04a Faith
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Vermont recently amended a 2023 law that had banned pregnancy resource centers from advertising their services and permitting nonmedical staff to provide women information or counseling about pregnancy.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a Christian legal nonprofit that represented pregnancy centers suing over the law, stated in a May 29 news release that Vermont will “no longer openly discriminate against the centers over their life-affirming service to their communities.”
Approved by Republican Gov. Phil Scott, the law previously did not allow pregnancy resource centers to advertise their services to pregnant women because they do not refer or commit abortions, according to another ADF release. The law had also stated that even non-medical pregnancy-related information, services, or counseling must be performed or provided by licensed health care professionals.
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President Trump put California Governor Gavin “Newscum” on notice that he is imposing fines on the state of California in response to a male high school student winning two state titles in female track and field competitions.
President Trump signed a landmark executive order in February to ensure that biological men could not compete in women’s sports. But California and other blue states have decided to defy Trump’s order and continue to allow men to compete against women.
“As Governor Gavin Newscum fully understands, large scale fines will be imposed!!!” the President said on Truth Social shortly after midnight on Tuesday.
This follows a warning from the President last week that the state is breaking the law and that “large scale Federal Funding will be held back, maybe permanently, if the Executive Order on this subject matter is not adhered to.”
“This is a totally ridiculous situation!!!” he added, noting that Governor Newsom has admitted that it’s unfair to allow boys in girls’ sports but allowed it to happen anyway.
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A Democratic mayor in Georgia was arrested on child molestation charges, and his wife was also charged with cruelty to children.
Joseph Kelly, 38, mayor of the City of Climax and an employee of the Decatur County School District, was charged with two counts of child molestation. His wife, Natalie Kelly, 44, faces two counts of cruelty to children in the second degree.
According to the school district’s website, he is a math teacher at Bainbridge High School. It’s unclear whether he is still employed there.
The alleged acts involve multiple children.
Both were taken into custody on Saturday.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a statement:
On Saturday, May 31, 2025, the Decatur County Sheriff’s Office requested the assistance of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to investigate allegations that Joseph Kelly had sexual contact with multiple minors.
Both Joseph and Natalie Kelly were arrested later that same day by GBI agents and Decatur County Sheriff’s Office investigators. They were booked into the Decatur County Jail.
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A new poll is showing that support for same-sex marriage has dropped to a 10-year low among Republicans but spiked to a record high among Democrats.
According to Gallup, 68% of Americans overall support same-sex marriage, barely down from 69% last year. However, that “steady” level of support—approval for same-sex marriage has hovered between 67% and 71% over the past five years and has not fallen below 50% since 2011—belies a stark and rapidly growing political division.
Gallup reports that support for same-sex marriage among Republicans has fallen to 41%, down from an all-time high of 55% in 2021 and 2022 and the lowest point since May of 2016, when support stood at 40%.
Among Democrats, however, support for same-sex marriage has peaked at 88%, the highest point recorded by Gallup among any faction. That’s up from 83% last year. Support for same-sex marriage has not fallen below 70% among Democrats since 2013, when it stood at 69%.
Independent voters generally track more closely with Democrats on the issue but are still lagging 12 points behind at 76%, up from 74% last year but down from an all-time high of 77% in 2023. Support for same-sex marriage has not fallen below 50% among independents since 2010, when it stood at 49%.
Despite statistics on support for same-sex marriage, fewer Americans of all political stripes consider same-sex relationships morally acceptable. According to Gallup, only 38% of Republicans consider same-sex relationships morally acceptable, compared to 69% of independent voters and 86% among Democrats.
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It is de rigueur today in certain circles to state as a matter of proven fact that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza. This is a lie. I’ll explain why below, but first I want to explain just how pernicious and awful that lie actually is.
Genocide is the worst crime any nation or group of people can ever commit. The Oxford Languages Dictionary defines genocide as “the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.” In 2025, there is no more heinous crime than engaging in genocide. It is the very worst thing in the modern world, and moral people everywhere know that virtually any means of violence are justified in stopping actual, genuine genocide.
