Watchmen Ministry North Idaho

(Dennis Prager) In a recent Fireside Chat — my weekly podcast for PragerU, half of which is dedicated to my taking questions from (mostly) young people around the world — a young man in his 20s asked how he was supposed to figure out who is telling the truth and who isn’t. He was undoubtedly speaking for millions of his peers. Given the opposing positions one encounters on almost every issue, how is one supposed to figure out which position is right, and which one may not only be wrong, but a lie?

In addition to obvious suggestions — such as finding individuals and institutions whom you trust, studying both sides of issues, learning as much as possible and using common sense — I offered what may be the single most important indicator of who is more likely to be lying.

It is not a perfect indicator of who is telling the truth — there is no perfect indicator — but it comes close.

With rare exceptions, the party that calls for censorship is lying. People who tell the truth can deal with dissent and different opinions. In fact, truth-tellers welcome debate.

If this theory is correct — and I cannot imagine a valid argument against it — it means that in virtually every instance of a Left-Right difference, the Left is lying.

There is no important area of left-right difference in which the Left — not liberals; the Left — does not call for shutting down dissent.  (Read More)

(Standing For Freedom Center) Pro-life ballot measures took a beating at the voting booth last Tuesday. Pro-abortion measures, however, rode a Molech-worshipping wave to victory. It was a disappointing and disheartening outcome, to say the least. To say the most, it shows how dearly so many in our nation love death.

In an article summarizing the various initiatives, and their respective outcomes, the Freedom Center noted that “Including the defeat in Kansas earlier this year, the pro-life cause has failed in six ballot amendments since Roe v. Wade was overturned.” Not good.

The five different abortion-related measures that were set forth for a vote last week ran the gamut in terms of their goals, both for good and evil.

California’s Proposition 1 enshrined the “fundamental right to choose to have an abortion” in the state’s constitution; it also left out any restrictions related to “viability,” which means abortion is now legal up until the moment of birth in the Golden State.

There was little chance of defeating such a barbaric amendment in the progressive stronghold of the Left Coast. Still, it should shock decent Americans everywhere, and Christians doubly so, that such evil (abortion through all nine months of pregnancy) has officially been declared “good” in one of the states of our great union.

The prophet Isaiah was right to call down “woe” upon such people who call evil good (Isaiah 5:20) and to warn that a fiery judgment will be their final end…  (Read More)

(Breakpoint) The questions we receive more than all others have to do with how best to respond to friends, family members, and neighbors who struggle with gender dysphoria. The rational case for humans as either male or female is strong, as are arguments from history, biology, law, and theology. However, arguments that would’ve been considered obvious not that long ago often seem to go nowhere with someone desperately reaching for answers or affirmation. 

The number of Americans who report personally knowing someone who struggles with gender dysphoria now approaches 50%. Thus, Christians should be prepared, as best as we can, for these scenarios which we are now more likely to encounter than not. When unprepared, too many Christians simply go quiet, and in the process, go along with transgender ideology—not because they believe it but because rocking the boat seems too risky. Rather than truly loving our neighbors, something admittedly difficult, we instead choose the easier path of not offending and only affirming. We then name that path “love,” but it’s neither loving nor true.  

The story of Holy Scripture, in each of its four chapters, contextualizes what is true about every person, including the created reality of sexual distinction. First, that God created and values our bodies, which are made male and female for His purposes. Second, the Fall, while validating the pain and discomfort that many people feel within their own bodies, dispels the idea that what we feel should be accepted as true. In fact, it may be false, confused, and harmful.  (Read More)

(The Federalist) Newly elected House Republicans have every political reason to hold investigative hearings into government abuse of power during Covid. While these hearings should have happened long ago, they will no doubt vindicate many Americans who suffered under the capricious reign of public health officials. Central to this investigation will be an inquiry into government attempts to manipulate public opinion.

