Growing up Christian in an Islamic State, and the Rationale Behind the Pro-Life Movement [Videos] thumbnail

Growing up Christian in an Islamic State, and the Rationale Behind the Pro-Life Movement [Videos]

By Vlad Tepes Blog

Watching a talk given by Campaign Life’s astonishingly good speaker to Action for Canada, Ruth Robert in Ottawa May 17th, there was a couple of surprises.

You can read the content break down here at RAIR

Firstly, it is that she is such a profoundly reasonable and knowledgeable person on the subject of abortion. Although deeply religious, her approach to the issue shows wisdom beyond her years. Or at least beyond what her years appear to be.

The second surprise was that she grew up Christian in an Islamic State governed by Sharia law, and she built some of that experience into her talk on the issue of abortion in Canada. She was so knowledgeable, we just had to ask a couple of questions about it, one in the Q&A of her presentation, which we present here also as a separate video, and an interview with her about that aspect of her life.

Whatever your views on abortion, and they are likely as varied as the readership itself, this is a worthwhile presentation on the issue. And as a person living in a Western land under invasion by Islamic migration, her warning to you needs to be remembered and spread.

First, the whole presentation. As usual, for those interested in the best viewing experience, please click the little gear that appears after you click the play button, and select the highest quality.

Ruth Robert talk to Action4Canada May17 2024

Below is the question during the Q&A on her statements on living in an Islamic State as a non-Muslim

Ruth Robert answers question about Islamic culture today from RAIR

And lastly, a separate interview on the topic after her presentation:

Ruth Robert on Islam and Canada

Ruth was one of the speakers at the press conference on the March for Life by Campaign Life Coalition in early May. And yes, it was raining a lot at the presser.

Ruth Robert Atlantic coordinator March for Life presser #3

Here are a couple of the videos from the march itself:

A few scenes from the actual gathering on the hill before the march through downtown by several thousand people. Possibly as many as eight or nine thousand.

I should say that overall the counter-demo was well behaved and very small. Maybe 100 people and mostly polite, at least by demonstration standards and some of the signage was clever and worthy of consideration. This is often not the case. ANTIFA sometimes shows up to counter these demonstrations and seeks attention by projecting critical theory attacks and tantrum like behaviour as much as possible. These people were probably too busy demanding the extermination of Israel to come to this event this year. So the counter-demo people who did show by and large were actually relatively decent. One woman decided to go topless for some reason, and a very tall person had silver face-paint and a fantasy costume of some kind, but the rest were OK. Personally I didn’t see a lot of insults or invective directed at the marchers. NDP Leader Jagmeet Sing was standing with them but at the back and it was hard to get video of him.

Scenes from the pro-and anti-abortion March for Life Ottawa May 9 2024

The march itself was amazing to watch as it always is. A large group of people indeed although over represented by Catholics and Catholic organizations, including a kind Catholic version of the Boy Scouts. A timely group now that the Boy Scouts themselves are anything but. Never having been to a meeting all we can know is they changed their name to avoid the word “Boy” and it would be an easy bet to make that they teach about ‘toxic masculinity.”

FULL March for Life video from May 9th 2024 Ottawa

For those who were there, they will know that the general atmosphere of the March for Life is unlike any of the Soros funded or anti-West critical theory attacks on our civilization we have gotten used to in the past decade. These are, agree with them or not, kind, loving people who want the best for all people. Their intentions are clear. And they do have a point.

RELATED VIDEO: Ruth Robert and others also spoke in front of the Committee on Law Amendments on Friday, March 6th, 2020.

EDITORS NOTE: This Vlad Tepes Blog column with videos posted by Eeyore is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Amal Alamuddin Clooney: ‘I’m Behind ICC Arrest Warrants’ for Netanyahu thumbnail

Amal Alamuddin Clooney: ‘I’m Behind ICC Arrest Warrants’ for Netanyahu

By The Geller Report

Everyone knows, even if they do not want to admit it, that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is known throughout the world for taking more care to avoid civilian casualties than any other military in the history of warfare.

Mrs. Clooney would be better off pursuing Mahmoud Abbas and the leaders of Fatah for crimes against humanity who have boasted they took part in the October 7th. massacre and who, like Yahya Sinwar, have vowed to carry out similar attacks again and again until Israel is annihilated.

That over 70% of Arab Palestinians in Gaza and in Judea & Samaria have declared their support for this historically obscene massacre is lost on Mrs. Clooney.

Her Druze father must have told her Sunni Muslim mother that the Druze community was constantly persecuted by the Sunni Ottoman Empire including forced conversion to Islam. This should have given Mrs. Clooney some pause.

Not much has changed since then so one has to ask why Mrs. Clooney, a British barrister mind you, would attempt to claim the moral high ground by approving a charge of war crimes by the International Criminal Court against Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of the Israeli cabinet without a morsel of evidence. Of course, for some people being associated with any organization that has “international” in its title is just too tempting to resist.

Perhaps Mrs. Cloney has been infected with the same Obama-fawning virus as her husband, a viral strain that promotes racial division, anti-Americanism and Jew-hatred whenever the opportunity arises cloaking it in the most ingratiating aspects of so-called social justice that appeals to every graduate of Twitter University.

Mrs. Clooney is an adjunct professor at Columbia’s School of Law. This explains a lot including why she has been silent about the junior jihadi Hamas supporters and the Islamic Nazis there who boldly tell us they wish to unleash an intifada across America.

If any of these enemies of civilization end up facing charges of sedition or crimes against humanity, we know we can depend on Mrs. Clooney to gallop forth from her gated community to their defense firmly mounted on her high horse, an animal she and her self-satisfied husband always keep closely tethered.

Biden and fellow Jew hater Barack Obama will appear at a fundraiser in Los Angeles that includes Amal Alamuddin Clooney.

George Clooney’s wife: ‘I’m behind ICC warrants’

By: World Israel News, May 21, 2024

Amal Clooney says she and colleagues found that Netanyahu may be guilty of “crimes against humanity,” including murder and starvation.

Amal Clooney, the wife of Hollywood A-Lister George Clooney, took credit for the impending International Criminal Court (ICC) warrants targeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and several Hamas leaders.

Clooney, who was a human rights attorney before marrying the movie star, posted on the Clooney Foundation for Justice website that the ICC had approached her, along with several other prominent lawyers, to serve on an advisory panel regarding filing charges against the Israeli government and Hamas terrorists.

Along with her colleagues, “we unanimously conclude that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity including starvation as a method of warfare, murder, persecution and extermination,” she wrote.

Notably, Clooney did not provide any evidence for that claim, nor did she elaborate upon her reasoning for that conclusion.

“I support the historic step that the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has taken to bring justice to victims of atrocities in Israel and Palestine,” Clooney added, equating the October 7th terror onslaught with civilian casualties in the ongoing fighting between Israel and Hamas.

She also announced that the panel of legal experts had “determined that the Court has jurisdiction over crimes committed in Palestine,” despite the fact that Israel is not party to the court.

The ICC’s non-jurisdiction over Israel has been confirmed by the U.S., which also is not a member of the ICC.

Clooney, née Alamuddin, was born in Beirut, Lebanon to a Druze father and Sunni Muslim mother.

Her family immigrated to the UK when she was two years old, and she was raised and educated in London.

Read more.

AUTHOR

Paul Schnee

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Biden ‘Doesn’t Care about Israel. He Doesn’t Care about Peace. All He Cares about Is Staying in Power’ thumbnail

Biden ‘Doesn’t Care about Israel. He Doesn’t Care about Peace. All He Cares about Is Staying in Power’

By Family Research Council

The war against Hamas has had plenty of plot twists, but the last 48 hours have thrown an already chaotic international scene into even more uncertainty. Not only did Israel’s perpetual tormenter, President Ebrahim Raisi, die in an unexpected helicopter crash, but members of the International Criminal Court (ICC) are trying to arrest both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Gazan leaders for “war crimes.”

The death of Raisi, who was aptly nicknamed the “Butcher of Tehran,” comes just weeks after Iran launched its first open attack on the Jewish state. After firing 300 drone, ballistic, and cruise missiles toward the Israelis (99% of which were intercepted by a team of allies and the Iron Dome), Raisi claimed, “Iran’s armed forces taught a lesson to the Zionist enemy.” He warned of a “heavier and regrettable response” if Israel retaliated.

Without him at the helm, most experts don’t expect much change in the regime’s posturing — toward the Jewish state or the U.S. “I do not expect any sort of disruption in that field to the extent that it has to do with Iran’s actual support for Hamas and its positioning on the ground,” researcher Hamidreza Azizi told Newsweek. If anything, the Revolutionary Guard’s role could “potentially intensify,” Mideast Gulf Editor Nader Itayim explained on CNBC.

While European leaders expressed condolences, the first Army Green Beret in Congress had quite a different take. “Good riddance,” Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) posted. “Raisi was a murderous human rights abuser before and during his Presidency. But look for the Iranian regime to blame Israel and the U.S. for an assassination as another excuse to support terrorism.”