Which explains the illegal alien Egyptian who firebombed Holocaust survivors in Boulder, and the pro-Hamas activist who tried to burn down a Jewish governor’s official residence, and another pro-Hamas activist who gunned down two Israeli embassy workers at the Capital Jewish Museum. They thought they were fighting to end genocide. You see, to the men who perpetrated these crimes, they were entirely justified in what they did because their actions were moral, just, and necessary to end a “genocide.” There is a certain level of seemingly rational and moral thought there.
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One of the most fascinating aspects of the 2024 election was seeing how heavily men of all races swung to Trump and Republicans. It’s such a serious issue for Democrats that they’re planning to spend upwards of $20 million to ‘study’ men and find out where they went wrong.
Poll analyst Nate Silver apparently got into this topic in a recent post on his Substack. It’s behind a paywall, but here are a few interesting points. The divide is due in part to mental health issues. The right is winning that battle.
Nate Silver’s latest blog post notes that conservatives are up 31 points among those with self-described excellent mental health, and down 26 among those with poor mental health.
Democrats have turned themselves into the party of the neurotic, the unstable, and the miserable.… pic.twitter.com/n4evL19F33
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) June 2, 2025
Nate Silver on Dem neuroticism pic.twitter.com/OLNDySQeUO
— Sulla (@gaulicsmith) June 2, 2025
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Missouri voters may soon revisit the state’s abortion laws, following a new proposal from Republican lawmakers aiming to reverse a 2024 amendment that established a right to abortion in the state constitution.
Pro-abortion Amendment 3, narrowly approved by Missouri voters in the 2024 election, followed the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade and returned abortion regulation to the states.
On May 14, Missouri lawmakers approved a new ballot measure that seeks to offer a different legal framework, Politico reported. It would only allow abortion in limited cases — such as rape, incest, and medical emergencies — while also requiring parental consent for minors. It would also prohibit “gender transition” procedures for children. Although these surgeries are already banned in Missouri, the measure would enshrine those protections in state law.
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‘Being Catholic in public is not an offense on Columbia’s campus,’ free speech expert says
Following complaints, Columbia University’s Office of Institutional Equity recently confronted graduate student Daniel Di Martino for comments he made on social media expressing his Catholic beliefs and criticizing transgenderism.
Di Martino told The Fix the matter is now closed — but only after he went public. The doctoral student said the university closed the investigation after he published a story in City Journal detailing what happened.
The incident began when Di Martino “received an email from the OIE accusing [him] of ‘conduct that could constitute discriminatory harassment’” earlier this year, he wrote in his City Journal piece.
“The message included no details, and when [he] asked for clarification, OIE didn’t provide any,” Di Martino wrote. Then, three university officials called Di Martino in for a meeting to tell him he had been the subject of “multiple complaints.”
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Excerpt:The Supreme Court let stand a lower court decision that allowed a public school in Massachusetts to prevent a 7th grader identified in court documents as “L.M.” from wearing a T-shirt that read, “There are Only Two Genders.”
The student was given the option of removing the shirt or going home. When he returned, he was wearing a shirt that read, “There Are CENSORED Genders.” Rather than miss more school, the student took off the shirt.
The parents sued on First Amendment grounds but were denied relief by an appeals court.
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas wrote a scorching dissent based on the First Amendment rights enjoyed by students. That right was codified in a 1969 decision, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, where the Supreme Court allowed students to wear a black armband to protest the Vietnam War.
Justice Abe Fortas famously wrote that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” The exception Fortas cited was “disruptive speech.”
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“ICE is removing illegal aliens from ALL states, communities, and worksites across this country… If you are here illegally, use the CBP Home app to self-deport. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.”
On Tuesday morning, federal immigration authorities, led by ICE and supported by the FBI, DEA, ATF, and Coast Guard, swept through Nantucket, Massachusetts, detaining and deporting at least 12 individuals illegally residing in the country.