We already know that officials misrepresented opinion as fact and covertly suppressed contrary information. The pronouncements of bureaucrats, who cared more for their own celebrity and power than the truth, went largely unchallenged. This represents a failure of constitutional guarantees to free speech — a failure Republicans will be happy to broadcast as yet more evidence of an out-of-control bureaucracy.

It’s tempting to think a tyrannical bureaucracy is to blame for our embarrassing foray into censorship. But if we accept this explanation, assign blame, and move on, we ignore a cultural rot that is far more dangerous than any government overreach. It is ordinary Americans, not bureaucrats, who are most to blame for censorship, because citizens are the ultimate defense against the suppression of speech, not the government.   (Read More)

(Bob Shillingstad) A couple of items popped up on my computer this last week that made me wonder where we are as a Christian community and commitment.  First I saw a local church in our community making a bold statement to their flock that said this: “…..Church will not endorse any political organization, action, demonstration, legislation, ballot measure, or candidate and we shall lovingly but firmly protect the freedom, safety, and a feeling of welcome for those within our fold to maintain and express their own individual political opinions from across the spectrum, regardless of whether they are shared by a majority of, a minority of, or any of the the others in our fold.”  An interesting statement to the congregation and I left out the name of the church for their protection but maybe we should do a survey of all churches and see where they stand.

The other item that I read that same morning was this: “The pro-abortion movement is funded by liberal billionaires and Hollywood elite who threw millions at these ballot amendments. They spent $60 million to legalize abortions up to birth in Michigan and overturn every pro-life law. You couldn’t watch television in Michigan without seeing an ad talking about how Proposition 3 would promote “women’s health care.” They dwarfed our spending in California and outspent us by big margins in Montana and Vermont and told more and more lies.In total, abortion advocates spent well over $400 million on the elections — buying ballot votes, buying House and Senate races, buying the whole election. But they’re not done. They’re already putting together more ballot amendments to legalize abortions up to birth in more states. They’re fundraising to stop or overturn abortion bans elsewhere. They’re planning more pro-abortion laws to kill more babies in abortions.”  That was an email from LifeNews, quite a contrast. How do we reconcile these two views?  Montana passed a bill that said it was ok to kill any baby that survived an abortion.  Where were the pastors and churches in Montana? Did they have a non-endorsement pledge also? Some states said you could kill the baby after it was born, where were the churches?

Romans 13 is often quoted by those who believe we should be subject to all civil authorities no matter what the issue. Obviously that is a matter for further study.  We need to remember that Paul was beheaded for going against the civil authority in Rome.  Our biblical precedent has strong foundations in the Revolutionary War against Great Britain.  The colonists read 1 Peter 2:13, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority . . .,” and saw the phrase “for the Lord’s sake” as a condition for obedience. The reasoning ran thus: if the authority was unrighteous and passed unrighteous laws, then following them could not be a righteous thing. In other words, one cannot obey a wicked law “for the Lord’s sake.” The colonists saw Hebrews 11 as justification for resisting tyrants. Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah are all listed as “heroes of faith,” and they were all involved in overthrowing oppressive governments.

The “Great Awakening” prior to the Revolution united the colonies and pastors to an understanding of liberties that came from our creator and the instructions to Timothy from the apostle Paul supported this; . “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fable.”  2 Timothy 4:2-5

We need pastors and priests who will be unafraid to confront the society and be like the “Black Robe Regiment” of the American Revolution.  The name came not from the colonists but from the British.  They knew that the strength of conviction came from the preaching and involvement of these men.  The rallying cry of the revolution became “No King But King Jesus”. One of the best histories of these pastors is Bringing Back The Black Robe Regiment by Dan Fisher.  This is a book every patriot should have on their bookshelf and read. Another interesting fact is that there were at least six synagogues in the colonies and some of the key supporters were from these places of worship.  Freedom to believe was the standard.

