Watchmen Ministry North Idaho

(The Federalist) While Idaho is considered a refuge for people fleeing Democrat-controlled areas, a new report shows the state’s supermajority Republican legislature has not protected children from far-left politics in public schools, including state-sponsored racism and hiding transgender ideation from childrens’ parents.

Report authors Anna Miller and Dr. Scott Yenor note that the kind of extremist ideology affecting kids in blue and purple states is also metastasizing within small-town and rural public schools in locales that faithfully vote Republican.

“School administrators in Coeur d’Alene manipulated an 11-year-old girl into believing she was a boy and should undergo gender transition surgery,” Miller writes in a study overview in The American Mind. “The elementary school counselor had coached the young girl into believing she was transsexual and instructed her how to tell her parents about her new identity. According to a recorded phone call between the counselor and parent, the principal and other school officials had known about this and began calling the girl by a boy’s name while purposefully choosing not to inform the child’s parents.”  (Read More)

(Standing For Freedom Center) In a move that some say echoes the totalitarianism of some of history’s most infamous regimes, it has been discovered that the federal government is keeping records on religious employees who apply for an exemption to COVID-19 vaccines or working on Saturdays or Sundays.

With little notice, the federal government has instituted the tracking of religious employees, applicants, contractors, interns, and others who ask for religious exemptions from vaccine mandates and other activities. The Heritage Foundation broke the news on January 11 and released more information on January 18. Discoveries about who is keeping such lists has continued to grow and is now up to 55 agencies.

The rules vary by agency with some only tracking information on requests for exemptions to COVID vaccine mandates while others are collecting data on those who request not to work on Saturday or Sunday. Allegedly, some are even tracking those with disabilities.  (Read More)

(Family Research Council) In a review of all the political news in 2021, it would be hard to deny the impact of parents engaging the system. Politicians are responding to the undeniable force of concerned parents advocating for and protecting children. With state legislatures in full swing, we see many examples of legislation that reflect this much-needed pressure from parents: bills opposing the teaching of critical race theory (CRT), protecting students from gender identity ideology, providing oversight of libraries, and encouraging school curricula transparency.

Post-modernism’s impact on K-12 education can be clearly seen in the introduction of teaching “critical theories” like CRT and queer theory. Organizations like the highly-partisan and left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center have pushed ideologies such as these in schools for decades, virtually unopposed. When parents finally stood up against this divisive material, politicians responded. In just the past month, 56 state-level bills opposing CRT have been proposed across the country. Virginia’s newly-elected governor, Glenn Youngkin (R), issued an executive order regarding “divisive concepts” as part of his Day One Agenda, fulfilling a campaign promise. He also set up a hotline for parents to report curricula that are harmful to children and compromise learning.  (Read More)

(The Federalist) When the forced masking of children and other heavy-handed Covid-19 restrictions were enacted, it was always understood that they would be lifted as soon as possible, said “expert” and medical analyst Leana Wen on CNN this week. “Circumstances have changed,” she announced. “The science has changed.”

This is a lie, not just partisan spin or a good-faith following of the science. It’s is a bald-faced lie, and it’s the same lie now being pushed by corporate media, the so-called expert class, and many Democrats as the framing for all their Covid-related backtracking.

It’s time to unmask the children. Why? Because the “science has changed.” Stop looking at case counts because the “science has changed.” If the people around you aren’t wearing masks but you are, it’s OK. You’re protected by your own mask because “the science has changed.”

These talking points from Wen are the same ones now littering the pages of our legacy papers and daily circulating the airwaves of the corrupt media-sphere. They run beside segments and articles, full of performative shock, that finally acknowledge the harms parents warned of.  (Read More)

(Family Research Council) “The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” — a classic theme of competitive sports — is being continuously broadcast on NBC as the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics competition unfolds. But the corporate-sponsored programming is not winning the massive audiences that once celebrated the global games. In fact, viewership is shockingly low. The opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics saw a historic slump in viewership, with just 16 million total viewers tuning in, down 43 percent from the previous games.

