04a Faith

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YouTuber Jesse Ridgway and his wife, Ashley, announced that they had aborted their unborn son after a Down syndrome diagnosis. In doing so, they exposed how comfortable our secular culture has become with sorting God’s image-bearers into “fit” and “unfit” categories.


For more than a decade, YouTuber Jesse Ridgway, better known as @McJuggerNuggets, has earned his living by displaying his life to an audience. So, when he and his wife, Ashley, learned that the son she was carrying had tested positive for Trisomy 21, better known as Down syndrome, the couple did what their careers had trained them to do.

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OMDURMAN, Sudan — Four years of violent warfare between factions of the Sudanese military have spawned the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Estimates range between 12 million and 14 million people who have been forcibly displaced. Even more, approximately 20 million people face severe hunger. That’s more than a third of the entire population. And anywhere between 60,000 and 400,000 lives have been claimed since the fighting began in 2023.

The overwhelming majority of the suffering has fallen on civilians, bystanders of the power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The latter is the successor to the notorious Janjaweed Arab militia responsible for the genocide in Darfur in the early 2000s.

While women and children are the most vulnerable victims — often preyed upon for violent sexual attacks or recruited as child soldiers — Christians also are among the communities hardest hit in Sudan.

“Christians in the midst of this volatility are often last in line,” explained Ryan Brown, CEO of Open Doors US, a nonprofit that highlights Christian persecution worldwide. “If there is any type of aid to be made available, very rarely would that be provided to Christians. If there is any type of safe havens that are being granted from all the violence, Christians are often not welcome in.”

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“The city of Saint Paul has officially determined the January 18 invasion of our church and the desecration of our worship to be a ‘peaceful protest.'”

The lead pastor of Cities Church in St Paul, Minnesota, has criticized the city’s mayor after agitators who stormed the church in January, including former CNN reporter Don Lemon, have avoided state charges related to the incident.

In a statement on Wednesday, city attorney Irene Kao said, “Our office has a legal and ethical obligation to file charges only when the available evidence establishes probable cause and supports a reasonable likelihood of conviction beyond a reasonable doubt.”

She said that following a “careful evaluation of the video footage, investigative reports, and other available materials, prosecutors determined that the current evidence is insufficient to meet that standard for criminal charges under Minnesota state statutes.” She added, “The right to peacefully protest is protected, as is the right to exercise one’s religious beliefs. Balancing these equally important rights is paramount to our decision today.”

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This takes us to an eye-opening new Gallup poll that was released on June 3:

Approval of same-sex marriage, moral acceptance of gay and lesbian relations, and endorsement of gender changes are all down from peaks reached in the early 2020s.

While most Americans still favor legal same-sex marriages, the 65% who do so today is down six percentage points from the peak in 2022 and 2023. Similarly, the percentage viewing gay or lesbian relations as morally acceptable, 62%, has not been lower since 2016. And the share of Americans who consider changing one’s gender morally acceptable has declined eight points over the past five years, to 38%.

On three key LGBTQ issues — same-sex marriage, the morality of homosexuality, and gender identity — Gallup’s polling data told the same exact story: Popularity for all three skyrocketed between the 2010s and the early 2020s. The future, it seemed, was pro-trans and pro-LGBTQ.

But over the past few years, the pendulum swung HARD in the opposite direction:

Between 1996 and 2022, the percentage of U.S. adults in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage increased by 44 points, from 27% to 71%. In 2024, the figure dipped to 69%, and it has shown a marginal decline each year since.

Gallup first asked about the morality of same-sex relations in 2001, when 40% said they were morally acceptable. By 2022, 71% held that view, before a sharp drop to 64% in 2023, holding at about that level during the past three years.

When Gallup first asked about changing one’s gender in 2021, 46% found it morally acceptable, and 51% found it morally wrong. Today, those numbers stand at 38% and 57%, respectively.

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Pope Leo XIV has named Maria Montserrat “Montse” Alvarado, who currently serves as the President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of EWTN News, as the next Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication.

In its June 2 daily bulletin, the Vatican announced that Alvarado’s appointment will take effect on November 1. The president of the conservative Catholic media outlet will notably be the first laywoman to lead a Roman curia office and will continue the trajectory of Pope Leo and his predecessor, Pope Francis, of naming women and laypeople to key positions in the Vatican.

