04a Faith

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled a Christian-only auto repair franchise is not a constitutional violation. The company, Christian Brothers Automotive, only allows self-professing Christians to be franchise owners. There are 300 franchises nationwide.

Appeals court rules Christian auto repair chain can limit franchises to Christians 
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EXCERPT:

A federal appeals court ruled that Christian Brothers Automotive can make Christianity a requirement for its franchise owners, rejecting a Jewish man’s racial discrimination lawsuit.

Three judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the Houston-based company in a Sept. 30 ruling. They found no evidence that the chain rejected the applicant based on race.

Mark Carr and a partner opened the first auto repair shop in Mission Bend, Texas, in 1982. Christian Brothers started selling franchises in 1996 and now has more than 310 locations nationwide.

The company says it follows the biblical command to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Its shops close on weekends, giving owners and employees time with their families.

Christian Brothers requires franchise owners to share its faith and give a personal Christian testimony. The company has followed the rule for decades.

Its franchise owners come from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, and at least two are Christians who are ethnic Jews.

Pope Leo XIV planned surgery to remove lung ‘nodule’ – what to know – National– globalnews.ca
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EXCERPT:

Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to have an operation this week to remove “a localized nodule” in his lung that was “detected at a very early stage.” It is the first medical event of his 17-month papacy.

The Vatican said he will be admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Tuesday, and predicted a weeklong recovery.

Here is what is known:

A lung nodule is a small abnormal area measuring less than three centimeters (about 1.2 inches) across. It is sometimes detected on a CT scan performed to investigate another problem, such as trauma or a lung infection, according to the American Cancer Society.

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Experts say the nodule could be benign or malignant and that prompt evaluation is important.

If the nodule is cancerous and removed at an early stage, the prognosis is “excellent,” and surgery alone may be sufficient treatment, said Dr. Stephen Liu, a lung cancer expert at Georgetown’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Leo, 71, is considered otherwise healthy and physically fit, both positive factors for his recovery. He said the nodule was discovered during “recent medical tests,” and the Vatican said Monday that no particular health issue prompted the check-up, describing it as “routine.”

Pope Leo XIV planned surgery to remove lung ‘nodule’ – what to know – National– globalnews.ca
News Source
EXCERPT:

Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to have an operation this week to remove “a localized nodule” in his lung that was “detected at a very early stage.” It is the first medical event of his 17-month papacy.

The Vatican said he will be admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Tuesday, and predicted a weeklong recovery.

Here is what is known:

A lung nodule is a small abnormal area measuring less than three centimeters (about 1.2 inches) across. It is sometimes detected on a CT scan performed to investigate another problem, such as trauma or a lung infection, according to the American Cancer Society.

Story continues below advertisement

Experts say the nodule could be benign or malignant and that prompt evaluation is important.

If the nodule is cancerous and removed at an early stage, the prognosis is “excellent,” and surgery alone may be sufficient treatment, said Dr. Stephen Liu, a lung cancer expert at Georgetown’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Leo, 71, is considered otherwise healthy and physically fit, both positive factors for his recovery. He said the nodule was discovered during “recent medical tests,” and the Vatican said Monday that no particular health issue prompted the check-up, describing it as “routine.”

Pope Leo declares death penalty ‘inadmissible’ as his native US plans to livestream execution– fortune.com
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EXCERPT:

Pope Leo XIV on Saturday declared capital punishment ”inadmissible” as he marked the World Day Against the Death Penalty and his native United States announced plans to livestream an execution by firing squad.

In a post on X, the American pope quoted the revised Catholic teaching on capital punishment ushered in by Pope Francis that the death penalty attacks the inherent dignity of a human being.

“The common good can be safeguarded and the requirements of justice can be met without recourse to capital punishment,” read the post under Leo’s official handle, @Pontifex. “Effective systems of detention have been developed that protect citizens while at the same time do not completely deprive those who are guilty of the possibility of redemption.”

The post ended with the hashtag #NoDeathPenalty.

The U.S. Defense Department announced Thursday that the firing squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, convicted of a 2009 shooting at the Fort Hood military base, will be livestreamed. Hasan, scheduled to be executed at Fort Hood on Dec. 3, was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday he would be making a decision ultimately on whether the execution would be livestreamed.

Leo didn’t refer specifically to the planned execution, or the botched lethal injection in Tennessee earlier that has revived debate over the death penalty in the United States. Saturday is World Day Against the Death Penalty, and it is common for the pope’s official social media accounts to post messages marking such commemorations.

But Leo’s post came just hours after his top deputy, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, said explicitly that the planned U.S. public execution was “unacceptable.”

James Talarico’s Woke Insanity Claims The Bible Supports Killing Babies in Abortions– www.lifenews.com
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EXCERPT:

U.S. Senate candidate for Texas James Talarico had just begun voicing regret over his past statements that there are six genders, that men should play in women’s sports, and that “God is nonbinary.” Then Talarico’s lesbian “minister” was caught on camera with an entirely different spin, telling an undercover journalist that his newfound moderation is all a lie to get more votes.

Texas voters are right to be concerned that his campaign’s “Christian” packaging is false advertising. So, let’s check his record.

Talarico made his name as the progressive “Christian” alternative to Republican Ken Paxton, the current Texas attorney general, who has been endorsed by President Donald Trump.

As a member of the Texas House of Representatives, Talarico voted against SB 14, the law protecting minors from mutilating gender surgeries and sterilizing puberty blockers. Now he claims he only opposed certain parts of the bill and wanted to see amendments before he could vote for it.

His record on women’s sports tells the same story. In 2021, Talarico voted against HB 25, the Texas law requiring student athletes in public schools to compete on teams that match their biological sex. Back then, he didn’t talk about amendments. He told his colleagues, “You can’t compromise with hate,” and argued that “some things are more important than perfectly fair competition in sports.”

Now that he’s running statewide, Talarico says he will oppose trans athletes playing in girls’ sports “if it risks safety or fairness.” That little word “if” is doing a lot of work. It means Talarico reserves the right to decide when it’s “fair” and “safe” for a boy to compete against girls and share their locker room, and in those cases, he’s fine with it.