“It wasn’t us,” an anonymous Israeli official insisted to Reuters. “The message Israel is sending to the countries of the world is that Tel Aviv has nothing to do with the incident,” another said on his country’s Channel 13.

Meanwhile, the ICC is intent on charging Netanyahu with other crimes he hasn’t committed, including “intentionally causing death, starvation, great suffering, and serious injury to body or health of the civilian population,” prosecutor Karim Khan said Monday in his formal request for warrants. ““Israel, like all States, has a right to take action to defend its population. That right, however, does not absolve Israel or any State of its obligation to comply with international humanitarian law.” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and leaders of Hamas’s terrorist organization were also named.

Furious, War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz replied that “the State of Israel is waging one of the just wars fought in modern history following a reprehensible massacre perpetrated by terrorist Hamas on the 7th of October.” He went on, “While Israel fights with one of the strictest moral codes in history, while complying with international law and boasting a robust independent judiciary — drawing parallels between the leaders of a democratic country determined to defend itself from despicable terror to leaders of a bloodthirsty terror organization is a deep distortion of justice and blatant moral bankruptcy.”

Here in the U.S., outraged Republicans like Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) cautioned the ICC from going forward with the threat. “I will feverishly work with colleagues on both sides of the aisle in both chambers to levy damning sanctions against the ICC” if they proceed, the South Carolinian warned.

“Most importantly, I want the world to know that I, along with my Republican and Democrat colleagues, and members of the Administration engaged the ICC on this issue weeks ago. We were told there would be discussions with Israel before any actions were taken. We stressed that the principle of ‘complementarity’ should be applied in this case. Complementarity requires the ICC to let the nation in question’s legal system move first before any action is taken by the Court.”

Graham said he was told that the investigation “would take months and not weeks, and that there would be meaningful consultation with the State of Israel. Instead of the ICC following through with scheduled consultations with Israel, they announced the warrants. I feel that I was lied to and that my colleagues were lied to. Prosecutor Khan is drunk with self-importance and has done a lot of damage to the peace process and to the ability to find a way forward. Lying prosecutors never bring about just outcomes.”

In the meantime, Hill conservatives and some Democrats are desperately working to get Israel the weapons they need — no thanks to Joe Biden. House leaders still can’t believe that the White House refuses to send munitions to the Jewish state and late last week, they passed the Israel Security Assistance Support Act to force the president’s hand.

“It’s disgraceful and it’s unlawful” to withhold that help from our allies, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) told guest host and former Congressman Jody Hice on Friday’s “Washington Watch.” “But here’s the situation,” he wanted people to know. “The president [is] reading his opinion polls and his radical left base that’s on these college campuses. … [T]hese aren’t your mom and dad’s Democrats. These are far-left anarchists and a very small minority. The president is so far down in the polls, they’re afraid they won’t even be able to bring those people to the table. So this is his [attempt to placate that anti-Semitic base].”

At the end of the day, Burchett pointed out, “He doesn’t care about Israel. He doesn’t care about peace. All he cares about is staying in power and keeping this group of anarchists that are running our country in the White House.” The idea that Congress has to pass a law “to make sure he follows a law that we already passed” is “the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen,” he shook his head.

It’s “shameful,” Hice agreed. And the most absurd part of it all is that the administration is using these weapons as leverage to get Netanyahu to do what they want. “The Biden administration somehow is taking it upon themselves to micromanage a foreign war that’s being conducted by one of our allies.” Frankly, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) quipped, “If Biden had not been so obsessed with restricting Israel to appease his pro-Hamas base, the war likely would have been over by now.”

At the very least, Hice said, passing the bill to send arms to Israel at least shows the American people where the two parties stand. “We don’t support anarchists,” Burchett insisted, “we don’t support terrorists. Yet the Democrat[ic] Party apparently does.” So, if we want to fix this mess, the Tennessean argued, “the American people need to get to the polls. [In 2020,] 20 million so-called evangelical Christians decided to stay home. And that’s [one reason] we’ve got this disaster in the White House.”

AUTHOR

Suzanne Bowdey

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Iranians Overjoyed, Fireworks and Celebrations at News of The Death of the Butcher of Tehran thumbnail

Iranians Overjoyed, Fireworks and Celebrations at News of The Death of the Butcher of Tehran

By The Geller Report

Biden regime on the wrong side of history. Again.

WATCH: Iran President Death News | ‘Firecrackers, Dance’: Why Are Iranians Celebrating Raisi’s Death? |News

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, supreme leader’s protégé, dies at 63 in helicopter crash

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has died

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, a hard-line protégé of the country’s supreme leader who helped oversee the mass executions of thousands in 1988 and later led the country as it enriched uranium near weapons-grade levels, launched a major attack on Israel and experienced mass protests, has died. He was 63.

Raisi’s death, along with the foreign minister and other officials in a helicopter crash Sunday in northwestern Iran, came as Iran struggles with internal dissent and its relations with the wider world. A cleric first, Raisi once kissed the Quran, the Islamic holy book, before the United Nations and spoke more like a preacher than a statesman when addressing the world.

Continue reading.

Iran’s President Raisi, Foreign Minister Die In Helicopter Crash

Truth Press

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister were killed in a helicopter crash in mountainous terrain and icy weather, an Iranian official said on Monday, after search teams located the wreckage in East Azerbaijan province.

“President Raisi, the foreign minister and all the passengers in the helicopter were killed in the crash,” the senior Iranian official told Reuters, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Iran’s Mehr news agency confirmed the deaths, reporting that “all passengers of the helicopter carrying the Iranian president and foreign minister were martyred”.

An Iranian official earlier told Reuters the helicopter carrying Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian was completely burned in the crash on Sunday.

State TV reported that images from the site showed the aircraft slammed into a mountain peak, although there was no official word on the cause of the crash.

State news agency IRNA said Raisi was flying in a U.S.-made Bell 212 helicopter.

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

How Can We ‘Give Thanks in All Circumstances’? We Remember How Blessed We Are in Christ thumbnail

How Can We ‘Give Thanks in All Circumstances’? We Remember How Blessed We Are in Christ

By Family Research Council

In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, the Apostle Paul wrote, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” The call to “give thanks” is repeated in over 30 instances within the book of Psalms. 1 Chronicles, Philippians, Colossians, Hebrews, Isaiah, and Ephesians, to name a few, cry out the need to express thanks to our God. It’s a clear call. It seems easy enough to live out, right? And yet, I can’t help but wonder: how easy is it, really, to “give thanks in all circumstances”? Because I’ve come to find it’s far easier to be ungrateful.

It probably doesn’t feel easy to give thanks when you or someone you love is struck with illness. Gratitude isn’t often where we turn first when we’re rejected from a job we want or by a person we care about. Thankfulness feels impossible when we face loneliness, anxiety, depression, or stress, doesn’t it? Perhaps the poor wrestle with thankfulness, and the wealthy seldom consider it. Wars break out across the globe, people are starving, children are orphaned, women are widowed, politics are like cancer, and the world is full of numerous other variables that cause us to think: What is there to be grateful for?

I’ve read the stories where people are so sick of their affliction, they “walk away from their faith.” Many blame their problems on God; others are tired of waiting on Him to reveal a reason for their suffering. It’s a tragedy — an utter tragedy. And why is it so tragic? Because, really, believers have so much to be grateful for. It’s a shame how easily we gloss over our rich blessedness in Christ, and it’s my prayer that we can begin to understand just how blessed we really are. Especially when we think we have nothing to be thankful for.

Isaiah 53:5 proclaims, “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” It’s a rich passage, yet it’s easy to neglect the proper probing it deserves. He was “pierced,” “crushed,” yet we receive “peace” and become “healed.” Just how profound this is may be what we forget to reflect on.

Whether it’s realized or not, the worst fate one could ever endure would be to be separated from Christ. Salvation is such a precious gift, and I’m afraid we often take it lightly. Because without it, we have no life, hope, peace, joy, or eternity in paradise. Life would become meaningless. All would be deprived of hope. Peace would be replaced with fear, and joy with depression. Our eternity, separate from Christ, would be spent in the fiery furnace. What grace that with salvation, we are spared from these miseries! What grace that with salvation, we have eternal life, hope, peace, and joy in Christ Jesus! Can you imagine living in this broken world without this hope and relationship with God? I certainly cannot. But, if even for a moment, Jesus did experience this.

On the cross, taking on the sin of the world, He lost the perfect union He always had with the Father from the beginning of time. How incomprehensibly devastating this is. We see Jesus ask His Father in the Gospel of Matthew to remove the cup from Him — the cup of God’s wrath He was to drink from. In Matthew 26, Jesus described His soul as “very sorrowful, even to death.” Our Lord “fell on his face and prayed, saying, ‘My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.’” But it’s no wonder He was distraught.

You see, Jesus could handle the mocking, the beatings, the scorn. He could be hated, and His death could be celebrated by those who rejected Him. But to lose His relationship with the Father — to face the fierce wrath of God Almighty — was a fate far worse than any other; a pain more searing than any pain; a loss graver than any loss. It’s no wonder Jesus asked for that cup to pass. It’s no wonder He was sorrowful. But beloved, what I am wondering is this: Why would He go through that for you and for me?