Here are some interesting facts about the revolution:  The country was not united behind the revolution.  In a country of about 3 million about 1 million supported the war, 1 million were Tories and loyal to the King and about 1 million were neutral.  The war was long, over six years of fighting and certainly not always successful. Fighting against the most powerful country in the world required endurance and a reliance on a sovereign God.  240 battles were fought but in which Washington led only 17 and we won only six of those under Washington.  Of course we won the final battle!

The signers of the Declaration of Independence put their names under the last line which read  “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”  Many of them paid that price.

Today we are a divided country, we have lost a lot of battles and more importantly we have lost the principles and values we started with. But it is not too late!  Encourage and support your pastor to speak up about marriage between one man and one woman.  Trans-gender is evil and a lie from the pit of hell.  Pornography promoting the LGBTQ agenda and drag queen performances must be stopped now.  Pastors need to step up to the plate as one voice, these are movements to destroy our families, our culture and our nation.

Or is it too late already?  Revival or bust.

(Bob Shillingstad) I am no different than many people in our country as we look for a “red wave” to save us and turn this country around on November 8th.  As with most Americans we realize that we are at a tipping point in our country.  The Constitution, traditions, history and respect for law and civility seem to be lost to demonic forces that are intent upon a totalitarian rule.  Last week also began one of the seven “feasts” or days of remembrance that God laid down in Leviticus.  It begins with Rosh Hashanah or the “feast of trumpets” and ten days later is Yom Kippur.  The time between these two high holy days are called the “Days of Awe” and is a time of repentance. These ten days are believed by Jewish scholars to be the last chance to repent before God’s judgment is finalized for the coming year.  These feasts are a fascinating study for Christians and became a wake up call for me as we looked at a seemingly hopeless situation in our country.

Hasn’t God entered history and done miraculous wonders as he has saved his people? We have so many accounts of that.  Does repentance and acknowledging God as our only hope and turning to Him a part of that salvation?  There are so many examples in our country’s history that we could use but for some reason the Lord brought to mind Great Britain in 1940 and a seemingly hopeless situation. The British empire had over 900,000 killed just a few decades before in WWI.   Now WWII had broken out in 1939 and the fighting has started in 1940 with disastrous results for the allies.  Britain had over 400,000 troops fighting in France and now 100,000 are trapped by the Germans on the coast at Dunkirk.  Once they are gone the way is open for the Germans to take Britain.

King George in desperation fires Chamberlain and replaces Churchill as Prime Minister, there is no election. With nowhere to turn the King and Churchill called for a National Day of Prayer on Sunday, May 26th, 1940. In a national broadcast, he instructed the people to turn back to God in a spirit of repentance and plead for Divine intervention. Millions of people across the British Isles flocked into churches, praying for deliverance, and forming lines just to get into a church building.  (this is the part that was not in the movie or most history books) If you search you can see the lines of people formed outside Westminster Abbey waiting for their turn to pray..  It was said at any time of day or night there were people praying there and all across the country, many prostrate on the floor crying out to God.  Then the miracles started to happen,

Herman Goering, the head of the German Luftwaffe (air force) convinced Hitler to have the Panzers to stand down.  His airplane would finish off Britain, he didn’t count on a fog that created a low ceiling making it very difficult to carry this out.  The English Channel turned into a calm lake.  Churchill called for private boats to ferry the troops to the ships at the port of Dunkirk, the smallest of these boats were only 14 foot fishing boats.  The British high command’s optimistic projection was that maybe they could rescue 10,000 evacuees.  Within a week, over 330,000 troops were evacuated to England, many on those little boats.  Should we consider this a miracle at Dunkirk? Or could this have been just the fog of war? That might explain one part but could all three of these conditions be merely a lucky break? Or was this divine intervention?

The British people have always referred to what happened as “the miracle of Dunkirk.” Sunday June 9th was officially appointed as a Day of National Thanksgiving for the entire United Kingdom.

What do you think? Were these miracles at Dunkirk? As events were unfolding and the allied army is surrounded at Dunkirk a message is sent to a British officer asking about his situation, which was obviously dire.  His response was in three words, “But if Not.”