But here’s the truth: it is always unfair for men to play against women, and men in women’s sports always endanger women.

God made us male and female, equally loved, differently formed. No amount of political denial of that reality changes the reality God created, nor the level of hurt women will face because of transgender ideology. To deny our natural state, made in God’s image, is to deny God Himself.

Talarico’s disconnection from reality — and from Biblical principles — goes beyond the gender issue to the most basic right we all have: life.

Talarico has claimed that abortion and gay marriage are mentioned nowhere in the Bible. This is an embarrassingly debunkable statement, one that we at Students for Life Action (SFLAction) exposed months ago with the copious Bible verses defining humans as male and female, husband and wife, and revealing God’s intention for our lives before we are even in the womb.

While Talarico does not seem committed to what Scripture actually says, many who attend church do care.

That’s why our student leaders went to Talarico’s own church, stood outside, and left flyers on the cars of the worshippers inside. It was the first stop in our campaign to reach more than 100 churches, reminding the faithful of Biblical truth: Life begins at conception, God abhors murder, and He made every one of us in His image, male and female.

Certainly, Talarico’s radical theology is an effort to cut into the pro-life, pro-faith voters who consistently vote Republican. As ABC News noted, many Democrats are trying to reclaim the faith conversation for their political ambitions.

But we’ve seen this before. After values voters helped decide the 2004 election, Democrats turned to progressive activist Rev. Jim Wallis. He wrote a bestselling book, God’s Politics, took it on a national tour, and went to Capitol Hill teaching Democrats how to talk to Christians and campaign for their votes.

More than 20 years later, Democrats still can’t figure it out, because they aren’t true believers. Even Wallis admitted at the time, “It’s so transparent when somebody is being inauthentic about religion.” Talarico is just the 2026 version of a decades-old Democratic problem. And it’s hard to reclaim the faith conversation when your apologetics are about explaining why the Bible doesn’t mean what it says.

The race is tight. And as Talarico has struggled under the weight of his past lunacy, notice where he went to clean it up. He didn’t go to MSNOW or The Nation, the Leftist outlets his base trusts. He went to Fox News to tell conservative voters not to believe what they have heard him say in interview clips.

Meanwhile, in far-Left circles, he is actively working to appeal to radical pro-abortion, pro-child-mutilation socialists by repeating their messaging. He recently went viral talking about his favorite drag queen. And in a private Zoom call with the far-Left Austin Sierra Club, Talarico spoke of dismantling capitalism, climate change doomerism, and our country being one of white supremacy and billionaire-contrived class warfare, reports Townhall.

This is not a genuine change of heart; it’s voter-segmented packaging, built on the hope that liberals won’t watch Fox and conservatives will believe he doesn’t really mean what he says.

Jesus cares about truth. In John 14:6, we read: “Jesus said…, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”

Talarico can’t even agree on that, saying all faiths are “equal pathways to truth.”

So, to answer the New York Times question, “Can James Talarico Reclaim Christianity for the Left?” the answer is no. Telling people that God doesn’t mean what He says is the oldest trick in Scripture. It started in the Garden, with a serpent asking Eve, “Did God really say…?”

Christian voters should not be fooled. Talarico is a radical leftist who is saying whatever gets him elected. His own people don’t even buy what he is selling to voters.

 

 

90,000 Babies Will be Killed With Abortion Pills Before FDA Finally Does Review– www.lifenews.com
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EXCERPT:

Alliance Defending Freedom Of Counsel Erin Hawley commented regarding the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s court-ordered update submitted Wednesday on its mifepristone safety study. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill and Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys asked the court to require the FDA to restore the in-person dispensing requirement for the abortion drug:

“The American people deserve the thorough report on abortion drug safety that the FDA has promised for nearly two years, but the agency has again failed to deliver it. The FDA now says it won’t release its final study until March. That will be too late for nearly 90,000 unborn babies who will die between now and then by illegally obtained abortion drugs in states like Louisiana that have taken great care to protect babies and mothers from the harms of abortion.

“But even then, the lengthy regulatory work that will be required after the study concludes could push any potential solution to the next administration. Not only is that unacceptable, but it’s also beside the point. The release of a study does nothing to correct the unlawfulness of the FDA’s 2023 decision, which three 5th Circuit panels, two district court judges, and now DOJ leadership itself have all concluded was ‘wrong.’

“Meanwhile, every month of additional delay puts nearly 15,000 additional babies at risk in states where mail-order abortion drugs are unlawful—1,000 in Louisiana alone—and more women like Rosalie, Catherine, and Elizabeth at risk of being coerced or tricked into ingesting these life-ending drugs. Nobody disputes that. And the FDA can easily end that today, even while its study continues, by entering into a consent decree with Louisiana to vacate the 2023 REMS.

“Indeed, mail-order abortions don’t empower women—they facilitate the abuse, coercion, and poisoning of women by making high-risk drugs accessible to bad actors at the click of a button. The FDA knows the right thing is to restore the in-person dispensing requirement. In fact, a new peer-reviewed article was just released detailing that the agency lacked evidence to justify removing this basic safety requirement.

“Life is the first and most basic human right, and states have the right to protect it. The administration should set politics aside and respect states’ interest in protecting life, act now to restore abortion drugs’ minimum safety requirements, and settle ADF’s and Louisiana’s lawsuit.”

 

 

Videos capture Palestinian activists screaming at Mamdani: ‘Opportunist piece of s**t!’– www.theblaze.com
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EXCERPT:

 

Pro-Palestinian protesters showed their outrage at Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani after he made an appearance at the Israelis for Peace vigil in Union Square.

The activists screamed at Mamdani that he was a traitor in videos captured by bystanders as the mayor left with his entourage and security.

‘There’s no mutual understanding when you’re killing our children, our family members.’

“You opportunist piece of s**t!” one woman yelled.

Mamdani appears stone-faced and angry halfway through the video.

“Mamdani, you can’t hide! We charge you with genocide!” they chanted in another part of the video.

The Muslim mayor has been accused of having ties to pro-terrorist groups, but the protesters were apparently upset that he didn’t do enough to oppose Israel.