It doesn’t make any sense. Why would the only perfect, spotless man to ever walk the earth voluntarily sacrifice His life and face the worst fate conceivable for the sake of sinners who only fall short of God’s glory? Why did the Father, from before the foundation of the world, establish a plan to send His one and only Son, so that whoever believes in Him, may be gifted with eternal life? Why did Jesus face a punishment that we deserve, and do so in a way that ensures we will never, ever have to face it ourselves?

Well, Hebrews 12:2 answers that question: We look to “Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” And what was that joy set before Him? It was the perfect will of a perfect, loving God. I don’t know why He did it, but it was God’s sovereign decree that Jesus would secure a people for Himself that would become co-heirs with Him in the Kingdom to come. How could this truth not evoke the most reverent gratitude?

When I think of this blessing, even just the singular blessing of being alive in Christ from now into eternity, my soul swells in praise. Suddenly, I see that we can “give thanks in all circumstances” because now, we are washed clean by the blood of the Lamb. There is nothing that can separate us from this love. “He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?” the Apostle Paul asked in Romans 8. “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?” (v. 33).

Though “we are being killed all the day long” by persecutors, calamities of a broken world, and temptation to sin, “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (vv. 36-37). There is nothing “in all creation” that “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (v. 39b). And so, do you see? We can “give thanks in all circumstances” because there is not a single circumstance in which this truth is not relevant. No matter what we go through, it would befit us to fix our eyes on Christ, as Scripture calls us to do, because it’s in doing so that we realize we are continually blessed in Him. Regardless of our circumstances, we have received “a kingdom that cannot be shaken,” which means we can always “be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe” (Hebrews 12:28).

But in addition to this blessing of salvation, which encompasses all of our being, it is steadfastly true that we do, indeed, serve a generous God. Does He not still provide our every need? Is He not faithful to be with us when we stumble? Does He not cause rain so that the earth is nourished? He has graciously crafted beauty all around in His creation for us to enjoy. He gifts us with the pleasures of art, music, food, and sweet fellowship. And so, my first encouragement, when tempted to wonder how we can be thankful, is to remember the cross — an unending fountain of blessing for those who hear and proclaim its message.

But secondly, I encourage you to remember that God, whether we always recognize it, is truly generous and rich in both grace and mercy. And He has in mind the eternal salvation of our soul — which is far grander than anything we’ll experience here on earth.

Pastor Charles Spurgeon put it well when he said of Christ: “As long as there is a vessel of grace not yet full to the brim, the oil shall not be stayed. He is a sun ever-shining; He is manna always falling round the camp; He is a rock in the desert, ever sending out streams of life from His smitten side; the rain of His grace is always dropping; the river of His bounty is ever-flowing, and the well-spring of His love is constantly overflowing. As the King can never die, so His grace can never fail.”

So, let us posture our hearts in continual gratitude, for our God is continuously loving, merciful, and gracious — a God who has secured our salvation forever.

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLE: NFL’s Harrison Butker Sends Truth Straight through the Uprights

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

The Body of Kidnapped Hostage Amit Buskila, 28, was Found in Rafah by the IDF thumbnail

The Body of Kidnapped Hostage Amit Buskila, 28, was Found in Rafah by the IDF

By The Geller Report

Amit Buskila, 28, was taken captive by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova desert rave on October 7.

Destroy Hamas in Rafah. Now.

IDF recovers body of presumed hostage Amit Buskila, confirms slain Oct. 7 near rave

Fashion stylist’s 28th birthday marked while she was thought captive; remains returned to Israel on May 17, 2024

By TOI STAFF

On May 17, 2024, the IDF revealed that troops had recovered the body of Amit Buskila from the Gaza Strip and brought her back to Israel for burial. This is what we know of the events that led to her murder by Hamas on October 7:

‏Amit Buskila, 28, was presumed taken captive by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova desert rave on October 7, when they launched a surprise attack on the partygoers, killing, committing atrocities and abducting dozens to Gaza.

Buskila, who was raised by a single mother, was on the phone with her uncle, Shimon, during the early morning hours of the attack.

She described to him that she was hiding behind cars, and could hear the terrorists getting closer to Mefalsim, where she had fled from the rave.

He then heard her begging and the last words he heard her say were, “No, no, no,” and then, in a weak voice, “I love you.”

He stayed on the phone, and could hear gunshots and yelling in Arabic, but wasn’t able to reach Amit after those last words.

Amit Buskila was a fashion stylist with thousands of social media followers, and was also known for her cooking.

Her friends were planning a surprise party for her 28th birthday, which took place while her body was held in captivity.

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

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https://x.com/VividProwess/status/1791464419353903159?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1791464419353903159%7Ctwgr%5E1dcfb60901e4b5ca53e551297483f16a4a5ec015%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fgellerreport.com%2F2024%2F05%2Fthe-body-of-kidnapped-hostage-amit-buskila-28-was-found-in-rafah.html%2F

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Dutch PM Geert Wilders: Netherlands will move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem thumbnail

Dutch PM Geert Wilders: Netherlands will move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem

By The Geller Report

Geert Wilders managed to form a coalition government and announced that Netherlands will move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Netherlands will move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem

By: Breek City Times, May 15, 2024

Netherlands will move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The announcement comes after Geert Wilders managed to form a coalition government with 3 other parties and included this point in the coalition platform.

Geert Wilders: ‘‘We’re making history today! Joining the Dutch government.’

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Israel Estimates ‘Approximately 1:1’ Civilian-Combatant Death Ratio in Gaza thumbnail

Israel Estimates ‘Approximately 1:1’ Civilian-Combatant Death Ratio in Gaza

By Family Research Council

More than 14,000 terrorist combatants have died in Gaza since October 7, compared to approximately 16,000 civilians, according to a new Israeli estimate released Monday. “We would expect everyone to now take these figures as a genuine estimate from a free democratic country that fights in strict accordance with the laws of armed conflict in one of the most challenging urban warfare scenarios in history,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pleaded.

This estimate of civilian casualties is the first released by Israel and is far lower than the number claimed by the Hamas-controlled Gazan Health Ministry. Hamas — a U.S. designated terrorist organization with a history of making false claims — has likely manipulated the casualty figures as a propaganda weapon against Israel. Israeli government spokesperson Avi Hyman complained that the Jewish state has been “condemned globally because of a fake and fabricated civilian death toll created and disseminated by Hamas.”

Media organizations around the world have uncritically cited the Hamas-controlled death tolls — which were the only ones available — to produce reporting heavily biased against Israel and even charges of “genocide.” Many of these were the same media organizations who rushed to blame Israel when a Gaza hospital was supposedly bombed — only for time to reveal that a rocket fired at Israel by a Hamas-aligned terror group had misfired and landed in the hospital’s parking lot. Thus:

  • On April 15, The Intercept suggested the Gaza death toll of “more than 33,000, including at least 15,000 children” were “likely undercounts.”
  • On April 22, The New York Times stated the Gaza death toll was more than 34,000 “according to health officials there.”
  • On April 24, a shockingly slanted screed by the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor claimed there were 42,510 dead, “38,621 of whom were civilians.” (That would leave 3,889 combatant casualties for a civilian-combatant casualty ratio of 10:1.)

On this point, The Guardian, a left-leaning, mainstream, British newspaper, was more responsible than many of its American counterparts. While citing Hamas’s death count of 34,000 in an April 20 report, The Guardian at least had the intellectual honesty to acknowledge that the numbers are published by “health authorities under the Hamas-run Gaza government” and “do not differentiate between civilians and Hamas fighters.”

Hamas’s death count suffered a major loss of prestige last week when the United Nations (U.N.) abandoned its figure for the number of children killed in the Gaza war. (U.N. agencies are obviously no friends of Israel.) As recently as March, the U.N. Children’s Fund had recorded 13,450 children killed in Gaza, citing Hamas’s figures. Last Wednesday, however, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) updated the number of children killed in the Gaza war as of April 30 to 7,797 — a 42% decline.

Th U.N.’s new number is far more compatible with that released this week by Israel, indicating that Hamas’s death inflation may be growing too unrealistic for even the most anti-Israel organizations to believe.

Granted, “every civilian casualty is a tragedy,” as Netanyahu said this week. However, those casualties “would not have happened if Hamas hadn’t insisted on using their own people as human shields.”

“What Israel has done is take the effort to minimize civilian casualties as no other army has done,” Netanyahu argued. “We use leaflets, we use millions of text messages, phone calls. We actually call the people, give up the benefit of surprise, tell them: ‘Get out of the way. Get out of the war zone so that we can accomplish our military objectives while you’re in a safe place.’”

In fact, Israel’s civilian-to-combatant casualty ratio is similar to or lower than that from many American military operations in the 21st century. Israeli strikes on terrorist targets have actually caused less collateral damage than, for instance, the 2008 Nineveh campaign in particular (2.4:1 civilian-to-military death ratio), or the entire 2003-2011 Iraq War in general (3.2:1 – 1.5:1). They have caused similar civilian casualties to the 2016-2017 Battle of Mosul (1.2:1 – 1:1.8) and the 2001-2021 Afghanistan War (1:1.2), the latter of which was waged amid rural, mountainous terrain instead of in crowded cities.