“While this appointment was unexpected, I receive it with a sincere desire to serve the Holy Father as he begins his pontificate,” Alvarado said in a statement after the appointment.

 

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Beaver Scouts in Scotland took a trip to the Central Scotland Islamic Centre for reasons that will never advance the West. Nonetheless, on that trip, the scouts, boys aged 6-8, bowed to Allah. This should be controversial because there is absolutely zero reason as to why these kids are being religiously indoctrinated. Nonetheless, one boy refused to participate in the Muslim prayer, and that puts him on the right side of history.

According to 5Pillars, “the largest English language Muslim news site in Europe, Australia and the Americas,” the clip “was taken during a Beavers Scouts educational visit to various houses of worship, including a mosque, as part of the ‘Faith Activity Badge.’ The visit took place at Stirling Islamic Centre in Scotland a few days ago.”

In other words, according to local media, this is not indoctrination; it is education. And to call that a bunch of gobbledygook would be an understatement. And LOL to the fact that they just had to throw in the “Islamophobia” slander. In case it was not clear, no one buys that crap anymore.

In order to achieve this badge, Scouts can visit a place of worship and tell other Scouts about what they learned. This can include visiting a mosque to learn about Islam. That explains why they did what they did, but the fact that this is encouraged is proof that Europe has fallen.

In the pursuit of being so incredibly tolerant and inclusive, the left has favored whatever this is; the fact that this is not controversial for many people is a scandal in itself.

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In late March around 15 religious thinkers met with the artificial intelligence company Anthropic to discuss one of the strangest and most consequential questions now facing the AI industry: How do you teach a chatbot to be good?

The invitations to these meetings had arrived in different ways. Greg Cootsona’s came via e-mail. Brian Patrick Green’s came via a friend of a friend after Anthropic asked for suggested names. Both ended up in a series of conversations with the company about Claude, Anthropic’s chatbot, and the moral framework meant to guide how it behaves.

The aim wasn’t to make the chatbot Bible-thumping or pious. But it was an acknowledgment that centuries-old traditions of moral reasoning might offer insights to a five-year-old frontier AI lab whose systems are becoming more capable, more persuasive and harder to govern by simple rules.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – A new U.S. Department of Education (DOE) rule aimed at curbing “useless” degree programs that leave students high in debt but short on career prospects could have unintended consequences for religious education, several leaders of Christian colleges are warning.

Tucked within President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging One Big Beautiful Bill Act (BBB) last year was a so-called “do no harm” standard for federal student loan eligibility, which would require eligible degree programs to yield higher earnings for graduates than those without the degree. Last October, American University estimated that only about 1.8% of overall students were in programs likely to be negatively impacted by the change.

On April 20, DOE published regulations implementing the new rule by “replacing the former debt-to-earnings (‘D/E’) metric with a revised earnings premium measure, expanding transparency, and strengthening institutional compliance standards.” A “revised version of the earnings premium measure would apply to both GE [gainful employment] and non-GE programs; those failing the earnings premium measure in two of three consecutive years would lose Direct Loan eligibility, though limited extensions may be granted when an orderly program closure […] is in students’ best interest.”

 

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During a recent appearance on the Jennifer Welch podcast, Tom Steyer, a billionaire Democrat running for governor of California, said that he is ‘totally’ in favor of trans athletes in high school.

I have been saying that Democrats learned absolutely nothing from the 2024 election, and this is further proof. They have every intention of returning to the same issues they supported before losing power.

Not only does the public not support the idea of trans athletes in high school sports, but the very idea of ‘trans kids’ has been soundly rejected.

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Northern Nigeria is facing an ascendant ISIS insurgency, drawing Washington into the fray.

Since the jihadist insurgency in northern Nigeria began 13 years ago, the conflict has drastically changed in scope, amid concerted counterterrorism efforts from the Nigerian government, countless jihadist ideological splits, and international interventions. The 2020s began with ISIS and other terrorist groups on the back foot, but a change in tactics and fortunes has sent them back on the offensive in the last couple of years, turning the country into one of the foremost fronts in the Global War on Terror.

Alexander Palmer, a fellow in the Warfare, Irregular Threats, and Terrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the Washington Examiner that ISIS in Nigeria is “on the march, they are increasingly active, and they’re increasingly threatening military targets,” with a large-scale military campaign ISIS calls “Camp Holocaust.”