The event was held on Oct. 7, the anniversary of the horrific terrorist attack on southern Israel by Palestinian terrorists. Israel retaliated with a devastating military campaign intended to wipe out the terrorist threat.

Protesters chanted and made as much noise as possible for about an hour in order to interrupt the vigil.

Others yelled, “Allahu Akbar!” in another video from the event. One protester holds up a sign reading, “Bomb ‘Israel’ bye!”

 

 

By Bill Collier, Publisher

“You have seen people within Bibi’s cabinet, who have come out and attacked the deal, and in some ways very personally attacked the president of the United States. Number one, Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time. And he happens to be the head of state of the world’s superpower.

“If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world. The other thing that I would say is that over the last three months, two thirds of the defensive weapons that have protected your homeland, have been built by American hands and paid for by American tax dollars. The problem for Israel is not Donald J. Trump. And anybody in Israel who thinks their biggest problem is the president of the United States needs to wake up and smell the reality of the situation that country is in.” – JD Vance responding to Israel’s rejection of the first major Iran Peace Deal

“And I will make boys their princes, and infants shall rule over them. And the people will oppress one another, every one his fellow and every one his neighbor; the youth will be insolent to the elder, and the despised to the honorable.” – Isaiah 3:4-5

JD Vance Supports Political Islamists and Enables Their War Against Christianity, UNINTENTIONALLY

There are three groups that agree about two things: they hate Israel (and the Jews overall), and they also hate the historical Christian faith.

These three groups are Nazis/neo-Nazis, Leftists, and most followers of political Islam. They all agree on those two points, that Jews and Historic Christianity are enemies of humanity. All three are also totalitarian and anti-Christian, but within the Nazi and Leftist groups you will find self-professing “Christians” who are yet more aligned with Islamists than with historic Christianity.

First, the neo-Nazis have a version of Christianity that limits Christ’s saving work to the white race (despite the fact that Christ himself was not white).

Next comes the leftist progressive “Christians” who deny all the core theological and moral orthodoxies of the historical Christian faith. The common enemy is Israel and the historic church. This is the strategy of hell. The third group, political Islam, doesn’t have a Christian front, though they claim to protect Palestinian Christians when it suits their narrative ends.

PUB.NOTE: I support Palestinian Christians and have criticized the Israelis. But especially the Palestinian authority, for violating their rights.

In my opinion, JD Vance, friends with neo-Nazi Tucker Carlson, who I now call Qatarlson because of his open support of Qatar, is flirting with the neo-Nazis (although in his defense he is not a neo-Nazi and he is not an authoritarian in any way).

He is, however, aligning with Neo-Nazis, and could yet end up joining them.

There is no circumstance in which I would vote for a JD Vance, as even the worse leftist would produce the same curses upon our land through their wicked policies as surely as Vance would. Under both, militant political Islam gains power everywhere, and no one, so far (not even MAGA) has recognized the threat.

Vance is an ally of militant Islamists, especially Qatar and Pakistan, even if unintentionally. I do not believe this alignment is coming from a place of hatred for the Israelis and Protestants, but it has the net effect of supporting spirits of hatred for both.

I believe JD Vance thinks we Christians should not influence the government too much, and therefore he feels comfortable aligning with powerful Islamists, perhaps naively believing their disadvantaged power voice will be the same as their advantaged power voice.

I believe he thinks he is truly friends with powerful Muslims who just want peace and happiness born from an adherence to American Rule of Law. Call it stupid, but it is not malicious.

In my opinion, JD Vance is an ally of radical Islamic forces, although he is probably unaware of that fact. For me, this disqualifies him and makes him a bad counselor to the President.

If JD Vance wins in 2028, Israel will not control our foreign policy, as he so unjustly claimed, SINCE THEY NEVER HAVE. They have influenced our foreign policy, and perhaps you could argue they have too much influence, but to make the bald-faced lie that Israel is controlling our foreign policy reveals either a lack of character or integrity in Vance.

It also reveals a lack of care for the consequences of spreading an unfounded truth claim he knows is used every day by violent antisemites to justify systemic violence against the Jews and the state of Israel.

THAT’S a blood libel conspiracy theory tailored to promote genocide against Jews, and certain Christians who support them. If JD Vance wins, Qatar will influence our foreign policy far more than Israel ever has because its paid agents have the most influence in the White House today.

If JD Vance wins, Israel will have an enemy of the Jews who puts his Catholic eschatology (which does not allow for the state of Israel to exist) over logic, reason, and even Christian love.

If I ever was MAGA, JD Vance would be the reason I would disavow the whole thing. I don’t need to do that because there is no MAGA movement (in my opinion), only a cult of personality around Trump, because these people trust him and his leadership. They do not worship him; they only trust him (not that a fringe of MAGA don’t fit into the worship category, though they represent a small minority).

Outside of a vague reference to American Rule of Law and a commitment to put American interests above all other interests, there are no clear statements of principle, or outlining of concrete goals that go beyond Trump’s Presidency.

Without Trump, there is no movement because there is no “manifesto” of principles and goals that guides them, only faith that Trump is a great deal maker and a brilliant strategist, and that he truly loves America.

Their reasons are not unfounded, even if I believe the faith is stronger than the justification for it. You cannot deny that Trump is a force of nature one rarely sees. This fact alone makes it easy for me to understand why people support him so strongly. Trump does love this country, but he’s hardly right about everything.

I think that, without guiding articulated principles and goals which every movement member (from the bottom to the top) is accountable to, the movement dies when the heroic leader fades.

Vance would like to pick up that mantle. He will have to first neutralize the pro Zionists who believe three things Vance does not; that Israel is a key U.S. Ally, that Jews should own and govern their ancient homeland, and that powers like Qatar, Turkey, and Saidi Arabia are no less enemies to our land, and to Christianity, than are Russia, China and Iran.

I am an unapologetic Zionist. I am convinced we are fighting a civilizational war against Islamic civilization in its Caesarism phase (decadence, authoritarianism, and imperialism), while many Muslims, like the UAE, are natural allies against all this.