This operation was part of a larger federal sweep that also included Martha’s Vineyard and Hyannis, resulting in 40 total arrests. According to ICE, among those apprehended were a known MS-13 gang member and at least one convicted child sex offender. Federal agents also conducted vehicle stops on roads across mid-island, including Old South Road, Surfside Road, and Miacomet Road.
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“Public officials must protect the inalienable rights of all citizens, regardless of their faith or religious beliefs.”
On Tuesday, Paula White-Cain, head of the White House Faith Office, issued a strong statement condemning the violent disruption by Antifa of a Christian concert in a Seattle park on Saturday.
“The White House Faith Office condemns the violent disruption of Seattle’s MayDay USA worship event,” White-Cain said. “We affirm the fundamental rights to free speech and religious freedom for all Americans, as protected by federal law. Public officials must protect the inalienable rights of all citizens, regardless of their faith or religious beliefs.”
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Pope Leo XIV this week appointed Monsignor Renzo Pegoraro — longtime chancellor of the Pontifical Academy for Life involved in a controversy over his 2022 comment suggesting contraception could be permissible in certain cases — as the academy’s new president.
Msgr. Pegoraro succeeds Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, who became president in 2016. Msgr. Pegoraro studied in Padua and Rome, where he obtained a licentiate in moral theology and a diploma in advanced bioethics, according to the Academy for Life website. He was president of the European Association of Centers of Medical Ethics from 2010 to 2013, and he has served as a bioethics lecturer at the Theological Faculty of Trivento.
Pope John Paul II established the Pontifical Academy for Life in 1994, charging it with the task of “defense and promotion of the value of human life and of the dignity of the person,” according to its Vatican profile. Its main actions are to study problems related to promoting and defending human life; assist, through Catholic initiatives, the pro-life formation of persons; and inform Church leaders, the media, other organizations, and civil society in the findings of its research.
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Conservative and pro-life groups are again asking the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate five aborted babies found near a Washington, D.C. clinic in 2022 now that President Donald Trump is back in office.
Nine organizations sent a letter Tuesday to U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro sounding the alarm about pro-life activists’ discovery of the bodies in containers from the Washington Surgi-Clinic. Some of the babies discovered were so large that they brought suspicion of illegal partial-birth or post-birth abortions, and the Biden administration only prosecuted those who protested at the clinic in 2020.
“In 2022, pro-life activists in Washington, D.C., discovered possible violations of the Partial-Birth Abortion Act and the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act,” reads the letter from Advancing American Freedom, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Students for Life, Concerned Women for America, Family Research Council, Live Action, Human Coalition, Catholic Vote and American Family Association.
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President Trump’s Department of Justice has filed a federal lawsuit against Troy, Idaho’s far-left leadership, accusing them of deliberately targeting a Christian congregation simply for holding worship services.
The lawsuit, United States v. City of Troy, delivers a blistering rebuke of local officials who weaponized zoning laws to shut down Christ Church, a growing evangelical congregation based in nearby Moscow, Idaho.
Trump’s DOJ alleges that city leaders engaged in blatant discrimination, suppressing the church’s right to assemble while letting secular groups operate freely in the exact same zone.
Christ Church, unable to accommodate its growing congregation in Moscow, looked to expand into Troy.
They attempted to rent a vacant downtown bank building for Sunday services—a common-sense solution, considering it had sat empty for over a year and offered plenty of street parking.
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Excerpt:President Trump’s Education Department has just rescinded an onerous fine unjustly imposed by the Biden administration on a Christian university.
On May 16, Grand Canyon University announced, “The U.S. Department of Education (ED) has rescinded a $37.7 million fine, with prejudice, that was proposed against Grand Canyon University, clearing the university of any wrongdoing.” Many suspected the university was being targeted by the Biden administration not because of any major wrongdoing but because of its Christian affiliation, and that appears to have been a fair assessment.
The case dismissal from ED stated that “there are no findings against GCU, or any of its employees, officers, agents, or contractors, and no fine is imposed.” Despite Biden administration allegations, the Trump ED found that GCU did not violate any Title IV requirements, rejecting the assertion that GCU “substantially misrepresented” the prices of its doctoral programs.
