But even then, with the worst the Left had to throw at her, the Scalia protégé proved one thing: moms of seven don't scare easily.
When Pastor Bob Fu left town to speak at a prayer event in Washington D.C. last weekend, protestors took the opportunity to intimidate his wife and kids. The incident shook the family, and it is a reminder that those who speak out against China's human rights violations do so at significant cost to themselves.
If you loved VVS, don't miss PVS--our Pray, Vote, Stand weekly broadcasts. Every Wednesday from now until the election, FRC is focusing on one issue a week that Christians need to think critically about before casting their ballot--and September 30's topic is the courts. Tune in from 8:00-8:30 p.m. (ET) to catch our featured interview on the confirmation process, a segment on key tools and resources, interactive opportunities, viewer Q&A, and, most importantly--prayer!
In a recent press conference, Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi refused to rule out engaging in religious tests for public office when looking to fill Justice Ginsburg's vacant seat. When asked by a reporter if Article VI of the Constitution should apply to Supreme Court nominees, Pelosi gave the following reply.
With election day less than 40 days away, it is easy to forget that Americans are voting right now. Many states have begun early in-person voting, and Americans are filling out and mailing in their mail-in ballots -- including military personnel. Protecting the voting rights of those who protect our right to vote is essential, and that's why when nine mail-in ballots (seven of which were from military personnel) were discovered in the trash in Pennsylvania, the Department of Justice announced they will launch an investigation.
If America's mainstream media and intellectual elites are to be believed, our nation's ideological divisions and racial tensions are and will always remain insurmountable. But the third episode of the Values Voter Summit made clear a simple fact: never count America out, and never underestimate the resilience of its people.
With President Trump scheduled to announce his Supreme Court nominee by the end of the week, the Left's opposition playbook for the prospective nominee is being opened for all to see. One of the leading contenders for the court vacancy is Amy Coney Barrett, currently serving as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She is a favorite among many religious conservatives, and given the growing attacks on religious expression, fervently desire to put a strong originalist justice on the court.
Americans overwhelmingly agree that the lives of black people have as much value as the lives of white people and people of every skin color. Black lives don't just "matter" (that's such a utilitarian word); they are precious in God's sight because they reflect his image. That's why the unjustified deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor this summer jarred so many Americans, including many white evangelicals (and why we should be similarly horrified by Chicago's murder wave: 558 and counting this year).
The challenges that America faces during this election season are daunting, with a pandemic, economic downturn, civil unrest, and an unexpected Supreme Court vacancy. It can be tempting to be discouraged by the tenuous state of our nation. But the second episode of the Values Voter Summit began with a spirit of hopefulness in the face of crisis.
While President Trump has not yet announced a nominee for Justice Ginsburg's vacant Supreme Court seat, politicians and members of the press have already launched a full-scale assault on Judge Amy Coney Barrett -- who has emerged as a leading contender for the vacancy -- for her faith and religious beliefs.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a quasi-independent federal agency charged with enforcing federal employment discrimination laws. On September 15, the EEOC filed suit against the Kroger Company, charging that it violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In this case, the Kroger grocery store in Conway, Arkansas issued new aprons to employees that featured a small, rainbow-colored heart emblem. Two employees perceived this as an endorsement of the LGBT movement, and they objected on religious grounds.
The 15th annual Values Voter Summit kicked off last night during a time of great uncertainty and fear in our nation. But as guest after guest emphasized during the broadcast, what is more than certain is just how consequential the November election will be for the soul of our nation.
Filling the Supreme Court vacancy left by the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before the 2020 election aligns not just with the Constitution but with historical precedent. As National Review columnist Dan McLaughlin explained yesterday on Washington Watch, there has been a vacancy on the Supreme Court either during an election year or prior to the start of a new administration 29 times in U.S. history, and in almost all those cases, the sitting president has made a nomination. These presidents include George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, and most recently, Barack Obama.
Title IX -- the 1972 federal law that prohibited discrimination based on sex in education -- is perhaps best known for its impact on girls' and women's sports. Schools and colleges were no longer permitted to offer multiple opportunities for athletic competition to men and far fewer to women. The result was a massive growth in girls' and women's sports.
If 2020 were a normal year, a few thousand people from around the country would be arriving in Washington this week to attend the 15th annual Values Voter Summit (VVS). But as we're all well aware, 2020 is not a normal year. The pandemic may have canceled large in-person gatherings, but it hasn't canceled the drive of Christians in America to pray for our nation, vote their biblical values, and stand for truth.
The magnitude of recent headlines pertaining to the new vacancy on the United States Supreme Court and the subsequent political maneuvering has understandably overshadowed the news cycle. However, another significant story that Americans (and especially conservative Christians) should care about is how various state and local governments continue to violate the First Amendment rights of churches.
Perhaps the only silver lining to public schools going virtual out of an irrational fear of the coronavirus is that many parents are finally taking a closer look at what their children are learning. And it's not pretty. Mary Hasson, an attorney, education expert, and fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, said in an interview on Washington Watch that parents "are realizing their kids have embraced this view of America as a toxic country, a place that's 'fundamentally unjust.'"
This week, in a strong show of support for religious liberty, the United States Department of Defense (DOD) issued new guidance protecting military service members from being punished for expressing their religious views. Following an executive order President Trump signed his first year in office, the DOD's announcement on its update of DOD Instruction 1300.17 (which contains the guidance) is very good news.
Our nation is enduring a time of great crisis. The direction our country is headed hangs in the balance as the November elections approach. As believers, voting our values has never been more critical.
On September 14, the Trump administration reaffirmed its commitment to pro-life values in a proposal which would extend the reach of the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance (PLGHA) policy. The PLGHA policy, formerly known as the Mexico City policy, currently requires non-governmental organizations to agree, as a condition of their receipt of U.S. federal grant money, to neither perform nor promote abortion as a method of family planning overseas.
Federal agents seized a 13-ton shipment of human hair in July based on evidence the hair was taken from innocent people detained in Chinese internment camps. This was just the beginning of the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) efforts to protect U.S. citizens from unknowingly funding China's human rights abuses. Acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli argues, "Americans don't want to be complicit in this immorality."
The transgender lobby has taken to blocking their opponents' free speech for made-up reasons. Yesterday, Facebook put its thumb on the scale of the Michigan Senate race in favor of Democratic incumbent Gary Peters by blocking a $4 million ad campaign from the conservative American Principles Project (APP) PAC.
One of the most remarkable international events in recent history took place on Tuesday, September 15 at the White House. The signing of peace agreements between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain strengthen relationships in the Middle East and opened the way for further economic and security arrangements with Arab countries.
When Seo Jin Wook met with a small group in a private home in Izhevsk, Russia to share the gospel with them, he had no idea it would lead to his deportation and an approximately $400 fine by the Russian government. Yet, under a so-called "anti-extremism" law passed in 2016, this is the new normal for religious people in Russia looking to share their faith.
Listen to Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) explain how Democrats are trying to kill the filibuster in the U.S. Senate, which would pave the way for a far-left legislative agenda for years to come.
Video streaming giant Netflix is drawing criticism once again, this time for hosting and promoting the film "Cuties," which sexualizes 11-year-old girls. Having failed to learn its lesson after the trailer generated outrage last month, Netflix has gone ahead and made the movie available on its platform, despite many critics describing it as "child pornography."
The most important thing we can do for our nation during this time of crisis is to pray. Thankfully, Christian leaders from across the nation are stepping up to lead a national prayer movement at just the right time as we head toward the critical November elections.
A high school student who identifies as transgender, who sued the school over which restrooms to use, is continuing to pursue the litigation even three years after graduating. To their credit, the Gloucester County (Virginia) School Board has continued to defend themselves.
The human race is divided into two sexes, male and female. This basic scientific truth has been under increasing attack. Anyone who dares express belief in this obvious truth quickly becomes the target of "cancel culture." Even those who are liberal in their political views, like Women's Liberation Front or cultural icons like J.K. Rowling are not safe from attack. Fortunately, science is once again on our side!
In the not too distant past, it would have been difficult to imagine a scenario in the United States where government officials would have the temerity to threaten churches for holding indoor worship services. However, as the coronavirus pandemic abates, and the nation returns to work, certain states and cities continue to reveal a startling level of bias against churches.
Judging by Democrat obstruction of the recent Senate vote on the latest coronavirus relief package, it's not COVID-19 on their minds, but this upcoming election season. As Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) observed on Washington Watch with Tony Perkins, Democrats had no interest in supporting a bill which would have brought constructive relief to American across the country, instead almost uniformly voting against the half-trillion dollar bill, which fell short of the 60-vote procedural threshold when it failed 52-47.
Exactly how far apart are the two parties on the issues facing America? Tony Perkins and Congressman Mike Johnson (R-La.), chairman of the Republican Study Committee, answer that question in a new joint column for the Washington Times, "As Dems Apologize for America, GOP Still Believes in a Platform Standing for Life and Liberty."
Last week, over one hundred Jewish rabbis wrote a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, arguing "the SPLC 'hate map' is uniquely detrimental and even dangerous to the Jewish community." The Amazon Smile program relies on the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to determine which charities qualify for donations.
What if the problems tearing our nation apart right now are not truly about racism, police brutality, or equality? What if the central problem we face is not a physical one, but a spiritual one?
New research from George Barna indicates that the percentage of Americans who hold a biblical worldview has declined yet again. Despite this decline, the outcome of the upcoming presidential election could very well be decided by evangelical Christians' level of participation.
Turns out, there's only one cause that matters to MobileCause: silencing conservatives. Their first target? Family Research Council. Hear about the Big Tech controversy that's making headlines in Tony Perkins's interview with CBN.
President Trump took another step toward fulfilling his promise to "Drain the Swamp" on Friday when he authorized Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought to ensure that federal agencies no longer hold "woke" re-education trainings. The memo directs agency heads to "cease and desist from using taxpayer dollars to fund these divisive, un-American propaganda training sessions."
Coinciding with its long-anticipated release, Disney's live-action remake of Mulan has become the source of mounting international controversy. Fans of Disney's 1998 animated tale of a young Chinese woman who disguised herself as a man to fight the Huns in her ailing father's place may find themselves disappointed in the way Disney created the film.
Like thousands of pastors around the country, Jack Trieber has had to make difficult decisions over the last six months concerning his church. In early March, when the coronavirus pandemic hit California, the Senior Pastor of North Valley Baptist Church followed the guidance of local and state officials and suspended church gatherings and events. However, after six months of not being able to gather, Trieber decided it was time to re-open.
When the citizens are marching in the streets with guns to protect their property, we've got a big problem. Lawlessness is breaking out around the country -- Seattle, Portland, even Washington, D.C. Roving bands are hounding diners at restaurants if they won't salute Black Lives Matter.
While the campaigns are, in many ways, still getting warmed up, the 2020 election officially started today when North Carolina became the first state to mail ballots to voters. The early start date is yet another reminder that mail will be one of the biggest storylines in the 2020 election. Will people receive their ballots? Can voters depend on the mail system to return their ballots?
It seems like a parallel universe now, but at the time it seemed perfectly normal. In 1988, Billy Graham gave a nonpartisan prayer at the Democratic National Convention, and it was received respectfully and without controversy. In those days, a respected pastor saying a prayer at a nationally televised political convention was seen as a matter of course, no matter what their personal political leanings might be.
Calling for law and order was never controversial -- until President Trump did it. And now that his message is resonating in America, the media has decided: restoring order isn't just controversial, but racist too. In one of the most absurd attacks on the administration since June, the Associated Press has decided that public safety is the cry of the prejudiced. But by column's end, it was their own biases that were laid bare, not Trump's.
"My heart just dropped." Scott Carpenter said it was "devastating" to watch the riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin. His father had started a business selling office furniture out of his garage 42 years ago. On Washington Watch with Tony Perkins, Scott explained how he had taken over the family business -- that is, until the rioters burned his building and his entire inventory to the ground.
How big of a concern is mail-in voter fraud in the November election? In a CNN interview yesterday, U.S. Attorney General William Barr pointed out the very serious problems with proposed state-wide, or "universal" mail-in ballot systems because of the pandemic: "We are playing with fire."
Planned Parenthood, America's largest abortion supplier, has glossed over its racist roots for decades. Their founder, Margaret Sanger, was a firm eugenicist who wanted to use her organization to, in her words, "weed out the unfit" through birth control and abortion. Despite the well-documented racism of Sanger, Planned Parenthood's website still speaks glowingly of her with no mention of her dark past.
Does the president have unlimited authority to stop the riots and chaos gripping our cities? If he doesn't, what can he do? Former prosecutor and current senior fellow at the National Review Institute, Andrew McCarthy, weighs in during our in-depth discussion on what happens when local order breaks down.
"It can get out of hand in a blink of an eye," Shelby Talcott said. And she ought to know. The Daily Caller reporter has been in a half a dozen riot-ravaged cities over the last few months -- and the things she's seen are tough to shake. "This is far more organized than I think people realize," she warned. There are the loads of bricks and frozen water bottles trucked in to use as weapons. Rocks, glass, and firecrackers. Then, there's the money trail -- a seemingly endless cash flow that's bankrolling plane tickets, hotel rooms, even clothes. "They're becoming more coordinated," she warned. But unfortunately for them, so is Homeland Security.
On September 1, Family Research Council's (FRC) daily radio program, "Washington Watch with Tony Perkins," will begin airing on Christian Satellite Network Radio (CSN Radio). CSN Radio has a long history of broadcasting great bible teaching and talk, including familiar broadcast with teachers like Alistair Begg, Dr. James Dobson, Tony Evans, Jack Graham, David Jeremiah, Greg Laurie, and Adrian Rogers.
This November, the counting of votes across America will begin. The question is, will your vote count? As the emergence of mail-in ballots and other potential points of fraud raise concern among voters, we're left wondering how we can even have confidence in the voting process. Add to that restrictions brought about by the pandemic, and many are wondering even if it's worth it to go to the polls this year.
How do you stop people from fighting an unpopular political agenda? Well, if you're a House Democrat, you turn it into a race debate. Based on their latest comments, that's how the far-Left has decided to tackle the country's objections to taxpayer-funded abortion. Their goal is to frame it as an issue of injustice, so that even if people don't agree with it, they'll be too scared of being labeled to push back. But after 43 years of this bright red line called the Hyde amendment, will Americans really be so quick to cross it?
If you're frustrated by the House leadership, imagine how conservative members of Congress feel. Republicans like Ohio's Warren Davidson have had to learn to rely on faith -- and each other -- as they try to push back against some of majority's darkest visions for our country. Hear his powerful story about staying the course and being used by God, even in the hard times -- and what advice he would give to Americans discouraged by what's going on in our nation.
What's really driving the chaos on the streets of America? It's not Black Lives Matter, Larry Taunton insists. At its core, it's Marxism, a dangerous plot that could destroy society as we know it. Don't miss Larry and Tony Perkins as they take a deep dive into the philosophy that could send our country down the oppressive path of the failed revolutionaries across eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. It's an eye-opening conversation you won't want to miss.
What does it take for followers of Jesus to stand in a culture that flows against us? How do we pray, and how does our biblical worldview affect our vote? For the next two months leading up to November, FRC and FRC Action is helping Americas like you become better equipped to engage your community with these issues that matter most.
Late on the night of Wednesday, August 26, the Anchorage (Alaska) Assembly (the municipal legislative body) passed an ordinance, AO-65, to prohibit sexual orientation or gender identity change efforts (SOCE or GICE) by any licensed professional counselor. The final vote was 9-2 in favor.
When Virginia Health Commissioner Norman Oliver promised last week to make a COVID-19 vaccine mandatory, he was probably counting on most people being too afraid of the virus to object. So were the members of a Virginia House committee who killed two bills to add a religious exemption to the mandate. \r
It's well known that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has a long record of hate-listing Christian and conservative organizations that do not agree with their ultra-liberal point of view. They have particularly focused on Family Research Council for strongly defending life issues and for disputing the LGBT's radical agenda.
Pray. Vote. Stand. With all that's facing America in these uncertain times, Christians in this country can't quarantine or isolate ourselves from our duty to God. The Bible says we should seek the peace of the city and pray to the Lord on its behalf (Jeremiah 29:7). In America's government by the people -- where all citizens have a governing role -- we must be good stewards of the responsibility we've been given, and vote in local and national elections. And as we pray and vote, we must stand firm on the truth of God's word.
For the first two hours of the Big Tech hearing in the House, the most newsworthy thing Amazon's Jeff Bezos did was eat a handful of snacks. Reporters actually tweeted about it, joking that even sitting there doing nothing, he'd probably "just made $300 million dollars or so." Lauren Goode of WIRED guessed that Bezos could probably receive a Prime package "in the time it takes for representatives to ask him a single question." When they finally did, most people would agree: it was a doozy.
Not every ruling at the Supreme Court is personal. But five of the justices have daughters -- and three of them went home one night in June knowing they'd destroyed their chance, and every girl's chance, at sports. Maybe, they'll rationalize, it was just a ruling on workplace discrimination. But we all know that in Bostock, the case that redefined human history's understanding of sex, it was a whole lot more than that.
How much damage can House Democrats do in 1,165 pages? A lot. And Thursday's massive appropriations package was the latest -- and most expensive -- example. If you want a transgender-identifying military, legalized marijuana, taxpayer-funded abortion, medical coercion, genderless shelters, and zero privacy protections, you've got H.R. 7617. And no chance, the president says, of passing it.
The same liberals who think the riots are a myth decided to spend Wednesday denying another reality: online censorship. This week -- the very one that witnessed the removal of a top performing video on Facebook -- House Democrats devoted a good chunk of their hearing with the titans of Big Tech dismissing the war on free speech. But as any conservative who's spent time online knows, the question isn't if there's bias, but what Congress is going to do about it.
In the campaign against people of faith, there is no line the Chinese government won't cross. Earlier today, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testified at a congressional hearing, highlighting the Trump administration's efforts to stop China's human rights violations and international aggression in its tracks.
The Oregon governor says federal agents are on their way out of Portland. Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf's response? "Absolutely not." Find out who's right and what the administration is doing about those "mythical" riots in cities across America on "Washington Watch." Acting Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Mark Morgan joins Sarah Perry to get to the bottom of these false narratives and what conditions local leaders will have to meet before the president trusts them to protect their streets.
House Democrats have been itching to get Attorney General William Barr on the stand for more than a year. But after Tuesday's performance, I guarantee they won't be so eager again. The hearing in the Judiciary Committee, which was supposed to end in disaster for President Trump, was a spectacular failure for the Left, who emerged looking bitter, unhinged, and outsmarted. Barr, in sharp contrast, was the picture of unflappability, as liberals raged, interrupted, and mocked their way through five hours. If this was meant to be Barr's grilling, the media concluded, they blew it.
The who's who of Big Tech took a turn before Congress this afternoon -- and not a moment too soon, considering the mess they're making of free speech. The men behind Apple, Facebook, Google, and Amazon have a lot of questions to answer about censorship, if House leaders will let Republicans ask. And the first one, considering what happened this week with the frontline doctors' conference ought to be: Why are you letting your political agenda get in the way of the coronavirus facts?
These days, the two parties couldn't be more different -- and their latest attempts at virus relief certainly prove it. House leaders, who ditched the spirit of goodwill that got America through the first CARES Act, have already made it clear that they're not serious about anything but the elections. Their proposal, which was basically a summary of every radical idea Democrats have ever had, passed in May. Now, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says, it's time to get down to business and consider something reasonable. Whether Democrats will is another story.
Don't miss my take on the recent explosion of lawlessness in America. Tune in at 9pm (ET) to Daystar or Daystar.com/live to hear our conversation about how Christians can stand for the truth in these chaotic and challenging times.
If there's one thing Americans have learned from the Supreme Court in 2020, it's this: there are no guarantees. Even now, after a slew of bad decisions, conservatives wanted to believe that when it comes to religious liberty, even Chief Justice John Roberts couldn't get that wrong. Well, think again. When it comes to siding with the Constitution, even Vegas will tell you -- don't bet on Roberts.
You have to give the Democrats credit. They've found a way to justify their silence on the riots: refusing to admit they exist! Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) tried that when he ran into a citizen who asked him if he disavowed the Antifa violence in Portland. "That's a myth," he insisted, "being spread only in Washington, D.C." Well, if it's a myth, Oregon residents will tell you, it's a pretty convincing one.
If there's any comfort to be had from 2020's miserable string of Supreme Court rulings, it's that conservatives aren't going to take the next vacancy lying down. After years of taking judges at their word, Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) says it's time to play hardball. If the next person sitting before the Judiciary Committee says they're pro-life, they'd better have a record that proves it.
If fans flipped on their TVs hoping for an escape from the madness of 2020, the return of major league baseball wasn't it. Americans who tuned in to Friday's season openers, desperate for a return to something normal, were forced to witness another protest: the players'. In some ballparks, like the Washington Nationals, the politically-charged messaging was everywhere -- from the Black Lives Matter "unity" ribbons to the "BLM" stenciled on the back of the pitchers' mound. But when the entire league is kneeling, it only takes one player to stand out. And for the Giants' Sam Coonrod, there was never any question.
It's a form of abortion so gruesome, so barbaric, that when it was described on the Nebraska Senate floor, one Republican said, "If you don't have a tear in your eye from watching that, you're coldblooded." We're talking about a procedure, Dr. Anthony Levatino explains, of "reaching into a woman's uterus with forceps and 'grabbing whatever is there. Maybe you rip off a leg, which is about four-inches long,' then you pull out 'an arm, the spine. The skull is the most difficult part. Sometimes there's a little face staring up at you." It is, he insisted, an "absolutely brutal procedure." One that Nebraska, as early as this week, hopes to outlaw.
It is, former prosecutor Andrew McCarthy pointed out on "Washington Watch," a temporary restraining order. But the idea that a federal judge would try to stop the president from protecting our cities is ridiculous -- even for an Obama appointee! President Trump, he insists, has every right to keep people safe if their local leaders will not. "To the commonsense American who looks at what's going on in Portland and realizes that there are... radicals outside [the federal courthouse] firebombing it -- with human beings inside," this is "a security mission." And a constitutional one at that. Hear why he thinks so in this conversation with FRC's Sarah Perry.
Today's Americans aren't the first ones to wonder if our country has lost its way. Abraham Lincoln used to worry, when the generation of the founders had died out, that we'd lost the living memory we'd need to carry on their legacy. "I think we're back there again," Katharine Gorka says. And if this nation is going to survive, we need to take a trip down memory lane, she insists, and remind ourselves what made America what it is.
President Trump has been trying to make school choice a priority for months. Now, with the virus forcing local districts to scrap their fall plans, he might finally have the opening he's been waiting for.
Two weeks ago, while statues were being roped down and schools were racing to change their "offensive" namesakes, Alexandria Desanctis wondered, "How long will Margaret Sanger last?" Surely, in the rush to erase the racists, the founder of Planned Parenthood was at the top of someone's list. "She was, after all, a foremost proponent of the eugenics movement -- motivated by her particular animus toward poor non-whites." Now, after more than 100 years of defending that legacy, at least one New York location has had enough.
When Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler (D) decided to throw on a mask and join the protestors Wednesday night, he found out pretty quickly that it wasn't just Donald Trump they despised. "It didn't go well for Wheeler," one reporter kindly put it. Booed, chased with leaf blowers, taunted, and shouted down, the mayor looked bewildered when he said, "Some of these people hate my guts." For the mayor, whose spent the last 56 days defending his city's criminals, it was one way to learn: protecting the mobs won't appease them.
The Chinese Consulate in Houston was instructed to close by U.S. officials on Tuesday, and its employees have 72 hours to leave. While the details remain unknown, State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said China "has engaged for years in massive illegal spying and influence operations throughout the United States against U.S. government officials and American citizens." As if to prove their guilt, Chinese consulate workers appeared to burn documents in the courtyard of the compound later that evening, prompting nearby residents to call the fire department.