The people of England instantly recognized this phrase as scripture. The English were accustomed to hearing the scriptures read in church. They knew the story told in the book of Daniel when three young Hebrews were being thrown into a blazing furnace.  Those brave Jews defiantly said, “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, let it be known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up (Dan. 3:17-18). The British people immediately recognized the biblical reference. Also, they realized it reflected their soldiers’ resolve to stand to the end and not surrender. News of this spread and galvanized the people of England and they knew they had to do something.

Pastor Gary Hamrick says there are three kinds of churches (and Christians) “Some will be complicit, participating in the culture without standing against it; some will be complacent, disagreeing with the culture but not actively opposing it; then there are those that will be courageous, saying what needs to be said and doing what needs to be done, and accepting the con
sequences without self-pity or anger.” Adding humility and repentance to our plea, But if Not!

(Bob Shillingstad) We have seen education come to the forefront in Idaho’s political debate.  First, with the passage of additional mill levies and bond issues.  Second, with the upcoming vote November 8th and the issues Reclaim Idaho has on the ballot to raise taxes and give more money to the education lobby.  Third, we have the “special session” of the legislature this past week called by the Governor to give even more money to schools.  The rhetoric is like a drum beat that never changes.  “Idaho is down at the bottom in per pupil spending and it is a disgrace.”  “Invest in the children” and “they are the future”.  Tiresome and meaningless.

According to the numbers they report Idaho is at the bottom and Wyoming spends twice as much as Idaho.  Montana spends 50% more according to their numbers.  However, when you look at testing measurements across the board Idaho is very competitive with Wyoming and Montana and often are ahead on scores like SAT and others.  But then we are told unlimited money would solve all our problems in education, and they don’t pay any attention to the results in most Charter and private schools!   Certainly they don’t compare government schools to home schooling! The secret is evident, competition for government schools reveal their failures.

I would invite/ you to go back to 1985 and look at a Federal Court Case, Missouri v. Jenkins. ( https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/the-two-billion-dollar-judge/) This case is eye-opening.  A federal judge took over the school district in Kansas City, Missouri to provide “equity” and between 1985  and 2003 spent more than $2 Billion dollars building over a dozen first class schools. Magnet schools centered around a “theme”.  Not merely science,  performing arts, and computer studies, but also classical Greek, Asian studies, agribusiness, and environmental studies. The newly constructed classical Greek high school housed an Olympic-sized pool with an underwater observation room, an indoor track, a gymnastic center, and racquetball courts.television and animation studios. A robotics lab, a 25‐ acre wildlife sanctuary, a zoo, a model United Nations with simultaneous translation capability, and field trips to Mexico and Senegal were part of the package.. The student‐ teacher ratio was 12 or 13 to 1, the lowest of any major school district in the country.

Wow! What were the results of all that spending? Test scores actually dropped and parents were not happy.

What then is the recipe for a quality educational system that ends up with a great product? We know that parental engagement with children is vital and they are the key to success. As Linda State relates in her blog, “Only parents know the rhythms and subtleties of their child. You know their boundaries, their fears and the social and emotional factors that will impact learning. They’re the things a teacher of 30 students who sees them 4 hours a week could never know. Essentially, the parent engagement movement is a mind shift. It’s a move towards a stronger relationship between school and family, valuing the skills and knowledge each party has to offer.”  That is some important wisdom, however many school boards, administrators and teachers treat parents as interlopers- who don’t understand education.  Parents need a place at the table that is more important than the teacher’s union. A school board and administration should be in control of the school district with policies and decisions made by them and not the teacher’s union.  We know that having a qualified teacher in the classroom as regular as possible is critical.  As you read the labor agreement that your school has there seems to be a disconnect.