JD Vance is not a friend to the UAE or the Kurds, who are not political Islamic totalitarians, but he is an ally to Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia who all work to eradicate the presence of Jews, Christians, and purely religious Muslims from the Middle East as precursor to world domination.

This isn’t about the Jews or Israel; they are just in the way. This is about political Islam as an existential threat to every civilization, especially to Christian ones. I support Israel, the UAE, the Kurds, the Assyrians, and Christian Palestinians because their enemy, political Islam, is coming for me next (and in America today is ALREADY coming for us).

Framing this as Israel controlling our foreign policy while your own highest profile supporters are getting rich from political Islam is reprehensible and cannot be excused. JD Vance is no less a friend to Radical Political Islam than Qatar, because Qatar leads him.

IS THIS VINCE’S AIM? Probably not.

He has bought the narrative against Zionism and Israel. He doesn’t see that his allies would take away his freedom in a second when they no longer need him, and they have the power to do so (peace when they have disadvantaged power, war and persecution when they have advantaged power).

His Catholic eschatology makes the existence of Israel a rebuke of the Catholic end-times teachings. His rightful rejection of globalism leads him to reject inordinate foreign influence over American policy.

Israel is hated by globalists because its existence validates ethnic nation-states, and by anti-globalists because of Israel’s perceived influence over American decision-making. Israel, to the anti-globalists, justifies globalism especially because, objectively, prominent Jews overwhelmingly support globalism.

JD Vance has swallowed the “Jews behind every American policy” lie, and thus is predisposed to reject Israel not only because of his Catholic eschatology, but also because of his perception that Israel’s influence on America reinforces globalism.

Also, to be clear, none of these people understand this as a civilizational war, with political Islam as one of the main protagonists. They genuinely believe that if Israel is reduced and Zionism is refuted, this will make for a peaceful coexistence with the “Islamic world.” They do not see this as a civilizational crisis, so they would reject this analysis.

They erroneously believe they can more easily live with Islamists as neighbors than Zionists.

25 years after 9/11, we have still not identified the nature of the war, a civilizational struggle for survival. They have not identified THE main enemy in that war, political Islam. Its alliance with progressives in America, by extension, puts progressives in this same camp, the camp of “Existential threat to the American republic and Christians as a whole.”

They fail to see the 9/11 hijackers as merely the military arm of countries like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and especially Qatar. To them, these are extremists, not normal fruits of a colonizing imperialistic religion of violence, a religion of conversion through murder.

A former Al Qaeda head runs Syria now, and both Vance and Trump support him while he murders Christians and plots more assaults against the West. This may be the reason God punishes this administration, frankly, until they repent of being allies with hell’s agents in Doha, although I consider foolish leaders to be themselves a judgement against a land.

This is not about JD Vance’s Catholicism, but only about how he CHOOSES to live out his Catholic faith, which is to make eschatology more essential than salvation itself (at least in my opinion), for how else would he support policies and  beliefs that are clearly designed to give legitimacy to real genocide, the genocide of the Jews, which cannot take place until they remove the Jews’ one state-powered safe haven, Israel the state.

For this reason, I will not support JD Vance either in the 2028 primary or the General Election should he choose to run for President.

A woman who was depressed because she felt she could no longer cook for her family was approved for suicide by Canadian doctors. Fortunately, she was talked out of it, but not by the doctors, who may have wanted to profit from her organs.

Canada’s embrace of euthanasia, which was supposed to be a measure of last resort for the truly terminally and pain-ridden ill, has led it to expand the reasons people can apply for state-assisted suicide, including not being able to cook for your family. Now, even euthanasia supporters are raising the alarm on Canada’s seemingly careless reliance on suicide to cure its social and economic woes.

Canada Approved Euthanasia for Woman Who Could No Longer Cook for Her Family– www.lifenews.com
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EXCERPT:

A Canadian woman in her 70s was approved for euthanasia after she lost the ability to cook for her family, a role she had prized as the matriarch.

Unfortunately, she was almost killed before counseling helped her see that her life was not measured by the meals she served.

Doctors Gary Rodin and Madeline Li of the University of Toronto described the case in a New York Times opinion piece. The woman felt she had lost her value to her family and was approved for medical assistance in dying before she sought counseling.

Through counseling, she came to understand that her family valued who she was, not what she did for them. She decided not to go through with ending her life, at least for now.

That Christmas, her family gathered and she sat proudly at the table while others did the cooking and serving.

Rodin and Li said they are not opposed to legalized assisted dying, but they warned that Canadian law does not require clinicians to guide patients toward other help before people are killed.

Assisted suicide is intended as a “dignified” last resort, typically for people who are terminally ill, they wrote. In recent years, “too many people are receiving the procedure without the opportunity for careful reflection about it with a health provider.”

“In some cases, patients are being approved who should not be,” they added, citing reports of approvals for patients claiming loneliness or poverty.

An Ohio Pastor has seen his conviction for opening his church 24/7 overturned by the Ohio Sixth District Court of Appeals. The defendant, Pastor Chris Avell, faced “fire code charges” and “jail” for keeping his church open 24/7.

His counsel, Ryan Gardner, said of the ruling, “Pastor Chris has the constitutional right to operate his church free from the government imposing draconian fire code regulations. We hope that this latest ruling will put an end to the years-long legal battle that Pastor Chris has endured. We are grateful to all the work of our co-counsels in this case.”

Ohio Appeals Court Tosses Criminal Conviction of Pastor Facing Jail Time for Opening His Church 24/7– www.standingforfreedom.com
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EXCERPT:

An Ohio appeals court has vacated the criminal conviction of a pastor who faced fire code charges and jail after he tried to keep his church open 24 hours a day.

The Ohio Sixth District Court of Appeals ruled for Pastor Chris Avell of Dad’s Place in Bryan, concluding that the trial court did not address his religious liberty defenses before entering the conviction. The appeals court has now sent the case back to the trial court, where Avell’s claims under the U.S. Constitution and the Ohio Constitution are expected to be considered.

Avell’s attorneys argued from the start that Bryan officials violated the church’s First Amendment rights by using fire and zoning regulations to interfere with its religious ministry. Dad’s Place, located in northwest Ohio, operates around the clock, providing assistance and a place of refuge for homeless and other vulnerable members of the community.