"Will they stop at burning an empty church?" It was a sobering question, but Ellen Fantani, who's been tracking the spike in anti-Christian attacks across Europe, can't help but wonder. "How much worse will it get?" she said, repeating the reporter's question. "Certainly, the climate today," on her continent and ours, "does not leave me optimistic."
With more of the country's school districts opting to go online this fall, parents are opting for something else: homeschooling. Find out the latest craze in teaching at home, which is catching fire in communities all across America -- Pandemic Pods -- on Tuesday's "Washington Watch."
Next to President Trump, there isn't a man the media loves to question more than Secretary Mike Pompeo. His latest initiative, the Commission on Unalienable Rights, couldn't have come at a better time for our country -- and yet, the media wants to know: what do principles have to do with it? Good question. One that the secretary took several minutes of his time to answer on a special FRC call with pastors.
It's a "myth," USA Today insists. "Rare," writes NPR. Either way, the New York Times argues, "it doesn't affect elections." That's interesting, the Heritage Foundation points out. Because they've counted more than 1,285 cases of this rare myth of voter fraud that doesn't affect elections in the last four years -- and they're convinced: that's not all of them.
The justices predicted a war -- and almost one month to the day of their Bostock ruling, they got one. The first shot was fired last Thursday, when the ACLU decided to sue Maryland's St. Joseph Medical Center for refusing to take out a woman's perfectly healthy uterus just because she wanted to live as a man. It goes against the hospital's religious beliefs, St. Joseph argued. But now, thanks to the Supreme Court, it might go against six justices' ridiculous definition of "sex" too.
One of the last times people saw flames in France's Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul church was during the Allied bombing in 1944. What's happening now isn't World War III, but it certainly feels like it, as things get increasingly violent on every continent. While believers around the world pray for an end to the chaos, arsonists, knife-wielders, and vandalizers are taking the battle to them.
It's not easy to expose radical sex ed in America, but it can be rewarding. As a mom, FRC's Cathy Ruse has a personal stake in making classrooms safe for kids -- and, after years of work, she's managed to convince other parents they do too. It's that hard work and dedication that earned Cathy a special honor over the weekend as the Ruth Institute's 2020 Activist of the Year.
Our founding principles, "weird?" Or worse, "partisan," "discriminatory," and "harmful?" Peter Berkowitz, the executive secretary of the Commission on Unalienable Rights, was just as surprised by the pushback to Secretary Mike Pompeo's report as anyone. He joined "Washington Watch" Friday to set these critics straight -- and explain why the mobs don't want us returning to the roots of American values.
When Secretary Mike Pompeo first set out on this journey to get back to the real heart of human rights, no one could have possibly predicted the year our country would have. Shaken by outrage, unrest, and the growing insistence that America is too flawed to fix, a return to our roots will only dredge up more hard feelings, some say. On the contrary, Pompeo insists. Maybe the best time to revisit all that's pure and good about our nation is when people are determined to destroy it. "Some say the report's timing couldn't be worse," he said. "I say the timing couldn't be better."
When Attorney General William Barr spoke at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum Thursday and raked China over the coals, he expected the country to respond. Like other U.S. leaders, he's learned to wear China's criticism as a badge of honor. "I told [FBI Director Chris Wray] that I was going to aim today to be 'despicable,'" Barr joked. "But I'll settle for 'especially disgusting.'"
If you or the men in your life need a fresh, God-inspired message to rise up, FRC has the perfect event: Stand Courageous LIVE. On August 15, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (ET), streamed from the Household of Faith in Louisiana, our men's conference is going virtual. Together with FRC's Lt. General Jerry Boykin and myself, we'll be joined by special speakers Bishop Larry Jackson, Pastors Mark Stermer, Scott Bledsoe, Darryl Smith, and Philip Pimlott for sessions on how men can develop character, build relationships, and make commitments that will move them closer to God's purpose.
It looked like something out of a 2015 news report -- a picture from ISIS, maybe, torching its way through Mosul. But the charred pews and collapsed roof were not the work of Islamic terrorists, but America's own. Over the weekend, the rioters, the same ones who wanted us to believe their cause is justice, came for our churches -- using gasoline, lighters, gallons of paint, and vans to drive their message of destruction and chaos through the heart of America's faithful.
Spending your money has never been easier! In the House, even Democrats were shocked at how fast the leadership breezed through a dozen appropriations bills, making snap decisions on where to direct a whopping $1.4 trillion dollars. Is marking up 12 bills in 10 days a record? Maybe, staffers say. It certainly was "the fastest in anyone's memory." But faster, as the rest of America is about to find out, isn't necessarily better. Especially when innocent lives are on the line.
They said it was drought. Climate change. Territorial feuds. But the carnage in Nigeria is none of these things. It's genocide -- and the world isn't even paying attention. In the first half of 2020, 1,200 Christians were killed. They were believers just like us, mowed down at their weddings, burned to death in their beds, beheaded on the side of the road. And yet their cries, "Please help us! The herdsman are coming!" continue to fall on deaf ears.
It's not easy to find a place to stash 1,600-pound statues. In Virginia, local reporters were shocked to find out that their toppled leaders had ended up at a Richmond wastewater treatment plant, covered in bright blue tarps. It was a fast trip for the soldiers, who went from lining Monument Row to sitting in dirt outside the local sewage works. Even now, no one is quite sure what to make of this marble morgue, except to wonder: who else will be next? According to the people around the president's table -- no one, if they can help it.
There's an entire generation of moms today who wouldn't think twice about sitting their kids down in front of Netflix new "Babysitters Club" show. And that, experts warn, is exactly the problem. Like so many other women, they're expecting the same innocent storylines they came to love from Ann Martin's books in the 80s and 90s. What they're getting is anything but.
Republicans may be out campaigning to open schools, but they'll have their work cut out convincing a growing number of parents. A new poll from Axios shows a landslide of concerns from families -- with a whopping 71 percent worried that reopening schools carries "large" or "moderate" risk. And it's not just Democrats (82 percent) who think so, but a majority of Republicans (53 percent) too. What does that mean for the fall? It's time to explore your options!
She swore "up and down" that she'd never homeschool her kids. "Patience is not one of my virtues," Kristina Hernandez insisted. "I hate crafts. Playgroups are not my thing. I work a full-time job I love." Homeschooling was never going to happen, until -- thanks to coronavirus -- it did. Now, Kristina, like so many other families around the country, are never going back.
Not much about 2020 has gone according to schedule, but in the House, Democrats are determined to put their stamp on a series of spending bills before the summer is out. Well, they're making their mark all right -- but not how most Americans would want.
A handful of U.S. congressmen woke up to an angry slap on the wrist from the Chinese government on Monday.
First it was pancake syrup and Paw Patrol. Now, even Scrabble isn't safe. You can forget the triple word score on at least 236 "slurs" the North American players association is stripping from the group's lexicon. The goal, these gamers say, is to make the game "friendlier" for all types of people. Of course, no one has seen the official list of "potentially offensive" words -- leaving many to wonder if this new vocabulary is just W-O-K-E.
While the rest of Big Tech openly uses its power to censor, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg has stood out. Unlike his peers, he's had the refreshing sanity to reinforce free speech -- a position that hasn't exactly endeared him to the intolerant Left. Now, months into his First Amendment experiment, one of the lone holdouts on open debate is considering a policy that would silence the voices keeping some users alive.
On July 10, a Turkish court announced its decision to permit President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's regime to convert the ancient Christian church Hagia Sophia -- the Church of the Holy Wisdom -- into a mosque. An outcry from around the world greeted the news. But within an hour, Erdogan signed an official declaration, stating that the conversion of Hagia Sophia to a Muslim place of worship is a fait accompli.
It was the kind of program that, ordinarily, liberals would cheer. To hear them tell it, expanding the opportunities for minorities has always been their party's idea. But when President Trump took a stab at it, announcing a business and educational project aimed directly at Hispanic people, the Left wasn't about to cut him some slack. And worse than that, they're out to destroy anyone who does.
One by one, they started calling. These weren't conservative parents or even particularly religious ones -- some were liberal, progressive, "open-minded" moms and dads desperate for help. Their stories, Abigail would find out, were eerily the same. Their daughters had started hanging out with friends who'd decided to come out as transgender together. Suddenly, these sweet teenage girls -- who'd never shown a hint of gender confusion -- were demanding breast reduction, hormone treatments, new names and pronouns -- and their parents were beside themselves for someone to intervene. No one, they found out quickly, would.
Wednesday, the Supreme Court delivered two noteworthy victories for religious liberty. In Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania, the court upheld a Trump administration policy protecting conscience and religious freedom in the context of the Affordable Care Act ("ACA"). In Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, the court robustly defined the First Amendment rights of religious schools and institutions to determine who will teach and defend the tenets of their faith.
Whether it's the coronavirus wreaking havoc in our healthcare system or the riots on the streets, Americans have weathered a difficult few months. If there was ever a time when our nation could benefit from some grownups in Washington D.C., now is the time. But that appears to be asking too much as liberal politicians continue to advance a radical agenda that would only further tear our country apart. The latest example, which would defund law enforcement and shift the money to social programs, was unveiled on Monday.
It's been called the program for sinners and saints, or, Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.) joked, "Baptists and bars." With loans fanning out to everyone from jellybean companies to dating apps, Congress's Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) has been an equal opportunity lifeline for businesses crushed under the weight of the virus. But not everything has gone exactly according to plan, and the $150 million Planned Parenthood absconded with is exhibit A.
We can put it on the moon, but not a Virginia construction site. That's how ridiculous the debate over the flag -- and all things American -- have become in the chaotic weeks since George Floyd's death. The state that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, and Patrick Henry called home would be barely recognizable to the great men now, who believed those stars and stripes were the ultimate symbols of freedom, of justice. Now, amazingly, the flag under which slavery was abolished and segregation crumbled is "too offensive" for the state that helped build America.
Higher education is teaching students to think critically all right -- about their own country. Turns out, this growing anti-American sentiment boiling over in our cities is no accident. Academia is, as President Trump warned it was, turning young people against their own country.
Given by any other man, it would have been considered one of the greatest speeches of our time. A triumph of American exceptionalism. But it was not any other man standing under the granite faces of Mount Rushmore on the night before July 4th. It was Donald Trump. So however inspired his words may have been, however sincere his call to remember the deep well of American goodness, however different his message might have been from all the others the media loves to criticize, he was never going to get a fair shake.
If you want to know how sincere companies like Nike, Apple, Samsung, and others are about fighting injustice, look overseas. While these CEOs get on their moral high horse about all of America's racial failings, it's time for these businesses to take a long, hard look in the mirror. If they think slavery was a blight on U.S. history, then what are they doing supporting it in China today?
The Fourth of July is a time of national celebration and commemoration. We rejoice in our liberty and remember those who won our freedoms and have preserved them at great cost.
If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? This was the question David asked in Psalm 11. Those around him, who were looking only to the natural world may have answered with things like "Run away." Or "Flee to mountains." "Get as far away as you can."
Faced with worldwide and local frustrations for its handling of the coronavirus crisis, China has made a power move, tightening its control of neighboring Hong Kong, which threatens its "status as one of the world's most prominent financial hubs." China's Communist Party passed a national security law designed to curb protest and dissent. The law went into effect Tuesday night and Hong Kong police wasted no time using it to make arrests.
According to a recent investigation, the situation for Uyghur Muslims in China has worsened. The latest abuse to be inflicted on this beleaguered religious minority is forced sterilization, abortion, and contraception. The goal is clear: Chinese officials want to reduce the Uyghur population in China by whatever means necessary. The sad reality is that while the rest of the world has been focused on containing the coronavirus, Chinese communists appear to have ramped up the persecution of anyone the government perceives is a threat.
After an eleven-year legal battle, Montana may resume its policy of providing equal financial opportunity to students who want to attend secular or religious schools. This is a result of the Supreme Court's decision in Espinoza v. Montana, where a 5-4 majority ruled that the Montana Department of Revenue policy which prevented students from receiving state scholarships unless they attended a secular school violated the First Amendment.
The other side calls her the "perfect messaging unicorn." But that's the tragic thing about Monday's Supreme Court decision. As a black, female, Democratic, pro-lifer, Louisiana State Senator Katrina Jackson isn't an outlier. If anything, the woman who wrote the law that five justices just struck down is a symbol of the consensus this court won't recognize. "There's nothing unusual about my views," Katrina insists. Americans can disagree about a lot of things, but no matter how this country feels about abortion, women's safety was never negotiable. Until now.
Thanks to New Jersey, we don't have to wonder if the mail-in balloting is a horrible idea. We have proof! In what is already a PR nightmare for the Democratic Party, at least one in five ballots have been disqualified in a local election for fraud. But wait, you say. Liberals swore that never happens! Well, it's happening all right. And just in time to rethink the ridiculous idea ending in-person voting.
After a few recent disappointing decisions, the Supreme Court delivered a win today for religious liberty, religious schools, and citizens' religious exercise in Espinoza v. Montana. The state's Department of Revenue had barred students from using scholarship credits towards religious schools (but permitting them to go towards secular schools), even though the students were otherwise qualified for the scholarship. Montana made the choice clear: in order to be eligible for government aid, a school must divorce itself from any religious affiliation.
Does anyone remember George Floyd? Allen West wonders, because his death is being lost in all of the noise of the protests, Antifa, mob riots, and this new war against American history. No one is having the conversation this country should be having. Hear what the former congressman and military vet has to say in my interview with Lt. Col. West on "Washington Watch."
Chances are, these Supreme Court justices will never meet the parents of Jamie Lee Morales. They'll never have to look in the eyes of the little boy left behind by Tonya Reaves or console the husband of Jennifer Morbelli. They won't have to explain how Karnamaya Mongar survived war in Nepal only to die in the filthy recliner of a Philadelphia abortion center. Because even though three of them have daughters, the five justices who struck down Louisiana's abortion law don't seem to care that young women will keep dying because of courts like theirs.
You can treat churches differently -- but you can't get away with it. That was one federal court's message to New York leaders late Friday, when it called out the state's double standards on coronavirus orders. Hypocrisy, which has been spreading faster than COVID, won't stand up to the legal challenge, Judge Gary Sharpe warned. Liberals may have selectively okayed mass gatherings, but the Constitution isn't a document of "freedom for me, but not for thee."
It was a floor speech for the ages. But someday, when history looks back on Senator Tim Scott's (R-S.C.) emotional words, the greatest tragedy will be that he had to deliver them at all. Like a lot of Americans, Tim assumed the other side of the aisle was serious about having a conversation on police reform. And, like a lot of Americans, he assumed wrong. Turns out, Democrats aren't here to fix our problems. In this crisis, they are the problem.
Two weeks ago, bombs began to rain down on quiet towns where Christians, Kurds, and Yazidis live in peace in an area of Iraq still recovering from ISIS's brutal reign several years ago. But this time the threat was not a terrorist organization. Instead, the attack came from a NATO ally. Turkey has launched yet another expansionist attack into a peaceful region in the Middle East, causing chaos and destruction and victimizing innocent Christian and Yazidi communities on the way.
"If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"- Psalm 11:3\rKing David asked a question in Psalm 11 that still resonates today. In light of these challenging times in which we live, many Americans are trying to figure out how to respond to all that we see happening in our nation, cities, and homes. Thankfully, we know that God not only sees it all, but has the plan to bring true righteousness, justice, and peace to the world.
It's a dangerous game when you start thinking the law should change with the times. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) has plenty to say about this, the courts, the Democrats' sabotage of police reform, and Senator Tim Scott's "riveting" speech in one of her best interviews ever on "Washington Watch." Don't miss our conversation from this Thursday.
When the Taliban burned down churches or destroyed artifacts, we called it barbaric. But when angry mobs tear down our statues and vandalize monuments, it's "justice?" There are things this country has witnessed over the last few weeks that will take a lifetime to understand. And even longer to get over. The image of great American heroes being toppled and cracked into pieces on the streets is just the latest chapter in this story of chaos the radicals are writing. But if the outrage from the White House is any indication, this administration is done letting cities feed the monster.
There are more than 113,000 people working for the Justice Department. Does firing one really matter? It does if you're a liberal Democrat trying to disgrace Donald Trump. And the media circus over U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman is exactly that. A circus -- with plenty of politically-motivated clowns.
There is a lot of talk about personalities these days. I prefer to talk about policy. The irony here is that despite all the attention given the former, the latter makes a lasting difference for our country.
If there's one person in Virginia with job security, it's the head of Governor Ralph Northam's (D) crisis PR. Northam, who's become more known for his scandals than his successes, has managed to keep his damage control team hopping since the moment he was sworn into office -- first with his defense of legal infanticide and then with the surfacing of some unflattering blackface yearbook photos. But if 2020 was supposed to be the year of redemption, then someone might want to tell Northam to rethink his coronavirus strategy.
President Trump has already done more than any administration in modern history for Israel. But this week, he and his White House team are weighing a move that could change the status quo of America's ally forever.
A global pandemic, a case of police brutality that sparked nationwide pandemonium, the statues of great men being erased from another time. Add to that the lawlessness on our streets and the activism of our courts, and it can be more than unsettling. But there is an answer to the host of problems we face. It's found in the simple promise of scripture, 2 Chronicles 7:14. God promises us that if we wholeheartedly return to Him, He will heal our land.
It's an image that rolls over and over in her mind. She sees the police, spraying blue chemicals into the crowd. Then she notices her -- a young girl, one of the protestors, writhing as it burns her skin. In a few years, she thinks, that could be her child. "And there is nothing I can do to protect her." Hong Kong, the mother knows, is a ticking time bomb. And the sooner they get out, the better. "What else can you do," she says mournfully, "but leave?"
The Left knows the power of a good story. They've always understood that finding sympathy for an issue is sometimes as easy as putting a compelling face on it. For conservatives, telling stories hasn't always come so naturally. But now, after years of having the facts on our side, the personal testimonies from former LGBT activists are starting to change the way people think about the transgender lifestyle. Which may be why the Left is desperate to shut them down. The truth, on this issue, like so many others, is their biggest enemy.
The riots weren't how most Americans would have preferred to get their break from coronavirus news coverage. But for once, after months of force-fed fearmongering, the outbreak found itself in an unusual place: the backburner. Suddenly, concerns about social distancing were non-existent. Liberal leaders, who were doing everything they could to keep Americans locked down, were standing behind podiums, urging people to get out and protest. Now, after a couple of weeks of mob demonstrations, the Left wants to blame someone else for the surge of infections: Donald Trump.
FRC's Lt. General Jerry Boykin sure knows how to draw a crowd! This weekend in California, at a special Calvary Chapel Sonora men's retreat, the Army veteran was so popular that he had people waiting outside. Of course, they were protestors -- not that it mattered to this war hero. As far as he was concerned, they only helped boost the event's publicity!
Uncertainty seems to be the buzzword for 2020. From the pandemic to protests, from riots in the streets to a shocking Supreme Court ruling last week, from the fluctuating economy to the November elections, no one knows what will happen next.
It doesn't have to be June 21 to celebrate dads! FRC takes an in-depth look at the importance of fathers in a brand new publication called, "Leadership and Love: A Tale of Two Fathers." Don't miss the author, psychologist Jesse Gill, talk about how the presence of strong men in the family could fix a lot of cultural fallout we're seeing today. Check out his powerful interview with Sarah Perry on "Washington Watch."
After Monday's wildly off-base decision, most liberals should have been out celebrating. But despite being handed a judicial gift -- an LGBT victory they'd have never managed democratically -- Democrats didn't stop to party. They were already back on the Senate floor, demanding more. Now that they've got the Supreme Court taking a match to religious liberty, they're apparently hoping Congress will finish the job.
It's not easy to watch a bunch of unelected men and women burn down a law you helped protect. Senator Jeff Sessions ought to know. The former U.S. attorney general was the man helping the president roll back the redefinition of "sex" after Barack Obama took an ax to it in 2016. How does it feel to see the Supreme Court upend all the good the Justice Department did? Not great, the Alabaman says.
When Idaho went to the mat to protect women's sports, the ACLU vowed to see Governor Brad Little (R) in court. One group they didn't expect to see there is the U.S. Justice Department. But thanks to an administration that isn't going to let the Supreme Court dictate gender roles, that's exactly who will be waiting -- for the ACLU and anyone else on the hunt to destroy fair competition.
At a time when Congress is lucky to scrape together an 11-percent confidence rating, a majority of Americans have expressed an unusual level of faith in our justices. Maybe they still believe SCOTUS is above the political fray. But trust in the court may become increasingly difficult after Monday's "legislative" decision by six justices to redefine the meaning of biological sex.
There were 1,025 of them in Minneapolis alone -- buildings, homes, businesses, all damaged by the state's three weeks of rioting. A colored map shows each spots of destruction, so dense it's like looking down at a metropolis from a nighttime flight. "It's going to take a long, long time" to even quantify all the wreckage, officials say. And it's not over yet.
He was only eight years old when ISIS fighters ripped him from his mom's arms. "How do I feel?" he repeats blankly when a reporter asks him what it's like to home again. "Really," he said quietly, "I don't know how to feel." Mazen spent five years starving under his captors, rising every morning with the knowledge that he was being trained to kill his own people. Until one day, last spring, when he was freed, sent back to a family he wasn't sure was even alive.
When he first sat down in front of the cameras and a packed Senate committee room, it was tough not to like Neil Gorsuch. The prematurely gray dad of two kicked off his opening statement talking about his wife and family -- joking about his daughters, who were probably out "bathing chickens for the county fair," his extended family and childhood pranks, the values of working hard. Gorsuch thought back to the first time he put on his black robe -- how it reminded him of the important job he had to do. He told the senators he didn't realize how big it was until he slipped on it and fell. "Everything went flying," he recalled. Now, three years later, that robe is still tripping him up. But his fall, Americans are finding out, hurts us all.
To some Republicans, the party platform is "nothing but trouble." But take it away, and I guarantee: conservatives will find out exactly how much it matters.
What was it like to watch a law you helped protect go down in smoke? Jeff Sessions knows. As attorney general, he was part of the team that set the country right on the word "sex" that the Supreme Court just redefined. How does he respond to the activist judges who took a torch to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and sent us back to the days of Barack Obama? Find out on Tuesday's "Washington Watch."
It's a Supreme Court ruling that would have stung no matter what. But the timing of this one, when Americans are desperately waiting for something in 2020 to make sense, seemed to deliver a much more painful blow. In a country hurting for stability, the court only brought more chaos. Instead of common sense, more confusion. Where there should have been reassurances about basic truths, there was only shock and disappointment. Six justices, against the laws of science, history, and morality, decided to create their own Autonomous Zone -- where humanity's laws about male and female no longer apply.
Whole sections of Seattle are seceding from their city, and people everywhere are wondering: what happened? How did we get here? Was this an overnight implosion or a slow and steady erosion of everything that makes us Americans? Dr. Dave Brat, dean of Liberty University's School of Business, tries to unpack the breakdown of law and order. Don't miss his take from Monday's "Washington Watch."
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling today that makes the nation's high court look more like a uber-legislative body than a judicial one. The Court declared that the federal prohibition of employment discrimination based on sex in the 1964 Civil Rights Act also prohibits discrimination on the basis of "sexual orientation" and "gender identity." In redefining the term that describes biological sex, the Supreme Court took the question of protected categories out of the hands of the American people and once again created judicial legislation.
In sports, you win some and you lose some. Everyone knows and accepts this. But being cheated against is any athlete's worst nightmare. It's a form of theft, taking away years of training in a moment of dishonesty. And when it happened to Mary Kate Marshall, a sprinter for the Idaho State University Bengals, she decided to act.
In fairly typical fashion for a federal regulation, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a final rule on Friday that is 344 pages long. However, most of the criticism of this rule has revolved around the answer HHS gave to a simple question -- did Congress pass a law -- in 1972 -- to make it illegal to "discriminate" on the basis of "gender identity?" The Department gave the only reasonable answer: "No."