Why the plummeting ratings? Because a different kind of agony is upstaging these competitions, which have been dubbed “The Genocide Games.” Many Americans are appalled by the Chinese government’s horrifying abuse of more than a million Uyghur Muslims, innocent victims who are being tortured, raped, sterilized, and murdered in Xinjiang, China’s massive complex of genocidal concentration camps.  (Read More)

(Faith & Freedom) Monica Gill is a history teacher at Loudoun County High School, Virginia—the epicenter of Critical Race Theory. A county where parental authority has been assaulted, and where communities have been so divided that it helped decide the recent gubernatorial election.

Then God spoke to her in a most unique way.

Here’s her story.  (Read More)

(Life News) California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to spend $20 million of state taxpayers’ money to encourage medical students to become abortionists.

The money budgeted for abortion training scholarships and student loan repayments is part of the Democrat governor’s plan to make California a “sanctuary” state for abortions, according to the National Catholic Register.

Newsom has been working directly with the abortion industry on ways to expand abortions in anticipation of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade later this year. One of these plans includes “bribing” medical students to become abortionists.

In his proposed 2022-2023 budget, released in January, the governor included $20 million for scholarships and loan repayments “to support California’s clinical infrastructure of reproductive health care services.”  (Read More)

(PJ Media) Across the country in at least a dozen states, Democrats are blocking bills that would require curriculum transparency in public schools. The teachers claim that giving parents access to their children’s learning materials online could lead to censorship and backlash against educators.

Parents are already entitled to request their child’s curriculum if they attend a public school, but there’s no requirement to post it online. Republicans in at least 12 states have introduced legislation that would require schools to post all teaching materials online, including what books, videos, and articles will be covered.

Teachers claim that parents who object to what their children are being taught might censor materials they don’t want their children to learn.  (Read More)

(Faith & Freedom) A couple of months ago Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire wrote a “perspective” article for the Washington Post titled, “Parents Claim They Have the Right To Shape Their Kids’ School Curriculum. They Don’t.”

Schneider and Berkshire have co-authored a book titled, “A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door.”

The titles of the article and the book give you a pretty good idea of where they’re going with both the book and the article.

In case you’re still wondering what their point really is, consider this excerpt: “When do the interests of parents and children diverge? Generally, it occurs when a parent’s desire to inculcate a particular worldview denies the child exposure to other ideas and values that an independent young person may wish to embrace or at least entertain.”

Therein lies the Big Lie. And the reason parents are showing up at school board meetings in record numbers.  (Read More)

(Breakpoint) Anabaptist theologian Stanley Hauerwas once said that in 100 years, if Christians are known as those who do not kill their children or their elderly, we would have been doing something right. May we, in fact, be known for nothing less than these things, but I hope we’ll be known for far more. Specifically, Christians must be known as those who acknowledge created reality, in particular the goodness of the human body.   

This won’t be easy. Unthinkable a couple of decades ago, it’s now normal to deny the purpose, the meaning, and the goodness of the human body. Increasingly the body is seen, not as a given of reality, but as a fully morphable canvas of self-expression. Not only do we celebrate unnatural ways of using it, we see it as something to be reinvented and remodeled, even mutilated if that allows us to “be ourselves.”  

Because Christians believe in a world created by God, including the human body, we must not allow what is considered normal to seem normal to us. We might be shocked and grieved, but we should always point to the truth of who we are, and oppose these ideas which destroy and degrade, rather than liberate human beings.  (Read More)

(Faith & Freedom) A resolution encouraging residents to “mourn the innocents” lost to abortions by flying flags at half staff easily passed the Idaho House (48-20) last week after passing the State Senate earlier.

The bill designates every January 22 as the “Day of Tears” on which “citizens of Idaho” are encouraged to lower their flags to half staff to mourn the innocents who have lost their lives to abortion.

The State Representative who sponsored the bill says she hopes the practice will not be needed soon.