The Nigerian government rescued 92 Nigerian Christians, including seven children, from jihadists who appeared to be attempting to enslave them.

Nigeria’s military spokesperson Sani Uba said, “Converging on the terrorists in a well-coordinated pursuit toward the Mangari-Dora general area, Operation HADIN KAI troops engaged the insurgents and forced them to abandon their captives and flee in confusion.”

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Pope Leo XIV called Monday for robust regulation of artificial intelligence and for its developers to work for the common good rather than profit, issuing a sweeping manifesto on safeguarding humankind as the technology impacts everything from work to war.

“Magnifica Humanitas” (Magnificent Humanity), Leo’s first encyclical, has been eagerly awaited ever since history’s first U.S.-born pope announced days after his election that he considered AI to be the biggest challenge facing humanity today.

In the text, Leo denounced the “culture of power” driving the AI race, especially in developing ever more sophisticated methods of remote warfare. He declared that it was “not permissible” to entrust irreversible, lethal decisions to AI systems, setting up another flash point between the American pope and the Trump administration, which has worked aggressively to deregulate AI development.

“Artificial Intelligence now demands to be disarmed, freed from logics that turn it into an instrument of domination, exclusion and death,″ the pope told a special Vatican presentation of the encyclical, one of the most authoritative types of teaching documents a pope can issue.

Experts in the tech industry, academia and Catholic morality said the document will likely become a benchmark in the debate over AI, a point of reference for policymakers, researchers and ordinary folk alike. It comes as the near-daily developments in the technology trigger concerns over AI replacing human jobs and even human intelligence.

Taylor Black, a Microsoft AI executive and director of Catholic University of America’s AI institute, said the document would prompt people “at the forefront of these tools” to ask questions such as “What does it mean to be human?”

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Planned Parenthood is putting women’s lives and health at risk once again.

The abortion business has launched a program that sells abortion pills to women who are not even pregnant, allowing them to stockpile the drugs for possible future use in ending the lives of their unborn babies.

The initiative, called “Just In Case Abortion Pills,” comes from Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawai’i, Alaska, Indiana and Kentucky.

It makes the two-drug regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol available in advance to residents of Washington state and Hawaii. Women can obtain the dangerous abortion pills in person at one of the affiliate’s 16 health centers or, in some cases, by mail.

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It takes a place as progressively backwards as Colorado to decide school children are safer around accused child molesters than other children who espouse the wrong beliefs.

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You’ll notice an important missing detail from this article.

Names. Despite a lengthy press conference, law enforcement did not identify the two dead suspects in the San Diego Islamic Center shooting.

In fact…the officials remained pretty vague concerning details about the suspects.

Law enforcement discovered a manifesto and over 30 guns while executing three search warrants:

Law enforcement officials also served search warrants on the suspects’ electronic devices during the investigation. Investigators said they recovered a manifesto, as well as writings outlining religious and racial beliefs “of how the world they envision should look,” according to FBI Special Agent in Charge Mark Remily.

“These subjects did not discriminate in who they hated, and let me be very clear to anyone who thinks they can end the world through violence: They’re sorely mistaken,” Remily said. “The FBI, our law enforcement partners and our community are much stronger than you think.”

Mark Remily of the FBI said during a news conference that authorities have uncovered writings by the suspects. Authorities declined to specify what ideologies or views were expressed by the shooters, only that they met online and shared a “broad hatred” toward different religions and races.

There was no specific threat against the Islamic center, which is the largest mosque in San Diego, but authorities found that the suspects engaged in “generalized hate rhetoric,” [San Diego Police Department Chief Scott] Wahl said.

Got it? This part:

Authorities declined to specify what ideologies or views were expressed by the shooters, only that they met online and shared a “broad hatred” toward different religions and races.

There was no specific threat against the Islamic center, which is the largest mosque in San Diego, but authorities found that the suspects engaged in “generalized hate rhetoric.”

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San Diego mosque shooter Caleb Vazquez was obsessed with a “based racist” Dutch cartoon character, according to his online pals and his purported manifesto.

Vazquez, 18, and his co-killer Cain Clark, 17, met through twisted internet circles encouraging Nazi and incel rhetoric — and acted on their hateful fantasies during the Monday bloodbath at the Islamic Center of San Diego.

Aside from the neo-Nazi symbols found at the grim scene, Vazquez had an unsuspecting hate-filled icon — a schoolgirl character named Mymy Schoppenboer from discontinued Dutch series called “Ongezellig.”