If you're President Trump, you have to be wondering, "What next?" It wasn't enough that the administration had to deal with the liberals' three-year crusade to unseat him -- the Russian collusion, an impeachment sham, the deep-state FBI conspiracy. Then came 2020: the coronavirus, 119,000 deaths, an economic shutdown, and George Floyd. Now, if cities aren't burned to the ground, they're becoming part of a "proxy civil war." It is, the Left smirks quietly, the perfect election storm. But is it enough to win?
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced it had finalized a long-awaited rule to correct the Obama Administration's distortion of a key portion of their own signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act (ACA or "Obamacare").
It's okay to protest a black man's death. It is not okay, it turns out, to protest millions of them. That much was clear when two pro-lifers were hauled away from an NYC abortion clinic in handcuffs in the middle of the George Floyd riots. "We're black women," they said, but this isn't just about black lives mattering. It's about "all lives matter[ing]."
You don't have to be conservative to think the media is out for Donald Trump. Both sides, a new survey shows, think the press is trying to drag on this shutdown to hurt the president's chances in November. Turns out, there is something all of America can agree on: the country doesn't trust the media as much as it thought.
There's "a great darkness over parts of the world where people of faith are persecuted or denied the right to worship," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced yesterday at the launch of the State Department's annual report on international religious freedom.
The Los Angeles Times, Seattle Times, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Chicago Tribune, Houston Chronicle, Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe -- they all have one thing in common: they've taken in millions from China to print advertising that looks like news. How did this happen and what does it mean? Find out with Asia expert Gordon Chang on Wednesday's "Washington Watch."
Most people don't scroll through their Twitter feed thinking a few simple clicks will change their life. But for Birmingham Pastor Chris Hodges, who's been a friend of mine for years, a handful of "likes" were all it took to make the biggest church in Alabama homeless.
Keira Bell can never get her childhood back. And her body, a scarred and mangled reminder, tells her every day. "I am living in a world where I don't fit in as male or as female. I am stuck between two sexes." Now 23, she's dedicated her life to stop teenagers from making the same mistake. And suing the clinic responsible is step number one.
It has been months since Americans first watched in shock as Turkey launched an incursion against the region of Northeast Syria controlled by the Kurds, faithful U.S. allies in the fight against ISIS. The news cycle has moved on. Yet, the Christians, Yazidis, and others who built their livelihoods in Northeast Syria still cling to the hope that the fragile system which protects their freedoms will remain.
What does defunding the police have to do with communism? Find out in this astonishing interview with former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia Joe diGenova. "People are going to have to stand up. They're going to have to say they won't tolerate this." And soon.
The fringe Left: Great at making slogans. Terrible at considering consequences. Maybe "DEFUND THE POLICE" makes an edgy statement slathered in yellow letters on D.C.'s 16th Street -- but putting it on paper, like Democratic lawmakers are threatening to do, would be one of the worst policy mistakes in history. And it's not just Republicans who think so.
It took 14,000 extra signatures, 1,500 volunteers, and two deadlines, but Colorado pro-lifers can finally breathe a sigh of relief. After a roller-coaster few months, the state will finally put Initiative 120 on the ballot -- and voters, not the government or the courts, will be deciding the future of the unborn.
New Jersey just added "anal sex" to its learning standards for eighth graders, in an 8-4 vote by the state board of education. Beginning in 2022, all eighth graders who attend public schools in the Garden State must be proficient in "gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation." They will work to "[d]evelop a plan for the school to promote dignity and respect for people of all genders [sic], gender identities, gender expressions, and sexual orientations in the school community."
They were the biggest gatherings, by far, but in Washington, D.C., where one reporter said it "felt as if the entire city had emptied into downtown," the atmosphere felt different. Calmer. Despite the steady stream of crowds outside the White House, there were some signs of summer nights from simpler times. By dusk, there were ice cream trucks and little children playing on the grass. Strollers were parked outside restaurants where families were eating under umbrellas. In some places, people held hands and danced to street musicians -- a far cry from the sounds of sirens and shattered glass the weekend before.
It was the good news no one expected to get. After weeks of sky-is-falling predictions, the economy made a surprising comeback Friday with the news that the unemployment rate actually dropped for the first time since the coronavirus. A whopping 2.5 million jobs were added when the country started to reopen in earnest this month, giving Republicans -- and America -- a win at a time when we desperately need it.
While coronavirus restrictions may be lifting for state-approved churches in China, many find themselves facing an even more dangerous situation -- being told what to teach by an officially atheist authoritarian regime.
If the protestors noticed the clouds, they didn't care. Hundreds of them walked down D.C. streets in sheets of rain, almost oblivious to the nighttime thunderstorm. Soaked, some of them knelt at the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial, quietly listening to his "I Have a Dream" speech in a kind of calm that's eluded the city for days. For several minutes after midnight, that iconic voice seemed to float over the Tidal Basin, a call as clear as it was all of those years ago: "Now is the time to rise from the dark."
The motto from the underground training session was simple: "Get out there and do dangerous things as safely as possible." Caught on video by Project Veritas, the advice from the Antifa organizers was jarring. "Gouge their eyes." "If you get a good liver or kidney shot, it's pretty much crippling." "Run away while they're doubled over in pain," the "fight instructor" says. Whatever you do, destroy your enemy. And with any luck, the thugs think, your country too.
Derek Chauvin was no saint. That much was known long before his knee crushed the life out of George Floyd. After racking up 17 complaints in 19 years, the question most people have is -- what was he still doing on the police force anyway? If we can stand the answer, it would go a long way to getting some of these bad people off the beat. But it would also mean taking a long hard look at the power of unions in this country. And for some people, that's a bridge too far.
Dr. Albert Mohler couldn't have predicted when he started his book that the title would be so tragically appropriate. The storm is most certainly here -- in the unrest of one man's death and the uncertainty from 110,000 more. Most people, Dr. Mohler insists, have no idea about the deepest challenge we face. What is it -- and what can we do about it? Find out in his interview on "Washington Watch."
If there's one thing we know about President Trump, it's that he won't tolerate America getting a raw deal. When it happened in trade pacts, he renegotiated. When it happened with COVID, he tore up WHO's check. If someone tries to take advantage of this country, they're going to pay a real price -- no matter who they are. And if the U.N. isn't careful, it might just be next.
If people tuned in for Russell Vought's confirmation hearing expecting fireworks, they must have been disappointed. The acting OMB chief's turn before Senator Bernie Sanders's (I-Vt.) committee Wednesday was a lot more subdued than 2017's cage match over the economist's faith. There were plenty of tough questions, to be sure, but none of them had to do with his deeply-held personal beliefs for once.
Every year for the past 30 years, crowds have gathered in Hong Kong on June 4th to light candles, hear from former Chinese pro-democracy activists, and mourn the infamous massacre of student demonstrators by the Chinese People's Liberation Army in 1989. This year, no legal vigil was permitted, but that didn't stop thousands from bringing white candles to a Hong Kong park to remember the tragedy that came to be known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
The sign said, "All Are Welcome." But apparently, "all" doesn't include Donald Trump. Any other leader visiting a church in the middle of a nationwide street war would have been praised for his solemnity, his search for healing. Not this president. His visit to St. John's, which had been engulfed in flames the night before, and St. John Paul II's National Shrine on Tuesday were just new opportunities for second-guessing.
The United States isn't the only country split wide open by pain and grief. In Nigeria, where senseless killings are a way of life, people are struggling to find the words to describe the horror inside a church in Benin City, where a young, 22-year-old microbiology student was found, lying in a pool of her own blood. Raped, attacked, and left half-naked on the floor, Vera Omozuwa had come to the sanctuary to study. She liked it, a parish member said, because it was peaceful. She died, telling a very different story.
Unrest has rocked our nation over the last week. After a blatant display of police brutality in Minneapolis that took the life of George Floyd, cities across our nation have experienced a torrent of lawlessness. Questions, opinions, hurt, anger, and fear have been some of the primary responses by Americans that are looking for hope, healing, and justice in the midst of the chaos. As followers of Christ, we know that the Scriptures give us directions on how to respond even in uncertain times.
When the mobs picked up guns and baseball bats and headed back into the streets last night, it was no longer about George Floyd. The chaos that's erupting at dark has stopped telling his story -- and started telling ours as a lost and desperate country. "It's okay to be angry," George's brother said. But the man in whose name policemen are being shot, cities are being burned, and businesses are being destroyed would have never wanted this. He was "about peace." And if the rioters cared about justice, they would be too.
The debate over reopening isn't just keeping pastors up at night. At the U.S. Supreme Court, justices were up well past normal business hours, weighing two states' emergency appeals. It took until almost midnight last Friday to decide whether Illinois and California churches should be able to bypass their leaders' orders. When Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the California opinion with the courts' liberals, some Americans were irate. But was it really the horrible outcome they thought it was?
Like a lot of the president's nominees, acting budget director Russell Vought doesn't have a whole lot of fond memories about his first confirmation hearing in the Senate. Back in 2018, when he was first picked to be OMB's second-in-command, he was grilled by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in a debate so fiercely personal it became national news. Instead of big-picture economics, the Left turned his nomination into a firefight over Vought's Christian faith. A fight, this time around, Vought is hoping won't be repeated.
God's Word speaks to a lot of things -- including our responsibility to be engaged in our system of government. FRC's David Closson explains how relevant Scripture is to everything we face as a nation in this new and updated edition of "Biblical Principles for Political Engagement: Worldview, Issues, and Voting." Hear why it matters in this special interview on Monday's "Washington Watch."
When the sun broke over Washington, D.C. this morning, in a cloudless blue sky, it was hard to believe it was the same city where I had to navigate barricades and riot police as I made my way to our office. The fires that blazed up and down the National Mall were finally out, leaving one charred reminder after another of the carnage. Pieces of history, like St. John's Church, either went up in flames or were shattered into a thousand glassy pieces on sidewalks that were no longer places where presidents walked -- but war zones.
Chelsea Mitchell finally beat her foes on the track -- but now she's ready to beat them where it counts: in court. The runner, one of the three Connecticut girls suing to stop biological boys from competing in their races, got some good news on that front last week, when a letter from the Department of Education finally became public. For the first time since their case began, the DOE is warning schools -- uphold Title IX or face the consequences.
It's been a drama that's rivaled most primetime TV shows: America versus the World Health Organization (WHO). President Trump seems to be signaling a finale to the relationship -- announcing Friday that he was permanently slashing funding to the group who helped China keep the world in the dark about the deadly coronavirus. Now, a handful of days before his deadline to WHO leaders for a complete investigation, the president has decided it's never to early to end a bad investment.
To most of us, 24 sounds pretty young. But in the tech world, where things literally change overnight, a policy two and a half decades old is a virtual fossil. When Bill Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act into law in 1996, we were just getting used to the internet. There was no Twitter or Facebook -- no YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok. Even Google was a full two years away. Nobody could have predicted this thing called social media. Now, a generation later, it's got a cutting-edge world that we're still trying to govern with stuffy, outdated laws. And the explosion of censorship is letting us know: it's not working.
Hong Kong is still 27 years away from Chinese control -- and already the situation is a powder keg. After waves of violence and mass arrests, even the coronavirus couldn't keep people from spilling into the streets to protest Beijing's latest attempt at a political takeover. From shopping districts to banks, people of all ages joined huge groups, declaring independence while police fired water cannons, tear gas, and rubber bullets into the crowd. "Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong!" they shouted.
DOJ is sure staying busy putting out constitutional fires in states with less than cooperative governors. As more parts of the country are starting to reopen, are things getting better or worse for churches? Find out from the man in charge of the civil liberties effort: Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband.
If ever there were a time for Christians to recognize the need to pull together and impact our communities, our states, and our nation, that moment is now. Thankfully, FRC has been on the front lines, providing direction and structure to help churches and other organizations really begin to have a serious and effective impact. The structure is the development of the Community Impact initiative, and it's making a difference.
The truly desperate ones hang red and white clothes outside their windows, a cry -- people have come to recognize -- for help. Hungry parents, out of work, scramble for boxes of rice, vegetables, and sugar across Latin America where even children are on a waiting list for meals. "We are going to starve from this disease," one emotional Haitian dad told a reporter. In Kenya, the situation is so dire that people from the slums died in stampedes just trying to get their hands on some flour and oil. Like everyone else, the U.N. is watching in horror as clouds of locusts ravage India's crops and looting starts in South Africa. And what kind of "relief" are they trying to send to countries? Abortion.
Two years ago, Mihrigul Tursun cried in a congressional hearing room as her prepared testimony was read by a translator. A Uyghur who survived one of China's now-infamous "re-education" camps in Xinjiang, her testimony recounted the brainwashing, horrific living conditions, and torture -- including electric shock treatment, "tiger chairs" used to immobilize detainees, and mysterious "medications" that caused sterilization -- that an estimated 1.8 million Uyghur Muslims and other detainees in these camps endure daily.
We've heard from health experts, the CDC, governors, and mayors. But when it comes to reopening our churches, have we stopped to hear from God? California Pastor Ron Hill says there's only one person who can give him the green light to have services. And He doesn't come with proclamations and rollout plans -- He just speaks, in a still small voice.
With billions in the bank, America's abortion giant isn't exactly the picture of a suffering small business. So when the country's biggest abortion network grabbed $80 million dollars in coronavirus loans, it's no wonder the country was outraged. Can they be prosecuted for it? Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) thinks so. Find out what he and more than 120 other congressmen are doing to get the money back -- now.
It's a tiny slip of an island, just 110 miles off the coast of China. But a narrow stretch of water isn't the only thing separating Taiwan from its communist neighbors. There, floating in the Formosa Strait, is a surprising patch of democracy. To most people, the thought is astounding. A boat ride away from one of the most oppressive regimes in human history, 23 million people go about their days free. And China can't stand it.
We don't know everything about the coronavirus, but we certainly know more than we did. And while we might have made different decisions with more information, America's top medical experts agree: we did the best with what we had. But now, Dr. Martin Makary points out, it's time to learn from those choices and move on.
Headlines like the one in the New York Post today said, "Costa Rica latest country to legalize same-sex marriage." But it wasn't really Costa Ricans who made it happen. Instead, Costa Rica became -- like the United States five years ago -- the victim of a multi-layer attack of judicial activism.
Even though we're in a presidential election year, liberals have yet to roll out their favorite catch phrase: separation of church and state! Maybe that's because -- in the wake of the coronavirus -- some Democratic governors have brazenly crossed that line of "separation," placing stricter restrictions on church gatherings than other establishments like restaurants, malls, and even casinos. But enough is enough. And on Friday, after hearing from pastors all across the country, President Trump took advantage of his bully pulpit to start getting pastors behind their own.
If there's one thing that everyone can admit about this virus, it's how impossible it would be to tackle without churches. From the president to his cabinet secretaries and needy people on the ground, there's one refrain that keeps echoing across this crisis: ministry, from even the smallest of communities, makes all the difference. "The federal government can provide a role," Secretary Chad Wolf agreed. But having been on the ground and seeing the deep need, he knows, "it's the faith-based organizations... that are the backbone of the response." And now, more than ever, we need to protect them.
James Shupe is a biological man who was the first legally recognized nonbinary person in America. Yet he now says it "was all a sham."
From hero to homeless. It wasn't the life that veteran Randall Sarratt imagined. But, like so many of our brave men and women, leaving the military only meant facing a new battle at home. For six years he lived on the streets, trying to scrape together enough money to survive. Then, a meeting with a California charity changed his life. He applied for a housing voucher, then a job -- all with help from the Department of Labor's Homeless Veterans' Reintegration Program.
Chicago has one of the highest violent crime rates in the country -- and what is the police department doing? Ticketing churches. That's how Governor J.B. Pritzker (D) is prioritizing his law enforcement's time despite what cops are calling "a double whammy" during the crisis. "We're catching it double. We have the virus and the violence to worry about." But who has time for real criminals when a handful of God-fearing people are meeting? Not Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D).
"The arms of tyranny have reached Hong Kong," declared pro-democracy lawmaker Ted Hui. The Chinese government has taken advantage of the quiet streets of Hong Kong -- just months ago filled with hundreds of thousands of protestors -- to push an extensive national security law for Hong Kong through parliament. Critics say this overreach by the Beijing marks the end of the freedom and autonomy that has enabled Hong Kong to thrive.
"If Joe Biden wants to do it, the world can feel assured -- we shouldn't do it." That was Rep. Ted Yoho's (R-Fla.) reaction to the former vice president's agenda for America's closest ally in the Middle East. Imagine all of the progress the Trump administration has made in Israel destroyed, rolled back, or ignored. According to the Democrats' pick for president, that's the Biden plan in a nutshell. Hear the shocking details in this sit-down on "Washington Watch."
Planned Parenthood is no "small" business. In 2018, America's hulk of an abortion provider reported net assets of $2.2 billion -- so the idea that they would be competing for stimulus loans is absurd. And yet, to the shock of people up and down East Capitol Street, that's exactly what dozens of its affiliates did. Even Republicans, who've come to expect this kind of larceny from Planned Parenthood, have a hard time believing it.
If they're protesting, at least they're courteous about it. In a show of good faith, pastors all across California aren't just determined to hold services, they're giving the government fair warning they will. In a polite but firm letter to Governor Gavin Newsom (D), thousands of pastors have let the state know that they're reopening May 31 -- whether the state likes it or not!
These are incredibly challenging times, but if America ever needed its spiritual leaders, it's now. "Pastors," Secretary Ben Carson said this morning, "make all the difference in the world." If the faith community bands together, he insisted, "this virus will not defeat us." Thursday, the faith community did in fact band together -- joining FRC for our first-ever National Virtual Pastors Roundtable.
Believe it or not, there's plenty of good news in the virus fight -- if only someone would write them! National Review's Rich Lowry tried to fix that, doing a deep-dive on the president's supply line victories that have changed the way America fights the outbreak. Don't miss Lowry's stunning interview on the Trump successes the Left doesn't want you to hear!
The Chinese Communist Party must wake up every morning and thank its lucky stars for the U.S. media. While the rest of the world rages at the regime for a virus that's killed hundreds of thousands of people, America's press corps only sees one villain: Donald Trump. That's been an unexpected blessing for China, who knows the media's red-hot hatred of the president will help undermine anything he does to hold them accountable. Fortunately for America, Donald Trump has had three and a half years of experience ignoring the press -- and he's not going to stop now.
California conservatives haven't exactly been riding a wave of great news lately, but last week's special election was a victory everyone can savor. Former Navy fighter pilot Mike Garcia (R) stunned the media with a landslide victory outside Los Angeles, flipping the seat, and joining Tom Tiffany (R-Wisc.) as the House's newest members. Now, barely hours into their new jobs, the two men aren't just giving House Republicans a shot in the arm -- but their pro-life plans too!
It's no wonder American students don't know basic history -- they're spending 70 hours of classroom time studying something else: sex!
When the dust settles from the coronavirus -- months, maybe even years from now -- there will be a lot of storylines from the crisis that were never told. One of the biggest, history will show, is about this president. Like most leaders in his position, he'd never faced a tragedy of this magnitude. But unlike so many others, Donald Trump turned to America -- not government -- for answers.
It took three elections, two political parties, and one pandemic, but Israel has finally sworn in its new unity government. The year and a half standoff is over -- and a new chapter in cooperative leadership, with all of its twists and turns, has begun.
He was just 17 years old, a young, broken teenager living in Delhi when he tried to end his own life. But Ravi Zacharias didn't die. Not then. He woke up in a hospital, where someone handed him a book that would change his life -- and so many others': the Bible. "Thank God I was spared," he said later. But over a lifetime of evangelism that spanned every corner of the world, it is us who are thankful.
It didn't look like recess. It looked like an elementary school jail. Instead of carefree children running around outside, the images from French journalists are almost tragic: little boys and girls, each sitting glumly in their own chalk-outlined box. To some parents, it was a sobering picture of what public education might look like in the fall. But to millions of others, it was confirmation -- the time to homeschool is now.
Election polling is big-time news these days. Unless the media doesn't like the results. Then, apparently, it's not news at all. Take CNN, NRO's Kyle Smith says. They just spent a pile of money to ask voters what they think of President Trump. Believe it or not, his approval ratings have never been higher -- not that viewers would know it, since CNN virtually ignored the numbers altogether.
It wasn't the news pro-lifers wanted to hear. After weeks of crisscrossing the state, knocking on doors, and rallying hundreds of volunteers, Colorado's petition gatherers were officially 10,000 names short. The announcement from the secretary of state's office hit organizers hard. The "Due Date Too Late" campaign thought they had more than enough signatures to put a 22-week abortion limit on the ballot. Now, in a race against the clock, they're hitting the ground running -- trying to find the signatures they need to save lives.
In 2009, when America was in a deep financial crisis, our new president, Barack Obama, appointed Rahm Emanuel to be his chief-of-staff. Emanuel was known for two things: bare-knuckle politics and radical liberalism. And he knew that while America's attention was focused on recharging our economy it would be a great time to sneak in parts of the liberal agenda that otherwise might never get done. As he put it, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste."
The debate is raging throughout the country over whether the freedoms we enjoy as Americans are eroding as the lockdowns continue. On Wednesday's "Washington Watch," I share a warning about what will happen if we fail to exercise our freedoms. Let us not let our freedom atrophy.
If you could sit down and write a list of every bad idea the Left has ever had, guess what? You've got the House's Phase 4 coronavirus stimulus. Picture Planned Parenthood loans, taxpayer-funded abortion, cash for illegal immigrants, marijuana banking, state bailouts, rigged elections, freed felons, and a complete redefinition of the family. Clocking in at 1,800 pages -- more than three reams of paper -- the Democrats' bill reads more like a love letter to their radical base than a serious attempt at COVID relief.
Asking a chaplain to do his job without his faith is like asking an Army sergeant to go to war without a weapon. But thanks to a handful of atheist activists, that's exactly what the military's asking.
The CDC's opinion matters. But it isn't the only one that does. There are a lot more factors to consider when it comes to getting America back on its feet than public health. When the president decided to not go with the CDC's re-opening guidelines as they presented, he wasn't ignoring the experts' advice. He was just looking for something workable. If the White House had accepted the agency's recommendations, no one would be eligible for re-opening. And in a country struggling to keep its head above water, that's not just flawed -- it's fatal.
Was the Michael Flynn saga ever about him? Or was it just another way to get to the president? Andrew McCarthy has been following the case for three years, and he says there's no doubt. Find out what Democrats were up to -- then and now -- in this special sit-down with the former federal prosecutor. Hear about all of the new developments, including one judge's decision not to drop the case.
There were plenty of big guns at Tuesday's Senate coronavirus hearing, but it might be four-legged Rufus who stole the show. Senator Lamar Alexander's (R-Tenn.) napping spaniel was just one of the signs that business was anything but usual for the Hill. Like the Supreme Court flush heard 'round the world, Americans are getting a good look at their leaders as everyday people -- with rock band posters, barking dogs, messy desks, and books stacked to the ceiling. But more importantly, they got an honest picture of something else: where the country really is in its COVID-19 fight.
In the media's mad dash to keep fear alive, it's not herd immunity they're after, it's herd mentality. In headline after headline, we see surveys about Americans desperate to keep the country locked down. But is it true? Well, as far as Scott Rasmussen is concerned, a poll is only as good as its questions. And the press, many believe, might be asking the wrong ones.
Illinois isn't communist Romania -- but according to one pastor, it's getting harder to tell the difference. Chicago's Cristian Ionescu grew up watching dictators close churches, jail pastors, and marginalize men and women of faith. He just never dreamed that decades later in America, he'd be close to the same kind of oppression.
What could be worse than not finding a vaccine? Having it stolen. And right now, in the race to find a coronavirus treatment, that might be the biggest threat of all. That's why China isn't just putting its best scientists on the job -- it's unleashing an army of cyberthieves to break into U.S. files and steal whatever progress America's making. Turns out, the regime wasn't just content infecting the world -- they want to control who recovers first too.