“We are grateful that the court vacated the criminal conviction,” said Ryan Gardner, senior counsel for First Liberty Institute.  “Pastor Chris has the constitutional right to operate his church free from the government imposing draconian fire code regulations. We hope that this latest ruling will put an end to the years-long legal battle that Pastor Chris has endured. We are grateful to all the work of our co-counsels in this case.”

The decision is the latest development in a dispute that has stretched for nearly three years and involved both civil and criminal proceedings.

Earlier this year, the Williams County Court of Common Pleas issued a final order dismissing with prejudice a separate lawsuit filed by Bryan officials that had sought to halt religious activities at Dad’s Place over the same alleged fire code violations. A dismissal with prejudice prevents the same claim from being refiled.

Polyamorists Follow Gay Marriage Playbook For Normalization– thefederalist.com
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EXCERPT:

This month’s edition of the ever-liberal Christian Century dumped a cover story imploring all God’s children to “understand polyamory” — a strained propaganda piece penned by a scholar puffing his upcoming book: Poly Theology: In Praise of Unnatural Love. It’s “an invitation to embrace an unnatural, unrepressed Christianity” as if anyone is seeking that. His essay ends with this claim: “[Polyamory] is here to stay, and it is past time for Christians to engage it thoughtfully, humbly, and openly.” He is not a lone voice.

Andrew Amelang leads the Libertarian Party of Texas and is the father of 12 children. He’s also a worship leader for an organization called “Biblical Families.” His official biography at the group’s website proudly boasts he has a wife named Cheryl and two very long-term live-in girlfriends, Ginny and Ann. He calls it “plural marriage,” but of course it’s not. No civilized society that honors women tolerates collecting them. Amelang is a polyamorist, persuading women normative monogamy is not in their best interest.

Polyamory is unfortunately having its day.

Eleven U.S. cities now proudly offer the poly-minded various bundles of legal protections. Seattle’s clownish city council was the latest to do so, giving the movement its first truly landmark development.

Seattle unanimously beknighted group-sex participants with legal protected class status and deemed it a new sexual orientation. You read that right. The proposal was signed into law by Seattle’s mayor on Sept. 18. You have to read the city clerk’s official explainer to grasp just how unhinged and expansive this is. The ordinance:

amend[s] the definition of the sexual orientation protected class to recognize gender identities outside the gender binary, recognize pansexuality and asexuality as orientations, and include consensual relationships with multiple partners as an element of attitudes, preferences, and practices pertaining to sexual orientation.

Psychiatrists who support euthanasia say it’s out of control in Canada– www.lifesitenews.com
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EXCERPT:

The narrative that Canada’s euthanasia regime is carefully regulated, largely restricted to the dying, and that the regularly reported horror stories are merely sensationalist anomalies has received yet another blow. On October 5, psychiatrists Gary Rodin and Madeline Li laid out their fears in a New York Times op-ed titled “We Implemented Canada’s Assisted Dying Law. We’re Concerned.”

Rodin and Li emphasize that they are both supporters of assisted suicide in principle. Both have “counseled patients about the procedure and assessed whether they were eligible,” and one has “administered the drugs to end patients’ lives.” More than that, they wrote, “together, we created an institutional framework that determined how one of Canada’s largest medical centers would respond to requests for assisted death.” Now, they have fears — and their analysis is devastating to the defenses of Canada’s regime.

“But Canada’s system for assisted death is no longer an option of last resort,” they wrote. “Too many people are receiving the procedure without the opportunity for careful reflection about it with a health provider. In some cases, patients are being approved who should not be. Reports have emerged of people seeking assisted death in the context of poverty or loneliness, raising concerns that they may feel they have no other options.” Even for their cancer patients, they state, “there’s a risk of rushing into it and shortening what can be a meaningful period in patients’ lives.”

That is carefully worded, but read it again. People are being rushed into euthanasia. People who should not be approved are being approved. People are seeking lethal injections because they cannot get what they need, because they are poor, because they feel as if they are a burden. That is precisely what those of us who oppose euthanasia said would happen a decade ago, and what we have been reporting on ever since.

Rodin and Li noted that Canada’s regime is now “one of the most permissive in the world, allowing assisted dying for almost any form of subjectively intolerable suffering that has a medical basis, or even for medically unexplained physical symptoms.” This has resulted in a euthanasia rate that amounts to 5% of Canada’s annual deaths. Since 2016, we have seen a silent, sterile bloodbath in this country. Rodin and Li noted that in their view, this is because assisted suicide activists have largely been in the driver’s seat when it comes to policy. Other medical professionals, they stated, share their concerns.

ISLAMIZATION OF THE UK: Essex supermarket has Sex-Segregated Checkout Lines– gellerreport.com
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Sex-segregated lines in an Essex supermarket have sparked public outrage

Men and women were seen queuing separately inside a grocery store in Romford.

The scene irritated English people, who say they are now forced to obey the rules of Muslim migrants in their own country. If they don’t ‘get in line,’ imagine the repercussions.

Sharia UK: Essex supermarket has sex-segregated checkout lines

Bt: Robert Spencer, September 30, 2026:

“The scene irritated English people, who say they are now forced to obey the rules of Islamist migrants in their own country.”

Well, I’ve been warning about this for years, but of course, such warnings were “Islamophobic.” In Muslim countries, non-Muslims are expected to conform their behavior to Islamic mores and beliefs. And in non-Muslim countries, non-Muslims are expected to conform their behavior to Islamic mores and beliefs. Especially when that non-Muslim country is quickly becoming a Muslim country.

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/2104511849144402292?s=20

 

Traditional Catholics Silenced Under Leo XIV’s Call for Unity– www.lifesitenews.com
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Pope Leo XIV speaks of unity, inclusion, and love. But traditional Catholics are being locked out of churches, denied access to relics, and excluded from pilgrimages. This Faith & Reason examines the inconsistency between calls for inclusion and the treatment of the SSPX and faithful attached to the Traditional Latin Mass, including the denial of access to relics during a pilgrimage in Ontario.