Israel’s low civilian death toll is especially remarkable due to the high population density in Gaza and the fact that their enemies deliberately shelter among civilian populations to maximize the collateral damage. “In reality, Israel is setting the new gold standard for urban warfare with what appears to be the lowest civilian to combatant casualty ratios in history,” Hyman insisted.

Israel’s own military losses have risen to 620, Hyman said. Israel could likely prosecute the war with fewer of its own casualties if it didn’t place such a priority on protecting Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, it has eliminated approximately 14,000 out of Hamas’s 35,000 terrorists, Netanyahu said. Many of the remaining terrorists are hiding behind one million Palestinian civilians in Rafah. The only way to end the war is for Israeli forces to move in and defeat Hamas, which will result in more civilian casualties. But, as the low casualty count shows, Israel is working to protect civilians, while the brutal international terror group is working to put them in harm’s way.

AUTHOR

Joshua Arnold

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

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Throwing Israel Under the Bus

By Jerry Newcombe, D. Min.

Is it just me or did President Biden throw Israel under the bus, presumably because the Muslim vote for his re-election is pretty shaky? Biden threatened Israel that the U.S. would withhold further weapons should Israel invade Rafah, the last stronghold of Hamas.

I don’t think it’s just me. As Gary Bauer, founder and director of American Values, commented: “Biden is withholding military assistance, approved by Congress and that he signed into law, for Israel because he is afraid that he will lose the election if Israel finishes off Hamas. That is exactly what Pelosi accused Donald Trump of doing with aid to Ukraine.”

Bauer notes that Biden removed sanctions from Houthi terrorists and from the Iranian regime, which is still the largest sponsor of terrorism in the world. Yet he is leaving Israel high and dry, as it fights a must-win war for its national survival.

Again, I don’t think it’s just me. The excellent political cartoonist Gary Varvel wrote in his newsletter recently: “By refusing to give military aid to Israel, President Biden is supporting Hamas.”

All of the recent protests on campuses in favor of Hamas appear to be working. Rep. Ilhan Omar, an active Muslim and member of the Squad, tweeted (on X): “This is what young people across the country were protesting for and finally the needle has moved in a significant way. I hope we see more progress, but don’t ever let people tell you that your voices are meaningless and your actions are worthless. The arc of what is possible is always within us to bend.”

Some of those pro-Palestinian student protesters tried to spoil the comedian Jerry Seinfeld’s commencement address at Duke over the weekend. They walked out on his speech, shouting, “Free Free Palestine.”

Meanwhile, at Columbia, a student was barred from the school recently for a threat of violence. He tweeted (on X): “Zionists, they don’t deserve to live comfortably, let alone Zionists don’t deserve to live….The same way we are very comfortable accepting Nazis don’t deserve to live, fascists don’t deserve to live.”

What a lot of these young pro-Palestinians don’t realize is that ultimately, the position of Hamas calls for the death of Israel.

We keep hearing the phrase “From the River to the Sea.” What does that actually mean? It means that the modern state of Israel belongs to the Palestinians. The Jews have no claim on the land.

As Victor Davis Hanson notes, “When student protestors scream ‘From the river to the sea,’ that is not advocacy for a two-state solution. It is a call to eliminate the state of Israel—lying in between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea—and its 10 million Jewish and Arab citizens. The Hamas charter is a one-state/no-Israel agenda, which we saw attempted on Oct. 7.”

Someone might say, “We need more dialogue.” How can you have dialogue with someone who does not agree with your right to exist?

Last month, I spoke again with New York Times best-selling author Robert Spencer on the radio about the anti-Israel protests at Columbia protests.

For this piece, I asked him for a statement about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at large.

He told me, “The conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs is not based on land. It is based on Islam. The Qur’an says, ‘Drive them out from where they drove you out’ (2:191). Although it’s actually a historical myth that Israel drove the Arabs out, it is widely believed, and makes destroying Israel a matter of obeying a divine command. This means that while Palestinians might accept Israel in some form as a step toward realization of that goal, ultimately they can never allow Israel to exist at all, no matter how small it may be.”

All of this is ironic in light of Israel’s historic claim on that land. As the late Dr. Charles Krauthammer once noted, “Israel is the only nation on earth that inhabits the same land, bears the same name, speaks the same language, and worships the same God that it did 3,000 years ago.”

Why can’t there be lasting peace in the Middle East? Israel, a tiny nation-state, no bigger than New Jersey, is surrounded by hostile neighbors that don’t want it to continue to exist.

Israel is constantly having to deal with enemies from without and from within. The Judeo-Christian principle of “just war” applies to them—that is, that they have the right to defend themselves from those who would try to destroy them.

The ultimate question is: Does Israel have the right to exist? Of course, it does. Therefore, it has the right to defend itself. It’s too bad the current administration and many in the culture at large are acting like fair-weather friends based on shifting political winds.

©2024. Jerry Newcombe, D. Min. All rights reserved.

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How the Anti-Israeli Campus Protests Are the Latest Version of the Blood Libel

By NEWSRAEL Telling the Israeli Story

Of the analytical frameworks into which to fit the eruption of anti-Israel protests on college campuses, there is no shortage. There’s the “free speech on campus” concept, the Arab-Israeli conflict paradigm, the lawless-university-radicals-of-the-1960s pattern.

The framework that fits the situation most neatly, though, is one that hasn’t been elaborated much. That is the “blood libel,” which a six-page entry in the Encyclopaedia Judaica defines as “the allegation that Jews murder non-Jews, especially Christians, in order to obtain blood for Passover or other rituals.”

The Encyclopaedia Judaica also calls it “a complex of deliberate lies, trumped-up accusations, and popular beliefs about the murder-lust of the Jews and their bloodthirstiness.” The Judaica traces the origin of the story all the way back to Apion, an Egyptian who lived during the first century of the Common Era.

The historian Josephus writes in “Against Apion” that this claim that Jews deliberately sacrificed a non-Jew is “a most tragical fable … full of nothing but cruelty and impudence” and motivated by “an extravagant love of lying.” Josephus, writing in about 100 CE, calls Apion’s tale “a voluntary lie” that operated “to the delusion of those who will not examine into the truth of matters.”

Two thousand or so years later, we’re at it all over again, with the Jews yet again facing a Passover-season lie about deliberately killing non-Jews. So, at Columbia University, the anti-Israel mob renamed Hamilton Hall as “Hind’s Hall,” after a six-year-old Palestinian girl, Hind Rajab, who Israel has been blamed without evidence for killing.

To anyone who knows history, an Easter or Passover-season tale of Jews intentionally killing a child is familiar. The Encyclopaedia Judaica gives the places and dates: Norwich, 1144; Gloucester, England, 1168; Blois, France, 1171; Saragossa, Spain, 1182; Trent, Italy, 1475; Lublin, 1636.

By setting up the pro-Hamas university encampments on the first day of Passover, the anti-Israel protesters provided useful clarity that their false accusations of “genocide” against Israel fell squarely within this age-old tradition of groundlessly accusing Jews of using the blood of Christian children to bake matzo. The protesters also help by making explicit references to “blood.” The Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, for example, advertised a series of events with a social media post headlined, “Palestinian blood is on Israel’s hands.”

Elisha Wiesel, son of Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, writes that his father would ask, “Where are the history lessons on the blood libel, the historical precedent for accusing Jews of murder?”

The Encyclopaedia Judaica entry is by Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson, a professor of history who taught at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The entry ends with a reference to an essay by Ahad Ha’am, who lived between 1856 and 1927 and was a champion of cultural Zionism.

That essay, “Some Consolation,” was written in Hebrew in 1892. It was brought out in English translation by Leon Simon in 1912 by the Jewish Publication Society, as part of a collection of selected essays by Ha’am. The essay contemplates the possibility that, just as on today’s campuses, some individuals of Jewish background will side with the enemies.

“Since everybody hates the Jews, can we think that everybody is wrong, and the Jews are right?” he quotes a Russian writer as asking. “There are many among us Jews on whom a similar question half-unconsciously forces itself. Can we think, they ask, that all the vicious characteristics and evil practices which the whole world ascribes to the Jews are sheer imagination?”

Ha’am writes that the “useful lesson” of such a baldly false accusation is that it may strengthen Jewish confidence and prevent unwarranted guilt.

“There is nothing more dangerous for a nation or for an individual to plead guilty to imaginary sins,” he says. “Where the sin is real, there is opportunity for repentance; by honest endeavor the sinner may purify himself. But when a man has been persuaded to suspect himself unjustly, how can he get rid of his consciousness of guilt?”

The blood-libel accusation, he writes, “is the solitary case in which the general acceptance of an idea about ourselves does not make us doubt whether all the world can be wrong, and we right, because it is based on an absolute lie.”