People are reading the Bible more than ever these days -- and based on a new survey, they need to! Only six percent of adults in this country have what George Barna defines as a "biblical worldview" -- a shocker of a statistic that has more Christians wondering, what on earth are parents and churches teaching?
No one in the country is playing sports right now -- but when they do, three brave high schoolers are trying to make sure the competitions they come back to are fair ones. But before the girls get a fair shake in track, they'll have to get one in court. And based on this judge, they'd better not hold their breath.
What's driving the huge decline in biblical worldview? Why are Christians so affected? And, more importantly, what can you do about it? Find out in this special in-depth interview with FRC's Director of Christian Ethics and Biblical Worldview, David Closson.
Most parents don't hand their kids the remote on the "Teen TV" menu and expect them to be able to choose from "The End of the F***ing World," "Sex Education," or the suicide shocker, "13 Reasons Why." But on platforms like Netflix, where the ratings don't seem to factor into how the programs are listed, your middle schooler could be stumbling on all kinds of surprising content. Maybe, like a lot of moms and dads, you assume a TV-14 Netflix show is the same as TV-14 on broadcast television. Well, I've got news for you, entertainment writer Michael Foust said: "It's not."
"One of the reasons I believe in the resurrection," Mike Huckabee once joked, "is because we'd see dead people vote every year!" Well, he's about to make a lot of converts in California, where liberal Governor Gavin Newsom (D) just ordered a vote-by-mail system through November -- a decision that's scaring the daylights out of anyone who cares about ballot integrity. For all the talk of other countries meddling in our elections, they know as well as we do -- the biggest threats are right here at home.
The news is getting record viewers, but is it gaining back their trust? After a historically bad year for people's confidence in the media, the coronavirus gave the industry a chance to make up ground. A chance, based on one weekend controversy, they're squandering.
The news isn't slowing down -- and neither is FRC. Check out the latest from our experts in a slew of new op-eds, including Cathy Ruse's "Our Culture Needs Marriage, Because It Needs Mothers" in the Stream, Connor Semelsberger's "Why Are Catholics Turning on the Little Sisters?" in Crisis magazine, and Mary Beth Waddell's "'We're All in This Together' Should Apply to Needy Children Too" in the Christian Post.
Nothing about the National Day of Prayer was conventional -- but for Americans, hungry for hope in dark times, that didn't matter a bit. By now, people are used to getting creative with their events. And Thursday was no exception.
It was a case that, as former prosecutor Andrew McCarthy said, "stunk to high heaven." Now, three years into a bogus controversy that ruined General Michael Flynn's career, the DOJ is dropping the case against the former national security advisor. It wasn't a pardon -- but maybe, some say, it was better. It finally got prosecutors to admit what most people suspected all along: the case was a hoax.
For most of us, Mother's Day marks an annual occasion for celebrating the blessings of family. While celebrations will be different this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, most of us can still look forward to a family video chat, surprise bouquets and gifts, and the promise of hugs and kisses for mom and grandma once the world returns to normal.
They are the lasting images of every tragedy -- the pictures of heartbreak, triumph, humility, humanity. They are a scrapbook of a thousand moments that remind us simply: Americans are survivors. The flag over Iwo Jima. George Bush on a pile of rubble with a megaphone. An amputee, crying, at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Years from now, looking back on the darkness of these days, what will we remember? The chaplains holding hands with patients. Nurses on a hospital helipad, praying over a city skyline. Cars lined up in the church parking lots. I hope what we remember is revival.
He hadn't kissed the bride. No one is sure they got through their vows. If they did, the words "death do us part" might have still been hanging in the air when men with rifles stormed the church, ripping the bride and groom away from the happiest day of their lives. Terrified, people tried to escape. The ones who couldn't were taken -- like the couple, who hasn't been heard from since.
What do Chinese communists know about Christianity? Not much, but that hasn't stopped them from saying Secretary Mike Pompeo has betrayed it. In a bizarre attack, even for China, the regime's latest approach seems to be calling out America's top diplomat for misrepresenting his faith. It's an interesting deflection -- but not an effective one.
A lot of things about the coronavirus are out of our control -- but how we approach China isn't one of them. And in a country where consensus is as rare as hand sanitizer, the outrage over the outbreak might be the single greatest exception. While Democrats in Washington keep their fingers pointed at President Trump, they're about the only ones, polling shows. Most Americans know exactly who's at fault -- and who should pay.
Nobody is thrilled to be stuck inside, but a lot of pollsters have been surprised by just how popular The Great Lockdown has been. Despite the state protests and rallies, there's been a lot of support for the stay-at-home orders that have canceled schools and disrupted life as we know it. "Worth it" said 80 percent in a Kaiser survey last week. "Appropriate" another 66 percent told the Washington Post. But is that mindset starting to change? Some surveys say yes.
Americans remain highly concerned about the coronavirus, even as parts of the country begin to reopen. While the root cause for these concerns varies -- recent polling indicates that a slightly higher percentage of Americans fear the economic effects of a prolonged period of quarantine (49 percent) than the health threat posed by the virus (45 percent) -- the fact remains: Americans are afraid.
The coronavirus hasn't slowed down the Senate's judicial confirmations. Wednesday morning, Trump's latest nominee, Judge Justin Walker, took a turn before the upper chamber. To find out why senators should move quickly to confirm him, check out my joint op-ed with SBA List's Marjorie Dannenfelser, "Judge Justin Walker: A Warrior for Religious Liberty" in RealClearPolitics.
Abby lived. In fact, she went on to become one of the most effective pro-life activists in the movement: Abby Johnson. Like a lot of women, she thought taking the abortion pill would be the easy way out. She was wrong. Her nightmare -- of gushing blood and excruciating pain, of clumps passing out of her body while she cried and sweated alone -- is the story of tens of thousands of women.
Samaritan's Purse doesn't serve to get praise. And that's a good thing in places like New York City, where radical liberals refuse to give them any. Even now, after treating 315 patients in its field hospital in Central Park, the news that Rev. Franklin Graham's work might soon be done was the only thing some liberal councilmembers felt like celebrating. Instead of gratitude, their message to the charity is simple: Get out. And don't come back.
How do you get the latest on the issues that matter to you right in the palm of your hand? It's easy with FRC's redesigned STAND Firm app. If you want to stay informed with what's happening on Capitol Hill and make a difference in your local community, then check out the new and improved version at FRC.org/app.
It's not a date most people have circled on their calendars. But whether they know it or not, May 4, 2017 was the day most Americans were set free. Free from government imposed anti-religious mandates, court battles, and fines. Free from jail threats, harassment, and closures. After eight long years of an administration at war with religious freedom, President Trump leaned over a piece of paper in the Rose Garden and vowed, "We will not allow people of faith to be targeted, bullied, or silenced anymore."
Staying home is supposed to keep people safe. But for unborn babies, even lockdowns have their risks. Any house can be an abortion clinic, Planned Parenthood wants people to know. You just have to call for pills.
Good news, California! Your generous dictator, Governor Gavin Newsom (D), has decided to "allow" residents to watch the sunsets! Turns out, it's one of the few government-approved activities his administration has benevolently approved in lockdown, according to a new decree. His scepter also waved agreeably at gardening and car washing, in case people were wondering. But if you want to play doubles' ping-pong, you'd better get the county's permission.
When Governor Andy Beshear (D-Ky.) steps up to the podium for his daily press briefings, there's one death toll he doesn't announce. There's no county-by-county map, colored in shades of red, telling people how many lives abortion has taken since March. If there were, his state would be horrified to know that they've lost 240 people to coronavirus, and more than double that -- 561 -- to another sickness: the liberal hypocrisy keeping his clinics running.
At 94-years-old, a 17-degree morning is a harsh way to start any day. But even the chill couldn't stop Rev. Fred Lunsford from making the two-mile trek to his prayer garden. The pastors who visited later that January day had heard the story of the decorated hero: a World War II veteran that stormed the beaches of Normandy and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. But as they stood there, in his den, Fred didn't mention the military medals and plaques. He was only interested in one thing: prayer.
Andrew McCarthy knew there was something fishy about General Michael Flynn's resignation in 2017. And three years later, new documents have finally proven him right. Hear what the former federal prosecutor has to say about the explosive new revelations and what tipped him off that the FBI was trying to frame Flynn in Thursday's interview on "Washington Watch."
As far as liberal set-ups go, it certainly followed the formula: a phone call, the Russians, a high-ranking government official's son, lying prosecutors, even some of the same politically-motivated FBI agents. But the case against General Michael Flynn had another familiar storyline in the Left's war against Donald Trump -- a lack of evidence. Based on the bombshell evidence today -- a damning picture of FBI corruption, coercion, and entrapment -- it seems General Flynn's only real crime was ending up in an administration the Democrats wanted to destroy.
There's federalism, and then there's overreach. In a crisis like this one, there's a fine line between the two -- but the Trump administration is intent on making officials walk it. As some Americans lose patience with the stay-at-home orders, the Justice Department wants the country to know it's paying attention. If governors or local leaders abuse their power to keep people locked up and businesses closed up, Attorney General William Barr wants states to know: he isn't giving them a pass.
She didn't just play Division 1 basketball -- she coached it, at four different schools. If anyone knows about women's sports, it's Idaho State Rep. Barbara Ehardt (R). Like a lot of people, she understands that what's at the root of this fight against athletes competing as the gender of their choice isn't prejudice. It's basic fairness. And when her governor signed the bill she'd drafted to protect it, Barbara couldn't have been happier. Then came the news everyone dreaded: far-Left groups were suing to settle the score.
Donald Trump isn't perfect. Far from it, in fact. But how can a Christian look at his record as president and not understand what's at stake? Eric Metaxas has no idea. The best-selling author and radio show host talks about that and more in his brand-new interview on "Washington Watch" with Sarah Perry.
The report is 104 pages -- but it tells a thousand stories. For young women like Mary Mohammadi, sentenced to flogging and more time in prison, the one hope she has, apart from Jesus, is here in the United States. Her prayer -- like so many others in Nigeria, North Korea, China, India, Iran, and elsewhere -- is that Americans step in and stop the suffering. For 21 years, one commission's goal has been to do exactly that.
Americans are a forgiving people, but when it comes to China, they aren't looking the other way any time soon. With the coronavirus death toll now surpassing our losses in the Vietnam War, the outrage over Wuhan's lethal cover-up is infuriating the world over. A lot of Americans were concerned about the communist regime before it turned humanity upside down. Now, with economies tanking and families grieving, a majority of the country thinks it's time to throw down the gauntlet. And trade is a good place to start.
Earlier today, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released its 2020 annual report, naming the world's worst religious freedom violators -- while noting some who have improved too. Among a number of findings on religious freedom, the report calls out governments around the world that oppress or fail to protect this fundamental human right, recommending that the State Department label certain countries "Countries of Particular Concern" (CPC) or be put on a Special Watch List.
"No idea." That was the only answer state and local officials had. When a federal elections commission started asking questions, not one person had any explanation for the 28.3 million mail-in ballots that have gone missing since 2012. As far as they're concerned, one in five absentee votes just vanished. No one knows if it's fraud, system failure, general ineptitude, or a combination of all three. What we do know is that Democrats want us to trust this same process -- on a national scale -- this November. Thank you, but no thank you.
The public schools might be closed, but based on the country's latest history marks, some kids aren't missing much! In the "Nation's Report Card" from the Department of Education, U.S. scores took another big dive in subjects like history, part of an alarming trend that's prompted the Trump administration to call for "fundamentally rethink[ing] education in America." And the sooner the better, most people say. At the rate things are going, the only civics our kids will know are the Hondas parked out back.
For the families lucky enough, there are still cemetery plots. But even grieving is different now, one Iranian says soberly. Not even flowers are allowed on the rows of fresh dirt. "People are dying left and right here," a medic shook her head. "It's the same way in all of our hospitals." Signs of the country's suffering are everywhere -- even from space, where the trenches of mass graves are so big that satellites can't help but notice. Like so many nations rocked by the virus, the scene feels the same -- and yet, in the closed and punishing society of Iran, nothing is.
The news came down just in time for Sunday service. For all of the congregations, it had been a frustrating few weeks. Pastors in New York, North Carolina, and Mississippi had been fighting their state for the freedom they should have had all along: the right to gather, in their own creative and CDC-compliant ways, at church. But fortunately, while every locality is responding differently, every court is not. Religious liberty, they agreed, doesn't stop when a virus starts.
If there's anything this crisis should have taught us, it's the value of fighting for every life. So when Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear chose this moment to tell newborn children that they don't deserve medical care, the state was stunned. "Reprehensible" was all state attorney general Daniel Cameron could say when he heard the news that Beshear had vetoed the Born-Alive Protection Act Friday. "The governor had a choice," he shook his head, "and he used it to defend the indefensible."
They got in line at Peach Tree Battle Barbershop at 7 a.m. For a lot of them, it was the first haircut they'd had in a month and a half. "I certainly don't want to spread it to anyone," customer Matt Maddox said, "so I've got a mask. But I'm not concerned." Others, like Atlanta restaurant owner Hugh Acheson, understands that staying closed will hurt, but argues, "Now is not the time for fine dining." Either way, their governor, Brian Kemp (R), is giving them a choice -- which is more than a lot of Americans can say.
Richard Grenell never worked for Barack Obama -- but he's using tactics near and dear to that administration's foreign policy. The acting director of national intelligence has decided that it's time for America to stop sharing information with countries who aren't as pro-LGBT as he is -- a view that's eerily similar to Hillary Clinton's State Department, where ideological blackmail was the order of every day.
My daughter is a medical assistant. She and her coworkers were short on PPE [personal protective equipment]. I made reusable masks for 6 of the medical assistants. Others heard about it and it exploded. At this point in time I have made 113 masks for various people and would like to do more.\r
Whitney Tilson had come down from his Fifth Avenue apartment to walk the dog when he noticed the trucks. Right there, in Central Park, were stacks of tarps and white tents, all "bearing a name he had never heard of -- Samaritan's Purse." He found out the group was building a field hospital for his fellow New Yorkers and asked if he could help. He hasn't stopped, Yonat Shimron writes, since.
With more virus cases than anyone in the Middle East, Iran should have its hands full. Instead, the regime seems determined to show the world that it's got bigger priorities than the deaths of its own people. Wednesday, as a rocket shot high into the sky, carrying the country's first military satellite, it was obvious that even a global pandemic won't slow down Iran's Revolutionary Guard.
When President Trump pushed the pause button on funding the World Health Organization this past week, most people's only experience with the group was as a harmless arm of the United Nations. But the "watchdog" of the global health is a lot more than the world's disease and infection police. It's also, as more Americans are starting to learn, one of the biggest promoters of abortion and peddlers of radical sex ed.
The last thing we should do with sky-high unemployment is sending more jobs to China. Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) has a plan to bring U.S. companies home -- and make the communist party pay for it. Listen in on our conversation from Wednesday's "Washington Watch" to hear how.
The coronavirus didn't come with a set of instructions. There's no contingency plan, no precedent, no lessons learned from past administrations. For once, history can't teach us how to cope. It can only remind us who we are. And maybe, in a crisis like this one, that's the most important thing of all.
"What can we do about it?" The question, John Demers said, was about China. It was 2018, and he, along with then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, were sitting around the table with members of the FBI. The intelligence community was tracking a widescale campaign of intellectual theft and other economic espionage from the communist regime. China had been attacking the United States from within, and the Justice Department was ready to do something about it.
Part of what makes the coronavirus so challenging is just how different every state is. Some have been brought to their knees by infections, others are chomping at the bit to get back to normal. No one envies the job of these governors who have to weigh the risk of personal safety with the benefits of reopening the economy. But as unique as each region is, there is one thing they all have in common -- and that's the importance, in all of this, of religious freedom.
The coronavirus has made life miserable for plenty of people -- but for the extreme Left, it's a nightmare. For the first time in recent memory, America's children are learning at home, beyond the public schools' grasp. Amazingly, this outbreak, for all of its devastation, has managed to do what no one else could: free some kids from the daily drumbeat of liberal indoctrination. Suddenly, parents are the ones managing their children's schooling -- and there's nothing more dangerous to the Left's long-term agenda than parents finding out what that agenda consists of.
If you ask most protestors in the states, it's the hypocrisy that's bothering them -- not the commonsense rules. In places like Washington State, columnists raged at the double standards of governors like Jay Inslee (D), whose orders insist, "Private home construction must stop, but Sound Transit construction can continue. Private landscapers are out of work, but [counties] can still dispatch crews to trim grass in closed parks..." In Michigan, you can't buy flower seeds, but you can buy weed. And in Kansas, families can drive-through a Sonic, but not parking lot church service.
In America, the words "unified government" probably sound like an oxymoron. But in Israel, where a new deal brings rival parties together to lead the county, it's more than a grand political experiment. It's the new reality.
Homeland Security is used to handling disasters. But no one ever imagined anything like this. Even FEMA, who's the first government team on the ground after a catastrophe, is usually only juggling three or four states at a time. Now imagine every county, every American territory, in a state of emergency, Acting Secretary Chad Wolf says. "It's like a Category 5 tornado hitting all 50 states at the same time." And without churches and charities on the front lines, who knows where our country would be?
As part of their COVID-19 response, the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared abortion as an essential service. The U.K. has now issued temporary approval for chemical abortions to be completely done at home. The U.S. abortion lobby continues to call for the FDA to lift restrictions (REMs) off the abortion pill (U.S. brand "Mifeprex"), making way for complete "self-managed" abortions. Unfortunately, this is what the abortion industry all over the world has pursued even before the current pandemic -- for abortions to be unrestricted, unregulated, and do-it-yourself.
One minute her coworkers were there -- the next, she was screaming from a tiny 18-inch ledge. Florence Rodgers's chair had blown out from under her, a narrow piece of floor suddenly all that remained of her office. Twenty-five years later, "Mother Goose," as her coworkers fondly called her, remembers sitting there in the wreckage of Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, crying out -- nothing but blue sky above her head.
Forget the economy. Democrats want to make political hay. Despite Twitter feeds full of concern for the American worker, liberal leaders are making it quite clear that it is not the American worker or family they want to help its their political cronies. Two weeks after working with Republicans to push out small business relief, the Paycheck Protection Program has run dry. Unfortunately, so has the Democrats' compassion. And there's no telling when -- or if -- it'll return.
It was built to withstand a magnitude-7 earthquake. But can the Wuhan lab at the center of the world's deadliest outbreak survive the storm of scrutiny? Experts aren't so sure.
Sometimes a crisis brings out the best in people -- and sometimes, it only makes other problems worse. In the world of Big Tech censorship, this pandemic is turning into just another excuse for social media magnates to shut down debate. But if that doesn't stop -- and soon -- they're going to find themselves on the wrong side of increased regulations.
Samaritan's Purse doesn't discriminate against any of its patients, so why are liberals discriminating against them? Hear Franklin Graham's side of the story after New York Democrats said he wasn't "tolerant" enough to help virus patients in his Central Park field hospital. For the exclusive interview, check out this week's "Washington Watch."
The street was a sea of debris. To any passerby, it would've looked like a bomb had exploded. In the shadow of jagged buildings, where entire walls had come tumbling down, the ground was a pile of rubble, bricks, and shattered glass. The riots are over -- for now. But in Delhi, where the mosques are still charred and smeared with blood, no one is under any illusions. Even in lockdown, there is persecution around every corner.
Scammers are everywhere during the coronavirus, experts are warning. But they're not just after your bank account or personal information. They're after your vote.
There are some benefits to being stuck at home, YouVersion is reporting. For one, people have more time to read. And what they're reading, surveys say, is important. Turns out, the best-selling book in history -- the Bible -- is also the most popular one right now. Since Palm Sunday, the app found, Bible reading was a whopping 54 percent higher than last year's holy week. "All of this," a spokesman said, "on the heels of a record-breaking month."
The coronavirus has derailed a lot of things, but religious freedom isn't one of them -- thanks to judges who understand the Constitution.
In Mississippi, tickets to attend a drive-in church service were expensive -- as much as $500 at Temple Baptist Church. That's how much police were fining people for pulling into the parking lot to listen to their pastor on the radio. Greenville's mayor, Errick Simmons, probably thought he could get away with a little local harassment. But U.S. Attorney General William Barr didn't waste any time setting the Mississippi leader straight.
In the real world, when someone doesn't do their job, you fire them. So when the World Health Organization (WHO), whose job it is to "guard the public health," fails, it's time to take a long hard look at the billions of dollars America is paying them. It's their job to sound the alarm on outbreaks like the coronavirus. And when they don't, and tens of thousands of people pay for it with their lives, President Trump is right to step back from the hefty investment America's been making.
When his publisher came to him and asked him to do another book, FRC's Lt. General (Ret.) Jerry Boykin said there was only one he was really interested in writing. It's about the biblical model for manhood -- men as providers, instructors, battle buddies, defenders, and chaplains. And we're happy to announce that his longtime vision is complete in a new book released this week, Man to Man: Rediscovering Masculinity in a Challenging World.
It's the very emergency that governors like Greg Abbott (R-Texas) have been trying to avoid. While hospitals burst at the seams with virus patients, the last thing first responders need is to be called to the scene of a completely avoidable tragedy. And yet, that's exactly what happened two Saturdays ago thanks to an overflowing abortion clinic in Illinois that was racing through procedures so fast that it botched one.
When Franklin Graham set up a 68-bed field hospital in the middle New York City's Central Park, he didn't hang a sign saying, "Christian Patients Only." But somehow, the state's extremists think it's okay to demand only pro-LGBT caregivers on his staff. Samaritan's Purse, liberals argue, isn't tolerant enough to treat the sick. In a tweet so offensive it's difficult to believe he holds public office, New York State Senator Brad Hoylman (D) said, "It's a shame that the federal government has left New York with no other choice but to accept charity from bigots."
Christians in America and around the world are adjusting to the challenges brought on by the coronavirus. For the persecuted abroad, the virus is an added pressure, as some governments are seeking to use the crisis as an opportunity to crack down on believers. Here in the United States, most governmental authorities are imposing reasonable restrictions and working with churches and other houses of worship. Yet there remains the need to be on guard. Overseas, the persecuted are facing more hostile governments that are blatantly using the crisis to suppress religious exercise and extend their long arm of state control.
It wasn't something people were used to seeing at Dominion Raceway. Instead of souped-up NASCARs, the lanes were replaced by hundreds of ordinary trucks and sedans, parked all across the asphalt. For once, the cameras weren't trained on lap-leaders but a worship team, singing with families from their cars. When Pastor Ernest Custalow got up to preach, separated by pit row, the Virginia congregation honked appreciatively. Despite a challenging few weeks, Grace Church could take a victory lap. They managed to keep people safe and still celebrate the holiest day of the year -- together.
"Mississippi isn't China," Governor Tate Reeves (R) insisted. Someone might want to tell Greenville Mayor Errick Simmons (D) that, since his Christian crackdown is making national news. In videos that exploded across the internet, Christians at a drive-in service were shocked to find policemen at their windows, handing out $500 tickets. The mayor, they were told, wanted to make an example of the church. But what he actually made was a classic case of religious intolerance.
"It's not supposed to be like this," Leah Klug thought, tugging on her face mask. "Her family is supposed to be here." But, in the Seattle hospital where she ministered -- like so many others around the world -- that was no longer an option. She dabbed oil by the patient's head and read a verse from the book of John. "We are walking," a fellow chaplain said somberly, "in the valley of the shadow of death." They do it with families, fears, and fragilities of their own -- but they do it, in many cases, because they are the only ones who can.
Writing about 20 years after the first Good Friday, the apostle Paul penned a letter to the believers at Corinth, acknowledging the difficulties and challenges they were facing. But although they were "hard-pressed on every side," Paul reminds these early Christians that the overcoming power of God was still at work in them, and even their trials and hardships served an important purpose -- making Jesus known.