KTVB 7 News reported “Republican Rep. Barbra Ehardt is sponsoring the idea” to “acknowledge the loss of life from the millions of unborn children since the supreme court’s decision in Roe v. Wade.”  (Read More)

(American Thinker) On Sunday, January 23, there was a march and rally in Washington, D.C.: “Defeat the Mandates: An America Homecoming.” On Monday, January 24, Senator Ron Johnson hosted a panel discussion where about a dozen of these same doctors shared their personal testimonies.

These are not doctors just plucked off the street, but professionals from all over the country who are tops in their particular field. One doctor is the CEO of a medical organization with over 17,000 medical and scientific members. The mainline media called their narratives a “false narrative.”

Listen to what these doctors had to say.

“Let doctors be doctors; let the doctor and patient determine the treatment, not the government.”

“The men who founded America were not professional politicians, but farmers, shop people, and land-owners.”  (Read More)

(Life News) Legislation proposed by Rep. Ted Budd of North Carolina would require abortion providers to file a report with the National Human Trafficking Hotline if they suspect a patient at the clinic is a victim of human trafficking.

The Daily Signal first obtained a copy of the legislation, the Stopping Traffickers and Their Accomplices Act of 2022, which requires that abortion providers notify the hotline no later than 24 hours after consulting with a patient if they have “a reasonable suspicion that the patient is a victim of trafficking.”

Should the bill be enacted into law, those abortion providers who violate the act could be fined $10,000, imprisoned for up to six months, or both.

“Abortion providers have a moral obligation to ensure that they are not aiding and abetting the abuse of women enslaved in the sex trade,” Budd, a Republican, told The Daily Signal on Monday. “The Stopping Traffickers and Their Accomplices Act provides needed accountability to protect women and unborn children.”  (Read More)

(Family Research Council) He calls it “the scariest investigation I’ve ever conducted.” And anyone reading through the bombshell revelations of Peter Schweizer’s new book are bound to agree. Most Americans knew the Chinese Communist Party was quietly trying to infiltrate our colleges, financial institutions, tech companies — even our military. What they didn’t know is who’s helping them: Big Tech. Turns out, Silicon Valley isn’t just sympathetic to the evil regime — they’re accessories to it.

There are a lot of jarring moments in Schweizer’s Red Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win, but the overall picture is deeply disturbing — young, Silicon Valley billionaires eager to indulge their friends at the highest levels of China’s government. Of course, that’s just fine with the regime, who would like nothing more than access to our technology so they can compete with and overtake us. “Science and technology is a national weapon,” Chinese President Xi Jinping has insisted. “We should seize the commanding heights of technological competition and future development.”  (Read More)

(Gem State Patriot) It is time for Idaho hospitals that fired health care workers —mostly nurses but many doctors, who had acquired natural immunity from Covid-19 and who refused to be vaccinated, to return these brave people back to their jobs. Most took care of sick patients on the wards and in ICUs before there were any vaccines available. They acquired their immunity naturally, and then returned to work. Many other Idaho doctors and I have offered that natural immunity was better than any mRNA inoculation. We argued in previous articles that the order of protection went from natural immunity to live attenuated immunity, to the mRNA vaccines. Many of the experts in our State and across the country made claims to the contrary and insisted that acquired immunity from vaccination was more protective.

In today’s Wall Street Journal Dr. Marty Makary in an article entitled THE HIGH COST OF DISPARAGING NATURAL IMMUNITY lays to rest once and for all the hubris of the erroneous claims made by the so-called intellectual classes and promulgated by a media with a political narrative.  (Read More)

(Family Research Council) If there’s anything the Left hates more than Donald Trump, it’s “dark money. They coined the term — which stands for political contributions from undisclosed sources — to create fear and resentment. But ironically, Democrats profit from dark money a whole lot more than Republicans. A new analysis of politically active nonprofits by the New York Times reveals over $1.5 billion was spent for Democratic candidates, compared to $900 million for Republicans — more funds than the Joe Biden and Donald Trump campaigns raised combined. That’s a lot of dough.