He adds, “This will make it easier for us to get rid of the tendency to bow to the authority of ‘everybody’ in other matters.”

Today, the Jews aren’t entirely alone; we are blessed with many allies. Yet it can sometimes, in the media or on campuses or at the United Nations, feel again like everybody is against us. That does not make the accusations true.

Ha’am wrote: “‘But’ — you ask — ‘is it possible that everybody can be wrong, and the Jews right?’”

And here is how the Encyclopaedia Judaica entry on “blood libel” by Ben-Sasson concludes, quoting the Ha’am essay in words that ring as true today as in 1892: “Yes, it is possible: the blood accusation proves it possible. Here, you see, the Jews are right and perfectly innocent.”

EDITORS NOTE: This UNITED WITH ISRAEL column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

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Democrat Leadership Urges Members To Oppose House GOP’s Israel Aid Bill

By The Geller Report

It’s not “just the squad”. Today’s Democratic Party is systemically antisemitic.

The entire anti-Israel narrative is a litany of lies about Israel. Lying about Israel is lying about Jews.

That’s anti-Semitism straight up. (hat tip Shirley)

Dem Leadership Urges Members To Oppose House GOP’s Israel Weapons Bill

By: Daily Wire, May 14, 2024;

On Tuesday, House Democrat leadership urged their colleagues in the party to vote against a GOP bill that pressures the Biden administration not to withhold arms from Israel as it fights Hamas following a deadly terrorist attack in October of last year.

Republican appropriators introduced the legislation after President Joe Biden halted the delivery of some weapons to Israel in protest of a full-scale ground operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

‘Bully Organization’: FFRF Forces Florida Elementary School to Disband Christian Club thumbnail

‘Bully Organization’: FFRF Forces Florida Elementary School to Disband Christian Club

By Family Research Council

Over the last several years, former President Donald Trump has voiced his disapproval of how people of faith have been treated in America. In late December, he posted a video on his social media platform, Truth Social, with the caption, “Stopping the Persecution of Christians!”

“Americans of faith are being persecuted like nothing this nation has ever seen before,” he said in the video. “Catholics in particular are being targeted, and evangelicals are surely on the watchlist as well.”

Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF), an atheist group founded in 1976, has had a history of targeting Christians. Some of FFRF’s past projects include suing a Tennessee elementary school on behalf of The Satanic Temple, suing New Jersey Secretary of State Tahesha Way for forcing public office candidates to swear a religious oath, and ensuring that a Latin cross was taken down at Chino Valley Adult School in California.

While FFRF’s eyes are currently set on demanding that the Birmingham Police Department “end coercive staff prayer,” the group is celebrating another win in their book. An elementary school in rural Florida was forced to disband its Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) club after being accused of indoctrinating children into religion by FFRF. The FCA chapter included a small group of fifth grade students.

On March 29, FFRF legal fellow Samantha Lawrence wrote a letter to the District Superintendent Dorothy Lee Wetherington-Zamor “regarding a constitutional violation” at Hamilton County Elementary School. The sole elementary school in the small town of Jasper was accused of “alienating” and “excluding” non-religious families, as well as violating “students’ First Amendment rights by organizing, leading, and promoting a religious club.”

Lawrence defended FFRF’s stance by pointing out that the Equal Access Act allows students to form religious clubs in secondary schools, but not elementary schools. To further her point, she wrote, “Elementary students are too young to truly run a club entirely on their own initiative with no input from school staff or outside adults,” insinuating that “adults are the ones truly behind the club.”

“Hamilton Elementary should strive to be welcoming and inclusive of all students, not just those who subscribe to a particular brand of Christianity,” Lawrence continued. “The District must immediately investigate this matter and ensure that the FCA club at Hamilton Elementary is disbanded.”

Joseph Backholm, senior fellow at Family Research Council, responded to FFRF’s complaints in a comment to The Washington Stand.

“In general, the FFRF is a bully organization that leverages people’s ignorance of their freedoms against them,” he said. “This is far from the first time someone has tried to force a religious organization out of a school, but the First Amendment has, does, and hopefully always will be acknowledged as protecting those rights.”

After receiving the FFRF’s accusations, a local law firm representing the Hamilton County School District responded with a letter relaying their compliance.

“In an effort to avoid any perception that such a gathering on the campus of Hamilton Elementary is being organized, promoted or endorsed by the District or its employees, the club has been dispersed.” The letter also stated that the participating students would be starting sixth grade in a few months and would “be eligible to participate in FCA on the campus of Hamilton County High School.”

Ultimately, the elementary school caved to FFRF’s demands, a decision the First Liberty Institute — a nonprofit defending religious freedom — disagrees with.

“Banning students from having a religious club at a school while permitting other, secular clubs is a travesty that teaches children their faith is unwelcome and must be hidden,” First Liberty Institute Deputy General Counsel Justin Butterfield told The Christian Post.

While FFRF exists to lessen religious influence in America, organizations like First Liberty fight to preserve religious freedoms. Their mission heavily contrasts with FFRF’s, as they have set out to defend “religious liberty for all Americans.”

Meanwhile, FFRF has begun celebrating their victory in shutting down the FCA chapter at Hamilton Elementary.

“It is well settled that public schools may not show favoritism towards or coerce belief or participation in religion. It is inappropriate and unconstitutional for an elementary school to organize, lead, or encourage student participation in a religious club like the Fellowship of Christian Athletes,” the press release following the disbandment read. “Thankfully, the district was willing to listen to reason and obey the law.”

While some leaders raise the alarm and organizations fight against religious persecution occurring on American soil, Backholm assures Christians ought not to fear.

“The last thing Christians should ever be is afraid,” he said. “There have always been sectarian conflicts in the U.S., but fortunately they have been less serious than in most other parts of the world because respecting the conscience of others has long been an American value. Yes, it’s being threatened by a dogmatic and highly intolerant form of secularism, but relatively speaking we have much to be grateful for.”

Backholm also warned that Christians live “on a spiritual battlefield.” He encouraged those with a faith to stand firm, as “any public testimony to the gospel will illicit some kind of response,” but it is a “reality Christians needs to be comfortable with.”

AUTHOR

Abigail Olsson

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

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Federal Court Rules in Favor of Catholic School Upholding Biblical View of Marriage

By Family Research Council

In a decision hailed by religious liberty advocates, a federal court is upholding a Catholic school’s right to require employees to conform to Catholic teachings when it fired a teacher for entering into a same-sex marriage.

The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Wednesday that a North Carolina Catholic school was within its rights to dismiss Lonnie Billard, a drama teacher and substitute English teacher at Charlotte Catholic High School (CCHS), after he announced he would be marrying another man. The court’s ruling said that “because Billard played a vital role as a messenger of CCHS’s faith,” the school could dismiss him from his position for contradicting Catholic moral teaching.

Billard announced on social media in 2014 that he intended to marry another man, shortly after the state legalized same-sex marriage. In response, CCHS dismissed Billard from his position for violating the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte’s employee policy prohibiting actions contrary to Catholic moral teaching. Billard and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued CCHS, the diocese, and Mecklenburg Area Catholic Schools for alleged Title VII violations. A district court ruled in favor of Billard in 2021, but that decision was reversed by Wednesday’s ruling.

Fourth Circuit Court Judge Pamela Harris, an Obama appointee, wrote Wednesday’s majority opinion. She found, “Although CCHS offers separate secular and religious classes, religion infuses daily life at the school.” She noted that the school is expressly devoted to teaching and furthering Catholic principles, citing the school’s motto and mission statement, as well as the diocesan mission statement. “CCHS’s expectations of its teachers extend beyond the classroom,” Harris wrote. “It does not require all its employees to be Catholic. But, Catholic or not, it requires its employees to conform to Catholic teachings: CCHS prohibits employees from engaging in or advocating for conduct contrary to the moral tenets of the Catholic faith, including the Catholic Church’s rejection of same-sex marriage.”

Although Harris said that, as an English and drama teacher, Billard “did not have a responsibility to educate his students explicitly in the Catholic faith,” she did note, “CCHS’s commitment to integrating faith throughout its curriculum meant that Billard had to account for religion in his classes.” CCHS had previously made numerous and even novel legal arguments to defend its actions, but Harris ultimately found that the school’s dismissal of Billard was protected by the “ministerial exception” to Title VII. “Because we conclude that Billard’s role at CCHS was ‘ministerial’ for purposes of the ministerial exception, we resolve the case on that ground,” she wrote.

The ”ministerial exception” bars the application of certain anti-discrimination laws to religious institutions when dealing with the hiring of its “ministers.” Of note, Harris stated, “The ministerial exception does not protect the church alone; it also confines the state and its civil courts to their proper roles.” Noting that certain religion-oriented disputes are beyond the authority of the courts, she wrote, “The First Amendment’s Religion Clauses … ‘bar the government from interfering’ with ministerial employment decisions or involving itself in ecclesiastical matters.” She clarified, “That means civil courts like ours are ‘bound to stay out’ of employment disputes involving ministers — those ‘holding certain important positions with churches and other religious institutions.’” Relying on U.S. Supreme Court precedent, Harris wrote, “We conclude that the school entrusted Billard with ‘vital religious duties,’ making him a ‘messenger’ of its faith and placing him within the ministerial exception.”