Heading into the Easter weekend with slightly lower virus projections, the White House is asking that Americans keep doing their part -- and keep praying. Vice President Mike Pence stopped by "Washington Watch" to talk about the very latest developments and encourage Americans to take comfort in the new life we celebrate Sunday.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf has his hands full with the coronavirus, but there's one group of people he's not about to go into disaster relief mode without: clergy. Find out why he made them "essential personnel" as well as the challenges he's encountered with a full-blown, 50-state emergency.
You can stay in your car and get burgers, groceries, even prescriptions. But in Temple, Texas, north of Austin, you can drive through for something even more important -- prayer! Cars humming along West Adams Road have been passing a handful of members from Trinity Church every day, all encouraging drivers to pull right up and be ministered to. It's a good thing there's no shortage of prayer, they say, because hundreds of people are taking them up on it!
Some pastors call it the Super Bowl of their year: Easter Sunday. It's not just the holiest day on the calendar, it's also one of the biggest opportunities churches have to bring new people to Christ. And, for the first time ever, almost the entire world will be celebrating outside of their normal pews. They'll be in cars, on sofas, huddled around their kitchen tables. It's the new normal in the age of the coronavirus, and leaders everywhere are trying to make the best of it. So you can imagine their frustration, in a handful of places, when local officials step in to ruin even that.
Business is tough for a lot of industries right now. Pornography, unfortunately, isn't one of them. Isolated, stuck at home, and restless, more people seem to be turning to adult entertainment to while away the hours. That's terrible news for anyone concerned about young men, marriages, abuse, trafficking, addiction, sexual dysfunction, and brain development. Let's face it, experts say, porn was a pandemic long before this virus.
"China took all our jobs, and they sent us back a virus." --Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.)\rWhat should we do about it? Find out in her interview on Wednesday's "Washington Watch." Also, don't miss FRC's new op-ed in the Daily Signal, "China Keeps Suppressing Religion While Squelching Truth about COVID-19."
The world will see them as a number. To everyone else, they were high school baseball coaches, single moms, nurses, priests, songwriters, teachers, and grandparents. They were veterans of World War II and rabbis who survived the Holocaust. They beat breast cancer, lung cancer, poverty, and old age. But they could not beat this. Almost 13,000 Americans -- everyone of them someone's daughter or son. Every one of them with an ending written partially by one nation: China.
In a world that's only hearing about lives being lost, the Fifth Circuit Court is writing a different story about the ones being saved. Thanks to the courage of governors like Greg Abbott (R-Texas), there are literally hundreds of babies who are still alive in the womb today because leaders had enough sense to put a stop to abortions during the virus crisis. And Tuesday, to the relief of pro-lifers, judges refused to get in their way.
There haven't been any baseball players suiting up in Pensacola's Blue Wahoos Stadium lately. But come Easter Sunday, there'll be one team on the field: the leaders of Marcus Pointe Baptist Church. The stands will be empty, Pastor Gordon Godfrey says. But don't be fooled. The entire city will be watching.
Rev. David Fleenor stood in the New York City morgue, looking at the body of someone's mother. As a chaplain for Mount Sinai Hospital, death was always a part of his job. But not like this. Not for so many. Holding a telephone to his ear, he tried to soothe the son, telling his mom all the things the young man wished he could say in person. "I'm sorry I can't be there. I love you." But even now, as the images of heartbreak pile up in his mind, he calls it a privilege to be the hurting city's proxy.
"It's not what I had in mind when I accepted a 'higher' calling," Pastor Frank Carl joked to reporters about preaching from a 25-foot high lift in the parking lot. Like a lot of congregations, Ohio's Genoa Church in Westerville, Ohio has had to think of creative ways to keep their ministry going -- even if that means sitting in a passenger seat, not a pew. For people like Yolanda Blaze, that's just fine. "It wasn't just one person sitting in a house, watching a screen. There was that feeling again of having a family."
This is a bad week that could've been a whole lot worse. Try to remember that, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) urged Americans. Heading into the darkest valley of the virus fight, the Californian wants people to know that as bleak as things look now, the country will get through this. And when we do, we'll be stronger and more prepared because of it.
Targeted, surrounded, and arrested. Hear David Benham's firsthand account of being cuffed outside a Charlotte abortion clinic -- for what, even he isn't sure. Being pro-life isn't a crime, but it certainly sounds like one here.
"Love looks like an empty sanctuary," one pastor said. But after weeks of not gathering in person, it's the emptiness in the offering plate that's really hurting churches. And it's not necessarily the pastors' salaries or the building upkeep that worries leaders. It's the impact on ministry. "If this keeps up," one Baltimore pastor told the AP, "we can't fund all [of] our outreach to help other people." But, thanks to the Trump administration's insistence that churches be included in the virus relief, the president had good news: Help is on the way! (It just required some last-minute fixes first.)
If there's one thing David Benham isn't social distancing from, it's his convictions. So when police showed up outside a North Carolina abortion clinic that was still operating on Saturday and told his group to stop counseling pregnant moms, he didn't blink. If abortions can continue during the coronavirus, he insisted, then so should pro-life ministry.
As communities and our nation respond to the coronavirus sufferers with medical and economic aid, there is a role for the church -- on the front lines of our communities in a unique and personal way. As it says in 1 Corinthians 12:26, "If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it." People of faith must put loving hands to work, and there are many things we, the faith community, are uniquely able to do. But in this present crisis we have to have a paradigm shift; churches have to think and act outside the "box" -- the four walls of the church.
Hospitals aren't the only places bursting with people today. As of this morning, the second longest lines were probably at U.S. banks. Thanks to the Payroll Protection Program, business was anything but slow for tellers across the country who were trying to keep up with the flood of employers cashing in on the first day. But there was at least one group who didn't mind the crowds: faith leaders -- who, for once, were finally eligible for the government's relief!
Louisiana's been hit especially hard by the virus, but there's one kind of loss that pains everyone: a nurse. In New Orleans East Hospital, everyone's worst nightmare came true on Tuesday when Larrice Anderson became a victim of the infection she'd been fighting. The mom of two had been working in the ICU, caring for the sickest patients. But being on the front lines of the outbreak requires sacrifice -- and for Larrice, the ultimate one.
With much of the nation under "shelter in place" or "stay at home" advisories, most school buildings have closed, some for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year. There is a wide disparity among school districts in terms of how individual schools will help parents facilitate learning. American parents find themselves in an unprecedented situation: working from home (if they are so fortunate) while simultaneously serving as school teacher, administrator, and child wrangler.
How can you make financial decisions when everything's so uncertain? Are there things you can do that will protect you moving forward? Take a few minutes to listen to the advice from Dan Celia, president of Financial Issues Stewardship Management, from Thursday's "Washington Watch."
Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) doesn't have a medical degree. But what he has, he jokes, are two eyes. And while the rest of the city was too spun up over impeachment to see straight, his sights were 7,500 miles away -- on a doomsday he worried was coming. Donald Trump, he tried to tell Congress, isn't the threat. China is.
If God is trying to get people's attention, a new Pew poll says He's succeeding. Turns out, the coronavirus hasn't just impacted people's lives, it's led to a growing outbreak of faith.
The white tents are all huddled together on the green lawn, a familiar cross logo on their sides. To the people in nearby skyscrapers, looking down at Central Park, the field hospital is another sign of how dramatically things have changed. The place where kids were happily kicking balls and walking dogs a month ago is gone -- replaced, like so much of New York City, with triage units.
Why is the virus so impossible to predict? According to Dr. Marc Lipstich, it's always changing -- and scientists have no choice but to change along with it. Hear what this Harvard epidemiologist has to say about the "second wave" and how seriously we should take the projections.
It wasn't the message Americans were hoping to hear. "The surge is coming," President Trump warned, "and it's coming pretty strong." He paused, thinking about the doctors and nurses he'd watched walking into hospitals that morning. "It's like military people going... into battle," he said soberly. And it's up to each one of us to determine who wins.
How easy is it to help your community in the crisis? Just pop your trunk! North of Dallas in Coppell, Texas, Pastor Tim Holland and his wife, Abigail, were praying for ways to join the virus relief efforts without making anyone sick. Suddenly, the idea came to them. A drive-up, drive-out approach that's helping to put food on the table in dozens of homes across the area.
"Unity" isn't a word people hear a lot in the Middle East, but in Israel, it might be the theme behind a new coalition government. In a world full of depressing news, America's ally might be on the verge of one of celebrating a development no one thought possible: a two-party rule.
When President Trump turned over the microphone to MyPillow founder Mike Lindell at the White House, liberals hit the fan at his advice for a quarantined America. Hear what led to the impromptu message -- and Mike's response to his critics -- on Tuesday's "Washington Watch."
Staying home can be tough, but it's nothing like the nightmare our health care workers are experiencing. For thousands of brave men and women across country, their office is no longer a hospital or ER -- it's a combat zone. "You spend hours in your [patient's] room," nurse Claudia Griffith wrote in an emotional post to the outside world, "gowned up head-to-toe, sweating and not able to breathe.
If there's one thing the coronavirus hasn't slowed down, it's the world's bullies! While the rest of the planet is busy trying to save people's lives, despots like North Korea's Kim Jung Un are busily firing missiles into the Japanese sea. Why? Because no one is paying attention... Or are they?
Idaho Governor Brad Little (R), facing a deadline to act upon bills passed by his state's legislature this year's session, signed two bills Monday to protect the integrity of classifications on the basis of biological sex. House Bill 500, the Fairness in Women's Sports Act, specifies that only biological females (as determined by reproductive anatomy, levels of natural testosterone, and genetic makeup) are permitted to compete on sports teams that are designated for females, girls, or women in public schools or colleges.
Christians are to blame for the coronavirus? New York City's mayor is threatening to shut down churches permanently? Hear Senator Josh Hawley's (R-Mo.) strong reaction to both controversies in his own words on Monday's "Washington Watch."
If Chinese officials weren't fans of the American media before, they are now. After weeks of taking all the heat for the coronavirus, the communist regime will be relieved to know that, according to the New York Times, they aren't to blame for this global pandemic. Evangelicals are.
The stories are gut-wrenching. They used sanitizer, kept a healthy distance, and refused to hug. But for one choir in Washington State, none of it mattered. By the end of the two-and-a-half-hour practice, 45 of the 60 people had been infected. Two will never sing again.
If there's one thing everyone admired about Senator Tom Coburn, it's that he was a fighter. He fought for America, for what was right, and -- since he was 28 years old -- for his life. The longtime doctor lost that battle over the weekend, finally succumbing to the cancer he'd managed to beat so many times before. At 72, he lived 40 years longer than most people gave him. But then, the biggest mistake anyone ever made was underestimating the gentleman from Oklahoma.
It was almost dusk when they pulled into the hospital parking lot, flashers on. For Midland, it had been a sobering few days. Like other parts of Texas, the first wave of virus patients hit this week -- leaving doctors and nurses alone to face the grim realities. Knowing their health care workers were probably exhausted and now isolated from their families, the tight-knit community had an idea: a car prayer chain, outside Midland Memorial Hospital.
A lot of Americans heard what Democrats tried to put in the coronavirus relief bill. What they don't know is: what's in it for them? Now that the aid package is headed to the president's desk, the question on a lot of people's minds is -- can it help me? And how soon?
With all of the challenges facing America right now, it's difficult to believe that anything but the coronavirus is being debated. But the country's business continues to go on, especially as it relates to the nation's military. While the rest of the country is busy fighting an unseen enemy, at least one commission is making plans for a time when the battle is more straightforward -- and our volunteer force isn't enough.
Louisianans are a tough bunch. They've ridden out hurricanes, bailed out floods, and rebuilt every time. Now, they're facing a much harsher test: a disaster no one can predict. "It's like preparing for an invisible hurricane," one nurse said. "But we don't know when landfall will be." What they do know is that no matter how prepared they are, it's not enough. Not this time.
It won't happen here. That's what Arkansas Pastor Mark Palenske thought when the coronavirus started claiming its first victims. Turns out, he was wrong. "When something like [COVID-19] touches the other side of the world, your first inclination is to assume that time and distance are on your side," he wrote. "That false assumption caught up with Dena and I this past week." Struggling with symptoms he and his wife can't shake, the Greers Ferry pastor has a message for America: take this crisis seriously.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) didn't exactly get the birthday present she was hoping for. Instead, the Democrat, who turns 80 today, was forced to watch the other chamber vote unanimously to pass a coronavirus relief package that largely ignored her last-minute grab bag of environmental, abortion, gender equity, union pork. "She exploited the opportunity of a deadly pandemic to inject the virus of [political extremism] when America was on its knees," the New York Post argued. And lost.
Some people won't know the name Li Wenliang. Nor will they have a chance to thank him. He died in China on February 7th of the plague he warned was coming. The Wuhan ophthalmologist was just 34 when his heart stopped, a husband and father -- with another baby on the way. "He wasn't an idealistic whistleblower. He was not a dissident. He wasn't even political," one reporter mourned. "He was simply a doctor doing his job." And for that, China silenced him. Permanently.
There may be people vying for President Trump's job, but right now, no one can envy it. It's not easy leading a country in the best of times. But now -- when the entire nation is at the mercy of a virus no one can predict? That's as difficult as it gets. As prepared as America was -- and no country was more so -- we're fighting a two-front war: one for the economy and one for American lives. Which battle should carry more weight? Right now, some people aren't so sure.
"We 100 percent plan to stay open," one abortion center in Northeast Ohio vowed. Well, not if pro-lifers have anything to do with it. National leaders from FRC to SBA List and more are doing everything they can to stop groups like Planned Parenthood from profiting in a time of coronavirus -- even if it means asking the Trump administration to intervene.
"Do Democrats even care?" It's a fair question -- and the editors at the Wall Street Journal aren't the only ones asking it. Here we are, in the middle of one of the greatest crises in American history, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) swooped into town to demand new curtains for the Kennedy Center. The $35 million for the performing arts hub is just one of the shockers in the House's 1,100-page virus relief counterproposal, which proves there will never be a shortage of one thing in D.C. -- pork peddlers.
If there's one thing the coronavirus has taught us, it's that people deal with a crisis like this in extremes. They either blow off the warnings and party on beaches or they operate in complete fear and paranoia -- refusing to step out of their homes. Are we making too much of the threat -- or is it real?
No one could understand it at first. Arkansas's Cleburne County isn't big -- but it still had the second-highest number of coronavirus cases. Eventually, local health officials started to piece it all together, a puzzle that led them straight to the doors of the Greer's Ferry First Assembly.
There's hardly a busier, more burdened man in America right now than President Trump. And yet on Friday, when he heard that Vice President Mike Pence was about to jump on an FRC conference call with 700 pastors, he asked if he could join. Hearing his voice was a surprise, even to me -- but hearing his earnest desire to stand with the faith leaders of America in crisis certainly wasn't.
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves (R) is used to conducting business from his office -- not Sunday devotions. But over the past weekend, he decided -- America could use a little more of both.
As hard as it is to find things to be positive about right now, there is one thing Americans can celebrate: fewer abortions. In states like Texas, where all "non-essential medical procedures" have been postponed, unborn babies may be the safest population in the country. At least for now.
"The world owes China a thank you." To most people, the words from the Xinhua news service, hit like a ton of bricks. With the entire planet in crisis and leaders scrambling to stop another Great Depression, the communist regime is wrong. What the world is owed is an apology.
The government can't do everything. And Governor Pete Ricketts (R-Nebr.) knows it. With Nebraska's infection rates climbing, and more people hunkered down at home, the Cornhuskers decided to call in reinforcements: the church.
The streets are empty, but the Senate is full as members tackle another full day of debate over the government's coronavirus response. This morning, Democrats joined Republicans at the negotiating table, putting their heads together on what they hope will be the fastest and most effective way to stop the economic freefall. The goal? To reach an agreement before the end of the day.
If there were ever a time America should be grateful for its businessman-in-chief, it's now. The Left can say what it wants about Donald Trump, but the majority of people staring down this crisis have to take great comfort in the fact that the man at the helm was built to protect this economy. Even today, as the Senate dives into a third wave of relief, his expertise could very well make all the difference.
Down in Odessa, Texas, dinner isn't the only thing you can get by drive-thru -- so is church! Starting this Sunday, March 22, a pastor is announcing a new service from the parking lot. It's one of the many creative ideas congregations are trying to keep their church families safe and worshipping.
If people are looking at a map right now, it's for infection rates -- not "hate" hotspots. Try telling that to the anti-Christian Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) who picked this week, during a global pandemic, to suggest that the biggest threat facing America is conservatives! Rather than help communities with the virus, SPLC seems determined to divide them -- exposing, once again, where its real motives lie.
When the coronavirus hit Alabama, there was one thing Pastor Chris Hodges's church had that a lot of doctors' offices didn't: a big parking lot. For the last few days, that asphalt has been a saving grace to the people of Birmingham. By the thousands, they've come to Church of the Highlands -- which has just transformed into one of the largest testing sites in the city. And Church of the Highlands couldn't be happier.
Proactive verse reactive. Hong Kong, which shares a border with China, took quick action when the world had barely heard of the coronavirus. The result? They flattened the curve to prevent an unmanageable outbreak. Italy, on the other hand, reacted slowly, and the consequences have been disastrous.
No one is playing sports right now -- but when they do, Idaho is making sure the competitions are fair. Turns out, even the full weight of Nike (the athletic shoe company that benefits from the forced labor in China) couldn't convince the state legislature to turn the entire state of athletics on its head to please a handful of transgender activists. If the fringe wants to destroy women's sports, the message from Idaho is clear: try somewhere else.
"We're going big." Those were the president's words heading into a Senate debate over the latest coronavirus response. In Congress, where the bills are changing faster than the infection map, the White House is racing to strike the right balance between protecting America's economy -- and helping yours. Unfortunately, fiscal matters aren't the only concern as liberals echo what Rahm Emanuel, the former chief of staff for Barack Obama, said, "You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.
How do you love your neighbor from six feet away? That's a question churches across America are rallying to answer. This is a time for congregations to think and act outside the box -- or, in this case, the four walls of the church building.
In Sudan, Ishmael warns from behind a veiled screen, "it's very difficult to be a Christian." Like so many others, he should know. Sent to prison, where he was beaten until he couldn't stand. "There was no lawyer, no friend. There was nobody." He asked all of the difficult questions through the torture and suffering. "God, where are you? Why is this happening?" Until one day, he made a decision -- to love.
While lots of Americans are hunkered down at home, the U.S. Senate is holed up in its offices -- waiting for a crack at the House's coronavirus bill. And while there's a lot of uncertainty about what's actually in the package, Republican leaders won't have to contend with at least one thing: abortion funding.
"Hunger doesn't take a break at times like this." And neither does Second Harvest Heartland. For food bank workers like Allison O'Toole, the coronavirus is only part of the country's crisis. The other? Feeding struggling families and older people who don't want to leave their homes. But as the need intensifies, so are a lot of churches' efforts. And that's good news for everyone in these anxious times.
The government can do a lot of things to combat the virus. They can spend, test, isolate, and treat -- but nothing is as powerful or productive as calling the nation to its knees in prayer. And on Sunday, in response to the encouragement of several Evangelical leaders, President Trump did exactly that.
Congress's coronavirus bill was supposed to be about saving lives -- not taking them! But tell that to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who doesn't seem to mind exploiting a global tragedy to help out her pals at Planned Parenthood. Turns out, while Democrats are bashing the president for not working fast enough, they're bogging down the debate with secret language on abortion.
For pastors across the country, the coronavirus is creating a different kind of crisis. Through any other national disaster, emergency, or terrorist attack, the mission of the church seemed clear: to be a refuge, a help, a haven. Now, with governors like Andy Beshear (D-Ky.) calling on sanctuaries to close their doors, Christian leaders are facing a new challenge -- how to respond when the threat is in our pews?
Nike doesn't care what happens to people in their factories, so why should they care what happens to children at home? Bottom line: they don't. When the retail giant isn't pumping out shoes stitched together by China's Uyghur slaves, they're back in America arguing that we should let kids ruin their lives because it might be good for business. If there's one thing this brand must not care about, it's appearances.
There have been a lot of battles in his presidency, but never a faceless foe. For Donald Trump and the rest of the nation, the coronavirus is the enemy no one expected. Staring down a global menace, Michael Goodwin argued, Trump is now, effectively, a wartime president. "And his repeated assurances of victory were music to the ears of a rattled nation."
After three miscarriages, the news hit Kelly hard. She and her husband had tried for years to have a baby -- so when her fourth pregnancy tested positive for Down syndrome, they were shattered. Since Kelly was adamant about having their son, she hoped the doctors would give them some helpful advice. Instead, she says, they horrified her with worst-case scenarios. It's almost "like you're given a death sentence." When they got home later that day, she cried for hours.
"They usually arrive at night. They are barefoot, so you can't hear them coming unless they're on motorcycle. Sometimes a dog sounds the alert, sometimes a sentinel. Then a terrifying stampede, whirling clouds of dust, cries of encouragement from the invaders. Before villagers can take shelter or flee, the invaders are upon them in their houses, swinging machetes, burning, pillaging, raping. They don't kill everyone... They need survivors to spread fear from village to village, to bear witness that the Fulani raiders fear nothing but Allah and are capable of anything." -- Bishop Benjamin Kwashi
They were on their way to a wedding -- her wedding. Chatting away in the car, surrounded by her two best friends, Martha's mind was probably on last-minute details, the ceremony, the excitement of seeing everyone again. She and her fiancé were getting married New Year's Eve, just a few days away, near her family home in Adamawa State. It was a seven-hour trip from Maiduguri down the dusty, Nigerian roads. A trip that, for Martha and her bridesmaids, came to a sudden and horrifying end.
It seems counterintuitive, because it is. And yet, in the heat of a nationwide transgender debate, a group of "experts" has decided that puberty blockers, the same drugs linked to thousands of adult deaths, are good for kids. As part of a new Pediatrics article, three doctors claim to have found "positive mental health outcomes" for minors. That's interesting, a group of physicians is firing back, since only 2.5 percent of the children they studied actually took the drugs!
It's an anxious time for a lot of people -- and watching any amount of news can make it worse. As Christians, how do we deal with threats like the Coronavirus? With local stores wiped out of everything from toilet paper to hand sanitizer, it's hard not to get caught up in the hysteria. But God is faithful, and He's sovereign -- two things that FRC's Harold Harper and I focus on in a special segment about keeping your anxiety levels down while the rest of the world falls to pieces. How do we cope? How do we help our children cope?
Ben Baker is used to getting pushback. A conservative in the Missouri statehouse, he's been on the wrong side of the fringe Left before. But nothing compares to this. The dad of four is getting death threats at his office, violent messages on his phone -- all for trying to give parents a say on Drag Queen Story Hour.
According to a study published in the American Journal of Public Health, black women have the highest abortion rate in the country at 27.1 per 1,000 women compared with 10 per 1,000 for white women.
Joshua Payne-Elliott had worked at Cathedral High for 13 years. He knew the rules. So when the social studies teacher married another man, he knew he was putting his Catholic employer in an impossible situation. For 22 months, the Indianapolis Archdiocese and Joshua tried to talk it out. But eventually, there was nothing left to say. If Cathedral kept him, the school would be turning its back on Catholic teaching. If they let him go, they'd be inviting a legal firestorm. In the end, the school chose its beliefs.
If you're wondering who's running California, it's the eight-year-olds. That's where Assemblyman Evan Low (D) got his ridiculous idea to fine department stores that don't create gender-neutral aisles for clothes and toys. "I was inspired to introduce this bill," he said, after the third grader of one of his staffer's asked, "'Why should a store tell me what's a girl's shirt or toy is?'"