Most teachers have a calling to be in this profession and want to do the right thing, we don’t need to tie their hands to a false narrative that is schools vs. parents. The bottom line and the point of this column is that no amount of spending is going to give us success in education.  Competition has worked.  Home schooling, charter schools and private schools have had remarkable success and show it in may ways.  A move towards vouchers and away from bureaucracy and larger systems is a first step. Getting back to basics and a love of our founding principles needs to be our direction.  Tell your school and legislators to apply common sense to education, more money is not the answer- choice is.

(Bob Shillingstad) The Coeur d’Alene School District is asking the voters for $80 million over the next 10 years for a variety of projects.  Please use these facts as a basis for your vote next Tuesday:

• The vote is scheduled about 10 weeks before the general election in November. The district could have had the vote in conjunction with the general election. This will cost the County a minimum of $60,000 to hold this vote that was designed to avoid having many of the electorate voting on the issue.
• The District has mismanaged the Covid “pandemic” with Zoom calls, mask mandates and lost classroom time. In addition the emphasis on CRT, equity training along with transgender madness has caused parents to pull their kids out of the district. Even though our County has had tremendous growth the District had 10,258 students in 2006-07 they only had 10,242 this last year.  The district lost nearly 10% of their students in 2020-21!
• Charter schools increased enrollment by 50% in less than five years. New schools are popping up even as we look around the County.  Christ du Coeur, a traditional, classical Catholic school will open this fall.  Hillsdale College’s Barney Program will open a traditional, classical school also in the fall of 2023 between Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene.  The two best schools in the state for SAT scores were Coeur d’Alene Charter (#1) with an average of 1295 and North Idaho Stem (#2) in Rathdrum was close behind at 1224.  Most government schools, including CDA are still recovering from much lower test scores. Where would you send your child for an education other than homeschooling?
• For the record, you can look up expenditure per pupil from the State of Idaho for government schools and charter schools. What you will find is most Charters spend more than a $1,000 less than the so-called “public schools” per student.  The State of Idaho supports charter schools but insists that the admission to charters is on a lottery basis.  Charter schools do not get to “cherry pick” their students.

Competition works very well in the private sector and education is no different. The parents  are getting ready for another school year and many have already voted with their feet.  The voters need to exercise their right at the ballot box on August 30th.  My wife and I will vote NO on this issue of $80 million.  You need to search the facts and make up your own mind but don’t be fooled by the arguments that this “is an investment in educating the kids” or if you don’t vote YES you “hate children, are ignorant and probably are a stupid Idaho redneck.”  The IFF has created a web site that allows you to look up important statistics on each district in Idaho.  Take a look, this will help as we face the proposition, promoted by leftists to raise more money for “education” and then let us hope the legislature next January passes true choice in education.  The education lobby has controlled the outcome long enough.  Vote Tuesday!

K-12 LEAD Map

(Washington Stand) Millions of Americans believe you cannot automatically trust the federal government to do what is in your best interests. But there may be no better sign of just how crazy these times are than to realize that you cannot trust the pastors of Christian churches to consistently provide biblical guidance on basic life matters. Yet, that’s exactly what was revealed by the most recent wave of the American Worldview Inventory, the national worldview assessment survey annually conducted by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University. That wave of the research asked a nationally representative sample of 1,000 Christian pastors about their beliefs and related behavior — and the results are astonishing, heartbreaking, scary, and cautionary.

According to the research, slightly more than one out of every three pastors of Christian churches (37%) possesses a biblical worldview — i.e., adoption of the basic scriptural principles and teachings that form the filter through which we experience, interpret, and respond to the world.  (Read More)

(Idaho Freedom Foundation) Tennessee’s Legislature passed a law that strengthens protections for free speech and resists the progressive ideology dominating the state’s public colleges and universities. This legislative victory is thanks in part to a pair of reports on the University of Tennessee Knoxville (UTK) and the Tennessee higher education system, which were written by the Idaho Freedom Foundation, the Claremont Institute, and Velocity Convergence.

The Tennessee Legislature clearly understands the threat that critical social justice (CSJ) and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies pose to higher education.

Tennessee’s law is significant for several reasons.