In response to the court’s decision, Arielle Del Turco, director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council, told The Washington Stand, “It’s encouraging to see this decision from the appellate court. No religious schools should be required to employ individuals whose actions and advocacy violate the school’s core religious beliefs.” She continued, “The main point of sending your child to a religious school is for them to be formed in their faith and taught their classes through the lens of their faith. As such, it’s important for such schools to hire teachers that share and affirm that faith, inside and outside the classroom.”

Meg Kilgannon, Family Research Council’s senior fellow for Education Studies, agreed. “This decision is important for many reasons, but especially for parents and families who are seeking an educational setting outside the home that reflects their faith and values. In our secular society, that is increasingly difficult to find, even in ostensibly Christian organizations,” she told TWS. “Decisions like this one that reaffirm the school’s right to expect and demand agreement with major doctrinal questions are much appreciated. And as a parent, I would hope that Catholic schools would strive to have faithful and practicing Catholic teachers in every class, not just religion class.”

Kilgannon added, “This situation also reminds us of the important relationship teachers have with their students/our children. Even in a substitute teacher setting, the influence of adults on children is profound.” In fact, the court also addressed that point. Harris wrote that a religious institution’s instruction that employees abide by particular religious moral codes does not automatically place all employees within the ministerial exception. But, she added, “teachers are different.” Quoting the Supreme Court, she explained, “’[E]ducating young people in their faith, inculcating its teachings, and training them to live their faith are responsibilities that lie at the very core of the mission of a private religious school’ like CCHS.”

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

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Student Demonstrations: Power, Not Freedom of Speech

By The Catholic Thing

Randall Smith: We will either teach our young people the skills and self-discipline required for republican self-government and fill them with the faith in it and love for it they need to preserve it, or we will lose the privilege – a gift bequeathed to us at great cost.

“Did you get caught in the student riot?” asked a friend.  “What riot?” “The Pro-Palestinian demonstration at the University of Texas.” I am at UT on a sabbatical. “We don’t have student riots in Texas,” I informed him; “we have temporary misunderstandings between students and state troopers about who controls public spaces. The students learn.”  The authorities in Texas are not as feckless as those running the East Coast Ivies.

As Wilfred McClay points out in a recent article in The New Criterion, demonstrations aren’t “speech.”  They may be “expressions” – of anger, frustration, sometimes boredom. But they’re not “speech” in the classic sense of logos, “reasoned discourse.”

In speech, you express an idea; you make an argument; and you invite others to respond.  The demonstrations on college campuses are not invitations to dialogue; they are the opposite.  They demand that dialogue stop and obedience begin.  In this, they are similar to groups shouting down speakers with whom they disagree.  It should be no surprise, then, that both have become standard practice together.

It’s not as though the demonstrators are inviting reasoned responses to their position.  They’re not willing to hear contrary opinions.  They have “demands” and those demands must be met.  They are a mob, and mobs are something, along with tyranny, that the Founders of the country feared most.

When demonstrators are pretending to be engaging in free speech when what they are really doing is showing the power of a mob to get others to conform to their will, they shouldn’t be surprised if authorities respond to their demonstration of power with a demonstration of power of their own.  Those Texas state troopers weren’t on campus to argue.  But neither were the demonstrators.

Perhaps the most ridiculous feature of these recent protests is the shock the students evince when, having violated repeated orders to disperse, they are finally arrested.  That many must be hauled away because they’ve “gone limp” belies their wide-eyed innocence, since it shows they’ve received training in “what to do for the cameras when the police haul you away.”  Perhaps we can all agree that it’s no way to run a republic.

Some years ago, a bright student of mine had a complaint about something on campus.  “Okay,” I said, “so what are you going to do?”  After a moment’s thought, she said: “Gather people together to demonstrate?”  “How about getting elected to student government, writing an op-ed in the paper, seeking to convince others of your position?” I replied.  Those options either hadn’t occurred to her, or she had no faith in them.

Democracy is a messy business; it requires patience and skills of its own.  It’s not like driving a car that moves in the direction I steer, accelerates to the speed I want, and stops when and where I determine.  It means dealing with other people.  And other people have ideas and concerns of their own.

Show no interest in the ideas and concerns of others, and they are likely to return the favor.  Like you, they want to drive the car in the direction they want.  And as everyone who spends time on America’s highways knows, this highly individualistic lack of concern for others is bad for everyone.

As we need “rules of the road” to provide the order that ensures everyone can get to their destinations “freely” and in relative safety, so too if speech is to be “free,” if it is to be a “common good” and not merely the privilege of one powerful group, speakers must observe a set of procedural norms meant to preserve this freedom for everyone.

At the University of Texas, the Provost sent out a note outlining the rights and duties of the members of the community.  Among the rights were the right to “assemble peacefully to protest,” to “hand out flyers and brochures,” and to “invite guest speakers to present in common outdoor areas.”  But with this freedom comes responsibility.  Thus individuals, said the Provost, may not “disrupt the operations of the university, including but not limited to:

Making loud sounds that interfere with learning; teaching, or other official actions; blocking entrances, exits, and walkways; calls for immediate lawless behavior, and vandalism.

Camping or attempting to camp on university property (including bringing tents on campus and sleeping on university property, with or without a tent, later than 10:00 p.m.).

Refusing to identify themselves to university officials or law enforcement.

Refusing to comply with directions given by university officials or law enforcement.

Using amplified sound without prior approval.

Wearing masks or disguises.

Coercing attention by following students walking away from the protest.

Campuses around the country would be better off if they posted those rules and enforced them.  Students would be better off if they abided by them respectfully and stopped screaming like little children for the cameras when they get hauled away by the authorities for violating reasonable rules.  Such demonstrations of political theater are attempts at emotional blackmail.  They don’t help the Palestinian people, but they make the American public more cynical about real acts of government suppression and police brutality.

Government can be overly coercive in suppressing speech it doesn’t like, and we’ve had too many examples of that recently.  But mobs are not “democratic governance in action.”  They are simply another form of tyranny.  Which is why they are often found in the same places among the same people.

We will either teach our young people the skills and self-discipline required for republican self-government and fill them with the faith in it and love for it they need to preserve it, or we will lose the privilege – a gift bequeathed to us at great cost.  Catholics should lead the way in educating their students for this level of civil engagement and discourse. This would show that what St. Augustine argued in The City of God is true: Catholics aren’t dangerous aliens. Quite the contrary, their Christian faith makes them better citizens.

You may also enjoy:

David Warren The Present Desolation 

Brad Miner Is a Free Society Stable?

AUTHOR

Randall Smith

Randall B. Smith is a Professor of Theology at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas. His latest book is From Here to Eternity: Reflections on Death, Immortality, and the Resurrection of the Body.

EDITORS NOTE: This The Catholic Thing column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. © 2024 The Catholic Thing. All rights reserved. For reprint rights, write to: info@frinstitute.org. The Catholic Thing is a forum for intelligent Catholic commentary. Opinions expressed by writers are solely their own.

As Boy Scouts ‘Go Woke,’ Door Opens for Christian Alternatives thumbnail

As Boy Scouts ‘Go Woke,’ Door Opens for Christian Alternatives

By Family Research Council

The Boy Scouts were originally founded to ensure young boys were being taught how to become strong men. But just last week, after roughly a decade of slowly caving to social pressures, the Boy Scouts released the new title for the organization: Scouting America (SA). Although SA President Roger Krone said their “mission remains unchanged,” many have taken issue with the claim.

Krone insisted that they are still “committed to teaching young people to be prepared for life,” but critics argue that this statement differ from the Scouts’ original purpose. In 1910, their mission was not centered on “young people,” but on boys specifically. Their purpose was stated as such: “to teach [boys] patriotism, courage, self-reliance, and kindred values.” The organization was created “by men who were concerned about the disappearance of traditional boyhood and the cultivation of masculine virtues as America rapidly urbanized,” National Review’s editorial board wrote.

But, as they emphasized, “America is currently undergoing another acknowledged crisis for boys and men, [but] the Boy Scouts of America won’t be there to meet their needs.” For parents who care about the original purpose of the Boy Scouts, there’s a group that’s already stepped up to fill the gap.

The Christian organization, Trail Life USA (TLUSA), took root 10 years ago when SA first showed signs of surrendering their values. On Friday’s episode of “Washington Watch,” TLUSA Chairman John Stemberger joined guest host and former Congressman Jody Hice to discuss why this alternative is an important option in today’s climate.

“It’s sad,” Stemberger lamented, “because what [SA has] done is they’ve neutered the DNA of who they were as an organization.” He added, “They were literally a boy-focused organization, and now they’re just … generic, plain vanilla, any young person can come here” kind of organization. You can be “gay, trans, [a] girl — doesn’t matter anymore,” he said.