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A new free speech law named after slain Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk is “dehumanizing,” according to the Secular Student Alliance.

The bill, which will go into effect on July 1, seeks to protect free speech on campus and punish unruly disruptions of speakers. Republican Governor Bill Lee signed the law on May 5.

“What this law actually does is protect invited speakers – no matter how extreme or dehumanizing their views – while making it riskier for students to push back,” the Secular Student Alliance stated in a news release sent to The College Fix prior to the signing of the bill.

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Pope Leo XIV has delivered a stark warning on artificial intelligence, claiming that the technology is aiding the “normalization of war” and transferring powers of life and death to unaccountable “technological actors.”

The American-born pontiff presented his warning on Monday in an encyclical titled ‘Magnifica Humanitas’ (Magnificent Humanity). In the 42,000-word document, Leo highlighted how the “growth of the military-industrial complex has become a defining feature of the current political landscape,” leading to “a troubling revival of war as an instrument of international politics.”

In this environment, “the development and use of AI in warfare must be subject to the most rigorous ethical constraints, to guarantee respect for human dignity and the sanctity of life and to avoid a race to develop such arms,” he continued.

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As a successor of the apostles, I have a solemn duty not only to preach the Gospel, but also to help the faithful discern the spirits of the age in the light of the unchanging truth entrusted to the Church by Our Lord Jesus Christ.

St. Paul exhorted Timothy to “preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine” (2 Tim. 4:2). That duty belongs to every bishop charged with guarding the deposit of faith.

Therefore, I feel it is important to address concerns regarding the recently released encyclical letter, Magnifica Humanitas, of the Holy Father Leo XIV. Some have found parts of it insightful and compelling. Others have experienced a deep uneasiness while reading it – a concern that, beneath many true statements, the document reflects a broader theological shift that risks placing man at the center in a way that obscures the primacy of God.

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Florida just became the first state to seriously challenge the surrogacy industry after a gay couple living in France contracted with a woman in Florida to be their surrogate.

The couple petitioned the Broward County court for early parental rights.

While Judge Marlon Weiss granted their petition, he questioned whether surrogacy is constitutional, claiming it violates the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery.

“Judge Marlon Weiss argued that if unborn children

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Police are also looking into the preacher’s “funding sources”. (Representational)

A Christian preacher was arrested on charges of carrying out conversion activities here in a village, police said.

Police said he was allegedly “luring people” by promising that people who convert get a government job and are “married off to a beautiful girl”. The alleged conversion activity was carried out in Jograjpur village, they said.

Police added that the action was initiated based on a written complaint by a local RSS worker, Gaurav Gupta.

The Indiana Supreme Court rejected a Planned Parenthood petition that would have applied a Court of Appeals ruling blocking an abortion ban from taking place. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said the court “ruled in favor of office and delivered a decisive WIN for the people of Indiana and the unborn!”

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Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito had some choice words for their Supreme Court colleagues on Thursday over their “remarkable” decision “undermin[ing]” the court’s historic Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

The stinging rebukes came in an order the high court handed down to temporarily pause an appellate court ruling that halted a Biden-era FDA rule allowing the mailing of mifepristone to women without an in-person doctor visit. In agreeing to halt the policy, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals found that the FDA’s “progressive relaxation of mifepristone’s guardrails likely lacked a basis in data and scientific literature,” and noted how the “FDA itself now concedes the regulations were marred by ‘procedural deficits’ and a ‘lack of adequate consideration.’”

While seven justices agreed to temporarily pause the 5th Circuit’s order while litigation in the case continues, Thomas and Alito authored brutal dissents underscoring the illogical nature of their colleagues’ decision.

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Pastor Mark Burns, a longtime spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump, wants to make something very clear: The massive golden statue of the president unveiled last week at Trump’s golf resort in Doral, Florida, is not a golden calf.

“It is not even a gold statue,” Burns explained when reached by phone. “It’s a bronze statue that has gold leaf.”

Don’t tell Trump that. “The Real Deal – GOLD – At Doral in Miami,” Trump boasted of the statue in a post on Truth Social. But Burns is right. Don Colossus, capturing a slimmed-down version of Trump raising his fist in the air, was cast in bronze and then painted—a cheaper option than crafting the entire sculpture from gold.