First, it promotes ideological diversity and freedom of expression by preventing students and professors from being forced to pledge allegiance to several divisive concepts, including the idea that one sex or race is intrinsically superior to another.  (Read More)

(Standing For Freedom Center) Despite what you might hear from pro-choicers, pro-life advocates actually do care about mothers and their babies — before and after they are born. In fact, it’s pro-life advocates who donate their time, money, and energy to support women while pregnant and postpartum. It’s pro-life advocates who organize, build relationships with, and invest in expecting women. It’s pro-life advocates who share the same concerns and compassion for parents struggling with childcare and working full-time, affording medical bills, and cutting through the red tape to adopt.

There are actually many pro-life organizations who solve a lot of these problems and more for expecting women. It’s not the pro-abort crowd taking the shirts off their backs to bring aid to expecting mothers and their babies. It’s Christians, conservatives, and pro-life groups rallying together to encourage and empower women to give their baby a chance at life.  (Read More)

(The Federalist) A school board director in Washington state who also owns a sex shop in Bellingham is planning a series of workshops for children as young as 9 to discuss “sexual anatomy for pleasure” and “safer sex practices for all kinds of sexual activities.”

The classes, branded under the name “Uncringe Academy” at the WinkWink Boutique, will host 9- to 12-year-olds in the first string of courses Aug. 10-11 and 13- to 17-year-olds a few days later in the second.

“The class for 9- to 12-year-olds is an introduction to topics related to relationships, puberty, bodies and sexuality,” store owner and Bellingham School Board Director Jenn Mason told Seattle radio host Jason Rantz. “We focus on how puberty works, consent and personal boundaires, defining ‘sex,’ and discussing why people may or may not choose to engage in sexual activities.”  (Read More)

(Daily Signal) …elements on both sides see their political opponents more as evil than as wrong. That’s the true danger for America.

This distinction is best illustrated by comments last week about conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas by two of the left’s biggest stars: Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and former first lady Hillary Clinton.

[…]Sotomayor and Clinton are both on the polar-opposite side of the political spectrum from Thomas. Nobody would accuse either Clinton or Sotomayor of “selling out” or not standing up for what they believe in.

But the difference in attitude between the two is the difference between a continually evolving American experiment and potential civil war.

Sotomayor acknowledges that someone she disagrees with can be a good person. She befriends him because of it. Clinton sees Thomas as an angry black man, a “person of resentment and grievance.” Too many Americans share Clinton’s attitude these days, and not enough Sotomayor’s. If that posture does not change, the country is headed for disaster.  (Read More)

(Washington Stand) With the fall of Roe v. Wade, 90 left-leaning attorneys general and district attorneys across the country have pledged to not enforce criminal charges related to laws protecting the unborn. In a joint statement, the prosecutors emphasized that although they have varying personal and moral beliefs on abortion, they are united in the “firm belief that prosecutors have a responsibility to refrain from using limited criminal legal system resources to criminalize personal medical decisions.”

The statement organized by Fair and Just Prosecution, a coalition of elected local prosecutors, included leaders from 29 states, one territory, and the District of Columbia. These attorneys general and district attorneys represent a total of 91.5 million constituents, including 12 states where abortion has been banned or is likely to be banned in the coming weeks.  (Read More)

(Faith & Freedom) Seattle police arrested a street preacher on charges of being a risk to public safety for reading his Bible aloud at a public park near an LGBT pride event.

Has it come to this?

Naked, confused people running through the park celebrating, with pride, their sexual behavior—in front of young children, being protected by the police, while a Christian reading his Bible was arrested.

Be informed, not misled.

Matthew Meinecke, who identifies himself as The Seattle Preacher on Twitter, was surrounded by Seattle police officers as he was reading his Bible and was subsequently arrested and fingerprinted at a police station before being released.