According to Hice, this was a “decade-long drift from the values and virtues it once celebrated.” But as Stemberger pointed out, the drift happened when leadership prioritized not offending anyone, which has “transformed it into a kind of … youth group with neckerchiefs without any core meaning.” Hice agreed, adding that there have been numerous “incredible leaders over the years that the Boy Scouts have helped create, and in essence, all of that’s erased. It’s all tossed out the window … at this point. … It’s just sad to watch this.”

Hice wondered if there could be more to this shift than simply “going woke,” to which Stemberger replied, “The real tragedy here … no one’s talking about” is that SA is not merely promoting LGBT ideology, but they’re actively putting young boys and girls in harmful situations.

He explained, “[A]ll these changes are producing more boy-on-boy and now girl-on-boy sexual contact. I mean, that’s exactly what’s happening here, because they do not separate out kids that claim to be openly gay.” But the problem, he emphasized, is that there’s a reason “we don’t tent boys and girls [together] … because they’re attracted to each other.” And yet, this organization is now “going to allow an openly gay boy to decide who he’s going to unilaterally sleep with on his own. And this absolutely creates a radical increase of boy-on-boy contact issues that are very hard to prevent, much less report. … It’s a scandal.”

In a separate interview with Owen Strachan, a senior fellow at FRC’s Center for Biblical Worldview, Hice noted that what we’re seeing is “a violation of what God intended these young men to be.” Strachan agreed, explaining how “masculinity is made by God and is designed for his glory.” He added, “Every man … needs the gospel of divine grace to live and flourish as a man as God intends.” All of these ideologically driven shifts have “opened the door for more parents of boys to consider a Christian alternative,” Hice said.

As Stemberger emphasized, “[W]e need to be concerned with our young people.” Ultimately, it’s about “men becoming men [and] learning what it means to be a man.” As far as Stemberger is concerned, “[O]ur conviction is that you have to learn how to be a man from another man. … It’s a pretty simple concept.”

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Invitation to join the Global Prayer for Israel on May 15th, 2024 thumbnail

Invitation to join the Global Prayer for Israel on May 15th, 2024

By Dr. Rich Swier

Shalom from Jerusalem, I pray this finds you well.

I am pleased to share that the Genesis 123 Foundation will be producing a very special prayer event for Israel, the Global Prayer for Israel on May 15.  The date is significant because it’s the day that Israel’s enemies call the “nakba,” the catastrophe of Israel’s birth. With a war still raging in Israel that may get much worse before it gets better, and rampant antisemitism threatening Jews all around the world, the time is urgent.

Global Prayer for Israel – May 15, 2024

We are bringing thousands of Jews and Christians together on ONE live platform globally to pray for Israel’s safety and protection at this perilous season. Each of the first three hours will be according to the following prayer points:

  • praying for ALL the 133 hostages to be released,
  • praying for the IDF’s safety and success, and
  • praying that God will change the hearts of Israel’s enemies.

The same themes will be repeated in the second three hours, and the final hour plus will be in Spanish.

I am pleased to invite you to join us. 

We will also be thrilled for help promoting the Global Prayer for Israel, using this registration link, attached graphic, this short promotional video, and perhaps a personal note of endorsement about why this is so important, and why now.

In order to defray costs, we are asking all participants to join as sponsors and hope that you’ll consider doing so using this link.

If you haven’t registered yet, please do so today. Either way, please share widely.

Thank you for your time and consideration. We look forward to your positive response and participation.

Blessings from Jerusalem,

Jonathan Feldstein
President, Genesis 123 Foundation
+972-53-761-4220
www.Genesis123.co 

©2024. Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

Special interview with Rabbi Jonathan Hausman on current events in Israel and America and their historical significance. thumbnail

Special interview with Rabbi Jonathan Hausman on current events in Israel and America and their historical significance.

By Dr. Rich Swier

In this compelling episode of Dissent Television host Dr. Rich Swier interviews Rabbi Jonathan Hausman on current events in Israel and America and their historical significance.

WATCH: Special interview with Rabbi Johnathan Hausman on Dissent Television.

ABOUT RABBI JOHNATHAN HAUSMAN

Rabbi Jonathan Hausman hails from Bridgeport, Conn. He is the eldest of four brothers.

Rabbi J, as he is known, received a B.A. in Religion and Judaic Studies and an M.A. in Middle East and Jewish Studies from The George Washington University. He received a J.D. from Emory University and received his rabbinic ordination from Tifereth Israel Rabbinical Yeshiva.

He is a Past Treasurer and President of the Stoughton Clergy Association. He is a past Board Member and first Vice President of American Friends of ALYN Hospital.

Rabbi J has taken roles in numerous administrative and director capacities in religious schools and community-based educational programs in southwestern Connecticut before his arrival in Stoughton in August 1996. He served Congregation Sinai of West Haven, Conn.

He is an avid cyclist, having ridden throughout New England and the Mid-Atlantic states as well as overseas.

©2024. Dissent Television Channel and host. All rights reserved.

Our Pagan Revolution and What to Do About It thumbnail

Our Pagan Revolution and What to Do About It

By The Catholic Thing

Auguste Meyrat: America’s gradual separation from Christian morality in the twentieth century has resulted in an equally gradual encroachment of pagan morality.

It’s no secret that Christianity is on the wane across America. Even before the COVID-19 lockdowns, church attendance was steadily decreasing and the religiously unaffiliated ‘Nones’ were becoming the largest “denomination” in America. After COVID, this decline has been even more precipitous.

Many believe that this is simply a consequence of social progress. As society dispenses with religious traditions and superstitions about the afterlife, it will become more rational, practical, and tolerant. Even if sentimentalists like Richard Dawkins lament the loss of Christmas carols and pretty churches, it will allow more cultural inclusivity, material abundance, and scientific development.

John Daniel Davidson, an editor for The Federalist and a devout Catholic, debunks this myth in Pagan America: The Decline of Christianity and the Dark Age to Come. Far from ushering in a futuristic DEI utopia, a post-Christian America will come to resemble pre-Christian dystopias – that is: backward, brutal, and barbaric.

As Davidson reminds us, nature abhors a vacuum, and this applies to religion most of all. Not only does all of history show this time and time again, but current trends also confirm the resurgence of paganism in modern America. Left unaddressed, Christian culture and Christians themselves will face persecution and erasure, which will end modern liberal democracy and its many blessings.

Davidson begins by describing a few of the pagan civilizations preceding the arrival of the Christian gospel, specifically the Vikings, Aztecs, tribes in Western Africa, and the Romans. Without exception, human sacrifice, torture, sexual exploitation, and slavery were widespread. Because of its insistence that all men are created in the image of God, Christianity largely purged these communities of these evils.

In this way, Christian doctrine laid the foundation for the rise of democracies in the modern era. Davidson explains how America was indeed founded on Christian principles, not just Enlightenment ideals: “Reason alone, in the Founders’ view, would not be sufficient for the great mass of citizens to choose virtue over vice, or to maintain public morality. . . .A pagan or atheist neighbor, or too many of them, might endanger the liberties of a nation.”

America’s gradual separation from Christian morality in the twentieth century has resulted in an equally gradual encroachment of pagan morality. This happened through a series of pivotal court cases, which effectively removed Christianity from the public square on the misguided notion of separating church and state. Over the years, neopagan leftists unleashed a host of deeply immoral policies poisoning American culture: abortion, euthanasia, transgenderism, and pedophilia.

As paganism grows, Americans are increasingly experiencing loss of community, friendship, and fulfillment. The things that inspired virtue and action from Americans no longer exist because they are treated as limits on personal freedom. Davidson concludes, “Americans are increasingly living alone and dying alone, and their civilization could very easily die with them.”

Politically speaking, the decline of Christianity spells disaster for American democracy. As Davidson shows, the freedom and security that most Americans once enjoyed were the direct fruits of Christian morality: “respect for individual and religious liberty, freedom of speech, constraints on government power, were all part of America’s Christian inheritance, and would lose legitimacy – as they are losing it now – in the eyes of a people without Christian faith.”

In practice, this leads to persecution of minorities, unchecked propaganda and censorship, elimination of vulnerable populations, and the establishment of a totalitarian state. As Davidson ominously puts it, “if you want a picture of the future, to paraphrase George Orwell, imagine a boot stamping on [Christian cake-maker] Jack Phillips’s face – forever.”

The substance of neo-pagan religion is less clear. Davidson surveys what non-Christians believe these days, ranging from Satanism to occultism to scientism. All these new religions foster subjectivism, relativism, and narcissism, and promise absolute ruin for anyone who adopts such creeds: “it eventually leads ‘into the void,’ where there is no objective truth apart from the self, whose emotions and brute desires rule the mind of man and all sense of transcendent reality (to say nothing of beauty or goodness) is destroyed.”

Davidson offers a way out at this dire situation: the Boniface Option. In contrast to Rod Dreher’s The Benedict Option, which calls for Christians to make tactical retreats from the world and establish Christian communities, in the style of St. Benedict, Davidson’s Boniface Option emphasizes the responsibility of Christians to “defend the faith” and to fight back against today’s pagan forces, in the style of St. Boniface.