The discussion turns to President Trump’s decision to limit certain media organizations’ access to the White House, contrasted with a guest’s account of a Catholic journalist allegedly threatened with exclusion from Vatican events under Pope Francis. The hosts criticize mainstream media and its role in shaping public opinion, arguing that the same outlets demanding transparency are often complicit in suppressing inconvenient truths.

Leo’s references to liberty, equality, fraternity, and love are examined in relation to God and Catholic teaching—not as values independent of faith. The historical and religious implications of the French Revolution are discussed.

The pattern is clear: unity is demanded from traditional Catholics, but not extended to them. The question is whether the faithful will recognize the double standard—or continue to be silenced by calls for “inclusion” that exclude them.

California’s public campuses must offer abortions. None advertise prenatal care.– www.thecollegefix.com
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Every public California university is required by law to provide abortions in their student health centers, but only three provide ultrasounds and none advertise comprehensive prenatal care on campus, a College Fix analysis found.

A number of campuses do offer non-medical resources, such as family study rooms, for pregnant and parenting students. However, the medical services for pregnant students appear limited primarily to abortions.

For the analysis, The College Fix looked at the student health center websites at 33 University of California and California State University campuses. The Fix compared the medical services they provide for pregnant students.

Three campuses, UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis, and Chico State, advertise ultrasounds available for pregnant students. However, none of the 33 campus health centers offer comprehensive prenatal care in-house, according to their websites.

At one campus, Cal State Long Beach, the Student Health Services told The College Fix via email that it “is happy to assist students in connecting with appropriate outside providers” when asked about prenatal care.

Watch: UK police robot targets vans near airbase used by US forces– timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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Footage from Britain shows a bomb-disposal robot moving directly toward one of the suspicious vehicles in Whelford, near RAF Fairford, and carrying out a close inspection of the vehicle. (GIF: @ddfmarketing1)

A bomb-disposal robot was deployed around three suspicious vans near RAF Fairford, a British air base used by US bombers, after Gloucestershire Police arrested five men who were later held on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act.A video shared on X appeared to show the remotely operated machine moving around the vehicles near the Gloucestershire airfield.

Theordore DeBlasio was awarded $670,000 in his lawsuit against New Jersey’s Essex County. He sued the county after he was fired for refusing to get the Covid-19 vaccine. He applied for a religious exemption, but the county refused his appeal. While he was being denied a religious exemption, Muslims in the county were not.

Another Incredible Win Against the Covid Tyrants: New Jersey Jury Delivers Unanimous 8–0 Verdict for Christian Groundskeeper Fired Over a Religious Exemption — Awarded $671,000– www.thegatewaypundit.com
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A New Jersey jury just delivered a message that the Democrat machine in Essex County did not want to hear.

On Friday, an Essex County jury returned a unanimous 8–0 verdict for Theodore “Teddy” DeBlasio, a longtime groundskeeper at Essex County Hospital Center who was fired after the county denied his religious exemption from the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

The panel awarded him more than $670,000 for economic and emotional harm. Attorneys’ fees are still to come. Punitive damages are next.

Attorney John D. Coyle of Coyle Law Group called it New Jersey’s first jury verdict in a COVID-19 religious exemption case.

DeBlasio, raised Catholic and now a Christian, objected to taking a shot tested or developed using aborted fetal cell lines. That is a sincerely held religious belief millions of Americans share. Essex County treated it like a punchline.

According to trial evidence cited by Coyle Law Group, in February 2022 the county denied every religious exemption request submitted by Christian and Catholic employees, and approved every request submitted by Muslim employees.

Muslim group fears ‘France will become Catholic again’– www.lifesitenews.com
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A French Muslim apologetics group that actively opposes a Catholic revival has predicted that France could “become Catholic again” within a few generations, following the Pope’s enthusiastic reception in Paris.

On September 25 the group Miséricorde pour l’Houmanité (“Mercy for Humanity”) published a message on X predicting that “France will become Catholic again” amid what it described as a growing Catholic revival, strengthened by American Catholic influence. The group lamented that such a revival could undermine Islam’s spiritual influence in Western Europe.

Talarico ‘Mentor’ Pastor: Capitalism in ‘Death Throes’ — Democratic Socialism Is ‘the Next Chapter’– townhall.com
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Texas Democrat U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico has called St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin home since he was two years old. It has been led for 35 years by Rev. Jim Rigby, whom Talarico calls a “mentor,” according to The Christian Post.

Undercover video obtained exclusively by Townhall shows Rigby musing about his economic philosophy — a philosophy that has undoubtedly been impressed upon Talarico for virtually the candidate’s entire life.

“I think capitalism is in death throes,” Rigby says in the video. “You’re gonna have to throw everything overboard. It’s like, that’s the next chapter of human rights. It’s like, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness is not capitalism. That every person has a right to medicine, to a livable wage, stuff. That’s not radical.”

Rigby asserts the United States is the only developed nation “that doesn’t have that stuff. And they’re calling that communism.”

“So, to me, just stop looking at the label and what is it that you want?” he continues in the video.

“Gandhi and Martin Luther King were democratic socialists. That’s the next chapter, and it’s not this horrific thing. It’s like, that’s what the rest of the civilized world calls sanity.”

Doc On Trans Youth Abortions Is A Preview Of Newsom Presidency– thefederalist.com
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This is the pure stuff, an undiluted dose of raw California. A “request for information” (RFI) from the California Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) invites private organizations to apply for a role administering the state’s transgender equity programs. The winning bidder will distribute funds from three separate pools of money:

The section of the RFI describing the background of these grant programs explains that federal policy has caused a crisis in “access to gender affirming care, in particular for children and youth.” Children can’t get their genitals mutilated, so the state must act.

Respondents are required to have administrative experience in the field of youth genital mutilation, being required to submit an application that describes “your organization’s experience providing culturally competent services to transgender, gender-diverse, and intersex (TGI) communities, including gender affirming care,” which has to include particular experience with “communities of color” and people who speak limited English.

Every theme comes together: government spending outsourced to non-profit corporations, transgender kids, taxpayer-funded abortions for the gender diverse, public services for people who just showed up and need a translator to get their free government money. If you’re wondering how California is governed, it’s governed like this.