The two women hugged and started to cry. Stacked next to them in the office of Colorado's secretary of state were 29 boxes -- each one filled to the brim with petitions. For months, the organizers of "Due Date Too Late" had canvassed the state, desperate to find 124,632 signatures to protect life. They ended up with 13,868 more.
He'd planned on defending Chuck Schumer. The day before, John Kass's editor at the Chicago Tribune asked his longtime columnist if he was going to take the senator's side. "Yeah," Kass replied. "That was my intent." After all, he said, "We all say stupid things we regret." But, as John and the rest of the country were about to find out, the New York senator didn't regret it. Not really.
Are your shoes keeping thousands of China's Uyghurs locked away in factories, working like slaves? What about your cell phone or laptop? Based on the reports flying out of Xinjiang, a lot of Americans are walking around in high-tops stitched together by some of the most oppressed people on earth. And thanks to China's quiet partnership with Nike, Apple, Gap, Samsung, Sketchers, and others, nobody ever knew.
Jeffrey Smith didn't want to be a father. When his girlfriend told him she was pregnant, he told her to abort. Ending the pregnancy would be easy, he texted her. "You just have to take a pill." When she refused, he got angry and hatched a plan. While he was over at her house one night, he waited until she was in the bathroom and dropped a pill into her water bottle. Before she took another drink, she noticed the residue and called police. Days later, a Wisconsin crime lab confirmed it: the drug was RU-486, a chemical abortion pill.
At the end of last year, the Senate passed a bill that suddenly feels very ironic: the Security for Supreme Court Justices Act. With the country so divided, both parties seemed concerned the justices didn't have enough protection. Four months later, who could have dreamed the people they needed protection from were the Senate's own members?
Ten years ago, it might have taken six minutes to debate a bill like this -- if there was any debate at all. But this is 2020, when the conversations about something as straightforward as gender takes as many as six hours. Now, instead of overwhelming consensus on an issue that wouldn't have been an issue before, the margins are razor thin. Just how far has the cult of transgenderism gone? Not a single Democrat in the Arizona House voted Wednesday to protect women's sports.
Wednesday afternoon, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) used a hearing to highlight how the practice of stripping religious minorities of citizenship can be a precursor to mass atrocities -- and the witness testimonies all pointed fingers at India.
Nobody said puberty was easy. But it is necessary, Dr. Quentin Van Meter told Alabama legislators. He's practiced medicine for decades and, like a lot of doctors, can't believe that people are willing to throw pediatric science out the window just to satisfy a handful of transgender activists. After so many years treating kids, he says, it really is "hard to swallow."
A lot will be said about which way the Supreme Court might swing on the biggest abortion debate of the year. But it was out of an unlikely justice's mouth that the most profound question may have been asked. "How do [we] deal with this?" For Justice Stephen Breyer, even 24 years on the court don't offer a clear answer. "I have read the briefs. I understand there are good arguments on both sides." In a country where people have "very strong feelings" about abortion, days like this, he admitted, are difficult. Maybe, some of us thought sitting there in the Supreme Court chamber, because the court shouldn't be deciding these issues to begin with.
Markethia Clark will never forget that day. Looking across the table at a young lawyer named Mike Johnson, she shudders. "It was unusually bad," she told him. Denise had been the last patient of the night, so everyone was tired and anxious go home. Markethia wasn't in the surgery room when the screaming started. Looking at her coworkers in horror, they froze. "We were all alarmed," she said, "because screaming out loud like that is unusual." The abortion, they knew, had gone terribly wrong. But calling an ambulance, the doctor barked, was out of the question.
They are still coming home in caskets draped with American flags. On a lot of nights, when the transport plane touches down, the president will be there when the bodies make their final trip to U.S. soil, saluting as another son or daughter passes by. It's a horrible thing to watch, as President Trump did in February, a mother break free from the family tent and run to the metal ramp, wailing. One word is usually unmistakable: "No!"
Donald Trump knows a little about beating the odds. So when his good friend Benjamin Netanyahu called his own reelection "the biggest win" of his life, America's president could understand. To a raucous crowd, the Israeli prime minister said, "This is a victory against all the odds because we stood against powerful forces. They already eulogized us. Our opponents said the Netanyahu era is over." They couldn't have been more wrong.
For the hundreds of Uyghur girls walking through the factory's gates, it may not be a Xinjiang camp -- but it's a prison just the same. The barbed wire, the cameras, the heavy police presence, they're all a sickening reminder that the nightmare they've been living isn't over. It's just changed. Now, hunched over tables, stitching Nike's logo on endless pairs of shoes, they wonder which is worse: "reeducation" lessons or forced labor.
The Left seems to love creating hysteria and mocking Bible-believing Christians -- so they couldn't have asked for a better gift than the coronavirus. Not only does it give the media a chance to fuel the fear and fill headlines, but it's also given them a chance to take another whack at Vice President Mike Pence. Not because he's done anything wrong, of course. But because of what he believes.
Give the House conservatives credit. When it comes to protecting innocent life, there's no quit in this bunch. Despite hostile leaders at every turn, they've found creative ways to keep raising the issue of infanticide. For months, they've used every tool at their disposal, even managing -- this past Friday -- to turn a bill about vaping into a debate about born-alive protections.
If you're wondering what Washington would look like with a radical liberal in charge, Thursday's House hearing was a pretty good preview. Maybe you're thinking we already know what to expect after eight years of Barack Obama -- but trust us. As bad as the last administration was on religious freedom, those policies would feel like a love pat compared to the army of the new Left.
Mike Gonzalez doesn't like to write about his family. "I like to write about ideas," says the Heritage Foundation's senior fellow. But when the 2020 race started turning into a socialism love-fest, he decided it was time to speak up. His family came from Cuba -- and not the one Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) describes.
Liberal journalists may be part of the fake news crisis, but that doesn't mean they all want to be. ABC's David Wright made that abundantly clear on an undercover Project Veritas video that led to the correspondent's suspension. Sure, he may have radical views (he openly calls himself a "socialist" in the footage), but even he sees the values in reporting the truth. Unfortunately for him and so many others, his bosses at ABC don't.
Rob Hoogland can't turn back time and save his daughter. He wishes more than anything that he could. A year ago, he and his wife had a perfectly healthy child. Now, "that perfectly healthy child has been altered and destroyed for absolutely no good reason." And millions of parents are getting up every day completely oblivious to the fact that their daughter could be next.
How is killing off future customers good for business? Justin Danhof has no idea, but he's raising an important question now that some of America's biggest brands are starting to become major players in the abortion debate. Shareholders have already started changing the boardroom conversations, he warns. And conservatives, Danhof says, need to start speaking up.
"The worship, spiritual, and geo-political understanding that FRC contributes to the trip makes it an experience not to be missed!" That's just what one of our supporters said about Family Research Council's last trip to Israel. Of our first two trips to the Holy Land, others described their experience as "priceless", "beyond amazing", "exceptional", and "...much more than we ever expected."
After a while, even the most hardened doctors would admit it gets to them. For Dr. Anthony Levatino, it happened suddenly. He was in the middle of a dismemberment abortion -- holding the first piece of the baby he'd torn apart -- when he abruptly stopped. "I didn't want to continue," he said. "But I had to, because... if we don't get all of the parts out, the woman will get sick, get an infection, [or] even die." He kept working. But by the end, when he looked at the pile of little body parts he'd removed -- a pile similar to the dozens he'd made before -- something was different.
"What the heck is that?" Senator Ben Sasse (R-Nebr.) demanded. A CNN reporter, in a desperate bid to tie infanticide to the abortion debate, had coined an interesting phrase: "a fetus that was born." Caroline Kelly was trying to keep to the Democrats' talking points by describing Sasse's bill as a measure that would "require abortion providers to work to 'preserve the life and health' of a fetus that was born following an attempted abortion as they would for a newborn baby." There's just one problem. A fetus that was born is a newborn baby.
He was just a first-year pediatric resident when a hospital housekeeper came to him, panicked. "There's a baby," she said, "crying on the garbage can of the treatment room." Wide-eyed, Dr. Rocco Pascucci opened the door and saw him -- wrapped in a hospital blanket, wailing. Without a second thought, he reached out for the newborn boy and rushed him to a warmer, starting oxygen and an artery line. Dr. Pascucci never stopped to think why the baby had been left there. He just did what anyone would. Anyone, it turns out, except 41 members of the U.S. Senate.
It started as just one rogue Wisconsin school, showing their LGBT pride. Now, five years later, it's a national public-school movement -- and most parents have no idea it's happening.
When people ask Jeremy Chong about his Friday night plans, they don't get the typical college sophomore response. He and his friends usually head to downtown Chicago. But the point isn't to party -- it's to evangelize. And thanks to federal judge, the group of Wheaton students can finally resume that without harassment.
In today's divisive society, legislation that places any limit on abortion is immediately protested by abortion providers and activists, usually followed by lawsuits, and sometimes judicial prohibition. This is true of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, even though this proposed legislation does not address an abortion provision at all. It merely mandates medical care for an infant if he is born alive after a failed attempt at abortion.
Even in California, you have to be 18 to get a tattoo, 16 to drive a car, 21 to buy a gun, alcohol, or pot. But if you want to change your gender? Well, then, you just have to be 12. And your public school will be more than happy to help.
In the real world, no one would keep paying for a service that didn't work -- especially if it was hurting the people using it. But that's exactly what's been happening for years under "comprehensive sex ed." It's not making any difference on behavior, a new study says -- and worse, it's probably damaging kids in the process.
Their case wasn't technically over -- but eight months ago, when the Supreme Court ruled on the Bladensburg cross, the city of Pensacola, Florida couldn't help cheering. If the justices thought removing a large Maryland cross memorial was "hostil[ity] toward religion," then it certainly boded well for Florida's Bayview version too. Turns out, they were right.
Imagine dropping your son off at school, never knowing that he lives a completely different existence as a girl for eight hours a day -- and everyone knows it but you. And not only do teachers know it, but they go to great lengths to hide it. That's the reality in Madison, Wisconsin, where moms and dads have been furious to find out that not only is the district keeping their children's gender expression a secret, but there's an elaborate scheme in place to keep parents from ever finding out!
Senators Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) must really miss the days of Barack Obama, when faith-based groups were treated like second-class citizens when it came to government programs. Every time a member of the president's team rolls back a rule and levels the playing field, the northwest Democrats kick and scream. For people who talk about equality so much, Senate liberals sure don't understand it.
Nigeria ranks the 12th worst in the world for Christian persecution. The situation is so bad that several religious liberty advocates -- including FRC -- have asked the president to appoint a special envoy to the region to stop the abduction of so many innocents and the bloodbath that continues to affect so many people of faith.
They are the vanishing. Brothers, husbands, grandparents, who never come home. For Rozinisa Memet Tohti, the day came when her family just suddenly stopped returning her calls. Miles away from China in Istanbul, she'd heard the rumors of round-ups, the nightmarish stories hidden deep in Xinjiang's camps. Three years went by without a single word. Until one day, recently, when she got her hands on a set of leaked documents, listing the targeted Uyghurs. There, on the spreadsheet's row 358, she saw her sister's name. "Re-education camp #4, March 7, 2018."
Her abortion was supposed to be "100-percent effective." That's what doctors told Sofia Khan when she found out her unborn son had spina bifida. "We were heartbroken," she told the U.K.'s Sun, "but we made the decision to terminate. We felt it was best for the baby, but even so, I had moments of doubt and guilt." But that doubt and guilt gave way to horror the day her procedure came -- and her baby was born alive.
"In remembering the legacy of extraordinary black Americans, why does Clarence Thomas always go ignored?" That's the question FRC's Ken Blackwell asks in a new column for USA Today. "Thomas's life trajectory, which took him from a broken family and brutal poverty in the segregated south to the United States Supreme Court -- where he is now the longest serving justice -- is exactly what we should celebrate this month and all year long," he argues.
It's one of the saddest, most predictable "I-told-you-so" moments of our generation. The Boy Scouts, where future moon walkers and presidents learned the virtues and value of leadership, has finally collapsed. Turns out, the decade of compromise hasn't been kind to the Scouts, who turned in their moral compass seven years ago to chase the approval of critics it could never win. Now, deep into the BSA's self-imposed identity crisis, the group is filing for bankruptcy -- an unhappy ending we all warned was coming.
Eugenics made international headlines over the weekend after comments previously made by Andrew Sabisky, a newly-appointed aide to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, resurfaced.
Monday, I led a group of California pastors to the San Diego border sector to see firsthand what's actually happening on our southern border. It was an eye-opening experience for the pastors, as it was for me when I made my first trip to border last year. While there's no denying that there was a crisis at the border last year when thousands tried to enter the U.S. illegally or gain asylum, the liberal and media's narrative is a far cry from reality.
"We will cut you. We will kill you. We will do anything we want to you." The threat, Arjun and Neha knew, was real. Banished from the village well -- the only source of water -- the family left, carrying what they could hold. They had just become Christians, and like a lot of places in India, the decision to follow Jesus was a dangerous one. "God didn't call me to a life of comfort," one of the persecuted said. "But He does promise to walk with me."
Sunday morning, I joined my good friend, Pastor Jack Hibbs, at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills for their three morning services. While I was there, we did something we've never done before: the two of us sat down and had a conversation about how we as followers of Jesus should respond to government and politics. The basis for our discussion wasn't our opinions but what Scripture says.
"A great country can't borrow a trillion dollars a year," Stephen Moore warned. Nobody has to tell Donald Trump that. The man who's responsible for the economic boom knows a thing or two about finance. So maybe, when he sends a budget plan to Congress, they should listen.
It's not every day that Ruth Bader Ginsburg says something conservatives agree with. So when the 86-year-old Supreme Court justice told a group of Georgetown law students that she thinks the Left's Equal Rights Amendment is dead, people noticed.
It sounds like an episode of "The Americans" or a best-selling Tom Clancy novel. But when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo looked into the faces of 40 governors and warned them that China had infiltrated their states, he wasn't kidding. They're hiding in the shadows of our schools, our lobbying meetings, even our business dinners. And no one, he said evenly, knows it's happening.
First, they attacked America. Then adoption. Now, women. Honestly, with such a busy schedule of political extremism, it's a mystery how Nike has time to sell anything. But for all of the company's radical campaigns, it's Nike's latest that's really raising eyebrows. The retail titan is picking a side in the transgender sports debate -- and it isn't girls'.
In the transgender debate, even Bert and Ernie are puppets for the Left! Incredibly, "Sesame Street," the once-beloved kids' show, is making the best case for defunding PBS yet: inviting drag queen Billy Porter on to teach kids the virtues of gender confusion.
"Can you look me in the eye and tell me that I shouldn't be alive?" That was the question 14 abortion survivors never got to ask America. Fox Sports, the host of this year's Super Bowl, refused to air their ad. Maybe they were afraid of creating controversy. Or maybe, they were worried about putting a real face on this thing called "choice." Either way, it's a question our country needs to answer. And Tuesday morning, Senate Republicans looked at their colleagues and did.
Not everybody gets a second chance at life. When Walt did, he only wanted to do one thing: free others. He traced back the painful parts of his life -- the surgeries, the hurt, anger, and abuse, and started writing. In a world where activists are fighting to castrate and mutilate children, he realized that staying quiet was no longer an option. He went public, pleading with society to understand the harm in gender change, "not because I was a psychiatrist, college professor, or some extraordinarily brilliant guy," he admits, "but because of living it."
700 kids. That's how many students would have lost their scholarships -- and a chance at a better life -- if Fifth Third Bank hadn't come to its senses. Instead, after a week of uncertainty, the company sat down with Florida parents and pastors and decided not to listen to Florida's cultural bullies. It's one thing for a company to support LGBT extremism. It's quite another, the bank agreed, to hurt needy children in the process.
Nike loves selling kids shoes -- it just doesn't care if they have a home to wear them in. That's the amazing revelation from a new campaign against Tennessee adoption. The sports giant, which is still on a lot of Americans' you-know-what list after dissing the national anthem, isn't doing itself any favors by signing a letter telling Christians to get out of the childcare business.
If there's any state that should've learned the importance of national security, it's New York. And yet, even after terrorists turned the Twin Towers into two gigantic craters, the state's liberals haven't learned those painful lessons. Instead of being more careful about who enters the country, they're throwing open the doors to criminals and illegals alike. And this president isn't about to stand by and watch.
If there were ever a time the nation needed prayer, it's now. The morning after America's long impeachment nightmare finally came to an end, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) spoke for everyone when he said at this morning's National Prayer Breakfast, "The Lord works in mysterious ways. I do not think he could have picked a better day to bring us all together."
It was the story that started November 8, 2016. And finally, 1,184 days later, the U.S. Senate finally wrote the last chapter -- acquitting the president of his only true crime: being elected.
Lynn Meagher seriously considered killing herself. Desperate, tormented, and out of options, she went to see a therapist. How should she cope, she cried, knowing that two of her children wanted nothing to do with her? Two children, who, through horrible, mutilating surgeries, destroyed the bodies she'd carried inside her? "I felt I was living in a dream, a nightmare," she says quietly. That nightmare, the one she wouldn't wish on her worst enemy, is real. And from now on, every time you walk through the door of a Starbucks, you're telling moms like Lynn you couldn't care less.
What kind of people would kick needy kids out of good schools? Big Business, that's who. In Florida, companies like Wells Fargo and Fifth Third Bank are dropping out of a scholarship program -- all because some of the private schools have religious beliefs. Apparently, these CEOs think the LGBT agenda is more important than giving low-income kids the chance to succeed. Unfortunately for them, most parents across the state disagree -- and aren't about to let the vouchers go quietly.
"My heart is filled with love for Jesus. My mouth cannot proclaim something different." Such was the defiant stance of one Iranian Christian in the face of persecution by his own government, even with his family pleading with him to denounce the Lord. As Iranian Christian Dabrina Bet Tamraz told us today, "[t]hey go to prison, they proclaim Jesus. They come out of prison, they proclaim Jesus." In Iran today, visions are so common that fellow believers ask each other if they have seen Jesus -- they expect the experience to be shared by others.
After being kicked out of a few U.K. venues over his faith, Rev. Franklin Graham joined "Washington Watch" Tuesday night to talk about his tour across the ocean and why his message is inclusive, not hateful. He also explains why President Trump's record has made all the difference -- not just for Christians here, but all around the world. You can hear that and more in our conversation below.
It's no secret that college campuses are liberal, but what is news is just how liberal they've become. According to a new study published by the National Association of Scholars, your teenager probably has a better chance of landing on the moon than having a conservative professor. And unless that changes, America needs to start rethinking this whole idea of "higher education."
"It's an absolute nightmare for a mother to live through." Elaine Davidson's voice shook as she talked. "I found out about the surgeries after the fact," she says haltingly. It was social media, she explained, where she first saw the photo of her daughter's chest -- bloody bandages covering the places where her breasts had been cut off. Elaine's daughter was 17. She had a double mastectomy and hysterectomy without her parents ever knowing -- and without a single psychologist signing off.
What does Christianity have to do with the quality of chocolate? A lot, according to Swiss Air. The company just announced that it's cutting ties with Läderach, one of its high-end sweets suppliers, because the owner happens to be a believer. And not just any believer, but a pro-life, pro-marriage evangelical. According to the international airliner, the sky is the limit for that.
The ongoing protests against the Iranian government and the harsh blowback protestors are receiving from their regime have put Iran back into focus in the international news cycle. Yet, other human rights violations of the Iranian regime remain largely unreported, including the consistent and ongoing violations against Christians and Iran's other religious minorities.
Pro-life group Faces of Choice recently created a powerful ad that seeks to show "the many faces of survivors of abortion, to put a face to the 'choice' of ending life." They spent considerable time and money hoping that the ad would air on Super Bowl Sunday. However, according to Faces of Choice executive director Lyric Gillett, when they pitched the ad to Fox Sports, they were completely ignored. After complying with legal inquires and storyboard approvals, Faces of Choice did not even get the courtesy of a "yes" or a "no" response.
January is both Human Trafficking Awareness Month and Sanctity of Human Life Month. These issues have more in common than people may realize. Across numerous global studies of sex-trafficking survivors, abortion is a consistent part of the story. Both abortion and sex-trafficking are businesses that exploit women, sometimes in tandem as organizations such as Planned Parenthood enable the abuse for profit. And both are an affront to human dignity.
This weekend while in Florida for our Stand Courageous men's conference in Pensacola, Tony Perkins will be preaching the 9:15 and 10:45 a.m. services at Marcus Pointe Baptist Church. If you are in the neighborhood, please join us for worship!
A recent review of U.S. special operations forces pointed to a leadership crisis in our military, concluding that leadership, discipline and accountability must be strengthened at all levels. West Point Military Academy, which is supposed to be the Army's preeminent leader development institution, hasn't been immune to this breakdown in leadership. Earlier this month, West Point cadets attended "Honorably Living Day," a mandatory event dedicated to promoting diversity and feminist thought where facilitators discouraged what they called "toxic masculinity."
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments in an important religious freedom case, Espinoza v. Montana. At the heart of this case is whether or not parents can choose to send their children to the school that is best for them, even if that school happens to be a religiously affiliated one.
Yesterday, President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled the long-awaited Middle East peace plan. The 180-page plan, officially titled "Peace to Prosperity: A Vision to Improve the Lives of the Palestinian and Israeli People" offers one of the most comprehensive attempts to broker a deal between the Israelis and Palestinians in decades.
When students at East Ridge High School in Lick Creek, Kentucky turned a school locker into a prayer locker, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State rushed to stop it. It appears that the idea of students submitting prayer requests other students could pray for was just too much for the anti-religion activists to take. Accused of a supposed "violation of the separation of church and state," the school was quick to pull the plug on the student prayer effort. Yet, one bold sophomore, Emily Chaney, didn't give up so easily.
Last Friday, on the morning of the March for Life, HHS Secretary Alex Azar announced live from FRC's ProLifeCon that the Trump administration would be cracking down on California for forcing all insurance plans in the state, including churches, to cover abortion. The Weldon Amendment is a federal law ensuring that states do not discriminate against health care providers for refusing to cover abortion.
The Stand Courageous team was on the road again over the weekend, partnering with Dr. Pete Kunkle, Senior Pastor, and Men's Ministry Director Roy Jones for the sixth annual Men's Summit at First Christian Church in Kernersville, NC. The church was packed and chairs were brought out to accommodate the crowd of over 750 men, who were challenged with various aspects of the theme: "Restoring Biblical Manhood."
Seventy-five years ago today, the largest Nazi concentration camp and extermination camp was liberated by allied forces, but not before an estimated 1.1 million people were murdered between 1940 and 1945. January 27th has since been recognized as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, so that the world might never forget the 6 million European Jews killed in Holocaust.
Since that horrible Monday in 1973 -- the day our Supreme Court signed the death warrant for millions of unborn children -- America has had four pro-life presidents. Not one of them appeared at a March for Life rally -- until today. When Donald Trump walked across the stage at the National Mall, in front of a sea of pro-lifers, he wasn't just making a statement. He was cementing a legacy.
President Trump wasn't the only one making history at this year's March for Life. HHS Secretary Alex Azar put an even bigger exclamation point on the day when he broke news at FRC headquarters about new action the agency was taking. After four years of watching California attack its own people, HHS is finally saying, "Enough." If the state can't be bothered to follow the law, Secretary Azar has decided to make them pay for it -- in federal funds, if necessary.
Kathi Aultman is the abortion industry's worst nightmare. "I've killed more people than Ted Bundy," she admits. Coming to grips with the fact that she was "a professional mass murderer," as she called it, wasn't easy, but it has given this former abortion doctor a compelling reason to speak truth. And that truth, she insists, is that the abortion industry is a dark and nightmarish place that never, ever puts women first. She's been behind the curtain of "choice" -- and what she saw has changed her, and whoever will listen, forever.
FRC has been working with allies to advance pro-life policies in Washington, D.C. for years. But with congressional Democrats stalling progress in the nation's capital, the "action" has shifted to the states, where pro-life legislators have made huge gains in the past 10 years.