Most of this would happen at the local level, which is under attack from neo-pagans embedded in bureaucracies across the country and working to undermine Christian values. It’s completely unrealistic and unhelpful simply to tell those under threat to retreat ever further into the American hinterland. Rather, they need to take a stand, protest, and elect people who will faithfully represent their interests.

Davidson knows that this is easier said than done and expects a rough road ahead. In his final pages, he cites Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (a different Benedict) who once predicted a global contraction of the Catholic Church. In the short run, Christian culture will continue its decline, and life will be hard for the shrinking number of faithful Christians.

Overall, the book is a fine articulation of the spiritual crisis afflicting the developed world. Where it falls short is in not sufficiently taking into account progressive non-Christians who are so insulated from the issues brought up in the book that they will likely dismiss Davidson’s heavily documented argument as mere “Christian nationalist” claptrap.

Except it’s not claptrap. Davidson speaks the truth and does so forcefully and directly. He’s not simply preaching to the choir, but to everyone – whether they want to hear it or not. Christians wanting to join the struggle to recapture the culture and save souls would do well to read Pagan America. Everyone else, should read the book – and reconsider which side will allow them to flourish, and which one will, ultimately, destroy them.

You may also enjoy:

Benedict XVI The end of paganism

Hadley Arkes ‘Neutrality’ as the New Paganism

AUTHOR

Auguste Meyrat

Auguste Meyrat is an English teacher in the Dallas area. He holds an MA in Humanities and an MEd in Educational Leadership. He is the senior editor of The Everyman and has written essays for The Federalist, The American Thinker, and The American Conservative as well as the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture.

EDITORS NOTE: This The Catholic Thing column is republished with permission. © 2024 The Catholic Thing. All rights reserved. For reprint rights, write to: info@frinstitute.org. The Catholic Thing is a forum for intelligent Catholic commentary. Opinions expressed by writers are solely their own.

NYC: Pro-Hamas Thugs Deface World War I and Civil War Memorials, Burn U.S. Flag thumbnail

NYC: Pro-Hamas Thugs Deface World War I and Civil War Memorials, Burn U.S. Flag

By Jihad Watch

Just in case you weren’t sure what was coming next, here is a salutary reminder.

Anti-Israel activists deface WWI and Civil War memorials, burn US flag

by Michael Starr, Jerusalem Post, May 8, 2024:

Anti-Israel activists vandalized American memorials to veterans of the First World War and a Union Civil War general and burned an American flag during the New York City Day of Rage protest that coincided with Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday.

The One Hundred Seventh Infantry Memorial in Central Park, dedicated to US infantry who fell in battle during the war, was desecrated with stickers and graffiti that proclaimed “free Gaza” or “free Palestine,” according to photographs published by NYPD Deputy Commissioner Operations Kaz Daughtry.

The statue was also tagged with a red triangle, a symbol used in Hamas propaganda to denote a target. A protester set the United States flag on fire at the base of the statue, according to the New York Post.

The Grand Army Plaza Memorial honoring Union General William Tecumseh Sherman was also vandalized with similar graffiti as the infantry memorial, one “free Gaza” scrawl including the Anarchist “A” in the spelling of the Palestinian territory.

“F**K Empire,” read the graffiti. “NYPD equals KKK (Ku Klux Klan).”

Mayor Eric Adams gave a press conference in front of the Central Park memorial on Tuesday, in which he severely reprimanded the “cowards” who vandalized the statue.

“I want to be extremely clear, despite the unpopular notion that people don’t want to say, I want to say it: I love America,” said Adams. “And I’m proud to be a citizen of America. And the reason that we are here is because of men and women like this statue behind us, and we cannot remain silent when our symbols of freedom are desecrated by people who hate our country and hate our way of life.”…

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

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France: Graves painted with ‘Zionist,’ ‘Jew,’ ‘Allah,’ death dates of politicians opposed to mass Muslim migration

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POST ON X:

JUST IN: The mayor of Wildwood, New Jersey just said that they expect 35,000-45,000 people in attendance for Trump’s rally tomorrow.

Could one of be the biggest Trump rallies ever.

pic.twitter.com/U44D0i4LM1

— Ian Jaeger (@IanJaeger29) May 11, 2024

EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

‘A Post-Religious America’ Helped Spark Anti-Semitism in Schools, Experts Say thumbnail

‘A Post-Religious America’ Helped Spark Anti-Semitism in Schools, Experts Say

By Family Research Council

Pro-Palestine protests on college campuses have boomed across America with a staggering escalation of anti-Semitic acts such as breaking into buildings, defacing statues, setting up encampments, and violence toward Jewish students and faculty from Hamas sympathizers. Mass arrests have been made in response to this pandemonium. The anti-Semitism, as spectators observe, is boisterous and grotesque — but not limited to college campuses. Anti-Israel protests have also broken out at a number of high schools since the October 7 attack on Israel, and they continue.

In November, The Christian Post reported, “Hundreds of students rampaged through the halls of a New York high school for around two hours after learning a Jewish teacher attended a pro-Israel rally, vandalizing school property and forcing the faculty member to take refuge in a locked office.” This incident outraged many, including New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D), who described it as a “vile show of anti-Semitism.” Even so, similar events continue to occur.

Just last week, hundreds of students from various Chicago high schools held anti-Israel “sit-ins … in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.” A student who helped organize the protest told The Times of Israel that the high schools students were, in large part, motivated to support “growing encampments around the country, including Northwestern, Columbia and general protest for Palestinian genocide.” And while these sit-ins did not result in any violence, several Jewish high school students expressed how unsafe they felt as students marched together, shouting chants such as, “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest!”

To address the increase in school protests, a House education subcommittee held a hearing on Wednesday “focused on combating antisemitism in K-12 education.” New York City Department of Education Chancellor David Banks was among those who testified, as well as Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel and Montgomery County School Board President Karla Silvestre. The point of the hearing was to address anti-Semitism on college campuses, but it also heavily emphasized “that younger children are being brainwashed in these ways” as well, said Meg Kilgannon, Family Research Council’s senior fellow for Education Studies, on Wednesday’s episode of “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.”

Perkins, who serves as president of FRC, explained, “We’re not [just] talking [about] college campuses. We’re talking about the little kids. The fact that they’re being indoctrinated with anti-Semitism … that’s shocking.” Kilgannon agreed, emphasizing that what we’re seeing on campuses doesn’t just “happen when kids get to college.”

She elaborated, “It certainly can happen when kids get to college. But the foundation is laid in high school and in elementary school as well. Where is that coming from? The fact that we are, in many ways, a post-religious America, unfortunately, and the fact that the elementary schools and high schools are using an oppressor/oppressed kind of a paradigm.” An ideology, experts note, that is rooted in Marxism. And for Perkins, this is a reality — a vacuum — “created by pushing God out of the public square,” which then means it’s “going to be filled by something else.” Not only is it filled by something else, Kilgannon added, but “it’s filled by something much worse.” Which then “gives rise to this darkness,” Perkins chimed in.

According to Perkins, the proper response should not just be about snuffing out the anti-Semitism but about proclaiming the gospel. “[W]e need to be aggressive … in spreading the gospel and encouraging Christians to live out their faith,” he urged. “What I mean by that [is], it’s time to be bold, it’s time to be courageous, because we’re now seeing the fruit of our being complicit with the idea that there was supposed to be some kind of neutrality in the public space. There is no such thing as neutrality.”

Kilgannon added, “And the proof of that is the fact that when we have any sort of quasi neutral space, it’s not neutral. In fact, horrible things are flooding into the space.” And Perkins highlighted how Jesus, in Matthew 12:30, said, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” And so, he continued, “[T]his idea that there’s … this ‘de-spiritualized zone’ that we go into in public is a lie of the enemy. … There is no such thing as moral neutrality, and what we see happening on college campuses, what is now working its way into the hearts and minds of young people across this country, is evil taking advantage of that idea that there can be moral neutrality.”

And “if we believe we have the truth,” Kilgannon said, “we shouldn’t be ashamed to share it.” On the contrary, she insisted, “We should be very proud and … honor bound to do so.” To which Perkins responded, “[I]t is the truth that will set us free,” which is taken from John 8. “[W]e have no reason to apologize,” he said. “We share the truth out of a love for others so that they might come to know the truth, find the purpose and meaning that life has when we’re in relationship with Jesus Christ.”

And Perkins made sure to emphasize “public education is not off limits to the truth.” Which then led to the question, could what’s happening in schools with anti-Semitism “be a booster rocket for parents and others to move in and begin to influence education even more?” “The opportunity is here,” Kilgannon replied. “The need has never been greater. And so, I hope that people will take this opportunity to really engage in their communities and most especially engage with your own children, make sure they know the faith and make sure they’re not afraid to share it either.”

She concluded, “The good of the public is to have the truth. That is the point, right? And so, I think … we love our country, and we want to enjoy its blessings and have our children enjoy the blessings of this nation, [but] we have to be ready to stand and to proclaim … what is true.”

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

RELATED PODCAST: Deconstruction of Christianity with Alisa Childers

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

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