Talarico Invokes Jesus to Justify His Positions and It Goes All Kinds of Wrong – RedState– redstate.com
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We’ve seen a lot of wild statements from Texas Democrat Senate candidate James Talarico.

But Talarico posted a screed on Sunday about how his healthcare positions were based on “biblical grounds,” then misused Jesus to justify his takes.

When Jesus healed the sick, he didn’t ask for a deductible. So when I fight for universal healthcare, I’m doing it on biblical grounds.

When Jesus fed the hungry, he didn’t price gouge to turn a profit. So when I say that no child in the state of Texas should go to bed hungry, I’m doing it on biblical grounds.

And when the Hebrew prophets saw corruption in high places, they spoke truth to power. So when I take on the politicians who are serving themselves and not the people, I’m doing it on biblical grounds.

By Paul Gordon Collier, Editor

“Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.” – 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12

Before I update you on our Hope Estates Project, I thought I’d recap the project for those who might not have followed it (especially for some of our newer readers).

As our regular readers well know, we preach the message of self-sustainable flourishing. We believe self-sustainable flourishing is not possible without a community of self-stewarded people. To that end, we sought a property that can be used both to house an extended family (5-10 people) and serve the public. Having both public and private space was essential.

We believe that extended family that serves together stays together, so we seek to create space that enables an extended family to serve the public while also serving themselves.

We knew we wanted to serve a rural community, and we wanted that community to be in Pennsylvania, preferably in the Endless Mountain region (North-central PA). Beyond that, we had no idea what we would eventually choose. We knew it would be the building that would choose us, regardless of what town it was in.

It would turn out that Canton had what we felt was the best opportunity. When we made our bid, another buyer offered the seller more money than we were offering. We were given the chance to increase our bid, but I chose not to, believing that the price I offered was the most we could afford (knowing this was a project, not a completed, ready-to-use building).

At the time, we estimated the cost to transform a church to a castle (private and public space blending) would be about $100,000, so we knew we couldn’t afford to pay a high price, even if the church was worth the higher price (and it was, and still is).

Fortunately for us, the deal with the other buyer fell through, which enabled us to buy the property at the low price we did (which would prove to be crucial in light of the deep freeze disaster we had yet to face).

The price to convert the church to a castle might be twice as much now as we thought it would be, but it is still within our capacity (at least as long as our economic situation continues as it has, especially these past few months).

Our plans were first interrupted by two major illnesses, one involving my wife and one involving me (fortunately not at the same time). While I still have health issues, they are nowhere near as debilitating as they were last year. My wife has fully recovered from her illness.

Then an unexpected deep freeze hit Canton just two weeks from us having our heating system prepared for the winter (water lines bled, etc.). At first it seemed like minor damage had happened, but then it became apparent it wasn’t minor at all.

During this time, our mother has had health complications that made it apparent we need to soon assure she does not live alone anymore. She has a property she was hoping to convert to community space long before we began our Hope Exit project. We all decided to combine her property with our efforts (out of necessity). This means we will be serving an urban community in Harrisburg and a rural community in Canton.

This takes us up to the present. Here is the update for this past month:

Our Hope Estates project achieved a major milestone; we have completed the renovations in our Harrisburg estate that creates an apartment for brother Bill. This week, he will be using the apartment to travel to D.C. in search of clients to help fund our project.

When we were carrying a couch from the first floor to the third floor, through tight spaces and in high heat, I had an incident with my adrenal pots that rendered me unable to complete the task. The next day, my brother Bill returned with our friend Anthony to complete the task. Our Mother, Kymm, finished up the work on the apartment afterwards.

As our readers know, our castle in Canton suffered a major setback during an unexpected early sub-zero deep freeze (which I referred to earlier). We now know the consequence of that disaster, which is the complete destruction of our natural-gas-powered steam heating system.

We have received one estimate to install heating/cooling splitters, but that system would require numerous holes to be drilled into our 1-foot-thick stone walls. We do not favor the cosmetics of that choice. Not only would it require holes to be drilled into our walls, but it would also require 6 or more external heating/cooling units to be placed outside the castle.

For now, we are opting to use industrial-strength heaters to get us through the winter without any further damage. This temporary solution will cost us less than $2k, though we are prepared for high heating bills. By next winter, we hope to have decided on and installed the new system(s).

We have not yet decided on a final heating/cooling system, but we are prepared to pay up to $100K to install a heating/cooling system. We’re just not sure which system we will choose.

The first week of October we have something special planned for the Castle, a walk-through church service by our friend Joe, who is a traditional Anglican priest. We will have an update on how that went in our October monthly review.

We have decided our next major investment is going to be for our roof, which is a slate roof. We hope to preserve the roof, not replace it; this is not because of cost, but cosmetic preference. We hope to preserve the original external look of the castle as much as possible.

We believe the roof needs some repairs, a good cleaning, and new gutter systems. We also hope to fix our weathervane spire, which is slightly bent.

After the roof, our next step is to install at least one shower and a laundry hook-up. This will enable myself and my wife to begin living in the Castle one full week a month (to start).

One of the biggest challenges we have in the Canton project is finding quality people available to do the work. For instance, we want to have the old heating system removed but the person we were hoping to do it hasn’t been able to get to it yet.

We knew going in this would be an issue, and it certainly has been.

We had an issue with our property taxes on the Canton property. Apparently, one government agency did not have it on record that we were the new owners, so they sent our bill to the previous owner. Fortunately, the issue was discovered before the bill was due, so we were still able to pay it on time.

We were hoping to be living in the Castle, at least part-time, by this fall, but that seems unlikely right now (barring some unforeseen major windfall). We are hoping to get roof repair work done before the winter, but even that might prove to be difficult. Winter comes earlier in Canton than it does where I currently live, Bethlehem, which is about 3 hours southeast of Canton.

We still have hope we will find someone able to do the work before the winter.

My wife has attained her Notary Public license. She is pursuing a more advanced license that will enable her to close mortgages and similar transactions. She hopes to have an office in Bethlehem and Canton. Eventually, we hope to add Harrisburg to her locations. She chose to develop this skill both to bring in some extra cash and also to provide a free service for people in need.