Hundreds of thousands of pro-lifers will join President Trump on the National Mall for the annual March for Life at noon tomorrow. But before that, FRC will be hosting our own one-of-a-kind pro-life event at 8:30 in the morning: the ProLifeCon Digital Action Summit.
Fred Deutsch didn't set out to be a trailblazer. He just wanted to protect kids. But if his South Dakota bill stops children from being mutilated, then all of the nasty emails will have been worth it. At least in one state, hurting teens will have a chance at a normal life -- not the suffering so many activists are pushing them toward.
If you flipped through newspapers from that day, January 22, 1973, it may surprise people to know that the Supreme Court's decision on Roe v. Wade wasn't the biggest headline. President Lyndon Johnson had died, forcing the story about America's darkest verdict into smaller font, below tributes to the "Great Society." Looking back, the parallel was probably fitting -- a nation in mourning, any which way it turned.
The liberal media couldn't have dreamed up a better scenario. In their ongoing quest to smear Christians, they'd found the perfect martyr: a sweet-looking teenage girl, who'd been expelled from her religious school for posing with a rainbow cake. Her parents, Kimberly and Mark Kenney, helped their cause -- playing dumb to reporters and insisting the LGBT symbolism was just a coincidence. The press ate up the story that their daughter, Kayla, was unfairly targeted. There's just one problem: none of it was true.
Her son, Sgt. Cole Wixom, was killed on duty -- almost one year ago today. His body was flown home to Michigan a week later, but along the way, his mom says, someone gave the soldier accompanying his remains a dog tag with a Bible verse on it. In a letter, she tells Kenny Vaughan, the founder of Shields of Strength, that she's "worn it ever since, along with the dog tag that was attached to his coffin. I can barely see the writing anymore. It's tarnished, but I know what it says. It says, 'I will be strong and courageous. I will not be afraid. I will not be discouraged.' You have no idea," the grieving mom said, "what this little piece of metal has meant to me...'"
There's never been a more dangerous time to just "skim the headlines." If you're lucky, you'll only get half the story. And in the case of the faith-based adoption debate, not even that! Just ask Tennessee, the latest state to agree that everyone has a right to participate.
The wind howled and banged against the shutters, but the people inside didn't care. Despite the rain and thunder, the crowd just kept growing. One by one, they'd file in, taking off their dripping coats and finding a seat in the pews, more anxious about the other storm brewing in America than this one. It was April 3, 1968 in Memphis. And no one knew that the man they'd come to see -- Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. -- was about to give the last speech of his life.
There's a day in everyone's life that helps define them. For Jewher Ilham, that date was February 2, 2013. She and her dad woke up that morning, thinking they were on their way to America. "It was supposed to be an adventure." Instead, it was the start of another journey -- the story of a teenage daughter, who China turned into a global freedom fighter.
A religious test shouldn't be used for public service, and it shouldn't be used for public funding either! And thanks to President Trump's string of announcements Thursday, Christians shouldn't have anything to worry about.
"Refreshingly sane." It's not everyday those two words are used to describe the circuit courts. But, then again, it's not every day -- at least anymore -- that those circuit courts are packed with liberal activists. Thanks to the White House, one in every four circuit judges is now a Donald Trump appointee, who respects the boundaries of the constitution. And after seeing the kind of transgender pronoun insanity being debated in Kyle Duncan's court, conservatives couldn't be more grateful.
He was a president -- a man who doubled the size of our country, abolished the international slave trade, even developed the plans for West Point. When the Library of Congress was demolished in the War of 1812, he single-handedly restocked it. He invented the polygraph, swivel chairs, the dumbwaiter, message encoders, a form of the pedometer, even the macaroni noodle. He was America's first secretary of state, its father of intellectual property rights. But as impressive as those accomplishments are, they weren't what mattered to him. When Thomas Jefferson died, not one of these things appeared on his tombstone.
"Y'all don't do that again." Eighth grader Hannah Frost looked up in surprise. It was her Honey Grove Middle School principal, Mr. Frost, walking toward the table where she and a few classmates were standing. One of their friends had been in a car crash, and they'd gone to an empty corner of the lunchroom to pray. If they wanted to keep this up, he told them the next day, they'd better move behind a curtain, meet alone outside, or hide out in the gym. Hannah was stunned. Since when did it become a problem to pray together, she wondered? Since never, attorneys said.
Her name isn't Hae Woo, but, like a lot of traumatized North Koreans, she doesn't want to take any chances. "I'm a believer," she says, "because of my husband -- because of the things he told me and my children about Jesus. 'You cannot see Him,' he would say, 'but He is alive and working.'" That became harder to believe when he was taken from them, locked away in a prison where he would die.
Ten seconds. That's all the time he had to make a decision: fire on the target or not. The officer on duty fired. And the entire world, as we know it, changed. When the Ukrainian plane fell out of the sky that day, killing 176 innocent men, women, and children, the wreckage didn't end at the crash site. Iran itself was in ruins. Days later, people still march on Tehran's streets -- their fury, sources say, only growing.
The Space Force just got off the ground -- but thanks to secularists, it's already logged its first controversy! Over the weekend, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) flew into a rage when pictures surfaced of the Air Force's Chief of Chaplains having a Bible blessed at the National Cathedral for anyone who wanted to be sworn in on this "official" Space Force copy.
If he sensed the irony, he didn't show it. "We want to be a no-kill state," Governor Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) said. It was a jarring statement coming from Newsom, leader of one of the most prolific taxpayer-funded abortion operations in the country. But of course, Gavin wasn't talking about people -- he was talking about pets.
"I had a small hope that maybe ISIS would not come," Thabet says, remembering, as he and the reporter drove the long road toward Mosul. But within hours, everyone he loved and knew had fled. Thirteen thousand Christians vanished, scattered miles from the Nineveh Plain, in hiding. They slept in courtyards, unfinished apartment buildings, churches, camps -- while waves of terrorists burned their way through their towns.
What in the world is a "gender snowperson?" Ask your fourth grader. In Massachusetts, that's how schools are teaching nine-year-olds to "never assume boys have penises." Welcome to sex education, Planned Parenthood-style. And, if the state's extremists get their way, Frosty's friend is just the beginning.
Religious Freedom Day isn't until Thursday, but Governor Pete Ricketts (R-Nebr.) is getting a head start on the celebration. The longtime conservative didn't waste any time promoting the occasion, which marks the date that Virginia passed its 1786 statute that laid the foundation for our First Amendment.
If Donald Trump is the problem in Iran, liberal Democrats are the only ones who think so. After days of trying to extract a pound of flesh from the president for killing a terrorist mastermind, the far-Left is surprisingly quiet now that the Iranian people are mobbing the streets shouting "Death!" to something other than America. Turns out, the country's crusade for freedom isn't nearly as useful to their 2020 hopes as painting Trump as a universally-hated warmonger -- something these weekend demonstrations go a long way to disproving.
It may be the off-season for baseball, but St. Louis Cardinals' player Adam Wainwright is pitching something else: a Bible-reading plan for fans. The 38-year-old veteran, who just signed a 2020 contract with the team, is hoping people step up to the plate for a year-long trip through the Scriptures.
Just because you're elected to Congress doesn't mean you understand the Constitution. Back in 2011, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute was shocked to find out that less than half of America's elected officials could name the three branches of government. Nine years later, not much has changed. Today's Democrats still don't understand the difference between the executive branch and legislative branch -- or they'd stop trying to tell Donald Trump how to do his job. The president doesn't need a permission slip from Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to run the military. But based on the debate over this week's War Powers Resolution, that's news to her.
As many as 10,000 women walk through the doors of a Louisiana abortion clinic every year -- and any one of them could face life-threatening complications. Imagine telling one of those moms that her doctor couldn't admit her to a hospital to get help. The Center for Reproductive Rights can. In fact, they're so heartless that they're suing to keep these women from getting the emergency care they need. Why? Because at the deepest core of the abortion industry, they don't care about patients. They care about profits. I know -- because as a state legislator, I saw it.
Five teenagers from Berlin made international news earlier this week when they brutally attacked and sexually assaulted a 68-year-old Jewish man on his way to visit the Putlitzbrücke Holocaust memorial. This came just a day after a Jewish man was subjected to antisemitic slurs and physically attacked on the Berlin subway. Such alarming antisemitic attacks are on the rise across the globe and especially in Europe, posing a serious threat to Jewish communities everywhere. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) yesterday sought to address this issue in a congressional hearing on Global Efforts to Counter Anti-Semitism.
Actress Michelle Williams thinks abortion helped advance her career. In Jeff Van Drew's district, it could've ended his. Fortunately, after months of disgust over Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) agenda, the New Jersey congressman walked away -- leaving behind, not just a radical party, but an inhumane platform. And while the defection only became official a few days ago, the new Republican is already making his mark.
There were no champagne corks popping, no crystal balls dropping in Wang Yi's new year. The pastor of Early Rain Covenant Church was in prison, spending his second January 1st in a dark cell, charged with a crime Americans commit every day: worshipping Jesus.
Ignored by most media outlets amid coverage of the escalating conflict with Iran and the ongoing impeachment saga was a significant development last week within American evangelicalism. On Friday, representatives of the United Methodist Church tentatively agreed on a proposal that would split the nation's second largest Protestant denomination over "fundamental differences" regarding the "interpretation of Scripture, theology, and practice."
For once, Planned Parenthood is being honest about its number-one mission: abortion. And thanks to the organization's latest annual report, Americans are seeing just how profitable that mission has been.
It's not easy to be a man in today's culture. But no matter where you are in life as a father or grandfather -- whether you're single or married, a son or brother, God has called you to a specific role. And that's tough, especially now, with biblical masculinity under assault. General Boykin and I talked about this not too long ago in a special segment on "Washington Watch."
President Trump doesn't share a lot of Barack Obama's views -- especially when it comes to the mission of the State Department. After eight years, it was obvious that the 44th president was more interested in domineering than diplomacy. Even now, pockets of his cultural imperialism live on, deep inside the agency that Trump has tried desperately to clean up.
For the 11th straight year, January has been declared National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. Through a presidential proclamation issued on December 31, President Trump intends to raise awareness about the estimated 24.9 million adults and children who "are trapped in a form of modern slavery around the world, including in the United States," and to prevent the future trafficking of many more people who may be vulnerable. As we enter January 2020, National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month is an opportunity for Americans to learn about the human rights violations happening all around them -- even in plain sight.
Have you ever been to a place that's really, really dark? I've had that experience a few times. Once, I was traveling in the desert at night -- miles from any town -- and as the sun went down, the darkness became absolutely profound. Most of us live around the lights of cities and houses and rarely see real darkness. As the night matured, the brilliance of the light from the countless stars pierced the black of that desert night. The sight was astonishingly breathtaking.
Yesterday, Mark Galli, the outgoing editor-in-chief of Christianity Today published a scathing editorial calling for President Trump to be removed from office. Within hours, the article went viral as the mainstream media rushed to capitalize on what they believed was an opportunity to exploit a divide in President Trump's evangelical supporters. The article was shared on social media so many times that CT's website temporarily crashed and throughout much of today "Christianity Today," "evangelical," and "Billy Graham" while maybe not the best indicator of interest, those terms were ranked higher on Twitter's list of trending stories than last night's Democratic debate.
Earlier this year, it only took the new Democrat majority in the House of Representatives one day into the 116th Congress before they began to pick a fight over longstanding pro-life and pro-family policies in the annual appropriations process. In a move to reopen the government after a 35-day partial shutdown, Appropriations Chairwomen Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) introduced a funding bill with language to repeal President Trump's Mexico City Policy, which prohibits taxpayer funding for abortion providers overseas.
Among the many things I've observed in my nearly two decades here in D.C. is that criticism flows freely while words of affirmation are usually reserved for funerals. We have tried to buck that trend at FRC by recognizing those who serve well. We honor them at events and express appreciation to leaders who do the right thing.
"Who am I"? Could this most basic of questions be at the heart of what is driving the identity politics that dominate our present cultural and political moment? Author and Senior Fellow at the Faith and Reason Institute Mary Eberstadt has written a provocative and challenging new book, Primal Screams: How the Sexual Revolution Created Identity Politics, which proposes and develops this novel theory.
Their news may be fake, but their glee over impeachment is not! Liberal members of the media were beside themselves with joy at Wednesday's "solemn" occasion -- the House vote on impeachment. Like Democrats, who celebrated the 218th vote like they'd won the Masters, Washington Post reporters clinked glasses in one photo. They were all smiles until Rachael Bade's "Merry Impeachmas!" tweet started dropping jaws -- reminding Americans what "objective journalism" looks like now.
Impeachment has been a flop on a lot of fronts -- but especially when it comes to hurting the president politically. Not only has the sham process boosted Donald Trump's approval ratings, but it's made people think twice about his 2020 opposition. In polling at Axios, the president is leading every Democratic candidate in head-to-head match-ups -- something that seemed downright impossible a few months ago. At this rate, when the curtain drops on November, the only thing Donald Trump will be saying to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is "thank you."
Under the First Amendment, religious schools have the right to choose who teaches their faith. This constitutional provision is called the ministerial exception. The Ninth Circuit threatened the rights of two Catholic schools, Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. James Catholic Schools. In both of these schools, where religion teachers play a significant role in the spiritual development of the students, teachers were dismissed for poor performance. Despite the concerns over the spiritual well-being of their students, the Ninth Circuit held that the schools could not remove these teachers.
When Democrats get done impeaching Donald Trump, maybe they'll move on to Neil Gorsuch. After all, the Supreme Court justice probably met their definition of "high crimes and misdemeanors" just by saying "Merry Christmas!" Judging by the hysterical reaction to his transcript this week, it won't be long until the subpoenas start flowing. How dare a public official invoke the real reason schools, governments, and businesses close their doors on December 25. Doesn't he know it's supposed to be a merry non-religious specific day off in winter?
We've seen stranger things during the Christmas season, but Netflix's latest stunt isn't turning out to be a blockbuster with Christians. It's supposed to be a comedy, but most Brazilians -- where the show originated -- aren't laughing. "The First Temptation of Christ" is about a Jesus who identifies as gay, "has relations," and refuses to preach the Bible -- a not-so-side-splitting plot to a predominately Catholic nation. In fact, the idea is so controversial that more than 1.8 million people have signed a Portuguese petition calling on Netflix to pull this "clear attack on Christianity" and issue an apology.
No matter how many times the Supreme Court says "no," the Left keeps targeting Christians. The latest act of blatant hostility comes from Bozeman, Montana, where the high school revoked the Fellowship of Christian Athletes' (FCA) status as an official student club. What did the club do to lose its official status after five years? Absolutely nothing. But the FCA does require its adult leaders -- not students -- to affirm biblical standards of sexuality. When four high school girls complained, the school board demanded the FCA club abandon its biblical principles or lose its official status.
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry isn't a prude. In fact, he used to roll his eyes at his Christian friends, who he thought were exaggerating the dangers of pornography. Not anymore. This Frenchman, who believes eroticism "is one of God's greatest gifts to humankind," no longer scoffs the feminists' warnings or puritan concerns. "I have become deadly serious," he says now. "The damage is real, and it's profound." And no one can walk away from his article thinking otherwise.
Bethlehem is on people's minds a lot these days. But in Washington, the reason isn't Christmas -- it's politics. Jesus's birthplace is just one of the holy sites that happens to be in Israel's so-called West Bank, where the Trump administration made a splash last month by legitimizing the country's settlements. Naturally, Democrats let Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have it, firing off an angry letter for the move. But it may be the Kansan who gets the last word.
You may not know what to buy this Christmas, but do you know where to buy? Thanks to our friends at 2nd Vote, you can shop for presents without sabotaging your values in the process. So, make your list -- but check this one twice!
The last thing Planned Parenthood needs is more access to kids. So imagine parents' reaction when they found out that the abortion group isn't just visiting schools--it's moving in! Thanks to a forced donation from taxpayers, Planned Parenthood is about to open 50 clinics inside Los Angeles schools, the biggest public education takeover of its kind. And maybe, the most controversial.
A school can't pick and choose which students have rights--but that hasn't stopped one New York district from trying! Once Daniela Barca wrote down that she was a Christian trying to start a club, her application was doomed. Roy C. Ketcham High School administrators didn't care that there's such a thing as the Equal Access Act. They didn't care that there were 20 other clubs on campus. They only cared that Daniela had faith and might spread it.
"When parents think about predators, they think about someone tossing their kid in a trunk and driving off. They don't think about the unseen abuse that happens online," Sloane Ryan lamented at the table where they were working. "What if we just set up fake accounts ourselves to demonstrate to parents what can happen online?" her friend, Brian, asked. "I raised both eyebrows at the idea. Waited a beat to see if he was joking. He wasn't."
If you're indifferent about the crisis of pornography, the New York Times can change that -- almost instantly. The paper jolted an entire nation into caring last year with its jarring exposé, "What Teenagers Are Learning from Online Porn" (warning: extremely graphic). What kids think is normal will shock and sober you. Because these aren't Playboy magazines stashed under a teenage boy's bed.
Nothing says Christmas like the trees, snow, twinkling lights, and abortions. Wait -- you mean you don't think of destroying innocent children over hot cocoa? That's odd, because at the Texas Equal Access (TEA) Fund, abortion and Christmas go together like holly and ivy. They're so sure killing babies will put you in the festive mood that they're giving away candles that say "Abortion Is Magical."
Described by his friends as a humble, simple man who made bread for his church's communion services, 43-year-old Abdo Adel found himself sentenced to three years in an Egyptian prison. His crime? "Insulting Islam in the first degree." Residing in a small village in Egypt, a Facebook post comparing Islamic prophet Muhammad with Jesus was all it would take to violate the country's blasphemy laws.
There isn't a civilized country on earth that wants any part of China's chain of concentration camps. Certainly not this one. So imagine Americans' shock when they find out that our tax dollars have been streaming across the ocean to help fund these modern torture chambers. The news has been especially horrifying to U.S. officials, who've poured more money than anyone into the World Bank -- believing it was helping the needy, not an army of communist monsters.
You'd think that liberal news outlets would get tired of schlepping around the Southern Poverty Law Center's (SPLC) baggage. After a devastating year -- one that saw all of SPLC's top leadership resign over workplace sexism and racism -- it seemed, at least for a while, that the media would stop propping up the disgraced anti-Christian cesspool of bigotry. Apparently not. At CBS, they'd rather take the word of an organization being sued by its own employees than a conservative victim of the SPLC's labeling.
About half of American college students have listened to their professors go on anti-Trump tirades. The other 54 percent might get their chance soon, thanks to the president's executive order targeting anti-Semitism on U.S. campuses. In a lot of places, anti-Semitism is even rivaling the most acceptable form of intolerance in higher education: conservatism. And that's exactly why this administration is pushing back.
If it's okay for drag queens to host story hour, what about prostitutes? At one Austin, Texas elementary school, students got both! In what some parents are calling "a sign of things to come" under the city's radical new sex ed, the kids at Blackshear Fine Arts Academy had an unexpected visitor -- with an even more unexpected background. But as shocked as parents were to learn that "Miss Kitty Litter ATX" was a convicted criminal, they were even more horrified to find out that the school district knew it!
Usually, the local law enforcement is finding the offenders -- not doing the offending. But at the Freedom from Religion Foundation, where indignation is literally a full-time job, it's tough to do anything without insulting someone. When the Walker County sheriff called the town to pray after a tragedy, the foundation was irate. That's because, as far as they're concerned, embracing faith is the real crime.
It's been no coincidence that the latest mainstream media, women's magazines, and even Teen Vogue have been advertising abortion pills as the new wonders of women's healthcare that can be taken in the privacy of their homes.
When Congress sets records, they aren't always good ones! But Monday, the parties kept a good streak alive -- announcing their agreement on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the 58th consecutive year. In a Capitol where consensus is rarer than a solar eclipse, the military's spending bill is one of the few things Congress manages to approve on time. It hasn't missed since West Side Story was in the theaters, and gas cost 27 cents a gallon.
When Governor Matt Bevin walks out of his office for the last time tonight, it's somewhat fitting that the U.S. Supreme Court picked today to uphold one of the most important laws he ever signed -- the Kentucky ultrasound bill. The justices, who watched the ACLU appeal all the way to their doorstep, refused to even hear the case. Instead, they deferred to the Sixth Circuit, which didn't see the harm in showing moms a picture of their babies before they abort. If it's just "a clump of cells," who cares? Liberals, that's who.
Americans are united on one thing, USA Today says -- they're sick and tired of being so divided. Despite the fact that most people are personally happy and satisfied, they don't feel the same way about the condition of our country. "People don't even know how to have a discussion without getting offended first," Kaveeta Haywood, 35, a Democrat from the newspaper's focus group pointed out. Like 83 percent of the country, she thinks divisiveness is one of the biggest problems we face. But agreeing on what to do about it? Well, that's another challenge.
Christmas is a season of giving, and I want to start by giving thanks. The entire team at Family Research Council is grateful for all our partners who stepped forward last week to help exceed our $100,000 #GivingTuesday goal -- with a grand total of over $128,000 received!
With the House's impeachment circus sucking most of the air out of Washington, it's easy to forget that there's other business taking place on the opposite side of the Capitol. While Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is wasting her majority on the biggest witch hunt of the 21st Century, her Senate counterpart, Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), is a confirmation machine -- carefully stuffing the court's stockings with loads of qualified judges.
America isn't the only thing making a comeback under President Trump -- so is Christmas! The candidate who vowed, "We're gonna be saying Merry Christmas again," delivered on that promise again in a big way Thursday night. Thirty-feet of big, to be exact. In front of the giant spruce, the president made it very clear that this event wasn't about illuminating the tree -- but shining a light on the real reason for the season.
They sat in rows -- hundreds of them -- heads freshly shaved. The men are blindfolded and hunched over, their hands tied tightly behind their backs. Close to tears, Omerbek Bikali looks at the footage -- shot at a train station during another Uyghur round-up -- and becomes overwhelmed. "That used to be me," he says quietly. "I cannot forget."
Nothing can ever bring back Cheryl Spivey's son. After three tours, he had the chance to stay home. But the dad of three and combat medic reenlisted anyway, because "he could help." On his fourth deployment, Tony died helping. Now, a group of angry activists want to take away one of the few comforts Cheryl has left: a set of dog tags reminding her to be strong.
For FRC's JP Duffy, the revelations about Chick-fil-A, hit close to home. To read why, check out his new USA Today op-ed, "Chick-fil-A once inspired me to live out my faith in the workplace. Those days are gone."
Remember "we have to pass Obamacare to find out what's in it?" Well, in some cases, "you have to buy it to find out what's in it." And all too often, what's in it is abortion.
"I remember breaking down. It was like, this was a mistake. It should never have happened. But what do you do about it? How do you go through another harrowing transition? What do you do? I've got no hair. I've got a beard. I've had all [of] my body mutilated. How do I go back to being the Debbie that I was?"\r
"When my dad was alive, he would tell me, 'No matter what, have a smile on your face. No matter how you're feeling, you're living, and you should be able to smile.'" These days, Ohio State running back J.K. Dobbins has a lot to smile about. He just moved into second place on the Buckeyes' all-time rushing list. He racked up four touchdowns against rival Michigan over the weekend. He's a contender for the Heisman Trophy. But things haven't always been easy. J.K. had to overcome a lot of obstacles to get where he is -- including, Americans found out Saturday, just being born.
The turkeys may be gone, but some liberals are back to carving up something else: free speech. Now that it's December, the Left wants to make it clear that Santa Claus isn't the only thing coming to town -- so is censorship. And Brooklyn Benzel, an 8th grade homeschooler from California, seems to be the holiday's first target.
Last week, our families and loved ones came together to give thanks for our many blessings. As believers, we express gratitude most of all to our Creator and Savior. Now we are hours away from #GivingTuesday, a day dedicated to giving back to make a difference in the world.