“Most people think of the two parties when they think of politics, said Capital Research Center senior investigative researcher Hayden Ludwig. But “the multibillion-dollar-strong nonprofit world that operates just outside on the perimeter of the two political parties… is actually much more powerful than either. Not only do they have more money — the Left in particular — but they also have a legion of professional activists available around the clock.”  (Read More)

(Idaho Family Policy Center) The Old Testament prophet Gideon led the Israelites in victory over their enemies, providing God’s people with four decades of peace and prosperity.

But when Gideon died in his old age, one of his sons, Abimelech, hatched a scheme to seize control of the nation. Abimelech conspired with the men of Shechem to assassinate his seventy brothers so he could usurp the throne and exercise tyranny over the people.

Only one of the brothers, whose name was Jotham, evaded the attempted fratricide. Jotham later offered the following fable, often called the Parable of the Thornbush, condemning his countrymen for their inaction which enabled the bloody coup d’etat…

Jotham’s fable explains what happens when God-fearing people are so busy with their own lives that they neglect their responsibility to provide prophetic leadership in politics and culture. Because the righteous trees failed to enter the fray and get involved, a thornbush takes control, even though the thornbush can’t provide the conditions, like shade, that will allow the forest to flourish.  (Read More)

(Life News) As many as 100,000 or more pro-life Americans marched in the bitter cold Friday in Washington, D.C., hoping and praying that states soon will be allowed to protect unborn babies again.

The 2022 March for Life had a strong spirit of hope as the U.S. Supreme Court considers overturning Roe v. Wade through a Mississippi case that it heard in December.

“Roe is not settled law,” March for Life president Jeanne Mancini reminded the crowd during the rally that preceded the march.

Mancini and others urged the court to recognize that one of America’s most fundamental values, equality, must be applied to all human beings, including babies in the womb.

Because of Roe, states are forced to legalize abortion on demand up to viability and allowed to legalize abortion without limits up to birth. The 1973 ruling led to the deaths of more than 63 million unborn babies in abortions and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of mothers.  (Read More)

(Dennis Prager) Among the many unbridgeable divides between Americans is a completely antithetical view of mask wearing. On one side are those who wear masks almost everywhere outside their homes and who demand that others do so, including young children in class and on outdoor playgrounds, and 2-year-olds on airplanes.

On the other side are those who only wear a mask where they are punished for not doing so (most obviously, airplanes). They regard masks as essentially pacifiers for adults.

Generally speaking, these two groups have disdain for each other.

Why the pro-mask half of America holds the anti-mask half in contempt needs little explanation. They believe anti-mask Americans are putting others in grave danger. Pro-maskers believe that even children who do not wear masks put their own lives and the lives of other children and teachers at risk.

Consequently, pro-mask Americans regard those who do not wear masks, let alone those who actively oppose mask-wearing, as selfish, anti-science potential killers.  (Read More)

(The Federalist) The last several years can be viewed as a testament to the remarkable strategic power the woke left wields. The speed at which absurd ideas have been thrust into the limelight by vested media and a wide array of well-financed academics and non-profits is both startling and impressive.

Not long ago, it would’ve been unimaginable that a seven-year-old boy’s innocent preference for Polly Pockets over Power Rangers would find its tragic end in puberty blockers, chemical castration, and 15 minutes of fame on Snapchat’s explore page.

Calling this abuse doesn’t encapsulate the full extent of the damage. It is a culturally bolstered, politically incentivized mass grooming campaign with a disturbing history. Even worse, this all may be eclipsed by a much darker future should it continue unabated.  (Read More)

(Creators) “California should abolish parenthood, in the name of equity.” That’s the headline of a Ventura County Star column by Zocalo Public Square’s Joe Mathews. “Want true equity?” the San Francisco Chronicle headlined the same column three days later. “California should force parents to give away their children.”

The column’s thesis was not mischaracterized by either headline writer. (It’s a longstanding practice in journalism that reporters and columnists don’t write headlines. Nonjournalists find this bizarre, but that’s the way it has always been.) Mathews points out that advantaged parents pass on their advantages to their children.