GCU President Brian Mueller said, “The facts clearly support our contention that we were wrongly accused of misleading our Doctoral students and we appreciate the recognition that those accusations were without merit.”
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The state of California has agreed to allow families to use public special education funds for tuition at religious schools, following a legal settlement reached after years of litigation.
The decision marks a significant policy change and aligns the state’s regulations with recent federal court rulings affirming religious rights under the First Amendment.
The settlement stems from a lawsuit filed by Orthodox Jewish families who challenged the state’s long-standing rule that barred the use of publicly funded special education services at religious institutions. Plaintiffs argued that the policy, which required private schools receiving such funding to be nonsectarian, unfairly excluded religious families and violated their constitutional rights.
In the case of Loffman v. California Department of Education, a group of Jewish parents and religious schools challenged the exclusion, arguing that it violated constitutional protections against religious discrimination.
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Last week, a plane landed: 59 Afrikaners, mostly farmers, mostly white. Trump called it a genocide. MSNBC called it racism.
Turning away the persecuted because they’re the wrong color is not justice; it’s betrayal.
Just like that, we were off. Cue the outrage cycle, fearmongering chyrons, left-wing think pieces, and Twitter threads from soft-palmed theologians who wouldn’t recognize a plow if it hit them in the face. “This isn’t what Christianity looks like,” they screamed.
But that’s precisely the problem. Trump’s version of Christianity doesn’t look the way they want it to. It doesn’t speak in nonprofit euphemisms, hold committee meetings on climate equity, sing hymns to intersectionality, or check in with the Episcopal diocese before making moral decisions.
It does something far more offensive: It acts on behalf of people the professional Christian class has decided no longer count. In other words, white, rural, conservative Christians who don’t fit the preapproved narrative.
Family of Pregnant Mom Declared Brain Dead Wants Her Unborn Baby to Live– www.lifenews.com
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The family of Adriana Smith, a 30-year-old Georgia mother and nurse declared brain dead in February, is fighting to give her unborn son, named Chance, a opportunity at life.
Smith, who was eight weeks pregnant when she suffered a catastrophic brain injury due to undetected blood clots, remains on ventilators at Emory University Hospital Midtown, where doctors are working to sustain her baby at least until he reaches viability.
Smith’s mother, April Newkirk, shared an emotional update, noting that baby Chance is “doing better” with a strong heartbeat and developing limbs, offering hope amid their grief.
Newkirk told 11Alive that baby Chance “is actually doing better than the last time I met with the doctors. He has his legs, his toes, his limbs, heartbeat is good and strong…” — and they are hoping he survives. “The journey is for baby Chance to survive — and whatever condition God allows him to come here in, we’re going to love him just the same, and we’re gonna embrace him.”
The family, which includes Smith’s 7-year-old son, has embraced the chance to honor Adriana’s legacy through her unborn child, whom they see as a “second chance” for her life to continue. We want her life to continue through her children, Newkirk told reporters, emphasizing their desire to love and raise Chance, regardless of potential health challenges.
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House Republicans delivered on their promise to defund Big Abortion on Thursday by passing the budget reconciliation bill that has consumed Washington’s attention for the past three months.
In the bill, the House GOP removed Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortions in the country. The effort had been supported by dozens of pro-life legislators from around the country.
The move is a monumental win for pro-lifers because Planned Parenthood receives more than one-third of its overall funding from the U.S. government through grants, contracts, and Medicaid reimbursements. That translates to about $2 million per day, which taxpayers are on the hook for. Furthermore, taxpayer funding for the organization has been on an upward trajectory for about the past dozen years, having increased by 50% since 2013.
But the House reconciliation bill halts that trend by ending the flow of Medicaid dollars to Planned Parenthood, except in abortion cases for rape or incest. Planned Parenthood is also a major provider of hormones for so-called transgender transitions in the country, which means defunding it is also combating the organization’s efforts in that regard as well.