It's been chipped and cracked, dropped and completely submerged. For America's Plymouth Rock, the journey has been anything but easy. For more than 120 years, it sat anonymously on the Massachusetts waterfront -- just another boulder, until an elderly man asked to be carried to the beach to say goodbye. Plans for a new wharf were underway, set to bury the exact stretch of sand where Thomas Faunce's father and the rest of the pilgrims had landed. That rock, he said, "had received the footsteps of our fathers on their first arrival." It should be, he urged, "perpetuated to posterity." Thanks to him, the son of a Mayflower survivor, it was.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf is adamantly against the death penalty -- unless you're a baby with Down Syndrome. Turns out, the Democrat, who's refused to sign execution warrants since he was elected, has no problem using lethal force against an entire population of children. Their crime? Not living up to society's ideas of "perfection."
While Americans sometimes take their democracy for granted, turnout shouldn't be a problem in Hong Kong this Sunday. That's when the region heads to the polls to choose their local leaders. Normally, foreign affairs reporter Gordon Chang pointed out, the district elections don't attract very much attention. This time around, things are different. Five months into Hong Kong's violent protests, the people want to be heard. And not just about their districts. About everything.
In case you missed it, Dr. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, joined us on "Washington Watch" Thursday to talk more about the radical departure of Chick-fil-A and what it means for the broader culture. Check out his commentary above. Also, don't miss Dr. Mohler's briefing on the controversy, "The LGBTQ Revolution Takes No Prisoners: Chick-fil-A Will No Longer Donate to Christian Organizations That Affirm Biblical Marriage and Sexuality."
"My highest aim in life is to honor God -- and that informs everything I do, business included." For Kentucky photographer Chelsey Nelson, her work is personal. "When I look back on my life when I'm older, I want to be able to say that I stayed true to this goal." Unfortunately for Chelsey, the city of Louisville is doing everything they can to elbow Christians like her out of the market. But if they thought that would be easy, they're about to find out how wrong they are.
If the ACLU really wanted to celebrate International Men's Day, maybe someone ought to explain to them what a man is. They certainly don't know. In a tweet that lit up social media, one of the country's "premier" liberal groups insisted, "There's no one way to be a man. Men who get their periods are men. Men who get pregnant and give birth are men." It's a good thing my wife never knew that. We have five kids. She'd have probably asked me to spend nine months carrying one or two of them around.
If the last 24 hours have proven anything about Chick-fil-A, it's this: It was never about the chicken. For millions of Americans, there was a much deeper significance behind every decision to pull in the parking lot and walk through those doors. It wasn't about the menu. It wasn't even about the service. It was that every time someone ate there, they were making a cultural statement. Chick-fil-A was a business, yes. But it was also a giant rebuttal of everything the bullies stood for. Until it wasn't.
Around 100 protestors are still trapped inside Hong Kong Polytechnic University, after days of confronting the police surrounding the campus. The university has recently been the stage for some of the most dramatic events in the protests which have been going on for seven months. And as Gordon Chang told listeners on Washington Watch Tuesday, "I don't think that we're going to see an end to these protests for quite some time."
"I'm 19 years old, and I already feel like I've ruined my life." That's the heartbreaking story of Nathaniel, who said he was bullied into believing a lie -- that he was someone else. He heard about transgenderism, he wrote in a letter to survivor and activist Walt Heyer, and "convinced myself that's what I was."
Most of us who were there on that sunny August day will never forget. For everyone else, there's a sign: "Above this plaque is a bullet hole. It marks the heroic action taken by Family Research Council employee Leo Johnson on August 15, 2012." That was the morning Floyd Corkins walked into our lobby and changed FRC forever. He'd bought a gun and learned how to use it. He'd loaded three magazines. In his backpack was a stash of chicken sandwiches that he planned to smear in the faces of staffers he hoped to kill. "They endorse Chick-fil-A," he said. It would be a "statement against the people who work there."
The Israeli people didn't vote for Donald Trump, but there isn't a nation around that's benefited more from his administration than our Middle East ally. In just three years, he's managed to keep more promises on Israel than all of the previous presidents combined. He moved the embassy, recognized their sovereignty over the Golan Heights, and according to Secretary Mike Pompeo, he's nowhere close to done.
It's one of the most disturbing and elaborate cover-ups every attempted: millions of innocent people "vanishing" in the Chinese night. How do you explain to students coming home for a school break that they're parents are missing -- locked away in a Uyghur concentration camp, never to return? Simple. According to pages of leaked documents from deep within the Chinese communist state, you lie.
Like a lot of staffers at the Harris County Jail, Jason Spencer didn't expect to be fielding media calls about a surprise visit from one of the most recognizable celebrities. But then, a lot about Kanye West's last few months has been a surprise. A life-changing one, judging by the inmates at Friday's impromptu concert. "This is a mission," the newly-converted Kanye insisted, "not a show." And he proved it, doing his best to set even these prisoners near downtown Houston, free.
Kerry is a lifelong liberal who always believed in the transgender cause -- until now. "I was all in... there was nothing to suggest that there was any problem with this," she said. "Everybody's doing it -- it's fine [and] good." That all changed the day her daughter came to her and said she wanted to become a boy. She was 11.
"It's their fear." That's what's motivating the young protesters of Hong Kong to continue demonstrating after months of mounting threats from the Chinese government, according to Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). As Hawley told me on Washington Watch this week, "Beijing promised the people of Hong Kong when they took back over the city that they would protect the basic liberties of the Hong Kong residents -- their right to worship, their right to speak, their right to assemble, free press. And now they're trying to take those things away."
The Bible. It's a book owned by 88 percent of Americans and considered "sacred" by 8 in 10 of our fellow citizens. In the last two years, more than 2 million have been drawn to learn more about it at the Museum of the Bible. The influence of the Bible on our nation's founding was so strong that President Calvin Coolidge once observed that "the foundations of our society and government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country."
Celebrity culture makes headlines out of all kinds of unlikely bits of information. From favorite foods to pet choices, from dating to shoes, people seem obsessed with celebrities.
If you're wondering how much the employees of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) trust the group's new leadership, the answer is: not much. After former staffers pulled the curtain back on decades of racism and bigotry, the internal crisis is far from over. According to the AP, a "supermajority of staffers" has been trying to unionize -- one of the only ways, they believe, they'll be protected from the SPLC's toxic environment. There's just one problem. Management is refusing to let them.
It may be the most dangerous bill no one's really talking about. But if becomes law -- this radical grab bag of social extremism -- all of America will live to regret it. Meet the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). It's not just about women anymore. In fact, it's not really about women at all.
"It's a zone of death, of murder, of ethnic cleansing and displacement. The people here call it a zone of genocide. And right now, the U.S. has done nothing to stop it." -- Dave Eubank, on the ground in Syria
Most of us wouldn't donate to an unethical group, so why should the U.S.? That's the idea behind a new policy being hatched in the Trump administration, where officials are mapping out a way to incentivize international religious liberty. If countries want humanitarian aid, shouldn't they at least prove that they're capable of recognizing one of mankind's most fundamental rights? This president thinks so.
It's two weeks until Thanksgiving, but the NFL's halftime singer is already calling time out. Ellie Goulding, the musician who was scheduled to perform the turkey day game, is threatening to pull out of the show if the Cowboys' spotlighted charity -- the Salvation Army -- doesn't fold on its Christian beliefs. Either give a donation to an LGBT group, Goulding demanded of the nonprofit, or I'm out. In that case, some say, don't let the arena door hit you on the way out.
Nothing says "Thanks for your service" like ignoring the needs of U.S. troops. But apparently, that's the most our military can hope for under Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) majority. While the president tries to deal with conflicts around the globe, contain the threats from ISIS and rogue nations like North Korea, you'll be relieved to know that the House is hard at work on its most important mission: ushering into the military people who are in conflict over their biological sex. And they're willing to tie up the most important bill of the year to do it.
For families in Virginia, it isn't just diversity in the classroom parents are worried about -- but the library too. Now that LGBT activists have stacked the deck in sex ed, they're tackling another project: school shelves. And moms and dads in Loudoun County are taking a page out of other communities -- and fighting back.
Last year, my brother Josh, a 37-year-old married father with five kids under the age of 9, announced he was becoming a woman.
It was Mother's Day -- not that Sarah Cowart had time to celebrate it. Her husband, Daniel, was thousands of miles away in Iraq, a gunner from the 1st Platoon, Delta Company. She was watching her twin girls eat pancakes and thinking about talking to him later that day when the phone rang. The number wasn't one she recognized, but something inside her told her to answer it. That's when everything changed.
"Talk with teens about possible regret." That's what the American Academy of Pediatrics says about tattoos and body piercings. But when it comes to giving a girl who thinks she's a boy a double mastectomy, the same organization thinks parents should "respect" their kids' wishes.
Do you want your kids learning about sex from a group of Planned Parenthood pole dancers? Neither do parents in Austin, Texas. The state capital came within inches of adopting the group's middle school curriculum -- but had to scrap it at the last minute when the legislature banned "local governments from doing business with abortion providers." Unfortunately for local parents, what the school district did pass is just as horrifying. And locals have no intentions of taking it sitting down.
As accusations swirl about ongoing Turkish war crimes being committed in Syria, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan solidified plans to visit the Oval Office. This came after Erdogan threatened to cancel the meeting over the House of Representatives' passage of a bill recognizing the Armenian Genocide as "genocide" in addition to a bill that would allow for Turkey to be sanctioned.
She scrubbed in like she usually did. Their patient, she was told, had just lost her baby. It was supposed to be a routine procedure -- the kind they usually perform after a miscarriage. Turns out, nothing about the procedure was routine. When she met the doctor, he had an apologetic look in his eye. "Please don't hate me," he said. The woman's baby, the nurse discovered, hadn't died. They were there to destroy it.
They travel by military escort to get there, stopping at the charred car where they bury their faces in their hands and cry. It's the place where their family took their last breaths, victims of a massacre no one saw coming. In the three days since the news sent shockwaves around the world, there are no more answers for the LeBaróns' brutal deaths -- only questions about how a peaceful caravan of U.S. women and children could be in the crosshairs of Mexico's monsters.
It sounds like a cheerful sort of mentor program: "Pair Up and Become Family." But in China, nothing is cheerful, and certainly nothing about this intrusive (and probably abusive) home surveillance is good. When your husband has been hauled off to the country's modern-day concentration camps, the last thing you want is a government official spending the night in your bed. And yet, that's exactly what's happening in more Uyghur neighborhoods.
It's hard enough to get the truth out on a level playing field -- but in today's news, it's downright impossible. The Left has disinformation down to a science, especially when it comes to LGBT issues. That's dangerous in any situation -- but on the president's new adoption rule, it could mean the difference between a child finding a home and growing up without any love at all.
Donald Trump is more committed than anyone to cleaning up the environment -- at least the one Barack Obama left behind. Mopping up an eight-year mess is no easy task, but the new president kept at it on Monday, starting the process to pull America out of a dollar-sucking, job-crushing climate treaty that wouldn't have made a degree's worth of difference in the earth's temperature!
Owning a business can be a risky job for Christians these days. Just ask Blaine Adamson. Like a lot of believers, the head of Hands On Originals, a screen-printing company, found out that he could lose a lot more than his shirts for his faith!
Where can men, husbands, and fathers find a model of manhood, leadership, and strength in a culture of gender confusion? We need men to be men -- tough with compassionate strength, bent toward justice without compromise, locking arms and standing. We need them to be the people God created them to be: warriors for all that is right, true and just. Find out how at a special series of Stand Courageous Men's Conferences that FRC is launching to discuss critical aspects of masculinity.
"Leaving the hospital without my daughter was the single hardest thing I'd ever done," Adrian remembers. She thinks about watching the hospital clock tick down to the moment she'd have to say goodbye. In those final minutes, she thought her heart might shatter. "I was broken." She swaddled the tiny fingers and toes one last time before a hand came to rest on hers. It was her adoption social worker. Adrian looked into her face and knew she was doing the right thing.
"North Korea is the one country where people, the moment they are born, have no freedom." Ji Hyeon-a was born there; she should know. Her own story,\u00A0told at this year's Values Voter Summit, was so painful that it drove both her and her translator to tears. Why, then, does she tell it? She\u00A0hopes\u00A0it will provoke people to speak up on behalf of North Korea's victims. "While people are dying and the rest of the world watches that\u2026 if they maintain their silence despite knowing what is going on, I don't think that's right."
If you missed Saturday's "Cavuto Live" on Fox News, check it out below as FRC's Lt. General Jerry Boykin talks about the new leader of ISIS.
Dr. Bill Bennett's resume is full of incredible experiences - but it's not everyone who gets confirmed to a department your boss has openly tried to abolish. That was the unique situation Bill found himself in when Ronald Reagan picked him as America's secretary of education.
Pastor Andrew Brunson spent two years locked inside a Turkish prison, falsely accused of being a spy. His true "crime" was spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ in one of the largest unevangelized countries in the world.\u00A0
Justice may be blind, but the American Bar Association is not. That’s the biggest takeaway from Wednesday’s Senate hearing, when Ninth Circuit Court nominee Lawrence VanDyke became the ABA’s latest contestant on “conservatives don’t have talent.” Like most of this president’s picks, VanDyke probably braced himself for the Kavanaugh Treatment. But he never imagined the country’s largest attorney organization would stoop to label him “not qualified.”
They call themselves “formers.” And Wednesday, they were on Capitol Hill telling a story the Left doesn’t want you to hear. “We exist,” Elizabeth Woning told NBC News. Surrounded by men and women who’ve walked out of the LGBT lifestyle, her message to Congress is: stop pretending change isn’t possible. Because this group knows better than anyone—it is.
Halloween’s already come and gone in Hong Kong. Protestors, who’ve been locked in months of violent protests with police, stood outside of blockades yelling, “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong!” Using the holiday as an excuse to wear costumes, protestors dressed up like everything from President Xi to tear gas canisters, while half a world away in New York, one U.S. leader decided to take the mask off the real villain of the story: China.
It was just hours before two hijacked planes cut through the New York sky on that bright September day. Former president Bill Clinton was in Australia, talking to a group of businessmen, when the topic turned to terrorism. “I spend a lot of time thinking about him,” the 42nd president said about Osama bin Laden. “I nearly got him once,” he admitted. “I nearly got him. And I could have killed him, but… I didn’t do it.” Turns out, the world didn’t need that confirmation. The next day, it had its own: 2,977 people, dead at the hands of the terrorist mastermind.
“For a long time, the scene in the van that day played over and over in my mind—how a living being just like us had his organs ripped out while he was still alive, and the frightful pain and fear in his eyes as he looked up at me. My heart couldn’t bear it.” –George Zheng, former medical student, China
Divorced parents Jeff Younger and Anne Georgulas don’t have a lot in common anymore—including, as most Americans know by now, their young son. Anne wants their seven-year-old to be able to wear girl’s clothes and eventually take puberty blockers to change his identity. His father, Jeff, Governor Greg Abbott (R-Texas), Donald Trump Jr., Texas legislators, and concerned parents everywhere disagree.
She didn’t live to see justice done. By 26, Kayla Mueller was already gone—killed a world away from home, in ISIS captivity. For four years, her parents have struggled to make sense of her death, “haunted every day,” they say, by the fact that her country was silent.
For some college students, it’s a parody that hits way too close to home. When the Babylon Bee ran a satirical news story about a motorcyclist identifying as a bicyclist to set a new record, a group of runners at the Big Sky Conference understood all too well. In their conference, boys don’t just compete as girls—they get honored for it!
It’s a simple fact that some people who have same-sex sexual attractions don’t want to experience those feelings. Some of them seek out counsellors or professional psychotherapists who can help them resist or overcome those unwanted feelings—what critics often call “conversion therapy.”
"This whole concept of political correctness ... it's going to destroy our nation." That was the no-nonsense response of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson to Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.) earlier this week. Wexton was trying for a "gotcha" moment in a congressional hearing when she asked Dr. Carson if he would "apologize" for being quoted for expressing concern over "big, hairy men" trying to gain entry into an Alaska women's homeless shelter.
While Democrats race to the Left to get behind socialized health care plans like Medicare For All, the Republican Study Committee (RSC) is taking the lead for Republicans by offering a conservative market-based alternative that emphasizes providing quality health care coverage and reducing costs. On Washington Watch this week, I hosted Republican Study Committee Chairman Mike Johnson (R-La.) to unveil the first phase of their new health care plan.
"Are people still praying for me?" That is the question Pastor Andrew Brunson asked his wife Norine each week when she visited him in a Turkish prison where he was unjustly detained for nearly two years. Less than two weeks ago at FRC's Faith, Family, & Freedom Gala, we celebrated and praised God together with the Brunsons on the one-year anniversary of Andrew's miraculous release from Turkey.
"Human rights" is a popular term. No one really thinks it's a bad thing. That's why even North Korea and China try to justify their behavior in terms of human rights. If one can claim this mantle, they are nearly unassailable.
Pastor Joshua Chinna Rao watched his church, which had stood for 18 years, burn to ashes in a small village in rural India. Like many others, it had been the target of radicals. "We do not know who burnt the church," Pastor Rao said. "We suspect it was done deliberately to prevent us for worshiping." Such unprovoked attacks against places of worship are becoming common-place. A hearing on Protecting Houses of Worship and Holy Sites, was hosted by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on Wednesday to address this growing issue.
Children suffer when their parents struggle with one another. A tragic case in point is unfolding in Dallas, Texas, where a jury this week denied a father sole custody of his 7-year-old son. What's uncommon about this custody battle is that the boy's mother is seeking ultimately to start the child on drug treatments that would block him from beginning puberty because, she claims, he now identifies as a girl.
In May 2018, the Trump administration proposed changes to the rules which govern the Title X Family Planning Program. These changes, finalized on March 4, 2019, are known as the Protect Life Rule. This rule provides existing and prospective Title X grantees with a straightforward choice: comply with the rule and separate their family planning services from abortion activities or choose to relinquish their federal grant funding.
"Five demands, not one less." This message was paraded throughout Hong Kong by pro-democracy protestors over the weekend. This is bad news for Hong Kong politicians who want to finally suppress the demonstrations that have been occurring all summer. Today, protesters received one of their demands when Hong Kong's government relented and formally withdrew the extradition bill which sparked the protests.
Mike Pompeo is a West Point grad, a Harvard Law alum, businessman, former congressman, and -- apparently -- prophet. When the secretary of state mixed things up with a speech to the American Association of Christian Counselors earlier this month, he said the media "would break out the pitchforks" when they found out he asks God "for direction in [his] work." He was right.
The Crossing Church from Columbia, Missouri has been in the news recently -- and for all the right reasons. Just last month, the church garnered national attention when it helped members of their community pay off unpaid medical bills. Through partnership with RIP Medical Debt, a nonprofit organization that helps people pay off outstanding medical debt, church members donated more than $430,000 which was used to pay off more than $43 million of medical debt by negotiating with debt collectors.
That is the overwhelming sentiment from more than 40 North Korean mothers who were forced to leave behind their children when they defected. Thursday, October 24, Tongil Mom will talk about her interviews with those women in a special event at FRC headquarters.
She wasn't supposed to be pregnant. Not with one baby -- and certainly not with twins. When the abortion technician asked if she wanted to know the details, the fact that she was carrying two babies apparently wasn't important enough to share. It was hard enough to get women to abort one child. If Planned Parenthood told her she had two, they might just lose her business. So, the clinician lied, and a young mom who didn't know the truth about her own children decided to end their lives. But fortunately for her twins, her word wasn't the last one.
Even now, his mom describes him as a typical kid. "He was a scout leader, an athlete, had a girlfriend, and led youth group at church." Talking about him in the past tense isn't easy. And for Julia, like so many hurting parents, it will never get easier. Her son Liam took his own life -- and even as a teacher with a degree in counseling, she never saw it coming.
The D.C. Council held a hearing last Thursday for the community to comment on a bill that would decriminalize the buying and selling of sex in the nation's capital. In addition, the bill would remove prison terms and fines for owning and operating a brothel. Family Research Council attended the hearing and testified against this dangerous and concerning bill.
"I had to be strong. Every day when I woke up, I thanked God that I was still alive." --Sayragul Sauytbay, Uyghur\rThere are harrowing stories -- and then there are the stories that seep deep into our bones. Sayragul Sauytbay's is the kind you don't forget. Her survival in China's concentration camps isn't just a miracle -- it's a warning that true darkness has settled over parts of the East.
One hundred and twenty hours isn't a lot, but U.S. officials are hoping it's at least enough to get more Syrians and Kurds out of harm's way. Hunkered down on the front lines, the families who haven't fled got word of the five-day cease-fire like the rest of the world. For some, it was too late. The shelling from Turkish forces on the border town of Qamishli had already taken innocent lives, including a young teenage boy. Others had already fled, piled on motorcycles and other in cars to shelters several towns away.
More than two out of every three Americans think their beliefs are under attack -- and after the Left's hysteria over a speech by Attorney General Bill Barr, it's not hard to understand why. Barr, a Catholic, gave a stirring talk at Notre Dame -- one of the most powerful given on religious liberty by a government figure in decades. "Secularists, and their allies among the 'progressives,' have marshaled all the force of mass communications, popular culture, the entertainment industry, and academia in an unremitting assault on religion and traditional values," he insisted.
Anywhere else, it would've been a normal night on the train. But this is Hong Kong, and nothing is normal. Not anymore. When Ng Chi Fai changed out of his chef's clothes to go home, he did what five months of protests have taught him: he checked his phone to find out where the worst riots were. Stepping onto the crowded train, he noticed some protestors -- but silently hoped the police wouldn't. Wiping away tears, he remembers the moment he knew they had -- the moment, he says, when "all hell broke loose."
Dr. Miroslav Djordjevic has spent almost 25 years in the world of gender reassignment surgery -- and even he has concerns. "Definitely reversal surgery and regret in transgender persons is one of the very hot topics," he admitted. He understands that this kind of "medicine" isn't for everyone. In fact, he's not even sure enough research has been done to prove whether his practice is actually helping people. So, like a lot of the medical community, he probably couldn't believe that America would actually force doctors into it.
"Do not upload adult porn." That was the stomach-turning warning from one of the most heinous child pornography sites on the dark web. Thanks to the Department of Justice, that horrible corner of cyberspace was just the target of an international takedown -- a victory months in the making.
When Gallup released its latest poll on the media, a lot of people were surprised the press had any scrap of credibility left to talk about. But despite all of the bias and fake news, an astonishing 41 percent of Americans still trust the media. Well, one thing's for certain, James O'Keefe would say, they must not be watching CNN.
Jasper, Georgia isn't a big town. At last count, it had about 3,800 residents. So it was a big deal when 900 of those people squeezed into the Pickens County High auditorium determined to stop Jasper from becoming the next stop in the march for transgender bathrooms.
The airstrikes had already begun in the border towns between Syria and Turkey when Bassam Ishak's cell phone started ringing. "People were so scared,"\u00A0he told NPR. "They were telling me, 'They are bombing us right now!'" In the neighborhood of Qamishli, it was already too late. The attacks had already killed Christians on the front lines, the first casualties of the fighting no one wanted.
There were a lot of powerful moments at last weekend's VVS, but one in particular stood out ?" a panel of courageous abortion survivors, whose stories were so moving that most of the audience couldn't hold back tears. "We are not a choice," an emotional Melissa Ohden insisted. From Claire Culwell's brave testimony of forgiveness to Josiah Presley's insistence that everyone has a purpose, it was a poignant reminder of what pro-lifers everywhere are fighting for.
A coalition of left-leaning church leaders recently launched a project "Against Christian Nationalism." In their statement they cite "Christian nationalism" as a "persistent threat to both our religious communities and our democracy." At best, the project is a solution in search of a problem -- at worst, it's an attempt to drive conservative Christians out of the public square.