SPD has enough resources to send 10 police officers to arrest a preacher reading his Bible in a public park. Because it’s such a horrible crime now!”  (Read More)

(The Federalist) I write education news for a living. My job, every day, is to report on what’s happening in education. I have great respect for teachers in all settings but have been a homeschooling mother for more than 10 years now, and what I’ve researched and written on recently is horrifying.

The public school system is a mess. Hardly anyone wants to be a teacher anymore, and with good reason. Too many educators in the system have little to no respect for parental rights and believe they are above the law.

Most recently I reported on a gym teacher who allegedly sexually abused 7- and 8-year-old girls for three years. This occurred between 2015 and 2018, but he is just now finally being brought to justice. I wish this were a rarity, but unfortunately 1 in 10 schoolchildren will be subject to sexual misconduct at the hands of a teacher or school staff member.  (Read More)

(Washington Examiner) Is woke gender ideology taking hold in the United States?

Liberals continue to push it, but the people have become less accepting of this progressive dogma in recent years. The public is more likely to support the biological perspective of sex and gender than the alternative.

It’s a positive sign. Hopefully, the trend continues.

A Pew Research poll conducted in May found that 60% of Americans think that one’s biological sex, which the poll calls “sex assigned at birth,” determines one’s gender. Pew’s phrasing is poor, because that should say biological sex or sex observed at birth. Regardless, just 38% of respondents said, “Whether a person is a man or a woman can be different from sex assigned at birth.”

That’s a 22-point gap between those who are right and those who are wrong on the issue of whether biological sex matters. Over the past five years, people have gotten better. In September 2017, there was only a 10-point gap on this issue: 54% said that “sex assigned at birth” determined whether someone is a man or a woman, and 44% said that it can be different. Last year, the split was slightly better, at 56% to 41%. Now, even more people are waking up to reality.  (Read More)

(Washington Stand) In the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent string of pro-religious liberty decisions, including striking down a law that excluded religious schools in Maine from participating in a school voucher program and upholding the right to public prayer, many are claiming that by ruling in favor of religious organizations and individuals, the current Supreme Court is destroying the so-called constitutional idea of “separation of church and state.”

According to this line of reasoning, the state is part of the public square where religious beliefs are not to be expressed. Supposedly, if people of faith want to participate in the public square and engage in politics, they must leave their beliefs and convictions at the door.

However, contrary to popular belief, the phrase “separation of church and state” is found nowhere in our nation’s founding documents. Nor is the belief that people of faith should be excluded from engaging in the public square according to their convictions, the intended meaning of the First Amendment. The fact that so many people claim otherwise reveals the failure of many citizens to read our founding documents or to understand the historical context of America’s founding.  (Read More)

(Life News) Most Americans disagree with the Democratic Party’s views on allowing mothers to have abortions up until birth, a new poll shows.

Only 10% of registered voters support the Democratic Party’s position on abortion access up to 9 months of pregnancy, according to the Harvard CAPS Harris Poll released Friday. The poll surveyed 1,308 registered voters from June 28-29.

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Women’s Health Protection Act in September 2021, which legalizes abortion up until birth and removes bans on partial-birth abortions. Prominent Democrats such as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi have claimed that such procedures are part of a “woman’s right to choose.” Republican senators and Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin voted against the upper chamber’s attempt to pass the bill in May.

Americans broadly support a state ban on abortion at varying stages of pregnancy, according to the data. The survey showed that 18% of Americans support banning abortion after 23 weeks, 23% support banning it after 15 weeks, 12% support banning it after six weeks, and 37% think states should enact a complete abortion ban except in cases of rape and incest.  (Read More)

(The Federalist) The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) is pushing multiple LGBT recommendations in its 2022 Notable Children’s Books and Summer Reading Lists. Some of these books include a simple picture of a gay union, while other suggestions are fully centered around transgenderism, but in each case, these recommendations are meant to normalize and promote LGBT values and lifestyles to children.

By the ALSC adding these books to the reading list, it communicates that these works are of “especially commendable quality, books that exhibit venturesome creativity, and books of fiction, information, poetry, and pictures for all age levels (birth through age 14) that reflect and encourage children’s interests in exemplary ways.”