We have been fortunate this past month economically, enabling us to pay down more debt and plan for our next major investment (the roof repair).

We ask our praying readers to pray for us, both for resources that could accelerate our castle transformation and for endurance in facing the hard physical work needed to bring this project to fruition.

As of right now, we estimate it will be two years minimum before the church becomes a castle, and five years before the Harrisburg property is converted to a castle. We hope and pray for miracles to accelerate that timeline, but are prepared to diligently work within that timeline, if this is the Lord’s will.

Our subscribers have helped fund our Hope Estates Project, as we have used these funds primarily for that purpose. Our salaries mostly rely on our marketing clients (which we hope to expand to help fund this project).

Next month, we hope to give you an update on our church service walkthrough along with anything important that happens in October. God willing, we will have more good news to share as well.

Infuriating New Count Shows How Many Medals Trans Athletes Have Stolen From Women – RedState– redstate.com
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Democrats and the left have picked transgender issues as one of the hills they are willing to die on, and for those who have daughters or who participate in women’s sports themselves, it may very well have some effect on the midterm election. It seems as if biological men playing in girls’ and women’s sports is a relatively new idea. Think again. Leftists have glommed onto something that has quite a history.

On Tuesday, the conservative group Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee (CWALAC) released a compilation of numbers that claim 2,293 transgender athletes have won medals in female sports in the U.S. The group gathered data from a website called “HeCheated.” The site tracks transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports in both amateur and professional sports categories. The records go back to the mid-80s; however, the exact count has not been verified. But more on just how far back this has been going on in a bit.

Not only is there a physical and mental cost to girls and women being cheated by biological males, but there is also a monetary cost. Transgender athletes have competed in over 14,301 sporting events and won more than $501,498 in professional prize money. One of the prime offenders, the state of California, had roughly 611 cases where a female finished second behind a biological male. CWALAC says that number is up from 2025. CWA president Penny Nance had this to say about the data:

“It is shockingly unfair for biological women to have to compete against trans-identifying men. Our research finding that trans-identifying males have stolen over 2,293 gold medals from women in the United States is an outrage. Biological men have distinct advantages over biological women. This reality not only puts women in harm’s way, but it eliminates opportunities for biological women to earn a living and win competitions. Congress must act to protect biological women.”

Canada Euthanized This Woman for Depression, She Wasn’t Even Terminally Ill– www.lifenews.com
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Two sisters have said they were only given 48 hours’ notice that their mother would have her life ended by euthanasia, although they say she was not terminally ill.

According to the Daily Mail, Donna Duncan told her daughters in October 2021 that she had been found eligible to have her life ended through Canada’s assisted suicide and euthanasia regime, known as Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), and was scheduled to have her life ended by euthanasia two days later.

Donna had reportedly qualified for assisted death on the grounds that her death was “reasonably foreseeable”.

However, her daughters, Alicia and Christie, have said that their mother was not terminally ill, but rather was experiencing a serious mental health crisis that had been triggered by a road traffic collision and made worse by the isolation she experienced during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Virginia Abortions Up to Birth Amendment Would Also Eliminate Parental Rights– www.lifenews.com
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Imagine you are the parent of a 13-year-old daughter in the Commonwealth of Virginia. You love and care for your child and you and your spouse work two jobs to provide for your family. Life is busy, with work, school, sports, and other recreation. You are an involved and caring parent, but family time is curtailed and, after all, no family is perfect. Occasionally something goes awry and you face a challenge you didn’t expect — this time it’s the fact that your daughter was pregnant. Was. You only know this because you have taken her to the emergency room hemorrhaging a week after her boyfriend persuaded her to take abortion pills — sent to his doorstep with the full-throated approval of Governor Abigail Spanberger (D) and the Virginia legislature.

Sound far-fetched? We are almost in this condition now. Under current law in the Commonwealth of Virginia, passed by successive Democratic legislatures, abortion is legal in the state until birth. As bad as that law is — and data from the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute tells us that Virginia had the largest increase in total abortions of any state in 2025 — a new constitutional amendment on the ballot this November, on which voting has already begun, would make matters dramatically worse.

California Tries to Force Women to Complete Abortions– www.lifenews.com
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September 17 marked the final arguments in a California courtroom over the practice of offering abortion pill reversal (APR) to women seeking to save the lives of their unborn children from the feticidal drug mifepristone. We have become used to reading sentences like this, in which so-called champions of choice like the administration of Governor Gavin Newsom (D) and Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) go the last mile to complete abortions women are desperate to avert. The policy is all the uglier because it would fine groups like Heartbeat International and Real Options millions of dollars for attempts to aid such women.

Attorneys for the Thomas More Society, who have fought the battle for life in these cases for three years now, summarized their arguments in their closing trial brief to the California court, saying:

“Abortion Pill Reversal is an accurate, truthful, and non-misleading way to describe the interventions at issue in this case. APR works through competitive inhibition, taking advantage of the fact that mifepristone binds reversibly to the progesterone receptors. It works to undo the effect of the abortion pill, which is a commonplace understanding of the word reverse. The FDA pharmacology review described the effects of supplemental progesterone as antagonizing mifepristone’s abortifacient activity, allowing normal pregnancy and delivery, and ‘reverse’ is ordinary language shorthand for that counteraction.”

Tragic teen rape victim’s euthanasia divides nation after docs said girl’s wish to die shouldn’t have been granted– www.thesun.co.uk
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SAT in her childhood bedroom, 17-year-old Milou Verhoof was getting ready for the last time.

Her nails were painted and her evening gown and high heels had been chosen – not for a teenage night out, but for the coffin in which she would be buried.

Milou Verhoof died aged 17 after she requested to be euthanised
Her psychiatrist, Menno Oosterhoff, was the one who assisted her wish to die Credit: Facebook/Menno Oosterhoff Dwangstoornis

Her parents sat beside her among the familiar clutter of her youth.

And watching over them was psychiatrist Menno Oosterhoff, his ice-blue eyes fixed on a girl whose young body was healthy, but whose mind had become somewhere she could no longer bear to live.