The “solution,” he says, is “making raising your own children illegal.” Or “universal orphanhood,” as he writes a few paragraphs down. “Handovers of babies” would be mandatory. In support, he cites the Greek philosopher Plato (children should be “possessed in common”) and California Gov. Gavin Newsom (policy should be formulated through “an equity lens”).  (Read More)

(Gem State Patriot) I was out of the state when I received a call from my nephew telling me my sister would be life flighted to St. Al’s in Boise, from Weiser. She had been diagnosed with Covid several days earlier and was on a small amount of oxygen at home. Fearing my sister would die in St. Al’s, I told my nephew I would be on the next plane home. I told him to call the hospital and tell them under no circumstances was she to be intubated or given Remdesivir. Hospitals are heavily incentivized to receive 20% bonuses via the Cares Act for putting patients on a ventilator and giving Remdesivir as well as numerous other bonuses to follow all guidelines set up by federal agencies. https://aapsonline.org/bidens-bounty-on-your-life-hospitals-incentive-payments-for-covid-19/ Remdesivir is well known to cause permanent kidney and liver damage. St. Al’s had required her to sign a DNR and an order that allowed them to put her on a ventilator, before they would send life flight to Weiser to pick her up. The call from my nephew to the hospital was met with irritation and disdain. Once placed on a ventilator my sister would have been paralyzed by the medications and the family feared we would not have been able to rescue her. We believed her chances of survival would be greatly diminished, due to her lack of oxygen and lack of a Medical Advocate.  (Read More)

(The Federalist) Two Christian leaders in Finland stood trial in Helsinki on Jan. 24 for publicly stating the Bible’s teachings on sex and marriage. Longtime Member of Parliament Paivi Rasanen and Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola defended in court their decision to write and publish, respectively, a pamphlet explaining Christian teachings about sex and marriage.

“The prosecutor began the day by trying to explain that this case was not about beliefs and the Bible. She then, and I’m not kidding, she then proceeded to quote Old Testament Bible verses,” Coleman said in a phone interview with The Federalist after the trial concluded for the day. “Trial attorneys, Finnish trial attorneys who have been in and out of court every day for years, said they didn’t think the Bible had ever been read out like that in a prosecution.”

Never before has a Finnish court had to decide whether quoting the Bible is a crime. Human rights observers consider this case an important marker for whether Western governments’ persecution of citizens for their speech and beliefs increases.

The long day in court concluded with the prosecutor cross-examining Pohjola about his theology, Coleman said, “asking his interpretation of the Bible, just straight-up theology.” The prosecutor even asked the bishop, apparently without awareness of the historical import of this question, “Does he follow God’s law or does he follow Finnish law?” Coleman noted with astonishment.  (Read More)

(Family Research Council) In 1973, a small group of pro-lifers joined a Catholic attorney named Nellie Gray for dinner. Six months prior, the U.S. Supreme Court had issued its infamous Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion on demand through all nine months of pregnancy the default law of every state. These advocates for the unborn were determined not to let the one-year anniversary of the decision pass without acknowledging it with a march — a protest demanding that Congress (as Nellie put it) “pay attention to 20,000 people coming in the middle of winter to tell them to overturn Roe v. Wade.” And so, the March for Life was born.

Forty-nine years later, those who believe the truth that an unborn child is a human being still march every year. Snow, shine, or freezing cold (like this year), the rabbi has blown his shofar, the students have chanted, and people have come from all across the country to stand for life.  (Read More)

(Life News) Republican members of Congress are accusing President Joe Biden of targeting Americans seeking religious exemptions from the COVID-19 vaccine.

“Your administration’s attempt to use the power of the federal government to single out Americans who object to the COVID-19 vaccine on religious grounds is inexcusable and must be withdrawn,” reads the letter, first obtained by The Daily Signal.

The letter to Biden builds on a Jan. 11 report from The Daily Signal that the Biden administration is testing out a policy in a small federal agency, the Pretrial Services Agency for the District of Columbia, that would likely serve as a model for government-assembled lists of Americans who object to the COVID-19 vaccines on religious grounds.  (Read More)