For example, children from birth to preschool are encouraged to read “The Pronoun Book” by Chris Ayala-Kronos to complete the summer reading list. As kids just begin to learn how to talk and read, they can also get a head start on trans pronoun propaganda.  (Read More)

(Breakpoint) In all the talk about racial injustices, the racial disparities for abortion are ignored. And that’s because we would need to talk about marriage. I’m John Stonestreet, and this is Breakpoint. 

Recently in The Wall Street Journal, Jason Riley asked a provocative question, “Why Won’t the Left Talk About Racial Disparities in Abortion?” In it, he describes how the “black abortion rate is nearly four times higher than the white rate,” how more black babies in New York City are aborted than born, and how “[n]ationally, the number of babies aborted by black women each year far exceeds the combined number of blacks who drop out of school, are sent to prison and are murdered.” 

Even books on racism by Christian publishers, for example, Jemar Tisby’s How to Fight Racism, never mention the significant racial disparities that exist when it comes to abortion, even while spending significant time on other disparities, such as student achievement, incarceration, wealth, and healthcare in general.  (Read More)

(Action Idaho) Conservatives have flailed in reaction to incidents in Coeur d’Alene the past week. They do not know how to react to the obscenity and indecency on display at the pride event. Nor do they know what to think of the so-called rioters or the authorities that arrested them. There are important lessons for the future of conservatism in Idaho in both episodes. Today we focus on the obscenity problem.

Idaho’s obscenity laws were written in 1972, when porn videos were hard to get and when there was no internet. Playboy was in business. There was then no real gay liberation movement, nor any trans movement. Television was more wholesome. No one knew anything about internet pornography addiction or about the effects porn has on male eros and ambition.

The obscenity has changed, but Idaho’s laws have mostly stayed the same.  (Read More)

(Redoubt News) Remember the rich man in the bible who told Jesus he obeyed all the commandments and asked Jesus what he lacked. Jesus answered, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” (Mark 10:17-31) If you cannot enter into the kingdom of God, what is your alternative?

How important is money if it means the loss of our morals for our children? At the June 15^th school board meeting it was announced that schools are being forced to adhere to twisted sexual orientation/gender identity policies if they want to receive Title IX federal school lunch funding from the Food and Nutrition Services. The Biden Administration announced that any state agency that received funding from them must align with their interpretation to include sexual orientation and gender identity.¹

The audience asked the board to please stop the Title IX federal money for lunches, and prevent this sexual grooming. But superintendent Anselmo said that the schools receive so much federal money, it would be impossible.  (Read More)

(Daily Wire) With families preparing to mark Fathers Day, the majority of kids in large swaths of the country will have nothing to celebrate, a Daily Wire analysis of newly released Census data shows.

On the black map above, all of the blue areas are where most kids don’t live with two parents.

At the state level, the disaster zone for intact families was Puerto Rico, where only 38% of children live with two parents. That is followed by the District of Columbia at 48%, and Mississippi, Louisiana, and New Mexico, at between 55% and 57%, according to the Census data, which covers the years 2016-2020.  (Read More)

(Action Idaho) Pres. Barack Obama designated June to be LGBT Pride Month month in 2011, though Gay Pride Month had been around since 2000 when Bill Clinton established it.

Obama’s celebratory announcement contains all of the ambiguities and pieties that still govern the public presentation of LGBTQ+ Pride Month. On one hand, Pride advocates insist that Pride Month, Pride shows in the park, the parades, the story hours in the library, the dirty books for children are just about cultivating safety and supportive environments. On the other hand, the events point toward revolutionary change in what sex is and in what human beings are said to be.

This move from safety to celebration has been underway for decades. It is a deliberate rhetorical strategy from queer advocates. Kevin Jennings, founder of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), delivered a speech to gay activists on March 5, 1995 laying out the strategy:  (Read More)